336 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



their lips and the lobes of their ears. The women are very 

 pretty and light coloured. 



In some islands morality can scarcely be said to exist, and 

 the European beachcombers have not improved matters. 



The French Protectorate is little better than a farce. Beau- 

 tiful as some of the Marquesas Islands are, and bountifully 

 blessed by nature in nearly every respect, their present condi- 

 tion is that of a huge garden gone to waste ; peopled for the 

 most part by savages, and demoralised by white influences, 

 while a few zealous priests fight a hopeless battle, sustained in 

 some degree by the French navy, but regarded with irreligious 

 indifference by their official fellow-countrymen on shore. 



The five islands of the Austral Group, to the south of the 

 Society or Tahitian Group, i.e. Rapa, Raivavai, Tubuai, Rurutu, 

 and Rimatara, are chiefly noticeable on account of the fact that 

 European products are readily acclimatised in them as well as 

 tropical vegetables. They lie between the tropic of Capricorn 

 and 27 south. They average from 15 to 25 miles in circum- 

 ference each (Rapa being the largest), and the population may 

 be put down at about 3000 souls. The climate is delightful. 

 For nine months in the year the wind blows from the south- 

 east, and from the westward for the remainder. Sugar, cotton, 

 coffee, and tobacco might be well cultivated in the group by an 

 organised English company, and the inhabitants being inoffen- 

 sive, hospitable, and intelligent, would gladly welcome some 

 such enterprise. They have an almost extravagant affection 

 for the English, even more so than the Tongans. In view of 

 the probable completion of the Panama Canal at no very 

 distant date, by the indefatigable M. de Lesseps, it is a matter 

 of very great regret that Great Britain does not possess one 

 single coaling station on the route which the Australian 

 steamers would certainly adopt. This would be slightly to the 



