: Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume III (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857 1858 & 1859 Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highn

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With the exception of those to Point Venus on one side, and to the large villages of Fa?a and Papeuriri in the opposite direction, there are no practicable roads on the island. On the whole, there are about 36 miles of road suitable for wheeled carriages,--all travels beyond must be performed on horseback, by which means the entire island can be traversed in a few days. One of the most agreeable excursions, and which well repays the trouble, is undoubtedly a drive to the beautifully situate hill-fort of Faut?ua, renowned in the annals of the island. The first part of the road leads over unsightly fields of guava , first imported from South America in 1815 by an American missionary, with the laudable object of increasing the number of useful plants upon the island, but which has since so entirely over-grown large tracts of land, that its systematic extirpation begins to be discussed. Wherever the guava takes root it destroys all other vegetation. It has already extended over the loveliest spots, where its seeds have been dropped in human or animal excrement. Its apple-shaped fruit, red-fleshed inside, is in the raw state anything but pleasant to the taste, and is not readily eaten even by the natives, but a sort of jelly prepared of it could be made an important article of export, as it is already along the west coast of South America. The fruit is also valuable for provender, as animals foddered with it speedily get quite fat, while its wood, growing with great rapidity, is in much request for fuel.

After riding a few miles through these guava-fields, we were astonished at finding a sugar plantation close by the road, which here ran through a lovely little valley. This is the property of an Englishman named Johnson, who, once a whaler, and afterwards a sandal-wood trader, has resided for more than thirty years in Tahiti, and has married a native woman. Johnson, in partnership with a Frenchman named Le Rouge, had planted 23 acres of land with sugar-cane, and when we saw him in February, 1859, expected a crop of from 100 to 110 hogsheads of sugar. The whole property is a perfect model farm, and receives every encouragement and assistance from Government, with the view of extending sugar-planting. Immediately adjoining the plantation, the river Faut?ua flows past, here about five feet deep, and furnishing a most excellent bathing-place. Johnson, like many another, lamented the appalling rapidity with which the native population was falling off, which he ascribed to the daily increasing prevalence of the vices of drunkenness and debauchery. He related to us how many valleys, now lonely and abandoned, were pretty densely peopled only twenty years ago! Then the population was estimated at 15,000, now it is only 5000.

The aspect of the sugar plantation is remarkably fine, and an occasional glimpse of the surrounding hills, bathed in the sunlight, imparts a sublimity that at once arrests the attention, the crags rising in close proximity, and appearing much more precipitous and inaccessible than they are in reality. The Diadem displays itself from this point in all its wondrous loveliness, above which tower lofty mountain-peaks, 6000 or 7000 feet in height, which have never been trodden by the foot of the naturalist.

Close behind the hospitable dwelling of Mr. Johnson begins the primitive forest, under the delightful cool shades of which one can ride almost to the goal of the excursion, surrounded on every side by luxuriant green canopies that seem to scale the very clouds, under whose domes play grateful currents of air.

The path, although always a steep ascent, was in very fair condition; only at the point where it was necessary to ford the river Faut?ua, which every year swells into an angry torrent during the rainy season, did we find any serious impediment to our further advance. The bridge across the stream had been swept away, and there was nothing for it but to lead the horses through the water, an achievement of no little difficulty and waste of time, owing to the strength of the current and the terror and obstinacy of some of our horses.

After a ride of several hours in a sort of green twilight, the forest began to open, and there before our astonished gaze was the most important waterfall on the island, imparting an inconceivable freshness and animation to the landscape around. The Faut?ua makes at this point a leap of about 200 metres , into a huge basin, which lies at the foot of a lofty precipice, 420 metres above the level of the sea; the temperature of the water in the basin itself being about 70? Fahr.

The steep crags, which tower overhead on all sides, and like a gigantic wall impede the view of the peninsula of Taiarapu, which lies behind them, are as marvellous in the luxuriance of the vegetation that covers them, as they are strategically important by their impregnability, the French having only succeeded in gaining footing upon them by treachery, and not by fortune of war. Some chiefs favourable to the French had acted as guides, and had led them by secret and dangerous paths up to these heights, for which service they to this day receive an annual pension paid in gold out of the state treasury. Formerly the rough, steep, almost inaccessible precipices formed of themselves a natural fort, and by their peculiar form, their position, and their strength, might be called the key of the entire island. The French conquerors immediately converted this spot, 630 metres above the level of the sea, into a small fort with the usual tricolor flag, and, on the limited flat surface at their disposal, on which alone it was possible to build, erected a barrack and a few huts, besides laying out a kitchen-garden, which supplies with fruit and vegetables the residents of this solitary but lovely abode.

As soon as the Governor had taken his seat in the verandah of the large and elegant residence of the chieftain, or warden of the district , a number of girls, dressed all in white and wearing elegant garlands of flowers, stepped forward and began to sing a national Tahitian hymn; after which the orator of the day, a handsome man, dressed partly in the European, partly in the native manner, wearing a black round felt hat and feathers, and a variegated bark shirt over a black coat delivered a very pathetic address. His delivery and his gestures recalled strongly to mind the New Zealand orators, but, unlike the latter, he was considerate enough not to tax unduly the patience of his foreign guests, to whom not one word of his very moving discourse was intelligible. This preliminary over, a number of girls presented themselves one after the other to the Governor, and in token of allegiance presented their garlands and the nicely prepared upper robe of bast. In this manner about 100 crowns and bast-mantilles were delivered, the most elegant of which the Governor kindly presented to the members of our Expedition.

In the reception-court a perfect mountain of bananas had been piled up, together with an immense heap of cocoa-nuts; these were also presented to the Governor and his suite, with the remark that every inhabitant of the district had contributed his mite to the festival, and bade the foreign guests a cordial welcome. "We may stay days, weeks, ay! months," exclaimed the orator, "and every house and all that was in it will be placed at our disposal; every one will take a pleasure in doing our bidding and forestalling all our wishes!"

On each table were displayed flowers, bananas, bread-fruit, and other delicious products of the vegetable world. The European guests were seated at a large table erected at the upper end of an alley of trees. The chieftainess and her husband sat beside the Governor. Next in order was the Government interpreter, a Mr. Darling, the son of one of the oldest English missionaries sent out to Tahiti, on whom devolved the interpretation into Tahitian or French, as the case might be, of the various speeches and toasts.

The dinner-service, at our table at least, was entirely in the European manner, which seemed to me a pity; a meal without knives or forks, as is the custom among the natives, would have been infinitely more interesting and peculiar. The husband gave the health of the ruler of France, and--evidently in honour of the guests from the banks of the Danube--that of the Emperor of Austria! Immediately thereafter the Governor rose suddenly and left the table, with the intention, it would seem, of escaping some untimeous speeches of the natives. The company presently broke up, and while a few of the guests returned straight to the port, the majority, the French Governor himself mingling with the excited populace, did not reach Papeete till far in the night.

Under these circumstances it is more than probable that the persecuted Queen only made her appearance at the ball in deference to the Governor's commands, and hence possibly she confined her conversation with the strangers to the most common-place topics. The Queen was described to us as a clever, well-educated woman, who spoke English with considerable fluency, as also a little French, and in public affairs displayed a surprising degree of shrewdness and tact. With the French authorities she conversed exclusively in Tahitian. She appears much to dislike the intervention of an interpreter or secretary, preferring greatly to place herself directly in communication with the official concerned, as an autograph letter exhibits, which she addressed to the Treasurer Receiver-general, requesting him to send her a carriage in which to drive on business from her estate at Papaoa to Papeete.

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