Chapter 2

Even the brush-wood is an imported fruit-tree, namely the guava, which grows in abundance here. In Brazil I have often admired the varied beauty of the bananas (S. 71, N. 2), palms, and orange-trees contrasted together; and here we also have the bread-fruit, conspicuous from its large, glossy, and deeply digitated leaves. It is admirable to behold groves of a tree, sending forth its branches with the vigour of an English oak, loaded with large and most nutritious fruit.

However seldom the usefulness of an object can account for the pleasure of beholding it, in the case of these beautiful woods, the knowledge of their high productiveness, no doubt, enters largely into the feeling of admiration. The little winding paths, cool from the surrounding shade, led to the scattered houses, the owners of which everywhere gave us a cheerful and most hospitable reception.

I was pleased with nothing so much as with the inhabitants. There is a mildness in the expression of their countenances which at once banishes the idea of a savage, and an intelligence which shows that they are advancing in civilisation. The common people, when working, keep the upper part of their bodies quite naked; and it is then that the Tahitians are seen to advantage. They are very tall, broad-shouldered, athletic, and well proportioned. It (S. 4, N. 4, +man+) has been remarked that it requires little habit to make a dark skin more pleasing and natural to the eye of a European than his own colour.

= consists of.

+der Gujavabaum, dessen pomeranzenartige+ (orange-like) +Früchte in Zucker eingemacht oder auch in Gelee verwandelt versandt werden.+

+mannigfaltig+.

Say ‘which form such a great contrast’.

+Brotbaum+, m.

conspicuous, +welcher ... sogleich auffällt+, i.e. strikes the eye; from, +durch+; its deeply digitated leaves, +seine tief eingeschnittenen, fingerförmigen Blätter+.

= splendid; groves of a tree = a forest of trees.

= spreading out their, etc.

= and are at the same time (+dabei+) loaded.

Use this noun in the pl.

Arrange this period thus: ‘Although the usefulness of an object perhaps only seldom explains to us the pleasure, which we experience at the sight of the same, yet (+so ... doch+) our admiration at the sight of these splendid groves (+Wälder+) is no doubt considerably influenced by (= through) our knowledge of (+von+) their great fertility.

The — shade = The narrow, winding (+sich schlängelnd+), shady and cool foot-paths.

+zerstreut liegend.+

+gewähren.+

+freundlich+, but here +wohlwollend+, in order to avoid a repetition of the same term, since ‘hospitable’ must be turned by +gastfreundlich+; reception, +Aufnahme+, f.

Say ‘Nothing gave (+machen+) me greater joy than just (+gerade+) the inhabitants’.

Say ‘The expression of their faces (+Ihr Gesichtsausdruck+) bears a mildness (+Sanftmut+, f.), which’, etc.

= of savages.

+Intelligenz+, f.

are advancing = make progress.

= they have. It is a matter of course that the conj. ‘when’ must commence the period.

= and just then one sees the Tahitians (+die Tahitianer+) to advantage (= in the best light).

= that after a short time a dark skin appears to the eye of a European more pleasing and more natural than his own.

Section 171.

TAHITI.