| 42 upon our passage. We saw an occasional shoal of porpoises, and many flying fish.
We are now (December 26) within the tropics where the sun, nearly vertical at meridian, has a terrible power. And such magnificent sunrises and sunsets. Sometimes the heavens all aglow with mimic fire and gold; too bright for the naked eye to gaze at steadfastly (we have a piece of stained window-glass which we can use when necessary), while a lower range of clouds, black with moisture, stands in bold, and oftentimes fantastic relief, in the foreground. . . .
Early on the morning of the third of December we crossed the equator in longitude one hundred forty-five degrees west from Greenwich. The wind was steady and fresh from the southeast. This was an exciting day. We parted the port after-fore shroud; and also a leak in the ship's bows, which had been growing worse for several days, became so bad that we had to shorten sail to keep the ship from plunging. The captain went below to examine. He found the apron split, and a stream of water coming through. The starboard knighthead was also fractured, and it leaked badly when the ship plunged the hawse-pipes under. He stuffed a lot of oakum in the apron, and nailed a piece of board over it to keep it there. This lessened the leak, but the captain and ship's officers determined that it was unsafe to attempt to conclude the passage in her present condition; so we bore up for Tahiti, one of the Society Islands, a little over one thousand miles distant.
THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.
From the Pacific Directory we find that the island of Tahiti was first discovered by Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in 1606. Like many other early Spanish discoveries in the Pacific, this was unknown or unnoticed by the rest of the world, so that when Captain Wallis in the Dolphin discovered it, June 19, 1767, it was supposed to be an original discovery. He took possession of it in the name of George III, by hoisting the British flag. In 1769 Lieutenant James Cook, of the British navy, arrived here for the purpose of observing a transit of Venus across the sun's disk; and while here he surveyed the coast of Tahiti, and discovered several of the northwestern group, to which he gave the name of Society Islands.
In 1774 Don Domingo Bonecheo was, with two Francisscan [Franciscan] missionaries, sent by the Spanish government to establish a settlement. Captain Bonecheo died, and the scheme of settlement failed. Several years now elapsed without any intercourse between Europe and Tahiti, but finally, in 1788, the British ship Bounty, Lieutenant Bligh, arrived at Matavia Bay (Tahiti), for the purpose of transporting breadfruit-trees to the West Indies. She remained here five months, during which time many of the crew formed connections with the native women. After the Bounty had set sail for the West Indies the crew mutinied, and, sending the officers of the ship adrift, they returned to Tahiti. Fourteen mutineers remained
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