74 
VOYAGE TO THE 
CHAP, from which the blue sky was nearly concealed by the overlapping 
branches of palm-trees. Here, through the medium of our female 
Dec. guides, who, furnished with the spreading leaves of the tee-plant, drove 
away our troublesome persecutors, we obtained a respite from their 
attacks. 
Having refreshed ourselves, we resumed our journey over a more 
easy path ; and after crossing two valleys, shaded by cocoa-nut trees, 
we arrived at the village. It consisted of five houses, built upon a 
cleared piece of ground sloping to the sea, and commanding a distant . 
view of the horizon, through a break in an extensive wood of palms. 
While the men assisted to pitch our tent, the women employed them- 
selves in preparing our dinner, or more properly supper, as it was eight 
o’clock at night. 
The manner of cooking in Pitcairn’s Island is similar to that of 
Otaheite, which, as some of my readers may not recollect, I shall briefly 
describe. An oven is made in the ground, sufficiently large to contain 
a good-sized pig, and is lined throughout with stones nearly equal in 
size, which have been previously made as hot as possible. These are 
covered with some broad leaves, generally of the tee-plant, and on 
them is placed the meat. If it be a pig, its inside is lined with heated 
stones, as well as the oven ; such vegetables as are to be cooked are 
then placed round the animal : the whole is carefully covered with 
leaves of the tee, and buried beneath a heap of earth, straw, or 
rushes and boughs, which, by a little use, becomes matted into one 
mass. In about an hour and a quarter the animal is sufficiently cooked, 
and is certainly more thoroughly done than it would be by a fire. 
By the time the tent was up and the instruments secured, we 
were summoned to a meal cooked in this manner, than which a less 
sumptuous fare would have satisfied appetites rendered keen by long 
abstinence and a tiresome journey. Our party divided themselves 
that they might not crowd one house in particular : Adams did not 
entertain ; but at Christian’s I found a table spread with plates, knives, 
and forks ; which, in so remote a part of the world, was an unexpected 
sight. They were, it is true, far from uniform ; but by one article 
being appropriated for another, we all found something to put our 
