TRADING SCHOONERS ON THE BEACH AT PAPEETE. 



THIS WAS THE TOWN ON TAHITI ISLAND WHICH WAS ON SEPT. 22 SHELLED BY THE GERMAN CRUISERS GNEISENAU AND 



SCHARNHORST. THE 4000 RESIDENTS FLED TO THE HILLS. 



TAHITI 



By E. T. ALLEN 



SHORTLY after day break, Sep- 

 tember 22, the German cruisers 

 Scharnhorst and Gneisenau ap- 

 peared outside the coral reef 

 that guards the little palm-fringed har- 

 bor of Papeete. An hour or two later 

 they steamed away, leaving only smok- 

 ing ruins to mark what had been the 

 main portion of the romantic South Sea 

 capital immortalized by Melville, Loti, 

 Stoddard, Stevenson and a score of 

 lesser writers. Unfortified and unde- 

 fended, except for a handful of men kept 

 for island police duty, sleepy picturesque 

 Tahiti found her isolation and innocence 

 no safeguards against a world war. The 

 port's native population of 4,000 was 

 driven terrified to the hills. As it was 

 the trading center as well as the 



870 



capital, of French Oceania, and the 

 bombardment destroyed stores and 

 warehouses, whole archipelagoes were 

 left stricken and in want. 



Since this episode aroused mutterings 

 throughout the world because all the 

 allies' navies were apparently unable to 

 protect defenceless ports against three 

 or four roving and merciless German 

 warships, the name of remote Tahiti 

 has met more eyes than since "Otaheite" 

 was first described by enthusiastic 

 voyagers nearly 150 years ago. 



Tahiti, the largest island of the 

 Society Group and by many travelers 

 believed the most beautiful in any sea, 

 lies nearly south of Hawaii and about 17 

 degrees south of the equator. First 

 touched by Portuguese and Spanish 



