noon
Those who for the first time visit the South Sea , generally are surprised at the appearance of the islands when beheld from the sea . From the vague accounts we sometimes have of their beauty , many people are apt to picture to themselves enamelled and softly swelling plains , shaded over with delicious groves , and watered by purling brooks , and the entire country but little elevated above the surrounding ocean . The reality is very different ; bold rock-bound coasts , with the surf beating high against the lofty cliffs , and broken here and there into deep inlets , which open to the view thickly-wooded valleys , separated by the spurs of mountains clothed with tufted grass , and sweeping down towards the sea from an elevated and furrowed interior , form the principal features of these islands . Towards noon we drew abreast the entrance go the harbour , and at last we slowly swept by the intervening promontory , and entered the bay of Nukuheva . No description can do justice to its beauty ; but that beauty was lost to me then , and I saw nothing but the tri-coloured flag of France trailing over the stern of six vessels , whose black hulls and bristling broadsides proclaimed their warlike character . There they were , floating in that lovely bay , the green eminences of the shore looking down so tranquilly upon them , as if rebuking the sternness of their aspect . To my eye nothing could be more out of keeping than the presence of these vessels ; but we soon learnt what brought them there .