ltivated fields, and plantations of bananas, became
at length distinctly visible.

It was not till the 14th that we reached the Cape, called by Cook Cape
Venus, because he there observed the transit of this planet over the
sun; and from its beauty, it deserves to be named after the charming
goddess herself. It is a low narrow tongue of land, running out
northward from the island, thickly shadowed by cocoa-trees, and forming,
by its curve, the harbour of Matarai, not a very secure one, but
generally preferred by sailors on account of the celebrity bestowed on
it by Cook.

When we were still a few miles distant from Cape Venus, we fired a gun
to draw attention to the flag hoisted at the fore-mast, as a signal for
a pilot. We soon saw a European boat steering towards us; it brought us
a pilot, who, to our great surprise, addressed us in the Russian
language, having recognized our flag as belonging to that nation: he was
an Englishman of the name of Williams, who had first been a sailor on
board a merchant ship, afterwards entered the service of the Russian
American Company on the north-west coast of America, and was at length
settled for life in Tahaiti. His wife was a native of the island; he was
the father of a family, and carried on the occupation of a pilot in the
Bay of Matarai. Wanderers of this kind often settle in the islands of
the South Sea; but while they bring with them many vices peculiar to the
lower classes in civilized life, are generally too ignorant and rough to
produce any favourable influence on the natives. They are not all liable
to this censure; and of about twenty English and Americans whom I found
so naturalized in Tahaiti, some assuredly do not deserve it.

Having a pilot on board, we steered direct for the extreme point of Cape
Venus, where floated the national standard of Tahaiti. This flag
displays a white star in a field of red, and, like many of the present
arrangements, owes its origin to the Missionaries, who do not indeed
bear the title of Kings of the island, but exercise an unlimited
influence over the minds of the natives. We passed safely by the
shallows lying before the Matawai Bay, (upon which Captain Wallis
grounded, and which he called, after his ship, the Dolphin,) round the
headland, to the western side, and at last anchored opposite the village
of Matawai, at a distance of two hundred fathoms from the shore, in a
black clay bottom of fifteen fathoms depth.

Our frigate, as i