e paper slips on which the aspirations of the
faithful were written. Whether the prayers had been granted, were out
of date, or the time paid for hanging in the joss-house had expired,
the crematory was four feet deep with the red and white rice-paper
legends, awaiting an auspicious occasion for incineration. Eager of
Inglewood, California, fished secretly, hidden by my body, until
he found a particularly long and intricate set of hieroglyphics,
and deposited it in his pocket. Then we fled.

More than two thousand Chinese in Tahiti, nearly all kin within
a few degrees, found in this humble church a substitute for their
family temples in China, where usually each clan has its own place of
worship. The laboring class of this fecund people seldom extend their
real devotion beyond their ancestors and the principle of fatherhood,
their reasoning being that of the wise Jewish charge to honor one's
father (and mother) that one's life may be long. Loving sons take
care of old parents. It is the old Oriental patriarchy sublimated by
the imposition of commerce upon agriculture.

The Chinese came to Tahiti during the American Civil War. They were
brought by an English planter to grow cotton, then scarce on account
of the blockade and desolation of the South. With the end of the war,
and the looms of Manchester again supplied, the plantation languished,
and the Chinese took other employment, became planters themselves,
or set up little shops. They now had most of the retail business of
the island, and all of it outside Papeete.

The secretary-general gave me figures about them.

"There are twenty-two hundred Chinese in Tahiti now," said he. "We
are willing to receive all who come. They are needed to restore the
population. Who would keep the stores or grow vegetables if we did
not have the Chinese? We exact no entrance fee, but we number every
man, and photograph him, to keep a record. There is no government
agent in China to further this emigration, but those here write home,
and induce their relatives to come. We hope for enough to make labor
plentiful. All cannot keep stores."

"Have you no Japanese?"

"Only those who work for the phosphate company at the island of
Makatea," replied the secretary-general. "They are well paid, their
fare to Tahiti and return secured, and otherwise they are favored. The
Government has agreed with a company to promote Chinese emigration to
the Marquesas. There are thousands needed. In French