286 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
Leeward Islands to Tahiti and Eimeo. By the 
same conveyance Mr. and Mrs. Nott removed to 
Tahiti, where Mr. Nott has since laboured in 
Matavai, or the adjacent district of Pare. We 
were detained there about a fortnight; during 
which period we received from Mr. Gyles much 
information on the culture of the plant, and the 
manufacture of sugar. Before we left, Mr. Gyles 
very obligingly had a quantity of cane bruised 
and boiled, that we might not only understand the 
theory, but witness the process of grinding canes, 
boiling the juice, and granulating the syrup, so as 
to introduce it among the inhabitants of the Lee¬ 
ward Islands. 
Our business at Tahiti being finished, Messrs. 
BarfF, Williams, and myself, with a number of 
natives, sailed from Eimeo about noon, on the 
12th of August, in an open boat belonging to 
Mr. Hayward. Before the sun had set, we had 
nearly lost sight of the island ; and when the night 
gathered round us, we found ourselves in the 
midst of the vast Pacific, in a very small and 
fragile bark, without compass or nautical instru¬ 
ment, or any other means of directing our way 
than the luminaries of heaven. The night, how¬ 
ever, was cloudless, and 
u Star after star, from some unseen abyss, 
Came through the sky, till all the firmament 
Was thronged with constellations, and the sea 
Strown with their images/’ 
The interval between the close of the evening 
and the dawn of the following day was pleasantly 
spent; and soon after sun-rise, on the morning of 
the 13th, we were gladdened by the sight of the 
lofty mountains in Huahine, which were seen 
