TAHITI THE ISLAND PARADISE

Transcriber's Note

This book was transcribed from scans of the original found at the Internet Archive. Variant spellings are not corrected. Some illustrations are rotated.

TAHITI

THE

ISLAND PARADISE

BY

NICHOLAS SENN, M. D., Ph. D., LL. D., C. M.

Professor of Surgery in the University of Chicago

Professor and Head of the Surgical Department in Rush Medical College

Surgeon-in-Chief of St. Joseph's Hospital

Attending Surgeon of the Presbyterian Hospital

Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief of the Operating Staff with the Army in

the Field during the Spanish-American War

Surgeon-General of Illinois

WITH FIFTY HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS

CHICAGO

W. B. CONKEY COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1906,

BY

W. B. CONKEY COMPANY

PREFACE

The far-away little island of Tahiti is the gem of the South Pacific Ocean. If any place in this world deserves to be called a paradise, Tahiti can make this claim. This charming spot in the wide expanse of the peaceful ocean has attractions which we look for in vain anywhere else. From a distance, the grandeur of its frowning cliffs rivets the eye, and, in coming nearer, its tropic beauty charms the visitor and imprints upon his memory pictures single and panoramic that neither distance nor time can efface. The scenic beauty of this island is unsurpassed. The calming air, redolent with the perfume of fragrant flowers of exquisite beauty, on the seashore, in the valleys and on the precipitous mountain sides; the luxuriant vegetation; the forest fruit-gardens and the sweet music of the surf remind one of the original habitation of man. The natives, a childlike people, friendly, courteous and hospitable, are the happiest people on earth, free from care and worries which in other less favored parts of the world make life a drudgery.

Tahiti is the only place in the world where the people are not obliged to work. The forests furnish bread and fruit and the sea teems with fish. The climate is so mild that the wearing of clothing is rather a matter of choice than of necessity, and the bamboo huts that can be made with little or no expense in half a day with the willing help of the neighbors, meet all the requirements of a home. The stranger will find here throughout the year a climate and surroundings admirably adapted to calm his nervous system and procure repose and sleep.

In writing this little book I have made free use of the "Memoirs of Arrii Taimai E., Marama of Eimeo, Terii rere of Tooarai, Terii nui of Tahiti, Tauraatua I Amo" (Paris, 1901). The authoress was the mother of Tati, one of the most influential present chiefs of Tahiti, and, as her several titles show, she was of noble birth. She was an eye-witness of many of the most stirring political events in the history of the island. Only fifty copies of this book were printed and only three remained in possession of her son. He was kind enough to give me one of them, which, after making liberal use of it, I presented to the library of the University of Chicago, through its late lamented president, Dr. W. R. Harper. I also acknowledge my indebtedness to the works of Captain Cook, "A Voyage to the Pacific" (London, 1784), and to the book of Baron Ferd. von Mueller, "Select Extra-tropical Plants" (Melbourne, 1885).

N. Senn.

Chicago, 1906.

Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

HARBOR AND PRINCIPAL PORT OF PAPEETE (Steamer Mariposa leaving the port)

TAHITI THE ISLAND PARADISE

When the Almighty Architect of the universe created the earth we inhabit, He manifested His wisdom, goodness and foresight in adapting, in a most admirable manner, the soil, climate, and animal and vegetable life for the habitation of man, the supreme work of creation. By the gradual and progressive geographical distribution of man over the surface of the earth, he has become habituated to diverse climates and environments, and has found conditions most congenial to his comfort and the immediate necessities of life.

In cold, laborious climes, the wintry North

Brings her undaunted, hardy warriors forth,

In body and in mind untaught to yield,

Stubborn of soul, and steady in the field;

While Asia's softer climate, form'd to please.

Dissolves her sons in indolence and ease.

LUCANUS.

It required centuries for the Esquimau to become acclimated to the inhospitable polar regions, and make them his favorite abode; the people who drifted toward the equator gradually became inured to the climate of the tropics and accustomed to the manner of living in countries where the perennial heat paralyzes the physical and mental energies, and undermines the health of strangers coming from a more temperate climate. Nature has made ample provision for man in all habitable parts of the earth. The regions of ice and snow are inhabited by fur-bearing animals, and, at certain seasons of the year, are frequented by a large variety of aquatic birds in great abundance, which supply the natives with food and clothing, while in the tropics, man has little or no need of fuel and clothing, and, with very little exertion, he can subsist on the fruits of the forests, and on the food so liberally supplied by the sea.

The intensity of the struggle for life increases with the distance north and south from the temperate zones, where climatic conditions necessitate active exercise and where the necessities of life can only be obtained by the hardest kind of labor. The climate of the tropics, on the other hand, is very generous to man. The forests are rich in fruit yielding trees which Nature plants, which receive little or no care, yet which bear fruit throughout the year. Wherever the cocoa-palm grows in abundance, there can be no famine, because this tree yields a rich harvest of nutritious fruit from one end of the year to the other without fail, as it is never affected to any considerable extent by drouth and other conditions which so often bring failure to the orchards in more temperate climates. The continuous summer and the wonderful fertility of the soil in tropic and subtropic countries reward richly the labor of the husbandman by two and sometimes three harvests a year, as nature's forces require no rest, no slumber there.

Life in a changeable, severe climate is full of hardships; in the tropics, of ease and leisure. The nearer we come to the tropics, the closer we approach the conditions of primitive man. The necessities of life increase as we recede on either side of the equatorial line. The dreamy, easy, care-free life in the tropics is in strong contrast with the severe and arduous struggles for existence in countries less favored by the resources of nature.

Among the trees in the Garden of Eden, the palm tree was undoubtedly the most beautiful, and it remains to-day the queen of the forests of the seacoast in the tropics. The palm-clad isles of the South Sea bear a closer resemblance to the description of the Garden of Eden than any other of the many parts of the world that I have ever seen; and of these, Tahiti is a real paradise on earth. There is no country nor other isle where Nature has been so liberal in the distribution of her gifts. No other island can compare in natural beauty with Tahiti, the gem of the South Pacific Ocean. It is the island where life is free of care. It is the island where the natives are fed, clothed and housed by nature. It is the island where man is born, eats his daily bread without being forced to labor, sleeps and dreams away his life free from worry, and enjoys the foretaste of the eternal paradise before he dies. It is the island which must have been born

In the morning of the world,

When earth was nigher heaven than now.

BROWNING.

It is the island of which the poet must have been musing when he wrote:

Amid an isle around whose rocky shore

The forests murmur and the surges roar,

A goddess guards in her enchanted dome.

POPE.

THE ISLAND OF TAHITI

About three thousand six hundred miles south by southwest from San Francisco are the Society Islands, a small archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, in latitude 16 to 18 degrees south, longitude 148 to 155 degrees west. Captain Cook named this group in honor of the Royal Society of London. The largest two of these islands, Tahiti and Moorea, are of volcanic origin, mountainous and heavily timbered; the remaining islands are small, low, of coral origin, and are called atolls. In approaching the archipelago from San Francisco, a few of these palm-fringed atoll islands come first into view, forming a pleasing foreground to the rugged mountains of Tahiti and its smaller neighbor, Moorea, which are sighted almost at the same time. After a voyage over the desert ocean of thirteen days (all this time out of sight of land), to gaze on the most beautiful islands of this group is a source of exquisite pleasure.

Sea-girt isles,

That like to rich and various gems, inlay

The unadorned bosom of the deep.

MILTON.

The South Pacific Ocean is the natural home of the coral polyps, which are great island-builders, using the volcanic material as a foundation for the coral superstructure. As these minute builders can live only in shallow water, they use submerged mountain peaks for their foundations, converting them into low atolls, and building reefs around the base of the high volcanic islands. Most of the Society Islands are of coral formation perched upon submerged mountain summits. The island of Tahiti is small, of little commercial interest, and hence it is comparatively unknown to the masses of the people. Very few who left the schoolroom twenty-five years ago would be able to locate it without consulting a geography, and many have even forgotten the name. The children fresh from school recall it in connection with the difficulty they encountered in finding the little dot in the great, trackless South Pacific Ocean, surrounded by a group of still smaller specks, representing the remainder of the little archipelago to which it belongs.

Tahiti is nearly four thousand miles distant from San Francisco, in a southwesterly direction, below the equator, in latitude 17, hence in a similar latitude to that of the Hawaiian Islands, which are situated about the same distance north of the equator.

LIGHTHOUSE AND COOK MONUMENT AT HAAPAPE

I had heard much of the natural beauty of this far-off island and its interesting inhabitants, and decided to spend my midwinter vacation in 1904 in paying it a visit. Formerly the passage from San Francisco had to be made by a schooner, and required several months. For the last four years the island has been made readily accessible by a regular steamer service. The staunch steamer, Mariposa, of the Oceanic Steamship Company of San Francisco, sails from that port every thirty-six days, makes the trip in twelve or thirteen days, and remains at Papeete, the capital of the island, four days, which give the visitor ample time to visit the most interesting points and make the desired observations. The track of the steamer is over that part of the Pacific Ocean which is comparatively free from violent storms, between the storm centers east and west from it. The prevailing trade-winds cool off the tropical heat in the vicinity of the equator, rendering the voyage at all seasons of the year a pleasant one. The steamer has a tonnage of three thousand tons, the service is excellent, and the table all that could be desired. I know of no better way to spend a short mid-winter vacation than a trip to Tahiti, the island paradise, the most interesting and beautiful of all islands.

January and February are the months when the fruit is most abundant, and the climate most agreeable. The twenty-five days of voyage on the ocean, the few days on shore occupied by a study of its natives, their customs, manner of living, by visits to the various points of historic interest, and by the greatest of all genuine pleasures, the contemplation of nature's choicest exhibitions in the tropics, are all admirably adapted to procure physical rest and pleasure, and pleasing as well as profitable mental occupation. A trip to Tahiti will prove of particular benefit to those who are in need of mental rest. The absence of anything like severe storms on this trip should be a special inducement, for those who are subject to seasickness, to travel there.

The steamer is well adapted for service in the tropics, the cabins are roomy and comfortable. Capt. J. Rennie is one of the most experienced commanders of the fleet, a good disciplinarian and devoted to the safety and comfort of his passengers. While the steamer can accommodate seventy cabin passengers, the number seldom exceeds twenty-five. The tourist therefore escapes crowding and noise, so trying to the nerves, and so common on the transatlantic steamers and other more frequented ocean routes.

OCEAN VOYAGE

The steamer Mariposa leaves the San Francisco wharf at eleven o'clock a. m.,—an excellent time for the passengers to enjoy the beauties of the bay and the Golden Gate, to see the rugged coast of California gradually disappear in the distance during the course of the afternoon, and to prepare himself for the first night's sleep in the cradle of the deep. The second day out, and until the mountains of Tahiti come in sight, the traveler will see nothing but the floating tavern in which he lives, its inmates, the inky blue ocean, the sky, clouds, and, occasionally, sea-gulls, and isolated schools of flying fish. The steamer's track is over an unfrequented part of the ocean. The passenger looks in vain for a mast or white-winged sails, or puffs of smoke in the distance, sights so often seen on more frequented ocean highways. The steamer crosses an ocean desert little known, but out of reach of the violent storms, so frequent near the coasts, on both sides free from reefs and rocks, as this part of the ocean is of unusual depth, amounting in many places to three miles. Stranding of the vessel, or collision with others, the greatest dangers incident to sea travel, are therefore reduced to a minimum on this route. Although this course is an unusually lonely one, the interested observer will find much to see and enjoy. The vast expanse of the ocean impresses the traveler from day to day and grows upon him as the distance from the coast increases.

Illimitable ocean! without bound,

Without dimensions, where length, breadth, and height,

And time, and place, are lost

MILTON.

The boundless ocean desert, mirror-like when at rest, clothed by gentle ripples and ceaseless wavelets when fanned by the trade-winds, is a picture of peace and contentment.

The winds with wonder whist,

Smoothly the waters kiss'd,

Whispering new joys to the mild ocean.

MILTON.

But even here in the most peaceful part of the Pacific, when angered by the fury of a heavy squall, a diminutive storm agitates the waters into foam-crested waves, which, for a short time at least, impart to the ship an intoxicated gait. The effect of sun, moon and starlight on the smooth, undulating, heaving, billowing, tossing, storm-beaten surface of the ocean, is marvelous. When all is quiet, and the passenger is only conscious of the vibratory movements imparted to the ship by the ceaseless action of the faithful screw, and the lights of heaven are veiled by a curtain of dark clouds, the beautiful blue gives way to a sombre black. When the tropic sun shines with all his force, the color of the water fairly vies with the deep blue of the sky, and the nearer we approach our destination, the tints of blue grow deeper and deeper, until at last they are of perfect indigo.

KING POMARE V.

The moon and starlight have a magic effect on the surface of the water. The long evenings give the passengers the exquisite pleasure of watching the journey of the moon across the starlit heavenly dome, growing, night after night, from a mere sickle to her full majestic size, and of observing the effects of the gradually increasing intensity of the light issuing from the welcome visitor of the night, on the glassy mirror of water beneath. The star-bedecked pale dome of the tropic sky is, in itself, a picture that rivets the attention of the traveler who loves and studies the book of nature. The short twilight over, "these blessed candles of the night" (Shakespeare) are lighted, and send their feeble light down upon the bosom of the ocean.

If the sky is clear, the illuminating power of the moon at its best, and the ocean calm, its surface is transformed into a boundless sheet of silver. This magic effect of moonlight on the surface of the sleeping ocean is magnified by passing fleecy, or dark, storm-threatening clouds. The fleeting, fleecy clouds often veil, only in part, the lovely, full face of the moon, and through fissures, the rays of light issue, and, falling upon the water, are reflected in the form of silvery patches or pathways, corresponding in size and outline with the temporary window in the passing cloud. It is when the moon is about to be hidden behind a dark, impenetrable veil that the spectator may expect to see the most wonderful display of pictures above and around him. As the cloud approaches the moon, the blue background deepens in color and brilliancy and when its dark margin touches the rim of the moon it is changed into a fringe of gold or silver; with the disappearance of the moon behind the cloud the fringe of the latter is rudely torn away, the water beneath is robbed of its carpet of silver, and the captivated observer is made aware that the darkness of night is upon him. But the gloom is of short duration. A break in the cloud serves as a window through which the moon peeps down, with a most bewitching grace, upon the dark surface beneath. The prelude to this exhibition appears on the side of the temporary frame, in the form of a silver lining which broadens with the moving cloud; now the rim of the moon comes into view; slowly, the veil is completely thrown aside, and Luna's calm, pale, smiling, full face makes its appearance, enclosed in a dark frame with silver margins, while, more than likely, she will be attended by a few brilliant stars, thus completing the charms and beauty of the picture suspended from the heavenly dome. All genuine pleasures of this world are of short duration; so with this nocturnal picture painted on the clouds and water. The silver rim on one side of the frame of clouds disappears, the dark margin increases in width, the moon is obscured, and only a few flickering stars remain fixed in the picture.

Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overcomes our little anxieties and doubts: the sight of the deep blue sky, and the clustering stars above, seem to impart a quiet to the mind.

JONATHAN EDWARDS.

In midocean is the place to view at greatest advantage the gorgeous sunrise and sunset of the tropics. To see the sun disappear in the distance, where the dome of the sky seems to rest on the bosom of the ocean, is a scene which no pen can describe, and which no artist's brush has ever reproduced in any degree comparable with the grand reality. The canvas of the sky behind the setting glowing orb, and the passing clouds in front, above, and beneath it, are painted successively by the invisible brush in the unseen hands of the departing artist in colors and shades of colors that may well laugh to scorn any and all attempts at description or reproduction. The gilded horizon serves as a fitting background for the retreating monarch of the day, and the slowly moving canvas of clouds transmits his last messages in all the hues of red, crimson, pink, and yellow. To observe this immense panorama stretched from north to south, and projected toward the east, resting on the silvery surface of the rippling ocean, with the ever-varying colors of the slowly moving clouds, as seen evening after evening on the Tahitian trip, leaves impressions which time can not erase from memory.

Night on board the Mariposa has additional attractions for the passengers who appreciate the wonders and beauties of nature. When the night is dark, they find a place in the stern of the ship, lean against the taffrail, and watch the water agitated into a diminutive storm by the powerful screw. There one beholds a sight sufficiently attractive and interesting to keep him spellbound for an hour or more. The indolent, phosphorescent sea-amoeba has been roused into action by the merciless revolutions of the motor of the ship, and emits its diamond sparks of phosphorescent light. Thousands of these little beings discharge their magic light in the white veil of foam which adorns the crests of the storm-beaten surface, in the form of a narrow track as far as the eye can reach in the darkness of the night. The flashes of light thrown off by these minute, to the naked eye invisible, inhabitants of the sea, when angered by the rude action of the screw, appear and disappear in the twinkling of an eye. When these tiny, light-producing animals are numerous, as is the case in the equatorial region, the snow-white veil of foam is richly decorated with diamond sparks which, when they coalesce, form flames of fire in the track of the vessel.

POMARE IV. The Queen of the Story of Ariitaimai of Tahiti

The ocean voyage has occasionally still another surprise in store for the traveler when he reaches the South Pacific. A squall is a tempest on a small scale. We see in the distance a dark cloud of immense size which seems to ride slowly over the surface of the smooth sea. The gentle breeze gives way to a strong wind, the surface of the water becomes ruffled with whitecaps, the darkness increases, and at irregular intervals the threatening, angry cloud is lighted up by chains of lightning thrown in all possible directions; these flashes are followed by peals of thunder, and by prolonged rumbling, which becomes feebler and feebler, and finally dies away far out on the surface of the ocean. The steamer penetrates the storm area. Darkness prevails. Gigantic drops of rain strike the deck and patter upon the canvas awning, the harbingers of a drenching rain.

And now the thick'ned sky

Like a dark ceiling stood; down rush'd the rain impetuous.

MILTON.

The cloud and darkness are left behind, and a clear sky and smooth sea ahead greet the passengers. Did you ever see a rainbow at midnight? Such an unusual nocturnal spectral phenomenon greeted us in midocean: the full moon in the east, the delicate rainbow in its infinite colors painted on the clouds in the west. Our captain, who had lived on the tropic sea for a quarter of a century, had never seen the like before. It was reserved for us to see a rainbow painted by the moon. With such pleasant diversions, by day and by night, we soon forget the ocean desert, and yet on the last day of the voyage we welcome the sight of land.

Be of good cheer, I see land.

DIOGENES.

The vastness of the ocean and the smallness of Tahiti are in strange contrast. How the mariner, in setting the compass on leaving the harbor of San Francisco, can so unerringly find this little speck in the ocean nearly four thousand miles away, is an accomplishment which no one, not versed in the science of navigation can fully comprehend. We sighted Tahiti during the early part of the forenoon. The peaks of the two highest mountains in Tahiti, Oroheua and Aorii, seven to eight thousand feet in height, projected spectre-like from the surface of the ocean. These peaks appeared as bare, sharp, conical points in the clear sky above a mantle of clouds which enveloped the balance of the island. This misty draping of the two highest mountains takes place almost every day, as the clouds are attracted by the constant moisture of the soil, due to the dense forests and luxuriant tropical vegetation.

The next sight of land brought into view the rugged mountains of Moorea and a group of small atoll islands. Moorea is in plain view from Papeete, and is the second largest of the Society Islands. Before we look at Tahiti at close range, let us examine the group of atoll islands which the steamer passes close enough to give us a good idea of their formation.

THE ATOLL ISLANDS

The atoll islands, so numerous in the South Seas, have a uniform conformation, and are of coral, deposited upon submerged summits of mountains of volcanic origin. The floor of the Pacific, like many other parts of the earth's surface, is undergoing constant changes, increasing or diminishing its level. Here and there, at certain intervals, volcanic eruptions have created mountains, which, in Hawaii, rise to nearly fourteen thousand and, in Tahiti, to over seven thousand feet. Around each of these innumerable islands and islets in the great Pacific Ocean the coral polyps have a fringing reef of rock. As these minute creatures can live only at a depth of twenty to thirty fathoms, and die as soon as exposed to the air, their life-work is confined to the coast of volcanic islands. Whenever, as it often happened, the island upon which they had congregated was slowly sinking, they would elevate their wall to save themselves from death in deep water. It is evident that if this process continued long enough, the land would entirely disappear and leave a submerged circular wall of coral just below the level of the low tide. The effects of the waves in breaking off the coral formation, large and small, in elevating them, would, in course of time, produce a ring of sandy beach, rising above the sea surrounding the central basin, filled with salt water entering through one or many open channels. Upon the beach, cocoanuts, washed ashore, would find a favorable soil for germination, and, ere long, stately palms would fringe the rim of the enclosed lagoon. Every atoll island has a peripheral fringe of cocoa-palms and a central lagoon which communicates with the ocean by one or more channels. Such an island is an atoll, the final stage in the disappearance of a volcanic islet from the surface of the sea. Such islands are numerous in the Society Islands, and the Paumotuan Archipelago consists exclusively of such atoll islands.

VIEW OF MOOREA

It is interesting to know how these minute coral polyps manage their work of island-building, or, rather, island-preservation. Coral formation is a calcareous secretion or deposit of many kinds of zoöphytes of the class Anthozoa, which assumes infinite and often beautiful forms, according to the different laws which govern the manner of germination of the polyps of various species. The coral-producing zoöphytes are compound animals, which multiply in the very swiftest manner, by germination or budding, young polyp buds springing from the original polyp, sometimes indifferently from any part of its surface, sometimes only from its upper circumference or from its base, and not separating from it, but remaining in the same spot when the original parent or polyp is dead, and producing buds in their turn. The reproductive capacity of these polyps is marvelous and explains the greatness of their work in building up whole islands and the countless submerged reefs so much dreaded by the mariners of the South Seas. The calcareous deposition begins when the zoöphytes are still simple polyps, owing their existence to oviparous reproduction, adhering to a rock or other substance, to which the calcareous material becomes attached, and on which the coral is built up, the hard deposits of past generations forming the base to which those of the progeny are attracted. The coral formation takes place with astonishing rapidity; under favorable circumstances, masses of coral have been found to increase in height several feet in a few months, and a channel cut in a reef surrounding a coral island, to permit the passage of a schooner, has been blocked with coral in ten years. Coral formations have been found immediately attached to the land, whilst in many other cases the reef surrounds the island, the intervening space, of irregular, but nowhere of great width, forming a lagoon or channel of deep water, protected by the reef from wind and waves. According to Darwin, this kind of reef is formed from a reef of the former merely fringing kind, by the gradual subsidence of the rocky basis, carrying down the fringe of coral to a greater depth; whilst the greatest activity of life is displayed by polyps of the kind most productive of large masses of coral in the outer parts which are most exposed to the waves. In this manner he also accounts for the formation of true coral islands, or atolls, which consist merely of a narrow reef of coral surrounding a central lagoon, and very often of a reef, perhaps half a mile in breadth, clothed with luxuriant vegetation and the never-absent cocoa-palms, bordered by a narrow beach of snowy whiteness, and forming an arc, the convexity of which is toward the prevailing wind, whilst a straight line of reef not generally rising above the reach of the tide, forms the chord of the arc. The reef is generally intersected by a narrow channel into the enclosed lagoon, the waters of which are still and beautifully transparent, teeming with the greatest variety of fish. Its surface is enlivened by water-fowl, and the depth of water close to the precipitous sides of the reef is almost always very great. The channels are kept open by the flux and reflux of the tide, the current and waves of which are often so swift and high as to become a menace to schooners attempting entrance into the lagoon. On the beach, soil most conducive to the growth of cocoanut-palms is formed by accumulation of sand, shells, fragments of coral, seaweeds, decayed leaves, etc. The giant cocoanuts planted in this soil either by the hand of man or by the waves washing them ashore, germinate quickly, and in a few years the narrow circular strip of land enclosing the lagoon is fringed with colonnades of tall fruit-bearing palms. These islands rise nowhere more than a few feet above the level of the sea. Sometimes the upheaval of coral formation by volcanic action results in the making of a real island, in which event the lagoon disappears. Islands with such an origin sometimes rise to a height of five hundred feet and often exhibit precipitous cliffs and contain extensive caves. I had read a description of the Paumotu atoll islands by Stevenson, and consequently I was much interested in the little group of atolls we passed before coming into full view of Tahiti. As these islands, like all true atolls, are only a few feet above the level of the sea, they can not be seen from the sea at anything like a great distance. When they were pointed out to us by an officer of the steamer, we could see no land; they appeared like oases in the desert, green patches in the ocean, due to the cocoapalms which guarded their shores. As we came nearer, we could make out the rim of land and the snow-white coral beach. The smallest of these atoll islands are not inhabited, but regular visits are made to them in a small schooner or native double canoe to harvest and bring to market the never-failing crops of cocoanuts.

TAHITI FROM THE HARBOR OF PAPEETE

THE LANDING AT PAPEETE

As we left the atolls behind us and neared Tahiti, we could see more clearly the outlines of the rugged island, disrobed, by this time, of its vestments of clouds. From a distance, the carpet of green which extends from its base to near the summit of the highest peaks is varied here and there by patches of red volcanic earth, thus adding to the picturesqueness of the scene. What at first appears as a greensward on the shore, on nearer view discloses itself as a broad fringe of cocoa-palms, extending from the edge of the ocean to the foot of the mountains, and from there well up on their slopes, where they are lost in the primeval forest. Above the tree-line, low shrubs and hardy grasses compose the verdure up to the bare, brown mountain-peaks. The largest trees are seen in the mountains' deep ravines, which are cut out of the side of the heights by gushing of cold, clear waters, which drain the very heart of the mountains, bounding and leaping over boulders and rapids in their race to a resting-place in the near-by calm waters of the lagoon. As we came nearer to the island we were able to make out the white lighthouse on Point Venus, seven miles from Papeete. Here, Captain Cook, during one of his visits to the island, was stationed for a considerable length of time for the purpose of observing the transit of Venus; hence the name of the point.

Near the harbor, a native pilot came on board, and, by careful maneuvering, safely guided the ship through the very narrow channel in the reef into the harbor, with the tricolor flying from the top mast. From the harbor, the little city of Papeete and the island present an inspiring view. A charming islet on the left as we enter the harbor, looks like an emerald set in the blue water. It serves as a quarantine station, and the little snow-white buildings upon it appear like toy houses. The small city is spread out among cocoa-palms, ornamental and shade trees. The green of the foliage of these trees is continuous with the forest-clad mountains which form the background of the beautiful plateau on which the city is built. The harbor of Papeete is land and reef-locked, small, but deep enough to float the largest steamers plying in the Pacific Ocean. As the steamer came up slowly to the wharf, hundreds of people, a strange mixture of natives, half-castes, Europeans and Chinese, old and young, dressed in clothes of all imaginable colors, red being by far the most predominant, crowded the dock. Many of the children were naked, and not a few of the men and boys were unencumbered by clothing, with the exception of the typical, much checkered Tahitian cotton loin-cloth. A number of handsome carriages brought the élite of the city to take part in this most important of all monthly events.

They come to see; they come to be seen.

OVIDIUS.

Custom-house officers, uniformed native policemen, government officials, French soldiers and merchants, mingled with the dusky natives and contributed much to the uniqueness of the landing-scene. The dense, motley crowd was anxious to see and be seen, but was orderly and well behaved. The custom-house officers were accommodating and courteous, and passed our hand-baggage without inspection. On the wharf was a small mountain of cocoanuts, in readiness to be loaded as a part of the return cargo of the Mariposa.

THE CITY OF PAPEETE

Papeete is the capital of Tahiti, the seat of government of the entire archipelago, and the principal commercial city of the French possessions in Oceanica. It is a typical city of the South Sea world, as it is viewed from the deck of the steamer and while walking or riding along its narrow, crooked streets. From the harbor, little can be seen of its buildings, except the spire of the cathedral and the low steeples of two Protestant churches, the low tower of the governor's palace, formerly the home of royalty, the military hospital, the wharf, and a few business houses loosely scattered along the principal street, the Quai du Commerce that skirts the harbor. The residence part of the city is hidden behind towering cocoa-palms and magnificent shade-trees among which the flamboyant (burau) trees are the most beautiful. It is situated on a low plateau with a background of forest-clad mountains, the beautiful little harbor, the spray-covered coral reef, the vast ocean and the picturesque outlines of Moorea in front of it.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE PALM FOREST

Papeete has no sidewalks. The streets are narrow, irregularly laid out, and none of them paved. Most of the houses are one-story frame buildings, covered with corrugated iron roofs. There are only two or three large stores; the remaining business-places are small shops, many of them owned and managed by Chinamen. The present population, made up of natives of all tints, from a light chocolate to nearly white, six to eight hundred whites and about three hundred Chinese, numbers in the neighborhood of five thousand, nearly half of the population of the entire island. There are about five hundred Chinese in the island, who, by their industry and knowledge of business methods, have become formidable competitors of the merchants from other foreign countries. Their small shops and coffee-houses in Papeete and the country districts are well patronized by the natives.

Papeete is the commercial center of Oceanica. There are no department stores there. Business is specialized more there than perhaps in any other city. All of the shops, even the largest, look small in the eyes of Americans. There are dry goods stores, grocery stores, millinery shops, two small frame hotels, the Hotel Francais and another smaller one, both on the Quai, a few boarding-houses, two saloons, and no bank. The scarcity of saloons can be explained by the fact that the natives are temperate in their habits. According to a law enforced by the government, the native women are prohibited from frequenting such places.

The public wash-basin, supplied with running fresh water from a mountain stream, is a sight worth seeing. From a dozen to twenty native women, and a few soldiers, may be found here almost any time of the day, paddling knee-deep in the water, using stones in place of washboards in performing their arduous work. This primitive way of washing gives excellent results, judging from the snow-white, spotless linen garments worn by the Europeans and well-to-do natives.

The little plaza or square in the center of the city is used as a market-place where natives congregate at five o'clock in the morning, to make their modest purchases of fish, plantain, pineapple, melon or preserved shrimp done up in joints of bamboo. This is the place to learn what the islanders produce, sell and buy.

The public buildings are well adapted for a tropic climate. The most important of these is the palace of the last of the Tahitian kings, now used as the office of the government. It is a handsome white building, surrounded by ample grounds well laid out, and beautified by trees, shrubs and flowers. The government schoolhouse is an enormous frame building, resting upon posts, several feet from the ground, with more than one-half of its walls taken up by arched windows, the best lighted and most thoroughly ventilated building in the city, an ideal schoolhouse for the tropics. Among the churches of different denominations, the Catholic cathedral is the largest and best, although in the States it would not be considered an ornament for a small country village.

The city is well supplied with pure water from a mountain stream, but lacks a system of sewerage. The gardens and grounds of the best residences of the foreigners present an exquisite display of flowers that flourish best in the tropic soil, under the invigorating rays of the tropic sun, and the soothing effects of the frequent showers of rain, which are not limited to any particular season of the year.

Papeete, like all cities in the equatorial region, is a city of supreme idleness and freedom from care. The citizens can not comprehend that "The great principle of human satisfaction is engagement" (Paley). This idleness is inherent in the natives, and under the climatic conditions, and I suppose to a certain extent by suggestion, is soon acquired by the foreigners. Contentment and absence of anxiety characterize the life of the Tahitian. He has no desire to accumulate wealth; he is satisfied with little. He is "shut up in measureless content" (Shakespeare); he is inspired with the good idea that "he that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent" (Proverb xxviii: 20). The merchants open their shops at sunrise, lock the doors at ten, retire to their homes for breakfast, take their two-hour siesta, return to their business, suspend work at five, and the remainder of the day and the entire evening are devoted to rest, social visits and divers amusements. The social center of the foreigners is the Cercle Bougainville, a small frame building which serves the purpose of a club house. Bicycling is a favorite means of travel and sport for the Europeans as well as the natives of all classes. This vehicle has found its way not only into the capital city but also into the country districts throughout the island. The splendid macadamized road which encircles the island furnishes a great inducement for this sport. Two of the wealthiest citizens travel the principal streets in the city and the ninety-mile drive in the most modern fashion by riding an automobile.

There are few if any door locks in private residences, hotels and boarding-houses, the best possible proof that the inhabitants are law-abiding citizens. In the boarding-house in which I lived, the main entrance was left wide open during the night, and none of the door locks was supplied with a key. The native women wear Mother Hubbard gowns of bright calico; the better class of men dress in European fashion, while the laborers and men from the country districts wear a pareu (loin-cloth) of bright calico, with or without an undershirt. The average Tahitian does not believe in:

We are captivated by dress.

OVIDIUS.

THE S.S. "MARIPOSA" LEAVING THE HARBOR OF PAPEETE, November 13, 1903

TOPOGRAPHY OF THE ISLAND

Into the silent land!

Ah, who shall lead us thither?

VON SALIS.

There is no spot on earth more free from care, worry and unrest than the island of Tahiti. The abundance with which nature here has provided for the wants of man, the uniform soothing climate, the calmness of the Pacific Ocean, the pleasing scenery quiet the nerves, induce sleep and reduce to a minimum the efforts of man in the struggle for life. It is the island of peace, contentment and rest, a paradise on earth.

No writer has ever done justice to the natural beauties of this gem of the South Seas. The towering mountains, the tropical forests, the numerous rippling streams of crystal water, shaded dark ravines, the palm-fringed shore, the lagoons with their quiet, peaceful, clear waters painted in most exquisite colors of all shades of green, blue and salmon by the magic influence of the tropical sun, their outside wall of coral reef ceaselessly kissed by the caressing, foaming, moaning surf, the near-by picturesque island of Moorea, with its precipitous mountains rising from the deep bed of the sea, the flat basin-like, palm-fringed atolls in the distance, and the vast ocean beyond, make up a combination of pictures of which the mind never tires, and which engrave themselves indelibly on the tablet of memory.

Tahiti is a typical mountain island, protected against the aggressive ocean by a coral reef which forms almost a complete wall around it, enclosing lagoons of much beauty, which teem with a great variety of fish. It is thirty-five miles in length, and on an average twelve miles in breadth. It is shaped somewhat in the form of an hourglass, the narrow part at Isthmus Terrawow. The circuit of the island by following the coast is less than one hundred and twenty miles. The ninety-mile drive which engirdles the island cuts off some of the irregular projections into the sea. The interior is very mountainous and cut into ravines so deep that it has never been inhabited to any extent. The highest peaks are Orohena and Aorii, from seven to eight thousand feet in height, the former cleft into two points of rock which are often draped with dark masses of tropic clouds. Numerous other peaks of lesser magnitude are crowded together in the center of the island, their broad foundations encroaching upon the plain. The people live on the narrow strip of low land at the base of the mountains and running down to the shore, where the soil is exceedingly fertile and always well watered by numerous rivers, brooks and rivulets. Numberless cascades can be seen from the ninety-mile drive, leaping over cliffs and appearing like silver threads in the dark green of the mountain-sides. The strip of arable land at the base of the mountains varies in width from the bare precipitous cliffs, without even a beach, to one, or perhaps in the widest places, two miles. The larger streams have cut out a few broader valleys. It is this narrow strip of land which is inhabited, the little villages being usually located near the mouth of a river on the coast-line, insuring for the inhabitants a pure water-supply and facilities for fresh-water bathing, a frequent and pleasant pastime for the natives of both sexes and all ages.

Wherever there is sufficient depth of soil, vegetation is rampant. The fertility of the soil and the stimulating effect of constant moisture on vegetable life are best seen by the vitality exhibited by the fence-posts. I have seen fence-posts a foot and more in circumference, after being implanted in the soil, strike root, sprout and develop into trees of no small size. The mountains, and more especially the ravines, are heavily timbered. There is no place on earth where the scenery is more beautiful and sublime than at many points along the ninety-mile drive. The lofty mountains, the fertile plain, the many rivers, brooks, rivulets and glimpses of foaming cascades, lagoons, of the surf beating the coral reef in the distance, the limitless ocean beyond, the luxuriant rampant vegetation, the beautiful flowers, the majestic palm-trees, the quaint villages and their interesting inhabitants, form a picture which is beautiful, and, at the same time, sublime. As a whole it is sublime; in detail, beautiful.

Beauty charms, sublimity awes us, and is often accompanied with a feeling resembling fear; while beauty rather attracts and draws us towards it.

FLEMING.

Let us see how Captain Cook was impressed with Tahiti when he first cast his eyes upon this gem of the Pacific:

Perhaps there is scarcely a spot in the universe that affords a more luxuriant prospect than the southeast part of Otaheite [Tahiti.] The hills are high and steep, and, in many places, craggy. But they are covered to the very summits with trees and shrubs, in such a manner that the spectator can scarcely help thinking that the very rocks possess the property of producing and supporting their verdant clothing. The flat land which bounds those hills toward the sea, and the interjacent valleys also, teem with various productions that grow with the most exuberant vigour; and, at once, fill the mind of the beholder with the idea that no place upon earth can outdo this, in the strength and beauty of vegetation. Nature has been no less liberal in distributing rivulets, which are found in every valley, and as they approach the sea, often divide into two or three branches, fertilizing the flat lands through which they run.

Tahiti is the same to-day as when Captain Cook visited it for the first time. The only decided changes which have taken place since are the building up of the capital city Papeete, and the construction of the ninety-mile drive. The beauty of the island has been maintained because the natives have preserved the magnificent primeval forests. Strip Tahiti of its forests and it will be made a desert in a few years. Nature relies on the forests to attract the clouds which bring the moisture, and assist in the formation and preservation of the soil. Remove the trees, and drouth and floods will destroy vegetation, and the latter will wash the existing soil into the hungry abyss of the ocean. Fertile and beautiful as Captain Cook found Tahiti, he deprecated the idea of settling it with whites.

Our occasional visits may, in some respects, have benefited its inhabitants; but a permanent establishment amongst them, conducted as most European establishments amongst Indian nations have unfortunately been, would, I fear, give them just cause to lament that our ships had ever found them out. Indeed, it is very unlikely that any measure of this kind should ever be seriously thought of, as it can neither serve the purposes of public ambition, nor of private avarice; and, without such inducements, I may pronounce, that it will never be undertaken.

The island has been invaded and taken by the whites and the results to the natives have been in many respects disastrous, which goes to prove the correctness of Captain Cook's prophecy.

THE ROYAL PALACE (Now the headquarters of the Governor).

THE CLIMATE

The climate of Tahiti, although tropical, is favorably influenced by the trade-winds and frequent showers. The breezes from ocean and land keep the heated atmosphere in motion, and the frequent rains throughout the year have a direct effect in lowering the temperature. The entire island from the shore to the highest mountain-peaks, is covered by forests and a vigorous vegetation. These retain the moisture and attract the pregnant clouds, securing, throughout the year, a sufficient rainfall to feed the many mountain streams and water the rich soil of the mountain-sides, valleys, ravines and lowlands along the coast. The temperature seldom exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and during the coldest months, March and April, it occasionally falls as low as 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmosphere is charged with humidity, and when this condition reaches the maximum degree, the heat is oppressive, more especially when there is no land or ocean breeze. If a hotel could be built at an elevation of three to four thousand feet above the level of the sea, the guests would find a climate which could not be surpassed in any other part of the world. A prolonged residence in Papeete or any other part of the island near the sea-level is debilitating for the whites. Those of the white inhabitants who can afford it, leave the island every three or five years and seek recuperation and a renewal of energy in a cooler climate, usually in California or Europe. Papeete, partially enclosed by mountains, and only a few feet above the level of the sea, and on the leeward side of the island, is said to be one of the warmest places in the island. The village of Papara gets the full benefit of the trade-winds and the land-breeze, and is one of the coolest spots in Tahiti. Tahiti's summer-time is our winter. I was fortunate in visiting the island during the latter part of January. It is the time when Nature makes a special effort here to produce the luxuriant vegetation after the drenching rains of December. It is the time when the evergreen trees cast off, here and there, a faded leaf, to be replaced by a new one from the vigorous unfolding buds. It is the season of flowers and the greatest variety of fruits. It may interest the reader to know that one day seven different kinds of fruits were served at the breakfast-table, a luxury out of reach of our millionaires at their homes in the North at that time of the year. For a winter vacation, the months of January and February offer the greatest inducements. Those who are in need of an ideal mental rest, and are fond of a long ocean voyage, and enjoy tropic scenery and the marvelous products of the fertile soil of the tropics, should not fail to visit Tahiti, the little paradise in the midst of the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

HISTORY OF THE ISLAND

History is the witness of the times, the torch of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity.

CICERO.

It was my privilege during my brief stay in Tahiti to meet Tati Salmon, chief of the Papara district. He is a direct descendant of one of the two noble families of the island, the Tevas, and one of the most prominent and influential citizens of the island. I asked him to what race the Tahitians belonged. To this question he had a ready reply. He said: "We belong to no race; man was created here; this is the lost Garden of Eden." There is much force, if not truth, in this assertion when we take into consideration the charming beauty of the island and the bounteous provisions which Nature has made here for the existence of man. Then, too, the Tahitian is a good specimen of manhood, intellectually and physically, far superior to the Negro race and the Mongolian. Ariitaimai (Arii Taimai E), the mother of the chief just referred to and the authoress of the book mentioned in the preface, believes that the Tahitians belong to the great Aryan race, the race of Arii, and that their chiefs were Arii, not kings, and the head chiefs, Ariirahi—Great Chiefs. It was only the latter who were entitled to wear the girdle of red feathers, as much the symbol of their preeminence as the crown and sceptre of European royalty. The Tahitians are Polynesians, like the inhabitants of most of the South Seas and of Hawaii, and there can be but little doubt that the Polynesians belong to the Malay race, having migrated from island to island, from west to east, by way of Java, Samoa and the Hawaiian Islands. As these voyages had to be made by means of frail canoes, we can readily conceive the hardships endured by the bold navigators of centuries ago. A story current in Tahiti relates that it was thus that the great chief Olopaua of Hawaii, driven from home by disastrous floods, bore his wife Lu'ukia in the twelfth century, to find a new dwelling place in Tahiti, twenty-three hundred miles away. It is said that the chiefess was a poetess, a dancer famed for grace, and the inventor of a style of dress which is still made by the Hawaiians. Many of the primitive peoples trace their origin to a legend which is handed down from generation to generation.

In all ages of the world there is nothing with which mankind hath been so much delighted as with those little fictitious stories which go under the name of fables or apologues among the ancient heathens, and of parables in the sacred writings.

BISHOP PORTEUS.

The Tevas of Tahiti have their legend and it is related by Ariitaimai, as it has been told for many generations. They take pride in the story that they are the direct descendants from the Shark God. The legend tells how many centuries ago a chief of Punaauia, by the name of Te manutu-ruu, married a chiefess of Vaiari, named Hototu, and had a son, Terii te moanarau. At the birth of the child, the father set out in his canoe for the Paumotu Islands to obtain red feathers (Ura) to make the royal belt for the young prince. The legend begins by assuming that Vaiari was the oldest family, with its Maraes, and that Punaauia was later in seniority and rank. While Te manutu-ruu was absent on his long voyage to the Paumotus, a visitor appeared at Vaiari, and was entertained by the chiefess. This visitor was the first ancestor of the Tevas. He was only half human, the other half fish, or Shark God; and he swam from the ocean, through the reef, into the Vaihiria River, where he came ashore, and introduced himself as Vari mataauhoe, and, after having partaken of the hospitalities of the chiefess, took up his residence with her. But after their intimacy had lasted some time, one day, when they were together, Hototu's dog came into the house and showed his affection for his mistress by licking her face, or, as we should say now, kissed her, although in those days this mark of affection was unknown, as the Polynesians instead only touched noses as an affectionate greeting. At this the man-shark was so displeased that he abandoned the chiefess. He walked into the river, turned fish again and swam out to sea. On his way he met the canoe of the Chief Te manutu-ruu returning from the Paumotus, and stopped to speak to him. The chief invited Vari mataauhoe to return with him, but the man-shark declined, giving as his reason that the chiefess was too fond of dogs.

AVENUE OF PURRANUIA, PAPEETE

The legend proves that the natives regarded Vaiari as the source of their aristocracy. Papara makes the same claim, for when Vari mataauhoe left Hototu he said to her: "You will bear me a child; if a girl, she will belong to you and take your name; but if a boy, you are to call him Teva; rain and wind will accompany his birth, and to whatever spot he goes, rain and wind will always foretell his coming. He is of the race of Ariirahi, and you are to build him a Marae which you are to call Matava (the two eyes of Tahiti), and there he is to wear the Marotea, and he must be known as the child of Ahurei (the wind that blows from Taiarapu)." A boy was born, and, as foretold, in rain and wind. The name of Teva was given to him; and Matoa was built; and there Teva ruled. From this boy came the name Teva; but when and how it was applied to the clan no one knows. The members of the tribe or clan believe it must have been given by the Arii of Papara or Vaiari. To this day, the Tevas seldom travel without rain and wind, so that they use the word Teva rarivari—Teva wet always and everywhere. The Vaiari people still point out the place where the first ancestor of the clan lived as a child, his first bathing place, and the different waters in which he fished as he came on his way toward Papara. This legend is to-day as fresh in the district of Papara as it was centuries ago. It is but natural that the Tevas, one of the two most influential and powerful of the tribes of Tahiti, should be anxious to trace their ancestry to a royal origin even if the first ancestor should be a man-shark, little remembering that

It is not wealth nor ancestry, but honorable conduct and a noble disposition that make men great.

OVIDIUS.

As the Tahitians had no written language before the missionaries visited the island, little is known of its earlier history. The history of the island since its discovery has been accurately written up by Ariitaimai, an eye-witness of many of the most stirring events and on that account most to be relied upon, for

The only good histories are those that have been written by the persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write.

MONTAIGNE.

Let us follow her account of the history of the island since its discovery by Captain Samuel Wallis, June 18, 1767. The captain made a voyage around the world in Her Majesty's ship Dolphin, and on his way found the island, and called it Otaheite. At that time, Amo was head chief of Papara and of the Tevas, or rather his son Teriirere, born about 1762, was head chief, and Amo exercised power as his guardian, according to native custom, which made the eldest child immediately on birth, the head of the family. At that time the power of calling the Tevas to conference or war was peculiar to the Papara head chief; the military strength of the Tevas was unconquerable, if it could be united; but perhaps the most decisive part of every head chief's influence was his family connection. Nowhere in the world was marriage a matter of more political and social consequence than in Tahiti. Women occupied an important position in society and political affairs. The chiefesses held the reins of government with as much firmness as the chiefs, and commanded the same influence and respect. She was as independent of her husband as of any other chief; she had her seat or throne, in the Marae even to the exclusion of her husband; and if she were ambitious she might win or lose crowns for her children as happened with Captain Wallis' friend Oberea, the great-aunt of Ariitaimai Purea, and with her niece, Tetuauni reiaiteatea, the mother of the first King Pomare. At the time of Wallis' and Cook's visits, Papara was the principal city in Tahiti, and Papeete, the present capital city of the French possessions in Oceanica, a mere village. The Papara head chief was never the head chief of the whole island, but his power and influence were predominant throughout the whole island. The kingship which Europeans insisted on conferring on him, or on any other head chief who happened for the time to rival him, was never accepted by the natives until forced upon them by foreign influence and arms. From this it will be seen that before European influence made itself felt, the Tahitians were divided into tribes ruled by so many chiefs, with a head chief whose influence extended over the entire island. The form of native government was very simple and had many very commendable features. Wars between the tribes and between Tahiti and the neighboring island, Moorea, were, however, of frequent occurrence.

NATIVE VILLAGE BY THE SEA

All exact knowledge concerning dates in the history of the island begins with June 24, 1767, when Wallis warped his ship into the bay of Matavai, the most northerly point of the island. The appearance of the foreigners, the first time the natives had ever seen a white man and such a great ship, created consternation. Excitement ran high on the landing of the crew. The natives attacked them, but their rude implements of warfare could not cope with firearms, and they were defeated. Two days later, June 26th, the battle was renewed and again terminated in the defeat of the natives, promptly followed by sudden friendship for their first European visitors. The natives, extremely superstitious, were at first suspicious, and it required some time to establish free relations between them and the commander and crew of the Dolphin. Strangely enough, the first native to board the ship was a woman. The incident is related by Wallis himself:

On Saturday, the 11th, in the afternoon, the gunner came on board with a tall woman, who seemed to be about five and forty years of age, of a pleasing countenance and majestic deportment. He told me that she was but just come into that part of the country, and that seeing great respect paid her by the rest of the natives, he had made her some presents; in return for which she had invited him to her home, which was about two miles up the valley, and given him some large hogs; after which she returned with him to the watering-place and expressed a desire to go on board the ship, in which wish he had thought it proper, on all accounts, that she should be gratified. She seemed to be under no restraint, either from diffidence or fear, when she came into the ship, and she behaved all the while she was on board with an easy freedom that always distinguishes conscious superiority and habitual command. I gave her a large blue mantle that reached from her shoulders to her feet, which I drew over her, and tied on with ribbons; I gave her also a looking-glass, beads of several sorts, and many other things, which she accepted with good grace and much pleasure. She took notice that I had been ill, and pointed to the shore. I understood that she meant I should go thither to perfect my recovery, and I made signs that I would go thither the next morning. When she intimated an inclination to return, I ordered the gunner to go with her, who, having set her on shore, attended her to her habitation, which he described as being very large and well built. He said that in this house she had many guards and domestics, and that she had another at a little distance which was enclosed in lattice work.

This visit opened the island to the Englishmen. Wallis repeatedly refers to his first visitor as "my princess, or rather queen." When he came on shore the next day he was met by the princess, who ordered that he and the first lieutenant and purser, who were also ill, should be carried by the people to her home, where they were treated in a most hospitable manner. Here is a beautiful instance of natural hospitality, charity and gratitude combined; a kindly deed dictated by unselfish motives, an exhibition of virtues so rarely met with in the common walks of life.

Hospitality to the better sort and charity to the poor; two virtues that are never exercised so well as when they accompany each other.

ATTERBURY.

The princess had full control over the curious, motley crowd, which gave way to the strangers by a sign of her hand. The house proved to be the Fare-hau, or Council-house, of Haapape, and the princess, as Wallis called her, who did not belong to Haapape, but to quite another part of the island, was herself a guest whose presence there was due to her relationship with the chief.

Wallis left the Island July 27th. His "queen" and her attendants came on board and bade him and his crew a most affectionate farewell. Neither Wallis, nor Bougainville, who visited Tahiti in April, 1768, eight months later, ever learned what her true rank was, or from what part of the island she came. According to Ariitaimai, she was her great-great-grandaunt Purea, or rather, the wife of her great-great-granduncle.

Bougainville named the island New Cytherea, and Commerson, the naturalist, charmed by its beauty and astonished at its resources, called it Utopia. The latter gave the following romantic description of the island and its people in a letter published in the Mercure de France:

Je puis vous dire que c'est le seul coin de la terre ou habitent des hommes sans vices, sans préjugés, sans besoins, sans dissensions. Nés sous le plus beau ciel, nourris des fruits d'une terre féconde sans culture, régis par des pères de famille plutôt que par des rois, ils ne connaissent d'autre dieu que l'Amour. Tous les jours lai sont consacrés, toute l'isle son temple, toutes les femmes—me demandez-vous? Les rivales des Geôrgiennes en beauté et les sœurs des grâces toutes unes.

Such was the simple, innocent, happy island life when Tahiti was discovered by the white man, whose pretended object was to bring to the natives the benefits of modern civilization. As to the immediate effects of European civilization on the morals of the natives, Ariitaimai has the following to say in reply to the alleged laxity of Tahitian morals:

No one knows how much of the laxity of morals was due to the French and English themselves, whose appearance certainly caused a sudden and shocking overthrow of such moral rules as had existed before in the island society: and the "supposed" means that when the island society as a whole is taken into account. Marriage was real as far as it went, and the standard rather higher than that of Paris; in some ways extremely lax, and in others strict and stern to a degree that would have astonished even the most conventional English nobleman, had he understood it

The third European to visit Tahiti was that intrepid explorer, Captain Cook, who entered Matavai Bay on the 13th of April, 1769, in Her Majesty's bark, the Endeavor, on his first voyage around the world. He met chief Tootahah, under whose protection he settled on Point Venus. He was accompanied by a staff of scientists, among them Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, a Swedish naturalist. Captain Wallis' "queen" was again on the shore to meet the strangers. Captain Cook gives a detailed account of her visit:

She first went to Mr. Banks' tent at the fort, where she was not known, till the master, who knew her, happening to go ashore, brought her on board with two men and several women, who seemed to be all of her family. I made them all some presents or other, but to Obariea (for that was the woman's name) I gave several things, in return for which, as soon as I went on shore with her, she gave me a hog and several bunches of plantains. These she caused to be carried from her canoes up to the fort in a kind of procession, she and I bringing up the rear. This woman is about forty years of age, and, like most of the other women, very masculine. She is head or chief of her own family or tribe, but to all appearance hath no authority over the rest of the inhabitants, whatever she might have when the Dolphin was here.

NATIVE HUT CLOSE BY THE SEA

Cook ascertained at this time, that Obariea was the wife of the most influential chief of the island, Oamo, but did not live with him. She had two children, a daughter eighteen years old, and a boy of seven, the heir to the throne. He says in his Journal:

The young boy above mentioned is son to Oamo and Obariea, but Oamo and Obariea do not at this time live together as man and wife, he not being able to endure with her troublesome disposition. I mention this because it shows that separation in the marriage state is not unknown to these people.

When Cook made his second visit to the island, in 1774, he learned that Oamo and Obariea, or, as they are called in the genealogy of the Tevas, Amo and Purea, had been driven from Papara into the mountains. Vehiatu, the victor, made Amo resign, and the regency of that part of the island was entrusted to Tootuhah, the youngest brother of the deposed chief.

POMARE, THE ROYAL FAMILY OF TAHITI

The Pomare family are descendants of chiefs called Tu of Faaraoa, one of the atoll islands of the Paumotu Archipelago, some two hundred and fifty miles northeast of Tahiti. The exact date of the first Tu's arrival in Tahiti is unknown. Even the generation can not be fixed. The Pomares were always ashamed of their Paumotu descent, which they regarded as a flaw in their heraldry, and which was a reproach to them in the eyes of the Tahitians, for all Tahitians regarded the Paumotus as savage, and socially inferior. The first Tu who came to visit the distant land of Tahiti, came in by the Taunoa opening, which is the eastern channel, into what is now the harbor of Papeete. Landing at Taunoa a stranger, he was invited to be the guest of Manaihiti, who seems to have been a chief of Pare. He was adopted by the chief as his brother, and at the death of the chief, he became heir and successor in the chief's line. He married into the Arue family, which gave his son a claim to the joint chiefdom of Pare Arue; and at last his grandson, or some later generation, obtained in marriage no less a personage than Tetuaehuri, daughter of Taiarapu. One of the members of this family, Teu (born 1720, died 1802) made new and important advances in the social and political circles of Tahiti by marriage, and became the father of Pomare I. (1743-1803), the first king of Tahiti. Teu seems to have been a very clever and cautious man. He never assumed to be a great chief or to wear the belt of feathers. He was more jealous of his son than of Amo or his son Teriirere. His son, Tu, was born about 1743. Related by birth with two of the most influential families, he strengthened his native ties by marrying Tetuanui-rea-i-te-rai, of the adjoining independent chiefdom of Tefauai Ahurai, who was not only a niece of Purea, but quite as ambitious and energetic as Purea herself. The English, who could not conceive that the Tahitians should be able to exist without some pretense of royalty, gave Tu the rank and title of king, notwithstanding that he was only one, and at that not the most influential of several Arii rahi. To the great dissatisfaction of the other chiefs, Tu received the lion's share of presents from Captain Cook. At this action, the Ahurai and Attahura people were enraged, and Cook was quite unable to understand that they had reason to complain. To them, Cook's partiality for Tu must have seemed a deliberate insult. When Cook returned on his third voyage, in 1777, several Tahitian tribes were in a state of war with Moorea, in which Tu took no active part. Cook then deliberately intervened in the support of the plan he had adopted of elevating Tu at the expense of the other chiefs. In his estimation, Tu was king by divine right, and any attack on his authority was treason in the first place, and an attack on British influence in the next. British influence and British threats made a radical change in the government of Tahiti, in opposition to the expressed wish of the great majority of the people. England wanted to control the political affairs of the island for commercial gain, and to extend her sovereignty in the South Seas, which only confirms that

All government—indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act—is founded on compromise and barter.

BURKE.

PRINCE HINOI Son of the last King of Tahiti, Pomare V.

After Cook's departure, nearly eleven years elapsed before another European ship called at Tahiti, and, during this time, Pomare paid dearly for the distinctions forced upon him by the foreigners. When Lieutenant Bligh arrived in the Bounty, in 1788, Tu told him that after five years from the time of Cook's last departure, the people of the island Moorea (Eirrieo) joined with those of Attahura and made an attack on his district, and many of his subjects were killed, while he had himself fled, with the survivors, to the mountains. All the houses and property had been destroyed or carried away by the enemy. Bligh landed at Matavai in the Bounty October 26, 1788. He came for a supply of breadfruit, which was to be introduced and domesticated in the various tropical colonies of Great Britain, and indirectly to advance the interests and power of Tu, who had nearly lost his influence over the natives. His position was so desperate that he begged the lieutenant to take him and his wife, Tetua, to England. He had a son, at this time six years old, who became the first Christian king of Tahiti. Before leaving the island, April 3, 1789, Bligh did what he could to strengthen Tu's position, and supplied him with firearms. For this act he gave the following explanation:

He (Tu) had frequently expressed a wish that I would leave some firearms and ammunition with him, as he expected to be attacked after the ship sailed, and perhaps chiefly on account of our partiality to him. I therefore thought it but reasonable to accede to his request. I was the more readily prevailed on, as he said his intentions were to act only on the defensive. This, indeed, seems most suited to his disposition, which is neither active nor enterprising. When I proposed to leave with him a pair of pistols, which they prefer to muskets, they told me that his wife, Tetua, would fight with one and Oedidee with the other. Tetua has learned to load and fire a musket with great dexterity, and Oedidee is an excellent marksman. It is not common for women in this country to go to war, but Tetua is a very resolute woman, of a large make, and has great bodily strength.

History shows that Tetua was not the only fighting woman in Tahiti, as at different times, in tribal wars, it was not uncommon for women to take an active part, and in more than one instance the leading part.

On great occasions it is almost always women who have given the strongest proofs of virtue and devotion; the reason is, that with men, good and bad qualities are in general the result of calculation, whilst in women they are impulses, springing from the heart.

COUNT MONTHOLON.

Lieutenant Bligh left the island April 4th. As he was passing the Friendly, or Tonga group, April 28th, the larger part of his officers and men mutinied and set him and some eighteen others adrift in the ship's launch. The mutineers then put the ship about and returned to Tahiti, where they arrived at Matavai Bay, June 6, 1789. There they took in all the live-stock they could obtain, and twenty-four Tahitians, and sailed again June 16th for Tubuai, but appeared once more, September 22nd, and landed sixteen of the mutineers, who were tired of their adventures. The rest sailed suddenly the next night, and vanished from the sight of men for twenty years. The sixteen mutineers who remained scattered more or less over the island, but made Pare their headquarters and Tu their patron. Here they set to work, November 12, 1789, to build a thirty-foot schooner, with which to make their escape. The effect of the example of these ruffians and criminals on the morals of the simple, receptive Tahitians can be readily imagined. These men, who had enjoyed the confidence of their commander and the advantages and pleasures of a trip to foreign strange countries, proved ungrateful, and "the earth produces nothing worse than an ungrateful man" (Ansonius). The schooner was launched August 5, 1790. The war which immediately followed, and which reestablished Tu in his power for the time, deserves to be called the War of the Mutineers of the Bounty. When Tu died, thirteen years later, the missionaries in their Journal recorded many details about his life and character, and among other things, they said:

He was born in the district of Oparre, where his corpse now is, and was by birth chief of that district, and none other. The notice of the English navigators laid the foundation for his future aggrandizement; and the runaway seamen that from time to time quitted their vessels to sojourn in the island (especially that of His Majesty's ship Bounty's crew, which resided here) were the instruments for gaining to Pomarre a greater extent of dominion and power than any other man had before in Otaheite.

It is very evident that the first Pomare was a man without firmness and that what influence he exercised was due to the energies and ambition of his wife and to foreign support. When Lieutenant Bligh reached home and reported the mutiny, the British government sent the frigate Pandora in search of the Bounty and the deserted crew. The Pandora never found the Bounty, which long since had been burned by the mutineers at Pitcairn Island; but she did find such of the mutineers as had returned to Tahiti, and who were actively engaged in establishing Tu as a Tahitian despot, when the Pandora, in March, 1791, appeared in Matavai Bay. The mutineers, it seems, unable to keep at sea in the rickety schooner, landed at Papara, March 26th, and took refuge in the mountains. Captain Edwards, of the Pandora, immediately sent two boats, with a number of men, to Papara. Through the friendly office of the chiefs and natives, the mutineers were finally captured, one by one, until only six remained out, and these were at last found near the seashore, where they were captured after many fruitless attempts. The Pandora sailed from Tahiti with her prisoners in May, 1791, and in December following, Vancouver arrived in the sloop of war Discovery, on a search for a northwest passage to the Orient, stopping for supplies at Tahiti, December 28th.

A TAHITIAN HOME

Vancouver, who had been with Cook in 1777, inquired for his old friends. He learned that the young king had taken the name of Otoo, and his old friend that of Pomare, having given up his name with his sovereign jurisdiction, though he still seemed to retain his authority as regent. This is the first record of the name Pomare, by which the family has since been known. After the birth of the young Tu, about 1782, the first of his children who was allowed to live, the father seems to have taken the name of Tuiah, or Tarino, which he bore in 1788. He took the name of Pomare (night cough) from his younger son, Terii nava horoo, a young child in 1791, who coughed at night. With the assistance of English guns, Pomare waged active war on neighboring chiefs, and the chief of Papara was the last one to succumb. By successive vigorous strokes, he finally gained control of the entire group of islands, including Borabora.

MISSIONARY RULE

It is better that men should be governed by priestcraft than violence.

LORD MACAULEY.

The early missionaries of Tahiti played an important role in the island politics. They did not limit their work to the conversion of the heathen islanders, but took an active part in political affairs, and many of their doings in that direction were not in accord with the teachings of the gospel. The first missionaries sent to Tahiti from England reached the island in the Duff, March, 1797. They received information of the island politics from two Swedish sailors, Andrew Lind, of the ship Matilda, which had been wrecked in the South Sea in 1792, and Peter Haggerstein, who deserted from the Daedalus in February, 1793. Both of these men were adventurers of the type that has infested the South Seas for more than a century. They became well-known characters in the history of the island, sometimes assisting the missionaries, and sometimes annoying them. In July, 1797, Peter accompanied one of the missionaries as a guide and interpreter, on a circuit round the island, to make a sort of census, as a starting-point for the missionary work. They began with Papenoo, July 11th, and as they walked, Peter boasted of his exploits. His stories were so much in conflict with facts that they rather misled than aided the missionaries in search of island affairs. Temarii, the chief of Papara, had visited the missionaries at Matavai. The missionaries gave the following account of him:

May 7, 1797, visited by the chief priest from Papara, Temarre. He was dressed in a wrapper of Otaheitian cloth, and over it an officer's coat doubled around him. At his first approach he appeared timid, and was invited in. He was just about seated when the cuckoo clock struck and filled him with astonishment and terror. Old Pyetea had brought the bird some breadfruit, observing it must be starved if we never fed it. At breakfast we invited Temarii to our repast, but he first held out his hand with a bit of plantain and looked very solemn, which, one of the natives said, was an offering to Eatooa (Tahitian divinity) and we must receive it. When we had taken it out of his hand and laid it under the table, he sat down and made a hearty breakfast. Brother Cover read the translated address to all these respected guests, the natives listening with attention, and particularly the priest, who seemed to drink in every word, but appeared displeased when urged to cast away their false gods, and on hearing the names of Jehovah and Jesus he would turn and whisper. Two days afterwards, Temarii came again to the mission house and this time with the young Otoo, Pomare H., and his first wife Tetuanui.

Here again is the account of the visit by the missionaries:

May 9th, Temarre accompanied the king and queen and staid to dine with us. He is, we find, of the royal race and son of the famed Oberea. He is the first chief of the island after Pomarre, by whom he has been subdued, and now lives in friendship with him and has adopted his son. He is also high in esteem as a priest.

In July of the same year the missionaries visited Temarii at Papara on their way around the island. They found the chief under the influence of Kava, but were feasted the next day on Temarii's feast pig. Not only was Temarii the most powerful chief of the island, but Pomare had become, by his son's accession, a chief of the second order. He depended greatly on the favor of his son, the young Tu, who was, in 1797, supposed to be at least fifteen and perhaps seventeen years of age, and who had been adopted by Temarii, his cousin, who was about ten years older than he. Adoption was rather stronger in the South Seas than the tie of natural parentage. Between his natural father, Pomare, and his adopted father, Temarii, the young Tu preferred the latter, and sooner or later every one knew that Temarii would help Tu to emancipate himself and drive Pomare from the island.

TAHITIAN BAMBOO HOUSE

The Duff sailed for England August 14, 1797, leaving the missionaries to the mercies of rival factions, and they soon ascertained that Pomare and Tu were on anything but friendly terms. The missionaries had faith in Pomare, who chose one of them by the name of Cover as a brother. Temarii chose another by the name of Main. These two missionaries went to Papara August 15th, at the suggestion of the influential native priest, Manne Manne, to remonstrate against a human sacrifice which was to be made at the Marae Tooarai. On account of a murder recently committed, the missionaries found the chief and people greatly excited, and fled as quickly as possible.

In the month of March the missionaries found themselves in a critical condition when the ship Nautilus appeared and two of her crew deserted. The deserters went to Pare and were sheltered there. The captain of the Nautilus at once set to work to recover them. Four of the missionaries proceeded to Pare to see Tu, Pomare and Temarii and informed them that a refusal to return the men would be regarded as exhibiting an evil intention against the missionaries. They found Tu and Temarii at Pare, but went to get Pomare to join them, when they were suddenly attacked and stripped by some thirty natives, who took their clothes and treated them rather roughly, but at last released them. They went to Pomare's house and were kindly received. Pomare returned with them to Tu, and insisted on the punishment of the offenders and the delivery of the deserters. Two were executed, and the district of Pare took up arms to avenge them. Tu joined his father and suppressed the riot, so that the missionaries' clothes cost the natives fifteen lives before order was restored. This incident made the missionaries very unpopular and they had to depend more than ever on Pomare for protection.

On August 24th, two whaling vessels, the Cornwall and Sally, of London, anchored in Matavai Bay, and most of the principal chiefs went on board. On the 30th, while the missionaries were at dinner, Pomare came in great haste, and told them that a man had been blown up with gunpowder at the Council house in Pare, and requested them to hasten to the place and render assistance. When they arrived they found that the injured man was Temarii. Here is the account of the affair by the missionaries:

At our arrival we were led to the bed of Temaree called also Orepiah, and beheld such a spectacle as we had never before seen. Brother Broomhall began immediately to apply what he had prepared with a camel's-hair brush over most parts of the body. He was apparently more passive under the operation than we could conceive a man in his situation would be capable of. The night drawing on, we took leave of him by saying we would return next morning with a fresh preparation. On the following morning we were struck with much surprise at the appearance of the patient He was literally daubed with something like a thick white paste. Upon inquiry we found it to be the scrapings of yams. Both the chief and his wife seemed highly offended at Brother Broomhall's application the preceding evening, and they would not permit him to do anything more for him, as he had felt so much pain from what he had applied. It was said that there was a curse put into the medicine by our God.

It must be remembered that the Tahitian chiefs were also priests and not infrequently acted as physicians. The dissatisfaction of Temarii with the treatment of his case by the missionaries had therefore to be considered as a most unfortunate affair. Under these conditions the missionaries were apprehensive of increasing hostilities. The suspicion on part of the superstitious natives that the missionaries had been sent by Pomare to curse Temarii and cause his death was not only a natural but a reasonable one to the chief as well as his subjects. Pomare was quite capable of such conduct and as far as the natives knew, the missionaries were Pomare's friends and supporters. The accident which gave rise to this unfortunate occurrence was due to the English gunpowder and it was fortunate that the missionaries had nothing to do with furnishing it. The explosion occurred while Temarii was testing the quality of powder which he obtained from the whalers Cornwall and Sally.

A pistol was loaded and unthinkingly fired in the midst of a number of people, over the whole quantity (five pounds) of powder received. A spark of fire dropped from the pistol upon the powder that lay on the ground, and in a moment it blew up. The natives did not feel themselves hurt at first, but when the smoke was somewhat dispersed, observing their skin fouled with powder, they began to rub their arms, and found the skin peeling off under their fingers. Terrified at this, they instantly ran to a river near at hand and plunged themselves in.

Temarii lingered in great suffering till September 8th, but the missionaries did not dare to visit him again for fear of violence on the part of the indignant natives. The whole body of chiefs was present and looked on in consternation while Temarii died. The chief's remains were carried, in the usual state, round the island to all his districts and duly mourned; and in the regular course prescribed by the island ceremonial, his head was secretly hidden in the cave at Papara. These demonstrations served to spread the news of the calamity, for which the missionaries received the exclusive blame. The political complications which followed induced Pomare to seek safety in flight to the Paumotu Islands, leaving his wife to face the storm. The chiefess was not idle after her husband's cowardly flight. On the 29th of November she compromised with Tu by ceding to him the authority he wanted, and obtained from him a pledge assuring her safety. This guaranty was the life of the high priest, old Manne Manne, Tu's best friend. He was murdered by Tetuanui's people on his way from Matavai to Pare. The chiefess was in the missionaries' house when this news arrived. She had a cartridge-box around her waist and a musket near at hand. She shook hands in a friendly manner with the Swede, saying unto him, "It is all over," meaning the war, and immediately returned to her home. Pomare gained nothing by these dissensions, for he had nothing to gain, but had to sacrifice a part of his possessions. The only winner in this tragic game was the worst and most bloodthirsty of all, Tu, the first Christian king. It must be remarked that this king was the creation of the English, and that he was used as a tool in the hands of the missionaries. The Europeans came, and not only upset all the moral ideas of the natives, but also their whole political system. Before European influence made itself felt in Tahiti, whenever a chief became intolerably arrogant or dangerous, the other chiefs united to overthrow him. All the wars that are remembered in island traditions were caused by the overweening pride, violence or abnormal ambition of the great chiefs of districts, and always ended in correcting existing evils and in restoring the balance of power.

The English came just at the time when one of these revolutions was in progress. The whole island had united to punish the chiefess of Papara for outrageous disregard of the island courtesies which took the place of international law between great chiefs. Purea had taken away the symbol of sovereignty she had assumed for her son, and had given it for safe-keeping to the chief of Paea. The natives and chiefs had recognized the chief of Pare, Arue, as entitled to wear the Maro-ura, which Purea had denied him by insulting his wife. Then the chief of Paea had tried to imitate Purea and assert supreme authority, only to be in his turn defeated and killed.

TOMB OF THE LAST KING OF TAHITI, POMARE V.

Probably Tu would never have attempted a similar course if the English had not insisted on recognizing and treating him as king of the whole island. He was one of the weakest of the chiefs and enjoyed little if any reputation as a military power. The other chiefs would have easily kept him in his proper place if the English had not constantly supported him and restored him to power when he was vanquished. English interference and the assistance of the missionaries prolonged his ambition and caused the constant revolutions which gave no chance for the people to recover from the losses. Pomare was a shrewd politician and with the assistance of English guns finally gained control over the whole island, crushing tribal rule, the safeguard of the people under his despotic rule. All visitors to the island became aware how desperately the unfortunate people struggled against the English policy of creating and supporting a tyranny. The brutality and violence of Tu made him equally hated by his own people of Pare and by the Teva districts. Of these facts the missionaries had full knowledge, as is evident from their numerous correspondents, nevertheless, they assisted him in carrying out his plans to gain control over the entire island. They supplied him freely with firearms and ammunition. To preserve peace the missionaries did some very curious things which suggest, as they hinted, that they were glad to see the natives fighting together, as is evident from one of their daily records:

August 20, 1800.—We hear great preparations are making, whether for war or peace is to be determined in a short time, by some heathenish divination. If it should prove for war, those who are eager for blood seem determined to glut themselves, we rejoice that the Lord of Hosts is the God of the heathen as well as the Captain of the Armies of Israel; and while the potsherds of the earth are dashing themselves to pieces one against the other, they are fulfilling his determinate counsels and foreknowledge.

In the month of June Pomare instituted a wholesale massacre to subject the entire island to his rule, and by brutal force gained the object of his ambition. In 1808 the political situation was such that the missionaries found it necessary for their safety to leave the island, and fled with Pomare, November 12th, to the island of Moorea. Pomare's cruelties and atrocities practiced upon the natives during his tyrannical rule are well described in a pen-picture drawn by Moerenhout:

After having massacred all whom they had surprised (in Attahura), after having burned the houses, they went on to Papara, where Tati, who is still living (1837), was chief; but fortunately a man who had escaped from the carnage of Punaauia came to warn the inhabitants of Papara, so that they had time, not to unite in defense, but to fly. Nevertheless, in that infernal night and the day following a great number of persons perished, especially old men, women and children; and among the victims were the widow and children of Aripaia (Ariifaataia) Amo's son, who, surprised the next evening near Taiarahu, were pitilessly massacred with all their attendants. Tati and some of his warriors succeeded in reaching a fort called Papeharoro, at Mairepehe; but they were too few to maintain themseives there, and were forced to take refuge in the most inaccessible parts of the high mountains, from whence this chief succeeded in getting to a canoe which some of his faithful followers provided for him, and kept in readiness on the shore, at the peril of their lives. With him were his brother and his young son, whom he had himself carried in his arms during all this time of fatigue and dangers.

Opuhara became chief of Papara, and soon afterward chief of the island, and remained the chief personage of Tahiti during the next seven years. Ellis, the historian of the missionaries, described him as an intelligent and interesting man.

At Moorea, Pomare's friends were Paumotuans, Boraborans, Raiateans, missionaries, and outcasts. Even these at last abandoned him. The missionary journal shows that they had long regarded their work as a failure, and after identifying themselves with Pomare, in spite of emphatic warnings, no other result was possible. So the missionaries, leaving only Mr. Nott at Moorea, sailed for Australia, not daring to accept the proffered protection of the Tahiti chiefs, because they could not separate themselves, in the minds of the common people, from Pomare and his interests. At Moorea, Pomare urged the visiting chiefs to become Christians. On the 18th of July, 1812, he announced his own decision to the missionaries, and shortly afterwards, on invitation from his old district of Pare Arue, he returned to Tahiti, where he was permitted to remain for two years, as an avowed Christian, unmolested by his old enemies. He took up his residence at Pare Arue as a Christian chief, August 13, 1812, and kept up a correspondence with the missionaries at Moorea.

The missionaries returned and were more successful in Christianizing the people. On the 17th of February, 1813, Pomare wrote: "Matavai has been delivered up to me. When I am perfectly assured of the sincerity of this surrender I will write to you another letter." The missionaries made a tour of the island; many conversions took place; in Moorea several idols were publicly burned; there could be no doubt that the Christians were pursuing an active course, and that their success would bring back the authority of Pomare over the whole island; but neither Opuhara nor Tati interfered, and the peace remained. Yet, after waiting two years at Pare, vainly expecting the restoration of his government, and endeavoring to recover his authority in his hereditary districts, Pomare returned to Moorea in the autumn of 1814, accompanied by a large train of adherents and dependents, all professing Christianity. At the same time the Christian converts in Tahiti became an organization known as the Bure Atua, and every one could see that Pomare was making use of them, and of his wife's resources, to begin a new effort to recover by force his authority in the island. War was inevitable, and Pomare, with his Christian followers and missionaries, could choose the time and place.

Pomare himself was not a soldier, nor had he anything of a soldierly spirit. He left active campaigning to his wives, who were less likely to rouse the old enmity. His two wives, Terite and Pomare vehine, came over to Pare Arue May, 1815, with a large party of Christians, and urged their plans for the overthrow of the native chiefs. The chiefs had no other alternative than to get rid of them, and fixed the night of July 7th for the combined attack. Opuhara led the forces, and it is said that he had given the two queens timely warning to effect their escape. For his delay some of the other chiefs charged him with treachery. He replied that he wished no harm to the two women or their people; that his enemies were the Parionuu; and he marched directly into Pare Arue, and subdued it once more.

TAHITIAN WOMEN IN ANCIENT NATIVE DRESS

While Pomare and the missionaries grew stronger, and, as Ellis expressed it, "became convinced that the time was not very remote when their faith and principles must rise preeminent above the power and influence" of the native chiefs, the chiefs themselves exhibited vacillation. Pomare returned, with all his following, apparently armed and prepared for war. The native converts were trained to the use of firearms and the whole missionary interest became, for the moment, actively militant. The native chiefs remained passive. Under the appearance of religious services, Pomare and the missionaries kept their adherents under arms and prepared them for any hostilities that might arise.

With his army numbering eight hundred, two war canoes, one manned with musketeers, the other with a swivel gun in the stern, commanded by a white man, Pomare, on November 11th, took possession at or near the village of Punaauia, near Papara, with pickets far in advance. Opuhara hastily summoned his men in the famous battle of Fei-pi (the ripe plantains). The field of battle was among the foothills near the coast. Opuhara's warriors made a valiant attack and pierced the front ranks of the enemy till it reached the spot where one of the queens, Pomare vehine, and the chief warriors stood. There one of the native converts leveled his gun at Opuhara, fired, the chief fell, and in a very short time expired. The leader of the native forces was killed by one of his own people who had cast his lot with Pomare and the missionaries.

This war was brought on to force the natives to Pomare's rule, and not for the purpose of removing obstacles to the Christianization of the islanders, as the chiefs were not opposed to the peaceable dissemination of the teachings of the gospel. It was a political and not a religious war, and in this political endeavor the missionaries and their converts took the leading part. The missionaries evidently forgot the legitimate object of their mission and unmercifully slaughtered the natives who took up arms to defend their rights. The Christians on Pomare's side were fighting for supremacy, unmindful of the teachings of the sacred Scriptures.

For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment St. James ii: 13.

When Opuhara fell, his men lost courage, retreated, and were not pursued. The death of Opuhara was deeply regretted by Tati, his near relative and successor in the government of the district. In the ranks of his followers it was firmly believed Opuhara, few as his forces were, would have vanquished the enemy, had not the native missionaries been taught to shoot as they were taught to pray, and been supplied with guns along with Bibles. With the death of Opuhara the last hope of the natives was dissipated and submission to Pomare's rule became a stern reality. Neither the missionaries nor the natives had any idea of allowing Pomare to recede into his old ways. They made him refrain from massacre or revenge after the battle of Fei-pi. Tati, the chief of Papara, maintained peace from that time by his wise rule in that part of the island. He began by the usual island custom of binding Pomare to him by the strongest possible ties. The rapid extinction of chiefly families in Tahiti had left the head chief of Moorea heir to most of the distinguished names and properties in both islands. Marama, the head chief of Moorea, had only one heir, a daughter, a relative of Pomare. This great heiress, almost the last remnant of the three or four sacred families of the two islands, was given by Pomare in marriage to Tati's son, immediately after Tati himself was restored to his rights as head chief of the Tevas. In doing so he claimed for his own the first child that Marama (the bride) should have and made at the same time a compact that the children from the marriage should marry into the Pomare family. These conditions were made to render himself more influential with the most refractory of the conquered tribes. Pomare II. died December 7, 1821, leaving a daughter, Aimata, and a son, Pomare III., a child in arms. Aimata was never regarded with favor by Pomare, her father, who was frank in saying that she was not his child; so the infant son was made heir to the throne. Moerenhout made the statement that Pomare, on his deathbed, expressed the wish that Tati should take the reins of the government in his hands, but that the missionaries and other chiefs were afraid to trust Tati, and preferred to take the charge of the infant king on themselves. The missionaries in due time went through the formal ceremony of crowning the infant, April 22, 1824, at Papara, and then took him to their school, the South Sea Academy, which was established in March, 1824, in the island of Moorea at Papetoai. There he was taught to read and write, and educated in English, which became his language, until he was seven years old, when he fell ill, and was taken over to his mother at Pare, where he died January 11, 1827. During the reign of the infant king, Mata, a friend of the family, managed the affairs of state and became the guardian of Aimata, as the Queen, Pomare IV., was always called by the natives. Aimata was married at the age of nine years. She led an unhappy life, domestic, political, private and public, until at last the missionaries, English and French, fought so violently for control of her and the island that she was actually driven away.

Among other laws which were supposed to have been passed through the influence of the English missionaries, to prevent strangers from obtaining influence in the island, was one dated March 1, 1833, forbidding strangers, under any pretext, from marrying in Tahiti or Moorea. Ariitaimai, of noble birth, the historian of Tahiti, was not inclined to marry a native chief, a decision which met the approval of Marama, her mother. She finally consented to become the wife of Mr. Salmon, an Englishman, who was held in high esteem and consideration in the island; and Aimata suspended the law in order to enable her friend to be married to the man of her choice. The missionaries virtually ruled the island for forty years.

WARS BETWEEN PROTESTANT AND CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES

In 1836 two French missionary priests landed at Tahiti to convert, not pagans, but Protestants to the Roman Catholic faith. The Protestant missionaries, who held the reins of the government, indignant at this interference, invoked the aid of the British consul, Pritchard, who caused the Queen to order their arrest and expulsion. The order was executed December 12, 1836. The two priests made a protest to their government, and King Louis Philippe sent a frigate to Papeete with the usual ultimatum, to which the Queen naturally acceded. Then began a struggle on the part of Consul Pritchard and the English missionaries to recover their ground, which led to a letter from Queen Pomare to Queen Victoria, suggesting a British protectorate, whereupon the French government sent another warship to Tahiti, in 1839, and made Aimata repeat her submission. As the British government at that time did not take much interest in missionaries, and Sir Robert Peel had a very precise knowledge of the value of unclaimed islands all over the world, Queen Victoria did not accept the proposition made by the Tahitian Queen, and the missionaries were again thrown on their own resources.

TAHITI GIRLS IN NATIVE DRESS

The chiefs ignored the missionaries, and in September, 1841, decided that, between such powers as England and France, they could not hope to maintain independence or even a good understanding, and since England refused the proffered protectorate, they would turn to France. So they drew up the necessary papers for the Queen to approve, but a British war vessel arrived in that critical moment, and this reenforcement of British interests induced the vacillating Queen to refuse to sign them. The next August another French naval force arrived, and the chiefs again met in council, with the admiral's aid and advice. The chiefs sent the following letter to the French admiral, Du Petit—Tuhouars:

Inasmuch as we can not continue to govern ourselves so as to live on good terms with foreign governments, and we are in danger of losing our island, our kingdom, and our liberty, we, the Queen and the high chiefs of Tahiti, write to ask the King of the French to take us under his protection.

In response to this formal request the French admiral, on September 30, 1842, hoisted the flag of the protectorate. This did not end the political and religious troubles of the little island. Consul Pritchard, who had been absent from his post for some time, returned from England February 23, 1843, and declared violent war against the French. As usual, Queen Pomare yielded to his wishes, and refused to obey those of the French admiral. The admiral lost his patience and temper, landed troops and took possession of the island, declared the Queen deposed, and, when disturbances arose, which he believed to be fomented and fostered by Pritchard, he arrested him and had him expelled from the island. This act excited much attention, both in the English and French press, which resulted in an order from the King of France to the admiral to restore the protectorate.

It will be seen that the last wars of Tahiti were caused by a religious intolerance on the part of the English missionaries, who objected to the presence of two Roman Catholic priests in the island. European governments were appealed to and had to interfere in establishing in the island free religious thought. It was a fight between two religious denominations which kept the natives in a state of warfare, a most serious reflection on Christian charity,

Alas for the rarity

Of Christian charity

Under the sun.

HOOD.

The constant unrest of the islanders caused by outside interference provoked frequent rebellions, for "general rebellions and revolts of an whole people never were encouraged, now or at any time; they are always provoked."

The two priests, bent upon a humane mission, who, by their presence in Tahiti, without any fault of their own, incurred the enmity of the Protestant missionaries, were the direct cause of French intervention which resulted in the protectorate and later annexation of the island. The priests remained, new ones came, and today nearly one-half of the population of the island are members of the Roman Catholic church.

The teachings and example of the English missionaries and their conduct toward the Catholic priests prove only too plainly:

Christian graces and virtues they can not be, unless fed, invigorated and animated by universal charity.

ATTERBURY.

A GROUP OF NATIVE GIRLS

THE LAST WAR

Our country sinks beneath the yoke;

It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash

Is added to her wounds.

SHAKESPEARE.

The disturbances which preceded and followed the establishment of the French protectorate induced the Queen to seek safety on a British ship, and the whole Pomare following took up arms and established themselves in the stronghold of native power and influence near Papeete. Another civil war broke out which waged between the natives and Europeans from 1844 to 1845. Tired of foreign dictation and oppression, the natives fought with desperation. Forts, which remain today in a good state of preservation, were erected by natives and the French. Most of the ruins of these forts are scattered along the ninety-mile drive between Papeete and Papara. From time to time, determined attacks were made with varying fortunes of war. The natives were superior in number but could not stand up against the well-directed firearms of the professional soldiers. A last and crushing attack was ordered by the French admiral, which meant certain defeat for the natives.

It was at this critical time that a woman came to the rescue of her people and prevented a wholesale slaughter of the heroic defenders of the island. This woman was Ariitaimai, the authoress of the book we have been following so closely in sketching the history of the island. She was the daughter of the famous Marama, of Moorea, the wife of Mr. Salmon, and the mother of Tati Salmon, the present chief of Papara. She recognized the hopelessness of the cause of her people and determined to prevent further useless bloodshed and establish peace. It required good judgment and a great deal of courage to undertake the task which she finally accomplished with such a brilliant success. She was one of those who believed that

Almost all difficulties may be got the better of by prudent thought, revolving and pondering much in the mind.

MARCELLINUS.

She was intensely patriotic and had no fear of the results of her daring mission. She was very popular with the natives and well known to the French authorities, which aided her very much in formulating and carrying out her plans. She had no time to lose, as the decisive attack on her countrymen had been ordered and was to take place the next day. She called on Bruaat, the governor of the island, with the determined intention to end the war. He granted her twenty-four hours to accomplish her task. She then called a meeting of the head chiefs and urged them to surrender on the conditions stipulated by the French, in view of the hopelessness of the island's cause. At that time this woman was the most conspicuous figure in the politics of the island, loved and respected by the chiefs and the people throughout Tahiti and Moorea. The head chiefs received her proposition with favor. Notable speeches complimentary to her were made on this occasion. One chief said:

Ariitaimai, you have flown amongst us, as it were, like the two birds, Ruataa and Toena. Your object was to join together Urarii and Mauu, and you have brought them into this valley. You have brought the cooling medicines of vainu and mahainuieumu into the hearts of the chiefs that are collected here. Our hearts yearn for you, and we can not in words thank you; but the land, one and all, will prove to you in the future that your visit will always remain in their memory. You have come personally. I have heard you speak the words out of your own mouth. You have brought us the best of all goods, which is peace. You have done this when you thought we were in great trouble, and ran the risk of losing our lives and property; you have come forward as a peacemaker for us all.

What beautiful thoughts in simple, homely language! What a splendid specimen of natural oratory!

In oratory, affectation must be avoided; it being better for a man by a native and clear eloquence to express himself than by those words which may smell either of the lamp or ink-horn.

LORD HERBERT OF CHERBURY.

The chiefs unanimously accepted the terms of peace, and after the adjournment of the council, Ariitaimai hastened to Papeete with the message of the chiefs, which was accepted, and once more the protectorate flag was raised and was recognized and respected by the chiefs and the people. During all these great final trials of the island, the Queen remained in the island of Moorea and even after peace was restored and she was formally requested to return, she refused to do so. The French authorities offered the crown repeatedly to Ariitaimai, but as often, she refused the great honor. The exiled Queen was her intimate and dear friend and

Ennuis has well remarked that "a real friend is known in adversity."

CICERO.

She was content with having accomplished a patriotic deed and with the respect, love and gratitude of her people.

So true it is, that honor, prudently declined, often comes back with increased lustre.

LIVIUS.

She could say:

Give me a staff of honour for mine age;

But not a sceptre to control the world.

SHAKESPEARE.

and

Tis less to conquer than to make wars cease,

And, without fighting, awe the world to peace.

HALIFAX.

Ariitaimai made several visits to the unhappy Queen, urging her to return and resume her reign of the island, and had the satisfaction, finally, to bring her back from Raiatea on her third visit.

True friends visit us in prosperity only when invited, but in adversity they come without invitation.

THEOPHRASTUS.

The Queen, on her return, was received with regal honors by the French authorities and by the people.

Pomare V. was the last of the kings of Tahiti. He was the oldest son of Queen Pomare IV. and known as Ariiane Pomare. He was married to Marau Taawa Salmon, Tati Salmon's sister, and had two daughters: Teriimii-o-Tahiti, and Arii mainhinihi. Under European influences and customs he became a degenerate Tahitian, profligate and dissipated, and it is said that he was largely responsible for the annexation of the island to France as a colony in 1880, as he received a substantial remuneration for his influence in that direction and a pension of sixty thousand francs a year. He died in 1891. Since Tahiti has become a French possession the island has enjoyed uninterrupted peace. The French government has been exceedingly liberal with the natives, having interfered as little as possible with their habits and customs.

That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy.

MACAULEY.

The island is governed under the French laws, but local laws and tribal rule remain and administer the local affairs. In completing the eventful history of this little island it becomes apparent:

What is public history but a register of the successes and disappointments, the vices, the follies and quarrels of those engaged in the contention for power.

PALEY.

The government has established and enforced religious liberty, observing the precept: "The protection of religion is indispensable to all government" (Bishop Warburton). Taxation is limited to road tax only. The annexation was looked upon with great disfavor by the natives, but was finally accepted with good grace, and peace and happiness have reigned since.

THE NATIVES

The Polynesians inhabiting the islands of the great Pacific Ocean constitute a distinct race of people, supposed at one time by certain writers to be of American origin, now almost universally admitted to have a close affinity with the Malays of the peninsula and Indian Archipelago, and hence classified by Dr. Latham under his subdivision Oceanica Mongolidæ. In physical structure and appearance the Polynesians in general more nearly resemble the Malays than they do any other race, although differing from them in some respects, as, indeed, the natives of several of the groups also do from each other. Centuries and environment have left their impress on the inhabitants of the different islands, as

Everything that is created is changed by the laws of man; the earth does not know itself in the revolution of years; even the races of man assume various forms in the course of years.

MANILIUS.

NATIVE GIRL IN MODERN DRESS

In stature the Tahitian compares well with any other race. The face is expressive of more than ordinary intelligence. The color of the skin varies from almost black to a light yellow. The aquiline nose is commonly seen among them, and there are many varieties of hair and complexion. In complexion they resemble more nearly the Japanese than the Chinese. The beard is thin, the prevailing hair jet black, straight, wavy or curly, profuse and long; eyes large and black; no drooping or obliquity of eyelids. The face is generally roundish; lower jaw well developed; no unusual malar prominences; forehead slightly receding; mouth large, lips thick and as a rule slightly everted; wide nostrils; ears large; chin prominent. The general resemblance of stature and physiognomy, however, is more with the Malays than any other race, and from which they are undoubtedly the descendants, changed by climatic influences, food, habits and methods of living. In physical appearance the Tahitians and Samoans are the handsomest and tallest of all the natives of the Pacific Islands, with the exception, perhaps, of the Maoris, or New Zealanders.

The superstition of the taboo, the use of kava as an intoxicating drink, cannibalism, infanticide, offering of human sacrifices, tattooing, and circumcision, which were formerly prevalent in Tahiti, have disappeared under the influence of Christianity.

Much has been said about the beauty of some of the women of the South Sea Islands, but I am sure I do them no injustice if I say that these descriptions are overdrawn by sentimental writers and do not correspond, when put to the test of comparison, with the reality. When young, there is something fascinating about the women, imparted by the luxurious jet-black hair, the large black eyes as they gaze at the strangers

With a smile that is childlike and bland.

FRANCIS BRET HARTE.

Beauty and youth among the Tahitian women are of short duration, and in most of them advanced age brings an undesirable degree of corpulence.

Cook visited these people when they were in their original physical and moral state. He praises their openness and generosity. "Neither does care ever seem to wrinkle their brow. On the contrary, even the approach of death does not appear to alter their usual vivacity. I have seen them, when brought to the brink of the grave by disease, and when preparing to go to battle; but in neither case, never observed their countenance overclouded with melancholy, or serious reflection. Such a disposition leads them to direct all their aims only to what can give them pleasure and ease."

The whole countenance is a certain silent language of the mind.

CICERO.

These mental traits have been preserved up to the present time. Melancholy and suicide are almost unknown in Tahiti. The people are happy, contented and free from care and anxiety and

Enjoy the pleasures of the passing hour, and bid adieu for a time to grave pursuits.

HORATIUS.

They seem to know that

Care and the desire for more

Attend the still increasing store.

HORATIUS.

Desire for great wealth does not exist among the natives. Nature has supplied them with nearly all they need, hence little remains for them to do to meet their modest desires.

Religion has not done away entirely with superstition, and has improved their morals little, if any. Old European residents of Papeete agree that the morality of the natives has not improved since they have been under the influence of civilization, forced on them by the European invaders. The greatest fault of the people is their incurable laziness, a vice for which they are not entirely responsible, as Nature has provided so bountifully for their needs. Robbery, stealing and murder are almost unknown; petty thefts, on the contrary, are quite common. The people, young and old, are affable, extremely courteous and hospitable to a fault; the family ties strong, and extending to the remotest relatives.

Man is a social animal, and born to live together so as to regard the world as one house.

SENECA.

Nowhere in the world are the people more sociable than in Tahiti. This sociability was perhaps more pronounced before the island was discovered than it is now, but it remains to this day as one of the prominent characteristics of the Polynesian race. Respect and love for parents, strong attachments to relatives and friends, are striking virtues of the Tahitians. They love social intercourse and have the highest regard for friendship. Poverty and misfortunes do not intercept friendships, on the contrary they cement them more firmly.

The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity; as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flames.

COLTON.

Before European influence had made itself felt in the island, each tribe constituted a large family, and property lines were not sharply defined. As long as there was anything to eat, no one was left hungry. The Tahitians are extremely fond of mingling with their relatives, friends, members of the same and other tribes. They appreciate to the fullest extent that "we have been born to unite with fellow-men, and to join in community with the human race" (Cicero). They treat old age with reverence and respect, and take the very best care of the sick and poor.

Unity of feelings and affections is the strongest relationship.

PUBLIUS SYRUS.

TAHITIAN LADIES IN ZULU DRESS

Under the teachings of the missionaries, Protestant and Catholic, paganism has disappeared from the island. All are church-members and attend service regularly. The denominations represented are the Episcopalians, Catholics and Latter-day Saints in above numerical order. Most of the priests and preachers are natives. Christianity, has, however, failed to suppress immorality and do away entirely with the inborn superstition of the natives. The former evil is firmly rooted, the latter difficult of complete eradication.

Nothing has more power over the multitude than superstition: in other respects powerless, ferocious, fickle, when it is once captivated by superstitious notions, it obeys its priests better than its leaders.

QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS.

Wicked habits are productive of vice, and vice follows long-standing habits. The Tahitians are by nature kind, affectionate, and their opinions are easily moulded for good or bad, but many of their customs and habits cling to them in spite of civilization and Christianization, for "how many unjust and wicked things are done from mere habit!" (Terentius); and "so much power has custom over tender minds" (Virgilius).

The children of Tahiti are given excellent opportunities for obtaining a good elementary education. In all of the larger villages there is a government school, usually two churches. Catholic and Protestant, and their respective parochial schools. The natives love their language and are averse to the French, hence, as a rule, the parochial are better patronized than the government schools. The literature in the Tahitian language is limited to translations of the Bible, catechisms, religious song books and a few school books. Children of the better classes who seek a higher education, go abroad, in preference to the United States. Few show any ambition to enter any of the professions with the exception of the clerical. The mass of the people are content in leading an easy, dreamy life, showing no disposition either to acquire wealth or fame. Agriculture, manufacture and commerce have no attraction for them. They are children from the cradle to the grave, have the desires of children, and are pleased with what pleases children. Their tastes are simple, their desires few, and instead of in care and worry, they live through their span of life in peace of mind and contentment.

But if men would live according to reason's rules, they would find the greatest riches to live content with little, for there is never want where the mind is satisfied.

LUCRETIUS.

In contrast to the Westerner, the favored Tahitian can say:

I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.

TERRENCE.

The natives are temperate in drinking, and frugal in eating. Fish and fruit are their principal articles of diet. Their habits in this direction have not undergone much change since Captain Cook wrote:

Their common diet is made up of at least nine-tenths vegetable food; and, I believe, more particularly, the mahee, or fermented breadfruit, which enters almost every meal, has a remarkable effect upon them, preventing a costive habit, and producing a very sensible coolness about them, which could not be perceived in us who fed on animal food. And it is, perhaps, owing to this temperate course of life that they have so few diseases among them.

Smoking is indulged in only to a moderate extent, cigarettes and pipe being the favorite methods of consuming the weed.

Art has never had a place in the minds of the Tahitians. All attempts in this direction in design, carving and sculpture, are rude. Like all primitive peoples, they are fond of music. Their voices are sweet, but the airs of their music are monotonous. The primitive drum, and a little crude instrument made of bamboo, something like a flute, placed in one of the nostrils when played, are the instruments in most common use. The national dance, formerly the principal amusement of the people, is discouraged by the government, but is allowed once a year as a special favor to the natives.

FOREIGNERS IN TAHITI

Most of the foreigners who remain permanently in Tahiti become attached to the island by marriage, the strongest possible incentive to make it their permanent home. Many of these men are adventurers. Some of them have honest intentions to make this beautiful island their permanent home. Far away from their place of birth and relatives, charmed by the beauties of the island, they conclude:

I will take some savage woman; she shall rear my dusky race.

TENNYSON.

In many instances such unions have resulted very happily. On the voyage from San Francisco to Tahiti, I met Mr. George R. Richardson, a native of Springfield, Mass., who had lived for the last thirty years, with his native wife on the little atoll island, Kaukuaia of the Tuamotu group, one hundred and sixty-eight miles from Tahiti. He was suffering from carcinoma of the esophagus, and was returning from San Francisco, whither he had gone for medical advice. His parents were still living, but he had no desire to visit the place of his birth, so fully had he become acclimated to the climatic and native conditions of the Society Islands. He was then fifty-five years of age. He left the United States March 4, 1874, on a sailing vessel, and six months later landed at Tahxa. In six months he had obtained a fair knowledge of the native language, and married in Kaukuaia a woman who could not speak a word of English. This union resulted in sixteen children, three of whom died, six girls and seven boys living at the present time, and of these, three girls and two boys are married. Through his wife he inherited from her mother five acres of land with three thousand cocoanut-palms. To this land he obtained a legal ownership eight years ago by virtue of a law of legal registration passed by the government. The island on which he lives contains only one hundred and fifty inhabitants and the only income is obtained from copra and mother-of-pearl.

NATIVE MUSICIANS AND NATIVE DANCE

The inhabitants of this island are Catholics and Mormons. A Catholic priest comes once a month to minister to the spiritual needs of the adherents to the faith of his church. The services of both denominations are conducted in the native language. He and a Frenchman are the only white inhabitants of the island.

On February 16, 1878, a great storm overflooded the island and our American, who spent a whole night in the crown of a cocoanut tree, lost everything. Only five thousand cocoanut trees were left on the whole island. A man-of-war came from Tahiti three days later and ministered to the urgent needs of the survivors.

The inhabitants of this little island suffer frequently from malaria and grippe. The latter disease returns regularly almost every year. Of the remaining diseases, diarrhea and dysentery are the most common. Tuberculosis is prevalent and claims many victims. This island has now a population of one hundred and fifty, and during his residence he has never seen a physician, although the inhabitants were frequently in need of medical services. He was obliged to render his wife assistance at the birth of all of his children, and strangely, each time without any mishap, either to mother or child. What happened on that island must have happened on the many other distant islands under similar circumstances. Here, like elsewhere, in the South Sea Islands, are medicine-men who attend to tooth-pulling, and, when any cutting is to be done, a scalpel is made of a piece of glass. In case of sickness they make use of roots and herbs of their own gathering.

BUSINESS IN TAHITI

The Tahitian is not a business man. What little business is transacted in the island is done by foreigners. The larger stores in Papeete are owned and managed by French, Germans and Americans. The smaller stores in the city, and nearly all small shops in the villages, are in the hands of Chinamen.

The fertile soil of Tahiti is not made use of to any considerable extent. The sugar industry has been tried but has been entirely abandoned, owing to high wages for labor and exorbitant freight rates. The principal articles of export are copra, cocoanuts, vanilla-beans and mother-of-pearl shells. Copra (dried meat of cocoanut), brings three cents a kilo and cocoanuts are sold at a cent apiece. The raising of vanilla-beans was a paying industry five years ago, when they commanded a price of seventeen dollars a pound, and were then eagerly sought for in the market, as they were considered superior in flavor to those of any other country. The Chinamen have ruined this source of income as well as the reputation of the product. These shrewd business men control the local market completely and go from place to place long before harvest-time, buy the whole crop for the year for cash, and have the beans picked before they are ripe and mature them artificially. The result of such dishonest transactions has been that, owing to the poor quality of the beans thus treated, the price of the article has been reduced to three or four dollars per pound.

The vanilla-bean grows best in the shady forests, and requires but little attention except artificial fertilization of the flowers and picking of the beans. In the West Indies the numerous insects fertilize the monogamous flowers; in this island, this has to be done largely by artificial fecundation. Women and children do this work. With a sharp little stick, the pollen is taken from the anthers and rubbed over the stigma of the pistil. A child who is active can fertilize fifteen hundred flowers a day. It is a great pity that this industry has been cheapened by the avaricious Chinamen, as it is an industry that requires very little labor and should be remunerative, as the soil and climate are peculiarly well adapted for the cultivation of this valuable aromatic.

Most of the fruit which grows in Tahiti is too perishable for transportation and is consequently very cheap. The largest and most luscious pineapples can be bought for three cents apiece, oranges one-fourth of a cent. Alligator pears, the finest fruit grown anywhere, are sold at the market for two and three cents apiece. At the time of my visit, eggs were sold at forty cents a dozen. Meat, with the exception of pork, is imported from New Zealand and the United States. Most of the native families raise hogs, and this animal is found also in a wild state in the jungles of the forests.

The wages, for this island, are rather high. An ordinary laborer is paid seventy-five cents a day, and the women who are willing to work can earn fifty cents a day. The average Tahitian works only long enough to procure the necessities of life, and, as these are few, it is difficult to find men and women for ordinary labor and housework.

The fact that there is no bank in the whole island shows that the amount of money which circulates among the people is very small. Some enterprising American attempted to establish a telephone line encircling the island, but lack of patronage soon paralyzed the undertaking. The island is a place for a dreamy, easy existence, and not for business.

The communication with the outside world is carried on by two regular steamer lines, one from San Francisco, the other from Auckland, but both of these lines are supported by liberal government subsidies to make them remunerative, as the passenger traffic and the exports and imports of the island would not suffice to make them independent of government aid.

OLD TAHITI

What will not length of time be able to change?

CLAUDIANUS.

Tahiti is exceedingly interesting to-day, but how much more so must it have been to Captain Wallis and his crew, who first set their eyes on this gem of the Pacific! When the Dolphin came in sight of this beautiful island that never before had been seen by a white man, we can readily imagine officers and crew straining their eyes to see first its rugged outlines, and later the details of the wonderful landscapes. Under the blue sky and lighted up by the vigorous rays of the tropic sun, they could see the mountain-peaks clothed in the verdure of a tropic forest, the little island set like a gem in the ocean, and, as they beheld these mountains and turned their eyes upward they could also see

They were canopied by the blue sky, so cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful that God alone was to be seen in heaven.

BYRON.

TAHITIAN GIRL IN NATIVE FESTIVE DRESS

As they approached nearer and saw the natural wealth of the island and its happy inhabitants basking in the sunshine, eating what Nature had provided for them without care or toil on their part, they must have come to the unavoidable conclusion that they at last had found a land where