{"id":"01KG8AKTW6GMYDRRDHXT7R0EYN","cid":"bafkreidse57i2rmmcsbmfw4h4ftd25mqavcwtnbthlkmmrgsa4hscgmmhq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2334,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":2272,"text":"CHAPTER XVIII.\r\nTAHITI\r\n\r\n\r\nAt early dawn of the following morning we saw the Peaks of Tahiti. In\r\nclear weather they may be seen at the distance of ninety miles.\r\n\r\n“Hivarhoo!” shouted Wymontoo, overjoyed, and running out upon the\r\nbowsprit when the land was first faintly descried in the distance. But\r\nwhen the clouds floated away, and showed the three peaks standing like\r\nobelisks against the sky; and the bold shore undulating along the\r\nhorizon, the tears gushed from his eyes. Poor fellow! It was not\r\nHivarhoo. Green Hivarhoo was many a long league off.\r\n\r\nTahiti is by far the most famous island in the South Seas; indeed, a\r\nvariety of causes has made it almost classic. Its natural features\r\nalone distinguish it from the surrounding groups. Two round and lofty\r\npromontories, whose mountains rise nine thousand feet above the level\r\nof the ocean, are connected by a low, narrow isthmus; the whole being\r\nsome one hundred miles in circuit. From the great central peaks of the\r\nlarger peninsula—Orohena, Aorai, and Pirohitee—the land radiates on all\r\nsides to the sea in sloping green ridges. Between these are broad and\r\nshadowy valleys—in aspect, each a Tempe—watered with fine streams, and\r\nthickly wooded. Unlike many of the other islands, there extends nearly\r\nall round Tahiti a belt of low, alluvial soil, teeming with the richest\r\nvegetation. Here, chiefly, the natives dwell.\r\n\r\nSeen from the sea, the prospect is magnificent. It is one mass of\r\nshaded tints of green, from beach to mountain top; endlessly\r\ndiversified with valleys, ridges, glens, and cascades. Over the ridges,\r\nhere and there, the loftier peaks fling their shadows, and far down the\r\nvalleys. At the head of these, the waterfalls flash out into the\r\nsunlight, as if pouring through vertical bowers of verdure. Such\r\nenchantment, too, breathes over the whole, that it seems a fairy world,\r\nall fresh and blooming from the hand of the Creator.\r\n\r\nUpon a near approach, the picture loses not its attractions. It is no\r\nexaggeration to say that, to a European of any sensibility, who, for\r\nthe first time, wanders back into these valleys—away from the haunts of\r\nthe natives—the ineffable repose and beauty of the landscape is such,\r\nthat every object strikes him like something seen in a dream; and for a\r\ntime he almost refuses to believe that scenes like these should have a\r\ncommonplace existence. No wonder that the French bestowed upon the\r\nisland the appellation of the New Cytherea. “Often,” says De\r\nBourgainville, “I thought I was walking in the Garden of Eden.”\r\n\r\nNor, when first discovered, did the inhabitants of this charming\r\ncountry at all diminish the wonder and admiration of the voyager. Their\r\nphysical beauty and amiable dispositions harmonized completely with the\r\nsoftness of their clime. In truth, everything about them was calculated\r\nto awaken the liveliest interest. Glance at their civil and religious\r\ninstitutions. To their king, divine rights were paid; while for poetry,\r\ntheir mythology rivalled that of ancient Greece.\r\n\r\nOf Tahiti, earlier and more full accounts were given, than of any other\r\nisland in Polynesia; and this is the reason why it still retains so\r\nstrong a hold on the sympathies of all readers of South Sea voyages.\r\nThe journals of its first visitors, containing, as they did, such\r\nromantic descriptions of a country and people before unheard of,\r\nproduced a marked sensation throughout Europe; and when the first\r\nTahitiana were carried thither, Omai in London, and Aotooroo in Paris,\r\nwere caressed by nobles, scholars, and ladies.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJH07M12YTZ0S68R68BNS","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTW6BE021GJS1VZRJ9GV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.286Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.752Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}