The winds, with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kiss'd,
Whispering new joys to the mild ocean.
MILTON.
Every turn of the wheel on this winding road brings new delights. The views of mountains and ocean, the strange trees and flowers, the childlike natives and their dusky, naked children, the quaint villages, the turbulent mountain streams and the diminutive cataracts and waterfalls, framed in emerald green on the mountain-sides, enchant the eye and stimulate the mind every moment. These little waterfalls have excavated the hardest rocks and have chiseled out, in the course of centuries, crevices and caves of the strangest designs.
The floral wealth of Tahiti is immense. Mr. McDaniel, of Los Angeles, Cal., during a several-months' visit to the island, analyzed and classified two thousand different kinds of plants. Some of the flowers are gorgeous, others yield a sweet perfume which is diffused through the pure air, imparting to it the balmy character for which it has become famous. An acquaintance with these flowers suggests:
Were I, O God, in churchless lands remaining,
Far from all voice of teachers or divines,
My soul would find, in flowers of thy ordaining,
Priests, sermons, shrines.
SHAKESPEARE.
At a sudden turn of the road a vista is disclosed that defies description. In the open roadway, brilliantly illuminated by the noonday sun, in the distance, a flame-tree, with its flowers of fire, dazzles the eyes, and its grandeur and beauty increase as we approach it, while, in a few moments, what appeared as an apparition is behind us, and the tension of vision is relieved by a long, restful look over the limitless expanse of the blue sea. I have seen the flame-tree in different countries, but the sight of this one, with its magic surroundings, made a picture of exquisite beauty which forcibly recalled the lines:
The spreading branches made a goodly show,
And full of opening blooms was ev'ry bough.
DRYDEN.
The numerous villages of land-crabs met on this drive afford amusement for the stranger, unfamiliar with this inhabitant of the coast in the tropics. The land-crabs have evidently a well-organized government in each community. Among the most important officials are the sentinels, who are always on duty, when the inhabitants of the village have left their underground habitations, to give timely notice of impending danger. With the approach of man, the whole colony is on the alert. As a matter of safety, the land-crab does not stray far away from its subterranean home. When these animals are out in the open they are never caught napping. Their large, exophthalmic eyes are never idle, and the instant danger threatens they speed to their place of safety. If you have enough patience to wait, you will find, sooner or later, two large staring eyes on a level with the hole where the animal disappeared. The land-crab is cautious, constantly on the lookout, and, on the first signal of danger, makes a rush for his or somebody else's hole.
A short distance from Papeete is a truck garden managed by Chinamen. This enterprise, the only one I noticed on the drive, demonstrates well what the soil of Tahiti is capable of producing in the way of growing vegetables. It is an ideal vegetable garden, weedless, and verdant with all kinds of vegetables. The foreign population of the city is supplied from here with lettuce, asparagus, cabbage, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips and melons of the choicest quality. The natives have no use for vegetables and make no attempts to raise them for the market. The guava shrub is found everywhere. It has infested the country, weed-like, and its golden fruit is not appreciated by the natives; only a very small part of the fruit is gathered for making jelly, one of the few articles of export.
This is the part of the island where the vanilla-bean is most extensively cultivated. A vanilla plantation is a jungle in which the bean thrives best. In the thick woods all along the road, the climbing bean is seen trailing up the shrubs and trees, often to a height of twenty feet. At the time of my visit the blossoms had disappeared and the green beans had reached a length of about four inches, half their length when they are ripe. A patient and prolonged search made for a flower was finally rewarded by the finding of a belated bud which, on being placed in water, expanded into a flower during the night, affording me an opportunity to study its anatomy.
Three small villages, Faaa, Punaauia and Paea, are passed on the way from Papeete to Papara, and, like all other villages, each of them had its own government school, a Catholic and a Protestant church, and, connected with these, two parochial schools. The compulsory education introduced into the island applies to children from six to sixteen years of age. The churches are well attended, but I was informed by a German, who has resided in Tahiti for thirty years, that the people attend service more as a matter of amusement than with any intention of obtaining spiritual benefit.