lighted with the more melodious sounds produced singly
on our instruments, as approaching nearer to the simplicity of their
own.

Neither are they strangers to the soothing effects produced by
particular sorts of motion, which, in some cases, seem to allay any
perturbation of mind, with as much success as music. Of this, I met
with a remarkable instance. For on walking one day about Matavai
Point, where our tents were erected, I saw a man paddling in a small
canoe, so quickly, and looking about with such eagerness, on each
side, as to command all my attention. At first, I imagined that he
had stolen something from one of the ships, and was pursued; but, on
waiting patiently, saw him repeat his amusement. He went out from the
shore, till he was near the place where the swell begins to take its
rise; and, watching its first motion very attentively, paddled before
it, with great quickness, till he found that it overtook him, and
had acquired sufficient force to carry his canoe before it, without
passing underneath. He then sat motionless, and was carried along, at
the same swift rate as the wave, till it landed him upon the beach.
Then he started out, emptied his canoe, and went in search of another
swell. I could not help concluding, that this man felt the most
supreme pleasure, while he was driven on, so fast and so smoothly, by
the sea; especially as, though the tents and ships were so near, he
did not seem, in the least, to envy, or even to take any notice of,
the crowds of his countrymen collected to view them as objects which
were rare and curious. During my stay, two or three of the natives
came up, who seemed to share his felicity, and always called out, when
there was an appearance of a favourable swell, as he sometimes missed
it, by his back being turned, and looking about for it. By them
I understood, that this exercise, which is called _ehorooe_, was
frequent amongst them; and they have probably more amusements of this
sort, which afford them at least as much pleasure as skaiting, which
is the only one of ours, with whose effects I could compare it.

The language of Otaheite, though doubtless radically the same with
that of New Zealand and the Friendly Islands, is destitute of that
guttural pronunciation, and of some consonants, with which those
latter dialects abound. The specimens we have already given are
sufficient to mark wherein the variation chiefly consists, and to
shew, that, like the manners of the