Matavai which is not inferior to any in Otaheite, may easily be known,
by a very high mountain in the middle of the island, which bears due
south from Point Venus. To sail into it; either keep the west point of
the reef that lies before Point Venus, close on board, or give it a
birth of near half a mile, in order to avoid a small shoal of coral
rocks, on which there is but two fathoms and a half of water. The best
anchoring is on the eastern side of the bay, where there is sixteen and
fourteen fathom upon an oosy bottom. The shore of the bay is a fine
sandy beach, behind which runs a river of fresh water, so that any
number of ships may water here without incommoding each other; but the
only wood for firing, upon the whole island, is that of fruit-trees,
which must be purchased of the natives, or all hope of living upon good
terms with them given up.

The face of the country, except that part of it which borders upon the
sea, is very uneven; it rises in ridges that run up into the middle of
the island, and there form mountains, which may be seen at the distance
of sixty miles: Between the foot of these ridges and the sea, is a
border of low land, surrounding the whole island, except in a few places
where the ridges rise directly from the sea: The border of low land is
in different parts of different breadths, but no where more than a mile
and a half. The soil, except upon the very tops of the ridges, is
extremely rich and fertile, watered by a great number of rivulets of
excellent water, and covered with fruit-trees of various kinds, some of
which are of a stately growth and thick foliage, so as to form, one
continued wood; and even the tops of the ridges, though in general they
are bare, and burnt up by the sun, are, in some parts, not without their
produce.

The low land that lies between the foot of the ridges and the sea, and