The situation of this place between the terrestrial and magnetic equators was most favourable for conducting observations on the variations of the magnetic needle. The naturalists also made excursions to the desert of Pierra, where they collected specimens of petrified shells imbedded in a tertiary stratum precisely similar to that in the suburbs of Paris. As soon as all the sources of scientific interest at Payta had been exhausted the Coquille resumed her voyage, setting sail for Otaheite. During the sail thither a circumstance occurred which might have materially delayed the progress of the expedition, if not have led to its total destruction. On the night of the 22nd April, the Coquille being in the waters of the Dangerous Archipelago, the officer of the watch all at once heard the sound of breakers dashing over reefs. He immediately made the ship lie to, and at daybreak the peril which had been escaped became manifest. At the distance of barely a mile and a half from the corvette lay a low island, well wooded, and fringed with rocks along its entire extent. A few people lived on it, some of whom approached the vessel in a canoe, but none of them would venture on board. Duperrey had to give up all thoughts of visiting the island, which received the name of Clermont-Tonnerre. On all sides the waves broke violently on the rocks, and he could do no more than coast it from end to end at a little distance.

The next and following days some small islands of no note were discovered, to which were given the names of Augier, Freycinet, and Lostanges.

At length, as the sun rose on the 3rd May, the verdant shores and woody mountains of Otaheite came in sight. Duperrey, like preceding visitors, could not help noticing the thorough change which had been effected in the manners and practices of the natives. Not a canoe came alongside the Coquille. It was the hour of Divine worship when the corvette entered the Bay of Matavai, and the missionaries had collected the whole population of the island, to the number of seven thousand, inside the principal church of Papahoa to discuss the articles of a new code of laws. The Otaheitan orators, it seems, would not yield the palm to those of Europe. There were not a few of them gifted with the valuable talent of being able to talk for several hours without saying anything, and to make an end of the most promising undertakings with the flowers of their rhetoric. A description of one of these meetings is given by D'Urville.

"M. Lejeune, the draughtsman of the expedition, went by himself to be present at the meeting held the next day, when certain political questions were submitted to the popular assembly. It lasted for several hours, during which the chiefs took it in turn to speak. The most brilliant speaker of the gathering was a chief called Tati. The chief point of discussion was the imposition of an annual poll-tax at the rate of five measures of oil per man. Then came a question as to the taxes which were to be levied, whether they should be on behalf of the king, or on behalf of the missionaries. After some time, we arrived at the conclusion that the first question had been answered in the affirmative; but that the second, the one relating to the missionaries, had been postponed by themselves from a forecast of its probable failure. About four thousand persons were present at this kind of national congress."

Two months before, Otaheite had renounced the English flag, in order to adopt one of its own, but that pacific revolution in no wise diminished the confidence which the people placed in their missionaries. The latter received the French travellers in a friendly manner, and supplied them at the usual prices with the stores of which they stood in need.

But what seemed especially curious in the reforms effected by the missionaries was the total change in the behaviour of the women. From being, according to the statements of Cook, Bougainville, and contemporary explorers, compliant to an unheard of degree, they had become most modest, reserved, and decently conducted; so that the whole island wore the air of a convent, a revolution as amusing as it was unnatural.

From Otaheite the Coquille proceeded to the adjacent island of Borabora, belonging to the same group, where European customs had been adopted to the same extent; and on the 9th June, steering a westerly course, made a survey in turn of the islands Salvage, Coa, Santa Cruz, Bougainville, and Bouka; finally coming to an anchor in the harbour of Praslin, on the coast of New Ireland, famous for its beautiful waterfall. "The friendly relations which were established with the natives there were the means of extending our knowledge of the human race by the observation of some peculiarities which had not fallen under the notice of preceding travellers." The sentence just quoted from an abridged account appearing in the "Annals of Voyages," which merely excites curiosity without satisfying it, causes us here to express our regret that the original narrative of the voyage has not been published in its entirety.

The waterfall of Port Praslin.
(Fac-simile of early engraving.)

The student Porel de Blossville—the same who afterwards lost his life with the Lilloise in the Polar regions—undertook a journey to the village of Praslin, in spite of all the means adopted by the savages to deter him. When there he was shown a kind of temple, where several ill-shaped, grotesque idols had been set up on a platform surrounded by walls.