CHAPTER VIII 



Gossip in Papeete — Moorea, a near-by island — A two-days' excursion there 

 — Magnificent scenery from the sea — Island of fairy folk — Landing 

 and preparation for the feast — The First Christian mission — A canoe 

 on the lagoon — Beauties of the sea-garden. 



MY acquaintances of the Cercle Bougainville, 

 Landers, Polonsky, McHenry, Llewellyn, 

 David, and Lying Bill, were at this season 

 bent on pleasure. Landers, the head of a considerable 

 business in Australasia, with a Papeete branch, had time 

 heavy on his hands. Lying Bill and McHenry were 

 seamen-traders ashore until their schooner sailed for 

 another swing about the French groups of islands. 

 Llewellyn and David were associates in planting, cur- 

 ing, and shipping vanilla-beans, but were roisterers at 

 heart, and ever ready to desert their office and warehouse 

 for feasting or gaming. Polonsky was a speculator in 

 exchange and an investor in lands, and was reputed to be 

 very rich. He, too, would leave his strong box unlocked 

 in his hurry if cards or wassail called. These same 

 white men were sib to all their fellows in the South 

 Seas except a few sour men whom avarice, satiety, or 

 a broken constitution made fearful of the future and 

 thus heedful of the decalogue. 



These merry men attended to business affairs for a 

 few hours of mornings, unless the night before had been 

 devoted too arduously to Bacchus, and the remainder of 

 the day they surrendered to clinking glasses, converse, 

 Rabelasian tales, and flirting with the gay Tahitian 

 women in the cinemas or at dances. There was a tol- 



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