LANDING IN RAIATEA. 30l 
inhabitants Tipae mau, True, or permanent, land- 
ing (place.) _ 
We landed on one of the small islets which 
define, shelter, and adorn the entrance to the 
harbour, partook of some refreshment under the 
shade the brushwood afforded, while our boat’s 
crew climbed the trees, and afterwards made 
an agreeable repast on the nuts which they 
gathered. We planted, as memorials of our visit, 
the seeds of some large oranges, which we had 
brought with us; then launched our boat, and 
prosecuted our voyage within the reef, towards the 
settlement on the other side of the island. This 
part of our voyage, for twelve or fourteen miles, 
was delightful. The beauty of the wooded or 
rocky shores now appeared more rich and varied 
than before; the stillness of the smooth waters 
around was only occasionally disturbed: by the 
passage of a light nautilus-like canoe, with its 
little sail of white native cloth, or the rapid flight 
of a shoal of flying-fish, which, when the dashing 
of our oars or the progress of our boat intercepted 
their course or awakened their alarm, sprang from 
their native element, and darted alone, three or 
four feet above the water. 
Toretea, the Ulitea of Captain Cook, or, as it is 
now more frequently called by the natives, Raiatea, 
is the largest of the Society Islands. Its form. is 
somewhat triangular, and its circumference about 
fifty miles. The mountains are more stupendous 
and lofty than those of Huahine, and in some 
parts equally broken and picturesque. The 
northern and western sides are romantic; several 
pyramidal and conical mountains rising above 
the elevated and broken range, that stretches 
along in a direction nearly parallel with the 
