CHAPTER VII 



The Noa-Noa comes to port — Papeete en fete — Rare scene at the Tiare 

 Hotel — The New Year celebrated — Excitement at the wharf — Battle 

 of the Limes and Coal. 



THE Noa-Noa came in after many days of sus- 

 pense, during which rumors and reports of war 

 grew into circumstantial statements of engage- 

 ments at sea and battles on land. A mysterious vessel 

 was said to have slipped in at night with despatches for 

 the governor. All was sensation and canard, on dit 

 and oui dire, and all was proved false when the liner 

 came through the passage in the reef. Nothing had 

 happened to disturb the peace of nations, but a dock 

 strike in Auckland had tied up the ship. The relief of 

 mind of the people of Papeete caused a wave of joj^ to 

 pass over them. Business men and officials, tourists 

 who expected to leave for America and the outside world 

 on the A^oa-Noa, overflowed with evidence of their de- 

 light. The consuls of the powers met at the Cercle 

 Militaire the governor, and laughed hectically at the ab- 

 surd balloon of tittle-tattle which had been pricked by 

 the Noa-Noa's facts. There had been absolutely noth- 

 ing to the rumors but the fears or the antipathies of na- 

 tionals in Tahiti. 



It was the holiday season, the New Year at hand, and, 

 moreover, there was added cause for rejoicing in the 

 safety of the Saint Michel, a French-owned inter-island 



108 



