Sauf le court episode du mauvais temps, ces trois semaines me font
l'effet d'un charmant reve, d'un conte de fee, d'une promenade
imaginaire a travers une salle immense, tout or et lapis-lazuli. Pas
un moment d'ennui ou d'impatience. Si vous voulez abreger les
longueurs d'une grande traversee, distribuez bien votre temps, et
observez le reglement que vous vous etes impose. C'est un moyen sur de
se faire promptement a la vie claustrale et meme d'en jouir.'
We have been five weeks at sea, and have enjoyed them quite as much as
the Baron did his three. We saw but two ships between Valparaiso and
Tatakotoroa: he saw only one between San Francisco and Yokohama. It is
indeed a vast and lonely ocean that we have traversed.
[Illustration: Quarantine Island, Papeete]
CHAPTER XIV.
AT TAHITI.
_The cava feast, the yam, the cocoa's root,_
_Which bears at once the cup, and milk, and fruit,_
_The bread-tree which, without the ploughshare, yields_
_The unreap'd harvest of unfurrowed fields._
* * * * *
_These, with the luxuries of seas and woods,_
_The airy joys of social solitudes,_
_Tamed each rude wanderer._
[Illustration: Under the Trees, Papeete]
_Saturday, December 2nd_.--The anchor was dropped in the harbour of
Papeete at nine o'clock, and a couple of hours later, by which time
the weather had cleared, we went ashore, and at once found ourselves
in the midst of a fairy-like scene, to describe which is almost
impossible, so bewildering is it in the brightness and variety of its
colouring.
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