Vol. XII, No. 12 WASHINGTON December, 1901 



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DIARY OF A VOYAGE FROM SAN FRAN- 

 CISCO TO TAHITI AND RETURN, 1901 



By S. p. Langley 



PREFACE 



UNTlIv lately Tahiti (Cook's Ota- 

 heite) has been reached from the 

 United States only by a sailing 

 schooner from San Francisco in a voyage 

 of six or seven weeks. There has been 

 an occasional steamer from New Zea- 

 land ; and the French, who are in pos- 

 session of the island, send a warship at 

 intervals; but on the whole the islanders 

 are in very much the same condition 

 that they were a hundred years ago. 



The French Government has j ust sub- 

 sidized a vessel of the Oceanic Steam- 

 ship Company, which is to make a trip 

 to Tahiti once in every five weeks, the 

 voyage lasting only about eleven days. 

 On the occasion of the French National 



Ju?ie 25. — In the morning of the 25th 

 of June I went down to see the Aus- 

 tralia at the dock. She is a long, nar- 

 row vessel, painted white, of 3,200 tons 

 burden, with great piles of lumber on 

 her main deck, and evidently both old 

 and overloaded. I secured my passage 

 with some misgiving. 



Fete, on the i4thof July (1901 ), the com- 

 pany advertised a trip widely through- 

 out the United States. 



I was led to think that the occasion 

 was one for seeing the native ways and 

 customs of the islands before the inno- 

 vations that would be introduced by the 

 steamer communication in the future, 

 and, expecting to have a companion, I 

 had arranged to take the voyage. My 

 companion failed me at the last moment, 

 and I took the trip alone, commencing 

 my diary with the departure from San 

 Francisco. I have published it as 

 written at the time, without modifying 

 the style such diarial notes naturally 

 take. 



/line 26. — Going down to the boat at 

 9.30 a. m., I hear from more competent 

 judges than myself the confirmation of 

 my feeling that the boat is extremely 

 overloaded. The depth to which she 

 has sunk in the water and the lumber 

 on the decks say this even to a lands- 

 man's eye ; but when I get on board of 



