ulez abreger les
longueurs d'une grande traversee, distribuez bien votre temps, et
observez le reglement que vous vous etes impose. C'est un moyen sur de
se faire promptement a la vie claustrale et meme d'en jouir.'

We have been five weeks at sea, and have enjoyed them quite as much as
the Baron did his three. We saw but two ships between Valparaiso and
Tatakotoroa: he saw only one between San Francisco and Yokohama. It is
indeed a vast and lonely ocean that we have traversed.

[Illustration: Quarantine Island, Papeete]

CHAPTER XIV.

AT TAHITI.

_The cava feast, the yam, the cocoa's root,_
_Which bears at once the cup, and milk, and fruit,_
_The bread-tree which, without the ploughshare, yields_
_The unreap'd harvest of unfurrowed fields._

* * * * *

_These, with the luxuries of seas and woods,_
_The airy joys of social solitudes,_
_Tamed each rude wanderer._

[Illustration: Under the Trees, Papeete]

_Saturday, December 2nd_.--The anchor was dropped in the harbour of
Papeete at nine o'clock, and a couple of hours later, by which time
the weather had cleared, we went ashore, and at once found ourselves
in the midst of a fairy-like scene, to describe which is almost
impossible, so bewildering is it in the brightness and variety of its
colouring. The magnolias and yellow and scarlet hibiscus,
overshadowing the water, the velvety turf, on to which one steps from
the boat, the white road running between rows of wooden houses, whose
little gardens are a mass of flowers, the men and women clad in the
gayest robes and decked with flowers, the piles of unfamiliar fruit
lying on the grass, waiting to be transported to the coasting vessels
in the harbour, the wide-spreading background of hills clad in verdure
to their summits--these are but a few of the objects which greet the
new-comer in his first contact with the shore.

We strolled about, and left our letters of introduction; but the
people to whom they were addressed were at breakfast, and we were
deliberating how best to dispose of our time, when a gentleman
accosted us, and, seeing how new it all was to us strangers, offered
to show us round the town.

The streets of Papeete, running back at right angles with the beach,
seem to have wonderfully grand names, such as the Rue de Rivoli, Rue
de Paris, &c. Every street is shaded by an avenue of high trees, whose
branches meet and interlace