Chapter XVIII
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The queen, however, promised, at last, that she would leave by a small schooner called Ana. I then waited for the arrival of that schooner, and when she arrived, I saw the captain and made arrangements for him to take us all to Tahiti. He told me that the vessel was at my command, and that I could do what I liked with it, and that I had only to name the day for leaving, when she would do so. The first week passed without anything being decided, although every day I told the queen that we must leave. When it came to the end of the second week, my patience began to be exhausted, I then spoke again to her to get her to understand the necessity of deciding something, and told her that I could not be there wasting my time and awaiting her pleasure, as she had already said she would come back, and she was simply putting it off to an indefinite period. She sent word to Tamatoa, and her relations, to come and decide for her. That evening they all arrived. My husband then spoke to them and said the French government had been very badly treated by them, and that they were keeping the queen of Tahiti amongst themselves with no good object. He also asked them whether in case the French refused to receive this queen of Tahiti any more, would they give up their government for her as a sacrifice? This seemed to frighten these men, and Tapoa said to the queen: "You had better leave. We have heard that Great Britain has withdrawn her intentions of helping you, and you had better go straight back to your own government." She said then to Tapoa: "Who will take me? I have asked for a vessel to take me home, but it appears that I cannot have one." Tapoa replied: "Ariitaimai has been here for several months awaiting your pleasure, and vessels have been here for you, but you have simply been undecided all this time. What will you do without Tahiti?" She said that as the English were the persons who brought her to this island, she expected that they would also take her back home to her island. My husband then told her that the English certainly would not put a vessel at her orders to take her home to Tahiti, and that the French had already sent their war vessel twice, and now there was still a chance of their sending a third time, only he warned her that if, at that time, she still
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© Derived from the revised Paris edition of 1901 page 193, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-marua-193.html