The smooth canal within furnishes the best means of communication with the different settlements; all of which, with the exception of Tamai, are right upon the water.

And so indolent are the Imeeose that they think nothing of going twenty or thirty miles round the island in a canoe in order to reach a place not a quarter of that distance by land.

But as hinted before, the fear of the bullocks has something to do with this.
The idea of journeying in a canoe struck our fancy quite pleasantly; and we at once set about chartering one, if possible.

But none could we obtain.

For not only did we have nothing to pay for hiring one, but we could not expect to have it loaned; inasmuch as the good-natured owner would, in all probability, have to walk along the beach as we paddled in order to bring back his property when we had no further use for it.
At last, it was decided to commence our journey on foot; trusting that we would soon fall in with a canoe going our way, in which we might take passage.
The planters said we would find no beaten path: all we had to do was to follow the beach; and however inviting it might look inland, on no account must we stray from it.