(From Adventures in the South Seas.)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 369, 27 October 1849, Page 3

(From Adventures in the South Seas.)

Among the characters, in this book " Doctoi Long Ghott," it the moat truly characteristic both of tho individual, and of a class common in all those remote parts of the world, where men either seek to recruit the fortunes and the reputation that have been sacrificed at home, or to plunge still deeper into the reck* less, desperate, Hcentioui courses that first seduced them from the ordinary and honourable path :— A MEDICAL MAN IN THE SOUTH SEAS.' u His early history, liNe that of mnny other heroes, wai enveloped in the profoundest obscurity ; though he threw outhin'a of a patrimonial estate, a nabob uncle, and an unfortunate affair which sent him aroving. All that «ras known, however, Whs this. Hft had gme out to Sydney an assist nit-surgeon of an emigrant ship. On his a rival there, he wrnl burk in o the country, and after a few months' wdiideringb, he returned to Sydney penniless, aud entered as doctor aboard of the Julia. " His personal appearance was remarkable. He wai over six feet high— a tower of bones, with a complexion absolutely colourless, fair hair, and a light, unscrupulous gray eye, twinkling occasionally with the rery devil of miucliief. Amoug the crew, he went by the name of the Long Doctor, or, more frequently ■till, Doctor Long Ghost. And from whatever high estate Doctor Long Ghost might have fallen, he had certainly, at some time or other, spent money, drunk Burgundy, and associated with genth'mtn, "Ai for his learning, he quoted Virgil, and talked of Hobbe? of Mnlmsbury, besides repeating poetry by the canto, especially Hudibras. He w«n, moreover, a man who had $>een the world. In the eabiest way imaginable, he could refer to an amour he had in Palermo, his lion-hunting before breakfast wit'\ the Caffrei, and the quality of the coffee to he drunk in Muscat ; and about these placet and a hundred others he had more anecdotes than I can tell of. Then such mellow old tongs as he sang, in a voice so round and racy, the real juice of sound. How such notes came forth from hi* lank body was a constant marvel." As an example of the author'i powers of description, let us extract his account of—

A COCOA-PALM GBOVB. "The finest orchard of cocoa-palmi I kuow, and the only plantation of them I ever saw at the islandi, is one that stands right upon the southern shore of Papeetee Bay. They were set out by the firs} Poraare, a'moit half a century ago j and the soil being especially adapted to t'-eir growth, the nohle trees vow form a mngnificent grove, nearly a mile in extent. No other plant, scarcely a bush, is to be seen within it« precincts. The Broom Road passes through its entire length. '« At noonday, this grove is one of the most beautiful, serene, witching places that ever was seen. High, overhead are ranges cf green rust ling arches ; through which the sun's rays come down to you in •parities. You .seem to be wandering through illimitable balls of pillars ; everywhere you catch glimpses of stately aisles, intersecting each other at all pointi. A strange silence, too, reigns far and near ; the air flushed with, the mellow still esi of a sunset. " But, affr the long morning calmi, the 6ea-breeze conies in ; and creeping over the tops of these thousand treesi they nod their plumes. Soon the breeze freshens ; and the fl xible trunks begin to sway. To - wards evming", the whole grove is rocking to and fro ; and the traveller on the Broom Road i« start led by the frequent falling of the nuts, snapped from their brittle stetni. They come flying through the air, ringing like juggler*' balls ; and often bound along the ground for many rods."