Outing . Opanohu Bay. Shortly after landing on the wharf,which is covered with natives eachdressed in a pareu (loin cloth), a SouthSea island smile, and a wreath offlowers, you begin to wonder (if youare a believer in Emersons Law ofCompensation) what the terrible outis at Moorea to make up for its bless-ings. So far, Ive failed to discoverit; at times a hot spot in a night, toomany insects, elephantiasis (a greatswelling of parts of the body) a poison-ous fish waiting in the sand to be trod-den on—a few such trifles as theseonly seem to emphasize the fact thatthis island is the exception whic
Outing . Opanohu Bay. Shortly after landing on the wharf,which is covered with natives eachdressed in a pareu (loin cloth), a SouthSea island smile, and a wreath offlowers, you begin to wonder (if youare a believer in Emersons Law ofCompensation) what the terrible outis at Moorea to make up for its bless-ings. So far, Ive failed to discoverit; at times a hot spot in a night, toomany insects, elephantiasis (a greatswelling of parts of the body) a poison-ous fish waiting in the sand to be trod-den on—a few such trifles as theseonly seem to emphasize the fact thatthis island is the exception which provesthe Emersonian rule. My advent swelled the white popu-lation of Moorea to an even dozen;there are fifteen hundred whites, and no two of them livewithin sight of each other, were: theFrench gendarme and his wife, twoFrench priests, three planters, one ofthem French, one Yankee, one En-glish-French, an illiterate Germanfarmhand, and Mac. Since myarrival the Yankee planter has died, and. No slave of fashion. Moorea 421 the missionary and his wife have moved toTahiti. Tis Mac who puts you up—and its mighty high praise but well deserved—in a manner worthy of the surround-ings, a bamboo bungalow thatched withpandanus leaves. Before the price ofvanilla falling from sixteen Chile dollars toseventy cents a Kilo turned him into amine host, Mac devoted his time to hisplantation inUrufara valley;before that hebore the title oftrader, andso back andback, includingamong othertitles that ofCanadian it goes inthe South Seas. Copra andvanilla beansspell the com-mercial side ofMoorea. Noone has everbeen accused workwhen every-thing growswild in themountains? Aman takes atrip up into thehills and bringsback a weekssupply ofbreadfruit, or-anges, fei (wildplantain) ban-anas, et cetera,the while hiswife has beenpulling fish outof the lagoon. The only taxes are twenty-four francspersonal, and twenty-one francs road of the natives pay the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
