plaisirs,
Les chants joyeux, la vie en rose,
Le plus ardent de ses desirs,
Pour lui la plus heureuse chose,
Fut toujours que l'humanite
Regnat au sein de son Royaume;
De meme que l'Egalite
Sous son modeste toit de chaume.

Hallman, with whom I journeyed on the Noa-Noa, dropped into the Cercle
Bougainville occasionally, but he was ordinarily too much occupied with
his schemes of trade. Besides, he had only one absorbing vice other
than business, and with merely wine and song to be found at the club,
Hallman went there but seldom, and only to talk about pearl-shell,
copra, and the profits of schooner voyages. However, through him
I met another group who spoke English, and who were not of Latin
blood. They were Llewellyn, an islander--Welsh and Tahitian; Landers,
a New Zealander; Pincher, an Englishman; David, McHenry, and Brown,
Americans; Count Polonsky, the Russo-Frenchman who was fined a franc;
and several captains of vessels who sailed between Tahiti and the
Pacific coast of the United States or in these latitudes.

The Noa-Noa was overdue from New Zealand, by way of Raratonga, and her
tardiness was the chief subject of conversation at our first meeting. A
hundred times a day was the semaphore on the hill spied at for the
signal of the Noa-Noa's sighting. High up on the expansive green slope
which rises a few hundred feet behind the Tiare Hotel is a white pole,
and on this are hung various objects which tell the people of Papeete
that a vessel is within view of the ancient sentinel of the mount. An
elaborate code in the houses of all persons of importance, and in all
stores and clubs, interprets these symbols. The merchants depended to
a considerable extent upon this monthly liner between San Francisco
and Wellington and way ports, and all were interested in the mail
and food supplies expected by the Noa-Noa. Cablegrams sent from any
part of the world to New Zealand or San Francisco were forwarded by
mail on these steamships. Tahiti was entirely cut off from the great
continents except by vessel. There was no cable, and no wireless, on
this island, nor even at the British island of Raratonga, two days'
steaming from Papeete. The steamships had wireless systems, and kept
in communication with San Francisco or with New Zealand ports for a
few days after departure.

There were many guesses at the cause of the delay.

"Nothing but war!" said the French post-office clerk who sat at
an