men. The hostile clans, residing in the more
remote sections of the island, and very seldom holding any communication
with foreigners, are in every respect unchanged from their earliest known
condition.

In the bay of Nukuheva was the anchorage we desired to reach. We had
perceived the loom of the mountains about sunset; so that, after running
all night with a very light breeze, we found ourselves close in with the
island the next morning; but as the bay we sought lay on its farther side,
we were obliged to sail some distance along the shore, catching, as we
proceeded, short glimpses of blooming valleys, deep glens, waterfalls, and
waving groves, hidden here and there by projecting and rocky headlands,
every moment opening to the view some new and startling scene of beauty.

Those who for the first time visit the South Seas, generally are surprised
at the appearance of the islands when beheld from the sea. From the vague
accounts we sometimes have of their beauty, many people are apt to picture
to themselves enamelled and softly swelling plains, shaded over with
delicious groves, and watered by purling brooks, and the entire country
but little elevated above the surrounding ocean. The reality is very
different; bold rock-bound coasts, with the surf beating high against the
lofty cliffs, and broken here and there into deep inlets, which open to
the view thickly-wooded valleys, separated by the spurs of mountains
clothed with tufted grass, and sweeping down towards the sea from an
elevated and furrowed interior, form the principal features of these
islands.

Towards noon we drew abreast the entrance to the harbour, and at last we
slowly swept by the intervening promontory, and entered the bay of
Nukuheva. No description can do justice to its beauty; but that beauty was
lost to me then, and I saw nothing but the tri-coloured flag of France,
trailing over the stern of six vessels, whose black hulls, and bristling
broadsides, proclaimed their warlike character. There they were, floating
in that lovely bay, the green eminences of the shore looking down so
tranquilly upon them, as if rebuking the sternness of their aspect. To my
eye, nothing could be more out of keeping than the presence of these
vessels; but we soon learnt what brought them there. The whole group of
islands had just been taken possession of by Rear-Admiral Du Petit
Thouars, in the name of the invincible French nation.

This item of information was imparte