THE CHIEF'S DAUGHTER.
"In another way civilization has destroyed the picturesqueness of the Marquesas Islands. The natives formerly wore necklaces made of hogs' and whales' teeth, and the men bored their ears, in which theyinserted ornaments of bone or teeth. These snow-white necklaces on the skins of the Marquesas women had a very pretty effect, much prettier than that of the cheap jewellery they wear nowadays, and which comes from French or English manufactories. The chief's daughter whom I mentioned had one of these necklaces, but she wore it more as the mark of her rank than because she admired it. Above the necklace she had a double string of common beads. She had a funny sort of ear-ornament that we tried in vain to buy, as it was one of the insignia to indicate her rank in life.
"When the French took possession of the islands they started to make an extensive colony. They sent a fleet of four ships of war with five hundred troops, and hoisted the French flag with a great deal of ceremony. Fortifications were built, and there were some conflicts withthe natives; but of course the islanders, with their rude and primitive weapons, were speedily conquered. The French built docks and jetties in addition to their fortifications, but they have been of little practical use. We found that the most of the jetties had rotted away, and in place of the former garrison of five hundred men there are now about sixty soldiers and a few policemen.
"The Governor treated us very kindly, and at our first call upon him he invited us to dine with him, where we met his amiable wife and the officers of his staff. Colonel Bush invited them to dine on the yacht. As the cabin is limited, we had the Governor and his wife on one day and the officers on another, and I am sure they all enjoyed our visit. Strangers come here so rarely that our advent made an agreeable break in the monotony of their lives.
"There are some fifty foreigners living here, and they include several nationalities—English, American, Irish, Scotch, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Peruvian. Some of them are engaged in business, but there is not a great deal of it, as the colony has not been successful. Cotton is the principal article of cultivation, and there is a small trade in beche-de-mer, the famous sea-cucumber of which the Chinese are fond. It brings a high price in the markets of Canton and Shanghai, sometimes selling as high as five hundred dollars a ton. One of the Englishmen, who has a store in the little settlement, said that several of the cotton plantations had been abandoned, owing to the difficulty of getting laborers for them. The natives are disinclined to work, and laborers from other islands cannot be had in sufficient numbers. Several hundred Chinese have been imported, and also some laborers from the Gilbert and Loyalty Islands. The Chinese make very good colonists, and many of them have plantations of their own, which they manage very successfully.
"The same gentleman showed us a fungus that comes from the valleys between the mountains; it looks very much like a scrap of dried leather, and would not be considered worth much to one who did not know about it. It brings a good price in China, where it is used for making soup. We tried some of it at dinner one day, and found it not at all disagreeable to the taste; in fact it was so good that our steward bought nearly a barrel of it for future use.
"There is a road around the head of the bay which was built by the French soon after their arrival, but has been neglected and is not in good repair. Our host took us on a ride along this road, from which the view is delightful. In front is the deep blue water of thebay, while behind us the mountains rose very precipitously, and seemed to shut us out altogether from the rest of the island. The bay is nearly in the shape of a horseshoe, ending in two high headlands, and to follow its shores requires a walk or ride of about nine miles. The entrance is less than half a mile wide, and is guarded by two small islands, each about five hundred feet high.
"Cowper says:
"'Mountains interpos'dMake enemies of nations who had else,Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.'
"There is nowhere in the world a better illustration of the truth of this assertion than in the Marquesas. In each island the mountains rise in ridges like the sections of a starfish; some of these ridges are quite impassable, and all of them very difficult to traverse. The result has been that there was formerly very little intercourse between the tribes occupying the different valleys, and until the French came here there was hardly a time when two or more tribes were not at war. Even at present they are not entirely at peace, and though the most of them have abandoned cannibalism, it is occasionally practised.
"Our host told us that in many of the valleys there are old menwho have never been outside the limits of the mountain walls that enclose their homes, and others whose journeys have been wholly confined to short excursions on the water a few miles from shore. The ordinary mode of communication is by water, and in many cases it is the only one possible.
A EUROPEAN'S RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS.
"The gentleman invited us to go to one of the valleys where he has a plantation; we made the excursion in a large sail-boat manned by six or eight natives, but built after an English model and commanded by an English sailor. Starting early one morning, we made the run in about four hours, spent an afternoon and night in the valley, and returned the next day. All these valleys in the Marquesas have a wealth of tropical trees and smaller plants which is not surpassed anywhere else in the world. The cocoa and several other varieties of the palm-tree abound here, and they have the bread-fruit, the banana and taro plants, the sugar-cane, and, as before mentioned, the cotton-plant.
A MARQUESAN VILLAGE.
"Close by the landing-place we came to a village of a dozen or twenty huts built of the yellow bamboo and thatched with palmetto-leaves, which the sun had bleached to a whiteness that reminded us of a newly shingled roof in temperate zones. Our guide called our attention to the platform of stones on which each house stood, and said it was a protection against dampness. The rain falls frequently and very heavily, and it is the abundant moisture that makes the vegetation so luxuriant. On the mountain ridges, in whatever direction you look, there are streams tumbling down, and the steep cliffs are whitened by numerous cascades. The moisture nourishes a great variety of creeping plants, and in many places they completely cover the precipitous cliffs and give them the appearance of green water-falls.
"The natives in one respect resemble the Irish peasantry, their chief wealth being in pigs. These animals were introduced by the Spaniards, who were for a long time venerated as gods in consequence of this inestimable gift to these simple-minded people. Before the visit of the Spaniards the islands had absolutely no four-footed animals; hence it is easy to see how Mendaña and his companions were regarded as more than human.
"Now they have some horses and horned cattle, but not many; they have dogs and cats, and unfortunately they have rats, which were brought here in foreign ships, and have multiplied so fast that they have become a great pest. There are only a few varieties of birds on the islands; most of them have beautiful plumage, but none can be properly called song-birds.
"Near the village is a well-built church of stone; it is in charge of a Catholic priest, and we were told that there is an average of one church to every two hundred inhabitants all over the islands. The first missionaries to the Marquesas came in the London Mission shipDuffnear the end of the last century, but after a short residence they became disheartened and abandoned the effort to convert and civilize the people. Several attempts were made in the first quarter of the present century, but with a similar result. In 1833 some American missionaries tried the experiment, and in 1834 the London Mission Society sent a fresh party of missionaries, but all to little purpose.
CATHOLIC MISSIONARY.
"In 1853 an English missionary named Bicknell and four Hawaiian teachers, accompanied by their wives, went to the Marquesas at the request of a Marquesan chief, who had gone to the Sandwich Islands in a whale-ship to present the invitation. The French priests opposed the coming of these missionaries, but the chiefs refused to give them up, and so the teachers remained, but they made little progress in converting the natives to Christianity.
"The Catholic mission supports quite a number of priests and a bishop at the Marquesas. The mission has had very poor success in securing adherents to its faith, but it has done much good in the way of showing the natives the result of industry. Around each mission station there is a well-cultivated garden, and some of the finest cotton-fields on the islands may be found there. I have never seen anywhere a prettier cotton-field than at the mission we visited.
"There is a convent at Nookaheeva, where the French Sisters are educating about sixty Marquesan girls, whose ages vary from four to sixteen years. There is a similar school for boys, which is under the charge of the mission; and the bishop hopes that these boys and girls will be of service in educating and converting their people to the religion and civilization of the foreigner. But from all we can learn it will be a long time before his hopes are realized. The Queen is a devout Catholic, while the King is a nominal one, and each missionary has a small flock of followers; but the great majority are as much heathen as ever, and cling firmly to their old superstitions.
"One of the curious customs of the South Sea Islands is thetabu, and it prevails much more strongly at the Marquesas at the present timethan anywhere else. The word is Polynesian, and singularly resembles in sound and meaning theto ebahof the ancient Hebrews. It has a good and a bad meaning, or rather it may apply to a sacred thing or to a wicked one. A cemetery, being consecrated ground, would be tabu, or sacred, and to fight there would be tabu, or wicked. Our English word 'tabooed' (forbidden) comes from the Polynesian one.
IN A GALE NEAR THE MARQUESAS.
"It would take too long to describe all the operations of tabu as it formerly prevailed through Polynesia and still exists in some of the islands, and especially in the Marquesas. There were two kinds of tabu, one of them permanent, the other temporary. The permanent tabu was a sort of traditional or social rule, and applied to everybody. All grounds and buildings dedicated to any idol or god were tabu, and therefore became places of refuge to men fleeing from an enemy, exactly like the Cities of Refuge mentioned in the Bible. It was tabu to touch the person of a chief or any article belonging to him, or eat anything he had touched. In the Tonga Islands it was tabu to speak the name of father or mother or of father-in-law or mother-in-law, to touch them, or to eat in their presence except with the back turned, when they were constructively supposed to be absent.
COMMODORE PORTER'S FLEET IN NOOKAHEEVA BAY.
"In the Feejee Islands it was tabu for brother and sister and first-cousins to speak together or eat from the same dish. Husband and wife could not eat from the same dish, and a father could not speak to his son if the latter was more than fifteen years old!
"The tabu was a very convenient police system, as any exposed property could be made safe by being tabooed. The chiefs and priests could tabu anything they chose; when a feast was about to come offthe chief would previously tabu certain articles of food, and thus insure an abundance on the day of the festival. Violation of certain kinds of tabu was punished with death; other and smaller violations had various penalties affixed, and they generally included sacrifices or presents to the gods, or the payment of fines to the chiefs.
"Well, here in the Marquesas, among other prohibitions, it was tabu for a woman to enter a canoe or boat. Men had a monopoly of all paddling and sailing, and the only sea-voyage a woman could make was by swimming. I have read about women in the South Seas swimming out to ships anchored a long distance from shore, and never understood till now how it was. It is no wonder that sailors used to mistake these Marquesan nymphs for mermaids as they dashed through the waves with their long black hair trailing behind them in the water."
Fred's account of what they saw in the Marquesas pauses abruptly at this point. Perhaps he was interrupted by just such a scene as he describes in the last sentence, but he could hardly fall into the old error of the sailors. The women of the Marquesas are fine swimmers, but no better, perhaps, than those of the Feejee, Samoan, and other tropical or semi-tropical groups.
ThePeraremained several days at the Marquesas, and then proceeded to Tahiti, in the Society group. Before they left Nookaheeva one of the officers of the Governor's staff pointed out the hill where Commodore Porter hoisted the American flag when he anchored with his prizes in the bay during the war of 1812. "That was a long time ago," said the officer; "but the incident is vividly preserved in the traditions of the people. And it was that incident that greatly aided the French in getting their foothold here."
"How was that?" Frank inquired.
"At the time of Commodore Porter's visit," replied the officer, "the Nookaheevans were at war with a neighboring tribe. The hostile tribe made an incursion one night and destroyed about two hundred bread-fruit trees close to Porter's camp; the next day they sent a messenger to tell him he was a coward, and they would come soon and attack his camp.
"Porter thereupon concluded to teach them a lesson, and so he sent a small detachment under Lieutenant Downs to aid the Nookaheevans to punish their enemies.
"This was accomplished, and the hostile tribe was completely subdued. As soon as he had completed the repairs to his ships Porter sailed away, but he was long revered in Nookaheeva. When the French came here, thirty years afterwards, the natives thought the performance of Porter would be repeated, and the Frenchmen wouldaid the Nookaheevans to defeat their enemies. They were received with open arms, and the natives were not undeceived until the French had completed their forts and were fully able to defend themselves."
Continuing his reference to the natives, Frank's informant said that great numbers of them were at one time kidnapped and carried away by labor-vessels, of which more will be said in a later chapter. In 1863 small-pox was introduced by foreign ships, and killed nearly one-half of the population. Altogether the people of the Marquesas have no special occasion to be grateful to the white man.
During thePera's voyage to Tahiti our young friends devoted their time to a study of that part of the Pacific Ocean and the islands it contained. Fred called their attention to Pitcairn Island, which has been long famous as the home of the mutineers of theBounty; both the youths regretted that they were not to pass in its vicinity, but consoled themselves by reading an account of a visit to it, and a description of the inhabitants.[2]
EASTER ISLAND HOUSE AND CHILDREN.
One day while they were busy with their studies of the Pacific, Doctor Bronson called their attention to Easter Island, which he pronounced one of the most remarkable islands in the great ocean.
Frank eagerly asked why it was so, and the Doctor kindly explained as follows:
LAVA ROCK IMAGE, EASTER ISLAND.
"It is remarkable," said he, "on account of the mysterious origin and history of its former inhabitants, and the sculptured rocks andstone images which they have left scattered in great numbers over the island. It has been known since 1722, when the navigator Roggewein discovered it on Easter Sunday of that year, and named it Easter Island in commemoration of the discovery. Some authorities say it was discovered in 1686 by Davis, an English buccaneer, and it was known as Davis Land until Roggewein's visit. Captain Cook visited it about 1772, and it is said he found twenty thousand inhabitants there. The island is about thirty miles in circumference, and is situated in latitude 27° 10' south, and 109° 26' west longitude. It has a remarkable isolation, being two thousand miles from the coast of Chili, and one thousand five hundred from any other inhabited island except Pitcairn, and that, as you know, is a small island, about two miles long and not more than a mile broad in its widest part.
EASTER ISLAND MAN.
"Easter Island is called Rapa Nui by the natives of Tahiti, and is of unmistakably volcanic origin. There is a large extinct crater on each end of the island, and numerous small ones between, the ground being thickly covered with black volcanic rock and obsidian in the western portion. The largest of these volcanoes is named Rauo Kao; it is over one thousand three hundred feet high, enclosing a fresh-water lake nearly three miles in circumference, the surface of which is partially covered with vegetable matter, over which a man may walk in places. The second one in size is extremely interesting on account of its being the place where the stone images were made from lava rock, a great number of which still remain, some unfinished and attached to the precipitous cliffs. Anenormous number of these images is scattered all over the island, while there are ninety-three inside and one hundred and fifty-five immediately outside of the crater. They are in solid pieces, varying from five to seventy feet in height; some of the figures lying prostrate are twenty-seven feet long, and measure eight feet across the breast."
EASTER ISLAND WOMAN.
"Very much like the great statues at Thebes and Karnak in Egypt," said Fred.
"Yes," replied the Doctor, "and one of these statues measures twenty feet from the shoulder to the crown of the head. The sculpture is extremely rude, and as works of art the Easter Island statues bear no comparison to the Egyptian ones. The human body is represented terminating at the hips, the head is flat, the top of the forehead cut level so as to support a crown which was cut from red tufa found in one of the smaller craters. They were transported to villages near the sea, and placed upon stone platforms constructed in various heights and different lengths, facing the water. One of these platforms supported thirteen immense images, and all of those examined contained human bones, showing it to be a place of burial. Of these platforms one hundredand thirteen have been counted. On a precipice overlooking the sea is a village of ancient stone huts, where, it is said, the natives lived only during a portion of the year. Near by are also sculptured rocks, covered with curious and extremely interesting carvings.
STONE TABLET OF CHARACTER WRITING.
"The platforms are from two to three hundred feet long, and about thirty feet high, built of hewn stones five or six feet long, and accurately joined without cement. The platforms are at intervals all around the coast, and some of the headlands were levelled off to form similar resting-places for the images.
STONE PLATFORM FOR IMAGES.
"All of the principal images have the top of the head cut flat and crowned with a circular mass of red lava hewn perfectly round; some of these crowns are sixty-six inches in diameter, and fifty-two inches thick, and were brought eight miles from the spot where they were quarried. About thirty crowns are lying in the quarries, and some of them are fully ten feet in diameter, and of proportionate height."
Frank asked if the present inhabitants had any tradition concerning these statues.
"None whatever," was the reply. "At present there are less than two hundred people living there; they seem to be the degenerate remainsof a race something like the Maoris of New Zealand, and they speak a language similar to those people. Although undoubtedly a cannibal race—in fact, one old man speaks with enthusiasm when asked regarding the custom—they are at present quiet and enlightened, but retain many superstitious ideas which they have received by transmission. They venerate a small sea-bird, the egg of which is sacred to them, and their season of feast begins in August, when the first eggs of these birds are taken from two barren rocks near the cliffs. Men and youths swim to these rocks, and the one who first secures an egg is held in high esteem; he lords it over the others for twelve months, his food being furnished for him, and he is not permitted to bathe for three months. A recent visitor says the people are so dirty that you could suppose every man, woman, and child had performed the successful feat the last feast-time. The last king was Kai Makor, who died about 1864, when Peruvian ships visited Rapa Nui, and a number of the natives were seized and taken to work the guano on the Chincha Islands, where the greater number died. A few were finally sent back, and they brought with them small-pox, which caused great havoc and nearly depopulated the island. Water is scarce, but the climate is equable, and one of the most delightful in the world, the thermometer seldom registering higher than 75° to 80° during the warmest season.
"An image and some other curiosities were brought away in 1886 by the United States steamerMohican, which visited the island in that year. They are now in the Naval Museum at Washington, and it is hoped that some one will be able to decipher the hieroglyphics, which thus far have remained without an interpreter."
FROM THE MARQUESAS TO THE SOCIETY ISLANDS.—THE GREAT BARRIER REEF.—THE CORAL INSECT AND HIS WORK.—ATOLLS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES.—ORIGIN OF THE POLYNESIAN PEOPLE.—ARRIVAL AT PAPÉITI.—ON SHORE IN TAHITI.—A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS.—WORK OF THE MISSIONARIES.—THE FRENCH OCCUPATION.—VICTIMS FOR SACRIFICE.—OLD-TIME CUSTOMS.—PRODUCTS OF THE SOCIETY ISLANDS.—BECHE-DE-MER FISHING.—VISIT TO THE REEF.—CURIOUS THINGS SEEN THERE.—ADVENTURES WITH SHARKS, STINGAREES, AND OTHER MONSTERS.—GIGANTIC CLAMS.—VISITING THE MARKET.—EATING LIVE FISHES.—A NATIVE FEAST.—EXCURSION TO POINT VENUS.
COAST SCENERY, TAHITI.
When well clear of the Marquesas thePeraturned her prow to the south-west, in the direction of Tahiti, which lay about nine hundred miles away. The strong trade-wind bore her swiftly on her course, and on the fourth day of the voyage the lofty peaks of Otaheite's isle rose into view. The summits of the mountains seemed to pierce the sky, so sharp and steep were they, and almost to their very tops they were covered with verdure. Luxuriant forests were everywhere visible, and the shore was fringed with a dense growth of palms that seemed to rise from the water itself.
The central peak of Tahiti has an elevation of something more than seven thousand feet, and from this peak there is a series of ridges radiating towards the sea like the spokes of a wheel. Many of these ridges are so steep on their sides that they cannot be ascended, and so narrow that there is not room for an ordinary path. A man standing on one of these ridges could with his right hand throw a stone into one valley, and with his left a stone into another, whose inhabitants could communicate only by descending to the coast, or to the lowland which borders it. The valleys are luxuriant, and even the ridges are covered with vines and bushes.
As the youths, with their glasses, eagerly scanned the coast they were approaching, one of them called out that he could see a strip of calm water close to the shore.
"We are coming to the great barrier-reef of coral," said Doctor Bronson, "and the calm water that you see is between the reef and the shore.
SPECIMEN OF CORAL.
"Tahiti is one of the best examples of an island surrounded by a coral reef," the Doctor continued. "It extends quite around the island, sometimes only a few yards from it, and sometimes four or five miles distant. There are occasional openings through the reef, some wide and deep enough to permit the passage of large ships, and others practicable only for small boats. Inside the reef the water is calm, and a vessel once within it has a secure harbor."
The boys could see the surf breaking on the reef with great violence, and throwing spray high into the air. Outside was the ever-restless sea; inside lay the placid lagoon, which reflected the sunlight as in a mirror.
"Just think of it," said Frank; "that great reef, which resists the waves of the ocean, and could destroy the largest ship that floats, is built up by a tiny worm which we could crush between our fingers with the greatest ease. The patience of the honey-bee is nothing compared to that of the coral insect."
Fred asked what was the depth of water near the reef, both inside and outside.
Doctor Bronson answered that it varied greatly, the inner lagoon being sometimes only a few feet, or perhaps inches, in depth, and sometimes two, three, or five hundred feet. Outside there is generally a great depth of water, sometimes so much that the sounding-lead fails to find bottom at a distance of only a few yards. "This constitutes," he added, "one of the dangers of navigation, as a ship may be close upon a reef without being aware of it until too late.
THE CORAL WORM.
"The coral insect," he continued, "does not work at a greater depth than two hundred feet, and he ceases operations when he reaches the surface. When these reefs are more than two hundred feet deep it is supposed that the bottom has slowly receded and carried the reef with it; as the recession went on, the coral insect continued his work of building. It reminds me of what happens sometimes to a railway in a swampy region; the embankment for the track sinks from time to time, and a new one is built above it. After a while sufficient earth has been thrown in to make a solid foundation, and then the sinking ceases.
"The atoll is another curious form of the work of the coral insect," said the Doctor, continuing. "It is circular or oval in shape, the island forming a rim that encloses a lake or lagoon. There is always an opening from the sea to the lagoon, and it is generally on the leeward side. Sometimes there are two, or even three or more openings, but this is unusual; the island rises only a few feet above the water, and is the work of the coral insect upon what was once the crater of a volcano; at least that is the general belief.
"The atoll is not a desirable place for residence, as the ocean during severe storms is liable to break across the narrow strip of land and sweep away whatever may be standing there. Many atolls are uninhabited, and none of them has a large population; cocoa-palms, bread-fruit, and other tropical trees are generally found on the inhabited atolls, and partially or wholly supply the natives with food. In some instances the people support themselves by fishing either in the lagoon or in the ocean outside. The lagoon forms a fairly good harbor forships and canoes, but sometimes the water in it is too deep for anchoring."
As the minutes rolled on, the outlines of the mountains and ridges, the valleys and forests, grew more and more distinct. Frank and Fred strained their eyes to discover an opening in the reef, but for some time their earnest gaze was unrewarded. At length, however, Frank saw a spot where the long line of spray appeared to be broken; gradually it enlarged, and revealed a passage into the great encircling moat of Tahiti. It was the entrance to the harbor of Papéiti, the capital of the French possessions in this part of the Pacific.
ON THE SHORE OF THE LAGOON.
The yacht glided safely through the channel and anchored in front of Papéiti, or Papaete, as some writers have it. Two French war-ships were lying there, and several schooners and other sailing-craft engaged in trade among the islands. Then there were some half-dozen ships and barks from various parts of the world, bringing cargoes of miscellaneous goods for the Tahitian market and carrying away the produce of the islands. Frank looked in vain for an ocean-going merchant steamer, and found, on inquiry, that the Society Islands are not visited by any of the steamships engaged in the navigation of the Pacific.
The Society Islands are a group, consisting of two clusters about seventy miles apart. Some geographers apply the name to the north-western cluster only, while the other is known as the Tahiti or Georgian group. The latter is the larger and more populous, and is a French colony, while the former is independent. The Spaniards claim to have discovered Tahiti in 1606, and it was visited in 1767 by Captain Wallis, who named it King George's Island. Two years later Captain Cook discovered the north-western cluster, called the whole group the Society Islands in honor of the Royal Geographical Society, and restored to Tahiti its native name.
"Why is Tahiti sometimes called Otaheite, and why is Hawaii, in the Sandwich Islands, sometimes called Owyhee?" Fred inquired.
A CABIN IN THE SUBURBS.
"Thereby hangs a tale," replied the Doctor, "or rather a great deal of conjecture. Some ethnographers think the islands of Polynesia were peopled from the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, while others think they were peopled from Japan. Advocates of either theory have a great number of arguments in its support. We haven't time to go over the list; and even if we did we should not be able to settle the question. The theory that the inhabitants of the Sandwich and Society islands came originally from Japan is supported by the use in their languages of the prefix O (signifying "honorable") exactly as it is used in Japan. As the Japanese say O-yama (honorable mountain), so the Hawaiians say O-wyhee, and the Tahitians O-taheite.
"Many Japanese sports, such as archery, wrestling, boxing, spear-throwing, and slinging stones, were in vogue in some of the islands at the time of their discovery; they are rapidly passing away as the people become civilized, and in another generation or two will hardly beheard of. In their language they are nearer like the Malay than the Japanese; that they are of Malay origin is very clearly proven, but exactly how they came here it is not likely we shall ever know."
While this conversation was going on the yacht was visited by a custom-house official, who took the declaration of the captain as to her nationality and name, and her object in visiting Tahiti, and then returned to shore. Our friends followed him, and in a very short time were pressing their feet against the solid earth of Papéiti. For an account of what they saw we will again refer to Fred's journal.
"You cannot see much of Papéiti from anywhere," said Fred, "because of the great numbers of trees that grow in and around the place. Here they are: bread-fruit, hibiscus, cocoa-palms, and half a dozen other varieties, so that nearly every house is hid from view until you are close upon it. The row of shops and cafés near the water is an exception to the rule; they are like the same kind of establishments everywhere in a French colony, and reveal the nationality of the place at a glance.
THE COAST IN A STORM.
"There are mountains in every direction excepting towards the sea, and through a gorge at the back of the town a particularly fine mountain is visible. Most of the houses are only one story in height, especially in the outskirts, where the well-to-do residents have their villas. In the town there are a few two or three storied buildings, belonging to the foreign merchants or used for Government purposes; but these are exceptions to the general aversion to stair-ways. Land is so cheap here that everybody ought to have plenty of room.
"The names of the streets make us think of Paris. The principal one is the Rue de Rivoli, and there we find the hotels, shops, and cafés, or rather the most of them. On the Rue do Commerce are the warehouses, where goods and provisions are stored; and the Rue de Pologne, which is the widest and best shaded of all, is mainly given upto the Chinese for shops and tea-houses. The Chinaman has taken root here, and flourishes; every year the Chinese hold upon business increases, and some of the French residents advocate the expulsion of the Mongolians, through fear that they will soon have a monopoly of the commerce of the islands.
"In the resident part of the town nearly every house stands in its own garden, and the most of these gardens are prettily laid out. There are good roads in and around the place, and we have had some charming drives, sometimes in carriages, which we hired at one of the hotels, and sometimes by invitation of the residents. We have had a most hospitable reception, and everybody from the Governor down has tried to make us enjoy our visit.
"The English consul invited us to dine at his country residence, and afterwards treated us to a moonlight excursion on the water. It was very pretty, as the lagoon was as calm as a mirror, and there were many boats out at the same time. The natives seem to be a careless, fun-loving people. Wherever there is a group of them there is always more or less laughter going on, and they seem to be constantly playing harmless little jokes on one another. The evenings here are delightful, and it is the custom to go out after dinner. The favorite resort is the lawn near the Government-house; a band from one of the ships-of-war plays there every evening, and always has a large audience. The natives are very fond of music, and when it is lively they fall to dancing on the green turf.
"The population of the two clusters that form the Society group is said to be a little less than twenty thousand, three-fourths of them belonging to the Tahitian cluster and one-fourth to the north-western. The native population of this island is about eight thousand. There are about one thousand Chinese on the islands, eight hundred French, two hundred and fifty British subjects, and one hundred and fifty Americans, and perhaps one hundred of other nationalities.
"They tell us that we can drive in a carriage all the way around Tahiti, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, and that we can hardly go a mile of this distance without coming to a stream of clear water rolling or rippling down from the mountains. Most of these streams are simply rivulets or brooks, but some of them are rivers too large and deep to be forded. Some of these rivers have been bridged, but where this has not been done they must be crossed by ferry-boats. Villages are scattered at intervals of a few miles, and any one who undertakes the journey can be comfortably lodged every night, especially if hesends a courier in advance to arrange matters for him. Colonel Bush had an idea of making the journey, but concluded it would be tiresome long before the circuit was completed, and so the scheme was abandoned.
"One of the early missionaries brought some orange-trees here, and they were found admirably adapted to the soil and climate of Tahiti. You see orange-groves or orange-trees everywhere, and we have never found finer oranges in any part of the world. It is a curious fact that the best trees are those which have grown from seed scattered carelessly about without any thought of planting; in nearly every case they are finer and more productive than those which have been carefully cultivated and transplanted.
"The French have ajardin d'essai, or Experimental Garden, where trees and plants from all parts of the world are cultivated with a view to finding those best adapted to Tahiti. As a result of this garden and other importations, the Tahitians now have mangoes, limes, shaddocks, citrons, guavas, custard-apples, tamarinds, peaches, figs, grapes, pineapples, watermelons, cucumbers, cabbages, and other fruits and vegetables of whose existence the people were entirely ignorant a hundred years ago.
"The French Government has a garrison of about four hundred soldiers in Tahiti, with a large staff of officials of various kinds—naval, military, and civil. The Governor is a personage of great local importance, as he has very liberal powers and can do pretty much as he likes. We found him a very pleasant gentleman. He invited all our party to a reception at the Government-house, and the officers of his staff showed us many attentions.
A FRENCH BISHOP.
"The French took possession of Tahiti in 1842; they had been waiting for an opportunity, and it came in that year. Three Catholic missionaries had been expelled by Queen Pomare at the instigation, so the French say, of the English missionaries. A French fleet came to Papéiti and threatened to bombard the town unless her Majesty should pay immediately a large indemnity, and consent to the return of the expelledmissionaries. The Queen was quite unable to raise the money, and the French took possession and established their protectorate.
"The protectorate continued till 1880, when the King, Pomare V., was persuaded to cede the nominal sovereignty in consideration of a life pension of twelve thousand dollars annually. The annexation of Tahiti as a French colony was formally proclaimed in Papéiti March 24th, 1881.
VIEW IN AN ORANGE GROVE.
"The first missionaries that came here were sent by the London Mission Society in 1797; but they made little progress in the conversion of the natives, and after a time were driven away in consequence of inter-tribal wars among the people. In 1812 the King invited them to return; they did so, and in the following year a church was established.
"The King was converted to Christianity, together with several ofhis priests and subordinate chiefs, and from that time on the work of the missionaries progressed rapidly. Long before the French took possession the entire population were nominally Christians, and had burned their idols and destroyed their heathen temples. There is no evidence that they ever practised cannibalism, but they were cruel in war. Prisoners were slaughtered in cold blood, or offered as sacrifices to the gods; human sacrifices were common, and there were certain tribes and families from whom, in times of peace, the victims for sacrifice were taken.
"In olden times these tribes and families were selected, and it is said there was a third of the population whose lives might be taken at any moment. When a victim was called for, resistance was useless, as the whole population, even including a man's nearest neighbors, united to carry him to themarae, or altar of sacrifice.
NATIVE BAMBOO HOUSE, TAHITI.
"In the early days of Christianity the victims for sacrifice were taken from among the converts, and sometimes the heathen tribes combined to hunt down the Christians in order to offer them to the gods. It was the story over again of the persecution of the early Christians in Rome and elsewhere in Europe.
"When the French took possession of the islands they oppressed the English missionaries in various ways, and had it not been for the persistence of the natives in adhering to the men who converted them,the representatives of the London Mission would have been driven out altogether. The trouble was finally compromised by allowing the English missionaries to remain under certain restrictions, and establishing a French Protestant mission to work in harmony with the French Catholic one.
"The great bulk of the people are Protestants, as they adhere to the faith to which they were originally converted. The Society Islands as a whole now contain three English missionaries, sixteen native ordained ministers, and more than two hundred other preachers and teachers. There are four thousand three hundred church members, fifty schools, and more than two thousand scholars attending them. The French do not make much interference except on the island of Tahiti, where only one English missionary is allowed to reside. He is not, however, recognized as a missionary to the natives, but as pastor of the Bethel Church at Papéiti."
"That will do for statistics on that subject," said Frank. "While you have been looking up these points in the history of the islands I've been finding out what they produce."
"I was getting around to that," replied Fred; "but if you've found it out I'm glad. What is it?"