58 TAHITI AND EIMEO. 



It is to be regretted that the schools of manual labour have, for 

 what reason I could not learn, been discontinued. Some of the natives 

 who had been instructed in them evinced a knowledge of the trade of 

 the carpenter, and furnished the ships with very good boards sawn by 

 themselves. 



The natives of Eimeo have an advantage over those of Tahiti in 

 being free from the influence of evil example; many of them are 

 industrious, and possess a proper feeling of the benefits they have 

 derived from the missionaries, of whom they speak, whenever ques- 

 tioned, as friends. 



Three of our crew having become enamoured of these islands, 

 deserted while the Vincennes lay at Eimeo. They left the ship about 

 ten o'clock at night, soon after which their absence was discovered, 

 and parties sent out in every direction to intersect the roads and drive 

 them to the hills. This was effected the following morning, and a 

 large party of natives was employed to hunt them up. This task 

 they speedily performed, and at last drove the deserters to one of the 

 highest ridges, in full view of the ship. Here the runaways appeared 

 at first disposed to make fight with stones ; but when they saw the 

 odds against them, and witnessed the alertness of the natives in 

 leaping from cliff to cliff, they thought it best to give themselves 

 up; which they did to three natives, naked except the maro, and 

 armed respectively with a rusty sword, an old cutlass, and a piece 

 of iron hoop. These bound their hands, and led them down to the 

 shore, whence they were brought on board, where the three natives 

 received the reward offered for their apprehension. The chase and 

 capture was an amusing sight to those who watched the proceedings 

 from the ship. 



Eimeo has, if possible, a more broken surface than Tahiti, and is 

 more thrown up into separate peaks ; its scenery is wild even in com- 

 parison with that of Tahiti, and particularly upon the shores, where 

 the mountains rise precipitously from the water, to the height of 

 twenty-five hundred feet. The reef which surrounds the island is 

 similar to that of Tahiti, and as we have seen to be the case there, no 

 soundings are found on the outside of it. Black cellular lava abounds, 

 and holes are found in its shattered ridges, among which is the noted 

 one through which the god Oroo is said to have thrown his spear. 



While we remained at Eimeo, I visited Papoa or Cook's Harbour, 

 which lies to the east of that of Taloo. There is a marked resem- 

 blance between the two ports, except that the shores of Papoa are not 

 quite as precipitous as those of Taloo, and the entrance of the former 

 not as practicable. 



