day at the residence of the Governor. A
suitable abode is now being built for the
Queen, by the French Government, from
which Her Majesty receives a pension of
twenty-five thousand francs per annum.

Papeiti, the port, is surrounded by coral-
reefs, which defend it like the outworks of a
fortress, and render its entrance at once
difficult and dangerous. Between the rocks,
against which the billows break with frightful
force, a very narrow opening barely affords
sufficient room for the passage of ships. On
our approach, says Madame Pfeiffer, a pilot
came out to us, and, in spite of a very adverse
wind, we succeeded in working our way safely
into the harbour. After we had landed, we
were congratulated on our lucky escape: the
people who were anxiously watching our
entrance assured us that at one moment we
nearly struck on a coral bank—an accident
which had a short time previously befallen a
French vessel.

Before we cast anchor, we observed some
half-dozen Pirogues making towards us; and
in the space of a few minutes our deck was
thronged with Indians, who nimbly climbed
up the ship's sides to offer us fruit and shell-
fish. But these luxuries are not now, as they
were in Captain Cook's time, obtained in
exchange for glass beads and bits of red cloth.
They are to be had for money only; and our
Tahitian visitors showed us that they knew
how to drive bargains and extort high prices as
well as the most practised hucksters of Europe.
I presented to one of the Indians a ring made
of some kind of gilt metal. He took it; and
after smelling it, shook his head, giving me
to understand that he knew it was not made
of gold. Observing a ring on my finger, he
took my hand, and whilst he smelt the ring,
a pleasant smile that lighted up his features
seemed expressive of a request that I would
give it to him.

We found Papeiti (on the 25th of April,
1847,) full of French troops, and several
French ships were lying in the harbour. The
town, which contains between three and four
thousand inhabitants, consists chiefly of a
range of wooden houses with gardens extending
along the shore. A noble forest, crowning
a range of hills, forms the background of the
scene, and here and there on the upland are
scattered many small huts.

The only buildings of any commodious
size, are the Governor's house, the French
magazine, the military bakehouse (whence
the barracks are supplied with bread), and
the Queen's residence, not yet completed.
Many little wooden houses, containing only
one room, had been hastily constructed, to
supply the demand for dwelling-places, which,
when I was there, were so scarce, that
French officers of rank were glad to take up
their quarters in wretched Indian huts.

I looked about in vain for a lodging.
Nowhere could I find a single room to let:
and at length I was fain to content myself
with part of a room—in short, literally a
corner. This accommodation I found in a
hut, occupied by a carpenter, his wife, and
two children. A space about six feet in
length, and four in width, was allotted to
me behind the door. The floor was not
boarded, and the floors were formed of
staccadoes or palisades. There was neither
bedstead nor chair; and yet, for this lodging
I was obliged to pay very exorbitantly.

The hut of a Tahitian Indian frequently
has no walls, and consists merely of a roofing
of palm-leaves supported on poles. Even
those better sort of huts, which have palisadoed
walls, are not divided into compartments;
all comprise only one room, the dimensions
of which usually vary from twenty to
fifty feet in length, and from ten to thirty
in breath. The whole furniture consists of
mats of plaited straw, some coverings for
beds, a few wooden chests, and possibly one
or two jointed stools; the latter, however,
rank among superfluities. Of cooking utensils
or apparatus, the Indians possess none. Their
food is all baked in stone ovens. The stones
are heated, and the meat is put into the oven
without any dish. At table, one knife suffices
for a whole party; and a cocoa-nut shell serves
as a basin to contain water for their drink.

The missionaries who have successively
resided here during the last fifty years, have
wrought a change in the dress of the natives,
especially those in the neighbourhood of
Papeiti. Still, however, their costume is
sufficiently characteristic of savage life. Both
men and women wear a garment called the
pareo; it is a sort of petticoat made of
coloured cloth, and fastened round the waist
by a band. By the women it is worn long
enough to descend to the ankles; but the
men have it much shorter, reaching only to
the knees. The men wear a short shirt of
coloured cotton over the pareo, and under it
they frequently have loose trousers. The
upper garment of the women is a sort of
long full blouse. Both sexes wear flowers in
their ears instead of ear-rings, the hole in
the lobe of the ear being bored sufficiently
large to admit of flower-stalks being easily
drawn through it. The Tahitian women, old
as well as young, adorn themselves profusely
with flowers and foliage, of which they form
very tasteful wreaths and bouquets. I also
frequently saw men wearing wreaths round
their heads. On holidays and other festive
occasions, they wear, in addition to their ordinary
dress, an upper garment called the
tiputa. This is made of a material of their
own manufacture, prepared from the bark of
the bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees. The bark,
when newly stripped from the tree, is beat
and pressed with stones until it becomes as
thin as paper; after which it is coloured
yellow and brown.

I visited a little wooden building used as
a place of worship. It was thronged by
Indians, all of whom had been converted to