expanse of smooth water, like that of a lake, where the canoes of the
natives can ply with safety and where ships anchor. The low land which
comes down to the beach of coral-sand, is covered by the most beautiful
productions of the intertropical regions. In the midst of bananas,
orange, cocoa-nut, and bread-fruit trees, spots are cleared where yams,
sweet potatoes, and sugar-cane, and pine-apples are cultivated. Even
the brushwood is an imported fruit-tree, namely, the guava, which from
its abundance has become as noxious as a weed. In Brazil I have often
admired the varied beauty of the bananas, palms, and orange-trees
contrasted together; and here we also have the bread-fruit, conspicuous
from its large, glossy, and deeply digitated leaf. It is admirable to
behold groves of a tree, sending forth its branches with the vigour of
an English oak, loaded with large and most nutritious fruit. However
seldom the usefulness of an object can account for the pleasure of
beholding it, in the case of these beautiful woods, the knowledge of
their high productiveness no doubt enters largely into the feeling of
admiration. The little winding paths, cool from the surrounding shade,
led to the scattered houses; the owners of which everywhere gave us a
cheerful and most hospitable reception.
I was pleased with nothing so much as with the inhabitants. There is a
mildness in the expression of their countenances which at once banishes
the idea of a savage; and intelligence which shows that they are
advancing in civilization. The common people, when working, keep the
upper part of their bodies quite naked; and it is then that the
Tahitians are seen to advantage. They are very tall, broad-shouldered,
athletic, and well-proportioned. It has been remarked, that it
requires little habit to make a dark skin more pleasing and natural to
the eye of an European than his own colour. A white man bathing by the
side of a Tahitian, was like a plant bleached by the gardener's art
compared with a fine dark green one growing vigorously in the open
fields. Most of the men are tattooed, and the ornaments follow the
curvature of the body so gracefully, that they have a very elegant
effect. One common pattern, varying in its details, is somewhat like
the crown of a palm-tree. It springs from the central line of the back,
and gracefully curls round both sides. The simile may be a fanciful
one, but I thought the body of a man thus ornamented was like the trunk
of a noble tree embraced by a delicate creeper.
Many of the elder people had their feet covered with small figures, so
380