A HISTORY OF TAHITI 121 



sea. Yet even to-day the ruins of about 40 maraes are still to be found 

 upon Tahiti and Euneo. 



Such, in brief, were the Taliitians, that race of giant men who came 

 to welcome Cook with leafy boughs within their hands — tokens of peace 

 and friendship. And a friendship real as any that can be formed be- 

 tween the weak and the powerful grew up between the great English- 

 man, whom they called " Toote," and these careless, light-hearted child- 

 ren of the Islands of the Sea. It is of curious interest, however, to 

 observe that intimate as Cook became with his Tahitian friends, he 

 never learned the true name of the Island, his word " Otaheite " meaning 

 " From Tahiti " ; Bougainville's " Taiti " especially as the " h " is softly 

 sounded, being far nearer the correct representation of the name. 



Without attempting to minimize the barbarity of their customs, let 

 us not permit ourselves to be over harsh in condemning the Tahitians. 

 A primitive race cast far from their original home upon a small island 

 remotely isolated; without iron or metals, or clay for pottery, and liv- 

 ing in a warm seductive atmosphere that soothed ambition into som- 

 nolency; it is much to their credit that Cook says of them that they 

 were cheerful, generous, cordial, and brave, and Ellis states that theft 

 and crime were of rare occurrence. Such indeed is the consensus of 

 opinion among Europeans who, though not missionaries, lived among 

 PohTiesian peoples during the days when they were unspoiled by con- 

 tact with civilization. In Mariner's fascinating account of Tonga, and 

 Melville's charming story of Typee in the Marquesas we find far more 

 of praise than of condemnation. 



Let us remember that practically nothing of invention, art, litera- 

 ture, science or constructive leadership has come from the untold 

 millions of our own race who have been born and bred and spent their 

 languid lives within the torrid heat. Great men such as Hamilton, the 

 first Dumas, or Kipling have, it is true, been born in the West Indies or 

 in India, but their education and achievements were attained in colder 

 lands. The history of the British in India is replete with the tragedy of 

 broken hearts, and every ship bound "homeward" bears its freight of 

 exiled children whose fate it is to become strangers to their duty-loving 

 parents. This uncounted toll of the dull, monotonous, never-ending 

 heat, how different would history have been had our race been born to 

 withstand its merciless suppression. 



Just as the first fruits of the renaissance were ripening in Spain, a 

 vision of the Indies came like a mirage from afar to lure onward the 

 ablest of her youth. Into regions unknown they went never to return, 

 and they and their descendants were lost to intellectual Spain. Thus 

 was her best blood wasted and the leaders who might have been were 

 unborn. Spain depleted, drained of her strength, and with too few 

 at home to win the great battle of liberty, withered under the fires of 



VOL. LXXXVI. — 9- 



