AMONGST THE ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7788, 6 November 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

AMONGST THE ISLANDS.

SOME OF THE GROUPS OF THE SOUTH PAOIFIO. SUNDAY ISLAND, IN THE KERMADEC GROUP— TONGATABU AND VAVAU, IN THE TONGAN, OR FRIENDLY, —OPOLU, IN THE SAMOAN, OR NAVIGATOR'B, GROUP — TAHITI, IN THE SOCIETY GROUP — RAROTONGA, IN THE HARVEY, OR COOK GROUP. No. IX. [FROM CUR TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT.] WE LEAVE SAMOA FOR TAHITI. Having posted letters for England per b.b. Explorer, which left Apia on the forenoon of Saturday, the 17th July, for Tutuila, there to intercept the mail steamer from Auokland to San Francisco, and, having seen and learned all we could of men and things connected with this most interesting group of islands, we were all aboard the Janet Nicoll during the afternoon of Saturday, the 17th July, and ere the aun had set were well out to sea, away from reef and surf. Onr eyes lingered wistfully landward, aft the bold ranges of the Samoan mountains gradually became more and more indistinct until at length they disappeared in the shoit-lived gloaming of the tropical evening. We had before us a voyage of some 15u0 miles, that being the distance between Samoa and Tahiti. Our course lay about east by south, so that we had to steer just in the teeth of the ever-prevalent adverse trade wind, and also against a proportionately strong and continuous equatorial ocean current. The poor Janet Nicoll had bard work of it. She staggered and floundered along as best she could, rolling as only the Janet can roll, gunwale down, flooding the well and after decks, to the discomfort of the patient and unoomplaining sheep. She was very nearly eight days from harbour to harbour—that is, from Apia t • Papeete. Her best day's ran came out an 180 knot*, or 210 statute miles, equal to 8J miles an hoar; her wor*t was 132 knots, or 154 miles, equal to 6 1-3 miles an hoar. We rolled and plunged along, head to wind, for several days; satisfactory observations could not be taken; oloud and haze obscured the sun ; we had reached the whereabouts of the Sciily Islands, a diminutive group of three islands, and of Howe Island, reef bound, lying longitudinally some di»t*nce from each other, yet both sufficiently in the track of the Janet Nicoll to be elements of danger, and calling for a good look out. Darkness had closed in, the sky was murky, neither stars nor moon lent their welcome aid ; but our good and vigilant captain kept the bridge, where he and the officer of the watch peered into the darkness, sweeping all round with nightglasses to discover, if possible, the proximity of any reefs by the foaming white line of the surf. The engines were slowed, the course altered considerably to the southward, and thus the Janet Nicoll cautiously felt her way until the danger was overpassed. All this wise precaution was rendered necessary, from the ascertained fact that the latitude and longitude of these two islets, and of not a few others, vary as laid down by different surveyors. If the variation be but a few miles, it is quite enough to endanger ship, cargo, and the lives of the crew and passengers. Every captain is not so cautious and vigilant, aed perhaps not bo scrupulously careful in working out the sights, as Captain Hutton. There is a great deal of ohancing it among seafaring men, and immunity from disaster begets carelessness. Had not the Janet Nicoll'a coarse been diverted southerly, she might have come upon the reefs of eitner tbe Soilly Islands or ot Howe Island, and all on board might possibly have perished; or, if not, v hat could hapless mortals do upon an out-of-the-way islet," or in mid-ocean, huddled together in a boat? These Soilly Islands have been rented by a Captain Trayte, an enterprising trader and South-west Pacific Island roamer, whose head-quarters are at Karotonga, his trade being principally with the natives of the Harvey, or Cook, Group. It is said that he succeeded in leasing the Soilly Islands for thirty years, but upon what terms has not come to my knowledge. The staple articles of commerce will be pearl-shell and copra. Having crossed the latitude of the Soilly Islands during the night, we slowly pursued our westward voyage, the Janet Nicoll doing her best to make headway against the persistent adverse trade wind and ocean current. At noon the reckoning on the 21st July gave a run of 152 knots for the precedent twentyfour hours. Daring the following night a good look-out had to be kept, as we were close upon the latitude and longitude of Howe Island. This intertropical ocean speck must not be mistaken for Lord Howe Island, which lies some 3000 miles to the E.S.E., about midway, almost in a direct line, between Norfolk Island and Newcastle, N.S.W. The island Bora Bora was passed, pointed out, but scarcely discernible in the dim and hazy distance. The interest attaching to this island arose lately from its having become the subject of diplomatic communication between the Executives of Great Britain and France. The latter, having hoisted her flag on the island of Raiatea, was contemplating doing the same on Bora Bora, though debarred therefrom by treaty covenant. But in these vaunted days of free-will and freethought, euphemisms for self-will and licentiousness, whether among individuals or corporate bodies or national Governments, what avail either promises or covenants, verbal or written, signed, sealed, and delivered ? Nowadays what are they but glosses to obscure intentions, conveniences whilst " biding one's time," waiting the opportunity ? National honour is but a name, meaning nothing; national honesty a myth. So much for the standard of national morality in the ninth decade of the nineteenth oentury of the Christian era! But of thin more anon, when the French mode of aggression in acquiring colonial dependencies among the islands of the. Pacific shall come more palpably into the field of view. . ~ ;

The next land seen in the distance was the island of Raiatea, of whioh we can say nothing from ocular demonstration. It presented simply the appearance of a dark, opaque, cloud-like maes, looming up in the horizon, the outlines or other physical features of which were indistinguishable. For the present we pass on without further comment, looking out with sanguine expectation to catch the first glimpse of pearly and poetio ' Tahiti. The weather had for days been unusually unsettled, oloudy, and wet, and withal cold for the tropics. Hitherto there bad been no change of dress from heat oppression, and the passengers had begun to make light of tropical atmospheric temperature. The sun rose clear and bright, ardent and splendid on the morning of Sunday, the 25th of July, and soon the passengers mounted to the bridge to drink in the view of hills and gullies and

dells forming the' background of the palm* bestudded foreshore, as the Janet Nicoll ranged close in along the coast of the island of Moorea. Verdure, foliage, and vegetation seem restricted to the belt of low land lying between the sea and the bluffs, and hills and mountains of the interior. These presented an appearance of sterility, bare and treeless, as if the rains had washed down the soil, and formed the fertile strip at their base. Scarcely a house or a but could be made out. Looking ahead, a small coastal steamer could be seen crossing from Tahiti to Moorea. NEARING TAHITI. The beauty of the Tahitian landscape has been celebrated by navigators and travellers. The entire longitudinal outline of this vaunted queen of the South-west Pacific loomed up in the distant vista in the early morn of the 25th July, as the Janet Nicoll ranged along the western coaßt of the neighbouring island of Moorea. Like all other large volcanio islands in the different Polynesian groups, tbe jagged ridges of the mountain ranges, with their beetling peaks and bluffs, were pencilled out in bold relief against the azure sky. Bat, as the distance was decreased, the perspective became clearer, and the space intervening between them and the bright blue sea margin seemed but one uniform bank of sombrest shadow. The unaocustomed traveller would little reck of fruitful valleys, of picturesque dells, of gorge and gully, of hill and dale, of everfiowering streams, of babbling brooks, of dashing cascades, being hidden in the gloom of yon deep shadow, and combining in Nature's own inimitable perfectness of blending and adaptation of light and shadow, to make up a scene of beauty to be found nowhere but in the archipelagos of the tropios. As we approached Tahiti, the nearer view brought out into true j perspective and light and shade the varying heights and distances of the different ridges and peaks, so that the ravines between them had the appearance of dark chasms. Ajs yet no verdant groves, no tufted cocoanutitrees oould be distinguished to vary and beautify the scene. But, as soon as we had approaohed near enough to read the landscape more in detail, and the shining sun; bad dispelled the hazy 'gloom, we could trace a belt of low land, covered with tropical trees, and carpeted with prolific vegetation. This belt of alluvial soil, wbiob constitutes the provision ground of the natives, begirths the island, enoircling the base of every crag, cliff, and mountain range; it yields luxuriant crops when cultivated. With the exception of rocky cliffs and bluffs and almost perpendicular mountain sides, from which the. rainfall erstwhile had washed away the soil, and left the surface bald and bare, all alike appeared as if olad in a satin velvety robe of deepest green, sombre, yet cool. This zone of beauty rises from the placid surface of the still waters within those coral reefs wbiob form the impenetrable rampart upon whioh the ocean'swell dashes and roars and dies in angry , foam. In the distance, as viewed from the 'bridge of the Janet Nicoll, it seemed impossible to pass these destructive breakers; but, as the outer circle was neared, the sought-for break in the snow-white foam was ) seen right ahead, narrow, but sufficient to; give us passage- as we steered for the/ harbour of Papeete. By this time the houses, embowered in trees, and the four ststely French war steamers, anchored close in shore, were becoming more and more distinct. But yet, notwithstanding all; that has been written in praise of its beauty and loveliness, the view from the sea as we approached this " pearl of the ocean" disappointed. It had too rugged and volcanic an aspect, excepting along tbe narrow fringe of garden ground and the verdure-clad mountain slopes. The emotion uppermost in one's bosom was genuine disappointment. The coup (Tceil failed to come up to the preconceived ideal, derived from the highlycoloured - descriptions of tourist wordpainters, who cannot write without gushing and rhapsodising at everything they see. The dream and anticipation of one's boyhood had been some day to visit Tahiti. Years had rolled on, decade after decade had succeeded the one the other, the hair had silvered, and the step had become measured and slow, ere the eye gazed upon Tahiti, and the vision of springtime adolescence became the realism of the "sear and yellow leaf" of man's autumntide. Hence in all probability the sense of disappointment. The ideal so long cherished had expanded proportionately, and outgrown the real. During the long, long interval between Tahiti the ideal and Tahiti the real, Niagara had spellbound the senses in silent awe, the Rocky Mountains and the vast expanse of prairie land had been crossed again and again, the mountain scenery of Jamaica had been luxuriated in, the Pampas of South Amerioa had been cantered over, the tropical magnificence of Brazil had feasted the eye with delight, the forest and mountain and cocoanut groves of Ceylon had been penetrated, the lands of the dusky descendants of the Ishmaelite and. Phoenician, beskirting the Atlas and the Sahara, had been trodden, more than once had tne eye dreamily rested upon { the fringing drapery of the vaporous, snow-white canopy of the Table Mountain, Australasia and the island groups of Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa had been visited. Little wonder, then, that Tahiti, when reached at length, should fall short of its long-cherished ideal. Such is but tbe wont of the human mind 1 The more prolonged the mental incubation of a subject or an object, the more intense the feeling concentrat'd upon it, the more assured the ultimate disappointment. Will ever the ideal become real or fiction beoome fact? COASTAL CHARACTERISTICS. Two peninsulas constitute the island of Tahiti. The smaller and more fertile is called Tairaboo, but in common parlance it termed " the small island." It possesses no aafj harbour suitable for ocean-going vessels. The larger peninsula is Tahiti proper. Its soil is less fertile, but its harbours are more commodious. Among them Papeete bears off the palm, and, in consequents, early beoame the royal and executive capital, and eventually attracted to itself the far larger proportion of the island commerce. Both peninsulas are of voloanio origin, but there is no traditionary legend of any igneous action, nor has there yet been discovered any well-defined crater among the volcanic ranges of the interior. Generally speaking, the coast is begirt with an inner and an outer coral reef. The inner is more irregular and broken than the outer, but the former is sometimes attached to the shore, sometimes unattached. Between these reefs is a fair waterway, more or leas continuous, along which vessels of considerable burden may be navigated, if skilfully piloted, but always a vigilant lookout from the foretip must be kept, and that by an experienced hand; the lighter hue of the water indicates the sunken reefs. Hence all morements of vessels between the reefs must be made in daylight; otherwise disaster is inevitable. The outer reefs are said to vary in thickness from 50 to 100 yards; their sea-girt edges, or sides, are invariably built up perpendicularly from the ocean depths. There are, however, strange as it may appear, breaks or chasms in.these vast sea walls, or ocean barriers. Were it not so, had the incalculable myriads of zoophytes not intermitted their incessant labour, had they gone on and completed the circuit of their sea walls, then had they hermetically sealed up the coral islands of the Pacifio, and to this day, with al' ; their beauty, they would have been tenantless, paradises uninhabited, unutilised, and noenjoyed, because unapproachable. What should prompt these infinitesimal workers to suspend their toil, to cease to obey the prime instinot of their microscopic organism, and thereby leave passages sufficiently wide for ships to pass through, yet not bo wide as to allow the vast volume of the ocean swell to roll in and break upon and devastate the shore, lands, remains still a mystery whioh progressive science hac failed to solve, j • The shorebed is, for the moatj part, formed of black volcanic sand, largely mingled with finely comminuted shells, through whioh, here and there,. extrude rooky masses of basalt and volcanic tufa. Pleasant was it in the early morn to paddle in a oanoe or . sail in a whaleboat, and! skim the tranquil surface of the reef-lake, enjoying the. invigoratioa of the freshening, breezy, » south-east trade; and, in the insouoianos of conscious security, learch along the inner edge of the reef, peering into the depths of Dame Nature's marine laboratory for specimens of her occujt art. Yet aIL the while we were kept admonished of - the terrific forces at her, command by the continued breaking and falling and dashing of millions upon millions of tons of solid ocean swells, rushing along one after ; the other in quick but measured succession, to curve and fall and foam, exhausting their dynamic force upon the insect-built barrier within which we were so complacently luxuriating in an unwonted novelty of delight, „ Ighoxus, - [To be continued.]