462 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



having been introduced by the great German merchant, Godeffroy, in 

 the middle of the nineteenth century, has proved to be the commercial 

 salvation of Polynesia. 



But to return to the political history of Tahiti. On December 7, 

 1821, Pomare II. died as a result of long-continued drunkenness, and on 

 April 21, 1824, his son, a boy of four years, was crowned by Mr. Nott, 

 one of the original missionaries as " Pomare III., constitutional king of 

 Tahiti." The education of the young " king " was at once undertaken 

 by the missionaries, but on January 11, 1827, he died of an epidemic 

 which was then ravaging the island; and Aimata, his half sister, was 

 proclaimed queen, taking the name of Pomare- Vahine (The Lady 

 Pomare), although more commonly known as "Queen Pomare IV." 



At the time of her accession she was only about thirteen years of 

 age, and thus dependent upon the missionaries for advice, and, as the 

 sequel proved, rarely was queen more in need of broad-minded and tact- 

 ful advisers, for the end of Tahitian independence was at hand, and the 

 fateful question was — should England or should France assume the 

 government of the island? 



Several elements in the foreign population were causing trouble to 

 the natives, these being the traders who sought to bleed the Tahitians 

 of all the little wealth they possessed, the degenerate deserters from 

 ships and other parasitic whites who were a constant source of demorali- 

 zation, and the sons of the missionaries, who, in general, lacked the 

 altruism of their parents and sought to acquire land and to exploit the 

 Island at the expense of the natives. Conditions such as these have 

 worked themselves out in the Hawaiian Islands, ending by the descend- 

 ants of the missionaries acquiring nearly all the lands the natives once 

 possessed. 



In Tahiti the native chiefs, following the policy they adopted in 

 respect to the cultivation of sugar cane, had determined to discourage 

 the permanent residence of white men among them, and had steadfastly 

 refused to sell or even to grant long leases to their land, and thus the 

 natives as a race were still independent home-owners, and happy in the 

 enjoyment of their accustomed means of obtaining sustenance. 



The salient fact is that the white settler in the tropics is concerned 

 chiefly with his own profit, and but little witli the elevation of the native 

 race. Through artificial devices designed to restrict the liberty of the 

 natives, or through the imposition of high taxes, the white man virtually 

 peonizes the native race and forces the brown man to labor far beyond the 

 little effort required to provide all his natural needs, and in the end the 

 profit accruing from such toil is found in the pockets of the white 

 man. To-day over those parts of the tropics wherein the white man 

 gains a profit from the land, as in the Dutch East Indies or in parts of 

 Africa, this modern ingenious form of slavery pertains. In other 



