Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume III / (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the / Austrian Navy.

by Ritter von Karl Scherzer

FOOTNOTES:

[29] We are indebted to C. W. Stafford, Esq., Under Secretary of State to the Colonial Government, for copies of the latest statistical documents, from which we learn inter alia that at the end of 1859 the population amounted to 129,392, the aborigines numbering 56,049, and the foreigners 73,343.

[30] According to the tradition handed down from the chief Te-heŭ-heŭ, their forefathers emigrated first from Hawaiki-Tawiti-Nui, to Hawaiki-Patata, where they sojourned some time, and thence went to Hawaiki-Ki-te-Maiteŭ, whence they came to New Zealand.

[31] According to Dr. Thomson ("The story of New Zealand past and present, savage and civilized." London. John Murray, 1859), who lived eleven years at Auckland prosecuting his duties as a surgeon in the army, the Maori came to New Zealand, passing by Rarotonga, from Sawaii, the largest of the Navigators' Islands, about the year 1419. This opinion, which is not devoid of probability, is not however incompatible with the Sandwich Islands being the original cradle of the New Zealanders, and Sawaii only a sort of intermediate station. (See United States Exploring Expedition 1838-42. Ethnography or Philology, vol. vii., by Horatio Hale, Philadelphia. Lea and Blanchard, 1846.—The Traditionary Migrations of the New Zealanders and the Maori Legends (Die Wundersagen der Neu-Seeländer und der Maori Mythos), by C. Schirren. Riga. N. Kymmel, 1856.)

[32] The sick were formerly made to drink the fluid contained in the shells of fresh and salt-water Conchyliæ.

[33] Of these the most important are:—"Polynesian Mythology, and ancient traditional History of the New Zealand Race, as furnished by their Priests and Chiefs. London, 1855." "Proverbial and Popular Sayings of the Ancestors of the New Zealand Race. Capetown, 1857."

[34] New Zealand: being a Narrative of Travels and Adventures during a Residence in that Country, between the years 1831 and 1837. By J. S. Polack, Esq., member of the Colonial Society of London. In two volumes. London, Rich. Bentley, 1838.—Travels in New Zealand, with contributions to the Geography, Geology, and Natural History of that Country. By Ernest Dieffenbach, M.D., late Naturalist to the New Zealand Company. 2 vols. London, J. Murray, 1843.—The Southern Districts of New Zealand; a Journal with passing Notices of the Customs of the Aborigines.—By Edward Shortland, M.A., London, Longman and Co. 1851.—A Dictionary of the New Zealand Language and a concise Grammar; to which is added a Collection of Colloquial Sentences. By W. Williams, D.C.L., Archdeacon of Waiapú. London, 1852.—The Ika-a-Mauí, or New Zealand and its Inhabitants. By R. Taylor. London, 1855.—A Leaf from the Natural History of New Zealand. By R. Taylor. Wellington, New Zealand, 1848.—New Zealand, the "Britain of the South." By Charles Hursthouse. London, E. Stanford, 1861. Of purely scientific works relating to botany, Dr. Hooker's "Flora of New Zealand" may be mentioned as the most comprehensive.

[35] Rona is a Maori maiden of whom a legend relates that the moon, irritated at her petulant disposition, carried her off to the upper regions.

[36] The dead is here spoken of as the evening star, which is supposed to rise in another world, where on its arrival it is welcomed with great rejoicings by the thousands that have preceded it.

[37] Main is the same as the Kumera, or sweet potato.

[38] Tikoro is the name of a race or tribe of the Hokianga district.

[39] A Maori, who maintained his neutrality, though he evidently views the victories of his countrymen with partial eyes, wrote us only a few months ago, "that in the combats which marked the first outbreak of hostilities, the English lost 2000 and the Maories only 1000!"

[40] Maori Mementos, being a series of Addresses presented by the Native People to H.E. Sir George Grey, Governor and High Commissioner of the Cape of Good Hope, and late Governor of New Zealand, with introductory remarks and explanatory notes; to which is added a small Collection of Laments, &c., by Charles Olivier B. Davis, translator and interpreter to the General Government. Auckland, 1855. Also, "The New Zealand chief Kawiti, and other New Zealand warriors." Auckland, 1855.

[41] Potatáu (i. e. shriek by night) was so far back as 1833, during the bloody contests of the Waikatos against the Taranaki, a renowned warrior and cannibal, who at that period, according to undoubted authority, had with his own hand slain 200 of the foe, and had returned home from the battle-field satiated with human flesh, and rich in slaves. In the evening of his days he was an advocate of peace, and a friend of the whites. When he died, in 1860, his son, second of the name, was declared his successor.

[42] Observations on the State of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of New Zealand. By F. D. Fenton, the compiler of the statistical tables of the native population. Auckland, 1859. "The object of the publication by the Government of this paper is to draw attention to the state of the native population, especially to the decrease in numbers—with a view to invite inquiry as to the cause, and suggestions of a remedy."

[43] Of the enormous waste of human life caused by these wars some idea may be formed from the fact that at the storming and capture of the single páh of Matakitaki on the river Waipa 2000 warriors were killed; a larger amount of killed than that of the English army at Waterloo!

[44] Of the bitter feelings excited by the Maori revolt among the inhabitants of Australia, an idea may be formed from the fact that Dr. Mackay, a well-known personage in political circles at Melbourne, seriously proposed to the Government of Victoria to send a volunteer expeditionary force to the seat of war, to assist in suppressing the rebels. The expenses, which Dr. Mackay estimated at £15,000 to £20,000, were to be repaid by sales of land in the conquered portion. Nay, this learned expounder of the "law" went so far as to pronounce the subjugation of these "savages" as imperatively necessary. The men were to be shipped off to Melbourne, to work as "SLAVES" for seven years; the females to be carried away and disposed of as wives for the Chinese and well-conducted white convicts! Dr. Cairns, Bishop of Melbourne, and other ministers of the gospel, adds this humane philanthropist, to be at liberty to use "all fair means" (!!!) for their conversion.—Compare Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, July 21st, 1860.

[45] The most important American, Indian, and Australian markets may be reached by screw steamer from Auckland as follows:—

	Miles	Days
New Caledonia	1250	5
Tahiti	2380	9
Sandwich Islands	4060	14
Valparaiso	5420	20
San Francisco	5950	22
Batavia	4750	17
Manila	4650	17
Singapore	5050	18
Calcutta	6820	26
Sydney	1260	5
Melbourne	1420	6
Adelaide	1780	7
Hobart Town	1250	5
Panama	5320	20

If the contemplated route viâ Panama be made available (with a coaling station at Gambier Islands), some 3500 miles or 14 days' sail would be saved, so that New Zealand would be reached in from 41 to 48 days, and Sydney and Melbourne in about 53 and 54 days respectively.

[46] According to Dr. Thomson's meteorological observations, the following are the averages for the town of Auckland (36° 50′ S.), temperature 59 ¹⁄₂° Fahr.; rain-fall 45 ¹⁄₂ inches; days on which rain falls 160; barometer 29.95 inches.

[47] Not less interesting are the returns as to the number of soldiers attacked with consumption and who died of it at the various garrisons, which are as follows: Of 1000 soldiers there were

	Attacked	Died
In New Zealand	60	2.7
At Cape of Good Hope	98	3
In Australia	133	5.8
At Malta	120	6
In Canada	148	6.7
In Great Britain	148	8

[48] These grants, however, are only made to the person who actually defrays the expenses of the passage: thus they are not made to children, but to their parents; not to the servant, but to the master, who has paid the passage of the former.

[49] Besides the Kauri pine, there is abundance of Rimu or red pine, the Kahi-Katea or white pine, the Tanakaha or pitch pine, the Matan or black pine, as also the Puriri or New Zealand oak, all trees of great utility.

[50] At the period of the Novara's visit to Auckland the proportion of the various nationalities and religions were as follows:

Nations.
Irish	11,881
Scotch	11,881
English	35,644
Germans and other nations	594
	———
	60,000
Religions.
Catholics	7,500
Presbyterians	7,500
Wesleyans and Dissenters	15,000
Episcopalians	30,000
	———
	60,000

[51] The Government also publishes at its own expense a Maori paper weekly, Te Karere Maori, the Maori Messenger, the subscription to which is 5s. 6d. per annum, and is intended to keep the coloured population informed of the most important political and social events, as also to tend to their civilization. We subjoin the contents of a single number now lying before us. "The laws of England.—Remarks upon ship-owners.—Official notices.—Letter from the chiefs of Chatham Island.—Farming, commercial, and maritime news.—Price current.—Speech of some brown chiefs at a meeting at Mongonui.—Letter from Bay of Islands.—Deaths.—The Auckland infirmary.—Government orders, &c." Colonel Brown deserves special praise and acknowledgment for the publication of the laws of England in Maori, accompanied with the original text, although the fruits of this arduous but important labour may only gradually become apparent.

[52] It is especially worthy of remark, that wherever the Anglo-Saxon race colonize, the newspaper and the post-office follow the footsteps of the first settlers. After these come the church and the school-house. Newspaper perusal and dispatch of letters are among the first necessities of life to the Englishman. In the whole of New Zealand there were, in 1858, 64,357 copies of the various journals struck off, and 482,856 letters received and dispatched. The province of Auckland alone figures for 239,367 papers and 133,121 letters.

[53] See Appendix III.

[54] See Appendix IV.

[55] These two Maories, who at first were very much depressed, soon got reconciled to their new sphere, and by their excellent conduct and obliging disposition, presently became great favourites among the crew. Only during our rough passage round the Horn, the tremendous storms and the unaccustomed severity of the cold caused them great uneasiness; they thought, as they themselves said, that "they must have died then;" and great were their longings for their native country. When at last they arrived safely and in excellent health at Trieste, they travelled to Vienna in company with one of the members of the Expedition, where, through the kindness of Privy Councillor von Auer, they entered into the Imperial-Royal Printing House, and were also instructed in the most important and interesting particulars of European civilization. Mr. Zimmerl, a member of that Institution, who had made the Maori idiom a special study, taught them English and German, as well as the manipulation of types and lithography, besides copper-plate engraving and drawing from nature. So intelligent and anxious for improvement did they prove themselves to be, that the Imperial Government were requested by the Directors of the State Printing Office to present the two Maories on their return to their native country with the necessary implements to enable them to avail themselves at home of the knowledge they acquired under such creditable circumstances. During their nine months' stay in Vienna, they were made acquainted with all the "lions" of the metropolis, and all the manners and customs of European civilized life. Of all the numerous sights that must have astonished their unaccustomed senses, there was none that seemed to have made a more powerful impression than the Railway, "the most splendid evidence of the powers of the foreigners, compared with which all others are unimportant, and which they earnestly trust will soon be introduced into New Zealand." The culmination of their visit to Vienna consisted in a visit they paid to their Majesties in the Imperial Palace, by whom they were received with the most gracious consideration, and orders issued that they should receive a handsome present, and have their return to their native country defrayed at the Government cost. On 26th May, 1860, the two New Zealanders quitted Vienna, and travelled through Germany to London, where they stayed several weeks, were presented to the Queen, and embarked at Southampton for Auckland direct. They arrived in safety at home, and have since then repeatedly written to their friends and associates in Vienna. The style of these epistles is in the highly figurative style peculiar to New Zealand. They abound in repetitions, and are not very inventive in rounding their sentences or giving their impressions, though they occasionally surprise the reader by the tenderness and poetic fervour of their thoughts. Thus, for example, Toe-toe writes once from Vienna to one of the Expedition resident at Trieste: "Thou art at Trieste, on the sea-shore! We climbed the Leopold Berg,—thence to descry the clouds which floated over Styria. Trieste we could not see, for our eyes were veiled by the tears which flowed from them!" The news we have received of Toe-toe since have been rather distressing. He issues from the press, presented to him at Vienna, stirring publications, comparing the Maories to Pharaoh (?) and exciting them to declare their independence!

[56] Commanded by Captain Wilkes, recently so notorious by his conduct with reference to the English mail steamer Trent, in Nov. 1861.

[57] See Appendix V.

[58] Of this wonderful bird a cast was moulded in gypsum, and has been sent to the great International Exhibition, 1862.

[59] See Appendix.

---

Native Fête to the Governor

XX.

Tahiti.

Duration of Stay From 11th To 28th January, 1859.

State of the island at the close of last century.—The London Missionary Society and its emissaries.—Great mortality among the native population.—First arrival of Catholic Priests in Oceania.—French Protectorate and its consequences.—The Tahitian Parliament and Tahitian debaters.—William Howe.—Adam Kulczycki.—Scientific aims and achievements.—The Catholic mission.—Pré Catalan and native dances.—Prisoners of war from New Caledonia.—Point Venus.—Guava-fields.—The fort of Fautáua.—Lake Waiiria.—Popular Fête at Faáa.—Ball given by the Governor.—Queen Pomáre.—Geographical notes on Tahiti and Eimeo.—Climate.—Vegetation.—The Kawa root, and the intoxicating drink produced from it.—Great expense of the French Stations in Oceania.—Projects of reform.—Results of English and French colonization.—Two convicts.—Departure.—The Whaler Emily Morgan.—Attempt to fix the zero point of magnetic declination.—"Colique végétale."—A victim.—Pitcairn Island.—A fire-side tale of the tropical world.—An accident without ill results.—Humboldt's Current.—Arrival at Valparaiso.

Of all the innumerable islands of the vast Pacific, there is none which at various periods has attracted the attention and aroused the interest of the civilized world in the same degree as that in whose harbour we were now lying at anchor.

At first it was the inimitable grace of Cook's narrative of his stay in Otaheite,[60] and the simplicity and felicity of its inhabitants, that left a deep and permanent impression on the mind of the educated reader; in after-times occurrences of a political nature riveted the sympathy of Europe upon this distant island and its queen.

Before entering upon a description of the present condition of Tahiti we may be permitted to cast a hasty retrospect as to the state of the group when the first English missionaries arrived on the Society Islands.

It was in March, 1797, about 18 months after the foundation of the Missionary Society in London, that eighteen ministers of the everlasting gospel landed in Tahiti, with their wives and children, from the renowned ship Duff. This small community dispersed itself among the various islands, and had to make head against obstacles of unwonted magnitude during a series of years. At length, about 1803, shortly after the death of King Pomáre I., who had raised himself from the position of a mere chief to the sovereignty of

the island,[61] Christianity began to take root and spread abroad through the country. In 1812 Pomáre II., the eldest son and successor of Otu, declared himself of the Christian faith. Five years later a further accession of missionaries arrived in a merchantman from New South Wales, who, among other things, brought with them a small printing press. Then for the first time the natives of the Society Islands learned to comprehend the blessedness of the greatest discovery of all time. On 30th June, 1817, after much preliminary instruction by the missionaries, the first proof of a catechism was struck off by King Pomáre II. In the course of the same year there were issued from the missionary press at Papeete 2300 copies of a little alphabet book.

It was the same ship that brought the first horse to the island, a present from the owner of the vessel to King Pomáre. The natives could not conceal their amazement when they saw the captain astride of the splendid animal. Very striking was the remark made by King Pomáre on the occasion: "King George of England," said he, "rides on a horse; but King Pomáre, a yet mightier king, sits at public solemnities upon the neck of one of his subjects!"

The labours of the missionaries were crowned with the

most splendid success. To them is due the merit of having abolished the hideous custom of human sacrifice, of having introduced law and order into the native administration, and of having extirpated various odious vices from their social habits. By their representatives, King Pomáre II. was induced to prohibit all distilleries and places where the kawa-drink was fabricated. Schools and chapels were erected, Bibles and spelling-books were printed and disseminated, till within ten years not alone did all the natives profess Christianity, but the majority of the younger population had learned to read and write.

The cheering spiritual influence exercised by these Protestant missionaries over the aborigines was not unfortunately accompanied by a simultaneous elevation of their physical condition. In consequence of early debauchery and the spread of diseases of a certain class, which appear to be the inevitable concomitants of the first contact of the white man with primitive races, there has been a marked falling off among the population. It almost seems as though the Tahitians had attained the utmost pitch of their civilization, and thence, in obedience to a mysterious natural law, have been compelled, like so many other coloured races, to surrender this lovely abode to a more energetic and self-developing race, till the appalling doom befalls them of being erased from the list of nations!

Thirty-nine years had elapsed since the first missionary had set foot in Tahiti, and Christianity had spread

far and wide, before the first Catholic priest appeared in Oceania.

Etienne Rochouse, a young priest of the so-called association of Picpus, founded at Paris in 1814, had been named "Vicar Apostolic of Eastern Oceania," with title of Bishop of Nelopolis in partibus, and about the close of 1833 embarked at Bordeaux with four missionaries[62] bound for Valparaiso, where the holy brethren arrived on 13th May, 1834. Their design was, wherever practicable, to forestal the Protestant missionaries in their zeal for conversion among the tribes of the South Sea Islands, whence they might diffuse themselves over the neighbouring countries, and thus gradually introduce themselves among the remotest populations, in the hope "that all, whom heresy has led astray and brought under its iron yoke, may be freely brought under the mild and gentle yoke of Catholic doctrine."[63]

In 1836, the catechist Columban Murphy was dispatched to the Sandwich Islands, with instructions to stop at Tahiti on his way, and to make on the spot all possible inquiries as to the probable prospects of establishing a Catholic mission there. This was the first representative of the Romish Church that had visited Tahiti during the thirty-nine years this island was evangelized; and, carried away by the blind religious fanaticism which in former centuries led the Spanish

monks so lamentably astray, Murphy believed that "hell itself must have been moved and puzzled by such an event!"[64] Murphy, or Columban, as he now called himself, travelled as a working carpenter, wore a thick beard, smoked a "cutty" pipe, and might have been taken for anything else under the sun than a Catholic priest. Although serious misgivings were felt by the native authorities as to his real quality, he nevertheless received permission to settle upon the island. He accordingly spent a couple of months here, and laboured with great zeal to pave the way for a Catholic settlement at a future period. In November of the same year, two more missionaries, Fathers Caret and Laval, came on to Tahiti. The circumstances under which they arrived aroused the suspicions of the authorities and of the entire population. For they did not land at Wilks's Harbour, at that time the only accessible harbour on the island, but secretly, on the opposite side. According to the law of the country, however, no captain or owner of a ship was permitted to land a passenger without having previously obtained the permission of the Queen or Governor of the island. After the two Catholic priests had gone the round of the island and had visited nearly all the native villages along the coast, they at last came to Wilks's Harbour, now Papeete, where they received a

most cordial welcome from a Belgian settler, the then American consul, Mr. Moehrenhout.

In the course of an interview which Laval and Caret had with the Queen, they remarked that they had only come to teach the word of God, and presented the youthful and at that period pretty-looking Queen Pomáre with a silk shawl. The Queen did not however seem disposed to accede to their wishes, but ordered the laws of the country to be read before them. The priests however declined listening to them, and took their departure.

A notification was hereupon conveyed to the two strangers that the Queen could not permit them to stay any longer upon the island, and a similar intimation was made to Mr. Moehrenhout. As the schooner which had brought Laval and Caret was preparing to set sail again, the opportunity was seized to dismiss them by the same conveyance which had landed them. They, meanwhile, had blockaded themselves in a house, to which they refused all admission. The schooner thereupon was detained for twenty-four hours, and the Queen's officers surrounded the house, awaiting the moment when the two missionaries were to leave the place. They never made their appearance however. Ultimately the officers of the law were compelled to tear off the roof from the house, while others, forcibly seizing the priests, conveyed them with their paraphernalia on board the schooner, which at once made sail, and carried them back to Gambier Island, whence they had last come. Notwithstanding the

ill-success of this first venture, Pater Caret made his appearance off Tahiti a second time seven weeks later, on board of an American brig, accompanied on this occasion by another priest, Father Maigrat. The captain of the brig, a man named Williams, wrote the Queen a letter requesting permission to land his two passengers. The answer was a firm refusal, and so continued, despite the repeated representations of the captain, as also of the above-mentioned M. Moerenhout. Upon this the captain went to work in true Yankee fashion with the view of landing the two Catholic missionaries by force on the island, but had to give way before the prudent but decided attitude of resistance adopted by the natives, who crowded down to the water's edge and prevented the boats from landing. This last attempt to carry matters with a high hand having failed, the captain set sail and carried off with him the two missionaries.

France, though no longer openly claiming the specific character of a Catholic monarchy as in the days of Louis XIV., but, on the contrary, proclaiming herself, by her laws at least, a free state for all forms of religious worship, apparently thought herself compelled to interfere in this quarrel, with all the weight of a great European power, two of whose subjects had been treated with unmerited indignity. Accordingly in September, 1838, the French frigate Venus, commanded by Commodore Du Petit-Thouars, appeared off Tahiti to demand satisfaction for the ill-treatment of the French missionaries Laval and Caret, which they assessed at

2000 Spanish piastres. At the same time a treaty was concluded between the French Government and Queen Pomáre, by which from that time all subjects of the King of France were to be at liberty to visit and reside in the Society Islands without molestation, and were to enjoy similar privileges with the English.[65]

To this treaty the French captain, La Place, who, in April, 1839, anchored in Papeete harbour for repairs to his frigate, the Artémise, added another article, which was countersigned by the Queen and the principal chiefs, and authorized the free celebration of the rites of the Catholic religion.[66]

Had these demonstrations on the part of France had for the sole object the protection of the interests of Catholicism and French subjects, no civilized power could have objected to an act which, in entire consonance with the more humane and enlightened spirit of the 19th century, asserted the equal rights of every form of religious worship.

But she was not content with removing obstacles or asserting rights; political aims, as it proved, were being advanced under cover of a struggle on behalf of the Catholic Church;

and the events which speedily ensued are but a series of acts of violence and humiliations inflicted, so entirely unjustifiable, that even the French Government found itself in the end compelled to disapprove and condemn the acts of its representatives in Oceania.

In September, 1842, M. Du Petit-Thouars came on a second visit to Tahiti. He had by this time been promoted to his flag, and had been appointed Captain-general of the French stations in the Southern Ocean. He had already taken possession of the Marquesas Islands in the name of France, and appeared to have come to Tahiti with similar intentions. This second visit terminated after the Queen and her subjects had been submitted to the most cruel humiliations, in the establishment of a French protectorate, which several chiefs demanded in a document addressed by them to Louis Philippe, and which the Queen was compelled to subscribe. In November, 1843, Du Petit-Thouars came once more to Papeete, and now took possession of the entire island, on the flimsy pretext that an intentional insult had been given to France, in the shape of a flag which he saw waving above the Queen's residence, and which he mistook for that of England! The Tahitian flag was forcibly struck by the French soldiers, and replaced by that of France, while Tahiti itself was declared a French colony. Queen Pomáre protested against this new high-handed insult; she wrote a letter of complaint to the French monarch, relating the extravagances of his officers, and in a dignified and

simple address, implored the sympathy and support of Queen Victoria.[67]

The violent proceedings of the admiral were not endorsed by the Government of Louis Philippe, which recalled Du Petit-Thouars, and restored to Queen Pomáre the islands of Tahiti and Eimeo, but the French protectorate remained unaltered, since which the two islands have remained, if not de jure, at all events de facto, a French colony. The administration is vested in the hands of a proportionately increased staff of French officials, and import and export duties are levied by the French authorities, while the Queen herself receives her civil list of £1000 at the hands of the "Trésorier et payeur des Etablissements français en Océanie."[68]

Papeete or Papéïti (Pape, water, Iti, little), which derives its name from a rivulet which falls into the sea here, lies at the bottom of a semi-circular bay, seven miles west of Point Venus, the northernmost spot of the island. It is the chief town on the island, the residence of the Queen, and the seat of government, all which is not incompatible with its being of very limited dimensions, not rising above the grandeur of an ordinary village. The dwellings of the Europeans, constructed for the most part of wood, covered with palm-leaves, partly extend along the shore, partly help to make pretty regular streets, amid which rise up on every side bread-fruit trees, cocoa-palms, and orange-trees, which make up in cheerfulness for any deficiency in stateliness of aspect. Southwards of the bay lie a belt of police barracks, the Protestant place of worship (Fare-pure, house of prayer), and the prison (Fare-auri, house of iron); eastward it is bounded by the promontory of Fare-Ute, forming a sort of dock-yard, where ships of 300 tons can be repaired. Not far from the place of disembarkation, and near the centre of the township, rises one of the most elegant buildings in Papeete, namely, that where the various stores for the troops are housed. The mansion of the Governor closely adjoins the residence assigned to the Queen, from which it is only separated by a garden hedge. Both are extremely simple and unpretending edifices, built of wood, and impress the visitor much less than another large quadrangular building, built of stone in the Oriental style, and surmounted by a cupola—this is the

Fare-Aporaa, or "House of Big Words," which has numerous congeners among more civilized communities. Here, for the future, are to be held the sessions of the Legislative Assembly, and here the laws of the country are to be debated. Ever since the protecting hand of the French Protector has extended itself likewise over the unfortunate inhabitants of the Society Islands, the Tahitian parliament is opened with all that pomp and tinsel splendour which your true Frenchman cannot dispense with, even among the primitive islands of the Pacific. The Queen, accompanied by the Governor, proceeds, escorted by a long retinue, to the Chamber, and opens the assembly in person, which solemnity is announced to the gaping crowd outside by a salvo of twenty-one guns. The French Governor, however, plays the most conspicuous part, as in him is vested the right of deciding whether the convocation of the chosen of the people be requisite or not. Hence it happens that many a year passes when it does not suit the wishes of the Governor that parliament should meet. On such occasions (such was the case while we were there) the Governor promulgates a simple edict to that effect.[69]

The Tahitians, long before the arrival of the French, had a code or charter of their own. The last was drawn up in 1823 by the Protestant missionaries, upon the model of that of England, and was revised in 1826. Its provisions were that the throne should be inherited by either male or female descendants of the reigning dynasty. By it the island was divided into seven districts; the legislative power was vested in an assembly of fourteen members, viz. two from each district, who were to be re-elected every three years by the people. This constitution underwent divers mutilations at the hands of the French Protectorate, till it had lost all importance. At present, however, it is the subject of lively debate, and the Tahitian parliament at Papeete can reckon some really distinguished speakers; but its solution depends much less upon the conviction of logic than the influence of the French officials.

We heard a very remarkable speech from Ravaai, one of the most gifted of the native orators, on the occasion of a debate as to whether a law should be passed admitting beer and French wines, duty free, into the island. Several speakers were of opinion, considering the terrible spread among both sexes of drunkenness, with all its attendant evils,

that every description of spirituous liquor should be prohibited to be sold to the natives; Ravaai, on the other hand, spoke in favour of the enactment, and in the course of his speech remarked: "If the use of spirituous liquors were in itself criminal, as some persons maintain, we should not see it in every-day use by the Europeans living amongst us, our pioneers in the path of civilization. It is only excess, abuse, that are punishable. This we must expect to have to punish, but do not rob us of an inherent right by a sumptuary and unnatural prohibition. Your declarations concerning murder, incendiarism, ruffianism, all which you adduce as the results of the use of brandy, are but oratorical flourishes: spirituous liquors, the misuse of which I equally with yourselves deprecate, have, no doubt, produced disorders, but these have been suppressed, and if our island had no further ills to encounter we might rejoice this day over a future of such prosperity and promise! Such, unfortunately, is not the case! People tell us of murders and robberies! Go the round of the island! go from Mahaéna to Punaruu, from Papenoo to Taapua, and a variety of other places—climb the mountain to the very summit of Fautáua; ask at these abodes of sorrow, baptized with noble blood, and covered with honoured graves! Say what has filled the graves of Mahaéna with human bones? Is it the unlimited use of spirits, or is it not rather the ignorance begotten of fanaticism run mad, which disloyally put weapons into your hands? But the graves are dumb; and certain persons present may at this moment

rejoice at that repose. If it is your wish sincerely, and with hope of definite results, to forbid the sale of intoxicating stimulants in Tahiti, begin by forbidding those mighty nations who trade with our island, and are interested in this traffic, from bringing and introducing the destroying liquids in their vessels!! But your voices, ye unhappy Tahitians, are too feeble to make themselves heard in England, in France, in Spain, in America! Well, then, renounce it, deny yourselves!" The law was passed by ninety-five votes against thirteen, and, in consequence, not merely French wines, but all sorts of liquors, may be sold in Tahiti unchecked by license. The penalties for drunkenness have since then formed an important source of revenue!

Among the foreigners settled in Papeete our Expedition had reason to be especially thankful to Mr. W. Howe, member of the London Missionary Society, and M. Adam Kulczycki,[70] director of the administration of native matters, two gentlemen, of whom the former has, during a residence of twenty-two years in Tahiti, employed in spreading the gospel and raising the morals and religious standard of his little flock, proved himself as useful a servant, as the latter by his valuable contributions to our knowledge of the physical condition of the island. Dr. Nadaud, botanist and physician, also laid

the Expedition under deep obligations by the cordiality with which he placed himself at the disposal of the naturalists, to accompany them on their various excursions, and imparting to them his own valuable experience, while the splendid and comprehensive work of Dr. G. Cuzent[71] upon Tahiti, contributed greatly to assist our personal impressions, experiences, and observations. Mr. Howe, the sole English missionary now resident in Tahiti, received us with much kindness, and escorted us through the various missionary buildings, in which, unfortunately, the spiritual energy of bygone years has dwindled away under the baleful French Protectorate. The institute for the education of teachers and pastors is quite closed,—in the printing establishment, which formerly kept ten compositors and two iron hand-presses in constant employment, only small religious tracts are now permitted to be sold, and these exclusively in Tahitian, a work which one man can easily get through. In the missionary library we saw several interesting works and manuscripts, mostly of a religious cast. One was shown us which seemed to be highly esteemed, and consisted of a thick manuscript treating of Tahiti, the author of which was a Mr. Orsmond, the oldest Protestant missionary upon the island, who died in 1857. It is said that M. Moerenhout, the former Belgian and American consul at Papeete, in his work upon Tahiti, availed

himself largely of this manuscript, which has also been translated into Swedish.

Mr. Howe spoke highly of the liberality of the present Governor, M. Saisset, as compared with the intolerance displayed by his predecessors, with respect to celebrating Protestant worship. Then, he told us, he was not permitted to preach elsewhere than in his chapel, and then only in English, whereas now he can perform religious service in other districts whenever the natives request him to do so. Moreover, in the dissemination of religious tracts and books of prayer, there is much more relaxation than formerly, and during the last tour of inspection of the Governor, that gentleman himself took with him 500 copies of a translation of the Bible, for distribution among the Protestant natives of the districts he was about to visit. The want of elementary religious books in the interior was so great, that even Catholic teachers had to sue for some, preferring Protestant Bibles to having none at all.

Although Mr. Howe is the only one of the fourteen missionaries once resident here to whom permission was accorded to remain behind on the island, there are nevertheless a great number of native teachers who preach and celebrate worship on the Sunday. The Canakas,[72] as it is the custom to call the natives, on such occasions bring with them to the chapel their Bibles and little hymn-books in a small

case made of plaited palm fibre, a modern department of Tahitian industry, and, in the interior more especially, observe the Sabbath with much strictness.[73] It may be reckoned that by far the larger number of the inhabitants of Tahiti and Eimeo, or Morea, profess Protestantism, whereas the number of native Catholics does not exceed 100 in both islands. Notwithstanding the numerous advantages which the Catholic Church has enjoyed since the establishment of the French Protectorate, it has not succeeded in acquiring any great influence among the natives, or in enlarging its boundaries. The Bishop, Monseigneur Tépaud Jansen, Bishop of Axieri, who resides at Papeete, is also the sole priest and teacher in the colony. This spiritual guide has every day to celebrate mass in his wretched little chapel of bamboo walls and palm thatch, and has never yet succeeded in getting the half-ruined church close by finished for his reception; the 8000 francs per annum (£320) paid by Government as long as the church is being built seem rather to postpone than hasten its erection. Moreover, there is not as yet any public school in Papeete, a want which is the more sensibly felt and the more permanent in its effects, as the majority of the Protestant schools are closed, and consequently a large proportion of the rising generation[74] are growing up in utter

ignorance. In four districts in the interior out of thirty-three, live two or three French missionaries who instruct the natives in French. There is neither lack of energy among these zealous labourers, nor of the requisite funds,[75] to extend the field of their labours, so that if the Catholic mission in Tahiti makes no progress, and after twenty years' exertion can only reckon 100 neophytes, the explanation must be sought in the existence of conditions, which neither the self-denying zeal of Catholic missionaries nor material protection can affect.[76]

While in the interior of the island Sunday is thus observed with much strictness, there is great indifference, if not worse, in its observance in the seaport; indeed, it is the French official who sets the example of disregarding it. For nowhere

does one witness more utter shamelessness than at what is known as the Pré Catalan, a lawn-like meadow, which extends directly in front of the Governor's palace, and, in fact, is one of its dependencies. Here, in presence of the French gens d'armes and soldiers, under the very eyes of the Protectorate authorities, and in entire defiance of the native laws,[77] dances of the most dissolute kind are executed by half-drunk Tahitian girls. One must have seen the Upa-Upa danced by these lascivious Tahitians, with all the impassioned vehemence of a sensual nature, in order to comprehend the mingled shame and indignation with which it fills any but a French by-stander. Singularly enough, the Upa-Upa, or Hiva, has a marked resemblance to the well-known Can-can, as it is, or used formerly to be, danced in the Quartier Latin at the Chaumière, by the students and grisettes, with the sole difference that in the Upa-Upa the grace of the Parisian dances is entirely lost sight of, so that there remains nothing but a series of obscene gestures, most unblushingly presented. The musicians sitting on the ground strike with the flat of the hand a little kettle-drum

(pehu), and beat time as well with their feet. Suddenly, a dancer of either sex springs into the inclosure, goes through a number of extraordinary animated movements, which are the louder laughed at and applauded in proportion to their indecency, after which he or she mingles once more with the crowd, exhausted and breathless.

The Tahiti women have almost invariably beautiful black hair, and singularly small hands and feet. Their figure is on the average that of the middle stature of European women. Their dress is simple, but very clean and neat. They wear a long white gown with plaits, which gives them somewhat the appearance of vestals, and wear a coronal of flowers on their head, or entwine the flaming blossoms of the Hibiscus rosasinensis in their thick black tresses. The more coquettish also affect an exceedingly elegant head-dress (rewarewa), which they make of the young tender leaves of the cocoa-palm, the satin-paper-like epidermis being converted by the manipulation of their skilful hands into an exquisitely fine-wove, rustling tissue, which they arrange among their luxuriant locks with genuine idealistic grace.

The men, like the women, are tall, slim, and well-proportioned. The face usually is far from ugly, and betokens no little intelligence; the lips are full, the complexion a yellowish-brown, but on the whole fairer than that of the New Zealanders. The occipital region of the head seems to be artificially flattened, the forehead well-formed, the chin and lower maxillary bones are broad. Some wear European

clothing, others a wide piece of blue calico (paréu), wound round the loins and reaching to the knees.

The dancing in the Pré Catalan continued from afternoon till far on in the night, although only a faint gleam of light shone on the green floor, so that the darkness threw a convenient veil over both dancers and spectators. Quite close to the crowd of pleasure-seeking natives was a group of natives of New Caledonia. These had been made prisoners of war during the recent campaign of the French on that island, and had been transported hither to undergo a term of travaux forcés on the public works. On the whole, however, they were kindly enough treated, and on Sundays were permitted to "dance," such as the performance was, in the presence of their custodian. On our presenting them with a few small silver coins they went through their most renowned national dances for us, which are much ruder and more natural than those of the Tahitians, but apparently are not of so frivolous a character as the Upa-Upa, and other similar cancanized contortions of the limbs as indulged at Tahiti. The New Caledonians arranged themselves with spears and sticks in a circle, rushed violently at each other, leaped impetuously about in a state of artificial excitement, uttering the most singular sounds and the most appalling yells, then dispersed and reunited repeatedly, the leader of the dance all the while muttering very fast, but in perfect time, some unintelligible words, apparently to fire their ardour by recalling to them the memory of some national

victory. The obscene Tahitian dances on the Sundays in Government gardens had been resuscitated five months before, and for this reason Pré Catalan, the only public promenade in Tahiti, is avoided by the Europeans resident in Papeete. The Protestants feel themselves sorely aggrieved by having such a spectacle openly sanctioned on the Lord's Day by the French authorities, and a collection having been set on foot about the time of our visit for raising sufficient to maintain a permanent band of music, a number of Protestants and missionaries declined to subscribe, on the ground of disapproving of money being expended in promoting such amusements.

Among the excursions made by the members of the Expedition, a double interest attached to that made to Point Venus. It was on this promontory that Captain Cook first made the astronomical observations by which he determined the position of the island. The ride thither lay through delicious groves of cocoa-palms and bread-fruit trees, mingled here and there with citron and orange-trees, as also bananas and guavas. Near the Point lies the village of Matavai, inhabited by several white settlers, each in his little cottage with its blooming garden around it. The tree-like Oleander and the beautiful red flower Hibiscus rosasinensis towered above in full bloom, the entire scene being almost sufficient to captivate a European. The native governor of the district is a pretty well-educated man, who has spent nine months in Paris, and on the occasion of the capture by the French of the fort of

Fautáua had been rewarded for his not very patriotic services by the cross of the Legion of Honour, besides being appointed chief of the militia. His farm is very nicely managed, and his daughters, elegant, well-mannered brunettes, speak a little French, an accomplishment in which the Tahitian ladies, notwithstanding their intimate relations with the sons of "la grande nation," are usually entirely deficient. At Point Venus is a lighthouse, with an intermittent light, visible about 14 miles seaward, in charge of an aged French veteran (invalide). The tamarind tree is still pointed out, which Captain Cook planted close to the spot where he completed those renowned labours, which still single him out as the greatest of Pacific discoverers.

With the exception of those to Point Venus on one side, and to the large villages of Faáa and Papeuriri in the opposite direction, there are no practicable roads on the island. On the whole, there are about 36 miles of road suitable for wheeled carriages,—all travels beyond must be performed on horseback, by which means the entire island can be traversed in a few days. One of the most agreeable excursions, and which well repays the trouble, is undoubtedly a drive to the beautifully situate hill-fort of Fautáua, renowned in the annals of the island. The first part of the road leads over unsightly fields of guava (Psidium guava), first imported from South America in 1815 by an American missionary, with the laudable object of increasing the number of useful plants upon the island, but which has since so entirely over-grown

large tracts of land, that its systematic extirpation begins to be discussed. Wherever the guava takes root it destroys all other vegetation. It has already extended over the loveliest spots, where its seeds have been dropped in human or animal excrement. Its apple-shaped fruit, red-fleshed inside, is in the raw state anything but pleasant to the taste, and is not readily eaten even by the natives, but a sort of jelly prepared of it could be made an important article of export, as it is already along the west coast of South America. The fruit is also valuable for provender, as animals foddered with it speedily get quite fat, while its wood, growing with great rapidity, is in much request for fuel.

After riding a few miles through these guava-fields, we were astonished at finding a sugar plantation close by the road, which here ran through a lovely little valley. This is the property of an Englishman named Johnson, who, once a whaler, and afterwards a sandal-wood trader, has resided for more than thirty years in Tahiti, and has married a native woman. Johnson, in partnership with a Frenchman named Le Rouge, had planted 23 acres of land with sugar-cane, and when we saw him in February, 1859, expected a crop of from 100 to 110 hogsheads of sugar. The whole property is a perfect model farm, and receives every encouragement and assistance from Government, with the view of extending sugar-planting.[78]

Immediately adjoining the plantation, the river Fautáua flows past, here about five feet deep, and furnishing a most excellent bathing-place. Johnson, like many another, lamented the appalling rapidity with which the native population was falling off, which he ascribed to the daily increasing prevalence of the vices of drunkenness and debauchery. He related to us how many valleys, now lonely and abandoned, were pretty densely peopled only twenty years ago! Then the population was estimated at 15,000, now it is only 5000.[79]

The aspect of the sugar plantation is remarkably fine, and an occasional glimpse of the surrounding hills, bathed in the sunlight, imparts a sublimity that at once arrests the attention, the crags rising in close proximity, and appearing much more precipitous and inaccessible than they are in reality. The Diadem (the name given to several peaks which have a striking resemblance to a crown) displays itself from this point in all its wondrous loveliness, above which tower lofty mountain-peaks, 6000 or 7000 feet in height, which have never been trodden by the foot of the naturalist.

Close behind the hospitable dwelling of Mr. Johnson begins the primitive forest, under the delightful cool shades of which one can ride almost to the goal of the excursion, surrounded on every side by luxuriant green canopies that seem to scale the very clouds, under whose domes play grateful currents of air.[80]

The path, although always a steep ascent, was in very fair condition; only at the point where it was necessary to ford the river Fautáua, which every year swells into an angry torrent during the rainy season, did we find any serious impediment to our further advance. The bridge across the stream had been swept away, and there was nothing for it but to lead the horses through the water, an achievement of no little difficulty and waste of time, owing to the strength of the current and the terror and obstinacy of some of our horses.

After a ride of several hours in a sort of green twilight, the forest began to open, and there before our astonished gaze was the most important waterfall on the island, imparting an inconceivable freshness and animation to the landscape around. The Fautáua makes at this point a leap of about 200 metres

(650 feet), into a huge basin, which lies at the foot of a lofty precipice, 420 metres (1450 feet) above the level of the sea; the temperature of the water in the basin itself being about 70° Fahr.

The steep crags, which tower overhead on all sides, and like a gigantic wall impede the view of the peninsula of Taiarapu, which lies behind them, are as marvellous in the luxuriance of the vegetation that covers them, as they are strategically important by their impregnability, the French having only succeeded in gaining footing upon them by treachery, and not by fortune of war. Some chiefs favourable to the French had acted as guides, and had led them by secret and dangerous paths up to these heights, for which service they to this day receive an annual pension paid in gold out of the state treasury. Formerly the rough, steep, almost inaccessible precipices formed of themselves a natural fort, and by their peculiar form, their position, and their strength, might be called the key of the entire island. The French conquerors immediately converted this spot, 630 metres (2052 feet) above the level of the sea, into a small fort with the usual tricolor flag, and, on the limited flat surface at their disposal, on which alone it was possible to build, erected a barrack and a few huts, besides laying out a kitchen-garden, which supplies with fruit and vegetables the residents of this solitary but lovely abode.

The officer on guard within the fort received us with that fascinating friendliness and bonhommie characteristic of the

French in all parts of the world, and which makes them everywhere such "jolly" companions. The provisions we had brought with us were speedily improved by the addition of everything that the garrison mess could set before us, and there was no lack even of delicacies, as they might be considered in these latitudes, for the little kitchen-garden contiguous furnished plenty of water-cresses and strawberries. The temperature was at this season singularly delicious and elastic, but in July, when the thermometer occasionally sinks to 46 ¹⁄₂° Fahr., the little garrison suffers much from cold and inflammatory attacks.

Another excursion, not less charming but far more arduous, is that to the Waiiria Lake, far in the interior of the island. This was achieved by Mr. Frauenfeld, one of the zoologists of the Expedition. From Papeuriri in the south of the island, which is easily reached in one day from Papeete by a road winding along the coast, the Waiiria valley leads in a S.S.E. to N.N.W. direction, up to the central peak, whence the deep valleys and water-courses radiate towards the coast like the spokes of a wheel. The valley is at first tolerably wide, but so densely covered with trees and shrubs, interlaced in wild confusion, that the horses had to be left behind at Papeuriri. A rather wide mountain-torrent rushes throughout its length, and, a little further on, when the valley contracts into a pathless defile, has not merely to be crossed so frequently as to baffle all count, but leaves the tourist to scramble up its rocky course by leaping from stone to stone. After four hours' toil

the valley suddenly closes in, and it becomes necessary to scramble up an almost perpendicular precipice 1000 feet in height. It was a tight bit of work, struggling upwards under a tropical rain over the slippery moss-grown blocks, every cranny and projection thickly studded with creeping plants. The crest of the pass, from 60 to 80 feet wide, hemmed in by precipices impossible to scale, was fortified by the natives during the war; that is to say, a breastwork of stones was thrown up, thus converting the depression on the other side of the mountain, in which lies the lake, into an inaccessible lurking-place. Not far distant is the deep narrow defile of Ruotorea, which played so conspicuous a part in the older history of Tahiti, as it was customary to fling into it all prisoners of war. At length, about two P.M., the lake itself was reached, lying in a sort of mountain cauldron, the sides of which descend steeply, while two of the loftiest peaks, those of Tetuero and Anaori, rise sheer out of the lake to a height of 5000 feet.[81] Except at the narrow strip of ground, on which M. Frauenfeld found himself standing, and which was nothing but a beach of small extent, there was no other spot within sight at which it would have been possible to land. The distance to the opposite shore, when visible, seems about half a mile. The whole basin, even where the enclosing rocks are steepest, indeed, almost perpendicular, and thence up to the

summits of the loftiest peaks, is densely covered with trees, reeds, and creepers, especially scitamineæ, the brilliant green hues of which are reflected in the mirror-like surface of the lake below. All the forests here are of wild plantain, and the sugar-cane is found growing wild in a variety of places. A few ducks, a swallow, and a couple of parrots were all that was seen of animal life. A strange silence brooded over the entire landscape,—not a leaf trembled, not a sound broke the solemn stillness, and a depressing feeling of loneliness and utter abandonment seized on the traveller. The spot for the night's encampment was selected close to a large stone, against which a sort of penthouse was erected of banana leaves, which promised welcome shelter during the night. The exceedingly unfavourable weather prevented an adequate investigation being made of the environs of the lake, and as the following morning was ushered in with, if anything, an accession of bad weather, the plan which had been projected of constructing a boat with which to explore the lake was abandoned, and the party set out on their return to Papeete.

During our stay at Tahiti, a grand national festival took place at the little village of Faáa, about an hour's walk from Papeete. In fact, it has latterly become the custom, on every change of Governor, to have a feast of welcome in his honour in every district. On such occasions speeches are made, presents are prepared, dances are practised, and long tables, groaning under all sorts of food and drink, are set out in the open air for the invited guests. Governor Saisset, who

had been seven months in office, and had already made the circuit of the island, visiting all the districts, was, however, not yet welcomed with the customary festivities of the inhabitants of Faáa. This solemnity accordingly passed off with all pomp on 22nd February. By eight A.M. some twenty cavaliers had assembled in front of the Government Palace, whence, with the Governor at their head, and accompanied by the native militia, also mounted, they took the road to Faáa. Only one lady, Madame de la Richerie, wife of the Commissaire Impérial, accompanied the cavalcade. On our arrival at Faáa we found the native females, attired in their gayest national dress, formed into line, and the men, partly clothed in the European manner, partly in the "Paréu," a broad scarf of printed muslin wound round the loins, shaking their variegated plumes, and carrying banners and flags of bark specially prepared for the feast, some Pandanus leaves being also handed to the guests.

As soon as the Governor had taken his seat in the verandah of the large and elegant residence of the chieftain, or warden of the district (for in Tahiti every office, with all rights pertaining thereto, descends among the female members of the chief's family likewise),[82] a number of girls, dressed all in white

and wearing elegant garlands of flowers, stepped forward and began to sing a national Tahitian hymn; after which the orator of the day, a handsome man, dressed partly in the European, partly in the native manner, wearing a black round felt hat and feathers, and a variegated bark shirt over a black coat(!) delivered a very pathetic address. His delivery and his gestures recalled strongly to mind the New Zealand orators, but, unlike the latter, he was considerate enough not to tax unduly the patience of his foreign guests, to whom not one word of his very moving discourse was intelligible. This preliminary over, a number of girls presented themselves one after the other to the Governor, and in token of allegiance presented their garlands and the nicely prepared upper robe of bast. In this manner about 100 crowns and bast-mantilles were delivered, the most elegant of which the Governor kindly presented to the members of our Expedition.

In the reception-court a perfect mountain of bananas had been piled up, together with an immense heap of cocoa-nuts; these were also presented to the Governor and his suite, with the remark that every inhabitant of the district had contributed his mite to the festival, and bade the foreign guests a cordial welcome. "We may stay days, weeks, ay! months," exclaimed the orator, "and every house and all that was in it will be placed at our disposal; every one will take a pleasure in doing our bidding and forestalling all our wishes!"

After this hearty, idyllic ceremonial, the inhabitants of Punataná, an adjoining district, came up, amid a flourish of

drums and trumpets, and arranged themselves on the wide road right in front of the chieftainess of Faáa, in consequence of Maheanú, their chieftainess, a zealous Protestant, not permitting on her grounds the execution of any improper dances, or the singing of broad songs. In fact, neither the Upa-Upa nor any other of the numerous Tahitian "Cancans à la Chicard" were suffered to be danced; the consequence of which was that they danced it all the more eagerly on the road. Six drummers, each with his little kettle-drum, squatted cross-legged on the floor, the right hand being employed to strike the instrument. To this primitive music, enlivened at times by a shrill cry, both men and girls now began to go through the most indecent gestures, accompanied by leaping on and toying with their partners till they had worked themselves up to such an artificial frenzy of excitement, that each couple at last retired exhausted and bathed in perspiration, under a flourish of drums and a loud shriek from the orchestra.

The French Governor, the representative of European decorum, was one of the most animated of the spectators, and gave full swing to the recklessness of the Tahitians, who are accustomed to push the law of hospitality to the extent of prostituting their daughters, remarking, with much naïveté, that the natives would take it exceedingly ill were any one to refuse to take part in certain old habits and customs, or were to declare themselves openly opposed to their continuance!

At the close of the fête the Governor ordered some French

wines, "the cocoa milk of the Europeans," to be set before the inhabitants of Faáa. A déjeûner à la fourchette was laid out under tents, where, at twenty long tables covered in the European manner, the most distinguished personages took their seats. Every family had contributed something, the whole having the appearance of a regular pic-nic.

On each table were displayed flowers, bananas, bread-fruit, and other delicious products of the vegetable world. The European guests were seated at a large table erected at the upper end of an alley of trees. The chieftainess and her husband sat beside the Governor. Next in order was the Government interpreter, a Mr. Darling, the son of one of the oldest English missionaries sent out to Tahiti, on whom devolved the interpretation into Tahitian or French, as the case might be, of the various speeches and toasts.

The dinner-service, at our table at least, was entirely in the European manner, which seemed to me a pity; a meal without knives or forks, as is the custom among the natives, would have been infinitely more interesting and peculiar. The husband gave the health of the ruler of France, and—evidently in honour of the guests from the banks of the Danube—that of the Emperor of Austria! Immediately thereafter the Governor rose suddenly and left the table, with the intention, it would seem, of escaping some untimeous speeches of the natives. The company presently broke up, and while a few of the guests returned straight to the port, the majority,

the French Governor himself mingling with the excited populace, did not reach Papeete till far in the night.

The fête at Faáa was followed, a few days later, 24th February, by a dashing ball at the Governor's. The Pré Catalan was gaily festooned with coloured lamps, and various devices for illuminating the festivities. The Tahitians, accustomed to dance only in the darkness of night, or at most under the light of a few paltry suet candles, flocked hither in crowds to revel in the brilliant light, and witness the Europeans dance the "Upa-Upa" after their own fashion. Within the Palace was assembled all that was ultra-fashionable in Tahitian society. All the authorities and notabilities of the country were present. More than 200 persons thronged the apartment, where, out of courtesy to our host, the band of our frigate played a succession of polkas, waltzes, and quadrilles. Queen Pomáre, accompanied by her consort and several princes and princesses of her house, was also present. The Governor received her at the threshold of the apartment, offered her his arm, and escorted her to seats already reserved for the royal family. Pomáre is now almost fifty years of age, stout and under the middle size, with a full inexpressive countenance, and a waddling gait. Her toilette was simple but thoroughly European. She wore a white ball-dress of the latest French mode, and flowers in her hair. In her hands she also carried a gigantic bouquet. Her youngest son, a boy of twelve years, named after Prince de Joinville, showed spirit

and vivacity; the heir to the throne seemed feeble, sickly, and too soon matured.

This happened to be the first presentation of the members of the Expedition to the Queen—the first opportunity they had had of conversing with her. Hitherto there had been apparent on the part of the French authorities a reluctance to bring about a meeting, which the Queen might possibly regard as a triumph. In fact, Queen Pomáre was not at liberty to receive any one in her house, except members of her family, without first obtaining the permission of the French authorities. Two incidents, which had occurred to arouse the French authorities shortly before our arrival, had still further contributed to sharpen the Queen's watchfulness, and to limit her receptions to her own nearest relatives. The poor woman had, after much pressure, and without communicating with M. Saisset, signed in his absence a document which fairly ran counter to a previous ordinance on the same subject. A territorial squabble, which had long before been decided by law, had, through the exertions of one of the parties interested, been once more brought up for trial, before the native bench, as it was thought that the result of the opinion of several judges might be productive of some more favourable result. The Governor refused his assent to this proceeding. The Queen, notwithstanding, under bad advice, issued a written mandate to the native Court to try the case over again. As the Court was being assembled, however, it was dismissed by the Governor, the chief judge banished to an

adjoining island, and the Queen compelled herself to abrogate the ordinance. A somewhat similar affair had occurred a few weeks before at the village of Papaoa, near which Queen Pomáre possesses a country-house, in which some of the royal family were implicated. Some native feasts, which in Tahiti are always accompanied with the wildest Bacchanalian license, had excited the crowd to an unusual degree. A few of the Tahitian nationality-mongers drank death to the whites, and pretty openly declared their hostility to a foreign yoke. The excess of a couple of drunken patriots was magnified by the excited fancy of the French officers into the dimensions of a political émeute, and seemed to present the long-coveted opportunity of showing their authority, and of acquiring with little trouble the credit of having nipped in the bud a formidable insurrection. As soon as the news of these seditious speeches and exclamations reached head-quarters, the Governor marched in the night with 150 well-armed soldiers to Papaoa, distant about an hour's march from the capital. Pomáre and her family were just assembled to evening prayers, when the Governor made his appearance, and ordered her forthwith to accompany him to Papeete. An Englishman resident in the harbour was ordered to convey the Queen to her town residence in his small one-horse waggon. Her two sons, however, were escorted to Papeete as prisoners on foot, and their hands bound behind their backs, their ears saluted by the oft-repeated threat of the soldiers that their lives should answer for any intentional injury

which the Europeans might sustain at the hands of the natives. As the procession approached the harbour, the Queen bent forward to her driver, and asked him in a low voice whether it was intended to carry her to the Carabus.[83] The driver turned off towards her own residence. As he turned the corner, the Queen suddenly started forwards, and seizing the reins from the driver with both hands, stopped the horse, and looked whether her two sons were by her side. She feared they would be taken to the prison, but they were likewise conducted to her house. However, Queen Pomáre and all her family and attendants were cautioned not to leave Papeete till the matter had been thoroughly inquired into. An intimation was even conveyed to the Protestant missionary Mr. Howe that he must discontinue his visits to the Queen till further orders.

Under these circumstances it is more than probable that the persecuted Queen only made her appearance at the ball in deference to the Governor's commands, and hence possibly she confined her conversation with the strangers to the most common-place topics. The Queen was described to us

as a clever, well-educated woman, who spoke English with considerable fluency, as also a little French, and in public affairs displayed a surprising degree of shrewdness and tact. With the French authorities she conversed exclusively in Tahitian. She appears much to dislike the intervention of an interpreter or secretary, preferring greatly to place herself directly in communication with the official concerned, as an autograph letter exhibits, which she addressed to the Treasurer Receiver-general, requesting him to send her a carriage in which to drive on business from her estate at Papaoa to Papeete.[84]

It is very surprising to find in the course of conversation with natives of every grade, that notwithstanding the French Protectorate has now lasted upwards of twenty years, the French language has hardly made the slightest advance. We met but two natives who could speak French. The knowledge of English even is confined to the few individuals who live entirely on the coast, and come frequently into contact with foreigners. A law was in contemplation, however, at the period of our visit, by the provisions of which no native after the lapse of 10 years, that is to say, by 1869, would be eligible for any Government employ, not even that of a murtói (police sergeant, literally "one who listens secretly

to the words of the people"[85]), unless he has a thorough acquaintance with French.

On the whole, the Government of the Second of December appears to regard Tahiti simply as a military outpost and naval station, and to attach little value to the evident future commercial importance of the island. If, however, there are behind this ostensible indifference no secret views, or political arrière-pensées involved, it must undoubtedly be pronounced most unjust and unwise. True, Tahiti possesses but a small proportion of surface suitable for cultivation; true, with the exception of oranges,[86] there is hardly any natural product exported,[87] the produce of the island barely sufficing to support its own population; but, apart from its extremely favourable geographical position, and the vegetable profusion of this and the adjoining islands, Tahiti might, under able administration, be made a sort of general emporium for the

interchange of the products of Polynesia against the fabrics of Europe.

The total superficial area of Tahiti amounts to 104,215 hectares, 79,485 of which form Tahiti proper and the isthmus of Taravao, while the peninsula of Taiarapu comprises the remaining 24,730. The greater portion of this surface is occupied by mountains, only a very small proportion being devoted to tillage. At the mouths of several of the rivers are small strips of arable land, of which the plains of Taunoa (near Papeete), Point Venus, Pusenaura, Papara, Papeuriri, and Papeari, as also the delta of the river Fautáua, on the peninsula of Taiarapu, are the most important.

All these level grounds put together do not amount to more than from 2200 to 2500 hectares, while the swampy state of much of even this small area renders many portions fit only for the cultivation of taro and rice.[88]

The climate of Tahiti is uncommonly salubrious and delightful; the temperature is tolerably uniform, and is sensibly moderated by the alternate land and sea-breezes. Only about mid-day, when there usually sets in that profound calm, which the French, in their elegant epigrammatic way, style l'immobilité des feuilles, the heat becomes absolutely oppressive, but the mornings and evenings are cool, and the air very refreshing.

The average maximum temperature during the rainy season is 84°.4 Fahr., the average minimum 74°.6 Fahr. Only immediately prior to the outbreak of a storm does the fluctuation of the thermometer become strongly marked. In the dry season the temperature averages 80°.6 Fahr. during the day, and 68° Fahr. during the night. When, however, as occasionally happens, the temperature at Papeete sinks to 57°.2 Fahr. and at Fautáua to 46°.4 Fahr., or even lower, even the Europeans are compelled to adopt certain precautions against taking cold, which the natives for the most part disregard, and are accordingly liable to acute inflammatory disorders.

With such a temperature, combined with the fertility insured by the volcanic tufa soil, it is perfectly evident that the majority of the tropical and sub-tropical nut-bearing and other alimentary plants might be extensively grown upon the island without much difficulty. The sugar-cane, the coffee-tree, the cotton-shrub, the vanilla, the cocoa-tree, the indigo plant, the sorgho[89], rice, maize, &c., flourish here in a marked degree, and their persistent cultivation would realize a splendid profit for the landowner.

Of fruits there are bananas, bread-fruits, mangoes, ananas

(pine-apples), papayas (carica papayi), pandanus fruit, cocoa-nuts, oranges, lemons, anonas (a kind of custard apple), guavas, &c. The chief sustenance of the natives consists of the following:—

I. The féi, or wild plantain (Musa Féi, or Musa Rubra), of which there are five varieties. It is first encountered at an elevation of from 600 to 800 feet above the sea, grows most luxuriantly between the zones of 1000 and 1500 feet, is of a very peculiar saffron-yellow colour, and is usually either roasted or boiled.

II. The haari, or cocoa-palm (Cocos nucifera), whose trunk, bark, leaves, and fruit are pressed into their service by the natives. The fruit, however, is the most important, as it is used as meat for man and beast, as well as a beverage, and to obtain oil from it. Mixed with fine sandal-wood shavings and other aromatic substances, the oily liquid pressed out from the cocoa-nut is used by the Tahiti women as a much-prized cosmetic (monoï), with which to lubricate their long beautiful black hair. Here, as among the other South Sea islands, the cocoa-palm begins to bear after the first seven or eight years only, after which, however, it becomes so abundant that the fruit of each tree is valued at five francs annually. It takes 20 to 25 cocoa-nuts to make a gallon of oil.[90]

III. The urú (also called Maioré), or bread-fruit tree (Artocarpus

incisa), is, after the cocoa-palm, the most useful tree on the island. The fruit, baked in a canak (or native) oven, (vide ante, p. 162), between two heated stones, is the substitute for bread to the Tahitians. At the period of the war, or in consequence of a short crop, the natives, like the New Zealanders and the aborigines of the Caroline Archipelago, buried the fruit of the urú in the earth, and ate it in the putrefied state. The bread-tree is productive thrice in the year. The first crop, the best and largest, ripens in March, the second in July, the third, Manavahói, at the end of November. The fruit varies from eight to twelve pounds in weight.

IV. The fara, or pandanus, the fruit of which is treated in the same manner as that of the urú, while the leaves serve as a thatch for the bamboo-cane huts of the aborigines. Of the red seeds of the pandanus odoratissimus, the ornament-loving Tahitian women prepare exceedingly fine coronals and necklaces. The leaves of another species, called irí by the natives, are used for enveloping tobacco, and making cigarettes, as also in the manufacture of house mats, and mats on which to sleep.

V. The taro (Caladium esculentum), a sort of tuber, which at certain seasons supplies any deficiency in the bread-fruit, and is very carefully cultivated by the natives. Of this plant there are in Tahiti thirteen varieties.

VI. Pia (Tacca pinnatifida), a sort of tuber resembling the taro, the mealy substance of which is chiefly used as nutriment for children and convalescent persons, and which in

commerce is erroneously confounded with arrow-root, the latter being chiefly procured from the Antilles and India, more especially from Marantha Indica and Marantha arundinacea. The pia is also much used in Tahitian households in the preparation of small sweet cakes (Poe-pia), and is a not unpalatable substitute for wheaten flour.

VII. Hói, or yams (Dioscorea alata), of which useful tuber a variety of species are extensively used on the island.

VIII. Umará, or sweet potato (Convolvulus Batata), preferred by the natives to the European potato, and widely cultivated, though it has somewhat degenerated in Tahiti.

IX. Fare-rupe (Pteris esculentum), a kind of fern, the root of which was in former times much used for food here, as also in New Zealand.

There still remain to be noticed two plants of much interest, from the roots of which the Tahitians, prior to the arrival of the Europeans, obtained strong intoxicating beverages.[91] These are the ti-plant (Cordyline Australis) and the kawa, or ava (Piper methysticum), of which latter fourteen varieties are known to the natives.

The cultivation of this species of pepper is at present prohibited in Tahiti, and kawa-drinking has accordingly fallen into entire disuse. Only on the peninsula are a few aged

Tahitians to be found, who appear obstinately opposed to the use of our alcoholized liquors, who on special festivities will face every privation for the luxury of boozing over their kawa, for which they sometimes pay five francs for a small piece.

Formerly the process of chewing the kawa was performed by the young girls, and then only by those who had the finest teeth. Before beginning this delicate task, they were required carefully to rinse their mouths and purify their hands, for which purpose they made use of special vessels. When the roots had been slowly and equally chewed, and had been changed into little cones held together by saliva, they were mingled with water in a large wooden vessel (Umeli), standing upon a tripod, and gently squeezed by hand. In many of the islands this process of dilution is performed by mixing cocoa-nut juice instead of the customary water. The kawa is a very fluid substance, not very inviting in appearance at any time, but still less so when one has witnessed the mode of preparing it. Usually it is of the colour of café au lait; but occasionally, when some of the leaves of the plant have been mixed with the root, the beverage assumes a greenish tinge, something like wormwood, although to the palate it has nothing in common with that substance.

Kawa is drunk out of the half of the cocoa-nut shell, which in the hands of a native skilled in carving becomes a really elegant beaker. Only families of high birth, the Arii and

Raatira,[92] who are exempted from toil, are however able to indulge in the luxury of a daily draught of kawa. The symptoms of intoxication are very similar to those of opium. In the kawa-drinker, like the opium-eater or Samshoo smoker, there is a nervous tremulousness perceptible, followed by utter exhaustion, and an overpowering necessity for sleep. After its effects have passed off, there is a sensation of weariness in the limbs, to remove which the regular kawa-drinkers are accustomed to plunge into the cold waters of the nearest mountain stream. A very peculiar cuticular disease, the infallible result of the daily use of this beverage, is called by the natives Arewarewa.

A German chemist, M. Nöllenberger, who was resident at Papeete during our visit to the Archipelego, had succeeded in September, 1858, in crystallizing the essential principle of the kawa root, which he called Kawaïn, the powers and properties of which he was about to investigate more minutely. As we have since then been favoured with a copy of the very valuable work of Mr. G. Cuzent upon Tahiti, already alluded to, we learn therein that that zealous naturalist had already,

in 1857, found in the kawa root an organic base, which he termed Kawahine, and which is fully described in his interesting Monography (p. 99).

Owing to kawa-drinking having been prohibited in Tahiti, chiefly through the influence of the missionaries, the use of brandy and other spirituous liquors is beginning to exercise a not less baneful influence in that island upon the physical and intellectual powers.

In agriculture, as in commerce, the effect of the French Protectorate has been visibly to slacken the rate of progress. The number of ships that visit the island does not exceed 60 to 80 annually, representing an interchange of merchandise to the value of about £64,000 per annum, of which about five-eighths, or £40,000, may be estimated as the amount exported.[93] What is most surprising, is the small number of whalers who visit the island for provisions and repairs. In 1836, the total number was fifty-two; at present not more than five or six in the year enter the harbour of Papeete. In the official reports this falling off is ascribed to the fish having forsaken these regions, while the stagnation of trade is generally ascribed to the reduction of the French garrison (!) in Tahiti, and the rise of late years of the Sandwich Islands and California. But the true cause of the decay is to be

sought for in a very different direction. It lies chiefly in a very defective system of administration, which is constantly being transferred from one hand to the other, having at its head to-day a ship-captain, and to-morrow possibly an officer of gensdarmes or an engineer. A letter[94] addressed to the Emperor Louis Napoleon by an English merchant long resident at Tahiti, unsparingly unveils the present disorders of Tahiti with respect to rights of property, administration of justice, legislation, and social state, and draws a shocking picture of the actual state of the island, once in such high estimation for the felicity of its inhabitants.

On the other hand, the very benefits the mother country is supposed to derive from its Protectorate are at least problematical. While the establishment of French stations in Oceania has required about £240,000, the annual cost of keeping them on foot has never cost less than £100,000, and of this the Protectorate of Tahiti figures for from £24,000 to £28,000.[95] This by no means trifling sum is not however employed in promoting commerce or advancing trading interests; for not more than two or three ships in the year come direct to Tahiti from France, while the majority of the

fabrics used there are English, which are imported from Valparaiso, the only port with which Papeete has regular communication.

The military colony of Taiohái on the island of Nukahiwa, one of the Marquesas, has been entirely abandoned since 1st January, 1859, on account of the too great cost of keeping it up, although Uté-Moána, the king of the Marquesas, and the chiefs of the island of Nukahiwa, were desirous of retaining the French Protectorate, and had drawn up a formal address of submission, while, on the other hand, New Caledonia (Dum'mbia) can only be kept up at very considerable cost.

Lately great reforms have been everywhere inaugurated, in order to diminish the heavy administrative expense hitherto incurred. The French colonies of eastern and western Oceania are to be provided with entirely independent administrations. The Governor of the French establishments in Oceania Oriental is to reside in Papeete, while his colleague of Oceania Occidental is to have his seat of Government at Port de France in New Caledonia. This subdivision, however, must add materially to the cost of maintenance, while it is difficult to see how it can augment the prospects of any increase of revenue.

The French, in a word, have no success in their attempts anywhere at colonization; they are not practical colonists. The absence of this faculty, if one may call it so, is doubly apparent in the Southern hemisphere, where they are surrounded on all hands by English colonies. True it is, the

English also have usually acquired by the strong hand their possessions in Oceania, in Australia, in Asia, &c., and from the stand-point of humanity it is impossible always to defend the means by which they have made themselves masters of the fairest and most fertile countries on the globe. But what have been the results directly springing from these high-handed acts, these political faits accomplis? England has thrown open to the unrestricted enterprise of all trading and seafaring nations those islands and continents so highly favoured by nature, with their feckless fast-disappearing aboriginal races; she has striven, by giving free institutions, to attract diligent colonists, to develope the natural wealth of these countries by means of scientific exploration, for the benefit of all; she has wafted to the remotest corners of the earth the seeds of Christian civilization, and by her energy, her capacity for labour, and her earnestness of purpose, has impressed all, even the most savage races, with a feeling of envy and astonishment at the intellectual superiority, the power, and the greatness of the white man!

Under the influence of liberal but more morally stringent laws, Tahiti might speedily be raised to the position of a great emporium of the Southern seas, the Singapore of Oceania. Under the French Protectorate, on the contrary, the island, with its population long since renowned for indolence and sensuality, has become, in fact, what a French captain once jocularly termed it, "La Nouvelle Cythère!"

Although the Society Islands are by no means a French

penal settlement (the climate being possibly too healthy), there are, nevertheless, both at Tahiti and Nukahiwa, a few men, rather politically discontented than downright dangerous, whom a merciful interpretation of French martial law has exempted from banishment to Cayenne, (that name of terror![96]) and whom we might almost say that a beneficent destiny has transported to the shores of the South Sea. One of these political offenders, named Longomasino, has to thank the visit of the Austrian frigate to Papeete for his restoration to liberty. He had been a journalist at Toulouse

in 1851, and maintained a zealous correspondence with some of the most intimate hangers-on upon Louis Napoleon, till the coup d'état revealed the French ruler's projects, and Longomasino joined the camp of the opponents of the new empire. His contumacious agitation against the new order of things led to his imprisonment and ultimate banishment. He was first transported to Nukahiwa, one of the Marquesas Islands, and afterwards received permission to settle at Papeete in Tahiti. Starting as a farrier, then an advocate, and finally a tavern-keeper, he was unable in any of these capacities to earn a subsistence for himself and his numerous family; the less so, that political intrigues deprived him of the right to practise at the bar, and this compelled him to have recourse to a business for which he had neither taste nor turn. If we understood matters aright, Longomasino, in the course of his juridical labours, had been able to do many a good turn to the Catholic bishop of Tahiti in his dispute with the French administration, and it was therefore less sympathy with the unfortunate political convict than the desire to play an adversary a trick by depriving him of an able adherent, which induced the Governor to ask our Commodore permission to give a free passage to Longomasino, who had been condemned to transportation for life. The request was willingly granted, and on the eve of our sailing Longomasino came on board the frigate, while his wife and family were to follow by a merchant-ship. The unhappy man, who had not words enough wherewith to express his gratitude for the friendly reception he experienced,

still further gained the sympathies of all on board, with his melancholy fate, by his manly reticence on the subject of the injustice he had sustained.[97]

Another convict, who had excited universal attention at Papeete, was M. Belmare, a well-educated young man, who in 1850 avowed he had shot at Louis Napoleon while at the Tuileries, and, in consequence, been transported to Tahiti. The fact that Belmare has since then been taken into the employ of the treasury at Papeete, where he receives a salary of £100 per annum, gave colour to the most whimsical reports as to the clemency displayed by the French Government in this case; yet we repeatedly heard the opinion expressed that Belmare was solely put forward as a tool for carrying out—which was to be used as a blind by giving the Government of Louis Napoleon opportunity for new stretches of arbitrary power. Whether, however, a residence at Tahiti, even with a handsome salary, be sufficient recompence for such services, M. Belmare alone is in a position to say.

A succession of bad weather, such as so frequently occurs in the tropics, delayed our departure for several days. Now it was a heavy gale, commencing in the north and gradually veering round to W. and S.W.; now it was a series of calms, while the surf swept in unbroken masses on the beach, and so heavily, that it seemed the height of imprudence to take the

frigate out through the narrow channel which constitutes the mouth of the harbour of Papeete, and is nothing but a cleft in the coral walls which surround Tahiti, and protect it from the ocean swell.

At length, on 28th February, at day-break, we got under weigh. One of our own boats, as also a boat from the French steamer Milan, which was courteously placed at our disposal, towed the Novara outside the reef, and materially aided the efforts of our men, a barely perceptible catspaw of wind just filling the sails. Piloted by a native lootse, we steered out so close to the projecting coral reefs, that the frigate all but touched them.

We now had a parting view of Tahiti and the little island of Motu-Uta, where stood our improvised observatory, and where so many sleepless nights had been passed in observations for the purpose of defining astronomically the exact position of the island.

We found the breeze freshened once we were outside the reef, and steered northwards, beautiful Tahiti, with the imposing and irregular outline of its hills, and the richness and variety of its vegetation, recalling, in some aspects, the glowing loveliness of the tropics, in others, the still sublimity of some of our Alpine landscapes, till it lay behind us like a shadowy vision of dream-land.

Almost simultaneously with the departure of the Novara, the American whaler Emily Morgan, Captain Chase, stood out from the harbour of Papeete. This vessel had been whaling in

the southern seas during five years, without any adequate return for her perseverant exertions. Her entire take was as yet only four barrels of train oil!! She was now making for the Sandwich Islands, and thence home to Boston. Latterly, the North American whalers have formed themselves into partnership, so as to divide profit and loss. If his companions had encountered no better fortune than Captain Chase, they might safely aver they had worked five years for nothing. The crew of the Emily Morgan, who were as usual almost entirely dependent for their remuneration on their tenth share of the oil, had begun to despair, and six of their number deserted from the ship, to stay behind at Tahiti. Throughout the voyage, Captain Chase had had his wife with him, a spirited energetic American woman, who on occasions could take her trick at the helm, or even direct the ship's manœuvres. So completely had she fallen into the ways on board ship, that even in ordinary conversation she frequently let slip a few sea-phrases, and recounted, with much pride, how, when the boats had been away in pursuit, she had kept her watch like a regular officer.

On 8th March, Shrove Tuesday was celebrated on board. Several sailors had disguised themselves as Invalids, as Tahitians, as Nicobarians, &c., and played off all manner of pranks. Dolce, our cook, the merry-andrew of the vessel, figured as a troubadour, in which capacity he sang several heart-thrilling melodies. In the afternoon the band played

on deck, and in the evening the jolly tars, to their great gratification, received each a double allowance of grog.

It was our Commodore's intention to cross the shorter diameter of the almost elliptical curve of equal magnetic declination, which occurs in this vicinity, with the view, if possible, of ascertaining by observation by what law the "local variation" of the needle is diminishing within the curve of 5°, the latest indicated in the most recent magnetic charts.

This curve of 5° easterly magnetic declination lies, according to F. Evans,[98] between the parallels of 5° 30′ N. and 13° S. lat., and 120° W. and 134° 30′ W., north-eastward from the Marquesas Islands.

The magnetic needle, as is well known, does not point to the geographical poles, but is deflected from the due north and south meridian, in a direction eastward or westward according to locality, at an angle which, in the measure of the easterly or westerly magnetic variation of the plane, is called eastern or western declination or variation, and which not only gradually alters at every place with the lapse of time, but also is universally found to assume different values at different places, so that in certain lines, known as lines of equal declination, the variation remains the same for all places under that line during a certain given period.

As the compass is the sole reliable guide of the seaman

while traversing the ocean, and it is of the utmost importance to investigate and accurately lay down the ship's course for the port which is her object to make, it appears necessary to explain to the uninitiated how the local variation of the magnetic needle is determined, as thereby one can readily find the precise angle at which the magnetic meridian of any place is deflected from the true meridian.

The determination of this divergence is effected by means of observations of the sun, by the aid of which one can calculate at any moment its actual bearings, as seen from the deck of the ship, and this, compared with the true position of the sun, gives the amount of variation.

This apparently simple method of determination encounters in practice, owing to certain local influences, a variety of obstacles, for it is executed on board of a ship, which frequently contains within itself, at a greater or less distance from the binnacle, large superficies of iron, operating less or more prejudicially upon the needle, by deflecting it from the direction which it would actually have but for these masses of iron. Hence the variation is not even the same in all parts of the ship, nor does it follow the same direction, but varies according to certain laws, founded upon the intensity and direction of the magnetic attraction of the earth. It is therefore necessary to make allowance for these local deflections of the needle, in order to find the true variation of the needle.

So far as regards the last-named, many thousand observations, both by land and sea, have resulted in furnishing us

with a rule for empirically finding the amount of variation, for short periods at least, according to which the magnetic needle is found to vary from year to year at every spot along certain given lines, which it has been found possible to delineate upon the charts; thus showing at a glance the amount of variation to be allowed for at any given spot. As this is sufficient for all practical purposes of navigation, the seaman is, in most cases, relieved of the necessity of making for himself these observations and calculations, if only he can ascertain with anything like accuracy the position of his ship on the earth's surface, and has determined the amount of local variation on board.

These iso-magnetic lines are, however, susceptible of great improvement, and if they are ever to become practically and universally useful, repeated observations must not be neglected by such navigators as have the means and the requisite scientific knowledge to pursue such investigation.

On board the Novara not a single sunshiny day was suffered to pass without the variation being frequently determined, or such observations repeated as related to the determination of local attraction on board.

Under such circumstances, an unusual value attached to our ascertaining and following up so far as practicable the decrease in declination of the magnetic needle till it reached the zero point assigned to it, and comparing our own observations with the amounts stated on the charts.

It was, however, at least as regarded nautical matters, of

by no means special importance, that we should reach the very point of minimum declination,—it sufficed to ascertain that the observed diminution, as marked upon the charts, corresponded with our observations, which proved, in fact, to be the case.

This confirmation proved the more satisfactory, that when we reached the N.E. side of the Paomotu group (also called Pakomotu, lying between 13°-22° S., and 135°-150° W.) we found a fresh north-easter blowing, a phenomenon which during the fine season is due to the high temperature of these islands, and of course interposed a serious and persistent obstacle to our intended N.E. course.

Another impediment to our attempt to get nearer to the zero point of minimum declination presented itself in the far from healthy state of the ship's crew. A peculiar endemic colic,[99] called by the French at Tahiti colique sèche, or colique végétale (dry or vegetable colic), was rapidly extending among the men, and had already carried off one victim, a sailor, who died after a short illness on the morning of the 9th March, and was committed to the deep the same day with the customary solemnities.

By 17th March, in 15° 52′ S., and 137° 23′ W., the declination of the magnetic needle had diminished to 5 ¹⁄₂° E., and thus far agreed pretty accurately with that indicated by the charts; it is not, however, likely that it actually falls to a

zero point, but rather diminishes gradually as the central point is approached, which would hardly be the case if the declination actually fell to zero.

By 25th March we found ourselves about the latitude of Pitcairn Island, from which we were barely one hundred miles distant. This island, so singular alike by its physical features and its remarkable history as the retreat of the surviving mutineers of the Bounty with their families, has latterly had its interesting population removed to Norfolk Island, where there was room for the simple God-fearing community to increase its numbers without the risk of an excess of population over the resources of the soil, as there appeared reason to apprehend had they been left on Pitcairn Island.

The story of the mutiny itself, the escape and subsequent career of Captain and Admiral Bligh, the extraordinary change that came over Adams when, ere ten years had passed, he found himself the sole survivor of the mutineers, all but one of whom died a violent death, and the hardly less marvellous manner in which this primitive community was discovered, after the lapse of nearly thirty years, are themes that need no recapitulation here. Much less known however is their subsequent, hardly less singular, destiny, and it will not, therefore, be out of place if, in the interests of the general reader, we vouchsafe a passing notice of their strange career.

In 1814, twenty-five years after the mutiny, Sir Thomas Staines in H.M.S. Briton visited the island, at which time

the little colony consisted of 46 individuals, 38 of whom had been born thus far from all civilization. Nevertheless the little community were living contented and happy in all the simplicity of a patriarchal family, and in the cultivation of the cardinal virtues of Christian morality, inculcated by the now venerable Will. Adams, such as thankfulness to the Creator of all things, patience, gentleness, and neighbourly love.

The very singular origin of this exemplary race repeatedly attracted passing ships to this little-known island, and this intercourse did not fail to exercise a pernicious effect upon the spiritual-mindedness of the islanders, the more so that there were among these numbers of desperate adventurers, who did all in their power to mislead this simple-minded race.

When Captain Beechy, in 1825, approached the island in his ship Blossom, he perceived a small boat standing off towards him under full sail. On board were Adams himself and several of his pupils. They requested permission to come on board, and hardly waiting for an answer, the little active lads had clambered up and stood on the quarter-deck. Adams had lost his youthful agility, and for a moment seemed to hesitate. The sight of a man-of-war, it may well be conceived, made a deep impression upon him. It called up too many mournful recollections, and when he beheld the cannon and all the "circumstance of war," with which in his youth he had been familiar, he could no longer restrain himself,

and tears of emotion flowed down his wrinkled cheeks and silvery beard. At this period the island boasted 66 inhabitants, and the old man felt deep anxiety lest the little spot of earth to which he was banished apparently without hope of reprieve, should ere long prove insufficient to provide adequate support or even space for its rapidly-increasing population.[100] He spoke to the excellent Beechy upon the subject, and implored the English Government to provide his little flock with a more comfortable abiding-place under the English sceptre, and better adapted to the wants of his rapidly-increasing posterity.

On 5th March, 1829, Adams expired at the age sixty-five, surrounded by his children and descendants. In the latter days of his illness, during the short intervals of ease which his intermittent agony left him, he expressed a wish that the community would during his life select some one to be their head; however, out of respect for the venerable sufferer, this was not carried out officially, but after the death of Adams, Edward Johnny, son of one of the seamen of the Bounty, assumed the Presidency of the little colony, while renouncing the honorary title.

Under him the Anglo-Tahitian settlers enjoyed visible prosperity, when an unexpected event destroyed for ever the

placid tenure of their existence, and compelled them to leave their beloved island. On his return to Europe, the gallant Beechy, intending to confer a real benefit on the gentle people in whom he felt so lively an interest, had laid before the British Government Adams' dying request, in consequence of which an English man-of-war and a transport made their appearance from Port Jackson, Australia, in March, 1831, to transport the whole of the inhabitants to Tahiti, which European nations regarded as the most suitable spot for them to be settled in. The Pitcairn Islanders were in despair, for, when made aware of the steps taken by "Father Adams" through Captain Beechy to get them placed under the British Crown, the good folks had long before written to England and urgently entreated that they would not remove them from their own hearth; but their entreaties seem not to have reached the proper quarter, or else to have received no attention, and now that the two ships lay off the island, evincing the interest taken by the English Government in their future destiny, they could not venture on refusing to embark. They had to content themselves with the assurance that they should be restored to Pitcairn Island, in the event of their not finding themselves comfortable in their new asylum.

By the end of March, 1831, they reached Tahiti. Although Queen Pomáre had set apart a certain tract of land for them to settle in, and manifested the warmest interest, and though the usually frivolous but hospitable and kindly Tahitians

received the new arrivals in the most cordial manner, the pure minds of the latter were so disgusted and revolted with what they saw at Papeete, that the very day after they disembarked, they loudly declared that under no circumstances would they remain there, and therefore claimed to be taken back to Pitcairn's Island. When it was found that all representations failed to induce them to make any stay at Tahiti, a few Protestant missionaries got up, in conjunction with some English residents, a fund of some £400, with which they chartered a schooner, for the purpose of restoring the Pitcairn Islanders to their rocky paradise in the solitudes of the Pacific, for which they felt such an irresistible homesickness. In August of the same year the return voyage took place. During their short stay at Tahiti, fourteen had died of sheer grief and anguish of mind, like plants that had been transplanted into a foreign soil. Although only six months absent in all from Pitcairn Island, there was not one single family but had to regret the loss of some beloved member!

Despite their bitter experience hitherto, the old terror of over-population again arose in the bosoms of the Pitcairners, after a series of prosperous and peaceful years, and a wish began to be frequently expressed that at least a portion of the inhabitants could be drafted off to some other island. In order to comprehend and do justice to this feeling, one must place oneself in the position of a resident on an extremely small solitary island in the ocean, which is often

for years cut off from any communication with the outer world, and every corner of which has already been cultivated to the utmost: would it not be a pardonable anxiety, which in view of such circumstances should fill with gloomy forebodings the heart of every prudent head of a family, and make him hesitate between love for his native soil, and the desire to preserve independence and comfort to his family?

A second attempt at acquiring a settlement beyond their own confined limits was not more fortunate than the first. The Government of England, with the meritorious care for the interest of even the poorest of her subjects in the most remote regions of the globe, which is one of her noblest characteristics, once more dispatched a ship of war to Pitcairn, with orders to transport the inhabitants to Norfolk Island between New Zealand and New California, of the marvellous climate, vegetation, and fertility of which the most glowing accounts were in circulation. A few plants which had been conveyed thence by English navigators to Europe had excited universal astonishment—such exquisite forms of vegetation, it was thought, could only form part of some landscape of marvellous beauty and richness. And one must, in fact, have seen the Araucaria excelsa, the well-known Norfolk Island pine, in order rightly to understand these raptures. Such an island, it was thought, with an equable climate, fertile, and of adequate extent, must be the very thing for the idyllic life of such a people as the Pitcairn Islanders. Adams' descendants and their kinsmen accordingly suffered themselves

to be persuaded into trying this change, the more so that their own island was beginning, as had long been foreseen, to prove too small for them, and the possibility of a deficiency of food began to assume an appalling air of probability.

In May, 1856, the British Government expended £5000 in sending another ship from Sydney to Pitcairn, to carry out the wishes of the inhabitants and their advocates in England, by transporting the entire community to Norfolk Island. There were in all 193 souls, viz. 40 men, 47 women, 54 boys and 52 girls, who now said farewell to the land of their birth. But on this occasion also the elder seemed to feel an anticipation of their speedy return, and before they embarked they took every possible precaution to ensure their finding their dwellings in the same order in which they were leaving them. They placed written bills on the doors of their houses, in which they requested all visitors to abstain from injuring their property, as they were only leaving the island for an indefinite visit, and would very speedily return to their old quarters. They killed all the pigs and dogs upon the island, lest the first should violate the sanctity of the grave, and the latter injure their flocks and herds.

By the ensuing harvest-time they were installed in their new home. Provided for the first time by the English Government with the requisite means of subsistence, as well as agricultural implements, &c., they seemed to feel themselves quite at home, and their friends and well-wishers in England

began to indulge hopes that they had at last found at Norfolk Island the long-wished-for asylum, and as energetic and industrious landowners would at once benefit themselves and develope the resources of the island. These pleasing anticipations were the more natural, as for a number of years nothing more was heard of the "Pitcairn Islanders," except that everything was going on prosperously and quietly in the new colony.

While the Novara was lying at Sydney, in November and December, 1858, intelligence was received respecting these colonists, in whom, on account of their singular history, the deepest interest was felt there as elsewhere. In the (then) Governor-general's (Sir W. Denison's) residence we saw a photographic group of the islanders, male and female, whose pleasing expression involuntarily excited profound sympathy for the persons thus represented. Since their arrival in Norfolk Island there had been no more definite news concerning them.

At New Zealand, in like manner, nothing was known of what they were doing. At St. John's College, Auckland, we quite accidentally fell in with two young well-grown men, who we were told were Pitcairn Islanders in the course of education for missionaries. There was in their faces a mild, half-melancholy expression; they spoke perfectly good English, but in the most ordinary conversation used Scriptural phraseology. It was known that when he began to instruct the younger members of the community Adams possessed

only a Bible and some religious books. Thus they not only were instructed in the Book of books, but even in ordinary life the biblical phraseology and peculiarity of expression still clung, even to the fourth generation.

During our visit to Tahiti we heard one day that the schooner Louisa, Captain Stewart, had just arrived from Pitcairn Island, whither he had transported a number of its former inhabitants from Norfolk Island. We resolved to get speech with this gentleman, in order that we might gather from his own lips the details of his voyage. It so chanced that he stayed in the house of an English settler, who had let to us a small palm-hut during our stay at Papeete. We very soon struck up an acquaintance. Captain Stewart, a genuine Englishman in appearance, character, and expression, explained to us in brief terms that he had at their own cost transported a number of the Pitcairners from Norfolk Isle to their old home, and, during the voyage, which lasted some weeks, had kept a pretty full journal. "But," continued the truth-loving captain, "I am not at present in a position to give you any circumstantial details respecting them. Business compels me to go over to the island of Eimeo, and by the time I return hither the Novara will be well on her way to Valparaiso. I am likewise bound, however, for the west coast of South America, in fact to Valparaiso, and shall probably arrive there a few weeks after you. I promise you, during my voyage thither, to jot down the most important data I can recall respecting these islanders, and they shall be placed at

your disposal immediately on my arrival in Valparaiso." We thanked Captain Stewart for his kindness, and we parted with a vigorous "shake hands" of genuine English cordiality.

The reader will see in the subsequent chapter how honourably the worthy skipper kept his word. Two months later, after we had sailed over 5220 nautical miles, we were handed the promised information; but to preserve uniformity we shall present the reader at once with this comprehensive sketch of the present state of Pitcairn and its amiable inhabitants, as furnishing the latest particulars of the islanders, which are now for the first time published in Europe.

"Captain Stewart had been in communication with the inhabitants of Pitcairn in November, 1858. Landing at Norfolk Island, in the course of a voyage in the South Sea, the community chartered his schooner to convey certain of their number back to Pitcairn Island. They declared they had only quitted Pitcairn in consequence of the glowing description given them of Norfolk Island. Instead of the promised superabundance, they could only by dint of severe labour provide themselves with the ordinary necessaries of life. Their staple of food was sweet potatoes and a small quantity of meat, in fact, a single bullock, which by permission of Government they slaughtered once a week, and the flesh of which served the entire community.

"Besides all this, the rudeness of the climate did not seem to suit them, and diseases seemed to become more and more frequent among them. In fact, it turned out that the natural

advantages of Norfolk Island had been persistently overrated by early visitors, the consequence being that the poor Pitcairners found themselves woefully disappointed in the expectations they had formed of their sojourn in this terrestrial paradise.

"The scenery of the island is everywhere lovely, and the peculiarity of its vegetation, especially when seen from seaward, exercises a kind of fascination over the beholder; but the ground, which is the most important consideration for the settler, who is bound to the soil, not by the sublime and beautiful, but by the useful, is very far from being fertile, and the sole descriptions of produce extensively raised are maize and sweet potato. Wheat and barley are so exposed to frost and mildew that only one crop out of several proves remunerative, and the potato makes so small a return, in consequence of the amount of seed and labour required, that it is only cultivated as a rarity. Even the commonest vegetables are scanty and of poor quality, and under these circumstances it is at least probable that the cultivation formerly carried on by the English convicts and criminals, in which the results would naturally exceed expectation, had led to the mistaken idea that Norfolk Island was fertile. It is about 9000 English acres (14 English square miles) of superficial area, of which about 1500 acres only are cleared, and but one half of that, or one-twelfth of the whole, suitable for cultivation.

"It is just possible to land on either the south or north sides, if the water be smooth; the little village is situated near

the former, and consists of about 100 'block-houses' of various dimensions. There are also a number of stone-buildings upon the island, which speak of the times when the island was a penal settlement, and comprises a large prison for about 2000 convicts, besides the necessary barracks for the military guard; a church, a hospital, magazines, and dwelling-houses for the Governor, the chaplain, the inspector, the officers, &c., buildings which, taken in conjunction with the grave-mounds and frail tombstones of the adjoining churchyard, tell a mournful tale to the visitor of the earlier inhabitants, and of the tragic fate of many thousands who must have toiled and sunk under their hopeless doom in Norfolk Island.

"The Pitcairn Islanders occupied the houses constructed for the Government officials, and had not shown the slightest attempt to settle upon spots suitable for agriculture. When the British Government made the island over to them to be cleared and reclaimed there were about 2000 head of sheep, several hundred cattle, 20 draught horses, and a large number of swine and poultry. In addition to this handsome present, Government gave them provisions for six months, besides agricultural implements, seeds of various useful plants, and vegetables of every description. There were also two sloops, of about 15 tons each, left at the island, besides a complete stock of household necessaries. All the above were made a free gift of to the islanders by the British Government, which merely reserved to itself a part of what used to

be the prison-buildings, in case it should wish to devote them to its former purposes at some future period.

"When Captain Stewart visited Norfolk Island, in 1858, the population consisted of 219 Pitcairn Islanders, and two English soldiers with their families, employed as surveyors by Government.

"On the day of his arrival a public meeting was held, at which the chief magistrate of the community presided, and the females played a not unimportant part. It was arranged that for a certain sum Captain Stewart should convey 60 of the Pitcairn Islanders to their old abode. A special motion for the purpose was put to the meeting with all due form, seconded, and reduced to writing on either side. At the same time it was imperatively ordered that all should be ready to embark on the fourth day thereafter, and as there is but one, and that not a very safe, anchorage off the whole coast of the island, the Captain stood off and on in its neighbourhood.

"The eve of the fated fourth day found the delicate question still unsettled of who were to be the happy 60, so many had set their hearts on forming part of the expedition. A second meeting was convened, this time under the presidency of their chaplain, but the only result was to defer for one day the embarkation. During this entire period the poor people were in the utmost excitement. The place of embarkation was covered with the baggage of all who were desirous of

returning to Pitcairn's Island; but, as in consequence of their original descent there have been such frequent intermarriages, and hence such close relationship, reminding one of the clans of Scotland, it was impossible to decide who was to go and who to remain. At length, on the expiry of the last day left them to decide, it was arranged that in the event of Captain Stewart proving unable to take off two entire families or clans (about 100 persons), only one should be taken to Pitcairn. The Captain hesitated at venturing on so long a voyage with such a number of souls in so small a vessel. He therefore took on board only 17 of the islanders, men, women, and children, whom he landed at Pitcairn Island, after a voyage of 42 days, amid tears of rapture at finding themselves on the well-remembered spot. The notifications they had attached to their doors on leaving had not entirely answered their expectations. During their absence several of the huts had been gutted, and a large number of the oxen had been carried off. However, it was not altogether malice or wanton destruction which had diverted to other purposes their cherished household gods. Shortly before their arrival, in a wild night of storms, the American clipper Wild Wave had been wrecked on a coral reef, not far from Pitcairn, and a part of the crew, having succeeded in reaching the island, were compelled to avail themselves of the building material, thus collected to hand for them, with which to construct a boat, in which, with true sailor-like hardihood, to face the winds and waves once more. For this purpose the church and some

twenty huts came handy, while a plentiful stock of goats, sheep, and poultry were roaming at large about the island. A considerable quantity of valuable tropical fruit was hanging ripe upon the trees, and seemed only awaiting the return of the former owners to be plucked for use.

"The baggage was speedily landed, and an unusual activity prevailed, with the view of getting housed as speedily as possible. It was plain these poor people had never expected again to get possession of a domain which they had abandoned through ignorance and misrepresentation. The reverent air with which they entered their huts and gazed around with keen scrutinizing glance to see if all had been left in its former state, showed with what love and veneration they clung to this gloomy possession of their progenitors, with all its melancholy traditions, which seemed to exercise over them a deeper attraction than the majestic ruins of a princely ancestral castle, with all its world-famous memories, sometimes does upon the youthful representative of its pristine glories.

"The important part played by the women during the consultations held at Norfolk Island seemed anew to be claimed by the fair sex at Pitcairn, and Captain Stewart could not sufficiently wonder at the high social position they occupied in the little community. The ladies for their part made the most of this privilege, and their utmost efforts were directed towards justifying it by their activity in household matters."

Such is the latest that is known as to the Pitcairn Islanders and their singular destiny. It is not at all improbable that the majority of their kindred will gradually find their way back to the original seat of their race, there to end their days.

Making all allowance for their aptitude and their natural preferences, their innate timidity and lack of decision must leave a painful impression upon every impartial mind; but this prominent trait of character seems to have a deep-seated physiological basis. The "Mutiny of the Bounty" was followed by a natural reaction. The ever-present dread of discovery, which constantly haunted Christian and his criminal associates, and to their dying day deprived them of all tranquillity of mind, was transmitted, but in a milder form, to their descendants, and struck root in their bosoms in a feeling of dependence and excessive timidity, which prevented even their grand-children from attaining tranquillity, and from becoming not to say intellectual, but even useful, members of society. Will, courage, independence, seem for ever to have fled from the breast of the Pitcairn Islanders, who, on the other hand, have many virtues well calculated to excite our sympathies, and of whom especially the founder of this simple-minded community, the energetic, clear-sighted Adams, has, by his actions, proved anew the truthfulness of the saying, "Whoever has the power to WILL (a thing) can perform miracles!"

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Our voyage to the west coast of America was speedy, though rather stormy. Seldom were the heavens clear, and alternately with violent rains, we felt that discomfort arising from constant motion, the result of heavy seas and tremendous rolling, to which the voyager is so frequently exposed.

On 4th April, at night, while shortening sail, owing to the violence of the wind and the threatening aspect of the weather, one of the crew was precipitated from the main-top-gallant-yard, a height of 125 feet above the deck. Being caught as he fell among the shrouds and rigging, he succeeded in catching hold of one, and so with diminished force fell into the main-top, a fall of 69 feet, upon which some of his comrades, going to his assistance, rescued him from further danger, when he was found to have suffered so little, that he returned to duty the following day!

On the 11th, without any particularly heavy weather, the main-yard suddenly snapped in two. On a more minute investigation it was found that it had become greatly weakened by dry rot, so much so that it could no longer be used. It was fortunate this took place during ordinary weather, so that the two fragments could be lowered without much difficulty. In a high sea and heavy weather, such an accident is often attended by most lamentable results, for two pieces of timber, each above 40 feet in length, measuring 21 inches at the thickest, by 8 inches at the smallest diameter, and several thousand pounds in weight, can hardly come rattling down

upon the hull of the ship without inflicting serious injury, and endangering the lives of numbers of men.

As we had no spare main-yard, we had to sling a smaller one till our arrival at the nearest port, giving rather a singular appearance to the vessel, but without perceptibly affecting her speed.

In 34° S. and 76° W., the temperature of the ocean was observed suddenly to fall 3°.1 Fahr., and we now, for a distance of about 200 nautical miles, were in what is known as Humboldt's current, which carried us towards N. by W. at a velocity of from half to three-quarters of a mile per hour. Our experience of this renowned current, so far at least as regards the season of the year, and the latitude and longitude in which it is fallen in with, are widely different from those statistics which represent it as sensibly felt at a distance of from 800 to 1000 miles off the W. coast of South America.

On the 16th, the faint outline was visible of Aconcagua, the highest of the Chilean Andes, and a few hours later we made the lighthouse of Valparaiso. A light breeze with a heavy sea made it seem advisable not to run in during the night, the result of which was that on the following morning it was only by the efforts of some tow-boats dispatched to our assistance by the commander of H.B.M. ship of the line "Ganges," and the French corvette "Eurydice" that we were enabled, by 3.30 P.M., to reach Valparaiso in the midst of a profound calm, when our anchor was let go in 25 fathoms, good holding

ground, in an excellent roomy berth, away from the bustle of the merchantmen.

The voyage from Tahiti, 5000 nautical miles, was accomplished in 48 days, and although a considerable portion must be marked as "lost," owing to our having steered for the zero point of magnetic declination, we yet arrived at our destination sooner than merchantmen which left Papeete before us, or in company, but had steered south of the Paomotu group.

Mr. Flemmich, the Austrian Consul-general at Valparaiso, immediately sent our letters on board, but the regular packet, which we had expected to find here before us, had not come in, and the delay served to double the anxiety of all on board, in view of the political clouds that were hovering over our native land.