Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

1835. SCENERY CANOES NATIVES. 509 of green ; the groves of graceful palm-trees ; the dazzling white foam of the breakers on the coral reefs, contrasted by the deep blue of the sea, combined to form a most enchanting view. At a distance in the west, Eimeo (Moorea) showed a pic- turesque outline, and added to the beauty of a scene which surpassed our ideas, even heiglitened as they had been by the descriptions of former voyagers. Passing Point Venus, and avoiding the Dolphin Shoal, we worked up to an anchorage in Matavai Bay. No pilot appeared, but had we waited in the offing, a very good one* would have offered his services. With a fresh breeze, we gained the anchor- age so quickly that few natives had time to hasten on board, as is their usual custom : only one long canoe came alongside while we sailed in : it was made of half a tree, hollowed out, with a narrow rough plank laced to each side, and an out- rigger, consisting of two crooked branches, secured to the canoe and to a long piece of light wood which floated in the water parallel to it. This out-rigger extended eight or ten feet from the ticklish conveyance, and enabled four men to sit at their ease in the narrow trunk of a tree that had never exceeded a foot in diameter. The personal appearance of these men was to me most remark- able : tall and athletic, with very well-formed heads and a good expression of countenance, they at once made a favourable impression, which their quiet good-humour and tractable dis- position afterwards heightened very much. To my eye they differed from the aborigines of southern South America in the form of their heads ; in the width or height of the cheek-bones ; in their eye-bi-ows; in their colour; and most essentially in the expression of their countenances. High foreheads ; defined and prominent eyebrows ; with a rich, bronze colour, give an Asiatic expression to the upper part of their faces ; but the flat noses (carefully flattened in infancy), and thick lips, are like those of the South Americans. By the time the vessel was secured, a number of canoes had * Called James Mitchell, though an aboriginal Otaheitan.