The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-16 00:00:00

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THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS.

(From the Paris Consiitutionnel.)
" The last letters from the Marquesas Islands give
a sad picture of this colony. Our countrymen sent
into this banishment are struck with discouragement
at the first aspect of our deplorable possession. Let
a heap of arid summits be imagined—of rocks heaped
together, through which run thin slips of land on the
banks of torrents. In the centre of each isle rises an
immense wall of granite, dividing the country into
two parts. On the right and the left are counter-
eminences, gigantic ridges, which spring from the
principal chain, and find their base in the abysses of
the sea. Not only the two parts of the island, sepa-
rated by the principal chain, have no possible commu-
nication between them, but the narrow vallies which
flank this chain on the two slopes do not open the one
into the other. It must also not be attempted to discover
a line of communication along the share, for the lateral
ridges advance into the sea, and form an impassable bar-
rier. Thus this country can never possess roads. The
most extensive valleys are only three miles long by
one wide. Nature there displays the ordinary luxuri-
ance of vegetation in the tropics, that is, vegetables
grow there with great rapidity, but the species pre-
sent but little variety, and, unfortunately, they offer
almost no alimentary resources, and none whatever
for building. Add to this, that the Marquesas have
no game. The only productions of the country which
have any value are cocoa trees, pineapples, and yarns,
cultivated in small quantity, without reckoning pigs
and poultry, exceedingly rare which have been im-
ported by Europeans. On this side all is yet to be
done. As for the natives, it is much worse. Naviga-
tors, who had found in the greatest number of the
islands of the South Seas populations mild and
sociable, have met in the Marquesas tribes of in-
tractable and cunning men, supersttious, but
unbelieving, insensible to the influences of
civilisation—the only people, in fact, of all
the surrounding islands where the missionaries
have not yet made a proselyte. Thus, during the
eighteen months that have elapsed since the taking
possession until the date of the last news, French
domination has not made any progress in the island
of Taounta, whence there still reigns, in spite of the
assassination of Captain Halley, the famous Yotete.
Captain Cugney, of the marines, who has temporarily
replaced M. Halley in the command of the south-
eastern group of the Marquesas, has made vain
efforts to invest a new chief with the power of Yotete.
This chief, named Meheono, was declared King of the
island, and saluted with five cannon shots. He re-
ceived presents, and amongst others a new uniform,
which appears to have won for us all his sympathies.
Unfortunately, his orders, attended to in all other re-
spects, are powerless in what concerns France and
the French. The Kanaks (such is the name usually
given to the natives) have not consented to return to
the Bay of Waitahu, under the protection of our
establishment, and thus the French forces are iso-
lated on the shore formerly inhabited by Yotete and
his tribe. This chief has retired to a neighbouring
bay, where he preserves a threatening attitude. He
has, it is said, several hundreds of muskets. The
state of things is not more satisfactory in the north-
eastern group. Navigators only know of the tribes
of Nouka-Hiva, those inhabiting the southern
valleys. The tribes established in the northern
valleys, if there are any, have not performed any act
of submission to France, and do not probably know
the French flag. The climate of the Marquesas is
not the least inconvenience of this possession. The
cold winds, which suddenly change the habitual tem-
perature, bring maladies with which several soldiers
have been seized—amongst others a blindness of longer
or shorter duration, from which few Europeans have
been able to protect themselves. Rains, truly resembling
those of the deluge, metamorphose the surface of these
islands into vast marshes during six months in the year.
They undermine the foundations of the constructions,
which the heat of the sun has already split, and which
the wind carries away. Our troops have been obliged
in the rainy season to rebuild walls destroyed by the
inundation, to repair several times the fortifications
that were damaged. After a week of those periodical
deluges, there remains no further trace of embank-
ments. Besides, the repairs, which are executed
under a pelting shower of rain, cannot be effected
without entering into the mud up to the knees. It is
in this state that our marines have worked during the
whole of the last season, showing, at 4,000 leagues
from France, the discipline and devotedness of which
the troops of Algeria exhibit every day such striking
examples. The more the question is examined, the better
it is seen that the taking possession of the archipelago of
the Marquesas constitutes a charge without any kind of
advantage. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has endea-
voured to prove that the Cabinet had been induced
to order the occupation of those islands with a view
to creating ports for vessels to put into, and obtain
provisions. This was intended as well for the whalers
on the coasts of Peru and Chili as for trading vessels
proceeding to China by doubling Cape Horn. Hi-
therto, the practice of the whalers has been to put
in at New Zealand. That country having been occu-
pied by England, our vessels have been exposed to all
the obstacles which the rivalry of one people against
another can produce. In this point of view, it was
perhaps useful to open to them a national port. There
existed one, to which the whalers know the way, that
of Akaroa, occupied by a French colony. We shall
not inquire why the Government has suffered the
English flag to be imposed on this county ; but there
were a hundred isles amongst the numerous archipela-
goes of the South Sea, of which it would have been more
advantageous to take possession—the Gambier islands,
for instance, which support a Christian population de-
voted to France; Tahiti particularly, which would
have offered us resources very different from the
Marquesas. We should have found in this queen of
the islands of Oceania a people mild, Christian, and
accustomed to European manners ; we should have
found there a more favourable climate, a better situa-
tion, and greater natural riches. The Marquesas,
situate at about 1,200 leagues from the coast of Peru,
forming an isolated group between the Sandwich
Islands and the other archipelagoes of Oceania, are not
situate on the great highway to China by Cape Horn.
In turning aside from their course they can touch
there from April to November, at the period of the
north-west monsoon. In the other seasons of the year,
and when the north-west monsoon will prevail in the
China Seas, that is from November to April, the ves-
sels which sail from Peru will proceed to the north of
the line, and will put in at the Sandwich Islands.
Thus, it is a matter of great doubt whether the Mar-
quesas offer any advantage as a place to put into for
vessels trading to China. Besides, is it not notorious
that this commerce is still to come into existence, or
that it exists only in the portfolio of the Minister of
Foreign Affairs ? The real motive of the occupa-
tion of the Marquesas was declared some years
ago in the wish of the Government to create
in Oceania a new Botany Bay. The law of
transportation having failed before the Chambers,
the Marquesas have changed their destina-
tion. It is since then that the Government has been
suddenly seized with a quite fresh solicitude for our
whalers, whose interests were so lightly abandoned
at New Zealand. It is since then that it felt the ne-
cessity of protecting our commerce in the Chinese
Seas. It is to turn to account the useless establish-
ment of the Marquesas that the Ministry has thought
of getting the Isthmus of Panama opened, but which i
will never be opened. Thus, whilst it ought to have
sought for victualling places for vessels, it is vessels
which it wants for victualling places." 1

We hear that a limited reduction'in the Royal stud,
comprising some of her Majesty's valuable saddle-horses,
which, it is said, are to be sold, is likely to take place shortly.

PERILS of the GOODWIN SANDS.
A few years ago, in the prime of summer, a party
of young men agreed to play a game of cricket on
the Goodwin Sands. This at first may appear impos-
sible ; but it will be remembered, that during the
time the sands are uncovered by the falling tide, they
are hard enough to permit any kind of exercise upon
them. The only difficulty is to ascertain the day
when the tide will suit. Such a day soon came ; and
leaving the beach in a galley, away the party went,
wi.h bats, wickets, balls, provisions, and other knack-
eries, to contest their skill upon the sands, the wide
grave of many "a good tall ship." The day com-
menced surpassingly beautiful; calm, mild and genial,
the bright sunshine was sleeping in a thousand places
on every side of the hushed and silent sea; and im-
pelled by the strong arms of six lusty rowers, the
channel dividing Deal from the Sands was soon
passed.
There is something bracing to the nerves when
treading these sands on a fine sunny day—a wild
ness, a charm, owing, perhaps, to their solitude and
vastness ; the sea birds assembled there seem different
to those on shore—they appear less difficult to ap-
proach, as though they had not been taught to dread
the appearance of man. All for a time went happily
with our party, and shouts of merriment and laughter
made the dull sands echo to their mirth; the day
wore away, without a thought bestowed on anything
but pleasure; thP provision basket was attacked with
vigour, and a plentiful supply of liquor soon blinded
the merrymakers to the approach of danger. One
old Deal boatman alone was with them, and he had
already repeatedly urged the necessity of a return to
the main land; but the young men treated his fears
with laughter, and turned his urgent ration ;trances
into a joke ; in vain he told them that the appearance
of the weather to the southward was suspicious, and
that the galley, although safe enough in smooth
water, was quite unfit to contend with a troubled sea.
For some time his experienced eye had noted the
change in the appearance of the weather ; but finding
his advice treated with contempt, he had no alterna-
tive but to remain their pleasure and take his chance
with them.

At length the weather put on a more serious as- !
pect, and the whiffling sound of a freshening breeze
told the most inexperienced of the party that the time
had arrived when it became necessary to return to a
place of security; and with an alacrity quickened by
an awakening sense of danger, all jumped into the
boat, and began pulling fur the land. The warning
voice of the old man, which had been listened to
with scorn, now began to work on the revellers; they
discovered, when too late, the alarming truth, that
the boat was laden too heavily to contend with the
sea. The change since the morning had been great
—the sea, so smooth before, was now broken into
waves, after shipping several of which, and being
nearly swamped, they gave up rowing in diree•
tion of the town, and, dreadful as the alternative
appeared, sought refuge on the sands they so re-
cently had left. Fear soon spread its influence
over the party. The old man alone seemed pos-
sessed or energy ; but his counsel of pulling along
`he edge of the sand for the Floating Light was met
by the contradictory opinions of others ; and the pre-
cious moments so requisite for action were wasted in
a noisy squabble. Some proposed leaving half of the
party on the sand, and pulling for the town with the
other half; but as no one would consent to remain
behind, this project was abandoned. Meanwhile the
wind rose rapidly, and with it came the tide • and a
fearful, lurid-looking mist, which had gathered to the
southward, came rushing down upon them with the
speed of the wind ; then a roaring rumbling sound was
heard moaning along the sea, whose surface was
covered with one sheet of white and spotless foam ;
sudden gale of wind had arisen, and its full force fell
upon the men in that forlorn situation. Despair soon
seized upon all, on discovering the sand, lately so firm
and hard, on which they bad played their cricket match,
was now alive, literally quivering beneath their feet,
and with the rising tide would soon be covered, and
float to and fro with the waves. The prospect of
certain death stared them in the face. Some cried,
some laughed, and one yelled aloud in a delirium, at
the impossibility, as it seemed to him, of being so
near destruction : the old man alone had nerve enough
to look boldly at their desperate condition. The
return to land was acknowledged an impossibility,
and the sands were rapidly becoming so soft, that
standing on them became more and more difficult;
and the wind blowing with great violence, the slum-
bering ocean had roused itself at its call, and was
tumbling about in mad gambols, threatening the ad-
venturers with instant death. The old Deal boat-
man noted these changes with an anxious eye,
plainly telling how critical he deemed their
situation ; and not being able to devise any plan
to relieve them, the whole party made another
mad attempt to man the galley, though it should
end in their speedy destruction. While in the act of
carrying this project into execution, one of the party
shouted out, " What is that, there away to the west-
ward ?—there, now it lifts again." Every one directed
his attention to the spot pointed out, but nothing was
seen; one, however, said he thought it was the wing
of a gull dipping ;mongst the waves. "Itis a boat,
a Deal boat too," said a dozen voices, and again it
rose, driving on the glittering crest of a wave ; and in
an agony of despair, fearing they should not be seen,
the men shouted. The roaring of the sea was the
only answer to their call—no human sound could
reach so far, and the boat appeared to pass on its
course without heeding them. The following minutes
appeared like hours ; and the strange boat rose, and
as often disappeared, as she struggled through the
troughs of the sea. The quick eye of the veteran boat-
man, when directed to the stranger, soon discovered,
from her mations, that she was in search of something
—she had no decided course, but ya Ned about hither
and thither. Suddenly she tacked, and stood directly
fur the spot where the party had clustered together,
attracted there by an oar, held up to catch observa-
tion. They were seen ; and deeming their deliver.
ance certain, all bowed theie heads in silent and secret
thanksgivings. The appearance of the Deal lugger is
readily explained. When the galley with the crick-
eters left the beach in the morning, the boatmen on
the shore remarked how much the vessel was over-
loaded, and knowing her destination to be the sands,
they became anxious, when the wind got up, to see
her return ; but anxiety soon gave place to apprehen-
sion ; and, launching one of their large boats, they
hastened to the sand just in time to save the young
men from destruction.—llluminated Magazine.