SUDDEN CHANGE OF PLANS.--THE YACHT _PERA_.--DEPARTURE FROM
HONOLULU.--VOYAGE TO THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS.--NOOKAHEEVA BAY.--HISTORICAL
ACCOUNT OF THE MARQUESAS.--WHAT OUR FRIENDS SAW THERE.--TATTOOING AND
HOW IT IS PERFORMED.--THE DAUGHTER OF A CHIEF.--NATIVES AND THEIR
PECULIARITIES.--COTTON AND OTHER PLANTATIONS.--PHYSICAL FEATURES OF THE
ISLANDS.--VISITING A PLANTATION AND A NATIVE VILLAGE.--MISSIONARIES AND
THEIR WORK.--THE TABU.--CURIOUS CUSTOMS.--PITCAIRN ISLAND AND THE
MUTINEERS OF THE _BOUNTY_.--WONDERS OF EASTER ISLAND.--GIGANTIC
MONUMENTS OF AN UNKNOWN RACE.
Those who have followed the Boy Travellers in their journeys in other
parts of the world will remember that their plans were often changed by
circumstances which could not be foreseen. At Honolulu one of these
change took place, and this is how it happened:
When the _Alameda_ entered the harbor on her arrival from San Francisco
our friends observed at anchor a trim-looking yacht displaying the
English flag. They were too busy with the novelties of the place to give
her any attention, and her presence was soon forgotten.
On the morning of their return from Molokai Doctor Bronson encountered
in the breakfast-room of the hotel an old friend, Doctor Macalister, of
Cambridge, England. Their greetings were cordial, and all the more so as
neither had the least idea that the other was in the Hawaiian Islands or
anywhere else in the Pacific Ocean. In almost the same breath each
exclaimed,
"What are you doing here?"
Doctor Bronson explained briefly how he came to Honolulu, and where he
was going, to which Doctor Macalister responded,
"I came here on the yacht _Pera_; she belongs to Colonel Bush, formerly
of her Britannic Majesty's army, but for several years in the service of
the Turkish Government. I am the colonel's guest, and we came here by
way of India, China, and Japan. We leave to-morrow for the South
Pacific, where we are to cruise about for several months, visiting the
most interesting of the island groups. We go first to the Marquesas
Islands, and then--"
[Illustration: LOOKING SEAWARD.]
Just at this moment Colonel Bush entered the breakfast-room, and was
introduced to Doctor Bronson. A moment later Frank and Fred arrived,
presentations followed, and before the morning meal was over the
American contingent was fairly well acquainted with the English one.
Conversation developed the fact that two gentlemen who had arrived on
the _Pera_ had left by the mail-steamer for San Francisco, having
received letters at Honolulu which compelled their immediate return to
England. Consequently the _Pera_'s party was reduced to Colonel Bush and
Doctor Macalister.
[Illustration: THE OWNER OF THE YACHT.]
The party arranged to meet at dinner. Colonel Bush and Doctor Macalister
went to the _Pera_, while Doctor Bronson and the youths proceeded to
make farewell calls, as the steamer on which they were to continue their
journey was due on the morrow, and they wished to be ready for her.
Exactly how it came about we are unable to say, but it is evident that
Colonel Bush desired further acquaintance with Doctor Bronson and his
nephews, and that Doctor Macalister had heartily approved the colonel's
desire. At all events, when the three gentlemen were together after
dinner, Frank and Fred having left the table, the colonel invited Doctor
Bronson, with his nephews, to accompany him in his voyage to the South
Seas.
"There is plenty of room on the yacht," said he, "and provisions are
abundant. The _Pera_ is almost identical with the _Sunbeam_, the famous
yacht of Sir Thomas Brassey, of which you have read. She relies upon her
sails when there is any wind, and has auxiliary steam-power to propel
her when needed. The north-east trade-winds will carry us down to the
equatorial belt of calms, and then we'll steam through it to the
south-east trades, which will carry us straight to the Marquesas. From
the Marquesas we'll go to the Society Islands, then to Samoa, and then
to Feejee. There you can if you like take the mail-steamer to New
Zealand and Australia, or continue with the _Pera_ wherever she goes.
Beyond Feejee I have not formed my plans very definitely, as they will
depend somewhat upon the letters I receive there, and upon the state of
things in the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and other of the groups
to the west of Feejee."
The heartiness of the invitation, the opportunity the voyage would give
for seeing groups of islands not on the regular track of travel, and the
fact that he was not pressed for time, settled the question with Doctor
Bronson, and he accepted at once. He excused himself shortly afterwards
to inform the youths of the change in their plans.
Of course they were delighted at the opportunity of making an
acquaintance with the islands that were included in the _Pera_'s
proposed voyage, and earnestly congratulated themselves on their
good-fortune.
[Illustration: "GOOD-BY!"]
The baggage of the party was sent on board in the forenoon of the next
day; the travellers followed it, and a little before two o'clock in the
afternoon the _Pera_ steamed out of Honolulu and headed southward. When
she had made a good offing her engines were stopped, the fires were put
out, and the yacht proceeded at a splendid pace with the strong
trade-wind on her port beam. Her course was directed to the south-east,
so as to enable her to cross the equator about longitude 140° west, and
take advantage of the south-east trades in making the Marquesas.
[Illustration: AT HOME ON THE "PERA."]
Frank undertook a journal of the voyage; but like most works of the
kind, it abounded in repetitions, and our space will not permit
extensive quotations. One day was so much like another that the young
gentleman admitted that his narrative would make very tiresome reading,
and he doubted if any one would care to peruse it. Suffice it to say the
time passed agreeably, as there was a good library on board, and each
member of the party tried to do his share towards entertaining the rest.
Stories of sea and land, "of moving accidents by flood and field," and
discussions upon scientific, social, and all other imaginable topics,
served to beguile the hours and shorten the distance between the
Hawaiian and the Marquesas groups.
[Illustration: BELOW DECK IN THE TROPICS.]
The north-east trades carried the _Pera_ almost to the equator, then
came a period of calm in a torrid temperature that drove everybody to
the shelter of the double awning over the deck, and made them sigh for
cooler latitudes. Heavy clothing was at a discount, and the lightest
garments were found more than sufficient. Social rules were suspended,
and pajamas were worn altogether, except at dinner-time, when light
suits of linen took their place. Dinner was served on deck beneath the
awning, and the ice-machine was kept in constant action to supply ice
for the use of the sweltering travellers. Happily this state of affairs
did not last long; as soon as the _Pera_ entered the calm belt the
funnel was hoisted, fires were started, the equator was crossed
triumphantly, and the yacht in due time caught the south-east trades,
and was once more turned into a sailing-craft.
As they left the equator behind them the north star disappeared below
the horizon, and the Southern Cross, that magnificent constellation of
the antarctic heavens, came into view. Frank regretted that they could
not look at it with a powerful telescope, when he learned from the
captain of the _Pera_ that there is a brilliant cluster of stars in the
centre of the Cross, invisible to the unassisted eye, and only revealed
by a strong glass. Farther south their attention was absorbed by the
Magellan clouds, two nebulæ of stars so densely packed together and so
far away that they resemble light fleecy clouds more than anything else.
[Illustration: ON THE COAST OF THE MARQUESAS.]
In a direct line it is about two thousand miles from Honolulu to the
outermost of the Marquesas group. The log of the _Pera_ showed a run of
2180 miles, and on the morning of the sixteenth day of the voyage the
lookout gave the welcome announcement that land was in sight. Colonel
Bush had given directions for the yacht to proceed direct to Nookaheeva
Bay, the best harbor in the Marquesas group, and consequently the
travellers contented themselves with distant views of the outer islands
that lay in their course. The islands are evidently of volcanic origin,
as they present high peaks rising two or three thousand feet, and in
some places their sides are almost precipitous. With a glass, or even
with the unaided eye, it was easy to perceive that the sides of the
mountains and the valleys enclosed between them were thickly clothed
with tropical trees and undergrowth, that extended down close to the
water's edge.
Frank made the following historical note concerning the islands:
"They were discovered in 1595 by a Spanish navigator, Mendaña de Neyra,
who named them Las Marquesas de Mendoza, in honor of the Marquis de
Mendoza, Viceroy of Peru. They are sometimes known as the Mendaña
Archipelago, in honor of their discoverer; and they are also called the
Washington Islands, having been so named by Captain Ingraham of the
American ship _Hope_, who visited them in 1791. They are generally
divided into two groups, the Northern and Southern, and the Island of
Nookaheeva, where we are going, is in the Northern group. Altogether
there are thirteen of the islands, with an area of less than five
hundred square miles and a population of about ten thousand.
"Properly the name Marquesas belongs to the Southern group only, as they
alone were visited by Mendaña; the Northern group was not known until
the American captain discovered it, and therefore we shall insist that
they are the Washington Islands."
For the description of what they saw at Nookaheeva we will rely upon
Fred's account.
[Illustration: A VIEW IN NOOKAHEEVA.]
"As we neared the island," said the youth in his journal, "we got up
steam and went proudly into the harbor, which has a very good anchorage.
The French flag was flying from a tall staff at the end of the bay, and
you must know that the islands are under a French protectorate, and have
been so since 1841. Hardly was our anchor down before the yacht was
surrounded by a dozen boats, or canoes; one of them contained a
Frenchman in a greatly faded uniform, who said he was the captain of the
port. I very much doubt if he ever held the rank of captain anywhere
else.
"However, he represented the authority of the French Government and
treated us politely. Evidently the port was not often visited by
pleasure craft like our own, as he seemed somewhat surprised when told
that we had nothing to sell, and did not wish to buy anything except
fresh provisions. We bought some yams, bread-fruit, bananas, and other
fruits and vegetables, together with two or three pigs that the natives
brought alongside in their boats. The captain of the port promised to
send us a man who would supply us with fresh beef, and then went on
shore, whither we followed as soon as we had lunched.
"Both in the boats and on the land we had a good opportunity to study
the natives, who are said to be the finest type of Polynesians. They
belong to the Malay race, and are distinguished for their graceful and
symmetrical figures; the men are tall and well proportioned, with skins
of a dark copper color, while the women are considerably lighter in
complexion, partly in consequence of their being less exposed to the
sun, and partly because of certain pigments which they apply to their
faces and arms.
"Tattooing is in fashion here; it prevails among both sexes, though more
among the men than the women. It takes a long time to perform it
thoroughly. A resident Frenchman with whom we talked on the subject said
that the operation began at the age of nineteen or twenty, and was
rarely finished until the subject was approaching his fortieth year. It
is performed with an instrument shaped like a comb, or rather like a
small chisel with its end fashioned into teeth. The figure is drawn upon
the skin, and then the artist dips the comb into an ink made of burnt
cocoanut-shell and water, until the blunt ends of the teeth have taken
up some of the coloring matter. Then the comb is placed on the proper
spot, and with a mallet is driven through the skin, eliciting a howl
from the subject, unless he is of stoical mood.
"Only a few square inches can be operated on at a time. The flesh swells
and becomes very sore, and the performance cannot be repeated until the
swelling subsides and the patient has gathered strength and recovered
from the fever into which he is generally thrown. We are told that the
custom is far less prevalent than when the islands were first
discovered, and it will probably die out in another generation or two.
[Illustration: GATTANEWA'S PORTRAIT.]
"The marks made by tattooing are permanent, and no application has ever
been found that will remove them. We have seen several men whose entire
bodies were tattooed, others whose arms and faces had alone been wrought
upon, and others again who had kept their faces free from marks but had
their bodies covered. One old fellow consented to stand for his
photograph in consideration of being rewarded with a hatchet and some
fish-hooks, which we willingly gave him. We added a pocket-knife, which
he received with a grunt of satisfaction, but without deigning to say
'Thank you,' or anything like its equivalent. He said his name was
Gattanewa, and that he was grandson of a former chief of that name.
"The faces of the women are not tattooed, except that now and then they
have a black line on the upper lip, which is quite suggestive of a
budding mustache. One pretty woman was pointed out to us who was said to
be the daughter of a chief; her hands and arms were tattooed, the
tattooing on the arms extending nearly to the elbow. At a little
distance she seemed to have on a pair of embroidered gloves, and this
fact suggested an idea. Why could not the ladies of civilized lands have
their hands tattooed in imitation of gloves, and thus save themselves
the trouble and expense of donning a new pair so often? An ingenious
artist could do it nicely, and he might even tattoo the buttons in their
places, so that the gloves could have no possible chance of slipping off
or getting out of shape.
[Illustration: TATTOO MARKS ON A CHIEF OF THE MARQUESAS.]
"There was a chief of one of the interior tribes who presented an
excellent specimen of the work of the Polynesian artist on a living
canvas. Circles, squares, and all sorts of curious figures had been
delineated on his skin, and then punctured in with the tattoo
instrument; and the artist certainly possessed a correct eye, as all the
drawing was mathematically exact. The chief allowed Frank to make a
sketch of him, as the photograph did not bring out all the lines with
distinctness; of course he was rewarded for his condescension, and as he
received twice as much as he had expected, we had any number of
candidates offering themselves when it was known how liberally we paid
for services.
"Doctor Bronson says the custom prevails in many of the islands of
Polynesia, though not in all, but is fast dying out through the
influence of Christianity and civilization. Tattooing has been practised
in almost all parts of the world and in all ages. According to the
Bible, it must have existed in the time of Moses, for we find it to be
one of the practices prohibited to the Jews. Read what is said in
Leviticus, xix. 28: 'Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for
the dead, nor print any marks upon you.' It prevailed among the ancient
Thracians, and the ancient Britons practised it. It still exists among
sailors, and has probably descended through them from the time when it
was common in Great Britain, though they may have adopted it from the
barbarous countries to which their occupation carries them.
"Frank says these people are like a French salad, as they are dressed
with oil; they use cocoanut-oil for polishing their skins and anointing
their hair, and it is applied with great liberality. One of the presents
we gave to the chief who stood for his picture was a flat bottle like a
pocket-flask; he said through the interpreter that it was just the thing
for carrying oil, and he will no doubt use it for that purpose until it
goes the way of all bottles and is broken. The effect on the skin is
less disagreeable than you might suppose, as it makes it shine like a
piece of mahogany, and brings out the tattoo marks just as varnishing a
picture brings out its strong points more clearly than before.
"Turmeric and other coloring substances are used with the oil. Turmeric
gives a reddish tinge to the natural brown, and when it is applied to
the skin of a pretty woman the effect is like that of the tint of an
American belle who has spent a summer at the sea-side or on a yachting
cruise, and has not been careful of her complexion. Here is a hint for
the ladies who pretend to go to the sea-side or the mountains in summer,
but are really obliged to remain at home: Make a cosmetic of
cocoanut-butter and turmeric, and apply it in place of cold-cream night
and morning. In this way you can get up a 'sea-side tan' at a trifling
expense.
"Before civilization came here the natives wore very little clothing,
and even at the present time they do not spend much money on their
wardrobes. The native cloth, tappa, is made by pounding the inner bark
of a species of mulberry-tree with a mallet after soaking it in water.
Tappa enough for an entire dress can be made in a day, and when it is
done it will last five or six weeks. For a head-dress it is made of a
more open texture than for garments to cover the body. The women wrap
three or four yards of it around the waist to form a skirt or petticoat,
and then cover their shoulders with a mantle of the same material.
European cotton goods have partially replaced tappa, and the old
industry is dying out. It is a pity, too, as tappa is prettier than
cotton cloth, and the natives look better in it than in more civilized
material.
[Illustration: THE CHIEF'S DAUGHTER.]
"In another way civilization has destroyed the picturesqueness of the
Marquesas Islands. The natives formerly wore necklaces made of hogs' and
whales' teeth, and the men bored their ears, in which they inserted
ornaments of bone or teeth. These snow-white necklaces on the skins of
the Marquesas women had a very pretty effect, much prettier than that of
the cheap jewellery they wear nowadays, and which comes from French or
English manufactories. The chief's daughter whom I mentioned had one of
these necklaces, but she wore it more as the mark of her rank than
because she admired it. Above the necklace she had a double string of
common beads. She had a funny sort of ear-ornament that we tried in vain
to buy, as it was one of the insignia to indicate her rank in life.
"When the French took possession of the islands they started to make an
extensive colony. They sent a fleet of four ships of war with five
hundred troops, and hoisted the French flag with a great deal of
ceremony. Fortifications were built, and there were some conflicts with
the natives; but of course the islanders, with their rude and primitive
weapons, were speedily conquered. The French built docks and jetties in
addition to their fortifications, but they have been of little practical
use. We found that the most of the jetties had rotted away, and in place
of the former garrison of five hundred men there are now about sixty
soldiers and a few policemen.
"The Governor treated us very kindly, and at our first call upon him he
invited us to dine with him, where we met his amiable wife and the
officers of his staff. Colonel Bush invited them to dine on the yacht.
As the cabin is limited, we had the Governor and his wife on one day and
the officers on another, and I am sure they all enjoyed our visit.
Strangers come here so rarely that our advent made an agreeable break in
the monotony of their lives.
"There are some fifty foreigners living here, and they include several
nationalities--English, American, Irish, Scotch, French, German,
Portuguese, Spanish, and Peruvian. Some of them are engaged in business,
but there is not a great deal of it, as the colony has not been
successful. Cotton is the principal article of cultivation, and there is
a small trade in beche-de-mer, the famous sea-cucumber of which the
Chinese are fond. It brings a high price in the markets of Canton and
Shanghai, sometimes selling as high as five hundred dollars a ton. One
of the Englishmen, who has a store in the little settlement, said that
several of the cotton plantations had been abandoned, owing to the
difficulty of getting laborers for them. The natives are disinclined to
work, and laborers from other islands cannot be had in sufficient
numbers. Several hundred Chinese have been imported, and also some
laborers from the Gilbert and Loyalty Islands. The Chinese make very
good colonists, and many of them have plantations of their own, which
they manage very successfully.
"The same gentleman showed us a fungus that comes from the valleys
between the mountains; it looks very much like a scrap of dried leather,
and would not be considered worth much to one who did not know about it.
It brings a good price in China, where it is used for making soup. We
tried some of it at dinner one day, and found it not at all disagreeable
to the taste; in fact it was so good that our steward bought nearly a
barrel of it for future use.
"There is a road around the head of the bay which was built by the
French soon after their arrival, but has been neglected and is not in
good repair. Our host took us on a ride along this road, from which the
view is delightful. In front is the deep blue water of the bay, while
behind us the mountains rose very precipitously, and seemed to shut us
out altogether from the rest of the island. The bay is nearly in the
shape of a horseshoe, ending in two high headlands, and to follow its
shores requires a walk or ride of about nine miles. The entrance is less
than half a mile wide, and is guarded by two small islands, each about
five hundred feet high.
"Cowper says:
"'Mountains interpos'd
Make enemies of nations who had else,
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.'
"There is nowhere in the world a better illustration of the truth of
this assertion than in the Marquesas. In each island the mountains rise
in ridges like the sections of a starfish; some of these ridges are
quite impassable, and all of them very difficult to traverse. The result
has been that there was formerly very little intercourse between the
tribes occupying the different valleys, and until the French came here
there was hardly a time when two or more tribes were not at war. Even at
present they are not entirely at peace, and though the most of them have
abandoned cannibalism, it is occasionally practised.
"Our host told us that in many of the valleys there are old men who
have never been outside the limits of the mountain walls that enclose
their homes, and others whose journeys have been wholly confined to
short excursions on the water a few miles from shore. The ordinary mode
of communication is by water, and in many cases it is the only one
possible.
[Illustration: A EUROPEAN'S RESIDENCE IN THE MARQUESAS.]
"The gentleman invited us to go to one of the valleys where he has a
plantation; we made the excursion in a large sail-boat manned by six or
eight natives, but built after an English model and commanded by an
English sailor. Starting early one morning, we made the run in about
four hours, spent an afternoon and night in the valley, and returned the
next day. All these valleys in the Marquesas have a wealth of tropical
trees and smaller plants which is not surpassed anywhere else in the
world. The cocoa and several other varieties of the palm-tree abound
here, and they have the bread-fruit, the banana and taro plants, the
sugar-cane, and, as before mentioned, the cotton-plant.
[Illustration: A MARQUESAN VILLAGE.]
"Close by the landing-place we came to a village of a dozen or twenty
huts built of the yellow bamboo and thatched with palmetto-leaves, which
the sun had bleached to a whiteness that reminded us of a newly shingled
roof in temperate zones. Our guide called our attention to the platform
of stones on which each house stood, and said it was a protection
against dampness. The rain falls frequently and very heavily, and it is
the abundant moisture that makes the vegetation so luxuriant. On the
mountain ridges, in whatever direction you look, there are streams
tumbling down, and the steep cliffs are whitened by numerous cascades.
The moisture nourishes a great variety of creeping plants, and in many
places they completely cover the precipitous cliffs and give them the
appearance of green water-falls.
"The natives in one respect resemble the Irish peasantry, their chief
wealth being in pigs. These animals were introduced by the Spaniards,
who were for a long time venerated as gods in consequence of this
inestimable gift to these simple-minded people. Before the visit of the
Spaniards the islands had absolutely no four-footed animals; hence it is
easy to see how Mendaña and his companions were regarded as more than
human.
"Now they have some horses and horned cattle, but not many; they have
dogs and cats, and unfortunately they have rats, which were brought here
in foreign ships, and have multiplied so fast that they have become a
great pest. There are only a few varieties of birds on the islands; most
of them have beautiful plumage, but none can be properly called
song-birds.
"Near the village is a well-built church of stone; it is in charge of a
Catholic priest, and we were told that there is an average of one church
to every two hundred inhabitants all over the islands. The first
missionaries to the Marquesas came in the London Mission ship _Duff_
near the end of the last century, but after a short residence they
became disheartened and abandoned the effort to convert and civilize the
people. Several attempts were made in the first quarter of the present
century, but with a similar result. In 1833 some American missionaries
tried the experiment, and in 1834 the London Mission Society sent a
fresh party of missionaries, but all to little purpose.
[Illustration: CATHOLIC MISSIONARY.]
"In 1853 an English missionary named Bicknell and four Hawaiian
teachers, accompanied by their wives, went to the Marquesas at the
request of a Marquesan chief, who had gone to the Sandwich Islands in a
whale-ship to present the invitation. The French priests opposed the
coming of these missionaries, but the chiefs refused to give them up,
and so the teachers remained, but they made little progress in
converting the natives to Christianity.
"The Catholic mission supports quite a number of priests and a bishop at
the Marquesas. The mission has had very poor success in securing
adherents to its faith, but it has done much good in the way of showing
the natives the result of industry. Around each mission station there is
a well-cultivated garden, and some of the finest cotton-fields on the
islands may be found there. I have never seen anywhere a prettier
cotton-field than at the mission we visited.
"There is a convent at Nookaheeva, where the French Sisters are
educating about sixty Marquesan girls, whose ages vary from four to
sixteen years. There is a similar school for boys, which is under the
charge of the mission; and the bishop hopes that these boys and girls
will be of service in educating and converting their people to the
religion and civilization of the foreigner. But from all we can learn it
will be a long time before his hopes are realized. The Queen is a devout
Catholic, while the King is a nominal one, and each missionary has a
small flock of followers; but the great majority are as much heathen as
ever, and cling firmly to their old superstitions.
"One of the curious customs of the South Sea Islands is the _tabu_, and
it prevails much more strongly at the Marquesas at the present time
than anywhere else. The word is Polynesian, and singularly resembles in
sound and meaning the _to ebah_ of the ancient Hebrews. It has a good
and a bad meaning, or rather it may apply to a sacred thing or to a
wicked one. A cemetery, being consecrated ground, would be tabu, or
sacred, and to fight there would be tabu, or wicked. Our English word
'tabooed' (forbidden) comes from the Polynesian one.
[Illustration: IN A GALE NEAR THE MARQUESAS.]
"It would take too long to describe all the operations of tabu as it
formerly prevailed through Polynesia and still exists in some of the
islands, and especially in the Marquesas. There were two kinds of tabu,
one of them permanent, the other temporary. The permanent tabu was a
sort of traditional or social rule, and applied to everybody. All
grounds and buildings dedicated to any idol or god were tabu, and
therefore became places of refuge to men fleeing from an enemy, exactly
like the Cities of Refuge mentioned in the Bible. It was tabu to touch
the person of a chief or any article belonging to him, or eat anything
he had touched. In the Tonga Islands it was tabu to speak the name of
father or mother or of father-in-law or mother-in-law, to touch them, or
to eat in their presence except with the back turned, when they were
constructively supposed to be absent.
[Illustration: COMMODORE PORTER'S FLEET IN NOOKAHEEVA BAY.]
"In the Feejee Islands it was tabu for brother and sister and
first-cousins to speak together or eat from the same dish. Husband and
wife could not eat from the same dish, and a father could not speak to
his son if the latter was more than fifteen years old!
"The tabu was a very convenient police system, as any exposed property
could be made safe by being tabooed. The chiefs and priests could tabu
anything they chose; when a feast was about to come off the chief would
previously tabu certain articles of food, and thus insure an abundance
on the day of the festival. Violation of certain kinds of tabu was
punished with death; other and smaller violations had various penalties
affixed, and they generally included sacrifices or presents to the gods,
or the payment of fines to the chiefs.
"Well, here in the Marquesas, among other prohibitions, it was tabu for
a woman to enter a canoe or boat. Men had a monopoly of all paddling and
sailing, and the only sea-voyage a woman could make was by swimming. I
have read about women in the South Seas swimming out to ships anchored a
long distance from shore, and never understood till now how it was. It
is no wonder that sailors used to mistake these Marquesan nymphs for
mermaids as they dashed through the waves with their long black hair
trailing behind them in the water."
Fred's account of what they saw in the Marquesas pauses abruptly at this
point. Perhaps he was interrupted by just such a scene as he describes
in the last sentence, but he could hardly fall into the old error of the
sailors. The women of the Marquesas are fine swimmers, but no better,
perhaps, than those of the Feejee, Samoan, and other tropical or
semi-tropical groups.
The _Pera_ remained several days at the Marquesas, and then proceeded to
Tahiti, in the Society group. Before they left Nookaheeva one of the
officers of the Governor's staff pointed out the hill where Commodore
Porter hoisted the American flag when he anchored with his prizes in the
bay during the war of 1812. "That was a long time ago," said the
officer; "but the incident is vividly preserved in the traditions of the
people. And it was that incident that greatly aided the French in
getting their foothold here."
"How was that?" Frank inquired.
"At the time of Commodore Porter's visit," replied the officer, "the
Nookaheevans were at war with a neighboring tribe. The hostile tribe
made an incursion one night and destroyed about two hundred bread-fruit
trees close to Porter's camp; the next day they sent a messenger to tell
him he was a coward, and they would come soon and attack his camp.
"Porter thereupon concluded to teach them a lesson, and so he sent a
small detachment under Lieutenant Downs to aid the Nookaheevans to
punish their enemies.
"This was accomplished, and the hostile tribe was completely subdued. As
soon as he had completed the repairs to his ships Porter sailed away,
but he was long revered in Nookaheeva. When the French came here, thirty
years afterwards, the natives thought the performance of Porter would be
repeated, and the Frenchmen would aid the Nookaheevans to defeat their
enemies. They were received with open arms, and the natives were not
undeceived until the French had completed their forts and were fully
able to defend themselves."
Continuing his reference to the natives, Frank's informant said that
great numbers of them were at one time kidnapped and carried away by
labor-vessels, of which more will be said in a later chapter. In 1863
small-pox was introduced by foreign ships, and killed nearly one-half of
the population. Altogether the people of the Marquesas have no special
occasion to be grateful to the white man.
During the _Pera_'s voyage to Tahiti our young friends devoted their
time to a study of that part of the Pacific Ocean and the islands it
contained. Fred called their attention to Pitcairn Island, which has
been long famous as the home of the mutineers of the _Bounty_; both the
youths regretted that they were not to pass in its vicinity, but
consoled themselves by reading an account of a visit to it, and a
description of the inhabitants.[2]
[2] "The Young Nimrods Around the World," chapter xv. Published by
Harper & Brothers.
[Illustration: EASTER ISLAND HOUSE AND CHILDREN.]
One day while they were busy with their studies of the Pacific, Doctor
Bronson called their attention to Easter Island, which he pronounced one
of the most remarkable islands in the great ocean.
Frank eagerly asked why it was so, and the Doctor kindly explained as
follows:
[Illustration: LAVA ROCK IMAGE, EASTER ISLAND.]
"It is remarkable," said he, "on account of the mysterious origin and
history of its former inhabitants, and the sculptured rocks and stone
images which they have left scattered in great numbers over the island.
It has been known since 1722, when the navigator Roggewein discovered it
on Easter Sunday of that year, and named it Easter Island in
commemoration of the discovery. Some authorities say it was discovered
in 1686 by Davis, an English buccaneer, and it was known as Davis Land
until Roggewein's visit. Captain Cook visited it about 1772, and it is
said he found twenty thousand inhabitants there. The island is about
thirty miles in circumference, and is situated in latitude 27° 10'
south, and 109° 26' west longitude. It has a remarkable isolation, being
two thousand miles from the coast of Chili, and one thousand five
hundred from any other inhabited island except Pitcairn, and that, as
you know, is a small island, about two miles long and not more than a
mile broad in its widest part.
[Illustration: EASTER ISLAND MAN.]
"Easter Island is called Rapa Nui by the natives of Tahiti, and is of
unmistakably volcanic origin. There is a large extinct crater on each
end of the island, and numerous small ones between, the ground being
thickly covered with black volcanic rock and obsidian in the western
portion. The largest of these volcanoes is named Rauo Kao; it is over
one thousand three hundred feet high, enclosing a fresh-water lake
nearly three miles in circumference, the surface of which is partially
covered with vegetable matter, over which a man may walk in places. The
second one in size is extremely interesting on account of its being the
place where the stone images were made from lava rock, a great number of
which still remain, some unfinished and attached to the precipitous
cliffs. An enormous number of these images is scattered all over the
island, while there are ninety-three inside and one hundred and
fifty-five immediately outside of the crater. They are in solid pieces,
varying from five to seventy feet in height; some of the figures lying
prostrate are twenty-seven feet long, and measure eight feet across the
breast."
[Illustration: EASTER ISLAND WOMAN.]
"Very much like the great statues at Thebes and Karnak in Egypt," said
Fred.
"Yes," replied the Doctor, "and one of these statues measures twenty
feet from the shoulder to the crown of the head. The sculpture is
extremely rude, and as works of art the Easter Island statues bear no
comparison to the Egyptian ones. The human body is represented
terminating at the hips, the head is flat, the top of the forehead cut
level so as to support a crown which was cut from red tufa found in one
of the smaller craters. They were transported to villages near the sea,
and placed upon stone platforms constructed in various heights and
different lengths, facing the water. One of these platforms supported
thirteen immense images, and all of those examined contained human
bones, showing it to be a place of burial. Of these platforms one
hundred and thirteen have been counted. On a precipice overlooking the
sea is a village of ancient stone huts, where, it is said, the natives
lived only during a portion of the year. Near by are also sculptured
rocks, covered with curious and extremely interesting carvings.
[Illustration: STONE TABLET OF CHARACTER WRITING.]
"The platforms are from two to three hundred feet long, and about thirty
feet high, built of hewn stones five or six feet long, and accurately
joined without cement. The platforms are at intervals all around the
coast, and some of the headlands were levelled off to form similar
resting-places for the images.
[Illustration: STONE PLATFORM FOR IMAGES.]
"All of the principal images have the top of the head cut flat and
crowned with a circular mass of red lava hewn perfectly round; some of
these crowns are sixty-six inches in diameter, and fifty-two inches
thick, and were brought eight miles from the spot where they were
quarried. About thirty crowns are lying in the quarries, and some of
them are fully ten feet in diameter, and of proportionate height."
Frank asked if the present inhabitants had any tradition concerning
these statues.
"None whatever," was the reply. "At present there are less than two
hundred people living there; they seem to be the degenerate remains of
a race something like the Maoris of New Zealand, and they speak a
language similar to those people. Although undoubtedly a cannibal
race--in fact, one old man speaks with enthusiasm when asked regarding
the custom--they are at present quiet and enlightened, but retain many
superstitious ideas which they have received by transmission. They
venerate a small sea-bird, the egg of which is sacred to them, and their
season of feast begins in August, when the first eggs of these birds are
taken from two barren rocks near the cliffs. Men and youths swim to
these rocks, and the one who first secures an egg is held in high
esteem; he lords it over the others for twelve months, his food being
furnished for him, and he is not permitted to bathe for three months. A
recent visitor says the people are so dirty that you could suppose every
man, woman, and child had performed the successful feat the last
feast-time. The last king was Kai Makor, who died about 1864, when
Peruvian ships visited Rapa Nui, and a number of the natives were seized
and taken to work the guano on the Chincha Islands, where the greater
number died. A few were finally sent back, and they brought with them
small-pox, which caused great havoc and nearly depopulated the island.
Water is scarce, but the climate is equable, and one of the most
delightful in the world, the thermometer seldom registering higher than
75° to 80° during the warmest season.
"An image and some other curiosities were brought away in 1886 by the
United States steamer _Mohican_, which visited the island in that year.
They are now in the Naval Museum at Washington, and it is hoped that
some one will be able to decipher the hieroglyphics, which thus far have
remained without an interpreter."