CHAPTER XVI 



A journey to Mataiea — I abandon city life — Interesting sights on the route 

 — ^The Grotto of Maraa — Papara and the Chief Tati — The plantation of 

 Atimaono — My host, the Chevalier Tetuanui. 



LIFE in the country made me laugh at myself for 

 having so long stayed in the capital. The fever 

 of Papeete had long since cooled in my veins. 

 A city man myself, I might have known that all capitals 

 are noxious. Great cities are the wens on the body of 

 civilization. They are aggregations of sick people, who 

 die out in the third generation. Greed builds them. 

 Crowded populations increase property values and buy 

 more manufactured luxuries. The country sends its 

 best to perish in these huddlements. In America, where 

 money interests boom cities and proudly boast their 

 corruption in numbers, half the people are already in 

 these webs in which the spider of commerce eats its vic- 

 tims, but ultimately may perish for lack of food. Brick 

 and steel grow nothing. 



I had made excursions from Papeete, but always car- 

 rying the poisons of the town with me. At last my 

 playmates deserted me. Lying Bill and McHenry 

 sailed on their schooner for the Paumotu and the Mar- 

 quesas islands, Landers left for Auckland, and Count 

 Polonsky for a flying visit to America. Llewellyn, 

 though an interesting study, learned in native ways, and 

 with comparisons of Europe and America, was too 

 atrabilious, and, besides, had with his young partner, 



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