Early one morning the Governor and myself left the ship at gunfire, for
a pic-nic among the mountains. We met with no more serious adventure in
our transit from the frigate to the beach, than the capsizing a barrel
of bread, by our stupid Italian valet, belonging to the baker's bumboat,
in which we had been kindly offered a passage to the shore. The loaves
went floating all about the harbor, and we were some minutes rescuing
the manna from Neptune's pocket. Without further mishap we went straight
to the domicile of an English gentleman, who had politely planned the
party. All was prepared, and we set off as the troops of the garrison
were filing into the parade ground for weekly review, and a very
creditable and soldierly appearance they presented.
We made quite a respectable battalion ourselves, so far as numerical
force went. In advance trotted a vigorous _taata_, with a couple of
large, native baskets slung by a pole over his shoulders, loaded with
bottles and provender; at his heels, our own unfortunate esquire,
Giacomo. The Governor, our English friend and myself, constituted the
main body, and the rear guard was composed of three laughter-loving
damsels--straight and tall--with an easy grace of motion, like willows.
One was housekeeper to our friend, and the most beautiful woman in face
and form we had seen in all the islands. Her figure was lithe and clear
as an antelope--hands and feet small, with arms that would have made
Canova start in his dreams. The face was full of sweetness and
expression--eyes soft, full and dark--the mouth and chin large and
rounded--with even, white teeth, and long, glossy-black tresses. Her
name was Teina, and it, had as pretty a sound as the euphonious _ita
ita_, the Tahitians pronounce so melodiously. The other maidens were
Teina's companions, who, having no engagements on hand, accompanied us
as volunteers, or light troops. We tramped blithely along the Broom
Road, whilst the delicious strains from the brass band went sailing up
hill and grove.
Between the radiating mountain-ridges of Tahiti, which diverge from the
longitudinal core of the summit, there are many frightful
precipices--awful splits in the bosom of the earth--narrow, gloomy and
deep, that hang frowningly over the sombre, turbulent torrents of waters
that spring from the misty faces of the upper heights. Our route led up
one of them. Turning up a broad valley, we followed the course of a
rapid stream, crossing and re-crossing where rocks of the adjacent
heights became too precipitous to admit a pathway; and to save time and
unnecessary trouble, we were either ferried over on the shoulders of our
_taata_ convoy, breasting the foaming surge, or once or twice I was
mounted on one of the native damsels--Miss Toanni--who kindly offered
her services. I blush for my want of gallantry, but trust it was in a
measure redeemed by holding her drapery from the water during the
several wadings. She wore for head-dress a broad straw hat with
fluttering ribbons--a figured gingham sac, plaited and buttoned to the
throat, fell loosely over a white under-tunic--and demi-pantaletts
reached below the knees, where the costume terminated by open-worked,
indigo stockings, that would bear washing--while her fingers were
covered with indelible blue rings, of the same material as the hose.
There is very little tatooing among the Tahitians--a few leggings--blue
devices about the neck--rings on fingers or toes, but never a mark on
the face. As civilization advances, they acquire a distaste for these
heathenish skin-paintings. However, I must not lose sight of Toanni. She
had a firm, well-knit frame--wide mouth, fine, brilliant teeth, intended
for service--such as cracking flinty ship-biscuits, or wrenching husks
from cocoanuts--large, mirthsome, dark eyes, with but one flaw to their
beauty, which she enjoyed alike with all the Pacific Islanders--the
whites of the eyes were yellow! Such was Toanni.
Occasionally, when resting within the close shade of the valley, if the
bright eyes of the girls detected the sunny bulbs of _papao_ gleaming
through the surrounding foliage, off they sprang for the fruit, or
climbed the _vai_ for apples, or pretty flowers clustering about the
lower branches, which were soon turned into wreaths or necklaces.
Advancing inland, the lateral valleys converged into one deep gorge,
closing perpendicularly on either hand; and further on, the stream
itself was cut off by a bold, transverse acclivity between the two
sides, like a wall of masonry, more than half way up the lofty shafts
that framed the gorge. From this shelf, more than a thousand feet above
us, there came leaping a thin thread of water--but long before reaching
the base of the grassy barrier, it was diffused in showers of spray, and
poured its sparkling tribute into the deep chasms of the valley.
Leaving the lower bed of the stream, we began mounting upward by a
zig-zag pathway, cut lately by the French on the flat, sheer face of the
mountain. It was at this point, where at an immense height above, the
Tahitians had poised vast masses of rocks, with levers ready pointed, to
hurl death and destruction on the adventurous soldiers who should dare
to attack their stronghold. The natives were posted at the head of the
pass, upon an acclivity, with no other approach from below than a
crumbling goat-path, where the road now leads. They were well provided
with arms and ammunition, cartridges charged at both ends, to prevent
mistakes, and kindly furnished, it is said, by foreign ships of war in
port at the time. Indeed, the French during the last year of the war,
were harrassed night and day. Alarm-fires were blazing on every hill,
feints were made upon the town, and the neighboring posts, until the
troops became worn out, and more than half ill in hospital. Nor were the
French so successful in their different engagements as the superior arms
and discipline of trained soldiers would imply; for in one affair at
Ta-a-a-a, they had fifty slain.
Thus the Tahitians, believing themselves invincible, after a thirteen
month's siege, were at last dislodged through the connivance of a
traitor, who guided their enemies up a narrow ravine, when, after
surmounting almost inaccessible precipices, by the aid of
scaling-ladders and ropes, they succeeded in attaining a foothold on a
sharp spur of the peaks above the pass, and then rushing down completely
surprised and captured the native camp. To the humanity of the French be
it said, every soul was spared. This was the last struggle: tired of
subsisting on roots and berries, enveloped in mists and rain, the
natives sighing once more for their smiling homes by the sea-side,
surrendered in December, 1846.
In the great losses sustained by the French in this warfare, it struck
us very forcibly that there must have been great ignorance and
inexperience in the knowledge of what we call bush-fighting. The
Tahitians do not compare with the North American Indian in either
courage, hardihood, or sagacity; and without any disparagement to French
valor or gallantry, in our innocence we sincerely believed that two
hundred of our back-woods men would have hunted every copper-colored
warrior into the ocean.
After a toilsome struggle we gained the lateral ridge that joined the
two acclivities, and entered an artificial aperture, cut through the
rocks, which was the portal to the native fortress.
The well-defined diadem of Fatoar rose in clear relief against the blue
sky above our heads, and looking around we were in the midst of a
multitude of gullies and ravines, with the bed of the same rivulet we
had left below rolling rapidly at our feet towards its fearful plunge in
a gap of the precipice. A number of wicker-basket osier-built huts for
soldiers were perched about the elevations; the vegetation was rich and
beautiful, wherever a foot of soil gave nourishment; and there were
little gardens, too, with many kinds of vegetables, irrigated by narrow
aqueducts, formed by gutters of canes or bamboos, and fed from adjacent
springs.
The scenery was quite Swiss, could we change tropical suns, running
streams, and unceasing verdure into frosts, glaciers, and avalanches.
But yet it was a romantic solitude, despite the remark of the French
officer in command, who assured me, with a most expressive gesture, that
it was _terriblement mauvais_.
We continued our walk some distance beyond the fort, and coming to a
shaded, smooth tier of rocks, where the stream was bubbling noisily
along, with little sleeping pools half hidden amid the crags, and
opposite a pointed slender peak like a fishing-rod--well nigh punching a
hole in the blue expanse of heaven--we spread our rural banquet on the
rocky table, plunged the bottles in the icy water, and then reclined
luxuriously around, with full resolve to do justice to the feast,
incited by our long tramp and fast.
"Flow of wine, and flight of cork,
Stroke of knife, and thrust of fork;
But, where'er the board was spread,
Grace, I ween, was never said."
Wings of chickens, slices of ham, roasted bananas, huge loaves of bread,
preserved fish, and cups of wine disappeared with marvellous rapidity.
We did all rational beings could be expected to perform under the
circumstances, but at last were obliged to cry _peccavi!_ Not so our
lady guests--the war of maids and viands had only begun; my friend,
Toanni, thought a trifle of taking five or six of these oily little
sardines at a mouthful, pushing them down with half a banana, and
violent thrust of bread. She devoured ham and fowls with great apparent
relish, wagging her lower jaw, to detach any stray masses of
unmasticated matter that chanced to have escaped the ivory hopper, and
fallen between her capacious cheeks; every few seconds giving her round
fingers a sharp suck, like popping a cork. Truely Toanni's head room was
enormous. Once or twice, when thinking her rage entirely appeased, she
relapsed again, and performed prodigies with rashers of baked pig. I
believe it was Voltaire who designated the illustrious Shakspeare as a
"sublime barbarian;" could he have seen these island maidens, he
certainly would have awarded the palm to Toanni; and I'll wager a flask
of bordeaux--a peculiar weakness of mine--that these Tahitian belles can
eat more, laugh longer, talk faster, all at once or separately, than any
others of their adorable sex the wide world over. I speak advisedly,
and am prepared by documentary evidence to prove it.
Rescuing a small cruse of cogniac from the melee, I reclined upon a
rocky bed, with my heels in the water, for a doze, induced by the
soothing fumes of a pipe! But, alas! hardly were my eyes closed, before
I was startled by the cries of our frolicksome light-hearted companions,
who with a lizard-like facility of grasp, were running up the
perpendicular surface of the peak, clinging and climbing by fibres and
roots, that crept and laced themselves about the crevices of the rocks.
Plucking a quantity of bright flowers, the girls bounded into the
stream, and then commenced weaving never-ending wreaths and chaplets.
This universal fondness for these spontaneous jewels of the earth, with
their love for bathing, are the most innocent and beautiful natural
tastes possessed by the savages of Polynesia.
We were three hours getting back to Papeetee, only pausing for a last
cooling swim in the lower stream.
The evening previous to our departure from Tahiti we attended the usual
soiree of the French Governor. Important despatches had just been
received from France, and the saloons were filled at an early hour with
officers of the ships and garrison, consuls, and merchants, with a
number of foreign ladies, all in _grand tenu_. It was a pleasant gay
little court, with ecarte tables and conversation, vivacious punch
handed round at intervals, and maybe a little flirting and love-making,
with "music to fill up the pauses," from the regimental orchestras
stationed near the verandas, while the lawns and grounds were crowded by
laughing groups of natives, talking scandal, perhaps, of the
_oui-oui's_.
The next morning, before day had dawned, our frigate was crowded with
canvas, and assisted by a flotilla of boats from the French squadron, we
were quietly towed outside the coral reef, then taking the trade on the
quarter, we went off with a spanking breeze towards Aimeo.