THE DREAM SHIP 



31 



walls of cloud- 

 capped rock 6,000 

 feet high, some liter- 

 ally overhanging the 

 crystal - clear water, 

 and all embossed and 

 engraved with 

 strangely patterned 

 basalt. There are pil- 

 lars, battlements, and 

 turrets; so that with 

 half - closed eyes it 

 seems one is ap- 

 proaching a temple, a 

 medieval castle, a 

 mosque of the East. 

 And the valleys — 

 deep, river-threaded, 

 verdure - choked val- 

 leys — fading away 

 into mysterious pur- 

 ple mists! But it is 

 little better than an 

 impertinence to at- 

 tempt a description 

 o f Nukuhiva after 

 Melville's "Typee." 



GUESTS OF FRENCH 

 IN TAI O HAE 



For once the mon- 

 strosity in our engine- 

 room was induced to 

 exert three of its four 

 cylinders, and we en- 

 tered the harbor of 

 Tai o Hae in style. 

 It was as well, for a 

 trim trading schooner 

 flying the French flag 

 was at anchor close 

 inshore, and her en- 

 tire crew lined the rail to see what man- 

 ner of insect had invaded her privacy. 



"Where are you from?" hailed a sur- 

 prisingly English voice as soon as our 

 anchor chain had ceased its clamor. 



"London," we chorused. 



"Well, I'm damned !" came a response, 

 evidently not intended for our ears, but 

 audible nevertheless. 



In rather less than three minutes a 

 whaleboat-load of visitors was aboard the 

 Dream Ship, and the silent bay echoed 

 to a fusillade of question and counter- 

 question. 



■^«WP- 



Photograph from Ralph Stock 

 AEEEGED MUSIC ON THE CLARINET: CABIN OE THE 



"dream ship" 



Owing to the fair winds encountered throughout most of the 

 voyage, it was seldom necessary for more than one of the three 

 voyageurs to remain on deck at a time. The watches were appor- 

 tioned four hours on and eight off. 



There followed a dinner at the trading 

 station, on a wide, cool veranda, where, 

 under the influence of oysters, California 

 asparagus, fowl, bush-pig, taro root, and 

 French champagne, we became better ac- 

 quainted with our hosts, two as amiable 

 Frenchmen as ever I met. They repre- 

 sented a trading company of Papeete and 

 lived as only Frenchmen appear to know 

 how to live. 



The Marquesans, we gathered over 

 coffee and cigars, were dying rapidly of 

 consumption, introduced in the form of 

 Panama fever by laborers returning from 



