_
My feelings, at the moment I touched the ground, repayed me for all I
had endured. I looked around with the most intense curiosity; but nothing
that I saw, surprised me so much as to find so little that was surprising.
The vegetation, insects and other animals, were all pretty much of the
same character as those I had seen before; but after I became better
acquainted with them, I found the difference to be much greater than I at
first supposed. Having refreshed ourselves with the remains of our stores,
and secured the door of our machine, we bent our course, by a plain road,
towards the town we saw on the side of a mountain, about three miles
distant, and entered it a little before the sun had descended behind the
adjacent mountain.
The town of Alamatua seemed to contain about two thousand houses, and to
be not quite as large as Albany. The houses were built of a soft shining
stone, and they all had porticoes, piazzas, and verandas, suited to the
tropical climate of Morosofia. The people were tall and thin, of a pale
yellowish complexion; and their garments light, loose, and flowing, and
not very different from those of the Turks. The lower order of people
commonly wore but a single garment, which passed round the waist. One
half the houses were under ground, partly to screen them from the continued
action of the sun's rays, and partly on account of the earthquakes caused
by volcanoes.
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