FOREIGNERS IN TAHITIMost 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 MUSICIANSNATIVE MUSICIANS AND NATIVE DANCEThe 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.
FOREIGNERS IN TAHITIMost 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 MUSICIANSNATIVE MUSICIANS AND NATIVE DANCEThe 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.
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.
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 MUSICIANSNATIVE MUSICIANS AND NATIVE DANCE
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.