Wearily our voyage had continued for many weeks, yet we felt that having been preserved from so many dangers, it would be sinful to complain.  No one was actually sick, not a life had been lost, and by great economy our provisions and water had hitherto been sufficient for our necessities.  A flight of birds had passed over our heads, directing their course to the north-east.  We saw our chief watching them, and he at once ordered the canoe to be steered in the same direction.  All day we stood on.  Just as the sun was setting, we thought we saw a faint blue peak rising out of the water, but even the most practised eye could not determine whether it was land or a light cloud.  We continued the same course during the night.  For several hours I watched, then, overcome by fatigue, I fell asleep.  "See! see!"  I heard Jerry exclaim. I jumped up.  There appeared before us the lofty and rugged peaks of a line of mountains.  Of great height they seemed, after the low land to which our eyes had been so long accustomed.  Their sides were clothed with verdure, pleasant and refreshing to the sight; and at their bases were groves, and fields, and sparkling streams, with heat pretty-looking cottages scattered about.  There was a slight swell.  When the canoe rose to the top of it, we could see a yellow beach, with a circle of bright, blue, calm water around it, and outside a line of white foaming breakers, the guardians of the shore.  "Otaheite!  Otaheite!" exclaimed the chief and his followers; and we thus knew that we were on the coast of the dominion of the ill-treated Queen Pomare; but we also knew that there were civilised men on shore, and that we should probably be received there with kindness and hospitality.