The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-06-11
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Sea Islands | have come upon race
rapidly approaching extinction, ana
a luXuriant country that soon VIII be
without inhabitants. 1t is appalling,
but cannot be denied.
These people who are vanishing
from the face Of the earth are IN
habitants of the NarqEesan Islands.
Fifty years ago the native popula-
ton when France annexed these IS
lands was $4,000. Now, counting
ha,f-castes, and these no great mum
her. there are left some 1000 sur
viyors. many Of them feeble, apathe-
tic and sickly. The birth rate is very
tiny: the death rae is appalling.
Every year the poor, miserable rem
nants are sinking lower and lower into
apathy and despair.
Drink and opium have so muddled
and enfeebled their will power that
they have scarcely strength and en-
ergy sufficient for the simplest ana
most indispensable labors requisite
to support bare life, much less for
the sustained labors of graphing
with nature boldly, and forcing the
jungle under cultivation. kindly.
well-meaning officials say, Let the
poor people die in peace Whole
tracts OF land, once the site Of well
cultivater plantations, now lie idle.
And sadder still than this:
All over sun-scorched drought
smitten Nuku-Hiva in the north,
where the palm trees are perishlns
with blight and the valleys are filled
by dav with swarms of singing sand
fly and by night with millions of mos
luitoes; all over fertile IivaOa in the
south, with its kindlier climate.
where the moribund Marquesan race
clings on to life most firmly. up hill
and down dale you may ride, and
see the grim, massive Paepaes, or
solid platforms. built of huge basalt
blocks. marking the sites of former
thriving townships, sad monuments
of a vanished population.
The people are dead, thatch and
roof and roof-tree have fallen in, the
bones of the dead city alone are left,
with here and there Weather-Worn
and battered Tiki or rudely carved
stone image, marking, like a grim
milestone, the march Of Time the
Destroyer. 1t was prophetic IN
stinct that inspired the mournful pine
Or chant Of Arira, the Tahitian sage
and poet:
"The fallen fau-leaves strew the
sand,
The sea shall swallow coral strand.
Our folk shall vanish from the
land"
French Polynesia, of which the
Marquesan Islands are a part, is d.
vided, like Caesars Gaul, into three
parts-Tahiti, the Paumotus and the
Maruuesas. All of these islands are
on the decline.
In Paumotu, or Low Archipelago,
whence for many years there was a
vast output of pearl shell into the
Western markets, the white mans
civilization has not had much oppor-
tunity to do much mischief, for the
Low Archipelago islanders are too
tough and sturdy, too sober and nat
urally hard working, to be gravely
affected by the undesirable influences
of the seaport town of Papeete, some
two hundred and fifty miles away.
But recent attacks of blight and
heavy typhoons have done great mis-
I'm,
which grow in millions on these
atolls. Hence a shortage in the copra
returns. Also very recently an enor
nous tidal wave swept the Low Arch
ipelago, destroying about thousand
lives, and doing incalculable damage
to property. SO the pearling. industry
languishes also.
In Tahiti things are worse still.
In Papeete. the chief port, and in the
country districts within wide radius
of the little capital, drink and opium
and the allied evils of a civilization
almost unchecked by Christian church
law are playing very great havoc
with the native population. In Tahiti,
though backed by every possible ad-
vantage of nature, the French occu-
patton. with Q few honorable eXcep-
tions, has not made by any means as
much as it ought to have done for
the happiness and true prosperity OF
the people. 1t was very mischle-
yous measure, as in Madagascar, the
turning out of the missionaries, who
had given such mighty and unselfish
labors to civilizing and raising the
early Tahitian natives from barbar-
ism. There are no manly recreations
or amusements in Tahiti for the ma
tivar in their leisure time Drink