426 



CHARLES DARWIN 



November 15th. — At daylight, Tahiti, an island which 

 must for ever remain classical to the voyager in the South 

 Sea, was in view. At a distance the appearance was not 

 attractive. The luxuriant vegetation of the lower part could 

 not yet be seen, and as the clouds rolled past, the wildest 

 and most precipitous peaks showed themselves towards the 

 centre of the island. As soon as we anchored in Matavai 

 Bay, we were surrounded by canoes. This was our Sunday, 

 but the Monday of Tahiti: if the case had been reversed, 

 we should not have received a single visit; for the injunction 

 not to launch a canoe on the sabbath is rigidly obeyed. 

 After dinner we landed to enjoy all the delights produced 

 by the first impressions of a new country, and that country 

 the charming Tahiti. A crowd of men, women, and children, 

 was collected on the memorable Point Venus, ready to 

 receive us with laughing, merry faces. They marshalled 

 us towards the house of Mr. Wilson, the missionary of the 

 district, who met us on the road, and gave us a very friendly 

 reception. After sitting a very short time in his house, we 

 separated to walk about, but returned there in the evening. 



The land capable of cultivation, is scarcely in any part 

 more than a fringe of low alluvial soil, accumulated round 

 the base of the mountains, and protected from the waves of 

 the sea by a coral reef, which encircles the entire line of 

 coast. Within the reef there is an expanse of smooth water, 

 like that of a lake, where the canoes of the natives can ply 

 with safety and where ships anchor. The low land which 

 comes down to the beach of cofal-sand, is covered by the 

 most beautiful productions of the intertropical regions. In 

 the midst of bananas, orange, cocoa-nut, and bread-fruit 

 trees, spots are cleared where yams, sweet potatoes, and 

 sugar-cane, and pine-apples are cultivated. Even the brush- 

 Wood is ah imported fruit-tree, namely, the guava, which 

 from its abundance has become as noxious as a weed* In 

 Brazil I have often admired the varied beauty of the 

 bananas, palms, and orange-trees contrasted together; and 

 here we also have the bread-fruit, conspicuous from its large, 

 glossy, arid deeply digitated leaf. It is admirable to behold 

 groves of a tree, sending forth its branches with the vigour 

 of an English oak, loaded with large and most nutritious 



