OF THE SOUTH SEAS 353 



mat I sat was emphatic as to the respect of the old 

 Tahitians for their chiefs. 



"It was the whole code," said he, "and when the 

 French broke it down they destroyed us. There is 

 Teriieroo a Teriierooterai, whose family were chiefs of 

 Punaauia for generations, shifted to Papenoo. Each 

 governor or admiral made these transfers here, as in the 

 JNIarquesas and all the islands, with the primary object 

 of lessening native cohesion, of Frenchifying us. They 

 ruined our highest aspirations and our manners." 



I had seen something of the same sweeping away of a 

 code and the resultant evils and degradation in Japan. 

 When Bushido imposed itself on all above the herd, 

 they had a sense of honor not surpassed by the people of 

 any nation ; but commerce, the destruction of the castes 

 of samurai, heimin, and eta, the plunging of a military 

 people into business and competition with Western cun- 

 ning, and the lacquer of Christianity which had done 

 little more than Occidentalize to a considerable degree 

 a few thousands, without giving them the practice of 

 the golden rule, or an appreciation of the Sermon on the 

 Mount, had robbed the Japanese of an ancient code of 

 morality and honor, and replaced it with nothing worth 

 while — an insatiable ambition to equal Occidental peo- 

 ples and to conquer Oriental ones, and a thousand fac- 

 tories which killed women and children. 



"We were divided into three distinct castes," said 

 Tetuanui. "The Arii, or princes; Raatira, or small 

 chiefs and simple landed proprietors; and the Mana- 

 hune, or proletariat. Alliances between Arii and Raa- 

 tira made an intermediate class — Eietoai. There was 



