The New York herald., 1922-05-28
By JAMES NORMAN HALL.


travellers to the South Seas return
with yet more curious information
about their experiences among the islands,
it seems no more than fair that the Poly
nesians be given hearing with respect
to their own travels in America. For
they are not all stay at homes.
Occasionally one of these brown
skinned wanderers is to be found whose
longing to see with his own eyes the
wonders of the white mans civilization
has carried him as far as San Francisco.
They rarely go further than that for to
them Frisco" is America itself-the land
from which come all the little luxuries of
life-tinned beef, flour, Bibles, kerosene
oil, perfume and corrugated iron.
1t was at San Francisco, where was
the guest of my friend Appleby, that I
first heard of one of these voyagers,
youth named Roaki, from the far off
atolls of the Low Archipelago. l had
just returned from a year spent among
the islands of that group, and Appleby
was greatly disappointed when I told him
that l had rot met the young Paumotuan.
I'm sorry" he said, "for I should like
to know what he thinks now of visit he
made to San Francisco last year. He
came here on one of our cargo boats
which had put in at Papeete for water.
/ don't know what he was doing at Pa
peete, but in so far as l could learn he
had been there only few days when our
vessel called and he signed on as men,
ber of the crew.
'He hailed from an island-Ro--Rao-
some such name, and + believe this was
the first time he had ever left it. I met
him on the wharf on the day of his ar
rival and he looked so lost and lonely
that decided to take charge of him until
l could get him passage back to the
islands.
"My reason for doing this was not
wholly unselfish, however. Here it
seemed to me, was chance in thou
sand to learn what primitive man of
good native intelligence thought of the
ways of the civilized world. OF course
couldn't know what he thought, for I un-
derstood nothing of his language and he
had picked up only a few words of
English.
"Well, I did my utmost. He lived at
my house. He went with us to the the
ater and out to the country club; he even
looked on at several little dances there.
He rode in trains, on elevators in street
cars. He saw everything could think of
to show him, and, by Jove! he didn't seem
tc be in the least impressed!
"You might have thought he had been
born and brought up in San Francisco.
How do you account for this? My own
belief is that he accepted our marvels
without wonder because they were so for
eign to anything in his experience. There
was nothing in his own life with which
to compare what he saw here. Neverthe-
less, I would like to know what he really
thought about HIS visit, and what he told
his family when he went back home"
It was my good fortune later to gather
some information on this point. had
occasion to make another voyage through
the Low Archipelago and as 1 carried
with me some presents for Roaki from
Appleby and his family decided to give
them to him myself if the chance came.
travelled for several months on small
trading schooners which were picking up
copra and pearl shell. l made sojourns
at various atolls and at last was able to
take passage on forty ton schooner
which was bound for Roaki's island.
One could call it an island only by
courtesy. The lagoon is fifteen miles long
by nine broad, but II is surrounded for the
most part by barren reef, with here and
there a tiny islet covered with scrub, CIV
ing root to few isolated cocoanut palms.
The habitable land is mere strip along
the western side of the lagoon, severa!
miles in length, but scarcely 300 yards
across at any point. The village lay OPP
posite the break in the reef, where the
boat passage is, and here the schooner
came to anchor. close in shore, within a
few yards Of Roaki's home.
can imagine from the warmth Of the
welcome given me as friend of Appleby
the reception he himself would have had
a. Raeo. "Apati" they called him, this
being the nearest approach they could
make to the English pronunciation. The
forty inhabitants Of the place knew him
by name and they would have known him
by sight as well, for his photograph,
which had been framed in polished pear.
she'll hung on a wall over Roakis bed.
papaath n Vvaa n nictura noatcard of