OF THE SOUTH SEAS 43 



allamanda, the generous breadfruit, and the uplifting 

 glory of the cocoanut-trees, while magnificent vines and 

 creepers cover the tawdry paint of the fa9ades and em- 

 bower the homes in green and flower. If one leaves the 

 few principal streets or roads in Papeete, one walks only 

 on well-worn trails through the thick growth of 

 lantana, guavas, pandanus, wild coffee, and a dozen 

 other trees and bushes. The paths are lined with 

 hedges of false coffee, where thrifty people live, and 

 again there are open spaces with vistas of little houses 

 in groves, rows of tiny cabins close together. Every- 

 where are picturesque disorder, dirt, rubbish, and the 

 accrued wallow of years of laissez-aller ; but the mighty 

 trade-winds and the constant rains sweep away all bad 

 odors, and there is no resultant disease. 



"My word," said Stevens, a London stockbroker, 

 here to rehabilitate a broken corporation, "if we Eng- 

 lish had this place, would n't there be a cleaning up ! 

 We 'd build it solid and sanitary, and have proper rules 

 to make the bally natives stand around." 



The practical British would that. They have done 

 so in a dozen of their far-flung colonies I hare been in, 

 from Singapore to Barbadoes, though they have failed 

 utterly in Jamaica. Yet, I am at first sight, of the mind 

 that only the Spanish would have kept, after decades of 

 administration, as much of the simple beauty of Papeete 

 as have the Gauls. True, the streets are a litter, the 

 Government almost unseen as to modern uplift, the na- 

 tives are indolent and life moves without bustle or goal. 

 The republic is content to keep the peace, to sell its 

 wares, to teach its tongue, and to let the gentle Ta- 

 hitian hold to his island ways, now that his race dies 



