squadron with this strange fellow performing his antics in full
view of all the French officers.

We afterwards learned that our eccentric friend had been a
lieutenant in the English navy; but having disgraced his flag by
some criminal conduct in one of the principal ports on the main,
he had deserted his ship, and spent many years wandering among
the islands of the Pacific, until accidentally being at Nukuheva
when the French took possession of the place, he had been
appointed pilot of the harbour by the newly constituted
authorities.

As we slowly advanced up the bay, numerous canoes pushed off from
the surrounding shores, and we were soon in the midst of quite a
flotilla of them, their savage occupants struggling to get aboard
of us, and jostling one another in their ineffectual attempts.
Occasionally the projecting out-riggers of their slight shallops
running foul of one another, would become entangled beneath the
water, threatening to capsize the canoes, when a scene of
confusion would ensue that baffles description. Such strange
outcries and passionate gesticulations I never certainly heard or
saw before. You would have thought the islanders were on the
point of flying at each other's throats, whereas they were only
amicably engaged in disentangling their boats.

Scattered here and there among the canoes might be seen numbers
of cocoanuts floating closely together in circular groups, and
bobbing up and down with every wave. By some inexplicable means
these cocoanuts were all steadily approaching towards the ship.
As I leaned curiously over the side, endeavouring to solve their