as the sun was setting, we thought we saw a faint
blue peak rising out of the water, but even the most practised eye could
not determine whether it was land or a light cloud. We continued the
same course during the night. For several hours I watched, then,
overcome by fatigue, I fell asleep. "See! see!" I heard Jerry exclaim.
I jumped up. There appeared before us the lofty and rugged peaks of a
line of mountains. Of great height they seemed, after the low land to
which our eyes had been so long accustomed. Their sides were clothed
with verdure, pleasant and refreshing to the sight; and at their bases
were groves, and fields, and sparkling streams, with heat pretty-looking
cottages scattered about. There was a slight swell. When the canoe
rose to the top of it, we could see a yellow beach, with a circle of
bright, blue, calm water around it, and outside a line of white foaming
breakers, the guardians of the shore. "Otaheite! Otaheite!" exclaimed
the chief and his followers; and we thus knew that we were on the coast
of the dominion of the ill-treated Queen Pomare; but we also knew that
there were civilised men on shore, and that we should probably be
received there with kindness and hospitality.

Soon discovering a passage through the reef, we ran in, and were at once
surrounded by canoes full of people, wondering who we were and whence we
had come. Our friends quickly gave an outline of our and their
adventures, to satisfy curiosity. They found there several people from
their own island, one a chief who had become a wealthy man. He took
them to his own house, and had their canoe hauled up to be repaired. I
need not say that she was visited by all the foreign residents, curious
to examine a craft of so frail a structure which had performed so long a
voyage. Our consul was very civil to us, and we were received into the
house of an English gentleman, who treated us with the greatest
kindness. As we met with no very interesting adventures during our stay
here, I will content myself with giving a brief account of the island.

Otaheite was discovered in 1767, by Captain Wallis, who called it King
George's Island; but it is better known by the name of Tahiti. It is of
volcanic formation, and consists of two peninsulas joined by a neck of
low land, about two miles across. The whole island is about thirty
miles in circumference. The smaller portion, called Tairaboo, is the
most fertile; but as Tahiti proper