The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1922-06-09

prepared by the National Geographic
Society, Washington, D. CD
What, in "the New Pacific" that the
Washington conference is believed to
have created, will be the future of
Frances island possessions nearest to
the United States-the MarQuesas? In
few years these fertile, lovely is
lands, now left practically alone, may
be treated as a geographical clean
slate, for the natives are rapidly dying
off.
The Spanish navigator, Mendana,
first discovered the islands with their
towering black cliffs, and sailed
through q break into a wonderful bay,
What must have been his amazement
Is shared by the traveller today. With
In the bay, what contrast! Where
once telluric fires burned, the luxuri-
ant verdure of the tropics now over
runs the immense ampitheater in riot
Gus profusion. 1t Is as If nature In
repentant mood were pouring out her
gifts with unstinted hand to cover the,
scars and desolation wrought by vol
canic fury.
Tree and vine, flower and shrub,
cover the abrupt, almost vertical sides
of the huge basin and Chamber high
over ridge after ridge of the knife
like hills; choke the deep ravines and
valleys with their prolific mass of
bloom and foliage, and, creeping in
rich abundance almost to the waters
edge, climb the black basalt cliffs tow
ering over the bay, thus seeking to
soften their harsh, broken outlines be-
meath q rank growth Of vines and
moSSes.
Great cascades, springing from the
living rock high on the mountain side,
leap over mighty precipices, cleaning
| like strands Of silver in the sunlight,
to be lost in the mysterious depths OF
dark gorges far below. These waters
wind through dark, tOrtuous ravines
and form the racing stream that tum-
bles swiftly between the twisting hills
| into the steep valley of Hanavave,
where it rushes over its rocky bed to
pass into the blue waters of the quiet
| bay.
Beyond the crescent Of white sand
| that lies between the cliffs, banyan,
mango, and breadfruit trees mingle
their brilliant foliage and blossoms
with the slender brown trunks and
| waving frond of the pandanus and
| coco palm.
Less than a century ago this forest
was thickly dotted with the brown
| thatched huts Of the Hanavavans, each
| upon it's paepae or platform of stone
| constructed without mortar or cement.
Thousands of these paepae, no longer
In use, cling to the vertical sides of val
| leys and ravines in state of perfect
preservation, the platform usually 20
by 80 or 40 feet, level and unbroken,
often walled up 10 or Is feet on the
lower side.
Beautiful Women, Fierce Men.
To describe the dainty, graceful
Marquesanne as she UnquestionaDly
was before Cooks advent may lay the
| describer open to the charge of exag-
geration. But from Mendana to Ste
venson, with Melville for good meas
ure, her remarkable beauty was a
| source of surprise and admiration.
When women possess beautiful, lux
uriant hair, fine eyes, perfect teeth,
q slender, graceful form, skin of vel
vet texture and unblemished surface,
and these physical attractions are
combined with a vivacity Of spirit and
action, exaggeration becomes difficult; !;
and unless all chroniclers OF the Is
lands have for several centuries agreed
to deceive the world, such was the
Marquesanne; SO she is today when
sickness has not diminished her charm.
The men were fierce, cruel cannibals,
whose chief occupation aside from the
indulgence of their amative prociivl-
ties. was the killing Of both men ana
women of other tribes for gastronom1c
purposes.
The all-powerful tapu was the "law
and the prophets" of the Marquesan.