THE MARQUESAS IN THE FAIRWAY TO HAWAII. 133 



of Bishop Dordillon's dictionary of the Marquesan (the worthy prelate 

 had no English and therefore the neologism escaped him) we have won- 

 dered if some one of these coins might not perchance have served as the 

 basis upon which rests the word koala defined as "piece de monnaie 

 (i franc)."* 



If the attempt to introduce republican virtues to Nukahiva ("they 

 have requested," says Commodore Porter in his proclamation, "to be 

 admitted to the great American family whose republican laws have such 

 analogy with their own") was but the breath upon the mirror for dura- 

 tion, still more spectral is the royalty of Nukahiva's king. We know 

 it only through a scrap of paper which in 1838 Captain Jacquinot found 

 in a chief's possession when the corvettes V Astrolabe and la Zelee came 

 to anchor in Taiohae. Thus it read : 



Nous, Charles, baron de Thierry, chef souverain de la Nouvelle-Ze*lande, 

 roi de l'ile Nouka-Hiva, certifions avec plaisir que Vavanouha, chef de Portua, 

 est 1'ami des Europeans, et qu'il s'est toujours conduit, a notre igard, avec 

 defence et bienvaillance. En consequence de quoi, nous le recommandons aux 

 bons soins de tous les navigateurs, qui peuvent demeurer ici en toute scurite\ 

 Donne* a Port-Charles (Anna-Maria), ile Nouka-Hiva, le 23 juillet 1835, 



Charles, baron de Thierry, 

 Par le roi, 

 Ed. Fergus, colonel, aide-de-camp. 



This Carolus Rex, primus atque ultimus, is a very ghost of a poor 

 king. He appears in the history of the early and difficult colonization 

 of New Zealand with his attempt at a French settlement in Akaroa; in 

 the narrative of the Wilkes expedition he is found as a center of refine- 

 ment at the Bay of Islands ; in the story of the Bounty mutineers on Pit- 

 cairn's Island he flashes for a moment in passage. But no research has 

 yet added so much as a single line to the figure of the man who parades 

 in the royal proclamation as colonel and aide-de-camp, Ed. Fergus. 



If the world's acquaintance with the Marquesas were to rest solely on 

 these thin failures of Church and State, the world would know little 

 indeed. But romance chanced to touch these green peaks; they live. 

 When Herman Melville wrote "Typee" it failed as literature. It was 

 not in accord with that fustian stuff which then was the literature of 

 America ; it violated all the stupid canons of a dull art. He had the eye 

 to discern the life beneath the rattling palms; he felt the humanity of 

 the savage lust of life and joy of death ; he then had the pen of accuracy. 

 Once and again he wrote with unconscious art in sweet verity, "Typee, " 

 and "Omoo" a second chapter of the same life, with deep breaths of 

 pure air. These done he turned to literature, the literature of the 

 second quarter of the last century, a death in life ; the antiquarian may 



*Amateurs of the jargon type will find no difficulty in penetrating these other entries in 

 the same dictionary. 



tihu, s., ofr. 50. [dix sous.] 

 verekuti, a., tres-bien. [very good.] 



