ANCHORAGE IN MATAVAI. 195 
ment I experienced in gazing on the island, as we 
sailed along its shores. 
Midday was past before we entered Matavai 
bay. As we sailed into the harbour, we passed 
near the coral reef, on which Captain Wallis struck 
on the 19th of June, 1767, when he first entered 
the bay. His ship remained stationary nearly an 
hour; and, in consequence of this circumstance, 
the reef has received the name of the Dolphin 
rock. As we passed by it, we felt grateful that 
the winds were fair and the weather calm, and that 
we had reached our anchorage in safety. 
Matavai is rather an open bay, and although 
screened from the prevailing trade winds, is ex- 
posed to the southern and westerly gales, and also 
to a considerable swell from the sea. The long 
flat neck of land which forms its northern boun- 
dary, was the spot on which Captain Cook erected 
his tents, and fixed his instruments for observing 
the transit of Venus; on which account, it has 
ever since been called Point Venus. Excepting 
those parts enclosed as gardens or plantations, the 
land near the shore is covered with long grass, or 
a species of convolvulus, called by the natives 
pohue; numerous clumps of trees, and waving 
cocoa-nuts, add much to the beauty of its 
appearance. A fine stream, rising in the interior 
mountains, winds through the sinuosities of the 
head of the valley, and, fertilizing the district of 
Matavai, flows through the centre of this long neck 
of land, into the sea. 
Such, without much alteration, in all probabi- 
lity, was the appearance of this beautiful bay, when 
discovered by Captain Wallis, in 1767; and two 
years after, when first visited by Captain Cook ; or 
when Captain Bligh, in the Bounty, spent six 
ov 
