FISHERMAN OF TAHITI.
A few days after our arrival at Papiété, I made an excursion to Point Venus, the northern extremity of Matavai Bay, in company with a party of our surveying officers, who wished to take sights at this station for chronometric measurements of longitude; Point Venus being one of the secondary meridians to which longitudes in the Pacific are referred. The distance from Papiété is about six miles. We went in one of the ship's steam-cutters, taking a small boat in tow; and after a somewhat hazardous passage among the reefs, which here form an irregular barrier along the coast, we reached Matavai Bay. We landed easily upon a smooth sloping beach of black volcanic sand—the detritus brought down from the hills by a neighbouring stream; and while the observers established themselves and their instruments on a grass plot near the base of the lighthouse, I took a stroll into the surrounding country, having at my disposal about five hours.
The French keeper of the lighthouse, who was most obliging, pointed out to us a square slab of coral rock imbedded in the ground, and bearing on its surface a deeply-chiselled groove. It was placed there some ten years ago, to replace one which had been fixed there in the year 1839 by Captain Wilkes, of the United States Exploring Expedition, and was, I understand, intended to assist in determining the exact position of a submerged coral knoll, some 100 yards from the shore, on which measurements were made for determining the rate of growth of the coral. We were also shown a large and venerable tamarind tree near the lighthouse, which is said to have been planted more than 100 years ago by our own great navigator, Cook. Cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, oranges, bananas, and mangoes, grew in great profusion, and the greatest and most good-natured eagerness was shown by the natives in putting these delicious fruits at our disposal.
We also saw a large extent of cleared land devoted to the cultivation of cotton plants, and near one of the native huts vanilla was growing successfully.
Nothing could exceed the civility of the natives in pressing food upon us, and in furnishing us with information. They know very little English, but many of them speak French, which the rising generation are taught in the government schools.
In one of the larger and more pretentious style of native huts, apparently that of a district chief, we read a proclamation, printed in French and Tahitian on opposite columns, announcing to the inhabitants the definitive annexation of the island and its dependencies; and, after pointing out in glowing colours the great advantages accruing to the natives from the complete establishment of French rule, it wound up with, "Vive la France. Vive Tahiti."
One is much struck by the great scarcity of birds in Tahiti. There are, in fact, not more than six species of indigenous birds, and of these an average day's walk will only afford examples of the swallow; although in the mountain valleys, paroquets, pigeons, and kingfishers are met with, though rarely.
In the course of an afternoon's walk about the environs of Papiété, we were accosted by a portly native dressed in European clothes, who, sitting in a four-wheeled buggy, and accompanied by three native attendants, pulled up abreast of us. At his feet he had a large demijohn of wine, from which he had evidently been imbibing freely, for by way of salutation he greeted us with a volley of most disgusting oaths and imprecations. This seemed to be all the English he was acquainted with. A bystander informed us that the name of this native gentleman was "Tamitao," and that he was no less a personage than the brother of King Pomare V., the present monarch. The latter now only possesses a nominal sovereignty; for on ceding his possessions to the French, he relinquished all monarchical authority, and receives instead an annual stipend of 8,000 dollars, a pension which, we were told, would not be continued to his heir. It is said but I know not with what truth, that one of the principal reasons which induced him to sell his birthright was a desire to exclude from the succession his nominal son, whom he believes to be illegitimate. Our conference with the royal brother was not an agreeable one, for he presently gathered up the reins, and amid a volley of imprecations delivered in the coarsest style of Billingsgate English, this tatterdemalion prince of an ancient dynasty flogged his horses into a gallop, and rattled away on his drunken career.
On the evening before our departure we were present at a ball which was given at the royal palace by the French inhabitants of Tahiti. It was intended to celebrate the annexation of the island by France, and was supposed to be the occasion for mutual congratulations between King Pomare and his chiefs on the one hand, and the Governor and French Admiral on the other. Pomare was attired in a gorgeous dress richly embroidered with gold lace, and the French officials appeared in full dress. The native chiefs were, however, very shabbily turned out in faded European clothes, and although for the most part very fine men, yet they looked very much as if they were ashamed of themselves, and were by no means at their ease in the richly-decorated ball-room. Among the quasi chiefs was "Paofai," an old gentleman who did duty as our washerman, wearing a black alpaca monkey-jacket, and carrying under his arm a large white sun-helmet, which he seemingly thought a becoming addition to his otherwise somewhat incongruous attire. He and his confrères would have shown to much more advantage in their ordinary native costume. Supper began about midnight, and it was then, and not till then, that the royal family and chiefs seemed to flourish in their proper element, the quantity of food and drink which they stowed away in their huge carcases being something prodigious.