430 
TAHITI 
CHAP. 
the canoes of the natives can ply with safety and where ships 
anchor. The low land which comes down to the beach of coral- 
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, the sugar-cane, and pine-apples, are cultivated. Even 
the brushwood is an 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, and 
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 fruit. However 
seldom the usefulness of an object can account for the pleasure 
of beholding it, in the case of these beautiful woods, the know¬ 
ledge of their high productiveness no doubt enters largely into 
the feeling of admiration. The little winding paths, cool from 
the surrounding shade, led to the scattered houses ; the owners 
of which everywhere gave us a cheerful and most hospitable 
reception. 
I was pleased with nothing so much as with the inhabitants. 
There is a mildness in the expression of their countenances 
which at once banishes the idea of a savage ; and an intelligence 
which shows that they are advancing in civilisation. The 
common people, when working, keep the upper part of their 
bodies quite naked ; and it is then that the Tahitians are seen 
to advantage. They are very tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, 
and well-proportioned. It has been remarked that it requires 
little habit to make a dark skin more pleasing and natural to 
the eye of an European than his own colour. A white man 
bathing by the side of a Tahitian was like a plant bleached by 
the gardener’s art compared with a fine dark green one growing 
vigorously in the open fields. Most of the men are tattooed, 
and the ornaments follow the curvature of the body so 
gracefully that they have a very elegant effect. One common 
pattern, varying in its details, is somewhat like the crown of a 
palm-tree. It springs from the central line of the back, and 
gracefully curls round both sides. The simile may be a 
fanciful one, but I thought the body of a man thus ornamented 
