174 
FROM YOKOHAMA TO VALPARAISO. 
to a degree not always witnessed in a ball-room. A rare combination of physical strength, 
agility, suppleness, and precision of motion, with perfect good-humour and thorough enjoyment 
of the fleeting hour, is to be seen among a number of tars “footing it”—stockingless—on the 
smooth deck of a man-of-war, holding the while their bearded partners in “gentle” embrace. 
On a subsequent evening the band played in the pavilion occupying 
the centre of the large green in front of the Governor’s residence. 
All Papeete was there, and the scene was very striking—groups of 
Tahitian women and girls, with flowers in their hair, walking arm 
in arm round the pavilion, or sitting on the ground smoking 
cigarettes, or joining in impromptu dances with their native or 
French beaux, all dimly seen by the light of a few lamps placed 
round the green. The reputation of the gentler sex for good 
looks seems well deserved. With great regularity of feature, 
reminding one sometimes of the faces of the Roman peasantry, they 
combine fine large eyes with dark flowing hair rolling down 
over their shoulderstheir walk, too, has the natural grace which 
comes of a happy ignorance of the tight-fitting garments and boots of their sisters in 
Europe. The loose gown—generally of a decided colour, white, red, green, blue, yellow, 
or striped—has at first sight a somewhat ndgligd look; but when seen at the end of 
an avenue of palms, or among the trees of an orange grove, these garments just 
supply those bits of bright colour which the landscape painter requires to subdue the tints 
of his picture. 
On the 22nd, I joined one of my messmates in a drive round the west coast to the 
village of Papeuriri, situated about twenty-five miles from Papeete, and not far from the 
isthmus which connects Tahiti-nui, or great Tahiti, with Tahiti-iti, or Little Tahiti. This 
narrow, low isthmus gives to the whole island the appearance of the figure 8, placed in 
the direction from south-east to north-west, with Eimeo, Raiatea, and the other islands of 
the group fixed in the same axis further towards the north-west. One object of our 
excursion was to pay a visit to Chief Tere, who resides at Papeuriri, and to whom we had 
a letter of introduction written in his own tongue. On one of those bright sunny mornings 
which are here the rule, we set out in an open carriage and pair. The drive along a 
tolerably good road which skirts the shore was a series of surprises, one beautiful view being 
succeeded by another still more attractive. On our left, the purple-blue sea rolled its 
snow-white breakers over the coral reefs ; on our right, the wooded hills rose, in majestic 
terraces, until they reached the foot of the rocky pinnacles which, half-veiled by the clouds, 
seem to keep watch and ward over the island. From the lofty summits which cluster 
round Orovena, deep ravines, glens, and valleys radiate in all directions, and, as we 
proceeded along the coast, these came into view one after the other, presenting vistas of 
surpassing loveliness. Here might Shelley have found 
