with great earnestness of speech and gesture, but as we had no one on board who knew much of the language, we were greatly at a loss to comprehend their meaning. They had not followed us long when two of the canoes came along side, one on each quarter, and the men crawled up the side and perched themselves upon the hammocks, like so many monkeys, where they called out in a loud voice, addressing themselves alternately to us and to the natives on the side of the vessel opposite to them,--one party exclaiming "Mattee, mattee, Typee!" and the other "Mattee, mattee,[4] Happah!" and occasionally using angry gestures with the exclamation. This was too expressive for us not to understand. They belonged to different tribes, the Typee, and Happah; and were mutually trying to prejudice us against the tribe to which they did not belong, in order to induce us to anchor in their own bay. Both the bays were beautiful, but as the Happahs' was the most populous and nearest to us, we gave it the preference; and a little before sunset anchored in twenty fathoms water within a cable's length of the shore. The Typees no sooner saw that we were standing in for the Happah Bay, than they hurried into their canoe and paddled off for their village as fast as they could. The Happah valley was a romantic spot. A plain, a league or two in circumference, stretched back to the mountains in a semicircular form, presenting in front a clear white sand beach about a mile long. The plain was covered with cocoa-nuts, with bread-fruit interspersed, and near enough to form a continued shade without presenting the appearance of a dense forest. Scattered about every where through these trees were the palm-thatched habitations of the natives. In the rear of the plain, the mountains rose precipitously, forming an insuperable barrier against the incursions of other tribes. The land rose gently to the left, but it was almost barren and added nothing to the beauty of the landscape. On the extreme right, a considerable mountain and a point projecting far out into the bay, separated the Happahs from the tribes that lived beyond them in that direction. Nothing could equal the apparent joy of the natives when they saw us anchored in front of their village. The whole tribe, which probably did not exceed five hundred, flocked down to the beach, expressing their satisfaction by dancing and singing. Hundreds of them dashed into the water and swam off to us, so that we had not time to furl sails and clear the deck before the vessel was crowded with people. To show them that we had the means of making successful resistance against any hostile intention they might adopt, we paraded our musketeers upon the deck and practised them, a ceremony that appeared to afford the natives very great amusement. We allowed them to remain on board until the dusk of evening, when the number being so great as to make the vessel uncomfortable, and apprehending that in