OF THE SOUTH SEAS 93 



"I am great satisfaction to drink you," he said. "My 

 friends drink my wife and me." 



We toasted his admirable wife, we toasted the two re- 

 pubhcs; Lafayette, Rochambeau, and Chateaubriand. 



''Ah, le biftekr said M. Leboucher. 



We toasted Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Frank- 

 lin, and then we sang for an hour. M. Brault was the 

 leading composer of Tahiti. He was the creator of 

 Tahitian melodies, as Kappelmeister Berger was of 

 Hawaiian. For our delectation Brault sang ten of his 

 songs between toasts. I liked best "Le Bon Roi 

 Pomare/' the words of one of the many stanzas being: 



II etait un excellent roi 



Dont on ne dit rien dans I'histoire, 



Qui ne connaissait qu'une Loi: 



Celle de chanter, rire, et boire. 



Fervent disciple de Bacchus 



II glorifiait sa puissance. 



Puis, sacrifiait a Venus 



Les loisirs de son existence. 

 Refrain : 



Toujours joyeux, d'humeur gauloise, 

 Et parfois meme un peu grivoise 

 Le genereux Roi Pomare 

 Par son peuple est fort regrette. 

 S'il avait eu de I'eloquence 

 II aurait gouverne la France! 

 Mais nos regrets sont superflus ; 

 Puisqu'il est mort, n'en parlous plus ! 



"Ah, he was a chic type, that last King of Tahiti," 

 said M. Brault, who had written so many praiseful, 

 merry verses about him. "He would have a hula about 



