234 THE LAST CRUISE OF THE CARNEGIE 



one of those cloudbursts characteristic of the tropics. There was 

 no moon, and the darkness was so intense that it suggested Hquid 

 tar. Then, Httle by httle, two rounded black masses became visi- 

 ble off our port bow. Surely they were clouds. Soundings 

 showed that we must have drifted southward of our intended 

 course, so we steered more to the north. About midnight it be- 

 came apparent that the black masses we had seen were in reality 

 parts of the island we were seeking. The flickering lights of the 

 fishing-villages soon confirmed this. 



Shortly afterwards, we opened up the lighthouse on Venus 

 Point, and hove to to await dawn. By ten o'clock the vessel 

 was moored at Papeete, her bow toward the sea, and her stern 

 almost within the front yard of the American Consulate. 



With the flurry blown over which was caused by the arrival of 

 letters from home, we were all eager for a taste of the famous 

 cordiality offered by Tahiti. Here we found a town where social 

 distinctions are vague, race or religious prejudices absent, and 

 formalities happily dispensed with. It was well for us that this 

 was so, for we had but a few days in which to pack a host of new 

 impressions. 



Automobiles were at our disposal, so it did not take long for 

 our party to disperse over the Island : some went to look up old 

 acquaintances; others to tramp in the jungle-clad mountains or 

 along the winding beach-roads; some were content simply to loll 

 about the town, or found their pleasure in picture-taking and 

 visiting the homes of the numerous foreign writers or artists who 

 have fled here to live life as they dreamed it. 



The atmosphere of the Island is one of amused tolerance for 

 genius and dullness alike. We found little evidence of a legalized 

 morality. Temperance is achieved not by ordinance, but by an 

 unconscious realization that any appetite run wild soon cloys. 

 Life here holds no terrors for the half-caste or for the child of 

 divorce, as it does elsewhere. The heavy work of the community 

 is done by Chinese, who mingle freely with the populace without 

 being stifled by a sense of inferiority, and who are encouraged to 

 retain their own customs. 



Native life does not much resemble that of the time of James 



