The village of Papara, the largest in the island, has been the acknowledged stronghold of the Tevas for centuries. Here the powerful chiefs of the clan have ruled their subjects with an inborn sense of justice until their jurisdiction and, power were curtailed by foreign intervention. For a long time the ruling house of the Tevas dominated the social and political life of the island. It was at Papara that the largest and most imposing marae was built, consisting of a huge pile of stones in the form of a truncated cone, the ruins of which still remain as a silent reminder of the political power of the Tevas lone before the white man cast his greedy eyes upon this island paradise.
The district of Papara, of which the village of about five hundred inhabitants is the seat of the local government, is the most fertile and prosperous of all the seventeen districts into which the island is at present divided. Tati Salmon, son of Ariitaimai, the famed chiefess and historian of the island, is the present chief. He was educated in London, is highly respected by the foreigners and natives alike, and owns about one-third of the island. He lives in a charming old-fashioned house, the original part of which was built more than a century ago. The house is situated at the mouth of a large mountain stream, and faces the broad lagoon hemmed in by a coral reef, over which the surf dashes from day to day and from year to year with the same regularity, with the same splashing and moaning sounds of the waves as they leap from the restless ocean beyond into the peaceful bosom of the calm lagoon.
Papara, like all of the native villages, is located on the circular road familiarly known as the ninety-mile drive. The road from Papeete to Papara, a distance of twenty miles, leads through the most picturesque and interesting part of the island. The road is a genuine chaussee, constructed at great expense by the French government, and is kept in excellent repair. For the most part it follows the coast in full view of the lagoon and the ocean beyond, and, for more than one-half of the distance, the smaller volcanic sister island, Moorea, is in sight. The mountains are constantly in sight, ceaselessly changing in their aspects with distance and change of perspective. The narrow strip of coast-land is covered with a thick layer of the most productive soil upon a foundation of rock and red volcanic earth. Vegetation everywhere is rampant and extends from the very edge of the lagoon to the naked pinnacles of the mountains. In many places the road skirts the foot-hills, and at different points the precipitous mountains rise from the bed of the lagoon, where the road-bed had to be made by blasting away a part of their firm foundation of volcanic stone.
The traveler on the whole trip is never without the companionship of the branchless, slender, graceful cocoa-palms, with their terminal crown of giant leaves, clusters of blossoms, and nuts of all sizes and stages of maturity. A stately forest of cocoa-palms like those found on the coast of Tahiti is a sight that can not fail to interest and fascinate the Northerner fresh from zero weather, snow and ice. The straight, columnar trunks, with their sail-like terminal fronds and clusters of fruit in all stages of development from the blossom to the golden yellow of the ripe nut, are objects of study and admiration which create in the visitor a strong and lasting attachment for the tropics. There is no other spot on the globe where the tourist can see larger and more beautiful palm forests than on the circular road between Papeete and Papara. The cocoa-palm is queen here, as there is no other tree among its many neighbors that has succeeded in equaling it in height. The lofty, proud head of the palm has no competitor; it is alone in that stratum of air and looks down upon the plebeian trees beneath with a sense of superiority, if not of scorn. For miles this road passes through magnificent forests of cocoa-palms, with a heavy undergrowth of guava, extending from the shore high up the foot-hills and mountainsides. The cocoa-palm is fond of salt water and thrives best when its innumerable slender, long roots can imbibe it from the briny shore.
The pandanus tree is even more partial to a soil impregnated with salt water. On this drive this tree is frequently seen, and in preference at the very brink of the coast, with the butt-end of the trunk high in the air, resting on a colonnade of numerous powerful, slightly diverging roots. Another tree omnipresent on this drive is the pauru tree, with its large leaves and charming cream-yellow, salver-shaped flowers. This tree loves the dark, shady jungles, where its tortuous branches mingle freely with the dense undergrowth and climbing plants.
The views that present themselves on this drive at every turn are simply bewitching and vary with every curve of the road. The gentle ocean breeze that fans the flushed face of the raptured traveler is lost when the road leaves the coast and plunges into a primeval forest, when
Gradual sinks the breeze
Into a perfect calm; that not a breath
Is heard to quiver through the closing wood.
THOMSON.
TAHITIAN CANOE WITH OUTRIGGER
As the carriage emerges from the dark shades of the forest into the dazzling sunlight in full view of the near-by ocean again.