OF THE SOUTH SEAS 39 



Papeete has a central position in the Pacific. The 

 capitals of Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, and Cali- 

 fornia are from two and a half to three and a half thou- 

 sand miles away. No other such group of whites, or 

 place approaching its urbanity, is to be found in a vast 

 extent of latitude or longitude. It is without peer or 

 competitor in endless leagues of waves. 



Yet Papeete is a little place, a mile or so in length and 

 less in width, a curious imposition of European houses 

 and manners upon a Tahitian hamlet, hybrid, a mixture 

 of loveliness and ugliness, of nature savage and tamed. 

 The settlement, as with all ports, began at the water- 

 front, and the harbor of Papeete is a lake within the 

 milky reef, the gentle waters of which touch a strip of 

 green that runs along the shore, broken here and there 

 by a wall and by the quay at which I landed. Coral 

 blocks have been quarried from the reef and fitted to 

 make an embankment for half a mile, which juts out 

 just far enough to be usable as a mole. It is alongside 

 this that sailing vessels lie, the wharf being the only land 

 mooring with a roof for the housing of products. A 

 dozen schooners, small and large, point their noses out 

 to the sea, their backs against the coral quay, and their 

 hawsers made fast to old cannon, brought here to war 

 against the natives, and now binding the messengers of 

 the nations and of commerce to this shore. Where there 

 are no embankments, the water comes up to the roots of 

 the trees, and a carpet of grass, moss, and tropical vege- 

 tation grows from the salt tide to the roadway. 



Following the contour of the beach, runs a fairly 

 broad road, and facing this original thoroughfare and 

 the sea are the principal shops of the traders and a few 



