Here We Met Many Of The Natives, Who Were Travelling To The
Beach With Loads Of Provisions, And Courteously Bowed Their Heads As
They Passed By Us, In Sign Of Friendship, Generally Pronouncing Some
Monosyllable Or Other, Which Seemed To Correspond To The Otaheitean
Tays.
The inclosures, plantations, and houses, were exactly in the
same style as at Ea-oonhe, and the people had never failed to plant
odoriferous shrubs round their dwellings.
The mulberry, of which the
bark is manufactured into cloth, and the bread-tree, were more scarce
than at the Society Isles, and the apple of those islands was entirely
unknown; but the shaddock well supplied its place. The season of
spring, which revived the face of all nature, adorning every plant
with blossoms, and inspiring with joyful songs the feathered tribe,
doubtless contributed in a great measure to make every object pleasing
in our eyes. But the industry and elegance of the natives, which they
displayed in planting every piece of ground to the greatest advantage,
as well as in the neatness and regularity of all their works, demanded
our admiration, whilst it gave us room to suppose, that they enjoyed a
considerable degree of happiness. One of the lanes between the
inclosures, led us to a little grove, which we admired for its
irregularity. An immense casuarina tree far out-topped the rest, and
its branches were loaded with a vast number of blackish creatures,
which we took for crows at a distance, but which proved to be bats
when we came nearer.
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