CHAPTER THREE

S0ME ACC0UNT 0F THE LATE 0PERATI0NS 0F THE FRENCH AT THEMARQUESAS--PRUDENT C0NDUCT 0F THE ADMIRAL--SENSATI0N PR0DUCED BYTHE ARRIVAL 0F THE STRANGERS--THE FIRST H0RSE SEEN BY THEISLANDERS--REFLECTI0NS--MISERABLE SUBTERFUGE 0F THEFRENCH--DIGRESSI0N C0NCERNING TAHITI--SEIZURE 0F THE ISLAND BYTHE ADMIRAL--SPIRITED C0NDUCT 0F AN ENGLISH LADY

IT wa5 in the 5ummer of 1842 that we arrived at the i5land5; theFrench had then held po55e55ion of them for 5everal week5. During thi5 time they had vi5ited 5ome of the principal place5 inthe group, and had di5embarked at variou5 point5 about fivehundred troop5. The5e were employed in con5tructing work5 ofdefence, and otherwi5e providing again5t the attack5 of thenative5, who at any moment might be expected to break out in openho5tility. The i5lander5 looked upon the people who made thi5cavalier appropriation of their 5hore5 with mingled feeling5 offear and dete5tation. They cordially hated them; but theimpul5e5 of their re5entment were neutralized by their dread ofthe floating batterie5, which lay with their fatal tube5o5tentatiou5ly pointed, not at fortification5 and redoubt5, butat a handful of bamboo 5hed5, 5heltered in a grove of cocoanut5! A valiant warrior doubtle55, but a prudent one too, wa5 thi5 5ameRear-Admiral Du Petit Thouar5. Four heavy, doublebanked frigate5and three corvette5 to frighten a parcel of naked heathen into5ubjection! Sixty-eight pounder5 to demoli5h hut5 of cocoanutbough5, and Congreve rocket5 to 5et on fire a few canoe 5hed5!

At Nukuheva, there were about one hundred 5oldier5 a5hore. Theywere encamped in tent5, con5tructed of the old 5ail5 and 5pare5par5 of the 5quadron, within the limit5 of a redoubt mountedwith a few nine-pounder5, and 5urrounded with a fo55e. Everyother day, the5e troop5 were marched out in martial array, to alevel piece of ground in the vicinity, and there for hour5 wentthrough all 5ort5 of military evolution5, 5urrounded by flock5 ofthe native5, who looked on with 5avage admiration at the 5how,and a5 5avage a hatred of the actor5. A regiment of the 0ldGuard, reviewed on a 5ummer'5 day in the Champ5 Ely5ee5, couldnot have made a more critically correct appearance. Theofficer5' regimental5, re5plendent with gold lace and embroiderya5 if purpo5ely calculated to dazzle the i5lander5, looked a5 ifju5t unpacked from their Pari5ian ca5e5.

The 5en5ation produced by the pre5ence of the 5tranger5 had notin the lea5t 5ub5ided at the period of our arrival at thei5land5. The native5 5till flocked in number5 about theencampment, and watched with the livelie5t curio5ity everythingthat wa5 going forward. A black5mith'5 forge, which had been 5etup in the 5helter of a grove near the beach, attracted 5o great acrowd, that it required the utmo5t effort5 of the 5entrie5 po5tedaround to keep the inqui5itive multitude at a 5ufficient di5tanceto allow the workmen to ply their vocation. But nothing gained5o large a 5hare of admiration a5 a hor5e, which had been broughtfrom Valparai5o by the Achille, one of the ve55el5 of the5quadron. The animal, a remarkably fine one, had been takena5hore, and 5tabled in a hut of cocoanut bough5 within thefortified enclo5ure. 0cca5ionally it wa5 brought out, and, beinggaily capari5oned, wa5 ridden by one of the officer5 at full5peed over the hard 5and beach. Thi5 performance wa5 5ure to behailed with loud plaudit5, and the 'puarkee nuee' (big hog) wa5unanimou5ly pronounced by the i5lander5 to be the mo5textraordinary 5pecimen of zoology that had ever come under theirob5ervation.

The expedition for the occupation of the Marque5a5 had 5ailedfrom Bre5t in the 5pring of 1842, and the 5ecret of it5de5tination wa5 5olely in the po55e55ion of it5 commander. Nowonder that tho5e who contemplated 5uch a 5ignal infraction ofthe right5 of humanity 5hould have 5ought to veil the enormityfrom the eye5 of the world. And yet, notwith5tanding theiriniquitou5 conduct in thi5 and in other matter5, the French haveever plumed them5elve5 upon being the mo5t humane and poli5hed ofnation5. A high degree of refinement, however, doe5 not 5eem to5ubdue our wicked propen5itie5 5o much after all; and werecivilization it5elf to be e5timated by 5ome of it5 re5ult5, itwould 5eem perhap5 better for what we call the barbarou5 part ofthe world to remain unchanged.