250 Voyage of the Novara. 



fabrics used there are English, which are imported from 

 Valparaiso, the only port with which Papeete has regular 

 communication. 



The military colony of Taiohdi on the island of Nukahiwa, 

 one of the Marquesas, has been entirely abandoned since 1st 

 January, 1859, on account of the too great cost of keeping it 

 Vi\), although Ut^-Modna, the king of the Marquesas, and the 

 chiefs of the island of Nukahiwa, were desirous of retaining 

 the French Protectorate, and had drawn up a formal address 

 of submission, while, on the other hand, New Caledonia (Dum' 

 mbia) can only be kept up at very considerable cost. 



Lately great reforais have been everywhere inaugurated, 

 in order to diminish the heavy administrative expense hitherto 

 incurred. The French colonies of eastern and western 

 Oceania are to be provided with entirely independent ad- 

 ministrations. The Governor of the French establishments 

 in Oceania Oriental is to reside in Papeete, while his col- 

 league of Oceania Occidental is to have his seat of Govern- 

 ment at Port de France in New Caledonia. This sub- 

 division, however, must add materially to the cost of 

 maintenance, while it is difficult to see how it can augment 

 the prospects of any increase of revenue. 



The French, in a word, have no success in their attempts 

 anywhere at colonization ; they are not j^ractical colonists. 

 The absence of this faculty, if one may call it so, is doubly 

 apparent in the Southern hemisphere, where they are sur- 

 rounded on all hands by English colonies. True it is, the 



