53

A.-—4

l)oes it not speak well for the climate of the Pacific Islands when there are still to be found ancient mariners who can relate their experience of those stirring times ?—such as Mr. Nobbs, of Norfolk Island ; Bainbridge, of Papeite (who was a powder-boy on board the " Macedonian" when she was captured by Commodore Decatur) ; Old Joe, of Mauki; and Jack Sclate, of Nukunau, who served under Cochrane, in that terrible business when he cut out a prize from under the guns of Valparaiso. Among the Australian adventurers of that day, one not the least remarkable was one Captain Goodenough, or " Koronake," as ho is called among the South Sea Islanders, who visited the beautiful island, of Earotonga long before it was known to the world, and which Coo*k had missed in so strange a manner, since he must have passed close by it without seeing it, though he was not in reality its first discoverer, as the tradition of the natives places it beyond a doubt that it was visited by the "Bounty," while under the command of Fletcher Christian, on her passage from Tofoa to Tubuai. This Goodenough appears to have had a gay time of it, and to have been a person of an easy disposition. Being hospitably entertained by the natives, he came into collision with them in consequence of the unruly amativeness displayed by his crew. The savages in revenge killed his wife and another European woman, her servant or companion (who, suspecting no 1 danger, were on shore washing linen by the bank of a creek), and, according to immemorial usage, baked and ate them. Goodenough, however, was not inconsolable, but, the olive-branch being extended to him, accepted it, and took to himself another wife, of the same family who had eaten the late Mrs. G. He took her to sea with him, and, becoming weary of her society, finally left her on the Island of x\itutaki, where many years afterwards she was found by the enterprising mission- - ary John Williams, and piloted him to her native land of Earotonga, where she is still living. Goodenough never told of the land he had found—from commercial reasons; so also Williams said nothing of what he knew concerning Goodenough's discovery, as he desired naturally enough to secure to himself the credit of it. After the successful termination of the South American rebellions, war began toTgive way to peaceful industry, and sperm-whale fishers abounded in the waters of the Pacific; the?privateers from the Indian Seas became converted into traders in search of sandalwood, pearls, and other valuables ; a lucrative trade also became established with China in the article of tortoiseshell (erroneously so called, as it is the scales of the hawkbill turtle which in the Pacific are known by this name; there is a tortoise of gigantic size existing on the Gallapagos, but his shell is of no value whatever), sharks' fins, and beche-de-mer—that singular edible so highly prized by the gourmands of the Celestial Flowery Land. At this time the agents of the London Missionary Society had, after repeated reverses, obtained great influence over the inhabitants of the Society Islands; and the extreme arrogance with which they dictated terms to the traders, and the vexatious regulations which they established f"for the guidance of morals, and restrictions upon the introduction of intoxicating drinks, engendered bitter animosity between themselves, the whale-fishers, and the cdmmercial adventurers who visited the various Goshens over which they now claimed the sole control. To these disturbances may be really traced the long sequence of troubles which eventuated in the war which ended in the French occupation. It was not in reality raised upon a question of religion (although that element was taken advantage of as a lever to effect a certain political purpose), but it was the result of a deep-laid scheme originating with merchants, who resented the interference of Protestant ecclesiastics with their worldly business. Another ingredient of disorder was introduced into their midst by the arrival from time to time of escaped convicts from the penal settlements of Australia, who, finding themselves transplanted into a sort of Paradise, fraternized with seamen who had deserted from ships, herded together for mutual protection, and formed communities of dangerous ruffians. Their organization was, and in certain quarters of the Pacific still is, similar to that of the associated beachcombers of the Spanish Main—a description of gentry whose doings, if truly recorded, would fill several volumes of interesting matter. In those days the trade of the Society Islands was chiefly confined to the barter of hogs, fowls, and vegetables with whale-ships; but a few adventurous traders, finding their way down so far from the China Sea, inaugurated a traffic in sharks' fins and beche-de-mer. It was while in the search for these articles that the attention of persons engaged in it was attracted to the vast deposits of pearl oysters which abounded in what is known as the Low Archipelago. It is in this strange region, commonly spoken of as a mere congeries of desert reefs, that the greatest wealth of the Society Isles has lain, and does still lie. Tahiti itself may be inexhaustibly fertile (as it is); Baiatea, likewise a paradise of gorgeous vegetation; so also all the other isles which cluster round the great volcanic centre : but, in the present aspects of trade, all that they are able to produce is insignificant in comparison to the riches that will eventually be derived from the pearly lakes and palmy cays of the coral-bound Paumotus. I make this statement with all due consideration, seeing that I am about to demonstrate its truth ; and, before going further into the question that these islands, so lonely and so little regarded by the world that they are more frequently spoken of by mariners as a dangerous excrescence upon the surface of the sea, are precisely similar in their oharacters and conditions (as concerns the yielding of valuable products) to some thousands of others which are scattered over the whole face of the coral seas, which at the present moment, in a multitude of instances, may be either purchased for a mere trifle in the shape of blue beads and calico, or are at the service of any merchant who chooses to take possession of them. The time is not far distant w rhen men of business in Auckland will look back with absolute astonishment to the blindness of these days in which vessels are despatched to distant places to purchase cargoes of merchandise, and upon their voyage run through or pass by a hundred islands, upon very many of which they might obtain the very stuff th%y are going after for nothing, had they but experience enough to go on shore and collect it for themselves. To illustrate this proposition, let us take, par exemple, what has been done in the Paumotus. (Thisjname is commonly spelt differently ;it is correct as I have given it. It is compounded of two

1.-Trade and trading arrangements: Mr. Sterndale.'*