WHALING VOYAGE. 
365 
cast anchor in the harbour of “ Riatea,” in twenty-two 
fathoms water, into which we were conducted by a native 
pilot, through a very narrow channel formed by nature 
in the reef. This harbour is one of the finest in the 
world, and capable of containing above a thousand sail, 
which may be all moored in perfect safety ; it is princi- 
pally formed by a reef which surrounds a portion of the 
island, having two openings in it by which ships enter 
and leave it, the foremost being open to windward, and 
the latter to leeward. Directly we cast anchor, I made 
my way to the shore, and commenced purchasing shells of 
all that I could meet who happened to have any to dis- 
pose of, for which I gave in return small pieces of calico. 
While at the same time the crew had an opportunity of 
regaling themselves on board with pine-apples, delicious 
bread-fruit, and young cocoa-nuts, with which they had 
good reason to be well satisfied. The natives of these 
islands, like those of most others of the South Seas, 
possess a great fondness for rum, and indeed for ardent 
spirits of every kind. But many of them being under 
the control of the missionaries, they endeavour, and with 
much success, to disguise their passion for things of such 
a nature from the observation of these stern monitors, 
the attempt at which often leads them to make use of 
a great deal of artful dissimulation, which the following 
anecdote will exemplify. 
After I had been on shore but a very short time, an 
elderly, but fine-looking chief called me aside, and 
inquired in a gentle whisper, in broken English, if we 
had any rum on board, as he wished to obtain a bottle 
