208 MYSTIC ISLES 



ber every man, and photogi'aph him, to keep a record. 

 There is no government agent in China to further this 

 emigration, but those here write home, and induce their 

 relatives to come. We hope for enough to make labor 

 plentiful. All cannot keep stores." 



"Have you no Japanese?" 



"Only those who work for the phosphate company at 

 the island of Makatea," replied the secretary-general. 

 "They are well paid, their fare to Tahiti and return se- 

 cured, and otherwise they are favored. The Govern- 

 ment has agreed with a company to promote Chinese 

 emigration to the Marquesas. There are thousands 

 needed. In French Oceanic there are twelve thousand 

 possible workers for nearly a million acres of land. 

 This land could easily feed two hundred thousand peo- 

 ple. The natives are dying fast, and we must replace 

 them, or the land will become jungle." 



"Could n't you bring French Chinese from Indo- 

 China?" I asked. 



"We have n't any workers to spare there," he an- 

 swered. 



In Papeete the Chinese were, as in America, a mys- 

 terious, elusive race, the immigrants remaining homo- 

 geneous in habits, closely united in social and business 

 activities, and with a solid front to the natives and the 

 whites. They lived much as in China, though in more 

 healthful surroundings. Every vice they had in China 

 they brought to Tahiti; their virtues they left behind, 

 except those strict ethics in commerce and finance which 

 must be carried out successfully to "save face." Their 

 community in this island, with a climate and people as 

 different from their own as the land from the sea, was 



