Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle, Vol. 3 [of 3] · Charles Darwin
TAHITI AND NEW ZEALAND.
OCTOBER 20TH.--The survey of the Galapagos Archipelago being concluded, a course was steered towards Tahiti; and we commenced our long passage of 3200 miles. In the course of a few days we sailed out of the gloomy and clouded region, which extends during the winter far from the coast of South America. We then enjoyed bright and clear weather, while running pleasantly along at the rate of 150 or 160 miles a day before a steady trade-wind. The temperature in this more central part of the Pacific, is higher than near the American shore. The thermometer in the poop cabin, both by night and day, ranged between 80° and 83°, which to my feelings was quite delightful; but with one degree higher, the effect became oppressive. We passed through the Dangerous or Low Archipelago, and saw several of those most curious rings of land, just rising above the edge of the water, which have been called Lagoon Islands. A long and brilliantly-white beach is capped by a margin of green vegetation; and this strip appears on both hands rapidly to narrow away in the distance, and then sinks beneath the horizon. From the mast-head a wide expanse of smooth water can be seen within the annular margin of land. These low islands bear no proportion to the vast ocean out of which they abruptly rise; and it seems wonderful, that such weak intruders are not overwhelmed, by the all-powerful and never-tiring waves of that great sea, miscalled the Pacific.
NOVEMBER 15TH.--At daylight, Tahiti, an island which must for ever remain as classical to the voyager in the South Sea, was in view. At this distance the appearance was not very inviting. The luxuriant vegetation of the lower parts was not discernible, and as the clouds rolled past, the wildest and most precipitous peaks showed themselves towards the centre of the island. As soon as we came to an anchor in Matavai Bay, we were surrounded by canoes. This was our Sunday, but the Monday of Tahiti: if the case had been reversed, we should not have received a single visit; for the injunction not to launch a canoe on the sabbath is rigidly obeyed. After dinner we landed to enjoy all the delights of the first impressions produced by a new country, and that country the charming Tahiti. A crowd of men, women, and children, was collected on the memorable point Venus, ready to receive us with laughing, merry faces. They marshalled us towards the house of Mr. Wilson, the missionary of the district, who met us on the road, and gave us a very friendly reception. After sitting a short time in his house, we separated to walk about, but returned there in the evening.
The land capable of cultivation is scarcely in any part more than a fringe of low alluvial soil, accumulated round the base of the mountains, and protected from the waves of the sea by a coral reef, which encircles at a distance the entire line of coast. The reef is broken in several parts so that ships can pass through, and the lake of smooth water within thus affords a safe harbour, as well as a channel for the native canoes. The low land which comes down to the beach of coral sand, is covered by the most beautiful productions of the intertropical regions. In the midst of bananas, orange, cocoa-nut, and bread-fruit trees, spots are cleared where yams, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, and pineapples, are cultivated. Even the brushwood is a fruit-tree, namely, the guava, which from its abundance is as noxious as a weed. In Brazil I have often admired the contrast of varied beauty in the banana, palm, and orange-tree: here we have in addition the bread-fruit, conspicuous from its large, glossy, and deeply digitated leaf. It is admirable to behold groves of a tree, sending forth its branches with the force of an English oak, loaded with large and most nutritious fruit. However little on most occasions utility explains the delight received from any fine prospect, in this case it cannot fail to enter as an element in the feeling. The little winding paths, cool from the surrounding shade, led to the scattered houses; and the owners of these every where gave us a cheerful and most hospitable reception.
I was pleased with nothing so much as with the inhabitants. There is a mildness in the expression of their countenances, which at once banishes the idea of a savage; and an intelligence, which shows they are advancing in civilization. Their dress is as yet incongruous; no settled costume having taken the place of the ancient one. But even in its present state, it is far from being so ridiculous as it has been described by travellers of a few years’ standing. Those who can afford it wear a white shirt, and sometimes a jacket, with a wrapper of coloured cotton round their middles; thus making a short petticoat, like the chilipa of the Gauchos. This dress appears so general with the chiefs, that it will probably become the settled fashion. No one, even to the queen, wears shoes or stockings; and only the chiefs have a straw hat on their heads. The common people, when working, keep the upper part of their bodies uncovered; and it is then that the Tahitians are seen to advantage. They are very tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, and with well-proportioned limbs. It has been somewhere remarked, that it requires little habit to make a darker tint of the skin more pleasing and natural, even to the eye of an European, than his own colour. To see a white man bathing by the side of a Tahitian, was like comparing a plant bleached by the gardener’s art, with one growing in the open fields. Most of the men are tattooed: and the ornaments follow the curvature of the body so gracefully, that they have a very pleasing and elegant effect. One common figure, varying only in its detail, branches somewhat like a tuft of palm-leaves[1] from the line of the backbone, and curls round each side. The simile may be a fanciful one, but I thought the body of a man thus ornamented, was like the trunk of a noble tree embraced by a delicate creeper.
Many of the older people had their feet covered with small figures, placed in order so as to resemble a sock. This fashion, however, is partly gone by, and has been succeeded by others. Here, although each man must for ever abide by the whim which reigned in his early days, yet fashion is far from immutable. An old man has thus his age for ever stamped on his body, and he cannot assume the airs of a young dandy. The women are also tattooed in the same manner as the men, and very commonly on their fingers. An unbecoming fashion in one respect is now almost universal: it is that of cutting the hair, or rather shaving it, from the upper part of the head, in a circular form, so as to leave only an outer ring of hair. The missionaries have tried to persuade the people to change this habit: but it is the fashion, and that is sufficient answer at Tahiti as well as at Paris. I was much disappointed in the personal appearance of the women; they are far inferior in every respect to the men. The custom of wearing a flower in the back of the head, or through a small hole in each ear, is pretty; the flower is generally either white or scarlet, and like the Camelia Japonica. They wear also a sort of crown of woven cocoa-nut leaves, as a shade to their eyes. The women appear to be in greater want of some becoming costume, even than the men.
Nearly all understand a little English;--that is, they know the names of common things, and by the aid of this, together with signs, a lame sort of conversation could be carried on. In returning in the evening to the boat, we stopped to witness a very pretty scene; numbers of children were playing on the beach, and had lighted bonfires, which illuminated the placid sea and surrounding trees. Others, in circles, were singing Tahitian verses. We seated ourselves on the sand, and joined their party. The songs were impromptu, and I believe related to our arrival: one little girl sang a line, which the rest took up in parts, forming a very pretty chorus. The whole scene made us unequivocally aware that we were seated on the shores of an island in the South Sea.
NOVEMBER 17TH.--This day is reckoned in the log-book as Tuesday the 17th instead of Monday the 16th, owing to our, so far successful, chase of the sun. Before breakfast the ship was hemmed in by a flotilla of canoes, and when the natives were allowed to come on board, I suppose their numbers could not have been under two hundred. It was the opinion of every one, that it would have been difficult to have picked out an equal number from any other nation, who would have given so little trouble. Every body brought something for sale: shells were the main article of trade. The Tahitians now fully understand the value of money, and prefer it to old clothes or other articles. The various coins, however, of English and Spanish denomination puzzle them, and they never seemed to think the small silver quite secure until changed into dollars. Some of the chiefs have accumulated considerable sums of money. One not long since offered eight hundred dollars (about 160 pounds sterling) for a small vessel; and frequently they purchase whale-boats and horses, at the rate of from fifty to a hundred dollars.
After breakfast I went on shore, and ascended the slope of the nearest part of the mountain, to an elevation between two and three thousand feet. The form of the land is rather singular, and may be understood by explaining its hypothetical origin. I believe the interior mountains once stood as a smaller island in the sea; and that around their steep flanks, streams of lava and beds of sediment were accumulated under water, in a conical mass. This, after being raised, has been cut by numerous profound ravines, which all diverge from the common centre; the intervening ridges being flat-topped, and belonging to one slope. Having crossed the narrow girt of inhabited and fertile land, I followed the line of one of these ridges; having on each hand, very steep and smooth-sided valleys. The vegetation is singular, consisting almost exclusively of small dwarf ferns, which, higher up, are mingled with coarse grass. The appearance was not very dissimilar from that on some of the Welsh hills; and this being so close above the orchard of tropical plants on the coast, was very surprising. At the highest point which I reached, trees again appeared. Of these three zones of comparative luxuriance, the lower one owes its moisture, and therefore fertility, to its extreme flatness; for being scarcely raised above the level of the sea, the water, which it receives from the higher land, drains away slowly. The upper zone extends into a moister atmosphere; whilst the intermediate part, not being benefited by either of these advantages, is barren. The wood in the upper part was very pretty; tree-ferns having replaced the cocoa-nuts of the coast. It must not, however, be supposed that these woods at all equal the forests of Brazil. In an island, that vast number of productions which characterizes a continent, cannot be expected to occur.
From the point which I attained, there was a good view of the distant island of Eimeo, dependant on the same sovereign with Tahiti. On the lofty and broken pinnacles, white massive clouds were piled up, which formed an island in the blue sky, as Eimeo itself did in the blue ocean. The island, with the exception of one small gateway is completely encircled by a reef. At this distance, a narrow but well-defined line of brilliant white was alone visible, where the waves first encountered the wall of coral. The glassy water of the lagoon was included within this line; and out of it the mountains rose abruptly. The effect was very pleasing, and might aptly be compared to a framed engraving, where the frame represented the breakers, the marginal paper the lagoon, and the drawing the island itself. When in the evening I descended from the mountain, a man, whom I had pleased with a trifling gift, met me, bringing with him hot roasted bananas, a pine-apple, and cocoa-nuts. After having walked under a burning sun, I do not know any thing more delicious than the milk of a young cocoa-nut. Pine-apples are here so abundant, that the people eat them in the same wasteful manner as we might turnips. They are of an excellent flavour,--perhaps even better than those cultivated in England; and this I believe is the highest compliment which can be paid to a fruit, or indeed to any thing else. Before going on board I went to Mr. Wilson, who interpreted to the Tahitian, who had paid me so adroit an attention, that I wanted him and another man to accompany me on a short excursion into the mountains.
NOVEMBER 18TH.--In the morning I came on shore early, bringing with me some provisions in a bag, and two blankets for myself and servant. These were lashed to each end of a pole, and thus carried by my Tahitian companions: from custom these men are able to walk for a whole day, with as much as fifty pounds at each end. I told my guides to provide themselves with food and clothing: but for the latter, they said their skins were sufficient, and for the former, that there was plenty of food in the mountains. The line of march was the valley of Tia-auru, in which the river flows that enters the sea by Point Venus. This is one of the principal streams in the island, and its source lies at the base of the loftiest pinnacles, which attain the elevation of about 7000 feet. The whole island may be considered as one group of mountains, so that the only way to penetrate the interior is to follow up the valleys. Our road, at first, lay through the wood which bordered each side of the river; and the glimpses of the lofty central peaks, seen as through an avenue, with here and there a waving cocoa-nut tree on one side, were extremely picturesque.
The valley soon began to narrow, and the sides to grow lofty and more precipitous. After having walked between three and four hours, we found the width of the ravine scarcely exceeded that of the bed of the stream. On each hand the walls were nearly vertical; yet from the soft nature of the volcanic strata, trees and a rank vegetation sprung from every projecting ledge. These precipices must have been some thousand feet high: and the whole formed a mountain gorge, far more magnificent than any thing which I had ever before beheld. Until the mid-day sun stood vertically over the ravine, the air had felt cool and damp, but now it became very sultry. Shaded by a ledge of rock, beneath a façade of columnar lava, we ate our dinner. My guides had already procured a dish of small fish and fresh-water prawns. They carried with them a small net stretched on a hoop; and where the water was deep and in eddies, they dived, and like otters, by their eyesight followed the fish into holes and corners, and thus secured them. The Tahitians have the dexterity of amphibious animals in the water. An anecdote mentioned by Ellis shows how much they feel at home in that element. When a horse was landing for Pomarre in 1817, the slings broke, and it fell into the water: immediately the natives jumped overboard, and by their cries and vain efforts at assistance, almost drowned the animal. As soon, however, as it reached the shore, the whole population took to flight, and tried to hide themselves from the man-carrying-pig, as they christened the horse.
A little higher up, the river divided itself into three little streams. The two northern ones were impracticable, owing to a succession of waterfalls, which descended from the jagged summit of the highest mountain; the other to all appearance was equally inaccessible, but we managed to ascend it by a most extraordinary road. The sides of the valley were here nearly precipitous; but, as frequently happens with stratified rocks, small ledges projected, which were thickly covered by wild bananas, liliaceous plants, and other luxuriant productions of the tropics. The Tahitians, by climbing amongst these ledges, searching for fruit, had discovered a track by which the whole precipice could be scaled. The first ascent from the valley was very dangerous: for it was necessary to pass the face of a naked rock, by the aid of ropes, which we brought with us. How any person discovered that this formidable spot was the only point where the side of the mountain was practicable, I cannot imagine. We then cautiously walked along one of the ledges, till we came to the stream already alluded to. This ledge formed a flat spot, above which a beautiful cascade, of some hundred feet, poured down its waters, and beneath it another high one emptied itself into the main stream.
From this cool and shady recess, we made a circuit to avoid the overhanging cascade. As before, we followed little projecting ledges, the apparent danger being partly hidden by the thickness of the vegetation. In passing from one of the ledges to another, there was a vertical wall of rock. One of the Tahitians, a fine active man, placed the trunk of a tree against this, climbed up it, and then by the aid of crevices reached the summit. He fixed the ropes to a projecting point, and lowered them for us, then hauled up a dog which accompanied us, and lastly our luggage. Beneath the ledge on which the dead tree was placed the precipice must have been five or six hundred feet deep; and if the abyss had not been partly concealed by the overhanging ferns and lilies, my head would have turned giddy, and nothing should have induced me to have attempted it. We continued to ascend sometimes along ledges, and sometimes along knife-edged ridges, having on each hand profound ravines. In the Cordillera, I have seen mountains on a far grander scale, but for abruptness, no part of them at all comparable to this. In the evening we reached a flat little spot on the banks of the same stream, which I have mentioned as descending by a chain of waterfalls. Here we bivouacked for the night. On each side of the ravine there were great beds of the Feyé, or mountain-banana, covered with ripe fruit. Many of these plants were from twenty to twenty-five feet high, and from three to four in circumference. By the aid of strips of bark for twine, the stems of bamboos for rafters, and the large leaf of the banana for a thatch, the Tahitians in a few minutes built an excellent house; and with the withered leaves made a soft bed.
They then proceeded to make a fire, and cook our evening meal. A light was procured by rubbing a blunt-pointed stick in a groove made in another (as if with the intention of deepening it), until by friction the dust became ignited. A peculiarly white and very light wood (the _Hibiscus tiliaceus_) is alone used for this purpose: it is the same which serves for poles to carry any burden, and for the floating outrigger to steady the canoe. The fire was produced in a few seconds: but, to a person who does not understand the art, it requires the greatest exertion; as I found, before at last, to my great pride, I succeeded in igniting the dust. The Gaucho in the Pampas uses a different method: taking an elastic stick about eighteen inches long, he presses one end on his breast, and the other (which is pointed) in a hole in a piece of wood, and then rapidly turns the curved part, like a carpenter’s centre-bit. The Tahitians having made a small fire of sticks, placed a score of stones, of about the size of cricket-balls, on the burning wood. In about ten minutes’ time the sticks were consumed and the stones hot. They had previously folded up in small parcels of leaves, pieces of beef, fish, ripe and unripe bananas, and the tops of the wild arum. These green parcels were laid in a layer between two layers of the hot stones, and the whole then covered up with earth, so that no smoke or steam could escape. In about a quarter of an hour, the whole was most deliciously cooked. The choice green parcels were now laid on a cloth of banana-leaves, and with a cocoa-nut shell we drank the cool water of the running stream; and thus we enjoyed our rustic meal.
I could not look on the surrounding plants without admiration. On every side were forests of banana; the fruit of which, though serving for food in various ways, lay in heaps decaying on the ground. In front of us there was an extensive brake of wild sugar-cane; and the stream was shaded by the dark green knotted stem of the Ava,--so famous in former days for its powerful intoxicating effects. I chewed a piece, and found that it had an acrid and unpleasant taste, which would have induced any one at once to have pronounced it poisonous. Thanks be to the missionaries, this plant now thrives only in these deep ravines, innocuous to every one. Close by I saw the wild arum, the roots of which, when well baked, are good to eat, and the young leaves better than spinach. There was the wild yam, and a liliaceous plant called Ti, which grows in abundance, and has a soft brown root, in shape and size like a huge log of wood. This served us for dessert, for it is as sweet as treacle, and with a pleasant taste. There were, moreover, several other wild fruits, and useful vegetables. The little stream, besides its cool water, produced eels and cray-fish. I did indeed admire this scene, when I compared it with an uncultivated one in the temperate zones. I felt the force of the observation, that man, at least savage man, with his reasoning powers only partly developed, is the child of the tropics.
As the evening drew to a close, I strolled beneath the gloomy shade of the bananas up the course of the stream. My walk was soon brought to a close, by coming to a waterfall between two and three hundred feet high; and again above this there was another. I mention all these waterfalls in this one brook, to give a general idea of the inclination of the land. In the little recess where the water fell, it did not appear that a breath of wind had ever entered. The leaves of the banana, damp with spray, possessed an unbroken edge, instead of being split, as generally is the case, into a thousand shreds. From our position, almost suspended on the mountain-side, there were glimpses into the depths of the neighbouring valleys; and the lofty points of the central mountains, towering up within sixty degrees of the zenith, hid half the evening sky. Thus seated, it was a sublime spectacle to watch the shades of night gradually obscuring the last and highest pinnacles. Before we laid ourselves down to sleep, the elder Tahitian fell on his knees, and with closed eyes repeated a long prayer in his native tongue. He prayed as a Christian should do, with fitting reverence, and without the fear of ridicule or any ostentation of piety. At our meals neither of the men would taste food, without saying beforehand a short grace. Those travellers, who think that a Tahitian prays only when the eyes of the missionary are fixed on him, should have slept with us that night on the mountain-side. Before morning it rained very heavily; but the good thatch of banana-leaves kept us dry.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.