and continued our fight with unabated celerity.

We had left the beach early in the morning, and after an
uninterrupted, though at times difficult and dangerous ascent,
during which we had never once turned our faces to the sea, we
found ourselves, about three hours before sunset, standing on the
top of what seemed to be the highest land on the island, an
immense overhanging cliff composed of basaltic rocks, hung round
with parasitical plants. We must have been more than three
thousand feet above the level of the sea, and the scenery viewed
from this height was magnificent.

The lonely bay of Nukuheva, dotted here and there with the black
hulls of the vessels composing the French squadron, lay reposing
at the base of a circular range of elevations, whose verdant
sides, perforated with deep glens or diversified with smiling
valleys, formed altogether the loveliest view I ever beheld, and
were I to live a hundred years, I shall never forget the feeling
of admiration which I then experienced.



CHAPTER SEVEN

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN--DISAPPOINTMENT--INVENTORY OF
ARTICLES BROUGHT FROM THE SHIP--DIVISION OF THE STOCK OF
BREAD--APPEARANCE OF THE INTERIOR OF THE ISLAND--A DISCOVERY--A
RAVINE AND WATERFALLS--A SLEEPLESS NIGHT--FURTHER DISCOVERIES--MY
ILLNESS--A MARQUESAN LANDSCAPE