150 Cruise of the "Alert" 



cultivation of cotton plants, and near one of the native huts 

 vanilla was growing successfully. 



Nothing could exceed the civility of the natives in pressing 

 food upon us, and in furnishing us with information. They know 

 very little English, but many of them speak French, which the 

 rising generation are taught in the government schools. 



In one of the larger and more pretentious style of native huts, 

 apparently that of a district chief, we read a proclamation, printed 

 in French and Tahitian on opposite columns, announcing to the 

 inhabitants the definitive annexation of the island and its de- 

 pendencies ; and, after pointing out in glowing colours the great 

 advantages accruing to the natives from the complete establish- 

 ment of French rule, it wound up with, " Vive la France. Vive 

 Tahiti." 



One is much struck by the great scarcity of birds in Tahiti. 

 There are, in fact, not more than six species of indigenous birds, 

 and of these an average day's walk will only afford examples 

 of the swallow ; although in the mountain valleys, paroquets, 

 pigeons, and kingfishers are met with, though rarely. 



In the course of an afternoon's walk about the environs of 

 Papiete\ we were accosted by a portly native dressed in European 

 clothes, who, sitting in a four-wheeled buggy, and accompanied by 

 three native attendants, pulled up abreast of us. At his feet he 

 had a large demijohn of wine, from which he had evidently been 

 imbibing freely, for by way of salutation he greeted us with a 

 volley of most disgusting oaths and imprecations. This seemed 

 to be all the English he was acquainted with. A bystander in- 

 formed us that the name of this native gentleman was "Tamitao," 

 and that he was no less a personage than the brother of King 

 Pomare V., the present monarch. The latter now only possesses 

 a nominal sovereignty ; for on ceding his possessions to the 

 French, he relinquished all monarchical authority, and receives 

 instead an annual stipend of 8,000 dollars, a pension which, we 

 were told, would not be continued to his heir. It is said but 



