surfresearch.com.au
fitch taylor : tahiti and peru, 1842
fitch taylor : tahiti and peru, 1842
| home | catalogue | history | references | appendix |
|
surfresearch.com.au
fitch taylor : tahiti and peru, 1842 |
Internet Archive
http://archive.org/details/voyagearoundworl00taylrich
AFTER a passage
of thirty-one days, we reached the harbor of Papeete, island of Tahiti,
without incident of sufficient interest for record, save the crossing,
for the third time, the equator.
It was a fair
night, November the twenty-seventh, and in longitude 141 W.
...
The last three
days was a fine run, and the " Queen of the Pacific," as this green isle
of the ocean has been called, rose to our view, when we were still leagues
at sea.
We approached
it from the northeast, passing Point Venus ; and gaining a pilot at the
report of our gun off the Bay of Papeete, stood in through the narrow and
fearful pass, for a frigate, to the coral in-hemmed basin, on whose still
bosom the Columbia is now peacefully lying.
The ship having passed through the narrow break in the reef, which forms the pass to the harbor, now rests at her anchor near in to the shore, in deep water, with numbers of coral islets rising in different parts of the basin so as to appear on the surface at low water ; while the outer reef, with the exception of the narrow break, sweeps its
Page 265
circular wall of protection, over which the foam breaks in its beautiful line of white, like a bead of nature's fillagree work, inlaying its narrow silver line either way, on the blue field of the deep.
The name of the
lamented and gifted Cook will always be associated with the islands of
these seas, and most particularly with the Sandwich and the Society Islands,
the first as being their discoverer, and the spot where his life was so
abruptly terminated ; and the Society Islands, as the point of his visits
and scientific observations.
It was at Point
Venus, seven miles from our anchorage, where Captain Cook fixed his tent
on shore for the purpose of making his observations on the transit of Venus
in 1769.
The point derives
its name from this circumstance.
A beautiful ride
and the residence of a missionary family at the spot, with its many associations
of interest, induced me to accept the proffer of a horse from the English
consul and the company of Mr. Johnson for a visit to this point.
The road is an
embowered way nearly its length, save where it leads directly along the
beach in view of the tumbling surf, which curls its lip along every identation
of the several bays, and gives forth a voice of thunder as it rolls upon
the beach.
This magnificent
display of
Page 266
the high surf
where it comes in from the sea uninterrupted by the reefs, and first breaks
upon the beach, is of itself a grand phenomenon that can never cease to
interest the eye and the ear, for its mingled beauty and grandeur.
...
Point Venus forms
one horn of Mattavai bay, into which many vessels enter instead of Papeete
bay, where our ship is anchored. The U. S. exploring squadron were anchored
there but a few months since, on their first reaching the island, and Commodore
Wilks (for so the young commander is styled, and with a pennant at his
main is rightly so addressed) pitched his tent for observation on the same
spot where Cook seventy years ago raised his.
And here lay
the Bounty, whose story is one of romance, and originating the poem
of the "Island," from Byron's pen.
The visit of
the exploring squadron to this island is spoken favorably of by the missionary
families.
Commodore Wilks,
Captain Hudson and officers inspected the schools, and presents were distributed
to the children and native
teachers.
The ships, after
spending a short time at Mattavai bay, anchored where our own ships are
moored, as the more convenient and safe harbor.
We dined with
the Rev. Mr. Wilson and family.
Our ride back from Point Venus, was alike pleasant along the embowered road of the ever resounding beach, passing the mausoleum of the ruling family, containing the bodies of the Pomares; and amused at times by witnessing
Page 267
the young Tahitians, whose element is the water, diving beneath the surf as it rolled its immense swell above their heads, and broke in foam and thunder on the shore.
Page 271
CORAL FORESTS.
I know not that
Mrs. Stickney, in her Poetry of Nature, or Mr. Montgomery, in his descriptions
of things which are poetical, has made mention of the coral forests of
the sea.
There is not
in nature a grouping of forms and blending of colors more beautiful and
gorgeous than is presented in the fantastic variety of a coral field in
the deep.
These islands
of the Pacific are hemmed around by one line of coral reef, broken here
and there so as to form inlets into the quiet basins, which constitute
the harbors of the islands.
The sheet of water on which we are moored being perfectly calm, I jumped into a canoe paddled by a single native, and told him to shoot the fragile thing towards the outer reef, over which the breakers were tumbling so as to leave their beautiful line of white, ever seen, dividing the waters of the blue deep without from the deep waters
Page 272
of the basin within.
We came to the
shoaling water of one of the coral islets, whose submarine formation had
neared the surface of the basin.
It was a beautiful
sight as I looked down to the submerged forests below, over which the canoe
rested without rippling the surface of the still water, through which the
eye gazed to the coral groves below.
Page 304
All Lima, or the
genteeler part of it, having vacated the capital, (so we were told,) and
a great proportion of the Lima society being at Chorillos, a bathing-place
seven or eight miles from the city, we were willing to take a ride to this
watering-place, to spend the succeeding and last day of the carnival.
It was supposed
a favorable opportunity for seeing the Limanians, in the short time we
should have to spend, and we started sufficiently early to take breakfast
at the hotel in Chorillos, which is kept by the same individual at whose
house we were stopping
in Lima.
Most of the families
who resort here for bathing take up their residences among the families
of the town or hire vacant houses for the season.
The bank edging
the plain on which the town, a miserable collection of low houses, is built,
is high above the sea, which here makes a beautiful indentation constituting
the bay.
The sea rolls
in with heavy breakers, and the surf tumbles in grandeur and beauty.
The surface of
the water seen from the high bluff is clear; and during the morning we
saw a number of porpoises sporting beneath the extended sweep of the curve
lines of the inrolling swell, which here beautifully bends in conformity
to the curvature of the shore of the bay in its roll almost the whole width
of the spacious basin.
These fish were
seen several feet beneath the surface, as distinctly as if they had been
on the shore, as the rays of the sun sent down their perpendicular beams
; and they glided along now in parallel lines, occasionally changing their
horizontal and elevating their noses above the water, and again gliding
on together, curvetting beneath the bosom of the bay in imitation of the
magnificent
surges that rolled
in above them. A hundred eyes from the porticoes overlooking the bay were
on those graceful sporters in the deep, as they glided at their pleasure
across and around the bay.
The ladies mostly
ride down the steep bluff to the beach, where the bathing houses are located,
and again ascend the bluff on horseback.
The bathing establishment
consists of slight houses formed of cane and mats, where the women and
men adjust their bathing dresses and re-attire themselves after sporting
in the surf.
Both sexes bathe
promiscuously together, and some of the Limanian women venture far out
beyond the breakers, and are cradled in handsome style and on a grand scale
upon the un-combing surge of the far-out rollers.
To reach this
position, however, it is essential to dive beneath the heavy crests of
the same surges, which break in foam and cascades and overwhelming and
whirling currents, as they reach nearer in to the beach.
Page 320
(At Callao)
La Senorita Gertrudes
is an interesting specimen of a Limanian beauty.
She preferred
Chorillos, she said, to Callao as a bathing-place, to which I assented,
as all would that love the beauty of the inrolling
Page. 321
surf in its finest magnificence, and the grander view there, than at Callao, of the majestic sea.
DIAMOND HEAD
 |
A Voyage Round The World And Visits To Various Foreign Countries, In The United States Frigate Columbia; Attended By Her Consort The Sloop Of War John Adams, And Commanded By Commodore George C.Read. : H. Mansfield, New-Haven; D. Appleton And Co., New York:, 1842 Internet Archive
|
| home | catalogue | history | references | appendix |