1835. 



SCENERY^ — CANOES NATIVES. 



509 



of green ; the groves of graceful palm-trees ; the dazzling 

 white foam of the breakers on the coral reefs, contrasted by the 

 deep blue of the sea, combined to form a most enchanting vievf. 

 At a distance in the west, Eimeo (Moorea) showed a pic- 

 turesque outline, and added to the beauty of a scene which 

 surpassed our ideas, even heightened as they had been by the 

 descriptions of former voyagers. 



Passing Point Venus, and avoiding the Dolphin Shoal, we 

 worked up to an anchorage in Matavai Bay. No pilot appeared, 

 but had we waited in the offing, a very good one* would have 

 offered his services. With a fresh breeze, we gained the anchor- 

 age so quickly that few natives had time to hasten on board, 

 as is their usual custom : only one long canoe came alongside 

 while we sailed in : it was made of half a tree, hollowed out, 

 with a narrow rough plank laced to each side, and an out- 

 rigger, consisting of two crooked branches, secured to the canoe 

 and to a long piece of light wood which floated in the water 

 parallel to it. This out-rigger extended eight or ten feet from 

 the ticklish conveyance, and enabled four men to sit at their 

 ease in the narrow trunk of a tree that had never exceeded a 

 foot in diameter. 



The personal appearance of these men was to me most remark - 

 able : tall and athletic, with very well-formed heads and a good 

 expression of countenance, they at once made a favourable 

 impression, which their quiet good-humour and tractable dis- 

 position afterwards heightened very much. To my eye they 

 differed from the aborigines of southern South America in the 

 form of their heads ; in the width or height of the cheek-bones ; 

 in their eye- brows ; in their colour ; and most essentially in 

 the expression of their countenances. High foreheads ; defined 

 and prominent eyebrows ; with a rich, bronze colour, give an 

 Asiatic expression to the upper part of their faces ; but the 

 flat noses (carefully flattened in infancy), and thick lips, are 

 like those of the South Americans. 



By the time the vessel was secured, a number of canoes had 



* Called James Mitchell, though an aboriginal Otaheitan. 



