OF THE SOUTH SEAS 197 



poincianas, or flame-trees — sheltered the short stretch 

 of sward to the water, and their blossoms made a red- 

 gold htter upon the grass. A giant acacia whose flow- 

 ers were reddish pink and looked like thistle blooms, 

 protected two canoes, one my own and one Afa's. The 

 Annexe was bounded by the Broom Road and the rue 

 de Bougainville, and across that street was the restaur- 

 ant of Mme. Fanny. It was built over a tiny stream, 

 which emptied fifty feet away into the lagoon. A 

 clump of banana-trees hid the patrons, but did not ob- 

 scure their view from Fanny's balcony. 



In the lagoon, a thousand yards from me, was Motu 

 Uta, a tiny island ringed with golden sand, a mass of 

 green trees half disclosing a gray house. Motu Uta 

 was a gem incomparable in its beauty and its setting. 

 It had been the place of revels of old kings and chiefs, 

 and Pomare the Fourth had made it his residence. Cut 

 off by half a mile of water from Papeete, it had an iso- 

 lation, yet propinquity^ which would have persuaded 

 me to make it my home were I a governor; but it was 

 given over to quarantine purposes, with an old care- 

 taker who came and went in a commonplace rowboat. 



The Annexe housed many rats. I brought to my 

 rooms a basket of bananas, and put it on a table by my 

 bed, the canopied four-poster in which the son of the 

 baroness was born. In the night I was awakened by a 

 tremendous thump on the floor and a curious dragging 

 noise. I hstened breathlessl5\ But the rat must have 

 heard me, for he ceased operations, only returning when 

 he thought I was asleep. He leaped on the table, 

 scratched a banana from the basket, threw it to the floor, 

 and pulled it to his den near the wardrobe. The joists 



