Prospects of Tahiti under French Protectorate. 251 



English also have usually acquired by the strong hand their 

 possessions in Oceania, in Australia, in Asia, &c., and from 

 the stand-point of humanity it is impossible always to defend 

 the means by which they have made themselves masters of 

 the fairest and most fertile countries on the globe. But 

 what have been the results directly springing from these 

 high-handed acts, these political faits accomplis ? England 

 has thrown open to the unrestricted enterprise of all trading 

 and seafaring nations those islands and continents so highly 

 favoured by nature, with their feckless fast-disappearing ab- 

 original races ; she has striven, by giving free institutions, to 

 attract diligent colonists, to develope the natural wealth of 

 these countries by means of scientific exploration, for the 

 benefit of all ; she has wafted to the remotest corners of the 

 earth the seeds of Christian civilization, and by her energy, 

 her capacity for labour, and her earnestness of purpose, has 

 impressed all, even the most savage races, with a feeling of 

 envy and astonishment at the intellectual superiority, the 

 power, and the greatness of the white man ! 



Under the influence of liberal but more morally stringent 

 laws, Tahiti might speedily be raised to the position of a 

 great emporium of the Southern seas, the Singapore of 

 Oceania. Under the French Protectorate, on the contrary, 

 the island, with its population long since renowned for indo- 

 lence and sensuality, has become, in fact, what a French cap- 

 tain once jocularly termed it, '' La Nouvelle Cythere !" 



Although the Society Islands are by no means a French 



