TAHITI 



875 



HOUSE BUILT BY EUROPEANS. 



A RESIDENCE NEAR PAPEETE, THE ONLY TOWN IN TAHITI. THIS IS A THATCHED DWELLING, WITH A PORCH AND FAR 

 BETTER FITTED FOR COMFORTABLE LIVING THAN THE NATIVE HOUSE. 



To such a people, who welcomed the 

 white man with every hospitality, his 

 weapons, liquors and religion soon 

 proved bewildering. By the time the 

 missionaries arrived in 1797 they found 

 English firearms aiding a single chief 

 to subdue his neighbors with the new 

 European idea of kingship. Throwing 

 in their lot with him, as probably their 

 strongest protector, they aided this am- 

 bition. Tahitian history during the 

 first 30 years of European influence can 

 perhaps be best epitomized by a com- 

 parison of the population of 150,000 

 which Cook found with the population 

 of about 10,000 which survived. Step 

 by step the resentful nobles were driven 

 back, measles took a frightful toll, and 

 in 1815 the chief who had been fortunate 

 enough to command gunpowder estab- 

 lished a dynasty which continued until 

 the island was finally taken by the 

 French after several decades of squab- 

 bling by various European interests. 



During the heyday of the whaling 

 industry Papeete was a popular rendez- 

 vous. Herman Melville's "Omoo" de- 

 scribes his adventures in Tahiti as an 

 escaped mutineer from a whaleship that 

 touched there, although it is far less 

 creditable than his more famous "Typee" ' 

 and "Moby Dick." As South Sea 

 trade in copra, shell and pearls devel- 

 oped, the port began to assume impor- 

 tance as its principal center. The Mar- 

 quesas, the Paumotus or Law Archi- 

 pelago, the Gambiers, the Austral 

 group, Manahiki, Easter Island, and 

 other less known palm-clad and surf- 

 beaten islands came to support a fleet 

 of picturesque schooners of the "Cur- 

 rency Lass" type Stevenson loved so 

 well to describe. Papeete beach, where 

 the sorry adventurers of ; 'The Ebb 

 Tide" pooled their misfortunes and 

 Captain John Davis performed for his 

 breakfast on just such a vessel as may 

 be seen there in numbers todav, is elo- 



