Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1909-02-19
TRIP TO THE ORIENT
Clarence E. EdwOrds Touring the
Eastern Countries.
NE IS OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
INTERESTINGLY WRITTEN IN WEEK
LY LETTERS, WHICH WILL AP.
PEAR IN THE RECORDER.

PEAR IN HE hECOhDEh.
Nukaulefa, Tonga, September
pa month ago left New Gale
donna and after spending a week in
New Zealand have reached this de-
lightfuI port. Four days out from
Aukland-f four days of summer seas
and pleasant voy aging and the
steamer glides alongside the Wharf
at Nukaulefa. To visit the South
Seas without visiting Tonga, Samoa
and FIJI, would be like seeing the
play of Hamlet with Hamlet left
out. 1t is for this reason that |
am now here, enrOute to Sumatra
ard Borneo by way of the Soloman
islands.
Some imaginative traveller has
given this country the title Of "The
Country OF Comic Opera, and
certainly the name seems to fit.
The comparison is irresistible and
forces itself upon everyone who
calls at this quaint port. Seen
from the sea the town looks like a
toy, or a bit of stage scenery. Its
odd, stiff pines, with foliage like
hugh hair-brushes; vivid green la
COON lying within the foaming bar
of coral reef; strangely lowered
white palace, placed just upon the
shore; all these suggest "set"
scene on a stage, and as one walks
up the long wharf the stage seems
to be ready, in shape of a wide,
grassy street that lies open to the
sea, all along the frontage of the
town. Here are the great cedar
like avava trees, the sacredtree Of
Tonga, found nowhere else in the
South Seas, and familiar to all
stamp collectors on the stamps of
the kingdom. Here are the beau
tiful iron woods of the pacific, with
foliage as delicateas asparagus leves
and wood as hard and lasting as
the metal after which it is named.
The Kings palace and the Chap
ell Royal are the two most imposing
edifces in the town, but on nearer
approach one again becomes i'm
pressed With the stage scenery idea,
for they are built of painted wood
and the sudden appearance of half
a dozen soldiers, attired in scarlet
cloth coats, black trousers and
smart forage caps, who march
across the front of the scene, silent
ly and rapidly, and disappear in
the gardens, makes one sure that it
is some play that he sees. In adj
dition to king and parliament the
islands boast of Prime Minister,
Chancellor Of the ExchequOr and
Chief Justice. 1t did look rather
odd to see a brown Prime Minister,
! barefooted, sitting at the end Of
the wharf dangling his bare legs and
eating a banana as the steamer
drew alongside. Not long ago the
Chancellor of the EXchequor was
wading in the bay, digging CLANS
and dropped the key to the treas
ury in the water, among the cOralE
and eels, thereby paralyzing the
entire financial system of the gov
eminent until a body of seekers
succeeded. almost miraculously, il
j finding the lost key,
1t all seems queer but when W.
consider that less than ninet.
years ago this was one of the mos
savage people in all the South Seas
and that canibalism was practiceC
up to within forty years, the prog
ress has been really remarkable
! One is struck with the absence o
! hats among the people, for it i
+ against the law for anyone not
chief to wear hat. These article
of distinction are gaily decOrate'