Harr.—On the Island of Rapa. 77 
The island is of very irregular form, with several indentations in the 
coast, two of which are considerable bays, having each its little village, 
whilst the third and largest is the harbour. . It is about twenty miles round, 
though, from the irregularity of its outline, it is difficult to estimate this 
exactly. The coast is bold, with no outlying reefs beyond half a mile. 
The French have assumed the protectorate of it—on the ground, I 
believe, that it is a dependency of the Tahitian group—but looking, a day or 
two ago, at a recent French map of the world dedicated to the Emperor, I 
saw a circle described round the Society group as the limits of their pro-' 
teetorate. Now this line happens to be more than 300 miles distant from 
Rapa, and had we not established a station there, I fancy they would never 
have gone near it. But the French, having made an effort to induce the 
Company to adopt Tahiti as the half-way house, of course unsuccessfully, 
and hearing that we were in search of a place more in the track than Tahiti, 
fancied it must be at one of the Gambier Islands, lying considerably to 
the N.E. of Rapa, and included in the protectorate circle. Accordingly 
they sent a Resident there to watch our proceedings. Finding, after some 
time, that we did not appear there, but had selected Rapa for our port of 
call, the same Resident was sent to that island, in the early part of the 
present year, on board the French war transport “La Dorade.” A few 
months previous to this, and subsequent to our appearance at the island, 
another French steamer, * La Touche Treville," called at the island. They 
make out for the first time that Rapa—though nearly, as I said, 300 miles 
out of the magic circle drawn by themselves round the Society group— 
belongs to the Tahitian protectorate. Some three months ago the French 
war steamer “La Touche Treville” called at the island, as I am informed, 
made nearly all the inhabitants drunk, and got the King, Tapanua (a most 
powerful toper), and two chiefs, Miroto (the man who betrayed the Tahitians 
to the French) and Eiton, to sign away the island to the French. This 
Eiton told me himself. Many of the influential chiefs, being absent, kept 
sober on the occasion, and deny the King’s right to alienate any lands not 
his personal property. His dusky majesty having drunk all the rum, now 
begins to repent his bargain, and hopes the English will come to the island 
and preserve him from all intruders. The object of the French was, as one 
of their captains told us, simply to embarrass the operations of the Company, 
or they certainly would not incur an expense of about £600 per annum to 
watch our coaling merely. 
It is only due to the supineness of the English Government that this fine - 
harbour is not under their control; for, three years ago, on my representa- 
tion, application was made to the Admiralty to send a man-of-war there. 
However, nothing was ever done in the matter. 
