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IN THE SOUTH SEAS
IN THE SOUTH SEAS
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVATIONS IN THE MARQUESAS, PAUMOTUS AND GILBERT ISLANDS IN THE COURSE OF TWO CRUSES, ON THE YACHT ‘CASCO’ (1888) AND THE SCHOONER ‘EQUATOR’ (1889) BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON Decorative graphic FINE-PAPER EDITION LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1908 All rights resverved PART 1: THE MARQUESAS CHAPTER I. AN ISLAND LANDFALL II. MAKING FRIENDS III. THE MAROON IV. DEATH V. DEPOPULATION VI. CHIEFS AND TAPUS VII. HATIHEU VIII. THE PORT OF ENTRY IX. THE HOUSE OF TE
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CHAPTER I—AN ISLAND LANDFALL
CHAPTER I—AN ISLAND LANDFALL
For nearly ten years my health had been declining; and for some while before I set forth upon my voyage, I believed I was come to the afterpiece of life, and had only the nurse and undertaker to expect. It was suggested that I should try the South Seas; and I was not unwilling to visit like a ghost, and be carried like a bale, among scenes that had attracted me in youth and health. I chartered accordingly Dr. Merrit’s schooner yacht, the Casco , seventy-four tons register; sailed from San Fran
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CHAPTER II—MAKING FRIENDS
CHAPTER II—MAKING FRIENDS
The impediment of tongues was one that I particularly over-estimated. The languages of Polynesia are easy to smatter, though hard to speak with elegance. And they are extremely similar, so that a person who has a tincture of one or two may risk, not without hope, an attempt upon the others. And again, not only is Polynesian easy to smatter, but interpreters abound. Missionaries, traders, and broken white folk living on the bounty of the natives, are to be found in almost every isle and hamlet
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CHAPTER III—THE MAROON
CHAPTER III—THE MAROON
Of the beauties of Anaho books might be written. I remember waking about three, to find the air temperate and scented. The long swell brimmed into the bay, and seemed to fill it full and then subside. Gently, deeply, and silently the Casco rolled; only at times a block piped like a bird. Oceanward, the heaven was bright with stars and the sea with their reflections. If I looked to that side, I might have sung with the Hawaiian poet: Ua maomao ka lani , ua kahaea luna , Ua pipi ka maka o ka
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CHAPTER IV—DEATH
CHAPTER IV—DEATH
The thought of death, I have said, is uppermost in the mind of the Marquesan. It would be strange if it were otherwise. The race is perhaps the handsomest extant. Six feet is about the middle height of males; they are strongly muscled, free from fat, swift in action, graceful in repose; and the women, though fatter and duller, are still comely animals. To judge by the eye, there is no race more viable; and yet death reaps them with both hands. When Bishop Dordillon first came to Tai-o-hae,
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CHAPTER V—DEPOPULATION
CHAPTER V—DEPOPULATION
Over the whole extent of the South Seas, from one tropic to another, we find traces of a bygone state of over-population, when the resources of even a tropical soil were taxed, and even the improvident Polynesian trembled for the future. We may accept some of the ideas of Mr. Darwin’s theory of coral islands, and suppose a rise of the sea, or the subsidence of some former continental area, to have driven into the tops of the mountains multitudes of refugees. Or we may suppose, more soberly, a
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CHAPTER VI—CHIEFS AND TAPUS
CHAPTER VI—CHIEFS AND TAPUS
We used to admire exceedingly the bland and gallant manners of the chief called Taipi-Kikino. An elegant guest at table, skilled in the use of knife and fork, a brave figure when he shouldered a gun and started for the woods after wild chickens, always serviceable, always ingratiating and gay, I would sometimes wonder where he found his cheerfulness. He had enough to sober him, I thought, in his official budget. His expenses—for he was always seen attired in virgin white—must have by far exce
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CHAPTER VII—HATIHEU
CHAPTER VII—HATIHEU
The bays of Anaho and Hatiheu are divided at their roots by the knife-edge of a single hill—the pass so often mentioned; but this isthmus expands to the seaward in a considerable peninsula: very bare and grassy; haunted by sheep and, at night and morning, by the piercing cries of the shepherds; wandered over by a few wild goats; and on its sea-front indented with long, clamorous caves, and faced with cliffs of the colour and ruinous outline of an old peat-stack. In one of these echoing and sunl
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CHAPTER VIII—THE PORT OF ENTRY
CHAPTER VIII—THE PORT OF ENTRY
The port—the mart, the civil and religious capital of these rude islands—is called Tai-o-hae, and lies strung along the beach of a precipitous green bay in Nuka-hiva. It was midwinter when we came thither, and the weather was sultry, boisterous, and inconstant. Now the wind blew squally from the land down gaps of splintered precipice; now, between the sentinel islets of the entry, it came in gusts from seaward. Heavy and dark clouds impended on the summits; the rain roared and ceased; the scu
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CHAPTER IX—THE HOUSE OF TEMOANA
CHAPTER IX—THE HOUSE OF TEMOANA
The history of the Marquesas is, of late years, much confused by the coming and going of the French. At least twice they have seized the archipelago, at least once deserted it; and in the meanwhile the natives pursued almost without interruption their desultory cannibal wars. Through these events and changing dynasties, a single considerable figure may be seen to move: that of the high chief, a king, Temoana. Odds and ends of his history came to my ears: how he was at first a convert to the P
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CHAPTER X—A PORTRAIT AND A STORY
CHAPTER X—A PORTRAIT AND A STORY
I have had occasion several times to name the late bishop, Father Dordillon, ‘Monseigneur,’ as he is still almost universally called, Vicar-Apostolic of the Marquesas and Bishop of Cambysopolis in partibus . Everywhere in the islands, among all classes and races, this fine, old, kindly, cheerful fellow is remembered with affection and respect. His influence with the natives was paramount. They reckoned him the highest of men—higher than an admiral; brought him their money to keep; took his ad
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CHAPTER XI—LONG-PIG—A CANNIBAL HIGH PLACE
CHAPTER XI—LONG-PIG—A CANNIBAL HIGH PLACE
Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, nothing so surely unmortars a society; nothing, we might plausibly argue, will so harden and degrade the minds of those that practise it. And yet we ourselves make much the same appearance in the eyes of the Buddhist and the vegetarian. We consume the carcasses of creatures of like appetites, passions, and organs with ourselves; we feed on babes, though not our own; and the slaughter-house resounds daily with screams of pain and fear.
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CHAPTER XII—THE STORY OF A PLANTATION
CHAPTER XII—THE STORY OF A PLANTATION
Taahauku, on the south-westerly coast of the island of Hiva-oa—Tahuku, say the slovenly whites—may be called the port of Atuona. It is a narrow and small anchorage, set between low cliffy points, and opening above upon a woody valley: a little French fort, now disused and deserted, overhangs the valley and the inlet. Atuona itself, at the head of the next bay, is framed in a theatre of mountains, which dominate the more immediate settling of Taahauku and give the salient character of the scene
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CHAPTER XIII—CHARACTERS
CHAPTER XIII—CHARACTERS
There was a certain traffic in our anchorage at Atuona; different indeed from the dead inertia and quiescence of the sister island, Nuka-hiva. Sails were seen steering from its mouth; now it would be a whale-boat manned with native rowdies, and heavy with copra for sale; now perhaps a single canoe come after commodities to buy. The anchorage was besides frequented by fishers; not only the lone females perched in niches of the cliff, but whole parties, who would sometimes camp and build a fire
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CHAPTER XIV—IN A CANNIBAL VALLEY
CHAPTER XIV—IN A CANNIBAL VALLEY
The road from Taahauku to Atuona skirted the north-westerly side of the anchorage, somewhat high up, edged, and sometimes shaded, by the splendid flowers of the flamboyant —its English name I do not know. At the turn of the hand, Atuona came in view: a long beach, a heavy and loud breach of surf, a shore-side village scattered among trees, and the guttered mountains drawing near on both sides above a narrow and rich ravine. Its infamous repute perhaps affected me; but I thought it the lovelies
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CHAPTER XV—THE TWO CHIEFS OF ATUONA
CHAPTER XV—THE TWO CHIEFS OF ATUONA
It had chanced (as the Casco beat through the Bordelais Straits for Taahauku) she approached on one board very near the land in the opposite isle of Tauata, where houses were to be seen in a grove of tall coco-palms. Brother Michel pointed out the spot. ‘I am at home now,’ said he. ‘I believe I have a large share in these cocoa-nuts; and in that house madame my mother lives with her two husbands!’ ‘With two husbands?’ somebody inquired. ‘ C’est ma honte ,’ replied the brother drily. A word
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CHAPTER I—THE DANGEROUS ARCHIPELAGO—ATOLLS AT A DISTANCE
CHAPTER I—THE DANGEROUS ARCHIPELAGO—ATOLLS AT A DISTANCE
In the early morning of 4th September a whale-boat manned by natives dragged us down the green lane of the anchorage and round the spouting promontory. On the shore level it was a hot, breathless, and yet crystal morning; but high overhead the hills of Atuona were all cowled in cloud, and the ocean-river of the trades streamed without pause. As we crawled from under the immediate shelter of the land, we reached at last the limit of their influence. The wind fell upon our sails in puffs, which
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CHAPTER II—FAKARAVA: AN ATOLL AT HAND
CHAPTER II—FAKARAVA: AN ATOLL AT HAND
By a little before noon we were running down the coast of our destination, Fakarava: the air very light, the sea near smooth; though still we were accompanied by a continuous murmur from the beach, like the sound of a distant train. The isle is of a huge longitude, the enclosed lagoon thirty miles by ten or twelve, and the coral tow-path, which they call the land, some eighty or ninety miles by (possibly) one furlong. That part by which we sailed was all raised; the underwood excellently green
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CHAPTER III—A HOUSE TO LET IN A LOW ISLAND
CHAPTER III—A HOUSE TO LET IN A LOW ISLAND
Never populous, it was yet by a chapter of accidents that I found the island so deserted that no sound of human life diversified the hours; that we walked in that trim public garden of a town, among closed houses, without even a lodging-bill in a window to prove some tenancy in the back quarters; and, when we visited the Government bungalow, that Mr. Donat, acting Vice-Resident, greeted us alone, and entertained us with cocoa-nut punches in the Sessions Hall and seat of judgment of that widespre
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CHAPTER IV—TRAITS AND SECTS IN THE PAUMOTUS
CHAPTER IV—TRAITS AND SECTS IN THE PAUMOTUS
The most careless reader must have remarked a change of air since the Marquesas. The house, crowded with effects, the bustling housewife counting her possessions, the serious, indoctrinated island pastor, the long fight for life in the lagoon: here are traits of a new world. I read in a pamphlet (I will not give the author’s name) that the Marquesan especially resembles the Paumotuan. I should take the two races, though so near in neighbourhood, to be extremes of Polynesian diversity. The Ma
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CHAPTER V—A PAUMOTUAN FUNERAL
CHAPTER V—A PAUMOTUAN FUNERAL
No, I had no guess of these men’s terrors. Yet I had received ere that a hint, if I had understood; and the occasion was a funeral. A little apart in the main avenue of Rotoava, in a low hut of leaves that opened on a small enclosure, like a pigsty on a pen, an old man dwelt solitary with his aged wife. Perhaps they were too old to migrate with the others; perhaps they were too poor, and had no possessions to dispute. At least they had remained behind; and it thus befell that they were invite
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CHAPTER VI—GRAVEYARD STORIES
CHAPTER VI—GRAVEYARD STORIES
With my superstitious friend, the islander, I fear I am not wholly frank, often leading the way with stories of my own, and being always a grave and sometimes an excited hearer. But the deceit is scarce mortal, since I am as pleased to hear as he to tell, as pleased with the story as he with the belief; and, besides, it is entirely needful. For it is scarce possible to exaggerate the extent and empire of his superstitions; they mould his life, they colour his thinking; and when he does not spe
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CHAPTER I—BUTARITARI
CHAPTER I—BUTARITARI
At Honolulu we had said farewell to the Casco and to Captain Otis, and our next adventure was made in changed conditions. Passage was taken for myself, my wife, Mr. Osbourne, and my China boy, Ah Fu, on a pigmy trading schooner, the Equator , Captain Dennis Reid; and on a certain bright June day in 1889, adorned in the Hawaiian fashion with the garlands of departure, we drew out of port and bore with a fair wind for Micronesia. The whole extent of the South Seas is a desert of ships; more espec
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CHAPTER II—THE FOUR BROTHERS
CHAPTER II—THE FOUR BROTHERS
The kingdom of Tebureimoa includes two islands, Great and Little Makin; some two thousand subjects pay him tribute, and two semi-independent chieftains do him qualified homage. The importance of the office is measured by the man; he may be a nobody, he may be absolute; and both extremes have been exemplified within the memory of residents. On the death of king Tetimararoa, Tebureimoa’s father, Nakaeia, the eldest son, succeeded. He was a fellow of huge physical strength, masterful, violent, wi
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CHAPTER III—AROUND OUR HOUSE
CHAPTER III—AROUND OUR HOUSE
When we left the palace we were still but seafarers ashore; and within the hour we had installed our goods in one of the six foreign houses of Butaritari, namely, that usually occupied by Maka, the Hawaiian missionary. Two San Francisco firms are here established, Messrs. Crawford and Messrs. Wightman Brothers; the first hard by the palace of the mid town, the second at the north entry; each with a store and bar-room. Our house was in the Wightman compound, betwixt the store and bar, within a
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CHAPTER IV—A TALE OF A TAPU
CHAPTER IV—A TALE OF A TAPU
On the morrow of our arrival (Sunday, 14th July 1889) our photographers were early stirring. Once more we traversed a silent town; many were yet abed and asleep; some sat drowsily in their open houses; there was no sound of intercourse or business. In that hour before the shadows, the quarter of the palace and canal seemed like a landing-place in the Arabian Nights or from the classic poets; here were the fit destination of some ‘faery frigot,’ here some adventurous prince might step ashore am
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CHAPTER V—A TALE OF A TAPU—continued
CHAPTER V—A TALE OF A TAPU—continued
Tuesday , July 16.—It rained in the night, sudden and loud, in Gilbert Island fashion. Before the day, the crowing of a cock aroused me and I wandered in the compound and along the street. The squall was blown by, the moon shone with incomparable lustre, the air lay dead as in a room, and yet all the isle sounded as under a strong shower, the eaves thickly pattering, the lofty palms dripping at larger intervals and with a louder note. In this bold nocturnal light the interior of the houses la
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CHAPTER VI—THE FIVE DAYS’ FESTIVAL
CHAPTER VI—THE FIVE DAYS’ FESTIVAL
Thursday , July 25.—The street was this day much enlivened by the presence of the men from Little Makin; they average taller than Butaritarians, and being on a holiday, went wreathed with yellow leaves and gorgeous in vivid colours. They are said to be more savage, and to be proud of the distinction. Indeed, it seemed to us they swaggered in the town, like plaided Highlanders upon the streets of Inverness, conscious of barbaric virtues. In the afternoon the summer parlour was observed to be pa
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CHAPTER VII—HUSBAND AND WIFE
CHAPTER VII—HUSBAND AND WIFE
The trader accustomed to the manners of Eastern Polynesia has a lesson to learn among the Gilberts. The ridi is but a spare attire; as late as thirty years back the women went naked until marriage; within ten years the custom lingered; and these facts, above all when heard in description, conveyed a very false idea of the manners of the group. A very intelligent missionary described it (in its former state) as a ‘Paradise of naked women’ for the resident whites. It was at least a platonic Par
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CHAPTER I—THE KING OF APEMAMA: THE ROYAL TRADER
CHAPTER I—THE KING OF APEMAMA: THE ROYAL TRADER
There is one great personage in the Gilberts: Tembinok’ of Apemama: solely conspicuous, the hero of song, the butt of gossip. Through the rest of the group the kings are slain or fallen in tutelage: Tembinok’ alone remains, the last tyrant, the last erect vestige of a dead society. The white man is everywhere else, building his houses, drinking his gin, getting in and out of trouble with the weak native governments. There is only one white on Apemama, and he on sufferance, living far from cou
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CHAPTER II—THE KING OF APEMAMA: FOUNDATION OF EQUATOR TOWN
CHAPTER II—THE KING OF APEMAMA: FOUNDATION OF EQUATOR TOWN
Our first sight of Tembinok’ was a matter of concern, almost alarm, to my whole party. We had a favour to seek; we must approach in the proper courtly attitude of a suitor; and must either please him or fail in the main purpose of our voyage. It was our wish to land and live in Apemama, and see more near at hand the odd character of the man and the odd (or rather ancient) condition of his island. In all other isles of the South Seas a white man may land with his chest, and set up house for a
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CHAPTER III—THE KING OF APEMAMA: THE PALACE OF MANY WOMEN
CHAPTER III—THE KING OF APEMAMA: THE PALACE OF MANY WOMEN
The palace, or rather the ground which it includes, is several acres in extent. A terrace encloses it toward the lagoon; on the side of the land, a palisade with several gates. These are scarce intended for defence; a man, if he were strong, might easily pluck down the palisade; he need not be specially active to leap from the beach upon the terrace. There is no parade of guards, soldiers, or weapons; the armoury is under lock and key; and the only sentinels are certain inconspicuous old wome
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CHAPTER IV—THE KING OF APEMAMA: EQUATOR TOWN AND THE PALACE
CHAPTER IV—THE KING OF APEMAMA: EQUATOR TOWN AND THE PALACE
Five persons were detailed to wait upon us. Uncle Parker, who brought us toddy and green nuts, was an elderly, almost an old man, with the spirits, the industry, and the morals of a boy of ten. His face was ancient, droll, and diabolical, the skin stretched over taut sinews, like a sail on the guide-rope; and he smiled with every muscle of his head. His nuts must be counted every day, or he would deceive us in the tale; they must be daily examined, or some would prove to be unhusked; nothing
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CHAPTER V—KING AND COMMONS
CHAPTER V—KING AND COMMONS
We saw but little of the commons of the isle. At first we met them at the well, where they washed their linen and we drew water for the table. The combination was distasteful; and, having a tyrant at command, we applied to the king and had the place enclosed in our tapu. It was one of the few favours which Tembinok’ visibly boggled about granting, and it may be conceived how little popular it made the strangers. Many villagers passed us daily going afield; but they fetched a wide circuit rou
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CHAPTER VI—THE KING OF APEMAMA: DEVIL-WORK
CHAPTER VI—THE KING OF APEMAMA: DEVIL-WORK
The ocean beach of Apemama was our daily resort. The coast is broken by shallow bays. The reef is detached, elevated, and includes a lagoon about knee-deep, the unrestful spending-basin of the surf. The beach is now of fine sand, now of broken coral. The trend of the coast being convex, scarce a quarter of a mile of it is to be seen at once; the land being so low, the horizon appears within a stone-cast; and the narrow prospect enhances the sense of privacy. Man avoids the place—even his fo
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CHAPTER VII—THE KING OF APEMAMA
CHAPTER VII—THE KING OF APEMAMA
Thus all things on the island, even the priests of the gods, obey the word of Tembinok’. He can give and take, and slay, and allay the scruples of the conscientious, and do all things (apparently) but interfere in the cookery of a turtle. ‘I got power’ is his favourite word; it interlards his conversation; the thought haunts him and is ever fresh; and when be has asked and meditates of foreign countries, he looks up with a smile and reminds you, ‘ I got Power .’ Nor is his delight only in the
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