Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Iii Part 12

The climate of Tahiti is uncommonly salubrious and delightful; the temperature is tolerably uniform, and is sensibly moderated by the alternate land and sea-breezes. Only about mid-day, when there usually sets in that profound calm, which the French, in their elegant epigrammatic way, style _l'immobilite des feuilles_, the heat becomes absolutely oppressive, but the mornings and evenings are cool, and the air very refres.h.i.+ng. The average maximum temperature during the rainy season is 84.4 Fahr., the average minimum 74.6 Fahr. Only immediately prior to the outbreak of a storm does the fluctuation of the thermometer become strongly marked. In the dry season the temperature averages 80.6 Fahr.

during the day, and 68 Fahr. during the night. When, however, as occasionally happens, the temperature at Papeete sinks to 57.2 Fahr. and at Fautaua to 46.4 Fahr., or even lower, even the Europeans are compelled to adopt certain precautions against taking cold, which the natives for the most part disregard, and are accordingly liable to acute inflammatory disorders.

With such a temperature, combined with the fertility insured by the volcanic tufa soil, it is perfectly evident that the majority of the tropical and sub-tropical nut-bearing and other alimentary plants might be extensively grown upon the island without much difficulty. The sugar-cane, the coffee-tree, the cotton-shrub, the vanilla, the cocoa-tree, the indigo plant, the sorgho[89], rice, maize, &c., flourish here in a marked degree, and their persistent cultivation would realize a splendid profit for the landowner.

Of fruits there are bananas, bread-fruits, mangoes, ananas (pine-apples), papayas (carica papayi), panda.n.u.s fruit, cocoa-nuts, oranges, lemons, anonas (a kind of custard apple), guavas, &c. The chief sustenance of the natives consists of the following:--

I. The fei, or wild plantain (_Musa Fei_, or _Musa Rubra_), of which there are five varieties. It is first encountered at an elevation of from 600 to 800 feet above the sea, grows most luxuriantly between the zones of 1000 and 1500 feet, is of a very peculiar saffron-yellow colour, and is usually either roasted or boiled.

II. The haari, or cocoa-palm (_Cocos nucifera_), whose trunk, bark, leaves, and fruit are pressed into their service by the natives. The fruit, however, is the most important, as it is used as meat for man and beast, as well as a beverage, and to obtain oil from it. Mixed with fine sandal-wood shavings and other aromatic substances, the oily liquid pressed out from the cocoa-nut is used by the Tahiti women as a much-prized cosmetic (_mono_), with which to lubricate their long beautiful black hair. Here, as among the other South Sea islands, the cocoa-palm begins to bear after the first seven or eight years only, after which, however, it becomes so abundant that the fruit of each tree is valued at five francs annually. It takes 20 to 25 cocoa-nuts to make a gallon of oil.[90]

III. The uru (also called _Maiore_), or bread-fruit tree (_Artocarpus incisa_), is, after the cocoa-palm, the most useful tree on the island.

The fruit, baked in a canak (or native) oven, (_vide ante_, p. 162), between two heated stones, is the subst.i.tute for bread to the Tahitians.

At the period of the war, or in consequence of a short crop, the natives, like the New Zealanders and the aborigines of the Caroline Archipelago, buried the fruit of the uru in the earth, and ate it in the putrefied state. The bread-tree is productive thrice in the year. The first crop, the best and largest, ripens in March, the second in July, the third, Manavahoi, at the end of November. The fruit varies from eight to twelve pounds in weight.

IV. The fara, or _panda.n.u.s_, the fruit of which is treated in the same manner as that of the uru, while the leaves serve as a thatch for the bamboo-cane huts of the aborigines. Of the red seeds of the _panda.n.u.s odoratissimus_, the ornament-loving Tahitian women prepare exceedingly fine coronals and necklaces. The leaves of another species, called iri by the natives, are used for enveloping tobacco, and making cigarettes, as also in the manufacture of house mats, and mats on which to sleep.

V. The taro (_Caladium esculentum_), a sort of tuber, which at certain seasons supplies any deficiency in the bread-fruit, and is very carefully cultivated by the natives. Of this plant there are in Tahiti thirteen varieties.

VI. Pia (_Tacca pinnatifida_), a sort of tuber resembling the taro, the mealy substance of which is chiefly used as nutriment for children and convalescent persons, and which in commerce is erroneously confounded with arrow-root, the latter being chiefly procured from the Antilles and India, more especially from _Marantha Indica_ and _Marantha arundinacea_.

The pia is also much used in Tahitian households in the preparation of small sweet cakes (_Poe-pia_), and is a not unpalatable subst.i.tute for wheaten flour.

VII. Hoi, or yams (_Dioscorea alata_), of which useful tuber a variety of species are extensively used on the island.

VIII. Umara, or sweet potato (_Convolvulus Batata_), preferred by the natives to the European potato, and widely cultivated, though it has somewhat degenerated in Tahiti.

IX. Fare-rupe (_Pteris esculentum_), a kind of fern, the root of which was in former times much used for food here, as also in New Zealand.

There still remain to be noticed two plants of much interest, from the roots of which the Tahitians, prior to the arrival of the Europeans, obtained strong intoxicating beverages.[91] These are the ti-plant (_Cordyline Australis_) and the kawa, or ava (_Piper methystic.u.m_), of which latter fourteen varieties are known to the natives.

The cultivation of this species of pepper is at present prohibited in Tahiti, and kawa-drinking has accordingly fallen into entire disuse. Only on the peninsula are a few aged Tahitians to be found, who appear obstinately opposed to the use of our alcoholized liquors, who on special festivities will face every privation for the luxury of boozing over their kawa, for which they sometimes pay five francs for a small piece.

Formerly the process of chewing the kawa was performed by the young girls, and then only by those who had the finest teeth. Before beginning this delicate task, they were required carefully to rinse their mouths and purify their hands, for which purpose they made use of special vessels.

When the roots had been slowly and equally chewed, and had been changed into little cones held together by saliva, they were mingled with water in a large wooden vessel (_Umeli_), standing upon a tripod, and gently squeezed by hand. In many of the islands this process of dilution is performed by mixing cocoa-nut juice instead of the customary water. The kawa is a very fluid substance, not very inviting in appearance at any time, but still less so when one has witnessed the mode of preparing it.

Usually it is of the colour of _cafe au lait_; but occasionally, when some of the leaves of the plant have been mixed with the root, the beverage a.s.sumes a greenish tinge, something like wormwood, although to the palate it has nothing in common with that substance.

Kawa is drunk out of the half of the cocoa-nut sh.e.l.l, which in the hands of a native skilled in carving becomes a really elegant beaker. Only families of high birth, the Arii and Raatira,[92] who are exempted from toil, are however able to indulge in the luxury of a daily draught of kawa. The symptoms of intoxication are very similar to those of opium. In the kawa-drinker, like the opium-eater or Samshoo smoker, there is a nervous tremulousness perceptible, followed by utter exhaustion, and an overpowering necessity for sleep. After its effects have pa.s.sed off, there is a sensation of weariness in the limbs, to remove which the regular kawa-drinkers are accustomed to plunge into the cold waters of the nearest mountain stream. A very peculiar cuticular disease, the infallible result of the daily use of this beverage, is called by the natives _Arewarewa_.

A German chemist, M. Nollenberger, who was resident at Papeete during our visit to the Archipelego, had succeeded in September, 1858, in crystallizing the essential principle of the kawa root, which he called Kawan, the powers and properties of which he was about to investigate more minutely. As we have since then been favoured with a copy of the very valuable work of Mr. G. Cuzent upon Tahiti, already alluded to, we learn therein that that zealous naturalist had already, in 1857, found in the kawa root an organic base, which he termed Kawahine, and which is fully described in his interesting Monography (p. 99).

Owing to kawa-drinking having been prohibited in Tahiti, chiefly through the influence of the missionaries, the use of brandy and other spirituous liquors is beginning to exercise a not less baneful influence in that island upon the physical and intellectual powers.

In agriculture, as in commerce, the effect of the French Protectorate has been visibly to slacken the rate of progress. The number of s.h.i.+ps that visit the island does not exceed 60 to 80 annually, representing an interchange of merchandise to the value of about 64,000 per annum, of which about five-eighths, or 40,000, may be estimated as the amount exported.[93] What is most surprising, is the small number of whalers who visit the island for provisions and repairs. In 1836, the total number was fifty-two; at present not more than five or six in the year enter the harbour of Papeete. In the official reports this falling off is ascribed to the fish having forsaken these regions, while the stagnation of trade is generally ascribed to the reduction of the French garrison (!) in Tahiti, and the rise of late years of the Sandwich Islands and California.

But the _true_ cause of the decay is to be sought for in a very different direction. It lies chiefly in a very defective system of administration, which is constantly being transferred from one hand to the other, having at its head to-day a s.h.i.+p-captain, and to-morrow possibly an officer of gensdarmes or an engineer. A letter[94] addressed to the Emperor Louis Napoleon by an English merchant long resident at Tahiti, unsparingly unveils the present disorders of Tahiti with respect to rights of property, administration of justice, legislation, and social state, and draws a shocking picture of the actual state of the island, once in such high estimation for the felicity of its inhabitants.

On the other hand, the very benefits the mother country is supposed to derive from its Protectorate are at least problematical. While the establishment of French stations in Oceania has required about 240,000, the annual cost of keeping them on foot has never cost less than 100,000, and of this the Protectorate of Tahiti figures for from 24,000 to 28,000.[95] This by no means trifling sum is not however employed in promoting commerce or advancing trading interests; for not more than two or three s.h.i.+ps in the year come direct to Tahiti from France, while the majority of the fabrics used there are English, which are imported from Valparaiso, the only port with which Papeete has regular communication.

The military colony of Taiohai on the island of Nukahiwa, one of the Marquesas, has been entirely abandoned since 1st January, 1859, on account of the too great cost of keeping it up, although Ute-Moana, the king of the Marquesas, and the chiefs of the island of Nukahiwa, were desirous of retaining the French Protectorate, and had drawn up a formal address of submission, while, on the other hand, New Caledonia (Dum'mbia) can only be kept up at very considerable cost.

Lately great reforms have been everywhere inaugurated, in order to diminish the heavy administrative expense hitherto incurred. The French colonies of eastern and western Oceania are to be provided with entirely independent administrations. The Governor of the French establishments in Oceania Oriental is to reside in Papeete, while his colleague of Oceania Occidental is to have his seat of Government at Port de France in New Caledonia. This subdivision, however, must add materially to the cost of maintenance, while it is difficult to see how it can augment the prospects of any increase of revenue.

The French, in a word, have no success in their attempts anywhere at colonization; they are not practical colonists. The absence of this faculty, if one may call it so, is doubly apparent in the Southern hemisphere, where they are surrounded on all hands by English colonies.

True it is, the English also have usually acquired by the strong hand their possessions in Oceania, in Australia, in Asia, &c., and from the stand-point of humanity it is impossible always to defend the means by which they have made themselves masters of the fairest and most fertile countries on the globe. But what have been the results directly springing from these high-handed acts, these political _faits accomplis_? England has thrown open to the unrestricted enterprise of all trading and seafaring nations those islands and continents so highly favoured by nature, with their f.e.c.kless fast-disappearing aboriginal races; she has striven, by giving free inst.i.tutions, to attract diligent colonists, to develope the natural wealth of these countries by means of scientific exploration, for the benefit of all; she has wafted to the remotest corners of the earth the seeds of Christian civilization, and by her energy, her capacity for labour, and her earnestness of purpose, has impressed all, even the most savage races, with a feeling of envy and astonishment at the intellectual superiority, the power, and the greatness of the white man!

Under the influence of liberal but more morally stringent laws, Tahiti might speedily be raised to the position of a great emporium of the Southern seas, the Singapore of Oceania. Under the French Protectorate, on the contrary, the island, with its population long since renowned for indolence and sensuality, has become, in fact, what a French captain once jocularly termed it, "La Nouvelle Cythere!"

Although the Society Islands are by no means a French penal settlement (the climate being possibly _too healthy_), there are, nevertheless, both at Tahiti and Nukahiwa, a few men, rather politically discontented than downright dangerous, whom a merciful interpretation of French martial law has exempted from banishment to Cayenne, (that name of terror![96]) and whom we might almost say that a beneficent destiny has transported to the sh.o.r.es of the South Sea. One of these political offenders, named Longomasino, has to thank the visit of the Austrian frigate to Papeete for his restoration to liberty. He had been a journalist at Toulouse in 1851, and maintained a zealous correspondence with some of the most intimate hangers-on upon Louis Napoleon, till the _coup d'etat_ revealed the French ruler's projects, and Longomasino joined the camp of the opponents of the new empire. His contumacious agitation against the new order of things led to his imprisonment and ultimate banishment. He was first transported to Nukahiwa, one of the Marquesas Islands, and afterwards received permission to settle at Papeete in Tahiti. Starting as a farrier, then an advocate, and finally a tavern-keeper, he was unable in any of these capacities to earn a subsistence for himself and his numerous family; the less so, that political intrigues deprived him of the right to practise at the bar, and this compelled him to have recourse to a business for which he had neither taste nor turn. If we understood matters aright, Longomasino, in the course of his juridical labours, had been able to do many a good turn to the Catholic bishop of Tahiti in his dispute with the French administration, and it was therefore less sympathy with the unfortunate political convict than the desire to play an adversary a trick by depriving him of an able adherent, which induced the Governor to ask our Commodore permission to give a free pa.s.sage to Longomasino, who had been condemned to transportation for life. The request was willingly granted, and on the eve of our sailing Longomasino came on board the frigate, while his wife and family were to follow by a merchant-s.h.i.+p. The unhappy man, who had not words enough wherewith to express his grat.i.tude for the friendly reception he experienced, still further gained the sympathies of all on board, with his melancholy fate, by his manly reticence on the subject of the injustice he had sustained.[97]

Another convict, who had excited universal attention at Papeete, was M.

Belmare, a well-educated young man, who in 1850 avowed he had shot at Louis Napoleon while at the Tuileries, and, in consequence, been transported to Tahiti. The fact that Belmare has since then been taken into the employ of the treasury at Papeete, where he receives a salary of 100 per annum, gave colour to the most whimsical reports as to the clemency displayed by the French Government in this case; yet we repeatedly heard the opinion expressed that Belmare was solely put forward as a tool for carrying out--which was to be used as a blind by giving the Government of Louis Napoleon opportunity for new stretches of arbitrary power. Whether, however, a residence at Tahiti, even with a handsome salary, be sufficient recompence for such services, M. Belmare alone is in a position to say.

A succession of bad weather, such as so frequently occurs in the tropics, delayed our departure for several days. Now it was a heavy gale, commencing in the north and gradually veering round to W. and S.W.; now it was a series of calms, while the surf swept in unbroken ma.s.ses on the beach, and so heavily, that it seemed the height of imprudence to take the frigate out through the narrow channel which const.i.tutes the mouth of the harbour of Papeete, and is nothing but a cleft in the coral walls which surround Tahiti, and protect it from the ocean swell.

At length, on 28th February, at day-break, we got under weigh. One of our own boats, as also a boat from the French steamer _Milan_, which was courteously placed at our disposal, towed the _Novara_ outside the reef, and materially aided the efforts of our men, a barely perceptible catspaw of wind just filling the sails. Piloted by a native lootse, we steered out so close to the projecting coral reefs, that the frigate all but touched them.

We now had a parting view of Tahiti and the little island of Motu-Uta, where stood our improvised observatory, and where so many sleepless nights had been pa.s.sed in observations for the purpose of defining astronomically the exact position of the island.

We found the breeze freshened once we were outside the reef, and steered northwards, beautiful Tahiti, with the imposing and irregular outline of its hills, and the richness and variety of its vegetation, recalling, in some aspects, the glowing loveliness of the tropics, in others, the still sublimity of some of our Alpine landscapes, till it lay behind us like a shadowy vision of dream-land.

Almost simultaneously with the departure of the _Novara_, the American whaler _Emily Morgan_, Captain Chase, stood out from the harbour of Papeete. This vessel had been whaling in the southern seas during five years, without any adequate return for her perseverant exertions. Her entire take was as yet only four barrels of train oil!! She was now making for the Sandwich Islands, and thence home to Boston. Latterly, the North American whalers have formed themselves into partners.h.i.+p, so as to divide profit and loss. If his companions had encountered no better fortune than Captain Chase, they might safely aver they had worked five years for nothing. The crew of the _Emily Morgan_, who were as usual almost entirely dependent for their remuneration on their tenth share of the oil, had begun to despair, and six of their number deserted from the s.h.i.+p, to stay behind at Tahiti. Throughout the voyage, Captain Chase had had his wife with him, a spirited energetic American woman, who on occasions could take her trick at the helm, or even direct the s.h.i.+p's man[oe]uvres. So completely had she fallen into the ways on board s.h.i.+p, that even in ordinary conversation she frequently let slip a few sea-phrases, and recounted, with much pride, how, when the boats had been away in pursuit, she had kept her watch like a regular officer.

On 8th March, Shrove Tuesday was celebrated on board. Several sailors had disguised themselves as Invalids, as Tahitians, as Nicobarians, &c., and played off all manner of pranks. Dolce, our cook, the merry-andrew of the vessel, figured as a troubadour, in which capacity he sang several heart-thrilling melodies. In the afternoon the band played on deck, and in the evening the jolly tars, to their great gratification, received each a double allowance of grog.

It was our Commodore's intention to cross the shorter diameter of the almost elliptical curve of equal magnetic declination, which occurs in this vicinity, with the view, if possible, of ascertaining by observation by what law the "local variation" of the needle is diminis.h.i.+ng within the curve of 5, the latest indicated in the most recent magnetic charts.

This curve of 5 easterly magnetic declination lies, according to F.

Evans,[98] between the parallels of 5 30' N. and 13 S. lat., and 120 W.

and 134 30' W., north-eastward from the Marquesas Islands.

The magnetic needle, as is well known, does not point to the geographical poles, but is deflected from the due north and south meridian, in a direction eastward or westward according to locality, at an angle which, in the measure of the easterly or westerly magnetic variation of the plane, is called eastern or western declination or variation, and which not only gradually alters at every place with the lapse of time, but also is universally found to a.s.sume different values at different places, so that in certain lines, known as lines of equal declination, the variation remains the same for all places under that line during a certain given period.

As the compa.s.s is the sole reliable guide of the seaman while traversing the ocean, and it is of the utmost importance to investigate and accurately lay down the s.h.i.+p's course for the port which is her object to make, it appears necessary to explain to the uninitiated how the local variation of the magnetic needle is determined, as thereby one can readily find the precise angle at which the magnetic meridian of any place is deflected from the true meridian.

The determination of this divergence is effected by means of observations of the sun, by the aid of which one can calculate at any moment its actual bearings, as seen from the deck of the s.h.i.+p, and this, compared with the true position of the sun, gives the amount of variation.

This apparently simple method of determination encounters in practice, owing to certain local influences, a variety of obstacles, for it is executed on board of a s.h.i.+p, which frequently contains within itself, at a greater or less distance from the binnacle, large superficies of iron, operating less or more prejudicially upon the needle, by deflecting it from the direction which it would actually have but for these ma.s.ses of iron. Hence the variation is not even the same in all parts of the s.h.i.+p, nor does it follow the same direction, but varies according to certain laws, founded upon the intensity and direction of the magnetic attraction of the earth. It is therefore necessary to make allowance for these local deflections of the needle, in order to find the true variation of the needle.

So far as regards the last-named, many thousand observations, both by land and sea, have resulted in furnis.h.i.+ng us with a rule for empirically finding the amount of variation, for short periods at least, according to which the magnetic needle is found to vary from year to year at every spot along certain given lines, which it has been found possible to delineate upon the charts; thus showing at a glance the amount of variation to be allowed for at any given spot. As this is sufficient for all practical purposes of navigation, the seaman is, in most cases, relieved of the necessity of making for himself these observations and calculations, if only he can ascertain with anything like accuracy the position of his s.h.i.+p on the earth's surface, and has determined the amount of local variation on board.

These iso-magnetic lines are, however, susceptible of great improvement, and if they are ever to become practically and universally useful, repeated observations must not be neglected by such navigators as have the means and the requisite scientific knowledge to pursue such investigation.

On board the _Novara_ not a single suns.h.i.+ny day was suffered to pa.s.s without the variation being frequently determined, or such observations repeated as related to the determination of local attraction on board.

Under such circ.u.mstances, an unusual value attached to our ascertaining and following up so far as practicable the decrease in declination of the magnetic needle till it reached the zero point a.s.signed to it, and comparing our own observations with the amounts stated on the charts.

It was, however, at least as regarded nautical matters, of by no means special importance, that we should reach the very point of minimum declination,--it sufficed to ascertain that the observed diminution, as marked upon the charts, corresponded with our observations, which proved, in fact, to be the case.

This confirmation proved the more satisfactory, that when we reached the N.E. side of the Paomotu group (also called Pakomotu, lying between 13-22 S., and 135-150 W.) we found a fresh north-easter blowing, a phenomenon which during the fine season is due to the high temperature of these islands, and of course interposed a serious and persistent obstacle to our intended N.E. course.