f 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 Sea, 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 go 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 imparted to us by a most extraordinary
individual, a genuine South-Sea vagabond, who came alongside of us in
a whale-boat as soon as we entered the bay, and, by the aid of some
benevolent persons at the gangway, was assisted on board, for our
visitor was in that interesting stage of intoxication when a man is
amiable and helpless. Although he was utterly unable to stand erect or
to navigate his body across the deck, he still magnanimously proffered
his services to pilot the ship to a good and secure anchorage. Our
captain, however, rather distrusted his ability in this respect, and
refused to recog