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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41716 ***
+
+THE PACIFIC TRIANGLE
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: ERUPTION OF VOLCANO ON THE ISLAND OF KYUSHU, JAPAN
+  To the world a symbol: to Japan a fact]
+
+
+
+
+  THE
+  PACIFIC TRIANGLE
+
+  BY
+  SYDNEY GREENBIE
+  AUTHOR OF "JAPAN: REAL AND IMAGINARY"
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+  WITH PHOTOGRAPHS
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  NEW YORK
+  THE CENTURY CO.
+  1921
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1921, by
+  THE CENTURY CO.
+
+
+  Printed in U. S. A.
+
+
+
+
+TO BARRIE
+
+  WHO DID HIS BEST TO
+  PREVENT THE WRITING OF THIS
+  BOOK, IN THE HOPE THAT HE MAY
+  SOME DAY READ IT AND REPENT OF HIS SINS.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+This book is an attempt to bring within focus the most outstanding
+factors in the Pacific. With the exception of Chapter II, which deals
+with the origin of the Polynesian people, there is hardly an incident in
+the whole book that has not come within the scope of my own personal
+experience. Hence this is essentially a travel narrative. I have
+confined myself to the task of interpreting the problems of the Pacific
+in the light of the episodes of everyday life. Wherever possible, I have
+tried to let the incident speak for itself, and to include in the
+picture the average ideals of the various races, together with my own
+impressions of them and my own reflections. The field is a tremendous
+one. It encompasses the most important regions that lie along the great
+avenues of commerce and general intercourse. The Pacific is a great
+combination of geographical, ethnological, and political factors that is
+extremely diverse in its sources. I have tried to discern within them a
+unit of human commonality, as the seeker after truth is bound to do if
+his discoveries are to be of any value.
+
+But the result has been an unconventional book. For I have sometimes
+been compelled to make unity of time and place subservient to that of
+subject matter. Hence the reader may on occasion feel that the book
+returns to the same field more than once. That has been unavoidable. The
+problems that are found in Hawaii are essentially the same as those in
+Samoa, though differing in degree. It has therefore been necessary,
+after surveying the whole field in one continuous narrative of my own
+journey, to assemble stories, types, and descriptions which illustrate
+certain problems, in separate chapters, regardless of their
+geographical settings. If the reader bears this in mind he will not be
+surprised in Book Two to find himself in Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, or New
+Zealand all at once--for issues are always more important than
+boundaries.
+
+The plan of the book has been to give the historical approach to the
+Pacific and its native races; then to take the reader upon a journey of
+over twenty thousand miles around the Pacific. I hope that he will come
+away with a clear impression of the immensity of the Ocean, of the
+diversity of its natural and human elements, and the splendor and
+picturesqueness of its make-up. Out of this review certain problems
+emerge, the problems of the relations of native and alien races, of
+marriages and divorces, of markets and ideals--problems that affect the
+primitive races in their own new place in the world. But over and above
+and about these come the issues that involve the more advanced races of
+Asia, Australasia, and America--where they impinge upon each other and
+where their interests in these minor races center. This is the logic of
+the Pacific.
+
+Though the importance of these problems is now obvious to the world, I
+feel grateful to those who encouraged me while I still felt myself
+almost like a voice crying in the wilderness, on the subject. I
+therefore feel specially indebted to the editors of _North American
+Review_, _World's Work_ and the _Outlook_, who first published some of
+the material here incorporated. But so rapid has been the movement of
+events that in no case has it been possible for me to use more than the
+essence of the ideas there published. In order to bring them up to date,
+they have been completely re-written and made an integral part of this
+book. Two or three of the descriptive chapters have also appeared in
+_Century Magazine_ and _Harper's Monthly_, for permission to reprint
+which I am indebted to them.
+
+There is a further indebtedness which is much more difficult of
+acknowledgment. To my wife, Marjorie Barstow, I am under obligation
+not only for her steadfast encouragement, but for her judgment,
+understanding, and untiring patience, without which my career of
+authorship would have been trying indeed.
+
+                                                    SYDNEY GREENBIE.
+  Greensboro, Vermont,
+  August 4, 1921.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+BOOK ONE
+
+HISTORICAL AND TRAVEL MATERIAL
+
+  CHAPTER                                                       PAGE
+      I THE HEART OF THE PACIFIC                                  3
+     II THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES                                  15
+    III OUR FRONTIER IN THE PACIFIC                               30
+     IV THE SUBLIMATED, SAVAGE FIJIANS                            52
+      V THE SENTIMENTAL SAMOANS                                   79
+     VI THE APHELION OF BRITAIN                                  108
+    VII ASTRIDE THE EQUATOR                                      128
+   VIII THE AUSTRALIAN OUTLANDS                                  143
+     IX OUR PEG IN ASIA                                          158
+      X BRITAIN'S ROCK IN ASIA                                   168
+     XI CHINA'S EUROPEAN CAPITAL                                 179
+    XII WORLD CONSCIOUSNESS                                      192
+
+
+BOOK TWO
+
+DISCUSSION OF NATIVE PROBLEMS--PERSONAL AND SOCIAL
+
+   XIII EXIT THE NOBLE SAVAGE                                    205
+    XIV GIVE US OUR VU GODS AGAIN!                               222
+     XV HIS TATTOOED WIFE                                        237
+    XVI GIVING HEARTS A NEW CHANCE                               254
+   XVII "THIS LITTLE PIG WENT TO MARKET"                         265
+
+
+BOOK THREE
+
+DISCUSSION OF THE POLITICAL PROBLEMS INVOLVING AUSTRALASIA,
+ASIA AND AMERICA
+
+  XVIII AUSTRALASIA                                              281
+    XIX JAPAN AND ASIA                                           297
+     XX AMERICA                                                  312
+    XXI WHERE THE PROBLEM DOVETAILS                              330
+   XXII AUSTRALIA AND THE ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE                347
+  XXIII POLITICAL ALLIES AND FINANCIAL CONSORTS                  364
+   XXIV UNCHARTED SEAS                                           384
+
+        APPENDIX                                                 395
+
+        INDEX                                                    397
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  Eruption of volcano on the island of Kyushu, Japan  _Frontispiece_
+                                                         FACING PAGE
+  Map of the Pacific                                              16
+
+  Diamond head near Honolulu                                      20
+
+  The hulk of the German man-of-war, the _Adler_                  20
+
+  After seven days of sea--this emerged                           21
+
+  Hilo, Hawaii                                                    21
+
+  Even Fijians are loath to forget the arts of their forefathers  28
+
+  In giant canoes Heliolithic immigrants roamed the South Seas    29
+
+  There are only a few Chinese women in Hawaii                    36
+
+  A sage in a china shop at Honolulu                              36
+
+  Feminine propriety                                              37
+
+  Whoa! Let's have our picture taken                              37
+
+  Miles away rose the fumes of Kilauea                            44
+
+  The largest cauldron of molten rock on earth                    44
+
+  A river of rock pouring out into the sea                        45
+
+  Whirling eddies of lava undermining frozen lava projections     45
+
+  Where the tides turn to stone                                   48
+
+  A blizzard of fuming heat                                       48
+
+  The lake of spouting molten lava                                49
+
+  A corner of Suva, Fiji                                          64
+
+  Food for a day's gossip                                         64
+
+  The long and the short of it                                    65
+
+  A Hindu patriarch                                               65
+
+  The scowl indicates a complex                                   68
+
+  Instructor of the Fijian constabulary                           68
+
+  A Fijian Main Street                                            69
+
+  Little Fijians                                                  69
+
+  One of the most gifted of Fijian chiefs                         76
+
+  Cacarini (Katherine), the chief's daughter                      76
+
+  Fijians dance from the hip up                                   77
+
+  A Fijian wedding                                                77
+
+  The street along the waterfront of Apia, Samoa                  96
+
+  I thought the village back of Apia, Samoa, was deserted, but
+    it was only the noon hour                                     96
+
+  Tattooing of the legs is an essential in Samoa                  97
+
+  Contact with California created this combination of scowl,
+    bracelets and boy's boots--but Fulaanu beside her was
+    incorruptible                                                 97
+
+  Dunedin, New Zealand                                           112
+
+  Bridges are still luxuries in many places in New Zealand       112
+
+  The fiords and sounds of New Zealand                           113
+
+  Lake Wanaka, New Zealand                                       113
+
+  The S. S. _Aurora_                                             128
+
+  Mount Cook of the New Zealand Alps in summer                   128
+
+  Circular quay, Sydney, Australia                               129
+
+  Monument to Captain Cook                                       129
+
+  One of the oldest Australian residences is now a public
+    domain                                                       144
+
+  The interior of a wealthy sheep station owner's home in
+    Melbourne                                                    144
+
+  Australian blacks in their native element                      145
+
+  An Australian black in Melbourne                               145
+
+  Filipino lighters drowsing in the evening shadows              160
+
+  The docile water buffalo is used to walking in mud             160
+
+  One can throw a brick and hit seven cathedrals in Manila       161
+
+  Cool and silent are the mossy streets of the walled city
+    of Manila                                                    161
+
+  In China drinking-water, soap-suds, soup and sewers all find
+    their source in the same stream                              176
+
+  Shanghai youngsters putting their heads together to make
+    us out                                                       176
+
+  This old woman is laying down the law to the wild young
+    things of China                                              177
+
+  China could turn these mud houses into palaces if she
+    wished--she is rich enough                                   177
+
+  Fujiyama                                                       192
+
+  Sea, earth and sky                                             193
+
+  This Hindu has usurped the job of the chieftains' daughters    224
+
+  An Indian coolie village                                       224
+
+  A Maori Haka in New Zealand                                    225
+
+  A Maori canoe hurdling race                                    225
+
+  Three views of a Maori woman                                   240
+
+  A group of whites and half-castes in Samoa                     241
+
+  A ship-load of "picture-brides" arriving at Seattle            241
+
+  A Maori woman with her children                                241
+
+  Beauty is more than skin-deep                                  256
+
+  A half-caste Fijian maiden                                     257
+
+  A full-blooded Fijian maiden                                   257
+
+  Fijian village                                                 272
+
+  Little fish went to this market                                272
+
+  Good luck must attend these traders at the doors of the
+    cathedrals in Manila                                         273
+
+  A Fijian bazar is a red letter day                             273
+
+  The mountains are called the Remarkables                       284
+
+  The Blue Mountains of Australia                                284
+
+  Australia denuding herself                                     285
+
+  Australia is not all desert and plain                          288
+
+  People are small amidst Australia's giant tree ferns           289
+
+  Japan's first reaction to foreign influence                    304
+
+  Second stage in Westernization                                 304
+
+  Third stage in Westernization                                  305
+
+  Fourth stage in Westernization                                 305
+
+  Lord Lansdowne and Baron Tadasu Hayashi                        352
+
+  Prince Ito                                                     352
+
+  Dr. Sun Yat-Sen                                                352
+
+  Thomas W. Lamont                                               353
+
+  Wellington Koo                                                 353
+
+  Yukio Osaki, M.P. and Ex-Minister of Justice                   353
+
+
+
+
+BOOK ONE
+
+HISTORICAL AND TRAVEL MATERIAL
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE HEART OF THE PACIFIC
+
+_The First Side of The Triangle_
+
+
+1
+
+  ... stared at the Pacific--and all his men
+  Looked at each other with a wild surmise--
+      Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
+
+Exactly four centuries after the event immortalized by Keats, I
+outstripped Balboa's most fantastic dreams by setting out upon the
+Pacific and traversing the length and breadth of it. "It is a sight," we
+are told, "in beholding which for the first time any man would wish to
+be alone." I was. But whereas Balboa's desires were accomplished in
+having obtained sight of the Pacific, that achievement only whetted
+mine. He said:
+
+   You see here, gentlemen and children mine, how our desires are
+   being accomplished, and the end of our labors. Of that we ought to
+   be certain, for, as it has turned out true what King Comogre's son
+   told of this sea to us, who never thought to see it, so I hold for
+   certain that what he told us of there being incomparable treasures
+   in it will be fulfilled. God and His blessed Mother who have
+   assisted us, so that we should arrive here and behold this sea,
+   will favor us that we may enjoy all that there is in it.
+
+The story of how far he was so assisted is part of the tale of this
+book, for in all the wanderings which are the substance of my
+accomplishment I can recall having met with but a half-dozen of Balboa's
+kinsmen. Instead there are streaming backward and forward across the
+Pacific descendants of men Balboa hated and of others of whom he knew
+nothing.
+
+Balboa was the first to see the ocean. He had left his men behind just
+as they were about to reach the peak from which he viewed it. But he was
+not the first to step upon its shores. He sent some of his men down, and
+of them one, Alonso Martin, was the first to have that pleasure. Martin
+dipped his sword dramatically into the brine and took possession of it
+all as far as his mind's eye could reach. Yet to none of the men was
+this vast hidden world more than a vision and a hope, and the accidental
+name with which Magellan later christened it seems, by virtue of the
+motives of gain which dominated these adventurers, anything but
+descriptive. To be pacific was not the way of the kings of Castile; nor,
+sad to say, is it the way of most of their followers.
+
+What was it that Balboa took possession of in the name of his Castilian
+kings? Rather a courageous gamble, to say the least. The dramatic and
+fictional possibilities of such wholesale acquisition are illimitable.
+In the mid-Pacific were a million or more savage cannibals; in the
+far-Pacific, races with civilizations superior to his own. At that very
+time China was extending the Great Wall and keeping in repair the Grand
+Canal which had been built before Balboa's kings were chiefs. Japan was
+already a nation with arts and crafts, and a social state sufficiently
+developed to be an aggressive influence in the Oriental world, making
+inroads on Korea through piracy. Korea was powerful enough to force
+Japan to make amends. Four years after Balboa's discovery the Portuguese
+arrived in Canton and opened China for the first time to the European
+world. The Dutch were beginning to think of Java. It was hardly Balboa's
+plan to make of all these a little gift for his king: his act was but
+the customary flourish of discoverers in those days. Men who loved
+romance more than they loved reality were ready to wander over the
+unknown seas and rake in their discoveries for hire. Balboa, Magellan,
+Drake, roamed the seas out of sheer love of wind and sail. Many a man
+set forth in search of treasure never to be heard from again; some only
+to have their passage guessed by virtue of the signs of white blood in
+the faces of some of the natives. For two hundred years haphazard
+discoveries and national jealousies confused rather than enlightened the
+European world. But late in the eighteenth century, after a considerable
+lessening of interest in exploration, Captain James Cook began that
+memorable series of voyages which added more definite knowledge to the
+geographical and racial make-up of the South Seas than nearly all the
+other explorers put together. The growth of the scientific spirit and
+the improvement in navigation gave him the necessary impetus. Imbued
+with scientific interest, he went to observe the transit of Venus and to
+make close researches in the geography of the Pacific. But to George
+Vancouver falls the praise due to a constructive interest in the people
+whose lands he uncovered. Wherever he went he left fruits and domestic
+animals which contributed much to the happiness of the primitives, and
+probably laid the foundation for the future colonization of these
+scattered islands by Europeans.
+
+Backward and forward across the Pacific through four centuries have
+moved the makers of this new Atlantis. First from round Cape Horn,
+steering for the setting sun, then from the Australian continent to the
+regions of Alaska, these shuttles of the ages have woven their fabric of
+the nations. Now the problem is, what is going to be done with it?
+
+I suppose I was really no worse than most people in the matter of
+geography when I set forth on my venture. Though the Pacific had lain at
+my feet for two years, I seem to have had no definite notions of the
+"incomparable treasures" that lay therein. Japan was stored away in my
+mind as something to play with. Typee, the cannibal Marquesas--ah! there
+was something real and vigorous! Then the South Sea maidens! Ideal
+labor conditions in New Zealand! Australia was Botany Bay; the
+Philippines, the water cure. Confucius was confusion to me, but
+Lao-tsze, the great sage of China--in his philosophy I had found a
+meeting-ground for East and West.
+
+But I was sizzling with curiosity. I wanted to bring within my own range
+of experience that "unplumbed, salt estranging sea" with its area of
+seventy million square miles, equivalent to "three Atlantics, seventy
+Mediterraneans," and--aside from the hundreds of millions of people
+round its shore--the seventy-odd millions within its bosom. Yet of the
+myths, the beliefs, the aspirations of these peoples, even the most
+knowing gave contradictory accounts, and curiosity was perforce my
+compass.
+
+
+2
+
+Something in a voyage westward across the Pacific gives one the sense of
+a great reunion; it is not a personal experience, but an historic
+sensation. One may have few incidents to relate, there may be only an
+occasional squall. But in place of events is an abstraction from world
+strife, a heading for the beginning of a cycle of existence--for Asia,
+the birthplace of the human race. The feeling is that of one making a
+tour of the universe which has lasted ten thousand centuries and is but
+at the moment nearing completion. For eons the movement has been a
+westward one. Races have succumbed to races in this westward reach for
+room. Pursuing the retreating glaciers, mankind snatched up each inch of
+land released, rushing wildly outward. After the birth of man there was
+a split, in which some men went westward and became Europeans, some
+eastward and became Asiatics. The Amerindians were the kick of that
+human explosion eastward which occurred some time during the Wurm ice
+age.
+
+One cannot grasp the significance of the Pacific who crosses it too
+swiftly. Every mapped-out route, every guide-book must be laid aside,
+and schedules must cease to count. With half a world of water to
+traverse, its immensity becomes a reality only when one permits oneself
+to be wayward, with every whim a goal.
+
+A fellow-passenger said to me, "My boss has given me two weeks'
+vacation."
+
+"Mine has given me a lifetime," I answered.
+
+In that mood I watched the _Lurline_ push its way into the San Francisco
+fogs and out through the fog-choked Golden Gate. The fogs stayed with us
+a space beyond and were gone, and the wide ocean lay in every direction
+roundabout us.
+
+I was bound for Japan by relays. Unable to secure through passage to the
+Land of the Rising Sun, I did the next best thing and booked for
+Honolulu. There I planned to wait for some steamer with an unused berth
+that would take me to Kyoto, Japan, in time to attend the coronation of
+the Tenno, the crownless Emperor. After all, Honolulu was not such an
+unfavorable spot in which to prepare my soul for the august sight of
+emperor-worship on a grand scale, I thought.
+
+And at last I was out upon the bosom of the Pacific, sailing without
+time limit or fixed plan, sailing where did Cook and Drake and
+Vancouver, and knowing virtually as little of what was about me as did
+they. Our ship became the axis round which wheeled the universe, and
+progress "a succession of days which is like one day." We went on and
+on, and still the circle was true. We moved, yet altered nothing. When
+the sky was overcast, the ocean paled in sympathy; when it was bright,
+the whitecapped, cool blue surface of the sea abandoned itself to the
+light. At night the cleavage between sea and sky was lost. Then we lost
+distance, altitude, depth, and even speed. All became illusive--a time
+for strong reason.
+
+Then came a storm. The vast disk, the never-shifting circle shrank in
+the gathering mist. From the prow of the ship, where I loved most to be,
+the world became more lonely. The iron nose of the vessel burrowed into
+the blue-green water, thrusting it back out of the way, curling it over
+upon a volume of wind which struggled noisily for release. The blue
+became deeper, the strangled air assumed a thick gray color and emerged
+in a fit of sputtering querulousness. But the ship lunged on, as
+unperturbed as the Bhodistava before Mara, the Evil One, sure that he
+was becoming Buddha.
+
+We were dipping southward and soon tasted the full flavor of the
+luscious tropical air. The ship never more than swayed with the swells.
+During the days that followed there was never more than the most
+elemental squall. The nights were as clear and balmy as the days. For
+seven days we danced and made merry to Hawaiian melodies thrummed by an
+Hawaiian orchestra, or screeched by an American talking-machine, or
+hammered by a piano-player. The warm air began to play the devil with
+our feelings.
+
+Thus seven days passed. I had taken to sleeping out on deck, under the
+open sky. The moon was brilliant, the sea as smooth as a pond. I was
+awakened by whispered conversation at five o'clock of that last day and
+found a group of women huddling close on the forward deck. Their hair
+was streaming down their backs, their feet were bare, and their bodies
+wrapped in loose kimonos. Some of the officers were pointing to the
+southwestern horizon, where a barely perceptible streak of smoke was
+rising over the rim of the sea. It was from Kilauea, the volcano on the
+island of Hawaii, two hundred miles away.
+
+The air was fresh and balmy as on the day the earth was born. Rolling
+cumulous clouds sought to postpone the day by retarding the rising sun.
+Lighthouse lights blinked their warnings. Molokai, the leper island,
+emerged from the darkness. A blaze of sunlight broke through the clouds
+and day was in full swing. And as we neared the island of Oahu, a
+full-masted wind-jammer, every strip of sail spread to the breeze, came
+gliding toward us from Honolulu.
+
+By noon we were in the open harbor,--a fan-spread of still water. The
+_Lurline_ glided on and turned to the right and we were before the
+little city of Honolulu. I can still see the young captain on the
+bridge, pacing from left to right, watching the water, issuing quiet
+directions to the sailor who transmitted them, by indicator, to the
+engine-room. We edged up to the piers amid a profusion of greetings from
+shore and appeals for coins from brown-skinned youngsters who could a
+moment later be seen chasing them in the water far below the surface.
+
+This, then, is progress. In 1778, Captain Cook was murdered by these
+islanders. To-day they "grovel" in the seas for petty cash. One hundred
+and forty years! Seven days!
+
+
+3
+
+But Hawaii was only my half-way house. I was still reaching out for
+Japan. According to the advice of steamship agencies I might have waited
+seven years before any opportunity for getting there would come my way.
+At twelve o'clock one day I learned that the _Niagara_ was in port. She
+was to sail for the Antipodes at two. By two I was one of her
+passengers. Hadn't "my boss" given me a lifetime's vacation?
+
+The world before me was an unknown quantity, as it doubtless is to at
+least all but one in a million of the inhabitants of our globe. My
+ticket said Sydney, Australia. How long would it take us? Two weeks?
+What should we see en route? Two worlds? Here, in one single journey I
+should cut a straight line across the routes of Magellan, Drake, Cook,
+and into those of Tasman,--all the great navigators of the last four
+hundred years. Here, then, I was to trace the steps of Melville, of
+Stevenson, of Jack London,--largely with the personal recommendations of
+Jack,--and of one then still unfamed, Frederick O'Brien. All the courage
+in the face of the unknown, all the conflicts between the world
+civilizations in their various stages of development, all the dreams of
+romance, of future welfare and achievement, would unfold in my progress
+southward and fall into two much-talked-of and little-understood
+divisions--East and West. I was to discover for myself what it was that
+Balboa and his like had taken possession of in their grandiloquent
+fashion and were ready to defend against all comers. Yet the flag at the
+mast was not Balboa's flag, nor Tasman's, and the passengers among whom
+fate had wheeled me were, with one exception, neither Spanish nor Dutch,
+but British. As long as I moved from San Francisco westward and as long
+as I remained in Honolulu, I was, as far as customs and people were
+concerned, in America. But from the moment I considered striking off
+diagonally across the South Seas in the direction of the Antarctic I was
+thrown among Britons. The clerk in the steamship office was Canadian,
+the steamer was British, the passengers were British, and the cool,
+casual way in which the _Niagara_ kicked herself off from the pier and
+slipped out into the harbor was confirmation of a certain cleavage. For
+there was none of the gaiety which accompanies the arrival and departure
+of American vessels,--no music, no serpentines, no cheering. We just
+took to our screws and the open sea as though glad to get away from an
+uncordial "week-end." This was a British liner that was to cut across
+the equator, to climb over the vast ridge of earth and dip down into the
+Antipodes. We were to leave America far behind. Henceforward, with but
+the single exception of tiny Pago Pago, Samoa, we could not enter an
+American owned port,--and on this route would miss even that one. And
+now that mandates have become the vogue, there is in all that world of
+water hardly an important spot that does not fly the Union Jack. The
+sense of private ownership in all that could be surveyed gave to the
+bearing of the passengers an air of dignity which was not always latent
+in the individual.
+
+Meanwhile the ship pressed steadily on, coldly indifferent, fearless and
+emotionless. We were nearing the equator, and the days in its
+neighborhood steeped us all in drooping feebleness. Climate gets us all,
+ultimately. We forgot one another beneath the heavy weight of
+nothingness which hangs over that equatorial world. Sleep within my
+cabin was impossible, so I had the steward bring me a mattress out on
+deck. At midnight a heavy wind turned the air suddenly so cold that I
+had to secure a blanket. The wind howling round the mast and the
+flapping of the canvas sounded like a tragedy without human agency. The
+night was pitch-black and the blackness was intensified by intermittent
+streaks of lightning. But there was no rain.
+
+It was Tuesday, yet the next day was Thursday. Where Wednesday went I
+have never been able to find out. We had arrived at the point in the
+Pacific where one day swallows up another and leaves none. The European
+world, measuring the earth from its own vantage-point, had allotted no
+day for the mid-Pacific, so that instead of arriving at Suva, Fiji, in
+proper sequence of time, we were both a day late and a day ahead. We had
+cut across the 180th meridian, where time is dovetailed.
+
+That afternoon we sighted land for the first time in seven days. Alofa
+Islands, pale blue, smooth-edged, were a living lie to reality. A
+peculiar feeling came over me in passing without touching terra firma.
+It was like the longing for the sun after days and days of gray, the
+longing for rain in the desert. It was the longing for the return to the
+actualities of life after days on the unvariable sea. And presently I
+was in Fiji, and the _Niagara_ sailed on without me. Once again I
+changed my course to wander among the South Seas and leave Sydney for
+the future.
+
+Yet even on land he who has been brought up on a continent cannot escape
+a feeling of isolation, the consciousness of being completely surrounded
+by water. After you have had the deep beneath you for seven days, and
+again seven days, you begin to feel that even the islands are but
+floating in the same fluid. The fact that you cannot go anywhere without
+riding the waves, and that it takes two whole days by steamer to get
+from Fiji to Samoa, and four from Fiji to New Zealand, and then four
+again between New Zealand and Australia, a water-consciousness takes
+possession of you, and the islands become mere ledges upon which you
+rest occasionally. Something of the joy of being a bird on the wing is
+the experience of the traveler in the Pacific seas.
+
+Imagine, then, my delight and surprise, early one morning on my return
+trip from Samoa to Fiji, to find the _Talune_ sidling up to an unknown
+isle considerably off our course. It was, we were told, the island of
+Niuafoou, and was visited every month or so to deliver and take off the
+mails. It was a chill morning. Everything was blue with morning cold.
+The waves dashed in desperation against the cliffs. Glad was I that we
+were not run ashore, for I have never yet been able to see the virtue in
+ice-cold sea-water. Fancy our consternation when down slid a native,
+head first, from the bluff half a mile away into the water, as we slide
+into a swimming-pool. For a moment he was lost behind the tossing
+crests. Then we saw him coming slowly toward us, resting on a plank and
+paddling with his free hand, seeming like a tremendous water-spider.
+Tied to a stick like to a mast was a tightly wrapped bundle of mail. The
+_Talune_ kept swerving like an impatient horse, waiting for the arrival
+of that amphibian. When he came alongside he dropped the little bundle
+into a bucket let down to him at the end of a rope, and kicked himself
+away. A second man arrived with a packet,--the parcels-post man of
+Niuafoou. A third came merely as an inspector. Meanwhile, on the bluff
+the whole community had gathered for the irregular lunar event.
+
+Or, days later, after my second call at Fiji as the ship pressed
+steadily on toward Auckland, New Zealand, we passed the island of Mbenga
+where dwell the mystic fire-walkers so vividly portrayed by Basil
+Thomson in his "South Sea Yarns." I wished that I had had a "callous" on
+my habits in cleanliness to protect me from the unpleasantnesses of the
+vessel, as have those Fijian fire-walkers on their soles, then I should
+have been happier. Their soles are half an inch thick. I should have
+needed a callous at least two inches thick to endure the _Talune_ more
+than the six days it took us to get from Samoa to Auckland.
+
+Early in the morning of the fourth day of our journey from Suva, Fiji,
+we passed the Great Barrier Island, which stands fifty miles from
+Auckland. We crept down the Hauraki Gulf, passed Little Barrier Island,
+and entered Waitemata Harbor, where we dropped anchor, awaiting the
+doctor's examination. Just from the tropics, I was taken by surprise to
+find the wind biting and chill as we went farther south, and here at the
+gates of Auckland the coat I had unnecessarily carried on my arm for
+months became most welcome. Before I could adjust myself to the new
+landing-place, I had to readjust my mind to another fact which had never
+been any vital part of my psychology,--that henceforth the farther south
+I should go the colder it would feel, and that though it was the sixth
+of November, the longer I remained the warmer it would become. In the
+presence of such phenomena, losing a thirteenth day of one's month while
+crossing the 180th meridian was a commonplace. The habits of a short
+lifetime told me to put on my coat, for winter was coming. But here I
+had come amongst queer New Zealanders who told me to unbutton it, even
+to shed it, for spring, they assured me, was not far behind.
+
+And then for the first time in months I felt the spirit of the
+landlubber work its way into my consciousness again. I had cut a
+diagonal line of 6,000 miles across a mysterious, immeasurable sea, and
+my reason, my heart and my body longed for respite from its benumbing
+influence. I had seen enough to last me a long time. I fairly ached for
+retirement inland, for sight of a cool, still lake, for contact with
+snow-capped mountain peaks. More than all else, I yearned for the cold,
+for the scent of snow, for the snug satisfaction of self-generated
+warmth. My soul and my body seemed seared and scorched by the blazing
+tropical sun under the wide, unsheltered seas. Later, when I should be
+"well" again, I thought, I would risk the climb up over the equator, the
+curve of the world that lies so close to the sun.
+
+And now that I was settled I had time to reflect on all I had seen. I
+had cut a diagonal line through the heart of the Pacific, and had seen
+in succession the various types of native races--the Hawaiians, the
+Fijians, the Samoans--while all about me were the Maories. So I reviewed
+and classified my memories before I started north on another diagonal
+course which led me among the transplanted white peoples of Australia
+and Asia. Yet one question preceded all others: whence came these
+Pacific peoples and when? The answer to that must be given before
+specific descriptions of the South Sea Islanders can be clear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES
+
+
+1
+
+Not even the speed of the fastest steamer afloat can transport the white
+man from his sky-scraper and subway civilization over the hump of the
+earth and down into the South Seas without his undergoing a
+psychological metamorphosis that is enchanting. He cannot take his
+hard-and-fast materialistic illusions along with him. Were he a
+passenger on the magic carpet itself, and both time and space
+eliminated, the instant he found himself among the tawny ones he would
+forget enough of square streets and square buildings, square meals and
+square deals, to become another person. Upon that cool dewdrop of the
+universe, the Pacific, the giant steamer chugs one rhythmically to rest
+and one dreams as only one in a new life can dream, without being
+disturbed by past or future.
+
+One slumbers through this adolescent experience with the smile and the
+conceit of youth. At last one arrives. The enormous ship, upon whose
+deck have shuffled the games of children too busy to play, slips away
+from the pier and is swallowed up in the evening twilight. Left thus
+detached from iron and certainty, one wonders what would happen if there
+never should be iron and certainty again in life. What if that ship
+should never return, nor any other, and the months and years should lose
+track of themselves, and memory become feeble as to facts and fumble
+about in hyperbolic aspirations? What if the actualities that knotted
+and gnarled one's emotions, or flattened them out in precise
+conventions, should cease to affect one's daily doings? What if, for
+you, never again were there to be factories and dimensions of purse, or
+ambitions that ramble about in theories and ethics, but only the need of
+filling one's being with food and converting it into energy for the
+further procuring of food, and the satisfaction of impulses that lead
+only to the further vent of impulse,--and in that way a thousand years
+went by? What would the white man be when the lure of adventure and
+discovery suddenly revealed him to a world phenomenally different from
+the one he left behind in the bourn of his forgotten past?
+
+As I let myself loose from such moorings as still held me in touch with
+my world, the wonder grew by inversion. When the _Niagara_, wingless
+dinosaur of the deep, slid out into the lagoon beyond, I felt overcome
+with a sense of drooping loneliness, like one going off into a trance,
+like one for whom amazement is too intoxicating.
+
+It had not been that way in Hawaii, for there already the grip of the
+girder has made rigid the life of nature and the people. But down
+beneath the line one could still look over the corrugated iron roofs of
+sheds and forget. Everywhere in the Fiji or the Samoan islands something
+of antiquity cools one's senses with unheard questionings. Instantly one
+wants to know how it happens that these people came to be here, what
+accident or lure of paleolithic life led them into this isolation. One
+cannot get away from the feeling--however far inland one may go--that
+the outer casings of this little lump of solid earth beneath us is a
+fluent sea, a sea endless to unaided longing. Homesickness never was
+like that, for ordinary homesickness is too immediate, too personal. But
+this longing for contact which comes over one in the mid-Pacific islands
+is universal; it is a sudden consciousness of eternity, and of the atom.
+One begins to conceive of days and events and conditions as absolutely
+incompatible with former experience. One's mind is set aglow with
+inquiry, and over and over again, as one looks into the face of some
+shy native or some spoiled flapper, one wonders whence and how. And a
+slight fear: what if I, too, were now unable ever to return, should I
+soon revert to these customs, to the feeling of distance between men and
+women, to the nakedness, not so much of body as of mind?
+
+That was what happened to Tahiti, to Maoriland, to Hawaii, to the
+popping peaks of illusive worlds which to ante-medieval isolated Europe
+could not exist because it did not know of them. For thousands of years
+these innumerable islands in the Pacific had been the habitation of
+passionate men, of men who had come out in their vessels from over
+_Kim's_ way with decks that carried a hundred or more persons; persons
+who doubtless also entertained themselves with games because too busy to
+play; persons with hopes and aspirations. A thousand and more years ago
+the present inhabitants of Polynesia may have dreamed of rearing a new
+India, a wider Caucasia, just as the Pilgrims and the persecuted of
+Europe dreamed, or the ambitious Englanders of New Zealand. Welcomed
+here and ejected there, they passed on and on and on, as far as Samoa
+and Tahiti. And slowly the film of forgetfulness fixed their
+experiences. The big ships and the giant canoes rotted in the harbors.
+They had come to stay. The sun was burning their bridges behind them.
+What need for means of going farther? Eden had been found. And the soft,
+sweet flesh of young maidens began, generation after generation, to be
+covered with the tattooings of time, the records of the number of times
+the race had been reborn. So, while the nakedness of youth was being
+clothed, mind after mind stored up unforgettable tales of exploit and of
+passion, till fancy sang with triumph over things transitory, and tawny
+men felt that never would they have to wander more.
+
+Is not this the history of every race on earth? Has not every nation
+gloated over its antiquity and its security? Was not permanence a
+surety, and pride the father of ease? And have not song and story been
+handed down from generation to generation, or, with the more skilled and
+the more proud races, been graved in stone or wax or wood? And have not
+the more mighty and the more venturesome come over the pass, or over the
+crest and invaded and conquered and changed?
+
+So it was when Polynesia awoke to see that which could only be a god,
+because fashioned in the form of its own imaginings, swept by its
+gorgeous sails into view,--the ship of Captain Cook. Thus the racial
+memories that had lain dormant in the Polynesians for centuries were
+revived by Europeans. Narrative renders vividly their surprise and
+wonder, especially on seeing the vessel girt in iron such as had drifted
+in on fragments from the unknown wrecks and had become to these natives
+more precious than gold.
+
+It seems to me that in the hearts and minds of heliolithic man when he
+ventured eastward across the chain of islands which links, or rather
+separates, Polynesia and Melanesia from its home in Asia, he must have
+felt just as Cook and Vancouver and Magellan felt. Bit by bit I picked
+up those outer resemblances which give to men the world over their basic
+brotherliness. They may hate one another justly, but they cannot get
+away from that fraternity. And they generally reveal relationship when
+they least expect it.
+
+Thus, as we kicked our way up the smooth waters of the Rewa River, Fiji,
+in a launch laden with black faces and proud shocks of curly hair, mixed
+with sleek people of slightly lighter-hued India, a suggestion of the
+origin of these people came to me. As these alien Indians, so must have
+come these native negroids. I should have felt successful in my method
+of inquiry, hopeful of feeling my way into a solution of this wondering,
+had not an outrigger canoe dragged itself across our course with a
+dilapidated sail of bark-cloth.
+
+"Where did they learn to sail?" I asked the white skipper.
+
+"They have always known it," he answered. "But you seldom see these
+sails nowadays."
+
+I wanted to take a snap-shot of it, but the lights of evening, as those
+of tradition, were against me, and we were clipping along too rapidly.
+The last example of an art which brought the whole race eastward was
+being carelessly retained.
+
+A few days later I caught another glimpse of a past that was working my
+sun-baked brain too much. We were going up the river in a comfortable
+launch, some missionaries and I, their unknown guest. We were about
+twenty or thirty miles up the Rewa. With us was a young native who spoke
+English rather well. I plied him with questions, but his shyness and
+reticence, so characteristic of isolated human beings, inhibited him. At
+last he spoke, with an eye to my reactions, of the methods of warfare
+along the palisades of the river.
+
+"In my boyhood days," he said, "nobody knew anything of his neighbor.
+People lived just a mile apart, but you white people were not much
+stranger to us than they were to one another. There was constant war. We
+children were afraid to venture very far from our village."
+
+"Has that always been the way?"
+
+"I suppose so, but I don't know," and that was all I could get out of
+him. Yet it has not always been so, for nothing is always so among
+people, and the Melanesian-Fijians in many cases have welcomed and
+received among them Samoans and Tongans, races distinctly different from
+them. There is a definite separation, however, between ourselves and the
+Fijians that is obvious even to the casual tourist, and affords no easy
+solution of the whence and why.
+
+Not so among the Polynesians as in Samoa, where one instantly feels at
+home. That which attracted me to the Fijian was his incompatibility,
+his unconscious aloofness, his detachment.
+
+There is, however, not much greater difference between some of the races
+in the Pacific and the white men than there is between any two of the
+European peoples themselves. There is less difference between an
+Hawaiian and a Maori, though they are separated by nearly four thousand
+miles of unbroken sea, than there is between an Englishman and a
+Frenchman with only a narrow channel between them. In the Pacific, the
+chain of relationship between races from New Zealand to Hawaii is
+somewhat similar to that running north and south in Europe. The
+variation becomes similarly more pronounced in the latitudinal
+direction. In other words, the diversity existing between European and
+Turk is something akin to that between Samoan and Fijian,--from the
+point of view of appearances.
+
+Something of the kinship of peoples scattered over the millions of
+square miles of Pacific seas becomes evident, not so much in their own
+features and customs as in the way in which they lend themselves to
+fusion with the modern incoming nomads of the West. Something of the
+possible migrations said to have taken place in that unromantic age of
+man somewhere back in Pleistocene days may be grasped from the streams
+that now flow in and become part of the life of the South Pacific.
+Scientists detect in the Melanesian-Fijian slight traces of Aryan blood
+without being definite as to how it got there. When I ran into a little
+fruit shop in Suva, just before sailing, to taste for the last time the
+joys of mummy-apple, I glimpsed for a second the how. For the proprietor
+was a stout, gray-haired, dark-complexioned individual from the island
+of St. Helena. In a vivid way he described to me the tomb of Napoleon,
+spicing his account with a few incidents of the emperor's life on the
+island. Should no great flood of Europeans come to dilute the present
+slight infusions, the centuries that lie in waiting will perhaps
+augment this accidental European strain into some romantic story. In a
+thousand years it would not at all be impossible for this story of
+Napoleon to become part of Fijian legend, and for children to refer to
+that unknown god of war as their god and the father of their ideals.
+This genial islander from St. Helena will puzzle anthropologists and
+afford them opportunities for conjecture, fully as much as the evidence
+of Aryan and Iberian races in Asia and the islands east of it does
+to-day.
+
+  [Illustration: DIAMOND HEAD, NEAR HONOLULU
+  Once a volcano, now a fortress]
+
+  [Illustration: THE HULK OF THE GERMAN MAN-OF-WAR, THE _ADLER_
+  Wrecked in the hurricane of 1889 at Samoa]
+
+  [Illustration: AFTER SEVEN DAYS OF SEA--THIS EMERGED]
+
+  [Illustration: HILO, HAWAII
+  An oasis in the desert of the Pacific]
+
+Or the wail of the Indian, into whose shop I strayed to get out of the
+sun, at the downfall of "his" empire, may be the little seed of thought
+out of which the aspirations of a Fiji reborn will spring.
+
+
+2
+
+According to the traditions of almost every race on earth, the place of
+its nativity is the cradle of mankind. Nor does mere accident satisfy.
+In nearly every instance not only is the belief extant among natives
+that their race was born there, but that, be the birthplace island or
+continent, it came into existence by some form of special creation as an
+abiding-place for a chosen people. The Japanese _kami_, Izanagi and
+Izanami, were commissioned by the other gods to "make, consolidate, and
+give birth to the drifting land." "According to the Samoan cosmogony,
+first there was Leai, nothing; thence sprung Nanamu, fragrance; then
+Efuefu, dust; then Iloa, perceivable; then Maua, obtainable; then
+Eleele, earth; then Papatu, high rocks; then Maataanoa, small stones;
+then Maunga, mountains. Then Maunga married Malaeliua, or changeable
+meeting-place, and had a daughter called Fasiefu, piece of dust." The
+more primitive Melanesians, the Fijians, and the Australoids are less
+definite in their conceptions of whence they came, having in many cases
+no traditions or myths to offer.
+
+With all our scientific inquiry, we are to-day still lost in the maze of
+probable origins of various races. The birthplace of man is as much of a
+mystery as it ever was. Ninety years ago, Darwin said of the South
+Pacific: "Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat
+near to that great fact--that mystery of mysteries--the first appearance
+of new beings on this earth." And in 1921 Roy Chapman Andrews set out
+upon a third expedition to Mongolia in search of relics and fossils of
+the oldest man. He writes:
+
+   With the exception of the Java specimen, all fossil human fragments
+   have been discovered in Europe or England. Nevertheless, the
+   leading scientists of the day believe that Asia was the early home
+   of the human race and that whatever light may be thrown upon the
+   origin of man will come from the great central Asian plateau north
+   of the Himalaya Mountains.
+
+Thus his antiquity will doubtless interest man to his dying day. Slogans
+epitomizing the spirit of races fan the flames of human conflict.
+Conflict wears down the differences between them, or shatters them and
+scatters them to the whirling winds. Doubtless the records which seem to
+us so lucid and so permanent will vanish from the earth in the next
+half-million years, and our descendants will mumble in terms of vague
+tradition expressions of their beginning. Or perhaps their linguistics
+will make ours vulgar and primitive by comparison. Possibly, if our
+progress and development are not impeded, the hundreds of tongues now
+spoken on this globe will seem childishly incomplete, and in their stead
+will be one extremely simple but flexible language spoken in every islet
+in the seas.
+
+What our present world will seem to the man of the future, the world of
+the Pacific, wreathed in races of every hue--Asia, Australasia, the
+Americas--seems to us now. In the wide spaces of the Pacific we have
+several thousands of islands, anchored at various distances from one
+another in about seventy million square miles of sea. Grouped with a
+healthy regard for the freedom of individual needs there are enough
+separate races, speaking separate languages and abiding by separate
+customs, to make the many-colored map of Europe seem one primary hue by
+comparison. Yet all the romance which brightens the pages of European
+history and its intake of Asiatic culture is ordinary beside the
+mysterious silence that steeps the origin and age of the cultures of the
+Pacific. There, beneath the heavy curtain of unknown antiquity, dwell
+innumerable people who, if they are not the Adams and Eves of creation,
+have wandered very little from the birthplace of the human race. It
+seems as though the overflow of living creatures from the heart of Asia
+had found an underground channel back into the Garden of Eden, like some
+streamlet lost in the sands of the seashore, but worming its way into
+the very depths below. Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, are the names
+by which we know them. The drawer of water, as he lets his bucket down
+to the farthest reaches of the wells of antiquity, finds in his vessel
+evidence of kinship with races now covering the whole of Europe. Romance
+has it that the Amerindians are descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel
+and Mormon missionaries are carrying that charm among the Polynesians.
+They are very successful in New Zealand among the Maories. Like a great
+current of warm water in the sea, the Polynesian races have run from
+Hawaii to Samoa, the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Maoriland. How they got
+there is still part of conjecture.
+
+To most of us, the South Seas mean simply cannibals and naked girls.
+Dark skins and giant bodies are synonymous with Polynesians. The
+grouping of these peoples into Poly-Mela-Micronesian has some scientific
+meaning which, if not esoteric and awe-inspiring, slips by our
+consciousness as altogether too highbrow to deserve consideration. Or we
+are satisfied with pictures such as Melville and O'Brien have given us,
+pictures that as long as the world is young will thrill us as do those
+of Kinglake and Marco Polo. But, those of us who have gone beyond our
+boyhood rhymes of "Wild man from Borneo just come to town" and have been
+White Shadows ourselves, are keenly interested in the whence and the why
+of these people. Can it be that Darwin was right? Have we approached the
+spot whereon man made his first appearance on the earth? Or are others
+right whose soundings divulge a hidden course that gives these people a
+birthplace ten thousand miles away, in central Asia? Is it that all the
+people of the world were first made men on land that is now beneath the
+waters of the Pacific,--men who, because of geological changes, fell
+back across Asia, leaving scattered remnants in the numerous island
+peaks now standing alone in that sun-baked world? "There is ground for
+the belief," says Griffith Taylor,[1] "that the Pacific Ocean was
+smaller in the Pleistocene period, being reduced by a belt of land
+varying in width from 100 to 700 miles." Or are the further calculations
+more accurate,--that there have been constant migrations of people from
+Asia?
+
+  [1] Griffith Taylor: _Geographical Review_, January, 1912, p. 61.
+
+Slowly scientists are groping their way through legend. No one who has
+been among the South Sea people, and those of the western Pacific
+islands, can help being impressed with certain remarkable likenesses
+between them and European people. Present-day anthropologists are at
+variance with the old evolutionary school which believed in "a general,
+uniform evolution of culture in which all parts of mankind
+participated." "At present," according to Franz Boas, "at least among
+certain groups of investigators in England and also in Germany,
+ethnological research is based on the concept of migration and
+dissemination rather than upon that of evolution." In connection with
+Polynesia and the Pacific peoples, it seems to be fairly well known that
+they drifted from island to island in giant canoes. They had no sails
+nor compass, but, guided by stars and directed by the will of the winds,
+they roved the high seas and landed wherever the shores were hospitable.
+During ages when Europe dreaded the sea and hugged the land, when the
+European universe consisted of a flat table-like earth and a dome-like
+heaven of stars,--even before the vikings ventured on their wild
+marauding excursions, the Polynesians made of the length and breadth of
+the Pacific a highway for their canoes. "Somewhat before this (450
+A. D.) one bold Polynesian had reached polar ice in his huge war
+canoe."[1] Our Amerindians dared the swiftest rapids in their frail bark
+canoes; but what was that compared with the courage and love of freedom
+which sent this lone Polynesian out upon the endless waters of the
+Pacific? Some day a poet will give him his deserving place among the
+great heroes.
+
+  [1] Griffith Taylor: _Geographical Review_, January, 1912, p. 61.
+
+Dr. Macmillan Brown tells us that the Easter Islands were once the
+center of a great Pacific empire. Here men came from far and wide to pay
+tribute to one ruling monarch. He builded himself a Venice amid the
+coral reefs, with canals walled in by thirty feet of stone. Fear of the
+control over the winds which this monarch was said to possess, and
+superstitious dread of his ire brought the vassal islanders to him with
+their choicest possessions, though he had no military means of
+compelling respect. This monarch, like the Pharaohs who built the
+pyramids, must have had thousands of laborers to have been able to cut,
+shape, and build the giant platforms of stone or the great canals which
+are referred to as the Venice of the Pacific. It must have taken no
+little engineering skill so to adjust them to one another as to require
+no mortar to keep them together. In the Caroline Islands, now under
+Japanese mandate, there still stand remains of stone buildings of a
+forgotten day's requirements.
+
+These relics of unknown days make it reasonably certain that after
+having been "shot" out from the mainland, the early people of the
+Pacific reached all the way across to the island of Savaii, in the
+Samoan group, and later as far as Tahiti. Why they did not go on to the
+Americas is hard to say. Perhaps the virginity of the islands and the
+congenial climate offered these artless savages all they desired. Beyond
+were cold and drudgery. Here, though labor and war were not wanting,
+still there was balmy weather. Probably they were the tail-end of the
+great migration of the Wurm ice age. More venturesome than most, and
+having arrived at lands roomy enough for their small numbers, they must
+have called themselves blessed in that much good luck and decided to
+take no further chances with the generosity of the gods.
+
+   Linguistic and ethnological data link the Polynesians with the
+   Koreans, Japanese, Formosans, Indonesians, and Javanese. Legends
+   and genealogies show that about the dawn of our era the early
+   Polynesians were among the Malay Islands. By 450 A. D. they had
+   reached Samoa and by 850 A. D., Tahiti.... In 1175 A. D. the
+   primitive Maoriori were driven out of New Zealand to the Chatham
+   Isles. No doubt New Zealand was first reached several hundred years
+   before this. Tahiti seems to have been a center of dispersal, as
+   Percy Smith has pointed out in his interesting book "Hawaiki." We
+   must, however, remember that Melanesians preceded the Polynesians
+   to many of these islands at a much earlier date.[1]
+
+     [1] Griffith Taylor: _Geographical Review,_ January, 1921.
+
+However, mutation is the law of life. Even these small groups split into
+smaller factions. Some went south to the islands of the Antipodes and
+called themselves Maories; others went north of the equator and called
+themselves Hawaiians. The physical distribution of all the races in the
+Pacific, rooting, as we have seen, in Asia, represents a virile plant
+the stem of which runs eastward and is known as Micronesia and
+Melanesia, with the flowers, in all their diversified loveliness,
+Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, the Marquesas, and Maoriland.
+
+What made them what they are? How is it that being, as it seems, people
+of extraction similar to that of Europeans, they have remained in such a
+state of arrested development? How is it that they became cannibals,
+eaters of men's flesh? Again the answer is not far to seek. Just like
+the Europeans, they followed the line of least resistance, having as yet
+developed no artificial or brain-designed weapons against the stress of
+nature. Europeans, in time of great famine, have not themselves been
+above cannibalism. In our Southern States we have isolated mountaineers
+to show us what men can revert to. And in northern China to-day,
+essentially Buddhist and non-flesh-eating, cannibalism was reported
+during the famine last year.
+
+But Europe had what Polynesia did not have. Driven by the force of
+necessity out of continental Asia, Polynesia hid itself away in the
+cracks and crannies of the Pacific; Europeans spread over a small
+continent and broke up into innumerable warring and learning tribes.
+Backward and forward along peninsular Europe, men communicated to one
+another their emotional and objective experiences. The result has been a
+culture amazing only in its diversity,--amazing because, with contact
+and interchange of racial experiences, the coursing and recoursing of
+the same blood, stirred and dissolved, it is amazing that such diversity
+should persist.
+
+But in Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia,--in all the distant land-specks
+of the Pacific,--contact was impossible in the larger sense. Though
+canoes did slide into strange harbors or drift or row in and about the
+atolls, they afforded at most romantic stimuli to these isolated groups.
+Infusion of culture was very difficult. At most, these causal meetings
+added to or confused the stories of their origin. And in a little time
+the different island groups forgot their beginnings.
+
+Presently, the pressure upon their small areas with the limited food
+supply began to make itself felt. Some method had to be devised for the
+limitation of population and to keep in food what few numbers there
+were. There seem to have been no indigenous animals anywhere in the
+islands. Darwin found only a mouse, and of this he was uncertain as to
+whether it really was indigenous. Except for a few birds, and the giant
+Moa which roamed the islands of New Zealand, animal life was everywhere
+insufficient to the needs of so vital a people as were these. But much
+less is heard to-day of the cannibalism said to have run rampant among
+them. It is even disputed. The fruits of the tropics, doubtless rich in
+vitamines, are peculiarly suited to the sustenance of so spirited a
+race.
+
+
+3
+
+The Polynesians found in the various islands they approached, during
+that slow, age-long migration eastward, tribes and islanders inferior to
+themselves. So did the Europeans in their movement westward. The
+primitive Caucasians remained and mixed slightly along the way, leaving
+here and there traces of their contact. And their ancestors in Asia
+forgot their exiled offspring.
+
+With the landing of Cook at Tahiti, at Poverty Bay, at Hawaii, the
+counter invasion of the Pacific began. For over a hundred years now the
+European has been injecting his culture, his vices, his iron exactitude
+into the so-called primitive races. These hundred years make the second
+phase of civilization in the Pacific. It might have been the last. It
+might have meant the reunion of Caucasic peoples, their blending and
+their amalgamation, and the world would have lived happily ever after.
+But the eternal triangle plays its part in politics no less than in
+love, and the third period, the period of rivalry and jealousy, of
+suspicion and scandal, of still-born accomplishment in many fields has
+set in. And tragedy, which men love because it is closest to truth, is
+on the stage.
+
+  [Illustration: EVEN FIJIANS ARE LOATH TO FORGET THE ARTS OF THEIR
+  FOREFATHERS
+                                                   F. W. Caine, Photo]
+
+  [Illustration: IN GIANT CANOES HELIOLITHIC IMMIGRANTS ROAMED THE
+  SOUTH SEAS
+                                                 Photo, H. Winkelmann]
+
+The third period dates largely from the discovery and the awakening
+of Japan. It is the blocking of the European invasion of the Pacific,
+and the institution of a counter move,--that of the expansion of Asia
+into the Pacific,--which will be treated in the last section of this
+book.
+
+To-day, Polynesia is barely holding its own. Its sons have studied
+"abroad," they have been in our schools and universities, they have
+fought in "our" war. Rapidly they are putting aside the uncultured
+simplicity of adolescence. For long they treasured drifts of iron-girded
+flotsam which the waves in their impartiality cast upon their shores;
+to-day iron is supplanting thatch, and a belated iron age is reviving
+their imaginations, just as iron guns and leaden bullets shattered them
+a century ago. In the light of their astonishment, _Rip Van Winkle_ is a
+crude conception; Wells has had to revise and enlarge "When the Sleeper
+Wakes" into "The Outline of History." No man knows what is pregnant in
+the Pacific; nor will the next nine eons reveal the possibilities.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter III
+
+OUR FRONTIER IN THE PACIFIC
+
+
+1
+
+Honolulu marks our frontier in the Pacific. Honolulu has been conquered.
+If the conquest is that of love, then the offspring will be lovely; if
+of mere force, or intrigue, then Heaven help Honolulu! As far as outward
+signs go, we are in a city American in most details. The numerous
+trolleys, the modern buildings, the motor-cars, the undaunted Western
+efficiency which no people is able to withstand has gripped Hawaii in an
+iron grip. True that the foreign (that is, Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese,
+Portuguese) districts are steeped in squalor, but this is old Honolulu.
+The new is a little Los Angeles with all its soullessness, and it has
+taken all the illusions of modern civilization to accomplish it. The
+first illusion was that the natives would be better off as Americans
+than as Hawaiians; the second, that Hawaiians were lazy and Japanese and
+Chinese were necessary; the third, that cleanliness is next to
+godliness. How have these things worked out? The Hawaiians are in the
+ever-receding minority, the Japanese in the unhappy majority, and
+enjoyment of cleanliness has made most men forget that it is only _next_
+to something else. If the invited are coming to Honolulu expecting
+money-grabbers to turn to poetry and petty politicians to philosophy,
+they had better save their fares. If readers of magazines expect to find
+a melting-pot in which all the ingredients are dancing about with their
+arms round one another's neck, they had better remain at home.
+
+For the first and foremost effect of the tropics is to individualize
+things. In colder climes people huddle together to conserve warmth; here
+they give one another plenty of space. Virtually one of the first things
+the new-comer does is to name and separate things from the mass. Every
+little thing has its personality. Plants grow in profusion, but each
+opens out to its utmost. One is much more inclined to ask what this
+flower is called in Honolulu than in America, for each stands out, and
+one stands out to each. Honolulu exudes moisture and fragrance, stirring
+the passions as does the scent of a clean woman. It limbers up one's
+reasoning faculties and arouses one's curiosity.
+
+On the street every Chinese and every Japanese comes in for his share of
+attention. One begins to single out types as it has never occurred to
+one to do in New York. In Honolulu all intermingle, flower in a sort of
+unity, but in the very mass they retain their natural variations. The
+white people are ordinarily good, they have mastered the technique of
+life sufficiently and play tolerably well to an uncritical audience.
+While the Hawaiian policeman in charge of the traffic stands out in bold
+relief because the dignity and importance of his position have stiffened
+the easy tendencies of his race,--he is self-conscious. Monarch of
+Confusion, arrayed in uniform, tall and with the manner of one always
+looking from beneath heavy eyebrows, it is said that he causes as much
+trouble as he allays. But that is mere prejudice. Who would dare ignore
+his arm and hand as he directs the passing vehicle? He fascinates. He
+commands. His austere silence is awe-inspiring. When he permits a driver
+to pass, there is a touch of the contemptuous in that relinquishment.
+Nor dare the driver turn the corner till, in like manner, this human
+indicator points the direction for him. The finger follows now almost
+mockingly, until another car demands its attention, and it becomes
+threatening again.
+
+One hears of the all-inclusive South Seas as though it were something
+totally without variation. The average tourist and scribe soon acquires
+the South-Sea style. But the more discriminating know full well that the
+expressions which describe one of the South Sea islands fall flat when
+applied to another. "Liquid sunshine" is a term peculiarly Hawaiian. It
+would never apply to Fiji, for instance, for there the words
+"atmospheric secretion" are more accurate. Hence, it is more than mere
+political chance that has made Hawaii so utterly different from the
+Philippines and the litter of South Seas.
+
+Honolulu is essentially an American city. The hundreds of motor-cars
+that dash in and about the streets do so just as they would in "sunny
+California." The shops that attract the Americans are just like any in
+America,--clean, attractive, with their best foot forward. So
+meticulous, so spotless, so untouchable are they that the soul of the
+seeker nearly sickens for want of spice and flavor. To have to live on
+Honolulu's Main Street would be like drinking boiled water. One imagines
+that when the white men came thither, finding disease and uncleanliness
+rampant, they determined that if they were to have nothing else they
+would have things clean. All newcomers to Oriental and primitive
+countries cling to that phase of civilization with something akin to
+terror. Generally they get used to the dirt. They have not done so in
+Honolulu. It may be that mere distance has something to do with the
+different results, but certain it is that Manila, under American control
+just as is Honolulu, has none of these prim, not primitive, drawbacks.
+Twenty years of American rule have done little really to Americanize
+Manila, while they have utterly metamorphosed Honolulu.
+
+The man-made machine has now outlived the vituperation of idealists. The
+man-made machine is running, and even the most romantic enjoys life the
+better for it. Clean hotels, swimming-pools within-doors, motor-cars
+that bring nature to man with the least loss of time and cost of
+fatigue,--these are things which only a fool would despise. But one
+longs for some show of the human touch, none the less, and cities that
+are built by machine processes are, despite all their virtues, not
+attractive. At least, they are not different enough from any other city
+in the modern world to justify a week's journey for the seeing. One
+hears that steamers and trains and airplanes are killing romance. That
+is so, but not because they in themselves conduce to satiety, but
+because they destroy indigenous creations and substitute importations
+and iron exactitude. Within the next few generations there will, indeed,
+be a South Seas, indistinguishable and without variety. Honolulu is an
+example. But Honolulu is not Hawaii! It is only a bit of decoration. So
+we shall leave this phase of Hawaii for consideration at a time when,
+having seen the things native to the Pacific, we reflect upon the
+meaning and purport of things alien.
+
+In Hawaii, we are told,--and without exaggeration,--one can stand in the
+full sunshine and watch the rain across the street. So, too, can one
+enjoy some of the material blessings of modern life, yet be within touch
+of nature incomparably exquisite.
+
+
+2
+
+He was only a street-car conductor. Every day he journeyed from the
+heart of Honolulu, like a little blood corpuscle, through arteries of
+trade hardened by over-feeding, in a jerking, rocking old trolley car,
+to the very edge of Manoa Valley. His way lay along the fan-shaped plane
+behind the sea, and was lined with semi-palatial residences and Oahu
+College. Palms swayed in the breeze, and the night-blooming cereus slept
+in the glittering sunlight upon the stone walls. He was only a
+street-car conductor, furnished with his three spare meals a day and his
+bed, but he fed along the way on sweets that no street-car conductor in
+any other place in the world has by way of compensation. He was carved
+with wrinkles and his frail frame bent slightly forward, but his heart
+was young within him, and he acted like a plutocrat whose hobby was
+gardening and whose gardens were rich with the finest flowers on earth.
+The delight he took in the open country, barely the edge of which he
+reached so many times a day, was pathetic. When I asked him to let me
+off where I could wander on the open road, he beamed with pleasure and
+delight, and told me where I should have to go really to reach the wild.
+There may be other places in the world as beautiful and even more so,
+but no place ever had such a street-car conductor to recommend it. And
+no recommendation was ever more poetic and inspiring than this,--not
+even that of the Promotion Committee of Honolulu.
+
+And, strange to say, I have never been guided more honestly and more
+truthfully than when that street-car conductor advised me to go to Manoa
+Valley. I lived an eternity of joy in the few hours I spent there. I
+knew that not many miles beyond I should again be blocked by the sea. I
+could not see it because of the hills which spend three hundred and
+sixty-five days of every year dressing themselves in their very best and
+posing before the mirror of the sky. Not more than one or two natives
+passed me, nor did any other living creature appear. I could only
+romance with myself, refusing to be fooled by the talk about fair
+maidens with leis round their necks. I was certain that back home there
+were maidens whose beauty could not be equaled here; whose soft, white
+skins and shapely forms were never excelled by tropical loveliness. But
+I was just as certain that there was nothing at home that compared to
+nature as it is lavished upon man here in Hawaii, and especially in
+Manoa Valley.
+
+We all have our compensations, and I have even shown preference for a
+return to the joys of genuine human beauty which the maker of worlds
+gave to America, and to leave to the mid-Pacific verdure and altitudes
+whose combination stirs my mind with passionate adoration to this very
+day. Still, I shall ever be grateful to that wizened street-car
+conductor for having suggested that I visit his little valley, which he
+himself can enter only after paying a penalty of sixteen journeys
+between Heaven and Honolulu every day, carrying the money-makers
+backward and forward. Perhaps he does not regard it as a penalty.
+Perhaps he feels himself fully compensated if one or two of his human
+parcels asks him where may be found the Open Road.
+
+
+3
+
+Sullen and less concerned with emotional or spiritual values was the
+driver of the motor-bus whom we exhumed one day from the heart of
+Honolulu's "foreign" section. He evidently regarded nature on his route
+as too great a strain on his brakes, though he, too, must have felt that
+compensation was meted out to him manifold. For few people come to
+Hawaii and leave without contributing some small share to his support,
+as he is the shuttle between Honolulu and Kaneohe, and carries the
+thread of sheer joy through the eye of that wondrous needle, the Pali.
+
+At the Pali one senses the youth and vigor of our earth. Its peak,
+piercing the sky, seems on the point of emerging from the sea. It has
+raised its head above the waters and stands with an air of contempt for
+loneliness, wrapped in mist, defying the winds. The world seems to fall
+away from it. It has triumphed. There is none of that withdrawing
+dignity of Fujiyama, the great man who looks on. The Pali imposes itself
+upon your consciousness with spectacular gusto, like the villain
+stamping his way into the very center of the stage and gazing roundabout
+over a protruding chin.
+
+The palm-trees bow solemnly before changeless winds, in the direction of
+Honolulu, which lies like an open fan at the foot of the valley near the
+sea. Color is in action everywhere,--spots of metallic green, of
+volcanic red, filtered through a screen of marine gray. Honolulu lies
+below to the rear; Kaneohe, beyond vast fields of pineapple, before us;
+the sea, wide, open, limitless except for the reaches of the heavens,
+binding all. And then there is an upward, circular motion,--that of the
+rising mists drawn by the burning rays of the sun pressing landward and
+dashing themselves into the valley and falling in sheets of rain upon
+the earth. Wedged into a gully, as though caught and unable to break
+away, was a heavy cloud,--but it was being drained of every drop of
+moisture as a traveler held up by a gang of highway-men.
+
+This circular motion is found not only in inanimate nature. Once, at
+least, it has whirled the Hawaiians into tragedy. Here, history tells
+us, Kamehameha I (the fifth from the last of Hawaii's kings) hurled an
+army of native Oahu islanders over this bluff, back into the source of
+their being. Without quarter he pressed them on, over this pass; while
+they, unwilling to yield to capture, chose gladly to dash themselves
+into the valley below. One is impressed by the striking interplay of
+emotion with sheer nature. The controlling element which directs both
+man and mountain seems the same. States and stars alike emerge, crash,
+and crumble.
+
+We rolled rapidly down into the valley past miles and miles of pineapple
+fields. Then we came, as it were, to the land's end. Nothing sheer now
+before us, nothing precipitate. A bit of freshness, of coolness, and an
+imperceptible tapering off. The sea.
+
+  [Illustration: A SAGE IN A CHINA SHOP AT HONOLULU]
+
+  [Illustration: THERE ARE ONLY A FEW CHINESE WOMEN IN HAWAII]
+
+  [Illustration: WHOA! LET'S HAVE OUR PICTURE TAKEN
+  We don't know whether we're Hawaiian, Chinese or American, but who
+  cares. Giddap!]
+
+  [Illustration: FEMININE PROPRIETY
+  Oriental and Occidental versions]
+
+Here at Kaneohe dwelt Arthur Mackaye, brother of the poet, whose name
+was vaguely known to me. He was slender, bearded, loosely clad, with
+open collar but not without consciousness and conventionality,--a
+conventionality in accordance with prescribed notions of freedom.
+Refreshing, cool as the atmosphere roundabout, distinct from the
+tropical lusciousness which is the general state of both men and nature
+in and about Honolulu, the personality of this lone man--this man who
+had flung everything aside--was a fit complement to the experience of
+Manoa Valley and the Pali.
+
+He conducted a small sight-seeing expedition on his own. The proprietor
+of a number of glass-bottomed launches, he took me over the quiet waters
+of the reefs. Throwing a black cloth over my head to shield me from the
+brilliant sky, I gazed down into the still world within the coral reefs.
+There lay unimaginable peace. What the Pali affords in panorama, the bay
+at Kaneohe offers in concentrated form. Pink-and-white forests twenty to
+forty feet deep, with immense cavities and ledges of delicate coral,
+fringe the shore. Fish of exquisite color move in and out of these giant
+chambers, as much at home in one as in another. Droll, sleepy sponges,
+like lumps of porous mud, lie flat against the reefs, waiting for
+something edible to come their way. Long green sea-worms extend and
+contract like the tentacles of an octopus in an insatiable search for
+food.
+
+An unusual silence hangs over the memory of that trip. I cannot recall
+that the unexpected companion I picked up in Honolulu said anything; the
+lonely one who furnished the glass-bottomed boat certainly said nothing;
+the fish and sponges emphasized the tone of silence associated with the
+experience. But the Pali shrieked; it was the one imposing element that
+defied stillness. And below it is Honolulu, where silence is not to be
+found.
+
+
+4
+
+For the Honolulu spirit is averse to silence. Honolulu is the most
+talkative city in the world. The people seem to talk with their eyes,
+with their gait, with their postures. Night and day there stirs the
+confusion of people attending to one another's wants. One is in a
+ceaseless whirl of extraverted emotions. One cannot get away from it.
+The man who could be lonely in Honolulu would have to have his ears
+closed with cement. If New York were as talkative as Honolulu, not all
+of America's Main Streets together would drown it out.
+
+For Honolulu teems with good-fellowship. It is the religion of Honolulu
+to have a good time, and every one feels impelled before God and Patria
+to live up to its precepts. Everybody not only has a good time but talks
+having a good time. Not that there are no undercurrents of jealousy and
+gossip. By no means. The stranger is let into these with the same gusto
+that swirls him into pleasurable activities. It is a busy, whirligig
+world. Even the Y.M.C.A. spirit prevails without restraint. I had found
+the building of the association very convenient, and stopped there. That
+put the stamp of goodness on me, but it did not exclude me from being
+drawn into a roisterous crowd that danced and drank and dissipated
+dollars, and heaved a sigh of relief that I did not preach to it. Its
+members were glad that I was just "stopping" at the Y. They didn't see
+how I could do it, but that was my affair. If I still managed to be a
+good fellow,--well, I belonged to Honolulu.
+
+Charmian London had given me a note of introduction to a friend, Wright,
+of the "Bulletin." Wright was a bachelor and had a little bungalow
+across from the Waikiki Hotel on the beach. There we met one evening. It
+had every indication of the touch of a woman's hand. It was neatly
+furnished, cozy, restful. Two nonchalant young men came in, but after a
+delightful meal hurried away to some party. Wright and I were left. What
+should we do? Something must be done.
+
+He ordered a touring-car. We whirled along under the open sky with a
+most disporting moon, and it seemed a pity we had none with us over whom
+to romanticize. Quietly, as though we were on a moving stage, the world
+slipped by,--palms, rice-fields ashimmer with silver light. Through
+luxuriant avenues, we passed up the road toward the Pali. Somewhere
+half-way we stopped. The Country Club. A few introductions, a moment's
+stay, and off we went again, this time to avoid the dance that was to
+take place there. Slipping along under the moonlight, we made our way
+back to Waikiki beach, dismissed the car, and took a table at Heinie's
+which is now, I understand, no more.
+
+But we had only jumped from the frying-pan into the fire. Others, bored
+with the club dance, had come to Heinie's for more fling than dancing
+afforded. The hall was not crowded, so we were soon noticed. Mr. Wright
+was known.
+
+"They want us to come over," he said. "Just excuse me a moment."
+
+Presently he returned. I had been specifically invited over with him. I
+accepted the invitation. Then, till there were no more minutes left of
+that day, we indulged in one continuous passing of wits and wets. Before
+half the evening was over, I was one of the crowd in genuine Honolulu
+fashion, and nothing was too personal for expression.
+
+But one there was in the group to whom all her indulgences were
+obviously strange, though she seemed well practised. She was a romantic
+soul, and sought to counteract the teasing of the others. Her
+deprecation of whisky and soda was almost like poor Satan's hatred of
+hell. She vibrated to romantic memories like a cello G string. When she
+learned that I was westward bound, she fairly moaned with regret.
+
+"China!--oh, dear, beloved China! I would give anything in the world to
+get back there!" she exclaimed, and whatever notions I had of the Orient
+became exalted a thousandfold. But my own conviction is that she missed
+the cheap servants which Honolulu lacks. In other words, there were
+still not enough leisure and Bubbling Well Roads in Honolulu, nor the
+international atmosphere that is Shanghai's. But that is mere
+conjecture, and she was a romantic soul, and good to look at.
+
+But there were two others in the crowd who did not, in their hilarious
+spirits, whirl into my ken until some time afterward. Their speed was
+that of the comet's, and what was a plodding little planet like myself
+to do trying to move into their orbit? They were not native daughters of
+Honolulu; most of their lives they had spent in California, which in the
+light of Hawaii is a raw, chill land. There they carried on the drab
+existence of trying to earn a living,--just work and no play. But
+evidently they had never given up hope. They were tall, thin, fair, and
+jolly. They invested. They won. It was only two thousand dollars. They
+earned as much every year, no doubt, but it came to them in instalments.
+Now they had a real roll. _Bang_ went the job! American industry, all
+that depended on their being stable, honest producers, the smoothness of
+organization, was banished from their minds. Let the country go to the
+dogs; they were heading for Honolulu for a good time. And when they got
+there they did not find the cupboard bare, nor excommunication for being
+jobless.
+
+For as long as two thousand dollars will last where money flows freely
+(and there are plenty of men ready to help stretch it with generous
+entertainment) these two escaped toilers from the American deep ran the
+gamut of Honolulu's conviviality. Night after night they whispered
+amorous compliments in the ears of the favorite dancers; day after day
+they flitted from party to party. I had met them just as their two
+thousand dollars were drawing to a close, but the only thing one could
+hear was regret that they could not possibly be extended. Honolulu was
+richer by two thousand; they were poorer to the extent of perpetual
+restlessness and rebellion against the necessity of holding down a job.
+Yet the "Primer" published by the Promotion Committee tells us that
+Hawaii is "not a paradise for the jobless." These folk had no jobs, yet
+they certainly felt and acted and spoke as though they were in Paradise.
+
+Witness the arrivals and departures of steamers. The crowds gather as
+for a fête or a carnival. Bands play, serpentines stream over the ship's
+side, and turn its dull color into a careless rainbow. Hawaiian women
+sell leis, necklaces of the most luscious flowers whose scent is enough
+to empassion the most passionless. But as to jobs,--why, even the
+longshoremen seem to be celebrating and the steamer moves as by
+spirit-power.
+
+Visit Waikiki beach, and every day it is littered with people who enjoy
+the afternoon hours on the tireless breakers. Go to the hotels, and
+hardly an hour finds them deserted. The motor-cars are constantly
+carrying men and women about as though there was nothing in the wide
+world to do. Even those who are unlucky enough to have jobs attend to
+them in a leisurely sort of way. Yet these jobless people hold up their
+hands in warning to possible immigrants that there is no room for them,
+that "Hawaii is not a paradise for the jobless."
+
+
+5
+
+Who, then, does the work of the island? It is obvious that it is being
+done. There isn't another island in the whole Pacific so modernized, so
+thoroughly equipped, so American in every detail, so progressive and
+well-to-do. It is the most sublimated of the sublime South Seas. One
+wonders how white men could have remained so energetic in the tropics,
+but one is not long left uninformed. Honolulu is an example of a most
+ideal combination of peoples, the inventive, progressive, constructive
+white man with the energetic, persistent, plodding Oriental. Without the
+one or the other, Honolulu would not be what it is; both have
+contributed to the welfare of the islands in ways immeasurable.
+
+It is not surprising, therefore, to find the Oriental elements as much
+in evidence as the Occidental. One hardly knows where one begins and the
+other ends. As spacious and individualized as are the European sections,
+so the Asiatic are a perfect jumble of details. The buildings are drab,
+the streets are littered, the smells are insinuating, the sounds
+excruciating.
+
+A most painful noise upon an upper balcony of an overhanging Chinese
+building made me come to with a sudden clapping of my hands against my
+ears. As noise goes, it was perfect,--without theme or harmony. It could
+not have been more uncontrolled. What consolation was it that in China
+there was more of it! Gratitude awakened in me for the limitations a
+wise joss had placed upon the capacities of the individual. Yet men are
+never satisfied. These Chinese weren't, and combined their energies.
+What one man couldn't accomplish, several could at least approach. So we
+had a band. I should certainly never have thought it possible, myself.
+
+However, they were trying to achieve something. It was neither gay nor
+mournful; nor was it sentimental. What purpose could it possibly have
+served? Surely they had no racial regrets or aspirations, they who
+played it! The bird sings to his mate, but what mate would listen to
+such tin-canning and howling, and not die?
+
+To me there was something charming in this shamelessness of the Chinese,
+something childlike and naïve. I had never realized the meaning of that
+little rhyme,
+
+  I would not give the weakest of my song
+  For all the boasted strength of all the strong
+  If but the million weak ones of the world
+  Would realize their number and their wrong.
+
+The thought is almost terrifying when applied to the teeming hordes of
+the world, whether of Asia, Europe, or the South Seas. If sheer numbers
+are any justification of supremacy, God had better take His old world
+back and reshape it nearer something rational. One becomes conscious of
+this welling up of the world in Hawaii. Not that the Chinese and the
+Japanese haven't the same right to life and to its fulfilment in
+accordance with latent instinct and ability, with all its special racial
+traits and customs, but one doesn't just exactly see how numbers have
+anything to do with it. Yet here are the Chinese and Japanese slowly,
+quietly, persistently out-distancing the white by a process of doubling
+in numbers, where mentality and ingenuity would doubtless fail.
+
+One hears much about the progress of the Orient. That is, white folk
+talk much about the way in which the East is taking to Western ways, and
+call that progress. One would not expect that sort of progress to
+proceed with any great velocity in the East itself, but it is only
+necessary to observe the ingrowing tendencies of life in Hawaii, however
+superficially, to see how foolishly optimistic is the expectation of
+such progress. For even in Hawaii, where everything has had to be built
+afresh, where everybody is an alien--with very few exceptions--and where
+the dominant element is European, the East is still the East, and the
+West the West. There is a slight overlapping, but not enough to make one
+lose one's way,--to make a white man walk into a Chinese restaurant and
+not know it. The fastidious white man whose curiosity gets the better of
+him, moves about the Chinese and Japanese districts fully conscious of
+his own shortcomings. He is less able to feel at home there than the
+Oriental on the main street; but why doesn't the Oriental build for
+himself a main street?
+
+I was abroad early one Sunday morning, headed for the Chinese section.
+Lost in thought, I went along, gazing on the ground. Had Charlie
+Chaplin's feet suddenly come into my range of vision I should not have
+been more surprised than I was when two tiny shoes, hardly bigger than
+those of a large-sized doll, and with some of that stiff, automatic
+movement of the _species mechanicus_, dissipated my reflections. I
+raised my eyes slowly, as when waking, up, up, up,--hem of skirt,
+knees, waist-line, flat bosom, narrow shoulders, sallow face, and slit
+eyes! A Chinese woman! She was as big as a fourteen-year-old girl, but
+her feet were a third of their due proportion. How many thousands of
+years of natural selection went into the making of those little feet?
+Yet she was a rare enough exception to astound my abstracted mind. About
+her strolled hundreds of others of her race, who would have given much
+of life to possess those two little feet.
+
+Differences abound in Hawaii. The Chinese is no twin brother of the
+Japanese. In fact, there is probably as much relationship between the
+Hawaiian and the Japanese as there is between these two "Oriental"
+races. The major part of the Japanese being Malay and the Polynesian
+Hawaiians having at least lived with the Malays some hundreds of years
+ago and infused some of their Caucasic ingredients into them, there is
+more of "home-coming" when "Jap" meets "Poly," than when he meets
+"Chink." But notwithstanding proximity and propinquity, over which
+diplomatic letter-writers labor hard, when the Chinese and the Japanese
+and the Hawaiian come together, the Hawaiian "vanishes like dewdrops by
+the roadside," the Chinese jogs along, and the Japanese runs motor-cars
+and raises children. The Japanese obtrudes himself much more upon the
+life of the community than the other two races, but with no more
+relinquishment of his own ways. He drives the cars and he drives white
+men to more activity than they really enjoy. And the Hawaiian sells
+necklaces of luscious flowers under the shaded porticoes of the
+buildings along the waterfront.
+
+  [Illustration: MILES AWAY ROSE THE FUMES OF KILAUEA
+  During the day they were ashen and at night like rose dawn]
+
+  [Illustration: THE LARGEST CAULDRON OF MOLTEN ROCK ON EARTH
+  Eight hundred feet below it seethed]
+
+  [Illustration: A RIVER OF ROCK POURING OUT INTO THE SEA
+                                               Photo, Otto C. Gilmore]
+
+  [Illustration: WHIRLING EDDIES OF LAVA UNDERMINING FROZEN LAVA
+  PROJECTIONS
+                                               Photo, Otto C. Gilmore]
+
+Aside from the adoption of our trousers and coat and hat, and a few
+other unimportant aspects of our civilization, the observer on the
+streets of Honolulu sees no mingling of races. The only outward sign of
+this mixing is the Salvation Army. There, large as life, with the
+usual circular crowd about them, stood these soldiers of misfortune,
+praising the Lord in English. A row of unlimited Oriental offspring upon
+the curb; a few grown-ups on the walk; a converted Japanese who looked
+as though his Shinto father had disowned him; a self-conscious white boy
+who confessed to having been converted just recently; two
+indifferent-looking soldiers; a distrustful-looking leader and a
+hopeless-visaged white woman. Twenty feet away, a saloon. I wonder what
+the Salvation Army is going to do now that that object of attraction is
+no more.
+
+As far as Honolulu was concerned, it seemed to me that barter and trade
+were more intoxicating to the majority than was drink. The world
+everywhere about seemed a-litter with boxes and bales and shops and
+indulgences. How much of all the things exchanged, how many of the
+things for which these people toil endlessly, are worth while or
+essential, or even truly satisfying? The dingy stores, their only worth
+their damp coolness; the huddling and the innocent dirt; the
+inextricable mesh of little things to be done,--only the Chinese sage
+who posed for my camera in front of his wee stock of yarns was able to
+tell their value to life. His long, thin, pointed beard, his lack of
+vanity in accepting my interest in him, his genial smile and fatherly
+disinterestedness symbolized more than anything I saw in Honolulu the
+virtue and endurance of race. Beside the eager, grasping Japanese and
+the rolling, expanding white men, he looked like the overtowering
+palm-tree that seems to grow out of the monkey-pod in the park.
+
+
+6
+
+To a creature from another world, hovering over us in the unseen ether,
+watching us move about beneath the sea of air which is life to us,
+Honolulu would seem like a little glass aquarium. The human beings move
+about as though on the best of terms with one another. Some look more
+gorgeous than others, but from outward appearances they are as innocent
+of ill intentions against one another as the aquatic creatures for which
+Hawaii is famous, out in the cool, moist aquarium at Waikiki.
+
+Kihikihi, the Hawaiians call one of them, and his friends the white folk
+have christened him Moorish Idol. I don't know what Kihikihi means, but
+as to his being an idol, I can't accept that for a moment, except in so
+far as he deserves to be idolized. For about him there is no more of
+that static, woodeny thing which idols generally are than there is about
+Pavlowa. Yet he is only a fish, and not so very large at that. He is
+moon-shaped, but rainbow-hued. He is perhaps three-quarters of an inch
+across the shoulders, but six inches up and down, and perhaps eight from
+nose to the ends of his two tails. And so he looks like a three-quarter
+moon. Soft, vertical bands of black, white, and egg-yellow run into one
+another on both sides, and a long white plume trails downward in a
+semicircle. He is the last word in form, translucent harmony of color
+and of motion. He moves about with rhythmic dignity and grace. At times
+his eyes bulge with an eagerness and self-importance as though the world
+depended on him for its security. Though he is constantly searching for
+food, he does not seem avaricious; and while he admits his importance,
+he is not proud.
+
+Kihikihi has a rival in Nainai, who has been given an alias,--Surgeon
+Fish, light brown with an orange band on his sides. Nainai is heavier
+than Kihikihi, more plump. His color, too, is heavier and therefore
+seems more restrained. It is richer and hence stimulates envy and
+desire.
+
+Lauwiliwili Unkunukuoeoe has no aliases, thank you, but he has a snout
+on which his Hawaiian name could be stamped in fourteen-point type and
+still leave room for half a dozen aliases. Only a water-creature could
+possess such a title as this and keep from dragging it in the mud.
+Knowing that he would be called by that appellation in life, his Creator
+must have compensated him with plenty of snout.
+
+But it is better to have one long snout than eight. And though no one
+would give preference to any devil-fish, this long-snouted creature is
+the rival by an inverse ratio of that eight-snouted glutton. The
+octopus, the devil of the deep, is an insult to fishdom. The Moorish
+Idol and this Medusa-like monster in the same aquarium make a worse
+combination than Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This ugly, flabby, boneless
+body, just thick skin and muscle, with a large bag for a head,--eight
+sea-worms extending and contracting in an insatiable search for food is
+the paramount example of gross materialism. If only the high cost of
+living would drive to suicide this beast with hundreds of mouths to
+feed, the world might be rid of a perfidious-looking monster. But his
+looks do him great injustice, and were the Hawaiian variety--which is,
+after all, only squid--to disappear, the natives would be deprived of
+one of their chief delicacies. At the markets--that half-way house
+between aquaria and museums--numerous dried octopus, like moth-eaten
+skins, lie about waiting for the housewife's art to camouflage them. But
+I shall have something to say elsewhere about markets and museums, and
+now shall turn, for a moment, to more startling wonders still.
+
+
+7
+
+An artist is delighted if he finds a study with a perfect hand or a
+beautiful neck; or, in nature, if a simple charm is left undisturbed by
+the confusion of human creation. Yet at night as our ship passed the
+island of Maui, it seemed to me that all the sweet simplicities that
+make life worth while had been assembled here in the beginning of the
+world and left untouched. The moon rose on the peak of the cone-shaped
+mountain, and for a time stood set, like a moonstone in a ring. The
+pyramid of night-blue earth was necklaced in street lights, which
+stretched their frilled reflections across the surface of the sea; and
+just back of it all lay the crater of Haleakala, the House of the Sun.
+
+At sunrise next morning we were docked at Hilo on the island of Hawaii,
+two hundred miles from Honolulu. There was nothing here impressive to
+me, despite the waterfalls. For two and a half hours we drove by motor
+over the turtle-back surface of Hawaii toward Kilauea. Tree-ferns,
+palms, and plantations stretched in unending recession far and wide. A
+sense of mystery and awe crept slowly over me as we neared the region of
+the volcano. At eleven we arrived at the Volcano House.
+
+Yet, in a mood of strange indifference I gazed across the five miles of
+flat, dark-brown frozen lava which is the roof of the crater.
+Ash-colored fumes rose from the field of fissures, like smoke from an
+underground village. Sullen, sallow vapors, these. Sulphur banks, tree
+molds cast in frozen lava, empty holes! Nothing within left to rot, but
+fringed with forests and brush, sulphur-stained or rooted in frozen
+lava. Everywhere promise of volcanic fury, prophecy of the end of the
+world.
+
+The road lay like a border round the rim of an antique bowl which had
+been baked, cracked, chipped, but shaped to a usefulness that is beauty.
+All day long we waited, watching the clouds of gray fumes rise steadily,
+silently, and with a sad disinterestedness out of the mouth of the
+crater.
+
+Frozen, the lava was the great bed of assurance, a rock of fearlessness.
+It seemed to say to the volcano: "I can be indifferent. Down there, deep
+down, is your limitation. Rise out of the pit and you become, like me,
+congealed. There, down in that deep, is your only hope of life. This
+great field of lifeless lava is proof of your effort to reach beyond
+your sphere. So why fear?" And there was no fear.
+
+  [Illustration: A BLIZZARD OF FUMING HEAT
+                                               Photo, Otto C. Gilmore]
+
+  [Illustration: WHERE THE TIDES TURN TO STONE
+                                               Photo, Otto C. Gilmore]
+
+  [Illustration: THE LAKE OF SPOUTING MOLTEN LAVA
+  In the volcano of Kilauea. At night the white here shown is pink
+  and terrifying
+                                               Photo, Otto C. Gilmore]
+
+As night came on the gray fumes began to flush pink with the reflection
+of the heart of the crater. We set out in cars for the edge. Extinct
+craters yawned on every side, their walls deep and upright. Some were
+overgrown with green young trees, but as we came nearer to the living
+crater, life ceased. Great rolls of cloud-fumes rose from the gulch to
+wander away in silence. What a strange journey to take! From out a
+boiling pit where place is paid for by furious fighting, where pressure
+is father of fountains of boiling rock, out from struggle and howling
+fury, these gases rose into the world of living matter, into the world
+of wind and water. Out of the pit of destruction into the air, never
+ceasing, always stirring down there, rising to where life to us is death
+to it. The lava, seething, red, shoots aimlessly upward, only to quell
+its own futile striving in intermittent exhaustion.
+
+We stood within a foot of the edge. Eight hundred feet below us the lava
+roared and spit. In the night, the entire volcano turned a pink glow,
+and before us lay three-quarters of a mile of Inferno come true. The red
+liquid heaves and hisses. Some of it shoots fully fifty feet into the
+air; some is still-born and forms a pillar of black stone in the midst
+of molten lava. From the other corner a steady stream of lava issues
+into the main pool, and the whole thumps and thuds and sputters and
+spouts, restless, toiling eternally.
+
+On our way to the crater we were talkative. We joked, burnt paper over
+the cracks, discussed volcanic action, and expressed opinions about
+death and the probability of animal consciousness after death. But as we
+turned away from the pit we fell silent. It was as though we had looked
+into the unknown and had seen that which was not meant for man to see.
+And the clouds of fumes continued to issue calmly, unperturbed, with a
+dreadful persistence.
+
+Just as our car groped its way through the mists to the bend in the
+road, a Japanese stepped before us with his hands outstretched. "Help!"
+he shouted. "Man killed." We rushed to his assistance and found that a
+party of Japanese in a Ford had run off the road and dropped into a
+shallow crater. Down on the frozen bed below huddled a group of men,
+women, and children, terrified. As we crawled down we found one Japanese
+sitting with the body of his dead companion in his arms, pressing his
+hot face against the cold cheek of his comrade. A chill drizzle swept
+down into the dark pit. It was a scene to horrify a stoic. To the
+wretched group our coming was a comfort the richness of which one could
+no more describe than one could the torture of lava in that pit over
+yonder.
+
+Japanese are said to be fatalists. They hover about Kilauea year in and
+year out. One man sat with a baby in his arms, his feet dangling over
+the volcano. Playfully he pretended to toss the child in, and it
+accepted all as play. The same confidence the dead man had had in the
+driver whose carelessness had overturned the car. And now it seemed that
+his body belonged in the larger pit at which he had marveled not more
+than half an hour earlier.
+
+
+As I look back into the pit of memory where the molten material,
+experience, has its ebb and flow, I can still see the seething of rock
+within a cup of stone, the boiling of nature within its own bosom. Where
+can one draw the line between experience past and present? Wherever I
+am, the shooting of that fountain of lava is as real as it was to me
+then; nor can conglomerate noises drown out the sound of lava pouring
+back into lava, of undermined rock projections crashing with a hissing
+sound back upon themselves. It is to me like the sound of voices when
+King Kamehameha I forced the natives of the island of Oahu over the
+Pali, and the group of terrified Japanese were like the fish in the
+coral caves at Kaneohe when aware of the approach of a fish that feeds
+upon them.
+
+Yet there is a sound rising clear in memory, perhaps more wonderful even
+than the shrieking of tortured human beings or the hissing of molten
+lava. As I stood upon the rim of Halemaumau there arose the vision of
+Kapiolani, the Hawaiian girl who, defying superstition, ventured down
+into the jaws of the crater and by her courage exorcised Kilauea of its
+devils. What in all the world is more wonderful than frailty imbued with
+passion mothering achievement? Kapiolani may be called Hawaii's Joan of
+Arc. Unable to measure her strength with men, she defied their gods. A
+world of prejudice, all the world to her, stood between her and Kilauea.
+Courage triumphant had conquered fear. In defiance of her clan and of
+her own terror, she was the first native to approach the crater, and in
+that she made herself the equal of Kilauea. As she cast away the
+Hawaiian idols, herself emerged an idol.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SUBLIMATED, SAVAGE FIJIANS
+
+
+1
+
+Fiji is to the Pacific what the eye is to the needle. Swift as are the
+vessels which thread the largest ocean on earth, travelers who do more
+than pass through Fiji on their way between America and the Antipodes
+are few. Yet the years have woven more than a mere patchwork of romance
+round these islands. In climate they are considered the most healthful
+of the South Sea groups, though socially and from the point of view of
+our civilization they do not occupy the same place in our sentiments as
+do Samoa, Tahiti, the Marquesas, and the Sandwich Islands. Largely, I
+suppose, because of the ethnological accident that planted there a race
+of people that is farther from Europeans than the Polynesians. The
+Fijians are Melanesians, a negroid people said by some to be a
+"sub-branch" of the Polynesians. They have been slightly mixed through
+their contact with the Tongans and the Samoans, but they are not
+definitely related to either and full mixture is unlikely.
+
+A century ago a number of Australian convicts escaped to Fiji. They
+brought to these savage cannibal islanders all the viciousness and
+arrogance of their type, and imposed themselves upon the primitive
+natives. The effect was not conducive of the best relations between
+white people and natives, nor did it have an elevating influence upon
+the latter. However, despite their cannibalism and their unwillingness
+to yield to the influence of our benign civilization, the Fijians are a
+people in many ways superior to both the Polynesians east of them and
+the true Melanesians or Papuans to the west. They are more moral; they
+are cleanly; their women occupy a better position in relation to their
+men; and in character and skill they are superior to their neighbors. I
+was impressed with this dignity of the Fijians, conscious and
+unconscious, from the time I first laid eyes on them. I felt that,
+notwithstanding all that was said about them, here was a people that
+stood aloof from mere imitation.
+
+Yet such is the nature of reputation that when I announced my intention
+of breaking my journey from Honolulu to Australia at Fiji, my
+fellow-passengers were inclined to commiserate with me. They wondered
+how one with no special purposes--that is, without a job--could risk
+cutting loose from his iron moorings in these savage isles. Had they not
+read in their school geographies of jungles and savages all mixed and
+wild, with mocking natives grinning at you from behind bamboo-trees,
+living expectations of a juicy dinner? They warned me about dengue
+fever; they extolled the virtues of the Fijian maidens, and exaggerated
+the vices of the Fijian men. The word "cannibals" howled round my head
+as the impersonal wind had howled round the masts of the steamer one
+night. But the adventurer soon learns that there is none so unknowing as
+the average globe-trotters (the people who have been there); so he
+listens politely and goes his own way.
+
+When, therefore, I got the first real whiff of tropical sweetness, mixed
+though it was with copra and mold, all other considerations vanished.
+From the cool heights the hills looked down in pity upon the little
+village of Suva as it lay prostrate beneath the sun. If there was any
+movement to be seen, it was upon the lapping waters of the harbor, where
+numerous boats swarmed with black-bodied, glossy-skinned natives in that
+universal pursuit of life and happiness. As the _Niagara_ sidled up to
+the pier and made fast her hawsers, these black fellows rushed upon her
+decks and into the holds like so many ants, and what had till then been
+inanimate became as though possessed.
+
+
+2
+
+I had been under the impression that the natives were all lazy, but the
+manner of their handling of cargo soon dissipated that notion. Further
+to discredit the rumor-mongers, three Fijians staged an attempt to lead
+a donkey ashore which would have shamed the most enthusiastic believer
+in the practice of counting ten before getting angry and trying three
+times before giving up. The Fijian is as indifferent to big as to little
+tasks, and seems to be alone, of all the dwellers in the tropics, in
+this apathetic attitude toward life. There is none in all the world more
+lazy, indolent, and do-nothing than the white man. As soon as he comes
+within sight of a native anywhere, that native does his labor for him;
+you may count on it.
+
+So it was that with fear and trembling I announced to the stewards that
+I had a steamer trunk which I wanted ashore with me. They grunted and
+growled as the two of them struggled with it along the gang-plank and
+dropped it as Atlas might have been expected to drop the earth, and
+stood there with a contemptuous look of expectation. I took out two
+half-dollars and handed one to each. The sneer that formed under their
+noses was well practised, I could see, and they took great pains to
+inform me that they were no niggers, they would not take the trunk
+another foot. There it was. I was lost, scorned, and humiliated. Why did
+I have so much worldly goods to worry about? Just then a portly Fijian
+stepped up. Beside him I felt puny, doubly humble now. Before I had time
+to decide whether or not he was going to pick me up by the nape of the
+neck and carry me off to a feast, he took my trunk instead. Though it
+weighed fully a hundred and sixty-five pounds, it rose to his
+shoulders--up there a foot and a half above me--and the giant strode
+along the pier with as little concern as though it were empty. The two
+stewards stood looking on with an air of superiority typical of the
+white men among colored.
+
+I cannot say that mere brawn ever entitles any man to rank, and that the
+white generally substitutes brain for brawn is obvious. But I failed to
+see wherein they justified their conceit, for to men of their type the
+fist is still the symbol of their ideal, as it is to the majority of
+white men. And as I came away from the ship again that afternoon I found
+a young steward, a mere lad, standing in a corner crying, his cheek
+swollen and red. I asked him what happened. "The steward hit me," he
+said, trying to restrain himself from crying. "I thought I was through
+and went for my supper so as to get ashore a bit. He came up and asked
+me what I was doing. I told him, and he struck me with his fist." Yet
+the stewards thought themselves too good to do any labor with black men
+about. No ship in a tropical port is manned by the sailors; there they
+take a vacation, as it were.
+
+From the customs shed to my hotel the selfsame Fijian carried my trunk
+majestically. I felt hopeful that for a time at least I should see the
+last of stewards and their ilk. But before I was two days in Suva I
+learned that shore stewards are often not any better, and was happy to
+get farther inland away from the port for the short time I could afford
+to spend in the tropics.
+
+Meanwhile, some of the younger of my fellow-passengers came on shore and
+began doing the rounds, into which they inveigled me. From one store to
+the other we went, examining the moldy, withered, incomplete stocks of
+the traders. Magazines stained brown with age, cheap paper-covered
+novels, native strings of beads formed part of the stock in trade. We
+soon exhausted Suva.
+
+At the corner of the right angle made by Victoria Parade and the pier
+stood a Victoria coach. A horse slept on three legs, in front of it,
+and a Hindu sat upon the seat like a hump on an elongated camel. We
+roused them from their dozing and began to bargain for their hire. Six
+of us climbed into the coach and slowly, as though it were fastened to
+the ground, the horse began to move, followed by the driver, the
+carriage, and the six of us. For an hour we continued in the direction
+in which the three had been standing, along the beach, up a little
+knoll, past corrugated-iron-roofed shacks, and down into Suva again; the
+horse stopped with the carriage behind him in exactly the same position
+in which we had found them, and driver and beast went to sleep again.
+
+Much is heard these days about the effects of the railroad and the
+steamer and the wireless telegraph on the unity of the world, but to
+those travelers and that Hindu and to the Fijians whom we passed en
+route, not even the insertion of our six shillings in the driver's
+pocket has, I am sure, as much as left the faintest impression on any of
+us except myself. And on me it has left the impression of the utter
+inconsequence of most traveling.
+
+Thus Suva, the eye of Fiji and of the needle of the Pacific, is
+threaded, but there is nothing to sew. The unexpected never happens.
+There are no poets or philosophers, no theaters or cabarets in Suva, as
+far as mere eye can see,--nothing but smell of mold and copra (cocoanut
+oil).
+
+In Suva one cannot long remain alert. The sun is stupefying. The person
+just arrived finds himself stifled by the sharp smells all about him as
+though the air were poisoned with too much life. The shaggy green hills,
+rugged and wild in the extreme, show even at a distance the struggle
+between life and death which moment by moment takes place. Luxuriant as
+on the morning of creation, the vegetation seems to be rotting as after
+a period of death. In Suva everything smells damp and moldy. You cannot
+get away from it. The stores you buy in, the bed you sleep in, the room
+you eat in,--all have the same odor. The books in the little library
+are eaten full of holes through which the flat bookworms wander as by
+right of eminent domain. Offensive to the uninitiated is the smell of
+copra. The swarms of Fijians who attack the cargo smell of it and
+glisten with it. The boats smell of it and the air is heavy with it. If
+copra and mold could be banished from the islands, the impression of
+loveliness which is the essence of the South Seas would remain
+untainted. Yet to-day, let me but get a whiff of cocoanut-oil from a
+drug store and I am immediately transported to the South Seas and my
+being goes a-wandering.
+
+
+3
+
+I seldom dream, but at the moment of waking in strange surroundings
+after an unusual run of events my mind rehearses as in a dream the
+experiences gained during consciousness. When the knuckles of the
+Fijian--and he has knuckles--sounded on my door at seven to announce my
+morning tea, I woke with a sense of heaviness, as though submerged in a
+world from which I could never again escape. At seven-fifteen another
+Fijian came for my laundry; at seven-thirty a third came for my shoes.
+Seeing that it was useless to remain in bed longer, I got up. I was not
+many minutes on the street before I realized the urgency in those
+several early visits. Daylight-saving is an absolute necessity in the
+tropics, for by eight or nine one has to endure our noonday sun, and
+unless something is accomplished before that time one must perforce wait
+till late afternoon for another opportunity. To keep an ordinary coat on
+an ordinary back in Suva is like trying to live in a fireless cooker
+while angry. Even in the shade one is grateful for white duck instead of
+woolens, so before long I had acquired an Irish poplin coat. Yet Fiji is
+one of the most healthful of the South Sea islands.
+
+Owing to the heat, most likely--to give the white devils their
+due--procrastination is the order of life. "Everything here is 'malua,'"
+explained the manager of "The Fiji Times" to me. "No matter what you
+want or whom you ask for it, 'wait a bit' will be the process." And he
+forthwith demonstrated, quite unconsciously, that he knew whereof he
+spoke. I wanted to get some information about the interior which he
+might just as easily have given me off-hand, but he asked me to wait a
+bit. I did. He left his office, walked all the way up the street with me
+to show me a photographer's place where I should be able to get what I
+was after, and stood about with me waiting for the photographer to make
+up his mind whether he had the time to see me or not. There's no use
+rushing anybody. The authorities have been several years trying to get
+one of the off streets of Suva paved. It has been "worked on," but the
+task, turned to every now and then for half an hour, requires numerous
+rest periods.
+
+In Fiji, every one moves adagio. The white man looks on and commands;
+the Indian coolie slinks about and slaves; the Fijian works on occasion
+but generally passes tasks by with sporty indifference. Yet there is no
+absence of life. Beginning with the noise and confusion at the pier,
+there is a steady stream of individuals on whom shadows are lost, though
+they have nothing on them but their skins and their sulus. The Fijian
+idles, allows the Indian to work, happy to be left alone, happy if he
+can add a shilling to his possessions,--an old vest, a torn pair of
+trousers of any shape, an old coat, or a stiff-bosomed shirt sans coat
+or vest or trousers. Tall, mighty, and picturesque, his coiffure the
+pride of his life, he watches with a confidence well suited to his
+origin and his race the changes going on about him.
+
+Thus, while his island's fruits are being crated and carted off by the
+ship-load for foreign consumption, he helps in the process for the mere
+privilege of subsidized loafing. All the fun he gets out of trade in the
+tropics seems to be the opportunity of swearing at his fellows in
+fiji-ized versions of curses taught him by the white man. Or he stands
+erect on the flat punt as it comes in from regions unknown, bearing
+bananas green from the tree, the very picture of ease and contentment.
+Yet one little tug with foreign impertinence tows half a dozen punts,
+depriving him even of this element of romance in his life.
+
+Still, there is nothing sullen in his make-up. A dozen
+mummy-apples--better than bread to him--tied together with a string,
+suffice to make his primitive heart glad. Primitive these people are;
+their instincts, never led astray very far by such frills and trappings
+as keep us jogging along are none the less human. Unfold your camera and
+suggest taking a picture of any one of them and forthwith he straightens
+up, transforms his features, and adjusts his loin-cloth; nor will he
+forget to brush his hair with his hand. What a strange thing is this
+instinct in human nature anywhere in the world which substitutes so much
+starch for a slouch the moment one sees a one-eyed box pointing in his
+direction! None ever hoped to see a print of himself, but all posed as
+though the click of that little shutter were the recipe for perpetual
+youth.
+
+The motive is not always one of vanity. Generally, at the sound of the
+shutter, a hand shoots out in anticipation of reward. In the tropics it
+is no little task to bring oneself together so suddenly, and the effort
+should be fully compensated. The expenditure of energy involved in
+posing is worthy of remuneration. Nevertheless, vanity is inherent in
+this response. The Fijian is a handsome creature, and he knows it. He
+knows how to make his hair the envy of the world. "Permanent-wave"
+establishments would go out of business here in America if some skilled
+Fijian could endure our climate. He would give such permanence to
+blondes and brunettes as would cost only twenty-five cents and would
+really last. He would not plaster the hair down and cover it with a net
+against the least ruffle of the wind. When he got through with it it
+would stand straight up in the air, four to six inches long, and would
+serve as an insulator against the burning rays of the sun unrivaled
+anywhere in the world. While I squinted and slunk in the shade, the
+native chose the open highway. Give him a cluster of breadfruit to carry
+and a bank messenger with a bag of bullion could not seem more
+important.
+
+The Fijians, notwithstanding the fact that they take less to the
+sentimental in our civilization than the Samoans, are a fine race. Their
+softness of nature is a surprising inversion of their former ferocity.
+What one sees of them in Suva helps to fortify one in this conclusion; a
+visit farther inland leaves not a shadow of doubt. And pretty as the
+harbor is, it is as nothing compared with the loveliness of river and
+hills in the interior.
+
+I was making my way to the pier in search of the launch that would take
+me up the Rewa River, when a giant Fijian approached me. He spoke
+English as few foreign to the tongue can speak it. A coat, a watch, and
+a cane--a lordly biped--he did not hesitate to refer to his virtues
+proudly. He answered my unspoken question as to his inches by assuring
+me he was six feet three in his stocking feet (he wore no stockings) and
+was forty-five years old. For a few minutes we chatted amicably about
+Fiji and its places of interest. There was never a smug reference to
+anything even suggestive of the lascivious--as would have been the case
+with a guide in Japan, or Europe--yet he cordially offered to conduct
+and protect me through Fijiland. Had I had a billion dollars in gold
+upon me I felt that I might have put myself in his care anywhere in the
+world. But I was already engaged to go up the Rewa River and could not
+hire him. Cordially and generously, as an old friend might have done, he
+told me what to look for and bid me have a good time.
+
+
+4
+
+I took the launch which makes daily trips up the Rewa. The little vessel
+was black with natives--outside, inside, everywhere, streaming over to
+the pier. It was owned and operated by an Englishman named Message. Even
+in the traffic on this river combination threatens individual
+enterprise. "The company has several launches. It runs them on schedule
+time, stopping only at special stations, regardless of the convenience
+to the Fijians. It is trying to force me out of business," said Mr.
+Message, a look of troubled defiance in his face. "But I am just as
+determined to beat it."
+
+So he operates his launch to suit the natives, winning their good-will
+and patronage. It was interesting to see how his method worked. No
+better lesson in the instinctive tendency toward coöperation and mutual
+aid could be found. He had no white assistant, but every Fijian who
+could find room on the launch constituted himself a longshoreman. They
+enjoyed playing with the launch. They helped in the work of loading and
+unloading one another's petty cargo, such as kerosene, corrugated iron
+for roofing (which is everywhere replacing thatch), and odd sticks of
+wood. And the jollity that electrified them was a delightful commentary
+on this one white man's humanity.
+
+Delight rides at a spirited pace on this river Rewa. The banks are
+seldom more than a couple of feet above the water. The launch makes
+straight for the shore wherever a Fijian recognizes his hut, and he
+scrambles off as best he can. Here and there round the bends natives in
+_takias_ (somewhat like outrigger canoes with mat sails, now seldom
+used), punts, or rowboats slip by in the twilight.
+
+The sun had set by the time all the little stops had been made between
+Suva and Davuilevu, the last stopping-place. Each man, as he stepped
+from this little float of modernism, clambered up the bank and
+disappeared amid the sugar-cane. What a world of romance and change he
+took into the dark-brown hut he calls his own! What news of the world
+must he not have brought back with him! A commuter, he had probably gone
+in by that morning's launch, in which case he spent three full hours in
+"toil" or in the purchase of a sheet of corrugated iron or a tin of oil.
+He may have helped himself to a shirt from somebody's clothes-line in
+the spare time left him. One thing was certain, there were no chocolates
+in his pockets, for he had no pockets, and I saw no young woman holding
+a baby in her arms for daddy to greet.
+
+Yet even from a distance one recognized something of family affection.
+To enter and examine closely would perhaps have made a difference in my
+impressions. I was content with these hazy pictures, to see these
+dark-skinned people merge with their brown-thatched huts curtained by
+shadows within the cane-fields. When night came on all was dissolved in
+shadow, and voices in song rose on the cool air.
+
+
+5
+
+The Rewa River runs between two antagonistic institutions. At Davuilevu
+(the Great Conch-Shell) there is a mission station on one side and a
+sugar-mill on the other. Both are deeply affecting the character and
+environment of the Fijians, yet the contrast in the results is too
+obvious to be overlooked by even the most casual observer.
+
+As I stepped off the boat a young New Zealander whose cousin had come
+down with us on the _Niagara_ and whom I had met the day of our arrival
+in Suva, came out of a building across the road. He was conducting a
+class in carpentry composed of young Fijian students of the mission.
+They were so absorbed in their work that they barely noticed me, and the
+atmosphere of sober earnestness about the place was thrilling. From
+time out of mind the Fijians have been good carpenters, the craft being
+passed down from generation to generation within a special caste. Their
+shipbuilding has always been superior to that of their neighbors, the
+Tongans. It was not to be wondered at, therefore, that the main
+department here should be that of wood-turning, and some of the work the
+students were doing at the time was exceptionally fine.
+
+The buildings of the mission had all been constructed with native labor
+under the direction of the missionaries. They were simply but firmly
+built, the absence of architectural richness being due fully as much to
+the spirit of the missionaries as to the lack of decorativeness in the
+character of the natives.
+
+However, there was something to be found at the mission which was
+harshly lacking at the sugar-mill. The students moved about in a
+leisurely manner, cleanly and thoughtful; whereas across the river not
+only were the buildings of the very crudest possible, but the Hindus and
+the Fijians roamed around like sullen, hungry curs always expecting a
+kick. Those who were not sullen, were obviously tired, spiritless, and
+repressed. Their huts were set close to one another in rows, whereas the
+mission buildings range over the hills. The crowding at the mill, upon
+such vast open spaces, gave the little village all the faults of a
+tenement district. Racial clannishness seems to require even closer
+touch where space is wide. The very expanse of the world seems to
+intensify the fear of loneliness, so men huddle closer to sense somewhat
+of the gregarious delights of over-populated India. But there is also
+the squeezing of plantation-owners here at fault, and the total
+disregard of the needs of individual employees.
+
+The mill is worked day and night, in season, but it is at night that
+one's reactions to it are most impressive. The street lamps, assisted by
+a dim glow from within the shacks, the monotonous invocation of prayer
+by Indians squatting before the wide-open doors, the tiny kava
+"saloons," and the great, giant, grinding, grating sugar-mills crushing
+the juice out of the cane and precipitating it (after a chain of
+processes) in white dust for sweetening the world, are something never
+to be forgotten. The deep, pulsating breath of the mill sounded like the
+snore of a sleeping monster. Yet that monstrous mill never sleeps.
+
+The sound did not cease, but rather, became more pronounced after I
+returned that night. Deeply imprinted on my memory was the figure of a
+sullen-looking Indian at his post--small, wiry, persistent--with the
+whirring of machinery all about him, the steaming vats, the broken
+sticks of cane being crunched in the maw of the machine. The toilers
+sometimes dozed at their tasks. I was told that once an Indian fell into
+one of the vats in a moment of dizzy slumber. The cynical informer
+insisted that the management would not even stop the process of turning
+cane into sugar, and that into the tea-cups of the world was mixed the
+substance of that man. My reflection was along different lines,--that
+into the sweets of the world we were constantly mixing the souls of men.
+
+
+6
+
+But unfortunately those who look after the souls of these men at the
+mission are apt to forget that they have bodies, too, and that body is
+the materialization of desire. There is something wonderful, indeed, in
+the sight of men known to have been of the most ferocious of human
+creatures going about their daily affairs in an attitude of great
+reverence to the things of life. And reverence added to the extreme
+shyness of the Fijian is writ large in the manner of every native across
+the way from the mill. Sometimes I felt that there was altogether too
+much restraint, too much checking of wholesome and healthy impulses
+among them for it to be true reverence. That was especially marked on
+Sunday morning, when from all the corners of the mission fields gathered
+the sturdy black men in the center of the grounds where stood the little
+church.
+
+  [Illustration: A CORNER OF SUVA, FIJI
+  The unexpected happened--the cab moved]
+
+  [Illustration: FOOD FOR A DAY'S GOSSIP]
+
+  [Illustration: THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT
+  My Fijian guides]
+
+  [Illustration: A HINDU PATRIARCH
+  On board the launch going up the Rewa River, with shy Fijians all
+  about]
+
+They were a sight to behold, altogether too seriously concerned to be
+amusing, and to the unbiased the acme of gentleness. There they
+were--muscular, huge, erect, and black, their bushy crops of coarse hair
+adding six inches to their heads; dressed in sulus neatly tucked away,
+and stiff-bosomed white shirts over their bodies. Starched white shirts
+in the tropics! And the Bible in Fijian in their hands. In absolute
+silence they made their way into the church, the shuffle of their unshod
+feet adding intensity to that silence. When they raised their voices in
+the hymns it seemed to me that nothing more sincere had ever been sung
+in life. But then something occurred which made me wonder.
+
+From the Solomon Islands had come on furlough the Rev. Mr. Ryecroft and
+his delicate wife. He was a man of very gentle bearing and great fervor.
+He and his plucky wife had suffered much for their convictions. All men
+who really believe anything suffer. The missionary is as much anathema
+in his field as the anarchist is in America, and is generally as violent
+an agent for the disruption of custom. Mr. Ryecroft rose to speak before
+the congregation. He spoke in English and was interpreted by the
+missionary in charge. He told of his trials in the Solomon Islands, and
+appealed for Fijian missionaries to go back with him and save the
+blood-thirsty Solomons. I watched the faces of these converted Fijians.
+Some of them were intent upon the speaker, repugnance at the cruelties
+rehearsed coming over them as at something of which they were more
+afraid as a possible revival in themselves than as an objective danger.
+Some, however, fell fast asleep, their languid heads drooping to one
+side. I am no mind-reader, nor is my observation to be taken for more
+than mere guess-work, but I felt that there were two conflicting
+thoughts in the minds of the listeners, for while Mr. Ryecroft was
+urging them to come arrest brutality in the Solomons there were other
+recruiters at work in Fiji for service in Europe. While one told that
+the savage Solomon Islanders swooped down upon the missionary compound
+and left sixteen dead behind them, in Europe they were leaving a
+thousand times as many every day, worse than dead. To whom were they to
+listen!
+
+That afternoon Mr. Waterhouse, one of the missionaries, asked me to give
+the young men a little talk on my travels, he to interpret for me. I
+asked him what he would like to have me tell them and he urged me to
+advise them not to give up their lands. I complied, pointing out to them
+how quickly they would go under as a race if they did so. The response
+was more than compensating.
+
+The outlook is all the more reassuring when you sit of an evening as I
+did in the large, carefully woven native house, elliptical in shape,
+with thatched roof and soft-matted floors, which serves as a sort of
+night school for little tots. The children, who were then rehearsing
+some dances for the coming festival, sat on tiers of benches so built
+that one child's feet were on a level with the shoulders of the one in
+front. Like a palisade of stars their bright eyes glistened with the
+reflections of the light from the kerosene lamps hanging on wires from
+the rafters. Lolohea Ratu, a girl of twenty, educated in Sydney,
+Australia, spoke to them in a plaintive, modulated voice, soft and low.
+All Fijian voices are sad, but hers was slightly sadder than most of
+them, tinged, it seemed, with knowledge of the world. She had studied
+the Montessori method and was trying to train her little brothers and
+sisters thereby. But she was not forgetful of what is lovely in her own
+race, primitive as it is, and was preparing these children in something
+of a compromise between native and foreign dances. Round and round the
+room they marched, the overhanging lamps playing pranks with their
+shadows. Others sat upon the mats, legs crossed, beating time and
+clapping hands in the native fashion. Their glistening bodies and
+sparkling, mischievous eyes, their response to the enchanting rhythm and
+melody borrowed from a world as strange to them as theirs is to us,
+showed their delight. I wondered what strange images--ghostly pale
+folk--they were seeing through our songs. Perhaps the music was merely
+another kind of "savage" song to them, even a wee bit wilder than their
+own. On the following day they were to sing and dance to the amazement
+of their skeptical elders.
+
+Thus does Fijian "civilization" steer its uncertain course between the
+two contending influences from the West--the planters and the
+missionaries--just as the river Rewa runs between them over the jungle
+plains, struggling to supplant wild entangling growths with earth
+culture.
+
+
+7
+
+And that "civilization" leans at one time toward the mill and at another
+toward the mission. Frankly, Fiji grows more interesting as one gets
+away from these two guy-wires and floats on the sluggish river. My
+opportunity of seeing that Fiji which is least confused by either
+influence came unexpectedly. The missionaries generously invited me to
+go with them up the river in their launch early Monday morning.
+Everywhere along the banks of the broad, deep stream stood groups of
+huts and villages amid the sugar-cane fields. I gazed up the wide way of
+the river toward the hazy blue mountains which stood fifty miles away.
+They seemed to be a thousand miles and farther still from reality. The
+Himalayas which lured the Lama priest and _Kim_ could not have been more
+enticing. Because of the cloying atmosphere of the day, this distant
+coolness was like an oasis in the desert, and I longed for some phantom
+ship to bear me away on the breeze.
+
+For twenty miles we glided on through cane plantations, banana- and
+cocoanut-trees, and miniature palisades here and there rising to the
+dignity of hills. We landed, toward noon, at a village which stood on a
+little plateau,--quiet, self-satisfied, though in no way elaborate. The
+best of the huts stood against the hill across the "street" formed by
+two rows of thatch-roofed and leaf-walled huts. It belonged to the
+native Christian teacher. He turned it over to us, himself and his wife
+and baby disappearing while we lunched. Much of our repast remaining,
+the missionary offered it to the teacher, but I noticed that he looked
+displeased and turned the platter over to the flock of children which
+had gathered outside,--a brood of little fellows, their bellies bulging
+out before them, not even the shadow of a garment covering their
+nakedness.
+
+I returned to the hut a little later for my camera, not knowing that any
+one was there. Inside, in one corner, lay the teacher's wife, stretched
+face downward, nursing her baby, which lay on its back upon the soft
+mats. She smiled, slightly embarrassed, and I withdrew. Here, then, was
+the place where civilization and savagery met.
+
+There were few Fijians in the village, mostly children and several old
+women. A Solomon Islander, who had got there during the days when
+blackbirding or kidnapping was common, moved among them. He had quite
+forgotten his own language and could not understand Mr. Ryecroft when
+the missionary spoke to him. An elderly man beckoned to me from his hut
+and there offered to sell me a heavy, ebony carved club that could kill
+an ox, swearing by all the taboos that it was a sacred club and had
+killed many a man in his father's time.
+
+  [Illustration: INSTRUCTOR OF THE FIJIAN CONSTABULARY
+  At Suva]
+
+  [Illustration: THE SCOWL INDICATES A COMPLEX
+  For he is not quite certain that the missionaries are right about that
+  club not being a god]
+
+  [Illustration: A FIJIAN MAIN STREET
+  The corrugated iron-roofed shack is the one we ate our lunch in]
+
+  [Illustration: LITTLE FIJIANS
+  The only things some of these had on were sores on the tops of their
+  heads]
+
+A narrow path climbing the hill close behind the village led us to a
+view over the long sweep of the river and its valley. The utmost of
+peace and tranquillity hung, without a tremor, below us. Twenty huts
+fringed the plateau, forming a vague ellipse, interwoven with lovely
+salvias, coleuses, and begonias. The village seemed to have been caught
+in the crook of the river, while a field of sugar-cane filled the plain
+across the stream, the shaggy mountains quartering it from the rear.
+Distant, reaching toward the sun, ranged the mountains from which the
+river is daily born anew.
+
+As our launch chugged steadily, easily down-stream, and the evening
+shadows overstepped the sun, Fiji emerged fresh and sweet as I had not
+seen it before. The missionaries, till then sober and reserved, relaxed,
+the men's heads in the laps of their wives. Sentimental songs of long
+ago, like a stream of soft desire through the years, supplanted precept
+in their minds, and I realized for the first time why some men chose to
+be missionaries. It was to them no hardship. The trials and sufferings
+were romance to their natures, and the giving up of everything for
+Christ was after all only living out that world-old truism that in order
+to have life one must be ready to surrender it.
+
+
+8
+
+Next day Mr. Waterhouse and I wandered about the village of the sugar
+factory. At the bidding of several minor chiefs who had described a
+circle on the mats, we entered one of the dark huts by way of a low
+door. In a corner a woman tended the open fire, and near an opening a
+girl sat munching. The room was thick with smoke, the thin reeds
+supporting the roof glistening with soot. Everything was in order and
+according to form. They were making _kava_ (or _ava_ or _yangana_), the
+native drink. This used to be the work of the chieftain's daughter, who
+ground the ava root with her teeth and then mixed it with water. The law
+doesn't permit this now; so it is crushed in a mortar (_tonoa_).
+Specialization has reached out its tentacles even to this place, so that
+now the captain of this industry is an Indian.
+
+The ava mixed, it was passed round in a well-scraped cocoanut-shell cut
+in half. As guests we were offered the first drink. Extremely bitter, it
+is nevertheless refreshing. After I made a pretense of drinking, the
+bowl was passed to the most respected chief. With gracious
+self-restraint he declined it. "This is too full. You have given me
+altogether too much." A little bit of it was poured back, and he drank
+it with one gulp. He would really have liked twice as much, not half,
+but there is more modesty and decorum among savages than we imagine. In
+fact, our conventions are often only atrophied taboos.
+
+But the women, not so handsome nor so elegantly coifed as the men, were
+excluded from a share in the toast. They were not even part of the
+entertainment. The sexes seldom meet in any form of social intercourse.
+The boys never flirt with the girls, nor do they ever seem to notice
+them. In public there is a never-diminishing distance between them. A
+world without love-making, primitive life is outwardly not so romantic
+as is ours. The "romance" is generally that of the foreigner with the
+native women, not among the natives themselves.
+
+The daughter of the biggest living Fijian chief wandered about like an
+outcast. She wore a red Mother-Hubbard gown, and nothing else. Her hair
+hung down to her shoulders. Having gone through the process of
+discoloration by the application of lime, according to the custom among
+the natives in the tropics, it was reddish and stiff, but, being long,
+had none of the leonine quality of the men's hair. Andi Cacarini (Fijian
+for Katherine), daughter of a modern chief, spoke fairly good English.
+She wasn't exactly ashamed, but just shy. The better class of Fijians,
+they who have come in contact with white people, all manifest a timid
+reticence. Andi Cacarini was shy, but hardly what one could call bashful
+or fastidious. She posed for me as though an artist's model, not at all
+ungraceful in her carriage or her walk.
+
+The male Fijian is extremely timid, but none the less fastidious. The
+care with which he trains and curls his hair would serve as an
+object-lesson to the impatient husband of the vainest of white women.
+This doesn't mean that the Fijian man is effeminate in his ways, but he
+is particular about his hair. The process of discoloring it is exact. A
+mixture of burnt coral with water makes a fine substitute for soap. When
+washed out and dried, the hair is curled and combed and anointed. From
+the point of view of sanitation, the treatment is excellent, and from
+that of art--just watch the proud male pass down the road!
+
+No matter where one goes in Fiji--or any of the South Sea Islands--the
+dance goes with one. Here at Davuilevu one afternoon in the hot,
+scorching sun, the natives gathered on the turf for merrymaking. It was
+no special holiday, no unusual event. To our way of thinking it is a
+tame sort of dance they do. We hear much of the freedom between the
+sexes in the tropics, and one gains the impression that there are
+absolutely no taboos. But just as there is nothing in all Japan--however
+delightful--to compensate the child, or even grown-ups, for the lack of
+the kiss, so none of the Fijian dances fill that same emotional
+requirement which with us is secured through the embrace of men and
+women in the dance. From the Fijian point of view, the whirling of
+couples about together must be extremely immodest, if not immoral.
+
+Sitting in a double row, one in front of the other, were oiled and
+garlanded Fijians. Behind them and in a circle sat a number of singers
+and lali-players. As they began beating time, the oiled natives began to
+move from side to side rhythmically. Their arms and bodies jerked in a
+most fascinating and interpretative manner. No voices in the wide world
+are lovelier than the voices of Fijians in chorus; no other music issues
+so purely as the Fijian music from the depths of racial experience.
+Sometimes the dancers swung half-way round from side to side, with arms
+akimbo, or extended their arms in all directions, clapping their hands
+while chanting in soothing, melodious deep tones.
+
+Judging from what I heard of the music of the Tongans, the Samoans, and
+the Fijians, I give the prize to the Fijians for richness of tone. More
+primitive than the plaintive Tongans, the Fijian music is a weird
+combination of the intellectual, the martial, and the industrial,--more
+fascinating than the passionate, voluptuous tunes and dances of the
+Samoans and the Hawaiians. The Polynesians, probably because of their
+close kinship with the Europeans, are much more sentimental in their
+music. The Fijian is more vigorous and to me more truly artistic.
+
+No study, it seems to me, would throw more light on the history and
+unity of the human race than that of the dance and music. Why two races
+so far apart as the Japanese and the Maories of New Zealand should be so
+strikingly alike in their cruder dances, is hard to say. And the Fijians
+seem in some way the link between these two. The Fijian doubtless
+inherits some of his musical qualities from his negroid mixture, but he
+has certainly improved upon it if that is so. He has no regrets, no
+sentimental longings, and in consequence his songs are free from racial
+affectation.
+
+The Fijians always sing. The instant the day's work is done and groups
+form they begin to sing. Half a dozen of them sit down and cross their
+legs before them, each places a stick so that one end rests lightly on
+one toe, the other on the ground; and while they tap upon these sticks,
+others sing and clap hands, swaying in an enchantment of loveliness. One
+carries the melody in a strained tenor, the others support him with a
+bass drawl. Once in a while an instrument is secured, as a flute, and
+the ensemble is complete. Even the tapping on the stick becomes
+instrumental in its quality.
+
+As the day draws to a close, from the cane-fields smoke rises in all
+directions. The plantation workers have gathered piles of cane refuse
+for destruction. Like miniature volcanoes, these, with the coming of
+darkness, shine in the lightless night. It makes one slightly sad, this
+clearing away of the remnants of daily toil, this purification by fire.
+Then the sound of that other lali (the hollow tree-trunk), once the
+war-alarum or call to a cannibal feast, now at Davuilevu the invitation
+to prayer, the dampness, and the sense of crowding things in
+growth,--this is what will ever remain vivid to me.
+
+
+9
+
+Poor untroubled Fijians! This simple love of harmony, a majestic sense
+of force and brutality,--yet, withal, so naïve, withal so easily
+satisfied, so easily led. Once a foreigner met a native who seemed in
+great haste and trembling. The native inquired the time, in dread lest
+he miss the launch for Suva. In his hand he carried a warrant for his
+own arrest, with instructions to present himself at jail. When the
+foreigner told him that it was up to the jailer to worry about it, he
+seemed greatly shocked. One of the missionaries had been asked to keep
+his eye on a friend's house. In the absence of the owner, the missionary
+found a Fijian in the act of burglarizing. When questioned it was found
+that the native wanted to get into jail, where he was sure of three
+meals and shade, without worry. This is almost worthy of civilized man,
+by whom it is perhaps more commonly practised.
+
+But the kind of jail in which men were at that time incarcerated was not
+enough to frighten the most liberty-loving individual. Because of the
+humidity and dampness, the structure was left open on one side, only
+three substantial walls and a roof being practical. Before the white man
+got full control and the native had some iron injected into his nature,
+it was not an arduous life the prisoners led. The missionary told me
+that once the head jailer was found sitting out of sight, with the
+officer in charge of the prisoners, tilting his chair against the wall
+of the jail. The prisoners had been ordered to labor. The officer in
+charge was to execute the command. Between puffs of tobacco, he would
+shout: "Up shot!" and rest a while; then "Down shot!"--more rest. Not a
+prisoner moved a muscle, the weights never rose from the ground. The men
+were deep within the shadows. The period of punishment over, they were
+ordered into their heaven of still more rest and more shade.
+
+From our way of thinking, these are flagrant deceptions. But to the
+Fijian (and to most South Sea races) the inducements for greater
+exertion are simply non-existent. His revelries have been tabooed, his
+wars have been stopped, his native arts are in constant competition with
+cheap importations from our commercialized, industrialized world. What
+is there, then, for him to do? Little wonder that his native
+indifference to life is growing upon him. His conception of life after
+death never held many horrors. Even in the fierce old days it was easy
+for a Fijian to announce most casually that he would die at eight
+o'clock the following day. He would be oiled and made ready, and at the
+stated time he died. Most likely a state of catalepsy, but he was buried
+and none thought a second time about it. One boy was recently roused
+from such a condition and still lives.
+
+The only means of counteracting this apathy are education and the
+awakening of ambition through manual training and the teaching of
+trades. This, the head of the mission told me, was his main object.
+Missionary efforts, according to one man, were directed more to this
+purpose than to the inculcation of any special religious precepts. And
+there is no question that that will work. The will to live may yet
+spring afresh in the Fijian.
+
+From the nucleus formed by the mission is growing a more elaborate
+educational system. Recently the several existing schools have been
+amalgamated under a new ordinance. A proposal in reference to a more
+efficient system of vernacular or sub-primary schools was embodied in a
+bill put before the legislative council. A more satisfactory method of
+training teachers was deliberated upon. The Fijians are, it is seen,
+outgrowing the kindergarten stage, but the grown-ups are largely
+children still.
+
+
+10
+
+A fortnight after I landed in Suva I was steaming for Levuka, the former
+capital of the islands, situated on a much smaller land-drop not many
+hours' journey away. These are the only two important ports in the
+group, and inter-island vessels seldom go to one without visiting the
+other. Levuka is a much prettier place than Suva. Its little clusters of
+homes and buildings seem to have dug their heels into the hillside to
+keep from sliding into the sea.
+
+Along the shore to the left stood a group of Fijian huts,--a suburb of
+Levuka, no doubt. Only a few old women were at home, and one old man.
+Nothing in the wide world is more restful to one's spirit than to arrive
+at a village which is deserted of toilers. Nothing is more symbolic of
+the true nature of home, the village being more than an isolated home,
+but a composite of the home spirit which is not tainted by any evidence
+of barter and trade.
+
+On the other side of Levuka, however, was an altogether different kind
+of village, that of the shipwrights. Upon dry-docks stood the skeletons
+of ships, fashioned with hands of love and ambition. In such vessels
+these ancient rovers of the sea wandered from island to island,
+learning, teaching, mixing, and disturbing the sweetness of nature, with
+which no race on earth was more blessed.
+
+The _Atua_, on which I had sailed from Suva, was a fairly large
+inter-island steamer that made the rounds of all the important groups.
+She was bound for Samoa, whither I had determined to go. There is no
+better opportunity of getting a glimpse of the contrast between the
+natives of the various South Sea islands than on board one of these
+inter-island vessels. They are generally manned by the natives of one of
+the groups,--in this case, the Fijians. These men handle the cargo at
+all ports, and remain on board until the vessel returns to Fiji en route
+to the Antipodes. They feed and sleep on the open deck and make
+themselves as happy and as noisy as they can. A gasoline tin of tea,
+baked potatoes, hard biscuit, and a chunk of fat meat, which is all
+placed before them on the dirty deck (they are given no napkins),--that
+is Fijian joy.
+
+After their work, which in port sometimes keeps them up till the morning
+hours, these strange creatures, untroubled by thought, stretch
+themselves on the wooden hatchway and sleep. There I found them at
+half-past five in the morning, all covered with the one large sheet of
+canvas and never a nose poking out. Air! Perhaps they got some through a
+little hole in the great sheet. Some stood and slept like tired,
+overworked horses.
+
+One queer Fijian with turbaned head grinned in imitation of none other
+than himself, a vague, undefined curiosity rolling about in his skull.
+He followed me everywhere, his white eyes staring and his mouth wide
+open. Here was a future Fijian statesman in the process of formation.
+His nebular, chaotic mentality was taking note of a creature as far
+removed from his understanding as a star from his reach.
+
+  [Illustration: ONE OF THE MOST GIFTED OF FIJIAN CHIEFS
+  But who said that the wearing of hats causes baldness (?)]
+
+  [Illustration: CACARINI (KATHERINE), THE CHIEF'S DAUGHTER
+  In her filet gown of Parisian simplicity]
+
+  [Illustration: FIJIANS DANCE FROM THE HIP UP]
+
+  [Illustration: A FIJIAN WEDDING
+  Puzzle: find the bride. No, not the one with the hoop-skirt; that's
+  the groom]
+
+One white soldier, an elderly man, wished to protect himself from the
+wind, and asked a Fijian to haul over a piece of canvas. The black
+man did so, but when the boatswain saw it, he was enraged. The Fijian
+took all the scolding, said never a word, and quickly replaced the
+sheet. As the boatswain moved away, the soldier handed the native a
+cigarette, saying: "Have one of these, old sport. One must expect
+reverses in war." The native grinned and felt the row was worth while.
+
+There were Tongans, Indians, Samoans, and whites on board, and though
+these are nearer kin to us, I liked the Fijians most. Yet the Tongans
+are an attractive lot, refined in feature, in manner, and in person.
+Perhaps that is why they have the distinction of being the only South
+Sea people with their own kingdom, a cabinet, and a parliament.
+
+The noise the Fijians make while in port is excruciating. It is
+something unclassifiable. They roll their r's, shout as though mad with
+anger, and then burst out in childish laughter at nothing. These boyish
+barbarians enjoy themselves much more in yelling than they would in
+chorus with a Caruso. How torrential is the stream of invective which
+issues against some fellow-laborer! With what a terrific crash it falls
+upon its victim! But how utter the disappointment when, after one has
+expectantly waited for a scrap, a gurgle of hilarity breaks from the
+throats which the moment before seemed such sirens of hate and malice!
+
+And so they toil, happy to appear important, busy, honestly busy,
+loading the thousands of crates of green bananas, the cargo which passes
+to and fro. Happier than the happiest, sharing the scraps of a meal
+without the growl so common among our sailors, each always seems to get
+just what he wants and helps in the distribution of the portions to the
+others. The missus never bothers him, no matter how long he is away, and
+instantly labor ceases the group is "spiritualized" into a singing
+society and the racial opera is in full swing.
+
+I had anticipated relief at their absence when the steamer set off for
+the colder regions south. Yet something pleasant was gone out of life
+the moment the ship steamed out. The sailors moved about like pale
+ghosts who had mechanically wandered back to a joyless life. The white
+man's virtues are his burdens. His tasks are done so that he may
+purchase pleasure. The ship was orderly, everything took its place, even
+the cursing and yelling came within control. We were heading again for
+civilization.
+
+I felt somewhat like the old folks after their wish had rid the town of
+all mischievous little boys, and my heart strained back for an inward
+glimpse of the life behind. The smell of mold and copra returned; the
+damp beds; the cool, clear night air; the moonlight upon the shallow
+reefs; dappled gray breakers, playing upon the shore as upon a child's
+ocean; in the dark, along Victoria Parade, the shuffle of bare feet in
+the dust, the dim figures of tall, bushy-haired men and slim, wiry
+Hindus; the thud of heeled boots on the dry earth. And far off there,
+the sound of the lali, the singing of deep voices, the vision of an
+earthly paradise,--shattered by the sighting of land ahead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE SENTIMENTAL SAMOANS
+
+
+1
+
+On the _Niagara_ was a troupe of Samoan men and women who had been to
+San Francisco demonstrating their arts at the Panama-Pacific Exhibition.
+This, our meeting on the wide, syrup-like tropical sea seemed to me
+almost a welcome, a coming out to greet me and to lead me to the portals
+of their home. They were en route to Suva, Fiji, where they were to
+await an inter-island vessel to take them to Samoa. They were traveling
+third class, and the way I discovered them is not to their discredit. We
+were becoming more or less bored with life on deck, the games of ship
+tennis and quoits being too obviously make-believe to be entertaining.
+At times I would get as far away from the gregarious passengers as
+possible, and again a number of us would gather upon the hatchway and
+read or chatter. It was a thick latticed covering, and the warm air from
+below none too agreeable. But with it rose strains of strange melodies,
+as from Neptune's regions of the deep. Peering down, we espied a number
+of Samoan men and women, lounging upon the floor of the hold. We took
+our reputations in our hands and made the descent.
+
+There were big, burly men and broad, sprawling women, half-naked and
+asleep. One could see at a glance that they had been spoiled by the
+attention they had received while on exhibition at the fair, but the
+freedom of life among third-class passengers somewhat softened the
+acquired stiffness, and they relaxed again into native ways. Hour by
+hour, as the vessel moved southward, they seemed to come back to life,
+to thaw out as it were, while we were wilting by degrees.
+
+The scene was one which could have been found only in tropical waters
+under the burning sun. Smoke, bare feet, nakedness, people fat with the
+sprawly fatness which is the style of the South Seas, unwashed
+sailors,--a medley of people and cargo and steamer stench. But also of
+the sweetly monotonous song of the Samoan girl, the swishing of the
+water against the nose of the ship in the twilight without, and the
+steady push of the vessel toward the equator.
+
+I whiled away many a pleasant hour, learning a few of the native words
+in song and gossip. It is hard to distinguish one native from the other
+at first, but Fulaanu stood out above the rest like a creature
+over-imbued with good-nature. She was flat, flabby, with a drawl in
+speech that had the effect not only in her voice but her entire bearing
+of a leaning Tower of Pisa. Her body bent backward, her head was tilted
+up, and her long, prominent nose also slanted almost with pride. She was
+an enormous girl, plain, soft, with absolutely no fighting-spirit in
+her, but she stood her ground against all masculine advances with a
+charm that was in itself teasingly alluring. She was always flanked on
+each side by a sailor. They pretended to teach her the ukulele, they
+proffered English lessons, they found one excuse after another for being
+near her, and she never shooed them away; but I'd swear by all the gods
+that not one of them ever more than held her hand or leaned lovingly
+against her.
+
+Yet Fulaanu was as sentimental a maiden as I have ever laid eyes on. She
+was constantly drawling some sentimental song she had learned in
+California, the ukulele was seldom out of her hands, she never joined in
+any of the card games going on constantly roundabout her, and she was
+always ready to swap songs with any one willing to teach her.
+
+"I teach you my language," she said to me, and slowly, with twinkling
+eyes, she pronounced certain words which I repeated. We had often taught
+French to our boys at our little school in California in that way,--the
+Marseillaise, for instance,--and the method was not strange to me. She
+used the song method, too, an old English song that was just then the
+rage in Samoa. The English words run somewhat like this:
+
+  And you will take my hand
+    As you did when you took my name;
+  But it's only a beautiful picture,
+    In a beautiful golden frame.
+
+I'm sure I have them all muddled, but let me hum this tune to myself and
+immediately Fulaanu, the hold, Fiji, Samoa, and all the scents and
+sounds of savagedom come instantly to my mind. For everywhere I went
+they were singing this song, through their noses but with all the
+sentimental ardor of the young flapper; as at a summer resort in America
+when a new song hit has been made, the sound of it is heard from
+delivery boy to housemaid and as many different renderings of it as
+individual temperament demands.
+
+There was Setu, too,--tall, straight, with that easy grace known only
+among people free of clothes. Setu spoke English very well, and was as
+companionable a chap as one could pick up in many a mile. But Setu's
+heart was not his own; he stood guardian over a treasure he had found in
+San Francisco. Not an American girl, no, sir! These savage boys did not
+play the devil in our land as our savages do in theirs. But Setu was the
+personification of chivalry, and, what was more, he was in love. To look
+at him and then at her was to despair of human instinct of natural
+selection. How an Apollo of his excellence should have been unable to
+find a more handsome objet d'amour, I cannot imagine. She was short,
+well rounded, with a head as square as Fulaanu's was oblong, and a nose
+as snubby as Fulaanu's was romanesque. She was evidently committed, body
+and soul, to Setu for she was as devoid of charm for the others as
+Fulaanu was full of it. And so all day long, Setu and his sweetheart
+hugged each other in a corner, as oblivious of the presence of a
+ship-load of people as though they had been ensconced in a hut of their
+own. They were evidently taking advantage of proximity to civilization,
+for such immodest behavior is not frequent in the tropics. Civilization
+had taught the savages some things at least. Whenever Setu was free from
+love-making, he would spare a moment to me, and on those rare occasions
+he stirred my spirit with promises of guidance in his native island that
+threatened to exhaust my funds.
+
+The romantic associations we have with the South Seas were in this group
+reversed, for to these primitive people the greatest romance imaginable
+came with their journey to America. There young people from different
+islands met and fell in love with one another; there, under the benign
+influence of American spooning, one couple was married, and there their
+first baby was born,--an American subject, brought back to Pago Pago
+(American Samoa) to resume his citizenship. There they learned true
+modesty, which comprised stockings and heavy boys' shoes; the art of
+playing solitaire, in which one fat, matronly-looking woman indulged all
+day as though she had been brought along as chaperon and felt herself
+considerably out of it; and even en route for home they were learning
+the art of striking by calculation and without passion or frenzy.
+
+I was sitting on the hatch with Fulaanu, who was strumming away on her
+ukulele, when a ring was formed in the middle of the hold and a young
+white man began boxing with a Samoan. The white boxer was obviously an
+amateur, bearing himself with all the unpleasant mannerisms of his
+profession,--a haughty, pugnacious, overbearing self-conceit. He had
+every advantage in training over his antagonist, whom he peppered
+vigorously. He kept it up when it was evident that the young Samoan was
+going under. One last blow and the fellow doubled over, bleeding from
+nose and mouth. It took ten minutes to bring him round. In the
+meanwhile, the victor of the unfair bout strutted around as though he
+had accomplished something remarkable.
+
+It was interesting to see the effect this had on the "primitive"
+Samoans. There was consternation among them; a hush came over the hold.
+The vibration of the steamer and the splashing of the water against its
+iron side alone broke the stillness. The Samoan girls, though they did
+not grow hysterical, were most decidedly displeased, turning in disgust
+from the sight of blood. Yet according to our notions they are
+primitive, and the fact is that a few generations ago they were savages.
+
+But they were not long in distress. The spell of the equatorial sun was
+upon them, and they soon relaxed. There upon mats, as in their own huts,
+lay rows of fat, large, voluptuous men and women; nor was there even a
+rope to separate the sexes as in an up-to-date Japanese bath. They
+seemed to sleep all day, in shifts governed by impulse only. A woman
+would rise and move about a while, then go back to lounge again.
+Enormous, broad-shouldered and black mustached men would snore gently,
+rise and inspect life, and decide that slumber was better for one's
+soul. But Fulaanu lounged with her ukulele, surrounded by amorous
+sailors who gazed longingly into her eyes.
+
+One night we arranged for a meeting of the "classes." We promised the
+Samoans a good collection if they would come and dance for us on deck.
+We invited the first-class folk to come, too. They stood as far to one
+side of us as was consonant with first-class dignity represented by an
+extra few pounds sterling in the price of the ticket. But for a moment
+we forgot that there were class and race in the world.
+
+It was not one of those interminable revelries one reads about, that
+begin with twilight and end with twilight. On the contrary, it was a
+little squall of entertainment, one that breaks out of a clear sky and
+leaves the sky just as clear in a trice. There was no occasion for
+self-expression here. They had been asked to dance for our
+entertainment, not for theirs. There we stood, ready to applaud; there
+they were, ready to be applauded, to receive the collection promised. It
+was another little thing they had picked up in our world, from our
+civilization,--the commercialization of art. Our artists, scribes, and
+entertainers have been considerably raised above prostitution of their
+talents by a certain commercialization, by the translation of their
+worth in dollars and cents; and we need a little more of it to free art
+from bondage to patronage. But in the tropics, where the dance and
+jollity are no private matters, there is something sterile in
+commercialization. No doubt to the natives there is little difference
+between a woman giving herself for gain and a man dancing for the money
+there is in it without the whole group becoming part of the performance:
+the dancer feels that his purchaser, his public, is cold and
+unresponsive. And so it seemed to me at this dance. They finished, they
+expected their money, they got it and departed, and there seemed
+something immoral to me in the exploitation of their emotions.
+
+What a different lot they were one night when I visited the little house
+they rented in Suva while waiting for the _Atua_ to arrive from New
+Zealand and take them on to Samoa. There it was song and dance out of
+sheer ecstasy: life was so full. They were again in their home
+atmosphere, and their voices only helped swell the volume of song which
+issued forth everywhere about,--an electrification of humanity all along
+the line, in village after village.
+
+They hung about the pier before sailing for Samoa till after midnight,
+singing sentimental songs and hobnobbing with the Fijians. The Fijian
+constable joined them with a flute, and the lot of them tried to drown
+out the voices of the natives loading and unloading cargo. Not until
+notice was given that the ship was about to get under steam did they
+think of going aboard. They looked as though ready for rest, but by no
+means dissipated, by no means weary. The spell of song was still upon
+them.
+
+When we woke next morning, we were tied up to a pier at the foot of the
+hills of Levuka. But I have already dwelt upon the features of this
+former capital, and am only concerned with it here as it was reflected
+in the eyes of the Samoans. Levuka to me was one thing; to them it was
+quite another. The moldy little stores afforded them more interest than
+the village to the left, or the shipyards to the right which were to my
+Western notions commendable.
+
+I followed in the wake of these gliding natives as we left the steamer.
+They looked neither to the right nor to the left, but wended their ways,
+like cattle in the pasture, straight toward the shops. Into one and out
+the other they went, bargaining, pricing, buying little trinkets and
+simple cloths, chatting with the Fijians as though friends of old.
+
+Setu's sweetheart and the pretty mother of the young American citizen,
+who was left in the care of the fat "chaperon," set off by themselves
+through the one and only street of Levuka. It was obvious that they were
+quite aware of whither they were going,--so direct was their journey. My
+curiosity was roused and I wandered along with them. They said never a
+word to me, nor objected to my presence. We turned to the left, off into
+a side street that began to insinuate its way along the bed of a stream
+lined with wooden huts and shacks. Some of these were fairly well
+constructed, with verandas, like the houses of a miniature American
+town, garlanded in flowers. Just above the village, where the stream
+began to emerge from behind a rocky little gorge, the two women turned
+in at a gate to a private cottage. A bridge led across the stream to
+the little house, the veranda of which extended slightly over the
+stream. Beneath, in a corner formed by a projecting boulder, lay a quiet
+little pool of water--clear, cool, fresh and deep.
+
+Without asking permission from the owners, the women began slowly,
+cautiously to wade into the pool. Seeing that I had no thought of going,
+they put modesty aside, slipped the loose garments down to their waists
+and immersed themselves up to their necks. One of them was tattooed from
+below her breasts to her hips; the other's breasts alone bore these
+designs. They dipped and rose, splashed and spluttered, but there was
+none of that intimacy with their own flesh which is the essence of
+cleanliness and passion in our world. There was no soap, no scrubbing.
+It was something objective, almost, a contact with nature like looking
+at a landscape or listening to a storm.
+
+Presently some of the inmates of the cottage, evidently well-to-do
+Fijians, came out to greet them. I could not tell whether they were
+friends or not, but the women were invited in,--and I turned into town
+through back roads and alleys that were just like the back roads and
+alleys anywhere in the world.
+
+That afternoon we steamed out again for Apia, Samoa. The sea was
+disturbed somewhat and gave us various sensations; but the vile odors
+that threatened my nautical pride never changed.
+
+Most of the Samoans were under the weather. They did not look cheerful,
+and all song was gone out of them. Setu and his sweetheart were here
+even more inseparable than on the _Niagara_. She was not very well and
+stretched out on the bench on the edge of which he took his seat. In her
+squeamish condition she could hardly be expected to pay much attention
+to proprieties she had acquired in less than a year's residence in
+America. Her sprawly bare feet on several occasions made too bold an
+exit from beneath the loose Mother-Hubbard gown she wore, and each time
+Setu would draw the skirt farther over them, affectionately pressing
+them with his hand. This one instance, exceptional as it was, made me
+notice more consciously the absence of that public intimacy which is the
+bane of the prude with us. Not all the charm of the tropics which is so
+real to me can take the place of the cleanliness of the West, the
+tenderness of clean men and women in public, to be observed even on our
+crowded subways, the loveliness of white skin tinged with pink and
+scented with the essence of flowers.
+
+I did not see them again before we arrived at Samoa the next day; the
+sea was too choppy. But in the afternoon Setu came out with a pillow
+held aloft over his head, and declared he would take a nap. There was
+childish glee in his face at the prospect, and he stretched out on the
+hard deck in perfect ease. And long after I ceased to figure in his
+fancies, the beaming, sparkling eyes and merry grin seemed to light up
+the soul within him.
+
+Toward sundown we passed the first island of the group,--Savaii, the
+largest. It lay at our left, Mua Peak emitting a sluggish smoke from
+reaches beyond the depth of the waters which had nearly submerged it,
+and as the sea made furious charges into blow-holes or half-submerged
+caverns, the earth spit back the invading waters with an easy contempt.
+
+At our right lay the island of Manono, much smaller, and nearer our
+course. Shy Samoan villages hid in little ravines, almost afraid to show
+their faces.
+
+Shortly after eight o'clock we neared the island of Upolu. The troupe of
+Samoans came out on deck with the eagerness in their eyes that marks
+such arrivals at every port of the world. The lights of the village of
+Apia pricked the delicate evening haze. One strong, steady lamp, like a
+planet, shone from above the others. Setu called to me eagerly, his
+right hand pointing toward it.
+
+"That is from Vailima, Stevenson's home," he said, with some pride.
+
+When at last we anchored just outside the reefs before Apia, these
+natives, who had grown close to one another during the year of their
+pilgrimage, began bidding one another farewell before slipping back to
+the little separate grooves they called home. The women kissed one
+another, cheek touching cheek at an angle, a practice common both at
+meeting (_talofa_) and at parting (_tofa_). But with the men they only
+shook hands. Then, clambering over into canoes, they were borne across
+the reefs to their homes. And as long as Polynesia is Polynesia there
+will echo the stories of this journey to the land of the white man and
+all children will know that what the white man said about his lands is
+true.
+
+
+2
+
+The reader who has never entered a strange port nor come home from
+foreign lands will not be able to imagine the psychological effect of my
+entry of Samoa. Not only did the thousands of eyes of the natives seem
+to turn their gaze upon me, but it seemed, and I was quite sure, that at
+least two thousand pale faces with as many bayonets were fixed upon me.
+Samoa was under occupation. I asked the captain of the forces what I
+could do to avoid trouble.
+
+"See that you don't get shot," he said. I assured him there was nothing
+nearer my heart's desire, and, seeing that I looked harmless, he
+ventured to reassure me: "Oh, just keep away from the wireless. That's
+all." I had come to see the natives, not electric gymnastics, so I found
+it very easy to keep away from the wireless.
+
+What there was of Apia was essentially European and lay along the
+waterfront. Here stood the three-story hotel, built and until then
+managed by Germans. Diagonally across from it and nearer the water's
+edge, was a two-story ramshackle building even then run by Germans. The
+little barber to whom I had been directed spoke with a most decided
+German accent. He cut and shampooed my hair, but let me walk out with as
+much of a souse on top of my head as I ever had in a shower-bath.
+Wherever I went were Germans,--and yet they said the islands were under
+occupation. Turn to the right and there, back off the street within a
+small compound that seemed to lie flat and low, was a German school
+still being conducted by black-bearded German priests. But to the left,
+within the dark-red fence, stood the dark-red buildings of the German
+Plantation Company, closed, and the little building that once was the
+German Club had become the British Club; while at the other end of the
+street were the office buildings of the military staff, where once ruled
+the German militarists. In between, in a little building a block or two
+behind the waterfront, was the printing-office,--where, strange to say,
+the daily paper was still being printed in both German and English. With
+the few structures that filled in the gaps between these outposts we had
+small concern. They were the nests of traders, the haven of so-called
+beach-combers and the barracks and missionary compounds. And alien Samoa
+is at an end.
+
+Mindful of the mild instructions not to get myself shot, I took as
+little interest in the details of occupation as was compatible with my
+sense of freedom; but this course was precarious, for at the time any
+one who was not with us was against us. However, details of such
+differences must be reserved for a later chapter. Here we are interested
+in Samoa itself. But in my very interest in the place I struck a snag,
+for every other day Germans were being deported or coraled for
+attempting to stir up a native uprising. Still, inasmuch as I could not
+acquire the language in so short a time, I felt secure, and took to the
+paths that led to the Stone Age as a Dante without a love-affair to
+guide him.
+
+The island is hemmed in by coral reefs on the edge of which the waves
+break, spreading in foam and gliding quietly toward shore. As they sport
+in the brilliant sunlight, it seems as though the sea were calling back
+the life lost to it through evolution. The tall, gaunt palms which lean
+toward the sea, bow in a humble helplessness. There, a quarter of a mile
+out, upon the unseen reefs, lies the iron skeleton of the _Adler_, the
+German man-of-war which was wrecked on the memorable day in 1889. Such
+seems to be the fate of the Germans: even their skeletons outlive
+disaster. But the sea has been the protector of the natives. It would be
+interesting to speculate as to what course events about the South Seas
+would have taken had not that hurricane intervened. The natives are
+indifferent to such speculations; for, as far as they were concerned,
+one turn was as good as another. Borne over the swelling waves from
+island drift to island drift, the ups and downs of eternity seem to
+leave no great changes in their lives.
+
+Roaming along the waterfront to the left of Apia with the sun near high
+noon, all by myself, I met with nothing to disturb the utter sweetness
+and glory of life about. I wavered between moods of exquisite
+exhilaration and deep depression. Bound by the encircling consciousness
+of the occupation, the sense of wrong done these natives who had neither
+asked for our civilization nor invited us to squabble over their
+"bones," I felt that but for the presence of the white man this would
+have been the loveliest land in the world. For here one becomes aware of
+nature as something altogether different from nature anywhere else. That
+distant pleading of the sea; the gentle yielding of the palms to the
+landborn breezes,--there was much more than peace and ease; there was
+absolute harmony. But where was man?
+
+I became restless. Nature was not sufficient. I went to seek out man,
+for at that hour there was none of him anywhere about. I was, for all
+intents and purposes, absolutely the only human being on that island.
+Every one else had taken to cool retreats. But where should I go? I
+wondered. I knew no one, and the sense of loneliness I had for a while
+forgotten came back to me with a rush. For a moment I was again in
+civilization, again in a world of fences and locked doors. "I will go
+and look up Setu," I thought. "He promised to guide me about Samoa. I
+have his address. I'll look up Setu." So I turned back toward the hills
+and in among the palm groves, where I could see the huts of the village
+of Mulinuu, where Setu lived.
+
+When I arrived I realized why I had suddenly become conscious of my
+loneliness. Throughout the village there wasn't a soul abroad. The domes
+of thatch resting on circles of smooth pillars were deserted, it seemed,
+and the fresh coolness that coursed freely within their shade was
+untasted. Nowhere upon the broad, grassy fields beneath the palms was
+there a walking thing; and I was a total stranger. It was slightly
+bewildering, as though I were in a graveyard, or a village from which
+the inhabitants had all gone. I approached one of the huts and found, to
+my satisfaction, that there was a human being there. It was a woman,
+attending to her household duties. She was just under the eaves on the
+outside, beside the floor of the hut, which was like a circular stage
+raised a foot or two above the ground, and paved with loose shingles
+from the shore. I hardly knew how to approach her, not thinking she
+might know my language.
+
+"Good afternoon," she said in perfect English. "Sit down." The shock was
+pleasant. So there were no fences or doors to social intercourse in
+Samoa, after all. Still, I must find Setu. I asked her where I could
+locate his home. Before directing me, she chatted a while and assured me
+that I could go to any one of the huts about and make myself
+comfortable. I was not to hesitate, as it was the custom of the country
+and in no way unusual. She was a fine-looking woman, robust and tall,
+genial and attentive, as housewifely a person as could be found
+anywhere. I have since had occasion to talk with many a housewife in New
+Zealand and Australia when searching for private quarters and cannot say
+that their manners, their dress, their regard for a stranger's welfare
+in any way exceeded those of this woman who had nothing to offer me but
+rest and no wish for reward but my content.
+
+Taking her directions, I turned across the village to where she said
+Setu could be found. Beneath the shade of a palm squatted a group of men
+who when they spied me called for me to come over to them. Had I not
+been on curiosity bent, I should have regarded their request as sheer
+impudence, for when I arrived they wanted me to employ them as guides.
+It was amusing. Instead of running after hire, they commanded the
+stranger to come to them. It was too comfortable under the spreading
+palm branches. I told them that I had arranged with Setu to guide me and
+was in search of him. They began running Setu down. He was
+untrustworthy, they assured me, and would charge me too high a price.
+Then they asked me what my business was, what Setu had said, when he was
+going,--everything imaginable. But never an inch would they move to show
+me the way to Setu's house. I wandered about for a while, inquiring of
+one stray individual and another, but no one had seen Setu, and at last
+I learned that he had left the village early that morning for his
+father's place, far inland, and would not return. Setu had gone back on
+me. He had promised to call for me with his horse and buggy and convey
+me over the island. But Setu had forsaken me, and there was nothing to
+do but to make the best of the day right there.
+
+Taking the word of the well-spoken woman, I approached the most
+attractive-looking hut, where sat a number of people roundabout the
+pillars. It was a mansion-like establishment even to my inexperienced
+judgment of huts. It was roofed with corrugated iron instead of thatch,
+and the pillars were unusually straight and smooth. The raised floor was
+very neatly spread with selected, smooth, flat stones four to five
+inches in diameter, and framed with a rim of concrete. Fine straw mats
+lay like rugs over a polished parquet floor at all angles to one
+another, and straw drop curtains hung rolled up under the eaves, to be
+lowered in case of rain or hurricane. The floor space must have been at
+least thirty-five feet in diameter, and it was plain that each
+inhabitant occupied his own section of the hut round the outer circle.
+
+I was cordially greeted and invited to rest, which I did by sitting on
+the ground with my legs out, and my back to a pillar for support. From
+the quiet and decorum it was evident that the householders were
+entertaining guests. Each couple or family sat upon its own mats. There
+were twelve adults and three children. It happened that the man who
+greeted me and bade me be seated was the guest of honor, a gentleman
+from Rarotanga, passing through Samoa on his way to Fiji. He was a very
+refined-looking individual, and made me feel that the Rarotangans were a
+superior race, but the contrary is true. However, his regular features
+and courtly manners were a distinction which might well have led to such
+a supposition. His handsome wife, who sat with him, was as retiring as a
+Japanese woman, and as considerate of his comfort.
+
+The others were set in pairs all round the hut. At the extreme left were
+two women, sewing; opposite us, a man and woman apportioning the
+victuals; to my right, a man and a woman grinding the ava root
+preparatory to the making of the drink. Farther way squatted a very fat
+woman, with barely a covering over her breasts, which were full as
+though she were in the nursing-stage. The children moved about freely
+neither disturbing nor being curbed. In the center of the company sat
+two men, one evidently the head of the family, with his back up against
+a pillar, the other his equal in some relationship.
+
+The dinner was being served by a portly individual, a man who could not
+have been exactly a servant, yet who did not act as though he were a
+member of the family. He passed round the ample supply of fish, meats,
+and vegetables on enamel plates, his services always being acknowledged
+graciously. No one looked at or noticed his neighbor, but indulged with
+the aid of spoon or finger as he saw fit, and had any made a _faux pas_
+there would have been none the wiser. That, I thought, was true
+politeness.
+
+Dinner over, the remains were removed and each person leaned back
+against the nearest pillar. After a slight pause, the eldest man, he in
+the center of the hut, clapped his hands, and uttered a gentle sound, as
+one satisfied would say: "Well! Let's get down to business." But it was
+nothing so serious or so material as that. It was ava-drinking time. The
+polished cocoanut bowl was passed round, by the same old waiter, to the
+man whose name was called aloud by the head of the household, and each
+time all the rest clapped hands two or three times to cheer his cup. It
+was like the Japanese method of "ringing" for a servant, not like our
+applause. Then fruits were passed around. Cocoanuts, soft and ripe, the
+outer shell like the skin of an alligator pear and easily cut with an
+ordinary knife, were first in order, after which the companion of the
+man in the middle of the hut, like a magician on the stage, drew out of
+mysterious regions an enormous pineapple which may have been thirty
+inches in circumference. It might have had elephantiasis, for all I
+knew, but it was the cause of the only bit of disharmony I had noticed
+during the entire time I rested with them. The man to whom it fell to
+dispense its juicy contents--he who had sat unobtrusively beside the
+head of the house now found it necessary to stretch his legs in order
+the better to carve the fruity porcupine. The shock to my sense of form
+the moment I caught sight of those legs was enough to dissipate my
+greediest interest in the pineapple. They were twice the size of the
+fruit, and as knotty. He was suffering from elephantiasis of the legs,
+poor man,--a disease, according to the encyclopædia, "dependent on
+chronic lymphatic obstruction, and characterized by hypertrophy of the
+skin and subcutaneous tissue." Morbid persons seem to enjoy taking away
+with them photographs of people affected by this hideous disease in
+various parts of the body, but it was enough for me that I saw this one
+case; and sorry enough was I that I saw it at that quiet, peaceful hut,
+from which I should otherwise have carried away the loveliest of
+memories.
+
+For as soon as the meal was over, and the ava-drinking at an end,
+pleasures more intellectual were in order. Neighbors began to arrive,
+including the fine woman who had urged me to rest wherever I wished. As
+each new guest appeared, he passed round on the outside and shook hands
+with those to whom he was introduced, finally finding a quiet corner.
+
+When the interruptions ceased, the head of the house began to speak in a
+low, reflective tone of voice. All the others relaxed, as do men and
+women over their cigarettes. My Tongan neighbor acted as interpreter for
+me, being the only person present who could speak English. The head of
+the house was telling some family legend, the point of which was the
+friendship between his forefathers and the fathers of this Tongan guest.
+Then one at a time, quietly, in a subdued tone, each one present
+expressed his gratitude for the hospitality extended, or recited some
+family reminiscence. There wasn't the slightest affectation, nor the
+semblance of an argument. Here, then, was Thoreau's principle of
+hospitality actually being practised. As each one spoke he gazed out
+upon the open sky decorated with the broad green leaves of the palm.
+Sometimes the listeners smiled at some witticism, but most of the time
+they were interested in a sober way. Last of all arose the companion of
+the head of the house, upon his heavy, elephantine legs, and in a
+dramatic manner--probably made to seem more so by the tragic distortion
+of his limbs--related a story, several times emphasizing a
+generalization by a sweep of the hands toward the open world about.
+
+A gentle breeze crept down from the hills and swept its way among the
+pillars of this peaceful hut and skipped on through the palms out to
+sea. As far as the eye could reach through the village there was no sign
+of uncleanliness, no stifling enclosures, no frills to catch the unwary.
+
+The afternoon was well-nigh gone when I moved reluctantly away from this
+charmed spot. Slowly life was becoming more discontented with ease and
+bestirred itself to the satisfaction of wants. A few hours of toil, in
+the gathering of fruits, and one phase of tropical life was rounded out.
+It might be more pleasant to believe that that is the only side, but
+such faith is treacherous. The life of the average South Sea islander is
+as arduous as any. Fruits there are usually a-plenty, but they must be
+gathered and stored against famine and storm. Be that as it may, the
+open life, the things one has which require only wishing to make them
+one's own, the uncramped open world,--by that much every man is
+millionaire in the tropics, and it is pleasant to forget if one can that
+there is exploitation, despoliation, and oppression as well, both of
+native and of alien origin. But for the time at least we may as well
+enjoy that which is lovely.
+
+
+3
+
+That night I witnessed the usual events at the British Club. The
+substance of the evening's conversation, every word of which was in my
+own language, was quite foreign to me. It comprised "Dr. Funk" and
+his special services in counteracting dengue fever. The aim and object
+of every man there seemed to be to make me drink, quite against my will.
+A visiting doctor added the weight of his learning to induce me to turn
+from heedlessly falling a victim to fever by engaging "Dr. Funk." I was
+inclined to dub him "Dr. Bunk," but why arouse animosity in the tropics?
+there is enough of it.
+
+  [Illustration: THE STREET ALONG THE WATERFRONT OF APIA, SAMOA]
+
+  [Illustration: I THOUGHT THE VILLAGE BACK OF APIA, SAMOA, WAS
+  DESERTED, BUT IT WAS ONLY THE NOON HOUR]
+
+  [Illustration: CONTACT WITH CALIFORNIA CREATED THIS COMBINATION OF
+  SCOWL, BRACELETS AND BOY'S BOOTS--BUT FULAANU BESIDE HER WAS
+  UNCORRUPTIBLE]
+
+  [Illustration: TATTOOING OF THE LEGS IS AN ESSENTIAL IN SAMOA]
+
+But I couldn't help contrasting in my own mind the little gathering on
+the shingle-paved floor of that corrugated iron hut with the more
+elaborate club that changed its name from German to British with no
+little hauteur. More than once I wished that I had had command of the
+language of those people in the hut where allegory, mixed with
+superstition but seasoned with gentle hospitality--and not rum--was the
+order of the day.
+
+Weary of refusing booze and more booze, I set off for the shore. Though
+military order forbade either natives or Germans or any one else without
+a permit to be out after ten o'clock, I had had no difficulty in
+securing a permit to roam about at will, day or night. The new military
+Inspector of Police strolled out with me and we took to the road that
+led out of Apia to the left, past the barracks, past the school, and the
+church, past all the crude replicas of our civilization.
+
+"Oh, how I loathe it all!" said Heasley to me. "God, what wouldn't I
+give to be back with my wife and kiddies! This everlasting boozing, this
+mingling with people whom I wouldn't recognize in Wellington, being
+herded with the riffraff of the world. They talk of the lovely maidens.
+Tell me, Greenbie, have you seen any here you'd care to mess about with?
+The tropics!--rot!"
+
+I saw that I had to deal with a frightfully homesick man, and there was
+no point in running counter to him. The fact that to me the tropics were
+lovely only when seen as an objective thing, not as something to feel a
+part of, would have made little impression on his mind. He was
+condemned to an indefinite sojourn, whereas I was foot-loose, had come
+of my own free will, and was going as soon as I had had enough of it. To
+him the daily round of drink and cheap disputes, the longing for his
+wife and kiddies, the heat, the mosquitos, the mold, the cheap beds and
+unvaried fare, the weeks during which the British troops had virtually
+camped on the beach in the steady downpouring tropical rains; the
+inability to dream his way into appreciation of South Sea life; the
+necessity of looking upon the natives as possible rebels; suspicions of
+the few Germans there, suspicions of every new-comer, suspicions of even
+the death-dealing sun,--no wonder there was nothing romantic about it to
+him!
+
+But as we wandered along, chatting in an intimate way, as only men gone
+astray from home will chat when they meet on the highways of the world,
+he seemed to grow more cheerful. Time and again he told me what a relief
+I was to him, how being able really to talk freely with me was balm to
+his troubled spirit. I knew that an hour after my departure he would
+forget all about me, that there was nothing permanent in his regard,
+that I really meant nothing to him beyond an immediate release for his
+pent-up mind,--but I felt that he was sincere.
+
+As we kicked our way along the dusty road we came to a stretch where the
+palm-trees stood wide apart. The smooth waters covered the reefs, and a
+million moonbeams danced over them. Within the palm groves camp-fires
+blazed beneath domes of moon-splattered thatch, and from all directions
+deep, clear voices quickened the night air. We of the Northern lands do
+not know what communal life is. We move in throngs, we crowd the
+theaters, we crowd the summer resorts,--but still we do not know what
+communal life is. We are separate icicles compared with the people of
+the tropics. Only to one adrift at night within a little South Sea
+village is the meaning of human commonalty revealed. It seemed to touch
+Heasley as nothing had done before. After our little conversation he
+appeared relieved and receptive. We wandered about till long after
+midnight, long after the village had sung itself to sleep, even then
+reluctant to take to our musty beds.
+
+Thus did one day pass in Samoa, and every day is like the other, and my
+tale is told.
+
+
+4
+
+I tapped one man after another in Samoa for some personal recollections
+of Stevenson, but without success. At last I heard of an American trader
+who had been an intimate friend of R. L. S. and knew more about him than
+any other. So to him I went. He was a round-headed, red-faced, bald
+individual in the late fifties, deeply engrossed in the sumptuous
+accumulations he had made during more than a quarter-century of
+residence in Samoa. His reactions to my declaration of interest in
+Stevenson made me think he was turning to lock his safe and order his
+guard, but instead he really opened the safe and dismissed all pretense.
+In other words, he realized, it seemed to me, that he had another chance
+of adding luster not to Stevenson, but to himself. Stevenson he
+dismissed with, "Well, you know, after all he was just like other men.
+Often he was disagreeable, ill-tempered," etc. The thing worth while was
+the fact that _he_ had written a book about Stevenson, in which _he_ had
+exhausted all he knew of the man, so why did I not read that and not
+bother him about it! I felt apologetic, almost inclined to bow myself
+out, backward, when he announced that he too had written stories of the
+South Seas. My interest was whetted. I asked to be shown. He drew from
+among his bills and invoices a packet of manuscripts, and handed one to
+me to read. I thought of Setu and his enthusiasm at the recognition at
+sea of the light from Vailima, and felt that, as far as Stevenson's own
+life went, Setu was, to me at least, more important.
+
+Notwithstanding all the cynics who laugh at those who come to Samoa to
+climb to Stevenson's grave, I was determined to make the ascent. I could
+get no one to make it with me. At five o'clock in the morning I mustered
+what energy I had left from the North, ready to spend it all for the
+sake of seeing Stevenson's grave. By six, the wind was already warm and
+dragged behind it heavy rain-clouds. Hot and brain-fagged, I pressed on,
+my body pushing listlessly forward while my mind battled with the
+temptation to turn back. Near the end of European Apia I turned toward
+the hills, into a wide avenue cut through the growths of shaggy palms.
+Suddenly opening out from the main street, it as suddenly closes up, an
+oblong that dissipates in a narrow, irregular roadway farther on. It was
+too overgrown to indicate any great usefulness, yet in the history of
+roads, none, I believe, is more unique. In the days when Samoa was the
+scene of cheap international squabbles among England, France, Germany,
+and America, Stevenson, the Scotsman, mindful of the fate of Scotland
+and of the similarity between his adopted and his native land, stood by
+the natives as against the foreign powers (Germany in particular). He
+took up the challenge for Mataafa, courageously cuddled these children
+while in prison, and won their everlasting good-will. Later, as a mark
+of gratitude, they decided voluntarily to build a wide road to Vailima,
+Stevenson's home. Their ambitions did not live long. The road was never
+finished. But this is indicative not of diminished gratitude, but of the
+overwhelming hopelessness of their situation in face of foreign pressure
+and native temperature.
+
+For everything in the tropics seems on the verge of exhaustion, a keen
+enthusiasm in life which finds its ebb before it has reached high tide.
+Only a supreme endeavor, a will sharper than nature, can overcome the
+spirit of non-resistance which condemns native life from very birth. And
+it was the remnant of determination bred in another climate that
+carried me on toward the remains of the object of that gratitude which
+this road symbolized.
+
+Vailima was four miles from Apia, hidden within a rich tropical growth
+well up the mountain side. Half the time I rested in the shade, taking
+my cue from my idol that it was better to travel than to arrive. No one
+was about, except here and there a child in search of fruit dropped from
+the tall trees. Presently I came to a set of wooden buildings on the
+road which upon investigation turned out to be the temporary barracks
+for the guard of Colonel Logan, commander of the forces of occupation.
+The soldiers directed me most cordially to a path near the barracks, and
+there a board sign announced the way to "STEVENSON'S GRAVE."
+
+Crossing a creek and turning to the right, I found myself immediately at
+the foot of Mount Vaea. At this juncture lay a small concrete pool
+obviously belonging to the cottage, well-preserved and clean. So was the
+path upward. Strange contrasts here, for both pool and path were the
+result of the private interest of the German Governor of Samoa who,
+despite Stevenson's bitter opposition to German possession of the
+islands, had generously had the path cleared and widened so that lovers
+of the great man might visit his tomb with ease. It had been neglected
+for ten years until this German reclaimed it.
+
+For a decade the grave lay untended. At the moment of death, the silence
+is deep. The pain is too fresh. Out of very love neglect is justifiable,
+for it is the train of dejected mourners who cannot think of niceties.
+But then come the "knockers at the gate," they who know nothing of the
+frailties of men and revel in an immortality that is memory.
+
+I paused frequently during that half-hour climb. Cooing doves called to
+one another understandingly across the death-like stillness which filled
+the valley below. From the direction of Apia came the sound of the
+lali, which seemed only to quicken mystery into being. I breathed more
+heavily. There, alone on the slopes of that peak, with the only thing
+that makes it memorable beneath the sod on the summit, I felt strangely
+in touch with the dead. The isolation gave distinction to him who had
+been laid there, which no monument, however superb, can give in the
+crowded graveyard. The personality of the departed hovers round in the
+silence.
+
+Still, the thought of death itself is alien here. Fear is barren. One
+climbs on with an easy, smiling recognition of the summit of all
+things,--not as death, but as life. Oh, the sweet silence that muffles
+all!
+
+A strange relapse into the ordinary came to me as I reached the top. I
+took a picture of the tomb, gazed out across the hazy blue world
+about,--and thought of nothing. I was not disappointed, nor sad. Had I
+found myself sinking, dying, I believe that it would not have ruffled my
+emotions any more than the flight of a bird leaves ripples in the air.
+Below, five miles away, the waves broke upon the reefs and spread in
+smooth foam which reached endlessly toward the shore. "It is better to
+travel than to arrive," they seemed to say to me across the void.
+
+The red hibiscus was in bloom around the tomb. A sweet-scented yellow
+flower made the air heavy with its rich perfume. The trees speckled the
+simple concrete casing over the grave with their restless little shadow
+leaves. The spot was cool and free from growths. And it was, then, a
+symbol of a quarter of a century made real.
+
+  Glad did I live and gladly die
+  And I laid me down with a will.
+
+Savage, child, romancer, literary stylist,--all have been under the
+influence of this wandering Scotsman, and the manner of showing him love
+and gratitude has been not in imitation only. At Monterey in California
+he was nursed by an old Frenchman through a long period of illness; in
+semi-savage Samoa men untutored in our codes of affection beat not a
+path but a road to his door, and carried his body up the steep slope of
+Mount Vaea. And the month before I stood beside his tomb, the ashes of
+his wife and devoted helpmate were deposited beside him by his
+stepdaughter, who had journeyed all the way from California to unite
+their remains.
+
+Tusitala, the tale-teller, the natives called him, and in the sheer
+music of that strange word one senses something of the regard it was
+meant to convey. And in the years to come, when Samoans become a nation
+in the Pacific, part of the Polynesian group, Tusitala will doubtless be
+one of the heroes, tales of whose beneficence will light the way for
+little Polynesians growing to manhood.
+
+
+It was becoming too hot up there on the peak for me before
+breakfast-time was over, so I slipped down into the valley. At the
+barracks the soldiers invited me to have a bite with them. The simple
+porridge, the crude utensils, the bare benches would elsewhere after so
+long a walk and so steep a climb have been a Godsend; but here, in the
+tropics, it seemed that more would have been a waste of human life. The
+sergeant-at-arms asked me if I should like to have some breadfruit. He
+stepped out into the yard and gathered a round, luscious melon-like
+fruit which, when cut, opened the doors of alimentary bliss to me. The
+trees grow in bisexual pairs, male and female, the female tree bearing
+the fruit.
+
+The sergeant then took me to Vailima, Stevenson's last home, now the
+residence of the governor-general. It was, of course, stripped of
+everything which once was Stevenson's, and had acquired wings and
+porticos, gaunt and disproportioned. I could not work up any sentimental
+regret at this change, for that is what Stevenson himself would have
+wished. The best way to preserve a thing is to keep it growing.
+Stevenson worked here for four years; others may tamper with it for
+four hundred years without completely obliterating the character given
+it by its first maker.
+
+When I entered I was somewhat surprised at the hangings on the walls.
+Pictures of the kaiser, pretty scenes along the Rhine, German
+castles,--what had they to do with Stevenson? what with Colonel Logan
+and British occupation? The chambers are so large and the woodwork is so
+somber that these pictures fairly shrieked out at one, like a flock of
+eagles in high altitudes. I felt almost guilty, myself, simply for being
+in the presence of such enemy decorations, and remarked about them to my
+guide.
+
+"The colonel won't touch them," he said, respectfully. "They are the
+property of the German Governor, and till the disposition of the islands
+is finally settled, the colonel won't move them. He's a soldier,
+y'know."
+
+We came out again upon the veranda just in time to see Colonel and Mrs.
+Logan arrive in their trap. He was tall, straight, an icy chill of
+reserve in his bearing. Mrs. Logan was a pretty young woman, as warm and
+cordial as he was stiff. He preceded her up the steps and was saluted by
+the sergeant with the explanation of my presence.
+
+"Am showing this gentleman round a bit," he said.
+
+"Has he had a look round?" said the colonel, perfunctorily, saluted
+stiffly, and passed by as though I didn't exist. As Mrs. Logan came up
+behind she suppressed a smile that threatened to make her face still
+more charming, and the two passed within.
+
+I smiled to myself. How should I have been received had Stevenson come
+up those steps that day? To the colonel there was nothing in my journey
+to the tomb. Nor was there anything in it to the soldiers at the
+barracks. Yet the fact that I had been there made me one of them.
+
+"How'd ye like it?" asked a soldier on my return, with the same manner
+as though I had gone to see a cock-fight. "Blaim me if Oi'd climb that
+yer 'ill on a day as 'ot as this to see a dead man's grave."
+
+They asked me if I'd like to take a swim in the stream Stevenson liked
+so well, and on the strength of my great interest three of them got
+leave to accompany me. They winked to me when the sergeant agreed. We
+wandered along, jumping fences, crossing a grassy slope, and cutting
+through a spare woods. The bamboo-trees creaked like rusty hinges. Cocoa
+plantations stood ripe for picking. The luscious mango kept high above
+our reach, so that we were compelled to devise means of getting at it.
+The soldiers seemed concerned about my seeing everything, tasting
+everything, learning everything the place afforded. We chatted sociably,
+plunging about in the stream, with only a few stray natives looking on.
+Then we made our way back as leisurely as possible, they being in no
+hurry to return to the barracks. How I got back to Apia I haven't the
+faintest recollection.
+
+
+5
+
+I had set out to see the world without any definite notion of whither I
+was drifting. I had bartered the liquid sunshine of Hawaii for Fiji's
+humid shade, and twisted a day in a knot between Suva and Apia so that I
+hardly knew whether or not Fiji was more devilishly hot than Samoa. And
+then for four days I endured the stench of ripening bananas in the hold
+of a resurrected vessel which, if ships are feminine, as sailors seem to
+believe, was decidedly beyond the age of spinsterhood. I was headed for
+New Zealand. Little wonder, then, that when I found that we had finally
+arrived with our olfactory senses still sane and were about to land in a
+real country with real cities and a social life dangerously near
+perfection, I felt as though I were coming to after ether.
+
+When I suddenly found myself alone on the streets of Auckland, a sense
+of the icy chill of reserve in civilization came over me. The weeks in
+the tropics were of the past. There, though the faces were more than
+strange to me and the speech quite unintelligible, there was a sense of
+human kinship which stole from man to man through the still air. There
+was the lali thumping its way across the valley; the chatter of voices
+by day, the mutter of voices by night when the people gathered beneath
+their thatched roofs; the gradual infusion of native melody with the
+swish of palms and the hiss of the sea; call answering call across the
+village; songs with that deep, primitive harmony which effects a ferment
+of emotion not in one's heart, but in the pit of the stomach. In such a
+place, the word _alone_ has no meaning. One cannot be a stark outsider.
+Everything is done so freely and sociably that even the stranger,
+despite thousands of years of restraint in civilization, merges into an
+at-one-ment known to no group in our world.
+
+Social life in New Zealand (as in all white communities) contained no
+such admixture. Not even on Sunday, on which day I landed, did the
+crowds that sauntered up and down the street, present any kindred
+closeness. People just sauntered back and forth across the three or four
+business blocks known as Queens Street. The sweeps and curves and
+windings which were its offshoots made a short thoroughfare look
+picturesque, but they were just flourishes. They did not lead to
+anything. And one immediately returned to Queens Street.
+
+There, the wheeled traffic having been withdrawn, the people leaving
+church flooded the wide way, coursing up and down in what seemed to me
+an utterly aimless journey between the monument at the upper fork in the
+street and the piers at its foot. As a white man's city goes, in the
+three-story structures and spacious business fronts, and the massing of
+architecture tapering in an occasional turret, there was stability
+enough in the appearance of things.
+
+There were jolly flirtations, girls singly and in pairs, some mere
+children in short skirts, gadding about with eyes on young men whom they
+doubtless knew, and of whom they seemed in eternal pursuit. Groups
+gathered for political or religious argument; platitudes and
+pleasantries were exchanged, some interesting, some dull, seldom truly
+cordial. A vague suspicion one of another was manifest in every
+relationship.
+
+Suddenly the crowd vanished. A few persistent ones hung about the lower
+extremity of the street or lurked about the piers, spooning. The street
+became deserted. Not a sound from anywhere. No joyous singing under the
+eaves, no flickering lamp-lights beneath thatched roofs. Blinds drawn,
+doors locked. Sunday evening in civilization! I had returned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE APHELION OF BRITAIN
+
+
+1
+
+There are no holy places in New Zealand, none of the worn and curious
+trappings of forgotten civilizations to search out and to revere. There
+are no signposts which lead the wanderer along, despite himself, in
+search of sacred spots; no names which make life worth while. Whom shall
+he try to see? Is there a Romain Rolland or a Shaw, or an Emerson to
+whom he could bow in that reverence which invites the soul rather than
+bends the knee?
+
+There are only boiling fountains and snow-packed ranges and wild-waste
+places to which neither man nor beast go willingly. Yet an unknown urge
+pushes one on, that urge which from time immemorial has impelled saint
+in search of salvation, and age in search of youth, as well as youth in
+search of adventure, to the most inaccessible reaches of the world. All
+of us bring back accounts of what we've seen, but which of us can answer
+why we went?
+
+First impressions in older countries are generally confusing. Ages of
+accumulations pile up, covered with the dust of centuries which has gone
+through innumerable processes of sifting. But the stranger in the
+Antipodes is plunged into a bath of youth. Every aspect of the country
+is young. The volcanoes are mostly extinct, but about them lurks the
+warmth of the camp fire just died down. In mountain, bush, and plain
+something of the childhood of Mother Earth is still felt; at most, an
+adolescence, rich in possibilities. One almost feels that the very
+rivers are only the remnants of the receding floods after the rising of
+the land from beneath the sea. There is nothing old anywhere. Instead of
+being disappointed at the apparent paucity of man-made products, one is
+greatly surprised that so little and young a country should have so
+much. There is room, much room, ample acres which lie fallow, the winds
+of opportunity blowing over them, wild with abandon.
+
+New Zealand, as I said, was a kind of resting-place. It was the point
+where the lines of interest in the native peoples of the Pacific, and
+those of the efforts of the white men, intersected, just as later I was
+to find a point of intersection between the white men and the Orientals
+at Hongkong. For here the new social life of the South Pacific, and the
+remnants of the old races of the Pacific equally divide the attention.
+
+I had some little difficulty locating Auckland from the steamer, so many
+suburbs littered the forty miles of irregular bluff which surrounds the
+harbor. The homes upon the hills seemed reserved and unambitious. There
+were no streams of smoke from factory and mill. One felt, at the moment
+of arrival, that were it morning, noon, or night, whatever the season,
+Auckland would still be the same, and New Zealand would continue to be
+proud of the resemblance the youngest of its cities has for its parent.
+All seemed quiet, restful and inactive.
+
+If all these were inactive, not so the human elements. Their rumblings
+on localisms were to be heard even before we landed. As a new-comer, I
+was made aware of Wellington, the capital, and its winds; of the city of
+Christchurch and its plains; of prides and jealousies which provincial
+patriots acclaimed in good-natured playfulness. Dunedin's raininess was
+said to have been a special providence for the benefit of the Scotch who
+have isolated themselves there. The wonders of this place and the beauty
+of that broke through the mists of my imagination like tiny star-holes
+through the night.
+
+
+2
+
+I had returned to civilization, and though all my instincts settled into
+an assurance which was comforting, a feeling that dengue fever was no
+more, that damp and moldy beds and smell of copra would not again be
+mingled with my food and slumber, still, I knew I was not a part of it.
+Almost immediately my mind began moving spiral-like, outward and upward,
+to escape. I was to do it all in a month. I was to see Auckland, with
+its neighbor, Mt. Eden, an extinct volcano; I was to visit the other
+large cities,--vaguely their existence was becoming real to me,--I was
+to penetrate at least some of New Zealand's dangerous bush, to see the
+primitive-civilized lives of the native Maories. But, strange to say,
+return to civilization had the identical effect on me that return to
+primitive life is said to have on the white man. It entered my being in
+the form of indolence. I did not want to move. I wanted to rest. To stay
+a while in that place, to make myself part of the life of the city, to
+remain fixed, became a burning desire with me. And days went by without
+my being able to stir myself on again.
+
+The life in the Dominion was conducive to ease and dreaming. Nobody
+seemed in any hurry about anything, least of all about taking you in.
+Every one went upon a way long worn down by the tread of familiar feet.
+The conflicts of pioneer aggressiveness were over. The differences
+between the aboriginal and the foreign elements were lost in the
+overpowering crowding in of the alien. The stone and wooden structures,
+the railways and the piers, the homes wandering along over the hills as
+far as the eye could see, completely concealed that which originally was
+New Zealand.
+
+I spent one month wandering up and down Auckland's one main street, and
+I can assure you it was like no other main street in the world, except
+those of every other city in New Zealand. There were the carts and the
+cars by day, and the clearing of the pavement of every vehicle for
+pedestrian parades by night. There were the carnivals and the fêtes on
+Queens Street, and on every other royal highway during the summer
+months; and during the two hours which New Zealanders require for lunch,
+there was nothing to be done but to lunch too. And then on Sunday nights
+there was the confusion of cults and isms each with its panacea for
+spiritual and social ills. Nobody was expected to do anything but go to
+church; hence the street cars didn't run during church hours, and the
+bathing-places were closed. And after ten o'clock it was as impossible
+to get a cup of tea outside one's own home as it is to get whisky in an
+open saloon in New York to-day.
+
+On the _Niagara_ I had been assured by a young lady from New Zealand
+that we Americans didn't know what home life was and that she would show
+me the genuine thing when I got to her little country. She did, and I
+have been most grateful to her for it. It was sober and clean and quiet,
+and I accepted with great satisfaction every invitation offered me,
+because it was a thousand times better than being alone on the deserted
+streets. But the good Lord was wise when He made provision for one
+Sunday a week, as His human creation could hardly endure it more
+frequently; and that is what one might say of New Zealand home life. It
+is all that is good and wholesome, all that is necessary for the rearing
+of unobstreperous young, but red blood should not be made to run like
+syrup, though I quite agree with my New Zealand friend that it should
+not be kept at the boiling-point, either. Our evenings were usually
+spent in quiet chatting on safe generalities interspersed with home
+songs and nice cocoa; and at ten o'clock we would separate. I hope that
+my New Zealand friends will not feel hurt at what I say. Let them put it
+down to my wild-Americanism. But home life on a Sunday evening was not
+worth going all the way diagonally across the Pacific to taste.
+
+Hence, a month in Auckland was quite enough for me. By that time the
+call of the mountains and lakes had come to me, and in natural beauty
+New Zealand can rival any other country of its size I have ever been to,
+except Japan. In answering that call I accepted the swagger's account of
+how life should be lived and took to the open road. In the year that
+followed I filled my memory with treasures that cannot be classified in
+any summary. From Auckland in the North Island to Dunedin in the South
+Island I journeyed on foot through three long months, zigzagging my way
+virtually from coast to coast, dreaming away night after night along the
+great Waikato River, holding taut my soul in the face of the mysteries
+of the hot-springs districts, and quenching feverish experiences upon
+the shores of placid cold lakes and beneath snow-covered peaks of
+mountain ranges thirteen thousand feet high; gripping my reason during
+long night tramps in the uninhabited bush (forests) or in Desolation
+Gully, forty miles from nowhere. I know what wild life in New Zealand
+is, as well as tame. It is not all that it used to be when men left
+their home lands for that new start in life which Heaven knows every man
+is entitled to, considering what our notions of childhood are and the
+eagerness of man to pounce upon any one who has not reached
+insurmountable success.
+
+  [Illustration: DUNEDIN, NEW ZEALAND
+  From the belt of wild wood that girdles the city]
+
+  [Illustration: BRIDGES ARE STILL LUXURIES IN MANY PLACES IN NEW
+  ZEALAND]
+
+  [Illustration: THE FIORDS AND SOUNDS OF NEW ZEALAND
+  The pride of the Dominion
+                                      Post Card. J. B. Series No. 205]
+
+  [Illustration: LAKE WANAKA, NEW ZEALAND]
+
+In between I saw the courageous struggles these selfsame men have gone
+through and are still enduring in order to make of the whole of New
+Zealand what it is as yet only in parts. Those parts are rich farm
+lands, with swiftly scouting motor-cars used by great capitalist-farmers
+who have more than one station to look after. It is a strange phenomenon
+of New Zealand life that the small farm towns are generally much more
+alert and progressive than the big cities. The New Zealanders build
+houses that look like transplanted suburbs from around New York, and
+bring to their villages some of the love of plant life that the
+city-dweller is soon too sophisticated to share. They draw out to
+themselves the moving-picture theaters, which are now the all-possessing
+rage in the Dominion as elsewhere, and read the latest periodicals with
+the interest of the townsman. There are over a thousand newspapers in
+the Dominion, which for a population of a million is a goodly number,
+though one cannot regard this as too great an indication of the
+intellectual advancement of the people. Yet literacy is the possession
+of the farmer as much as and frequently more than the city-dweller in
+New Zealand. His children go to school even if they have to use the
+trains to get there; free railway passes on these are accorded by the
+Government. And on the whole the farmer's life in New Zealand is richer
+than that of most rural communities. But the struggle is still great. I
+have seen some who do not feel that the promise is worth it.
+
+Though each of the big cities in the Dominion has its own special
+characteristics, they are all considerably alike. The three chief ones
+are all port cities of about 80,000 inhabitants each, and except for the
+fact that Dunedin in the far south is essentially Scotch and somewhat
+more stolid than the rest, and Wellington in the center is the capital
+of the Dominion and therefore suspicious, one may go up and down their
+steep hills without any change in one's social gears. The colonial
+atmosphere is at once charming and chilling. There is a certain sobriety
+throughout which makes up for lack of the luxuries of modern life. But
+one cannot escape the conviction that regularity is not all that man
+needs. Everything moves along at the pace of a river at low
+level,--broad, spacious, serene, but without hidden places to explore or
+sparkling peaks of human achievement to emulate. One paddles down the
+stream of New Zealand life without the prospect of thrills. One might
+be transported from Auckland in the north to Wellington or Dunedin in
+the south during sleep, and after waking set about one's tasks without
+realizing that a change had been made.
+
+Every city is well lighted; good trams (trolley-cars) convey one in all
+directions, but at an excessively high fare; the water and sewerage
+systems are never complained of; the theaters are good and the shops
+full of things from England and America. There are even many fine
+motor-cars. But there are few signs of great wealth, though
+comparatively big fortunes are not unknown. It is rumored that
+ostentation is never indulged in, as the attitude of the people as a
+whole is averse to it.
+
+On the other hand, neither are there any signs of extreme poverty,
+though it exists; and slums to harbor it. While the usual evils of
+social life obtain, the small community life makes it impossible for
+them to become rampant. Every one knows every one else and that which is
+taboo, if indulged in, must be carried out with such extreme secrecy as
+to make it impossible for any blemish to appear upon the face of things.
+
+In these circumstances, one is immediately classified and accepted or
+rejected, according as one is or is not acceptable. Having recognized
+certain outstanding features of the gentleman in you, the New Zealander
+is Briton enough to accept you without further ado. There is in a sense
+a certain naïveté in his measurement of the stranger. He is frank in
+questioning your position and your integrity, but shrinks from carrying
+his suspicions too far. He will ask you bluntly: "Are you what you say
+you are?" "Of course I am," you say. "Then come along, mate." But he
+does not take you very far, not because he is niggardly, but because he
+is thrifty.
+
+As a result of this New Zealand spirit I found myself befriended from
+one end of New Zealand to the other by a single family, the elder
+brother having given me letters of introduction to every one of his
+kin,--in Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch, and
+Dunedin. And with but two or three exceptions I have always found New
+Zealanders generous and open-hearted. Wherever I went, once I broke
+through a certain shyness and reserve, I found myself part of the group,
+though generally I did not remain long, because I felt that new
+sensations could not be expected.
+
+My one great difficulty was in keeping from falling in love with the New
+Zealand girls. Rosy-cheeked, sturdy, silently game and rebellious, they
+know what it is to be flirtatious. For them there is seldom any other
+way out of their loneliness. Only here and there do parents think it
+necessary to give their daughters any social life outside the home. In
+these days of the movies, New Zealand girls are breaking away from
+knitting and home ties. But even then few girls care to preside at
+representations of others' love-affairs without the opportunity of going
+home and practising, themselves. Hence the streets are filled with
+flirtatious maidens strolling four abreast, hoping for a chance to break
+into the couples and quartets of young men who choose their own manly
+society in preference to that of expensive girls. I have seen these
+groups pass one another, up and down the streets, frequent the
+tea-houses and soda fountains, carry on their flirtations from separate
+tables, pay for their own refreshments or their own theater tickets; but
+real commingling of the sexes in public life is not pronounced.
+
+At the beaches! That is different. There the dunes and bracken are alive
+with couples all hours of the day or night during the holiday and summer
+seasons. Thence emerge engagements and hasty marriages, nor can parental
+watchfulness guard against it.
+
+
+3
+
+The most difficult thing in all my New Zealand experiences was to
+reconcile the latent conservatism of the people with their outstanding
+progressiveness. It would be easy to assert without much fear of
+contradiction that notwithstanding all the talk of radicalism in the
+matter of labor legislation there is little of it in practice in the
+Dominion. The reason for this is twofold. First, New Zealand, unlike
+Australia and America, was not a rebellious offshoot of England, not a
+protest against Old-World curtailment. Quite the contrary, it was made
+in the image of the mother country, and natural selection for the time
+being was dormant. Furthermore, it was simple for labor to dominate in a
+country where labor was to be had only at that premium.
+
+Nowhere in the whole Dominion did I come across concrete evidence of
+awakened consciousness on the part of the masses to their opportunities.
+None of that feverish haste to raise monuments of achievement to
+accompany the legislative enactments which have given New Zealand an
+illustrious place among the nations. True, the country is young; true,
+there are not enough people there to pile creation on creation. But that
+is not it. It is that they are not keyed up to any great notions of what
+they ought to expect of themselves, but are content with what freedom
+and leisure of life they possess.
+
+Throughout the length and breadth of the two islands, islands more than
+two thirds the size of Japan, there isn't an outstanding structure of
+any great architectural value; there isn't a statue or a monument of
+artistic importance; there is hardly a painting of exceptional quality;
+nor, with all the remarkable beauty of nature which is New Zealand's, is
+there any poetic outpouring of love of nature that one would expect from
+a people heirs to some of the finest poetry in the world. Even British
+India has its Kipling and its Tagore. With all the excellence of their
+efforts to solve the problem of the welfare of the masses, New
+Zealanders show no excessive largeness of heart in the sort of welcome
+they extend to labor of other lands. Here, it would seem, is a land
+where the world may well be reborn, where there is every opportunity for
+the correction of age-long wrongs that have become too much a part of
+Europe for Europeans to resent them too heartily. Yet what is New
+Zealand doing and what has it done in seventy-five years to approximate
+Utopia?
+
+This is not meant as a criticism of New Zealand; rather is it meant to
+let New Zealand know that the eyes of the world are upon it and expect
+much from it. Possession may be nine points of the law; but the
+utilization of opportunity which possession entails is the tenth point
+toward the retention of that which one has.
+
+Babies are cared for better in New Zealand than any other place in the
+world, yet boys and girls still receive that antiquated form of
+correction, corporal punishment, and thought of letting the youth find
+his own salvation, with guidance only, not coercion, is still alien to
+the New Zealand pedagogic mind. Women have had the vote for over
+twenty-five years, but the freedom of woman to seek her own development,
+to become a factor in the social life of the community apart from the
+man's, is still a neglected dream. And young women are dying of ennui
+because they aren't given enough to do. The country is fairly rich, with
+its enormous droves of sheep, great pastures full of cattle, its
+coöperative capitalistic farming-schemes; but the human genius for
+beauty and self-expression must find opportunity in Britain or America.
+And even the old romance of pioneer life is virtually of the past. In
+all my wanderings I came across only one home that made me throw out my
+emotional chest to contain the spirit of the pioneer life of which we
+all love to hear. It was a house as rough as it was old, laden with
+shelving and hung with guns, horns, and lithographs, and cheered by a
+blazing open fire,--an early virility New Zealand has now completely
+outgrown. The house must have been fifty years old, to judge from the
+Scotsman living there. He was keen, alert, and quick, a most
+interesting opponent in discussion, most firm in his beliefs without
+being offensive. Here, in the very heart of one of the earliest of New
+Zealand's settlement districts in the South Island, he lived with his
+family; and something of the old sweetness of life, the atmosphere of
+successful conquest, obtained. And ever as I dug down into New Zealand's
+past, I found it charming. The present is too steeped in cheap machine
+processes to be either durable or really satisfying.
+
+Discouraging as this may sound, he who has lived in the little Dominion
+and has learned to love its people and their ways, hastens to contradict
+his own charges. For in time, as one becomes better acquainted, one
+finds a healthy discontent brewing beneath that apathetic exterior. Just
+as the Chinese will do anything to "save face" so the Briton will do
+anything not to "lose face." He loses much of his latent charm in so
+restricting himself, but when assured that a new convention is afoot and
+that it is safe for him to venture forth with it, he will do so with a
+zest that is itself worth much.
+
+Furthermore, there is in the atmosphere of staid New Zealand life a
+passion for the out-of-doors which is worth more than all the Greenwich
+Village sentiment twice over. Girls are always just as happy in the open
+and more interesting than when indulging in cigarettes and exposing
+shapely legs in intellectual parlors. Given twenty million people
+instead of one New Zealand would blossom forth into one of the loveliest
+flowers of the Pacific.
+
+
+4
+
+In the Auckland (New Zealand) Art Gallery hangs a picture representing
+the coming of the Maories to New Zealand. Their long canoe is filled
+with emaciated people vividly suggesting the suffering and privation
+they must have undergone in coming across the mainland some four hundred
+years ago. Venturing without sail or compass, these daring Polynesians
+must have possessed intrepid and courageous natures.
+
+Yet at the time I was in that gallery the place was full of stifled
+boyish laughter. A half-dozen little tots, with spectacles and
+school-bags, one with blazing red hair, had come to see the pictures.
+They were not Maori children, but the offspring of the white race, which
+less than a hundred years ago came in their sailing-vessels and
+steamers, with powder and lead, and took with comparative ease a land
+won by such daring travail.
+
+I had heard much of these natives,--idyllic tales of their charm and the
+lure of their maidens. Those lovely Maori girls! I expected to see them
+crowding the streets of Auckland. But they were conspicuous by their
+absence. Occasionally a few could be seen squatting on the sidewalks,
+more strangers to the city than I, more outstanding from the display of
+color and manner which thronged Queens Street than any American could be
+in so ultra a British community as dominates New Zealand. Where are the
+Maories? I wondered. Upon their "reservations" like our own Amerinds, or
+lost to their own costumes and even to their own blood and color?
+
+I had returned to Auckland from a visit with a friend whose wife was
+Maori, in the company of her nephew. He carried with him a basket of
+eels as a gift to his mother, and walked up the street with me. At a
+corner he was hailed by a dark-skinned man in a well-cut business suit,
+and said, "There is my father. I must leave you." In another moment he
+was in a large touring car and was whizzed away by his Maori father at
+the wheel. No wonder I hadn't been able to see any Maories.
+
+I visited a school where Maori boys are being encouraged to artificial
+exercises,--sports, hurdle-jumping, running. I watched them make ready,
+eager for the petty prizes offered. Off went their shoes, out went their
+chests, expanded with ancestral joy. In their bare feet, still as tough
+as in former days before they were induced to buy cowhides, they
+skipped over the ground, filled for the moment with the glory of being
+alive. Their faces broke out in fantastic, native grimaces and
+contortions as though an imaginary enemy confronted them. But alas, they
+were seeking him in the wrong direction! The enemy comes with no spears,
+and no clang, but he is more deadly. He is not without but within. He
+makes them cough. They fall behind.
+
+"They do not last long," said the Briton who was instructing them. "They
+are dying rapidly of consumption. As long as we keep them here in school
+they are all right. Finer specimens of human physique could not be found
+anywhere. But as soon as they return to their _pas_, and live in the
+squalor of the native villages, they return to all the old methods of
+life and soon go under."
+
+I set out on my tramp through New Zealand. At Bombey, a few days' jaunt
+from Auckland, I met an old settler, whose accounts of the great and
+last war of the redcoats with the fierce fighters of Maoriland dated
+back to our own Civil War, 1861-64. Until that time both Maories and
+Britons said, with few exceptions, "Our races cannot mix. One or the
+other of us must give away." Naturally, the Maories had the prior claim,
+but they finally yielded, surrendering their lands to the aliens at
+Ngaruawahia, "The Meeting of the Waters," that little hamlet lying in
+the crotch between the beautiful Waikato River and one of its
+tributaries. And henceforward, the two races were constrained to meet,
+and rush down together into that green sea of human commonalty, albeit
+one of them contributes the dominant volume.
+
+Maori legend has it that the Maories are the descendants of the great
+_Rangatira_ (chief) who was the offspring of a similarly great _Tanewa_
+(shark). He was born in the dark southern caves of the Tongariro
+Mountains, and the spirits of their ancestors have always dwelt along
+the broad Waikato. Along this river I wandered for many days, but I
+found few of the Rangatira's descendants. If one is quiet and alone the
+voice of the great Tanewa will call softly through the marsh rushes from
+out of the heart of the quivering flax. It is peaceful and encompassing,
+modest and almost afraid. I heard it and I am sure those Maories hear it
+who are not too engrossed in the scramble after foreign trinkets. It
+said: "The last mortal or man descendant of mine will be the offspring
+of a Pakeha-Maori (a white man who lives among the Maories) who will
+live in the cities and rush about in motor-cars, but I shall remain in
+the marshes, the calm rivers, and near the glittering leaves of flax."
+
+A few miles farther on I came to Huntley, and hearing that there was a
+native village across the Waikato River, I turned thither by way of the
+bridge. I overtook two _wahines_, slovenly, indolent, careless in their
+manners. They spoke to me flippantly. They wanted to know if I was bound
+for the missionaries' place. This led to questions from me: Why were
+they turning Mormon? Which sect did they prefer? But I could obtain
+answers only by innuendo. I left these two women behind and found three
+others chasing a pig in an open field, three boys bathing a horse in the
+deep river. All about the village was strewn refuse; vicious dogs slunk
+hungrily about,--neglect, neglect, on every hand. But instead of flimsy
+native huts there were wooden shacks with corrugated iron roofs, the
+longer to remain unregenerate, breeders of disease and wasters of human
+energy.
+
+But the more elaborate native village at Rotorua, at the other end of
+the island, where visitors are frequent, was more up-to-date and
+cleaner. And on a little knoll was a model of an old Maori _pah_, such
+as was used in the days before guns made it possible to fight in ambush
+and in the valleys, and brought the sturdy savages down not only from
+their more wholesome heights but from their position of vantage as a
+race.
+
+Here I met an odd sort of article in the way of human ware. Only
+seventeen, he was twice my size, and lazy and pliable in proportion. He
+would come into my room and just stay. With a steady, piercing, yet
+stolid and almost epileptic stare, cunning, yet not shrewd, not steady,
+nor guided by any evident train of thought, he would watch me write. I
+was a mystery to him, and he frankly doubted the truth of things I told
+him.
+
+First he said I had the build of a prize-fighter; then, perhaps on
+thinking it over, he doubted that I had ever done any hard work in my
+life. As to himself, he said he loved to break in wild horses. His
+father, according to one tale, was wealthy; two of his brothers were
+engineers on boats. But he hated study. He was altogether lacking in any
+notion of time, but he was not lazy. He was even ready to do work that
+was not his to do.
+
+One afternoon he was in a most jovial mood. He was about to have a tent
+raised in which he would spend the summer, instead of the hotel room
+allotted to the help. He was full of glee at the prospect. Primitive
+instincts seemed to waken in him. But there was a sudden
+reaction,--whimsical. We had stepped upon the lawn which afforded an
+open view across Lake Rotorua.
+
+"Strange, isn't it," he said without any preamble, "how money goes from
+one man to another, from here to Auckland and to Sydney? So much money."
+He became reminiscent: "Maories didn't know a thing about money. They
+were rich. See, across this lake,--that little island,--the whole was
+once a battle-field. The Maories went out in their canoes and fought
+with their battle-axes. What for? Oh, to gain lands. But now they are
+poor. Things are so dead here now. Nothing doing." A moment later he was
+called and disappeared. It was the only time he was ever communicative.
+The tent had roused in him racial regrets.
+
+One evening he came up to my door and told me there was a dance at the
+hall, and that he was going to it. Again that strange revival of racial
+memories, but these of hope and prospect, came into his face, "I'm going
+to take my 'tart' (girl) with me," he announced. And later in the
+evening, as I sat alone, watching the moon rise over the lake, the
+laughter of those Maories rang out across the hills.
+
+Though I wandered for many miles, running into the hundreds, the number
+of Maori villages and people I came across were few and far between. Yet
+records show that once these regions were alive with more than a hundred
+thousand fighting natives. At Rotorua, the hot-springs district in the
+North Island, the _pah_ was in exceptionally good condition, but it was
+so largely because the New Zealand Government has made of the place one
+of its most attractive tourist resorts and the natives are permitted to
+exact a tax from every visitor who wishes to see the geysers. Elsewhere
+the villages are dull, dreary, and neglected: the farther away from
+civilization, the worse they get. The consequence is not surprising.
+
+According to the census of 1896, there were 39,854 people of the Maori
+race: 21,673 males, 18,181 females, of which 3,503 were half-castes who
+lived as Maories, and 229 Maori women married to Europeans. The Maori
+population fell from 41,993 in 1891 to 39,854 in 1896, a decrease in
+five years of 2,139. But in 1901 it had risen to 43,143, going steadily
+up to 49,844 in 1911, and dropping to 49,776 in 1916 on account of the
+European war.
+
+There was considerable discussion in the New Zealand Parliament on the
+question of whether the Maories should be included in the Draft Act,
+most white men declaring that a race which was dying, despite this
+seeming increase, should not be taxed for its sturdiest young men in a
+war that was in truth none of its concern. But the Maories--that is,
+their representatives--objected, saying they did not wish to be
+discriminated against. Among the young men, however, I found not a few
+who were inclined to reason otherwise. So it was that while I was
+talking to the young fellows who were washing their horse in the
+Waikato, one of them said to me:
+
+"Yes. Years ago the white men came to us with guns and cannon and powder
+and compelled us to give up our warfare, which kept us in good condition
+individually and as a race. We put aside our weapons. Now they come to
+us and tell us we must go to Europe and fight for them." And he became
+silent and thoughtful.
+
+As I came back into Huntly from my visit to the _pah_ I passed the
+little court-house, before which was a crowd of Maories. Some of the
+_wahines_ sat with shawls over their heads smoking their pipes as though
+they were in trousers, not skirts. I chatted with the British Bobby who
+stood at the door, asking him what was bestirring Maoriland so much.
+
+"Oh, that bally old king of theirs has been subpoenaed to answer for his
+brother. The blighter has been keeping him out of sight so that he won't
+be taken in the draft."
+
+"But," I protested--democrat though I was, my heart went out to the old
+"monarch"--"can't the king get his brother, the archduke and possible
+successor to the throne, out of performing a task that might hazard the
+foundation of the imperial line?"
+
+"King be damned! Wait till we get the blighter in here," said the
+servant of the law, pressing his heels into the soft, oozy tar pavement
+as he turned scornfully from me.
+
+
+5
+
+A few days later I was cutting my way through a luxuriant mountain
+forest above Te Horoto in the North Island, listening to the melodious
+_tui_, the bell-bird, and to the song of the parson-bird in his black
+frock of feathers with a small tuft of white under his beak, like the
+reversed collar of a cleric. No sound of bird in any of the many
+countries I have been to has ever filled me with greater rapture than
+did this. There are thousands of skylarks in New Zealand, brought from
+England, but had Shelley heard the _tui_ he might have written an ode
+more beautiful even than that to the "blithe spirit" he has
+immortalized. Yet, like the human natives, these feathery folk have
+vastly decreased since the coming of the white man. No wonder Pehi Hetan
+Turoa, great chief of a far country on the other side of the island, in
+complaining of the decay of his race, said: "Formerly, when we went into
+a forest, and stood under a tree, we could not hear ourselves speak for
+the noise of the birds--every tree was full of them.... Now, many of the
+birds have died out."
+
+Enraptured with the loveliness of the native bush and the clear, sweet
+air, I pressed up the mountain side with great strides. Presently I
+passed a simple Maori habitation. It was about noon. Seeing smoke rise
+out of an opening in the roof, indicating that the owners were at home,
+I entered the yard. My eyes, full of the bright, clear sunlight, could
+not discern any living thing as I poked my head in at the door, but I
+could hear a voice bidding me enter. I stepped into a sort of
+antechamber, a large section of the hut with a floor of beaten earth and
+a single pillar slightly off the center supporting the roof. Gradually,
+as my eyes became accustomed to the subdued light, I saw an aged couple
+within a small alcove on the farther side. An open fire crackled in the
+center of its floor. The old woman sitting on her bed-space, was bending
+over the flame, fanning it to life. The old man, who was very tall, lay
+on a mat-bed to the right, his legs stretched in my direction. The two
+beds, the fire, and the old couple took up the entire space of the
+alcove,--a sort of kitchenette-bedroom affair like our modern "studio"
+apartments.
+
+"Where are you from?" asked the old man, after I had seated myself
+before the fire. "America," I said. My reply evoked no great surprise in
+him.
+
+"The village is quiet," I said. "Where are the people?"
+
+"Oh, down in the valley, working in the fields."
+
+"Don't you go out, too?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, I'm too old now. My legs ache with rheumatism. I go no more. Let
+the young fellows work. Stay and have tea with us," he urged.
+
+I looked at their stock. They did not seem to have any too much
+themselves, and the old woman seemed a little worried. I knew that the
+heart of the hostess was the same the world over, so I assured them I
+had had my meal, and only wished to rest a while away from the sun. The
+old woman showed relief.
+
+We chatted as cordially as it is possible where tongues cannot fully
+make themselves understood. I learned that the man was an old chief. He
+could not fall in with the times, acknowledged his inability to direct
+the affairs of this strange world, and only asked for rest and quiet,
+and the respect due one of his position. He did not expect to live long,
+nor did he much care. "These are not days for me," he said with a smile.
+He did not speak of the former glories of his race. Doubtless he could
+not exactly make up his mind whether to look before or after: if there
+were great chiefs before, are there not big M.P.'s now?
+
+The fire was burning low, and I knew that the old woman would have to go
+for more wood unless she hurried with the preparation of her meal, and
+that as long as I was there I was delaying her. So I rose to go. The old
+man excused himself for not rising by pointing to his lame legs. She saw
+me to the gate, and as I struck down the road she waved her hand after
+me in farewell, and remained behind the screen of trees round which I
+veered.
+
+Down in the valley lying almost precipitately below me were a number of
+natives working in their fields; but my road led me on to the cities,
+and it is there that the future of this race hangs in the balance.
+
+Some months later, while I was living in Dunedin in the far south of the
+South Island, the newspapers came out in a way almost American, so
+exciting was the bit of news. The editorial world forgot all decorum and
+dignity and pulled out the largest type it had on hand. It was announced
+that the Maori priest, Rua, was caught. Several persons were wounded and
+one, I believe, was killed in the process. The priest was treated with
+no respect and little consideration and thrown into prison,--all because
+he believed in having several wives as his men-folk always had, if they
+were chiefs and priests, and was trying to put a little life into his
+race, trying to stir it up to casting out these "foreign devils." He had
+built himself a temple that was an interesting work of art, but it holds
+worshipers no more, even though the priest has since been released. His
+efforts to rouse his people failed. Such efforts are only the reflex
+action of a dying race.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+ASTRIDE THE EQUATOR
+
+_The Second Side of The Triangle_
+
+   Dark is the way of the Eternal as mirrored in this world of Time:
+   God's way is in the sea, and His path in the great deep.--Carlyle.
+
+
+1
+
+More than a year went by before I began drawing in the radial thread
+that held me suspended from the North Star under the Southern Cross,--a
+year replete with lone wanderings and searching reflections. During all
+those months not a single day had passed without my surveying in my
+mind's eye the reaches of the Pacific that lay between me and the
+Orient. Roundabout New Zealand I had become familiar with the Tasman Sea
+looking toward Australia, on the shores of which I had spent some of the
+most mysterious nights of my life; on Hawkes Bay looking out toward
+South America; and across the surging waters of Otago Harbor at Dunedin,
+looking in the direction of the frozen reaches of Antarctica.
+
+Once staid Dunedin was thrilled by a wireless S.O.S. from the direction
+of the South Pole. The _Aurora_, Shackleton's ship which had gone down
+to the polar regions, was calling for help. She had snapped the cables
+which tied her to land when the ice-packs gave way and had drifted out
+to sea. Fortunately, most of the officers and crew were at the moment on
+board, but sixteen men were left marooned. To add to the prospect of
+tragedy, the ice smashed the rudder, and a jury-rudder, worked by hand
+from the stern deck, had to be improvised. With these handicaps the
+vessel made her way slowly till within five hundred miles of New
+Zealand, the reach of her wireless. Here she was rescued by a Dunedin
+tug and brought to Port Chalmers.
+
+  [Illustration: THE S. S. _AURORA_
+  Just arrived at Port Chalmers, N. Z., from the South Pole]
+
+  [Illustration: MOUNT COOK OF THE NEW ZEALAND ALPS IN SUMMER]
+
+  [Illustration: CIRCULAR QUAY, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
+  A whirl of pleasure-seeking and business]
+
+  [Illustration: MONUMENT TO CAPTAIN COOK
+  At Botany Bay, Australia]
+
+I made friends with the mate and the chief engineer and gained access to
+their superb collection of Emperor Penguin skins and an unusual number
+of photographs. Months afterward they wanted four men to complete the
+crew necessary for another journey south and I was tempted to join them,
+but tallow and bladder and a repressed pen were the negatives, while
+China and Japan were the positives. So I sailed away with the rising sun
+in the direction of the great West that is the Far East. Crisp and clear
+in the bright morning air shone the towering peaks of the New Zealand
+Alps as I sailed toward Australia and to Botany Bay,--not, however,
+without being nearly wrecked in the fog which had gathered in Foveaux
+Strait, which separates Steward Island from the South Island in New
+Zealand. Bluff, the last little town in New Zealand, is said to have the
+most southerly hotel in the world. I saw it.
+
+
+2
+
+Four days from Bluff to Melbourne on a sea that seemed on the verge of
+congealing into ice. It was not cold, yet autumn-like. And the
+passengers seemed the fallen leaves. The stewards maintained the
+reputation for impudence and unmannerliness of the Union Steamship
+Company crews, but I had grown used to that, and thanked my stars that
+this was the last coupon in the ticket I had purchased in Honolulu more
+than a year before. Of human incidents there was therefore none to
+relate.
+
+But chill and melancholy as that Southern sea was, there hovered over it
+a creature whose call upon one's interest was more than compensating.
+Swooping with giant wings in careless ease, the albatross followed us
+day in and day out. Always on the wing, awake or asleep, in sunshine or
+in storm, the air his home as the water is to fish, and earth to mammal.
+Even the ship was no lure for him by way of support. He followed it,
+accepted whatever was thrown from it, but as for dependence upon it,--no
+such weakness, you may be sure. His sixteen feet of wing-spread moved
+like a ship upon the waves, like a combination of a ship and sails.
+Swift, huge, glorious, unconsciously majestic, he is indeed a bird of
+good omen. How he floats with never a sign of effort! How he glides atop
+the waves, skims them, yet is never reached by their flame-like
+leapings; simulates their motion without the exhaustion into which they
+sink incessantly.
+
+The albatross had left us, and now the swarming is his artistry, so
+refined his "table manners." He does not gorge himself as does the
+sea-gull, nor is he ever heard to screech that selfish, hungry,
+insatiable screech. Silent, sadly voiceless, rhythmic and symbolic
+without being restrained by pride of art, he exemplifies right living.
+He is our link between shores, the one dream of reality on an ocean of
+opiate loveliness wherein there is little of earth's confusion and pain.
+For the traveler he keeps the balance between the deadly stability of
+land life and the dream-like mystery of the sea. But for him it were
+impossible to come so easily out of an experience of a long voyage. Away
+down there he is the only reminder of reality. Which explains the
+reverence sailors have for him and their superstitious dread of killing
+him. It is like the dread of the physician that his knife may too
+sharply stir the numbed senses of his patient under anæsthesia.
+
+Land may be said to begin where the albatross is seen to depart. He
+knows, and off he swoops, ship or no ship to follow and to guide; back
+over the thousand miles of watery waste, to measure the infinite with
+his sixteen-foot wings, glide by glide, with the speed of a twin-screw
+turbine. Only when the female enters the breeding season does she seek
+out a lost island to rear her young. Independent of the sea, these birds
+are utterly confined to it, a mystery floating within mystery.
+
+The albatross have left us, and now the swarming gulls abound. Why they
+are dignified with the Christian name "Sea" when they are such homely
+land-lubbers, is a question that I cannot answer. Pilots, rather, they
+come to see us into the harbor, or, with their harsh screeching, to
+frighten us away.
+
+But something within me would not know Australia, nor any lands, just
+then. Perhaps it was that my unconscious self was still with the
+albatross; for strange as it may seem I could not sense any forward
+direction at all that day, but only one that pointed backward,--toward
+home. Try as I would to realize myself on my way to Australia, still my
+mind persisted in pointing toward America. Not until we got the first
+sight of land ahead was my soul set right. Then it was the Sister
+Islands, Wilson's Promontory, the Bass Straits, with Tasmania barely in
+sight, Cape Liptrap, and finally Port Phillip. And Australia was on all
+fours, veiled in blue,--a thin rind of earth steeped in summer splendor.
+
+Flag signals were exchanged with the lonely pilot-ship that hung about
+the entrance. All being well, we passed on, crossing that point at the
+entrance where five strong water-currents meet and vanquish one another,
+turning into a smooth, glassy coat of treachery. The _Wimmera_ hugged
+the right shore of the largest harbor I have ever seen. In places the
+other shore could not be seen with the naked eye. But it is very shallow
+and innumerable lights float in double file to guard all ships from
+being stranded.
+
+Just as we entered, the sun set. A stream of color unconstrained
+obliterated all detail as it poured over the point of the harbor,
+filling the spacious port. Clots of amber and orange gathered and were
+dissipated, softened, diffused, till slowly all died down and were
+gone. Darkness and the blinking lights of the buoys remained.
+
+Two big ships, brilliantly lighted, flinging their manes of smoke to the
+winds, passed, one on its way to Sydney, the other to Tasmania and
+Adelaide in the south. Far in the distance ahead we could see the string
+of shore lights at Port Williamson. It took us three hours to overtake
+them, and we arrived too late to receive pratique. For half an hour the
+captain and the customs carried on a conversation with blinking lights.
+The winches suddenly began their rasping sound, and the anchor dropped
+to the bottom. We did not debark that night.
+
+
+3
+
+I spent nearly six months in Melbourne and Sydney, those two eastern
+eyes of that wild old continent, and for the first time in a twelvemonth
+the sense of security from the sea obtained. For a fortnight I occupied
+a little shack on Manly Beach, near Sydney, but oh, how different it was
+there from the sand-dunes on the shores at Dunedin, in New Zealand! In
+the Dominion one had to hide within the interior to get away from the
+sea: on the beach one felt about to slip into Neptune's maw. But at
+Manly, Bondi, Botany Bay, the sea might hammer away for another eternity
+without putting a landlubber off his ease.
+
+But we shall return to Australia in another section. The sea is still
+much in the blood, there is still a vast length that lies close to Asia
+and marks off another line of our imaginary triangle. Here are no
+landless reaches, but all the way to Japan one passes strip after strip,
+as though some giant earthquake had shattered part of the main.
+
+Months afterward I took passage once more, this time on the _Eastern_,
+bound for Japan.
+
+There was no mistaking the side of the world I was on and the direction
+of my journey from the moment I stepped upon the pier to which the
+_Eastern_ was made fast. Hundreds of Chinese, with thousands of boxes
+and bundles, scurried to and fro in an ant-like attention to little
+details. Then as the steamer was about to depart, mobilization for the
+counting of noses took place, and veritable regiments of emaciated
+yellow men lined the decks. Here and there a fat, successful-looking
+Chinese moved round the crowd, an altogether different-looking species,
+more as one who lives on them than as one who lives with them. On the
+dock stood several groups waiting to wave farewell to their Oriental
+kin. One of these groups was composed of a stout white woman with two
+very pretty Eurasian daughters,--as handsome a pair of girls as I saw in
+Australia. Their father was a well-to-do Chinese merchant taking one of
+his regular trips to China. In Australian fashion they were ready for a
+mild flirtation, spoke Australian English with Australian slang, and,
+aside from their pater, they were native to all intents and purposes.
+And in Australia they remained.
+
+Of those who departed, the major number likewise remained native--though
+to China--despite years and years of residence in Australia. It is a
+one-sided argument to maintain that because of that the Chinese are
+unassimilable. There is no ground for such a deduction, because they
+arrived mainly after maturity, and the Chinese could challenge any white
+man to become one of them after he has fully acquired his habits and
+prejudices. But we had not been many minutes at sea before it was our
+misfortune to find that we had among us a Chinese boy who was born and
+brought up in New Zealand and was just then going to China for the first
+time. Here I had ample opportunity of observing the assimilability of
+the Oriental. And here I bow before the inevitable.
+
+He had assimilated every obnoxious characteristic of our civilization,
+the passion for slang, the impertinence, the false pride, the bluff
+which is the basis of Western crowd psychology. He was not a
+Chinese,--that he denied most vehemently,--he was a New Zealander, and
+by virtue of his birth he assumed the right to impose his boyish
+larrikinism upon all the ship's unfortunate passengers. He banged the
+piano morning, noon, and night; he affected long, straight black hair,
+which was constantly getting in his way and being brushed carefully back
+over his head; and he took great pains to make himself as generally
+obnoxious as possible. He was not that serious, struggling Chinese
+student who comes to America afire with hope for the regeneration of his
+race. He was a New Zealander, knew no other affiliations, had no
+aspirations, and lorded it over "those Chinese" who occupied every bit
+of available space on the steamer.
+
+In his way he was also a Don Juan, for he hovered over the young
+half-Australian wife of a middle-aged Chinese merchant who was taking
+her back to China for her confinement. She was morose, sullen, as
+unhappy a spirit as I have seen in an Oriental body. Obviously, China
+held few fine prospects for her. She was seldom seen in her husband's
+company, for he was generally below playing fan-tan or gambling in some
+other fashion. And the Australian half of her was longing for home. It
+seemed to devolve upon our young Don Juan to court this unhappy
+creature, and court her he did. But she had no resilience, no flash, her
+Chinese half-self offering him as little reward for his pains as a cow
+would offer the sun for a brilliant setting.
+
+I expected any hour of the day to see that woman throw herself into the
+sea, or that husband stick a knife into the bold, bad boy, but nothing
+happened; the husband and the wife were seemingly oblivious of the
+love-making, and all went well.
+
+Besides the Chinese crew and passengers there were perhaps a dozen white
+people, including the officers. An old English army captain whose
+passport confirmed his declaration that he was seventy-three years old,
+was taking a little run up to Japan. His only reason was that Japan was
+an ally, hence he wanted to see it. Such is the nature of British
+provincialism. Otherwise, there were but two or three young Australians
+bound for Townsville, and the stewardess. Somewhere along the coast we
+picked up a Russian peasant, who with his wife had been induced to
+emigrate to Australia, but who was now going home to enlist. As though
+there weren't already enough men in Russia armed with sticks and stones!
+At still another port we commandeered a veritable regiment of Australian
+children, colloquially called larrikins. These were bound for the
+Philippines, where their father had preceded them some months before.
+Their exploits deserve an exclusive paragraph.
+
+Suddenly, out of a clear sky, there would be a shriek like the howl of a
+dingo on the Australian plains. There would be a rush to the defenses by
+an excited female,--the mother. There would follow such a slapping as
+would delight the English Corporal Correction League, except that it
+wasn't done cold-bloodedly enough. And thereafter for half an hour there
+was bedlam all around. After exhaustion, a new series of pranks set in.
+This time they were playing a "back-blocks" game which entailed a
+hanging. One of them needs must be hanged, and was rescued just in time
+by an ever-swooping mother. After hours of hunger-stimulating escapades
+on deck, the dinner-bell sent them scurrying down into the saloon.
+Before any of us had time to be seated all the fruit on the table was
+divided according to the best principles of individual enterprise.
+Beginning with the first thing on the menu, they went down the sheet,
+leaving nothing untasted; nor did it matter much whether it was
+breakfast or dinner,--steak enough for a meal in itself comprised the
+entrée. And the littlest kept pace with the biggest. Nor did afternoon
+and morning tea escape them. Fully stoked up, they were ready for
+another beating and another hanging on deck.
+
+In contrast were the little Chinese children,--quiet, shy, never
+spanked; and though they put away enough within their Oriental
+bread-baskets, one never saw that same wild struggle for existence which
+told the tale of life on an Australian station better than anything I
+wot of.
+
+We had now reached Brisbane, 519 miles from Sydney, a distance which
+took the _Eastern_ from noon of the 8th to sunrise of the 10th of
+October to negotiate. And from the outer channel to the docks on the
+Brisbane River we steamed till half-past one in the afternoon. Here we
+were "beached" in the mud when the tide went out and had to wait
+twenty-four hours before floating out again. In the meantime we picked
+up two more gems,--mature larrikin this time. One of them was so drunk
+he couldn't see straight, the other was sober enough to bring him on
+board. Unfortunately for me, they were placed in my cabin, and from then
+on, after the youngsters had turned the day into chaos, these two would
+come in to sleep, and the cursing, the spitting, the reference to women
+with which they consoled their souls, would have shocked the most
+hardened beach-comber, I am sure.
+
+To avoid annoyances I explored every nook and corner of the vessel. At
+last I discovered a sanctuary on the roof of the unused hospital. It
+could not be called a model of order and comfort, for various air-tanks
+and stores of sprouting potatoes belittered it. But it was like the holy
+of holies to me, for there I might just as well have been on a lone
+craft of my own. No sound reached me from any living thing,--except an
+occasional extra-loud shriek from the youngsters. Above and about me
+there was nothing to obstruct my view, and within, absolute peace.
+
+On the following day we were on the Great Barrier Reef, grayish green in
+color, languid in temperament, shallow and therefore dangerous in
+make-up. Numerous islands, neutral in color and sterile of vegetation,
+seemed to stare at us and at one another in mute indifference. For the
+first time the storied reality of being stranded on a desolate island
+came home to me. As I sat watching this filmy show, I became conscious
+of a familiar something in the world about me, be it warmth or color, a
+something which immediately brought the picture of Santa Anna Valley in
+California back to mind. Sometimes we come across a face we feel certain
+we have seen before: that was the case with the atmosphere along the
+Great Barrier Reef. The setting is that of the island home of _Paul and
+Virginia_. Near and far, lowly and majestic, in generous succession on
+each side, were islands and continent,--an avenue wide, spacious, and
+clear. Occasional peaks along the mainland recalled old-fashioned
+etchings,--dense clouds, heaven-reaching streaks and shafts of
+twice-blended astral blue; rain-driven mountain fiords.
+
+Early one day, an hour before dawn, the _Eastern_ moored before Magneta
+Isle with her stern toward Townsville, as though ready for instant
+flight, if necessary. With an early-morning shower of filthy words, one
+of my cabin-mates pulled himself together and dressed. Shortly afterward
+he slipped over the side of the ship into a tossing and pitching launch
+and was rushed to Townsville. His rousing me at that hour was the only
+thing I had reason to be grateful to him for in our short acquaintance.
+
+For the world was exquisitely beautiful in its delicate gown of night.
+Dawn was but waking. Four-o'clock stupor superintended the easy
+activities. A few lights in a corner, a bolder and more purposeful flash
+from a search-light, and all set in twilight. A ring of islands--the
+Palm Isles--stones set in a placid bay. That was all I saw of
+Townsville.
+
+And perhaps it is just as well. It may have been "ordained" that my
+ignorance obtain, be the city's virtues and its right to fame what they
+may. What if I had gathered closer impressions, added meaningless
+statistics or announced the prevalence of diphtheria throughout
+Queensland, or discovered the leading citizen of Townsville to an
+apathetic world? But it may be of interest to hear that Townsville
+claims one distinction. It is the Episcopal See of Australia and the
+seat of the Anglican Bishop and possesses a cathedral.
+
+
+4
+
+On the afternoon of the following day a heavy wind or squall came up.
+This time the ship did not defy it. No foolhardy resistance here. The
+reefs are too near and they stretch for thirty miles seaward. Again we
+anchored. The horizon contracted like a noose of mist; it stifled one.
+The ship seemed to crouch beneath the winds. An hour, and the anchor was
+heard being lifted and the propellers were slowly revived to action. A
+little later we anchored again. A light was hoisted to the stern mast
+and twilight lowered on a calm gray sea. Distant little flat islands
+loomed through the mist. Two sailing-vessels at anchor, moored in
+companionship, rested within an inlet. A gentle swish, a murmur of human
+voices, and our little world was swaying gently upon a curious world.
+And there we remained all night.
+
+As the sun gave notice of day, we moved off, and all day the sea was so
+still that but for the vibration of the screws it would have been hard
+to realize that the ship was in motion. Here we came to where the jagged
+coastline has run down. Tiny islets, flat and low, most of them but a
+landing-place for a few tropical trees. Summer calm, with barely a
+ripple of the sea. That night we anchored again, having come, it was
+said, to the most dangerous pass on the reefs.
+
+Ten days after having left Sydney we arrived at the last port in
+Australia, Thursday Island. A cloudy morning had turned clear for us,
+but on ahead to the northwest hung heavy mists. Because of these, I was
+later told by two soldiers on guard atop the mountain fortification,
+they could not see us coming. They saw our smoke, but the steamer was
+hidden from them by mist. Then suddenly we shot into view. All the while
+we had been in the clearest sunshine, the sea glassy and the flying-fish
+darting about. It was no place for speed. We moved just fast enough to
+leave the scene undisturbed. And thus we stole into Torres Straits.
+
+Of all the numerous harbors I have entered in the Pacific, none, with
+the exception of the Inland Sea in Japan, is more picturesque than that
+at Thursday Island. Shelter, space, and depth, and stillness! One's eyes
+sweep round this pearly promise with greed for its beauty. Seventy-five
+sail-boats, their sailless masts swaying with the swells, are anchored
+on the reefs. It is Sunday and they are at rest, but what enchantment
+lies hid in those folded sails! I wish for the power to utter some word
+which could put them to flight; but that remains for Monday, when "the
+word" is spoken.
+
+And on Monday, too, immediately upon leaving port at ten o'clock, the
+ship's time was returned to standard time, leaving Australia and its
+"bunkum" daylight-saving time behind. Thence we lived again by "dinkum"
+time. The ship about-faced and left the channel the same way it had
+entered, and shortly afterward we struck across the Arafua Sea.
+
+
+5
+
+From that day until I reached Japan it was all I could do to keep track
+of the seas we passed through,--Arafua, Banda, Molucca, Celebes, Sulu,
+China, and the Inland Sea.
+
+As we neared the equator again, there was nothing to disturb the
+peaceful splendor of life, except the little hoodlums on board. About
+sixty miles south of it a tiny creature, like a turtle, sailed along the
+still surface; the flying-fish blistered the water, the scars broadened
+and healed again just as the sportive amphibians pierced it and
+disappeared. What a contrast to the albatross!
+
+Then the miracle occurred. From the west, hidden from me by the ship,
+the sun reached to the eastern clouds, dashing them with pink and bronze
+and blue. I could not tell where the horizon went to, and was roused to
+curiosity as to what kind of sunset could effect such lovely tints. It
+wasn't a sunset, but a sunfall, a revelation. Where suggestion through
+imitation glistened on the eastern side, daring prodigality of color
+swept away emotion on the western side. It was neither saddening nor
+joyous. It was a vision of a consciousness in nature as full of
+character, as definitely meaningful and emotional as a human face. There
+was something almost terrifying in the expression of that sunset face.
+One could read into it what one felt in one's own soul. And a little
+later a crescent moon peeped over the horizon.
+
+At about midnight of the seventeenth day after leaving Sydney we crawled
+over the equator, and no home-coming ever meant more to me than seeing
+the dipper again and the Northern stars. During all those days nothing
+wildly exciting had happened at sea; but just after we left the equator
+we passed a series of water-spouts--six in all--which formed a
+semi-circle east, south, and west. The spout to the east seemed to me to
+be at least two or three hundred feet high, and tremendous in
+circumference. It drew a solid column of water from the sea far into a
+heavy black cloud. On the sea beneath it rose a flutter of water fully
+fifty feet high, black as the smoke produced by a magician's wand. Weird
+and illusive, the giants beggared description as they stalked away to
+the southeast, like animated sky-scrapers.
+
+Then we reached Zamboanga, the little town on the island of Mindanao of
+the Philippines. From there, for twelve hours, we crept long the coast
+till we entered Manila Harbor.
+
+There remained but two days' voyage before I would reach Asia, the
+object of my interest for years, and of all my efforts for two. But it
+was not so easy as all that, for two days upon the China Sea are worth a
+year upon the Atlantic. Riding a cyclone would be riding a hobby-horse
+or a camel compared with the Yellow Sea, and though I was the only
+passenger who missed only one meal during the whole period, I was beaten
+by the seventy-three-year-old English captain,--who managed all but half
+a meal. The sea would roll skyward as though it were striving to stand
+on end and for a moment the ship would lurch downward as though on a
+loop-the-loop. Sometimes it seemed as though the world were turning
+completely over. Yet I was told this was only normal, and that typhoons
+visit it with stated regularity. The China Sea is "the very metropolis
+of typhoons."
+
+A month had well-nigh gone before we reached Hong-Kong, the British
+portal to Cathay, a month of dreamy weather. Only one thing more,--a
+thing more like a scene in the Arabian Nights. Toward the end of the
+journey I discovered where the five hundred Chinese whose noses had been
+counted when we left Sydney had gone. Going forward, I looked over into
+an open hatchway, down into the hold, and there was a sight I shall
+never forget. These hundreds of deck passengers were all in a muddle
+amid cargo, parcels, hundreds of birds in cages, parrots, a
+kangaroo,--yet oblivious of everything. For the entire voyage nothing
+that I tell of could possibly have come within their ken, as during
+those days their minds were bent on one thing and one alone,--on playing
+fan-tan. There in the bottom of the hold hundreds of gold sovereigns
+passed from hand to hand in a game of chance. And at last they were to
+be released, to spread, a handful of sand thrown back upon the beach.
+
+As for myself, with my arrival at Hong-Kong and a visit to Shanghai
+ended the longest continuous voyage I had made upon the Pacific, and the
+second side of that great Pacific Triangle was drawn. But meanwhile let
+me review in detail the outposts of the white man in the far
+Pacific--the lands I had passed on the white man's side of the triangle,
+ending in Hong-Kong, where white man and Oriental meet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE AUSTRALIAN OUTLANDS
+
+
+1
+
+In the normal course of human variation, there should have been
+virtually no change of experience for me in going from New Zealand to
+Australia, notwithstanding the twelve hundred miles of sea that separate
+them. And though the sea is hardly responsible, there was a difference
+between these two offshoots of the "same" race for which distance offers
+little explanation. To me it seemed that regardless of the pride of race
+which encourages people to vaunt their homogeneity, the way these two
+counterparts of Britain have developed proves that homogeneity exists in
+wish more than in fact. It seems to me that the New Zealander has
+developed as though he were more closely related to the insular
+Anglo-Saxon, and the Australian as though he were the continental strain
+in the Englishman cropping out in a new and vast continent. However,
+this is sheer conjecture. All I can do is to offer in the form of my own
+observations reasons for the faith that is in me.
+
+From the moment that I set foot in Australia I felt once again on a
+continent. Melbourne is low, flat, and gave me the impression of
+roominess which New Zealand cities never gave. They, with the exception
+of Christchurch on the Canterbury plains, always clambered up bare brown
+hills and hardly kept from slipping down into the sea. But in Australia
+I felt certain that if I set out in any direction except east I could
+walk until my hair grew gray without ever coming across a mountain. It
+was a great satisfaction to me that first day, for it was intensely hot
+and I had a heavy coat on my arm and two cameras and no helmet. Added to
+my difficulties was the cordiality of an Australian fellow-passenger who
+was determined that I should share with him his delight at home-coming.
+He was a short, stout, olive-skinned young man of about twenty-three who
+had a slightly German swing in his gait and accentuated his every
+statement with a diagonal cut outward of his right hand, palm down.
+
+He lured me from one end of Melbourne to the other, made me lunch with
+him at a vegetarian restaurant,--which is a very popular resort in
+Melbourne,--introduced me to Cole's Book Arcade, to the Blue-bird Tea
+Rooms, where fine orchestral music flavors one's refreshments, to the
+latest bank building and even to the station of the railway, which
+"carries the largest suburban passenger traffic of any in the world."
+"Meet me under the clock," is the Melbournian motto. How they can all do
+so is beyond me, for the half-dozen stone steps that lead to the narrow
+doors at the corner of the station could not, I am sure, afford a
+rendezvous for more than thirty people at one time; yet the old clock
+ticks away in patience,--the most popular and most persistent thing in
+Melbourne.
+
+  [Illustration: ONE OF THE OLDEST AUSTRALIAN RESIDENCES IS NOW A PUBLIC
+  DOMAIN]
+
+  [Illustration: THE INTERIOR OF A WEALTHY SHEEP STATION OWNER'S HOME IN
+  MELBOURNE]
+
+  [Illustration: AUSTRALIAN BLACKS IN THEIR NATIVE ELEMENT
+                                                A. A. White, Brisbane]
+
+  [Illustration: AN AUSTRALIAN BLACK IN MELBOURNE
+  Out of his element but happy none the less]
+
+I had so much trouble keeping pace with this Australian, who seemed to
+grow more energetic the hotter it became, that I was grateful when he
+said he would have to leave me, and I was alone again. Then I realized
+for the first time that I could really like Melbourne; that it had long,
+broad, spacious streets with clean, fresh-looking office and
+department-store buildings, that even the narrower side streets were
+clean and inviting, and that the street cars were propelled by cables
+and not by trolley wires. So easy were these cars and so low that no one
+ever waited for them to stop, but hopped aboard anywhere along the
+street. Melbourne was to me a perfect bath in cleanliness and
+orderliness,--just what a city ought to be. Even in the very heart of
+the city the homes had a suburban gentility about them, and there were
+no unnecessary noises, no smoke, and no end of pretty girls. The people
+were a joy to look at. Something of the tropical looseness in both dress
+and flesh, as though their skins were always being fully ventilated,
+made them attractive. The New Zealanders made me feel as though I were
+in a bushel of apples; the Australians, carefully packed yellow plums. I
+have never enjoyed just being on the street more than I did in
+Melbourne.
+
+On Bourke Street, in the very midst of the pushing crowd, a soft-voiced
+lad approached me for some information and strutted off, tall in his
+self-confidence. Victorian belles, tall, graceful, russet-skinned, plump
+but not flabby, moved with a fine air of self-reliance. On closer
+acquaintance, I found that these girls were not silent and opinionless
+as were most of the New Zealand girls. Whatever the issue before the
+public, they had their defined opinions concerning it, and they were not
+sneered at by the men. Then, too, there was a companionship between the
+boys and girls, without reserve, that was balm to my soul after the year
+in New Zealand.
+
+Melbourne was the home of Madame Melba, and in consequence the city is
+the most musical of any I lived in in the Antipodes. Even the babies
+sing operatically on the streets, and the voices one hears from open
+windows are not the head-voices of prayer-meetings, but those of people
+who seem to know the value of the human larynx.
+
+During the two weeks that I was in Melbourne, I was, whenever I chose, a
+guest of the Master of the Mint, Mr. Bagg, who was the uncle of a New
+Zealand girl of my acquaintance; lunched, dined and afternoon tea-ed
+with his family whenever I felt like it; was rushed to the theater to
+see an old pioneer play; and went to attend public meetings at which the
+mayor and the prime minister spoke; visited the beaches, and knew the
+joy of the most refreshing companionship it was my good-fortune to meet
+with in all my wanderings,--though there were others. And it was so with
+whomever I met in Melbourne, from the clerk in the haberdashery, who
+acquainted me with the jealousy that exists between Sydney and
+Melbourne, to the woman in whose home I roomed on Fitzroy Park, or the
+young couple with the toddling baby and the glorious sheep-dog, who
+engaged me in conversation on the lawn near the beach at St. Kilda.
+
+And so I still see Melbourne in memory as a place I should enjoy living
+in. I was often alone, but never lonely in it. And I see it from its
+Botanic Gardens, with the broad Yarra Yarra River slowly cleaving it in
+two, its soft, semi-tropical mists hanging over it, its temperate
+climate, its cleanliness and its low, rolling hills where it hides its
+suburbs.
+
+I didn't go to see Adelaide, in South Australia, because I was destined
+to live in Sydney, in New South Wales.
+
+
+2
+
+It is more than mere accident that Victoria has broader-gaged railways
+than New South Wales, and that travelers from one state to the other
+must get off at Albury and change, or between New South Wales and
+Queensland to the north of it. It is not mere accident, I am sure, for
+there is a like difference in the width of streets between Melbourne and
+Sydney.
+
+Sydney is hilly, exposed, bricky, and crowded, and though it is the
+premier city of Australia, it grows without changing. There is a
+conservatism about it which, in view of the activity of Australians, is
+inexplicable. Sydney is almost an old city. Its streets wind as though
+the settlers had been uncertain of the prevailing winds; and the hills
+tend to give it an appearance of huddling. The red roofs of the
+cottage-like houses, and their architectural style give it a European
+tone, slightly like an English city. It has none of the fresh,
+"hand-me-down" regularity of the American, nor the sober coziness of the
+English, village. Every street leads one to the center of the city, and
+wind as it will there is hardly any relief from commonplaceness. The
+thoroughfares are crowded with street cars which cross and
+circumambulate, some of the main streets are too narrow for more than
+single-track lines. Yet instead of seeing the earlier error and trying
+to correct it by prohibiting the erection of buildings on the present
+curb lines, the authorities have permitted one of the finest office
+buildings in the city--the Commonwealth Bank Building, to be placed on
+the same line as the rest of the old structures. It is hardly to be
+expected that such methods will ever broaden the streets.
+
+There are no tenements in Sydney, in the New York sense of the term, but
+the average home as I saw it on my usual rounds in search of quarters,
+was ordinary. The rooms were small, and there were few conveniences.
+
+But this is Sydney proper. Newer Sydney, with its suburbs and homes
+along the numerous peninsulas projecting into the waters of Port
+Jackson, is modern, clean, and airy, and really convenient. Man is a
+lazy animal and prone to dote on nature's beauties, neglecting his
+responsibilities to nature. Sydney, proud of its harbor, builds there
+and forgets its city-self. There are no fine structures to speak of, no
+monuments, no art, and even the library has to borrow a roof for itself
+in a building essentially excellent but neglected as a municipal white
+elephant. But there is a municipal organ in the Town Hall, and that
+makes up for much that is wanting in Sydney.
+
+I took up my quarters across the water from Sydney, and from there I
+could see the city through the glory-lens, its harbor. Little
+peninsulas, crossed in but a few minutes, project into the waters of the
+harbor, making it look like an oak-leaf and affording sites for the
+splendid homes that have been built there. Crowding is impossible;
+views of the water may be had from all angles. And here, in a borrowed
+nest, I sat for hours perched above the water, noting and gloating over
+its moods and character. What charm it works, when in the blood-red
+streaks of sunset the tidal floods cool the peaceful turquoise; when the
+busy little ferries of day become fairy transports with streaks of
+shimmering light as escort, moving across the still waters; when on
+Sunday morning Sydney across the way relaxes, amazing with revelations.
+With street and sky-line clear, quiet hangs in the air; or on more windy
+days, myriad whitecaps royne at the numerous ships which cross and
+recross one another's paths. In one direction, industry is idealized; in
+others, nature and beauty lie naked, above idealization.
+
+For two weeks I lived out at Manly Beach, nine miles by ferry from
+Sydney, and went in and out every day. The Heads lie to the right, and
+as we made our way across, the swells from the sea beyond rolled the
+little ferry teasingly. At times, when the swells were heavier and the
+crowds excessive, a sort of panic would spread over them, but some of
+the inevitable minstrels that swarm the streets and by-ways of Sydney,
+would counteract contagion with music and song.
+
+The beaches are always crowded. Annette Kellerman is Australian, and
+somehow, whether as cause or effect, Sydney people are the most
+amphibious folk in the world. They seem to live in the water. Every
+spare hour is spent on the wide stretches of sand that lie warm and
+white in the blazing sun. But nothing takes precedence over the harbor
+in the adoration of Sydneyites.
+
+Sydney is known for its gaiety, yet I was lonely in Sydney,--bitterly
+so. Perhaps people are too gay to think of others, perhaps their gaiety
+made me exaggerate my loneliness. "Nothing like the Australian larrikin
+when he gets going," you will be told. But what struck me was the latent
+distemper that lurked beneath much of the hilarity that I saw in Sydney.
+Australia is not very different from any of us,--a little more
+imitative, a little more outspoken, a little more gruff, a little more
+youthful. But wildness is not specially Australian; nor is bluntness;
+nor yet youthfulness. The Australian is perhaps a little more reckless,
+individually or _en masse_, than the people of other lands, but he puts
+up with the same social inconveniences; he reasons falsely at times and
+gets fooled; he gloats over the spectacular, becomes intensely excited
+over nothing,--and suddenly relapses. In a crowd he sometimes becomes
+belligerent, yet is easily led and easily relinquishes. But, above all
+else, he is gregarious. And it is because of this that he takes you in
+in Sydney,--and drops you out before you have known what has happened to
+you. Hence he is an inveterate sportsman, a heavy drinker, a perpetual
+gambler at the races,--faithful to his whimsicalities.
+
+Intellectually he is a fanatic, but tolerates all sorts of fanaticisms.
+A Sunday morning on the beautiful grounds of the Public Domain is enough
+to convince you that Sydney would welcome the most freakish freak in the
+world, imprison him for the fun of it, then sympathize with him if he
+dies in prison, as did the famous naked man, Chidley. I have seen Sydney
+men who seemed to me men without hearts, as soft and gentle as women in
+the face of another man's hurt. Yet when a well-known army officer stole
+funds that belonged to wounded soldiers and their needy families, I
+heard respectable Sydney men say they were glad he got away with it. I
+have seen girls at carnivals, who at ten o'clock went about tickling
+strange men under the chin, snarl at them at eleven and order them to
+"Trot along, now." I have heard Australians say harsh things of
+themselves in criticism, but true loyalty is widely prevalent among
+Australians. An Australian always wants a mate, "some one who would
+stick like lead" if he were up against it. The self-criticism comes
+rather from the more thoughtful Australians, who, looking out upon the
+future, want to see their country hold on to the prize it has won, and
+grow and become a leader in the affairs of the Pacific.
+
+But though Sydney and Melbourne are the leading cities of the
+commonwealth, he who has to judge of the nation by them wonders where
+that leadership is to come from. The love of pleasure is a sign of
+health in any people; and Australia is in that sense most healthful.
+Material progress is the next best indication of the state of a nation;
+and Australia is universally prosperous. But it is in the outlook on
+life that a country justifies its existence and insures itself against
+decay. Until the war, all reports of Australia on that score were
+negative. Provincialism, of the most ingrowing kind, obtained. Every
+state thought chiefly of itself; every city of itself only; every
+district of none other than itself. But with the war Australia took a
+tremendous leap forward. For the first time in her history, her men had
+a chance to leave the land which intellectually was little more than a
+sublimated prison to them. Half a million men left Australia for Europe
+and other sections of the globe. And if Australia knew what she was
+about she would now send the rest of her men and women abroad with the
+same end in view,--the education of the people for the place they occupy
+in the world.
+
+Much criticism is flung at Australia because her young men and women are
+inclined to enjoy life rather than burden themselves with a succeeding
+generation. If the beginning and end of life is reproduction, then that
+is a just criticism. But the welfare of the living is as important as
+the welfare of civilization. The greatest criticism is not that people
+will not bear children in the face of trying economic conditions, but
+that, having exceptionally favorable circumstances, they show no special
+inclination to become parents, and that nothing is being done to create
+conditions under which the bearing of young would be no handicap. But
+that requires an intellectual outlook which is at present wanting in
+the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. There is an over-emphasis of
+pleasure _per se_, a lack of seriousness in the concerns of life.
+
+Sydney lures men and women from the back-blocks and makes them feel
+human again, makes them forget the plains are sear, and that manliness
+is next to cleanliness. It affords dull station-owners a chance to mix
+with folk where sweetness and refinement, and not crudeness, is the
+order of the day and of life. It takes men and women who have been told
+that to increase and multiply is the only contribution they can make to
+the welfare of the community and shows them that there is something in
+life besides that. So when I think of what Sydney means to the world
+that lies behind it I cannot refrain from offering my contribution of
+praise. But then I ask myself and Sydney what it has done to make the
+back-blocks better, what it is doing to build up the country, and the
+fact becomes evident that it is only draining it. Fully 51 per cent of
+the inhabitants of Australia live in cities. It is for these cities to
+lay railroads and highways and to open the vast continent; and that can
+be done only by putting prejudices aside, by adding to recreation real
+creation and a soberness in the affairs of life which alone will win for
+Australia its place in the affairs of the Pacific.
+
+What, socially and individually, then, is the contribution of Australia
+to the civilization of the Pacific? Is her position to be one of eminent
+leadership commensurate with the welfare of the individual members of
+the Commonwealth, or is their joyousness going to make her citizens
+forget ambition and their ruling destiny? This much must not be
+forgotten,--that born as a convict colony, Australia has more than
+justified itself; that the term "convict colony" is now no more
+applicable to Australia than it is to Virginia. That handicap
+notwithstanding, Australia to-day is as far advanced as any nation in
+the world. The people do not generally take to higher mathematics, to
+philosophical thinking, or to science, but illiteracy is rare in
+Australia. Given a continent wherein nothing of civilization was to be
+found, Australia has made of it, in a little more than a century, a land
+productive, healthful, and promising. Much praise is due Japan for what
+she has accomplished along material lines in seventy years; how much
+more praise is due Australia for what she has done in about the same
+time!
+
+
+3
+
+As one journeys north along the Australian coast, life begins to thin
+out. Fate must have been in a comic mood when it apportioned me my
+experiences as I was leaving that island continent, for in Brisbane it
+allotted me an august funeral, and in Thursday Island it sent a
+missionary out to "attack me." Thereby hang two tales.
+
+I had walked what seemed to me fully two miles from the pier in the
+Brisbane River to the heart of town and was rather overheated. My
+septuagenarian Englishman trudged along by my side. When we arrived in
+the central thoroughfare I took note of the fact that things looked
+fresh and clean, that there was a tendency toward pink paint, but that
+otherwise I might have saved myself the journey. Alas, it was Saturday
+afternoon, and a half-holiday! Leaving my venerable comrade behind, I
+strode along at my own pace in search of adventure, my camera across my
+shoulder. I had taken to a hilly side street, and must have looked like
+a professional tourist. Absorbed in seeking, I was startled by an
+appealing voice behind me. Turning, I found the owner of that voice
+gazing intently at my camera.
+
+"That's a camera you have there, sir."
+
+I admitted my guilt, wondering what crime lurked in the possession of a
+camera.
+
+"I've been trotting all over town trying to find a photographer, sir,
+but their shops are all closed. Would you mind coming along with me,
+sir, and taking a picture of a funeral as the mourners come out of
+church. Lady ---- is so anxious to have a picture of them just leaving
+church. The deceased, sir, her husband, was a very much beloved
+gentleman, a prominent official, and devoted to the church in which now
+lie his remains, and she would be so pleased if you would come and taik
+a fouto for her." In his excitement, he slipped into the use of cockney,
+so prevalent in Australia. I threw out my chest and thought to myself:
+"See here, old man, do you think I've lived in New York and London and
+Paris, and Sydney, and ---- to be sold a gold brick in Brisbane? But
+I'll show you I'm game." And I followed him up the street. But sure
+enough, there at the top of the hill, from an imposing church, emerged a
+funeral, posing to be taken. It did not matter to this man that I told
+him my ship was in port only for the day and that before I could
+possibly make a print I should be either in China or Japan. But just
+then Fate thought she was carrying the joke too far and sent along a
+native son with a camera, and I was released. I set out for the ship.
+
+In the little gullies that lie along the way were shacks or cottages,
+raised on piles, with inverted pans between them and the floor beams.
+White ants were eating to pulp these supports. We were in the tropics
+again.
+
+
+Fate must have chuckled. She is fond of practical jokes. The next time
+she tried one on me, I was in Cairns. Having entered Australia on the
+ground floor, Melbourne, I suppose Cairns might be said to be the
+fifth-story window. I left the ship the moment she was made fast, keyed
+up with expectation of seeing the tropics again. Ashore, the spirit
+hovering about tropical villages took me in hand. No better guide can be
+found on earth. With a voice subdued, it urged me to pass quickly
+through the town, which was still asleep except for the saloons and
+their keepers. The spirit leading me complained of that other spirit
+which leads and captures most men in the tropics. My spirit, happy to
+have a patron, offered me luxurious scenes, melodious sounds, and mellow
+colors,--happy in receiving a grateful stranger. While pressing through
+the little village, I noticed the mission type of architecture of the
+post-office; the concrete columns guarding the entrance of the newspaper
+office; the arched balconies of a hotel; the delicate, dainty cottages
+raised on wooden piles, the verdure hiding defects, and the main
+building lost in a massive growth of yellow flowers overgrowing roof and
+all. A small opening for entrance and a pugnacious corner were the only
+indications of its nature as a residence. Then there were a "School of
+Arts" and a double-winged girls' school. The whole town was pretty and
+in concord with the scenes about.
+
+But I was not held. I pressed on toward the hills, to the open road.
+_Allons!_ But alas! I betrayed myself by doubting the "spirit of the
+tropics" which was guiding me. I resorted to a tiny mortal for
+information, and in that way angered the spirit, which instantly
+deserted me. Not content with whisperings, I had sought definition,
+asked for distance,--Where? Whence? How? And I lost!
+
+He was a little man, with worn shoes from the holes of which peeped
+stockingless feet. In the early morning he had slipped on shoes which
+would not deprive him of the dew. He had covered his little legs with a
+dark pair of dirty trousers, his body with a soiled white coat, and his
+mind with misunderstood scripture. His bulging eyes betrayed his inward
+confusion.
+
+Upon inquiring, he informed me that the road led to the hospital and
+would take me fifteen minutes to negotiate. Then he wanted to know if I
+came off the _Eastern_. "Any missionaries on board?" he asked. "I don't
+know," I answered. "I suppose that is something you don't trouble much
+about." I agreed. "Ah, that's just it. Don't you know the Bible says,
+'Be prepared to meet thy Maker?' How do you know but what any moment you
+may be called?" "Well, if I am, I have lived well enough to have no
+fear." "Yes, that is just it. You live in carnal sin. You have no doubt
+looked upon some woman with lustful eyes this very morning. I sin, too,
+every moment." Heaven knows I had not been tempted. I hadn't seen any
+woman to look at, and nothing was further from my mind just then. And so
+it was,--sin, assumption and condemnation. I talked with him a few
+minutes, asserted my fearlessness, the consciousness of a reasonably
+good life. But nothing would do. The poison of fear with which he
+contrived to wound me I now had to fight off. I had come out all joy and
+happiness in the new day, the loveliness of life. If worship was not on
+my lips it was in my heart, and he had tarnished it. He brought thoughts
+of sin and death to my mind, which, at that moment, if at any time in my
+life, was free from selfishness and from unworthy desires.
+
+I cut across to the sea,--not even an open avenue being fresh enough for
+me now. It was as though I had suddenly inhaled two lungfuls of poison
+gas and struggled for pure air. I turned back to the boat, not caring to
+go too far lest she leave port. A tropical shower poured its warm water
+over me as though the spirit of the tropics felt sorry, and forgave me.
+I returned to the ship, and quarter of an hour later we were moving out
+into the open sea again.
+
+
+4
+
+The next and last time that I landed on Australian soil was at Thursday
+Island, one of the smallest of the Prince of Wales group, north of Cape
+York Peninsula, in the Torres Strait. German New Guinea (now a British
+mandatory) lies not far away. There is not much of a village and most of
+the buildings are made of corrugated iron. But there was not at that
+time that stuffy, damp odor which pervades Suva; nor, in fact, was there
+much of that mugginess that is Fiji. Yet it is only eleven degrees from
+the equator, whereas Fiji is thirteen. The street is only a country
+road, and dozens of goats and kids pasture upon it. The few stores
+(closed on Sunday) were not overstocked. There are two large churches.
+One was built from the wreckage of a ship that had some romantic story
+about it which I cannot recall. There was also another institution, the
+purpose of which I could not discern. It was musty, dirty, dilapidated,
+with shaky chairs and shelves of worm-eaten books. I suppose it was a
+library. Hotels there were galore, and though bars were supposed to be
+closed on Sunday, a small party of passengers succeeded in striking a
+"spring."
+
+I wandered off by myself. Slowly the great leveler, night, crept into
+the heart of things, and they seemed glad. Orientals and natives from
+New Guinea lounged about their little corrugated iron houses, obedient
+to law and impulse for rest. Japanese kept off nakedness with loose
+kimonos. One of them lay stretched upon the mats before the open door,
+reading. Others squatted on the highway. Tiny Japanese women walked
+stiffly on their wooden _geta_ as they do in Japan. Tiny babies wandered
+about alone like wobbling pups. Upon the sea-abandoned beach groups of
+New Guinea natives gathered to search for crabs or other sea-food. A cow
+waded into the water to cool herself. And the sail-boats, beached with
+the receding tides, lunged landward.
+
+Peace and evening. Nay, more. There is not only indolent forgetfulness
+here; there is more than mere ease in the tropics: there is affluence in
+ease. A something enters the bone and sinew of moving creatures which
+awakens and yet satisfies all the dearest desires. And nothing remains
+when night comes on but lamplight and wandering white shadows.
+
+Late that night I returned to the ship. Deep, familiar sounds revived my
+memory of Fiji, on the other line of my triangle. A chorus of New Guinea
+voices,--rich, deep, harmonious, and rhythmic--rose from a little boat
+beside us. In it were a half-dozen natives, squatting round a lantern,
+reading and singing hymns in their own tongue. Such mingled sadness with
+gladness,--one does not know where one begins and the other ends. Shiny
+black bodies crouching and chanting. Hymns never seemed more sincere,
+more earnest.
+
+They were waiting there for midnight to come, when Sunday ends for them,
+and toil begins. The ship must be loaded. Then voices will rattle with
+words and curses. All night long they labored with good things for other
+men. When I came out in the morning they breakfasted on boiled yams and
+turtle, a mixture that looked like dough. Instead of using their
+fingers, they employed sharp pointed sticks, doubtless in imitation of
+Japanese chop-sticks. Progress!
+
+Shortly afterward we struck across the Arafua Sea, and saw Australia no
+more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+OUR PEG IN ASIA
+
+
+1
+
+Venturing round the Pacific is like reincarnation. One lives as an
+Hawaiian for a spell, enters a state of non-existence and turns up as a
+Fijian; then another period of selflessness, and so on from one isle to
+another. From such a period of transmigration I woke one morning to the
+sight of Zamboanga, and knew myself for a moment as a dual
+personality,--a Filipino and an American in one. All day long we hugged
+the coast of the islands of the group--Mindanao, Negros, Panay, Mindoro,
+Luzon--the cool blue surface of the choppy sea between us and reality.
+After so many days' journey along the coast of Australia, through sea
+after sea, it seemed unreasonable to require a turn of the sun in which
+to outstrip a few Oriental islands. Then we swung to the right. Ahead of
+us, we were told, lay Manila, but even the short run to that city seemed
+interminable. At last the unknown became the known. A red trolley-car
+emerged from behind the Manila Hotel. Life became real again.
+
+Our ship had hardly more than buoyed when a fleet of lighters surrounded
+her,--flat, blunt, ordinary skiffs; long, narrow, peculiar ones. The
+former I thought represented American efficiency; the latter, Filipino
+whimsicality. The Filipino craft were decorated in black, with
+flourishes and letters in red and white. Over their holds low hoods of
+matting formed an arch upon which swarmed the native owners. How
+business-like, yet withal attractive. And business became the order of
+the night.
+
+From beneath the matted hoods of the lighters flickered glimmers of
+faint firelight. Life there was alert, though quiet. It hid in the
+shadows of night; confined in the holds, dim candles and lanterns
+quivered: peace reigned before performance. A quiet harbor; moon and
+stars and mast-lights above; a cool, refreshing breeze. That was my
+first night in Manila Harbor.
+
+Morning. Not really having stretched my legs in nearly three weeks,
+since sailing from Sydney, Australia, I naturally felt in high spirits
+upon landing. The mists which hung over Manila quickened my pace, for I
+knew that before I could see much of that ancient town they would be
+gone, dissipated by the intense heat of the tropical sun. I was eager to
+put on my seven-leagued boots to see all that I had selected years
+before as the things I wanted to stride the seas to see. But I soon
+discovered that I was only a clumsy iron-weighted deep-sea diver. All
+round the Pacific I had traveled alone. I wanted no mate but freedom.
+But the three weeks _en route_ from the Antipodes, on board a small
+liner whose major passenger list was made up of monosyllabic Oriental
+names drove me, willy-nilly, into the companionship of the
+septuagenarian English captain.
+
+
+2
+
+On account of the keying down of my reactions to the tempo of
+seventy-three plus British sedateness, I wrote many things in my book of
+vistas that seem to me now mere aberrations. Just to indicate what the
+effect was I shall confess that as I approached the Walled City I
+conceived of myself as almost a full-fledged Don Quixote storming the
+citadel of ancient aggression. But my elderly Sancho Panza held me back
+lest the shafts of burning sunlight strike me down.
+
+Standing before the gates of antiquity, even the most haughty of human
+beings moves by instinct back along the line of the ages, like a spider
+pulling himself up to his nest on his web. Round the black stone wall
+which encircles the old Spanish city, that which was once a moat is now
+a pleasant grass-grown lawn. The wall itself, still well preserved, has
+been overreached by two-story stone houses with heavy balconies which
+seem to mock the pretenses of their "protector." Outwardly, things look
+old; within change has kept things new. Mixed with surprised curiosity
+at two Antipodes so close together comes a feeling of contact with
+eternity, the present of yesterday linking itself with the antiquity
+which is to be.
+
+A long, narrow street stretched across the city. Spanish buildings
+tinted pink and delicately ornamented, lined the sides. White stone
+buildings, chipped and seamed with use and age, lined the way. Broad
+entrances permitted glimpses of sumptuous patios, refreshed by tropical
+plants; low stone steps leading up to dark vault-like chambers; windows
+barred but without glass,--spacious retreats built by caballeros who
+thought they knew the value of life. Indeed, they knew how to build
+against invasion of the sun and the Oriental pirate, but not against the
+invasion of time. Perhaps they live better as Spaniards to-day than they
+lived as conquerors yesterday.
+
+Here, within the walled city, everything looks as though change were not
+the order of eternity. Everything is as it was, yet nothing is so.
+Trolley-cars clank, motor-cars of the latest models throb quietly,
+pony-traps and bullock-carts stir the ancient quiet. One wonders how so
+much new life can find room to move about in such narrow streets with
+their still narrower sidewalks that permit men to pass in single file
+only, and angular corners and low buildings. But there they are, and
+there they bid fair to remain. Even the unused cathedrals, whose doors
+are here and there nailed shut, stand their ground. Some of them even
+close the street with their imposing fronts, the courage of fervent
+human passion in their crumbling façades.
+
+  [Illustration: FILIPINO LIGHTERS DROWSING IN THE EVENING SHADOWS]
+
+  [Illustration: THE DOCILE WATER BUFFALO IS USED TO WALKING IN MUD]
+
+  [Illustration: ONE CAN THROW A BRICK AND HIT SEVEN CATHEDRALS IN
+  MANILA]
+
+  [Illustration: COOL AND SILENT ARE THE MOSSY STREETS OF THE WALLED
+  CITY OF MANILA]
+
+At that early hour there was little sign of human life. Into some of the
+cathedrals native women crept for prayer. Here and there a confined
+human being passed across the glassless windows; here and there a
+tourist flitted by in search of sights. And I soon realized that within
+the walls, intramuros, there was nothing. Across the park, across the
+Pasig River, there one finds life.
+
+Yet within that ancient crust there is new life. Some old buildings have
+been turned into government offices, high schools, a public library
+fully equipped, an agricultural institute, everything standing as in
+days of old, but new flowers and plants growing in those crude
+pots,--old surroundings with a new spirit. Something mechanical in that
+spirit,--typewriters clicking everywhere under native fingers; still,
+typewriters don't click without thoughts.
+
+Here, then, is the conflict in growth between the ends of time, heredity
+struggling with environment, the fountains of youth washing the bones of
+old ambitions. They may not become young bones, but may we not hope they
+will at least be clean? May not time and patience remold antiquity,
+absorb its bad blood and rejuvenate it? Typewriters clicking everywhere;
+tongues born to Filipino, then turned to Spanish, now twisting
+themselves with English. The trough has been brought to the horse. Will
+he drink? The library was full of intelligent-looking young Filipinos,
+the cut of their clothes as obviously American as the typewriters
+clicking behind doors. Both typewriters and garments indicated
+efficiency, but I could no more say what was the impulse in the being
+within those clothes than what thoughts were being fixed in permanence
+to the sound of an American typewriter.
+
+The most symbolical thing of all was the aquarium built beneath one wing
+of the great wall round this little village. If in the hard shell of
+American possession arrangement can still be made for the freedom,
+natural and unconfining, of the native Filipinos, we shall not lay
+ourselves open to censure. The natives may not be satisfied, they may
+prefer the open sea; but that is up to them to achieve. As long as we
+keep the water fresh and the food supplies free, they can complain only
+of their own crustaceous natures and nothing else.
+
+
+3
+
+All Manila does not live within the walls, however,--not even a goodly
+portion of it,--and the exits are numerous. Passing through the eastern
+gate, one comes into a park which lies between the walled city and the
+Pasig River. Beyond the river and on its very banks is Manila proper. As
+I got my first glimpse of the crowded, dirty waterway, I could not say
+much in reply to my companion, whose patriotic fervor found expression
+in criticism of American colonization. It was like looking into a
+neglected back yard. The Englishman did not seem to see, however, that
+to have done better in so short a time would have been to inflict
+hardships on the natives which no amount of progress ever justifies.
+Still, with memories of Honolulu as a basis for judgment I was not a
+little disappointed. How to change people without destroying their
+souls,--that is the problem for future social workers for world
+betterment to solve.
+
+Meanwhile I had succeeded in eluding my burden of seventy-three years
+and opened my eyes to the life round about me. There was still a bridge
+to cross. It was narrow, wooden and crowded. It was only a temporary
+structure, built to replace the magnificent Bridge of Spain which was
+washed away in the great flood of September, 1914. During the few
+minutes it took me to saunter across it, the traffic was twice blocked.
+Perhaps to show me how full the traffic was, for in that moment there
+lined up as many vehicles and people and of sufficient variety to
+illustrate the stepping-stones in transportation progress. There were
+traps, motor-cars, carts drawn by carabao, or water-buffalo, bicycles,
+and trolley-cars. Everybody seems to ride in some fashion.
+
+Yet everybody seems to walk, and in single file at that. Gauze-winged
+Filipino women,--tawdry, small and ill-shod, or, rather, dragging
+slippers along the pavement--insist on keeping to the middle of the
+narrow walks. Frequently they are balancing great burdens on their
+heads, with or without which they are not over-graceful or comely. Their
+stiff, transparent gauze sleeves stand away from them like airy wings.
+One hasn't the heart to brush against them lest these angelic extensions
+be demolished, and so one keeps behind them all the way.
+
+The men also shuffle along. They wear embroidered gauze coats which veil
+their shirts and belts and trousers. There is something in this
+lace-curtain-like costume that seems the acme of laziness. Neither stark
+nakedness nor the durability of heavy fabrics seem so prohibitive of
+labor as does this thin garment. No inquiry into the problem of the
+Philippines would seem to me complete without full consideration of the
+origin of this costume.
+
+But one is swept along over the bridge, and is dropped down into Manila
+proper by way of a set of steps, through a short alley. The main street
+opens to the right and to the left. It is brought to a sudden turn one
+block to the left and then runs on into the farther reaches of the city;
+to the right it winds its way along till it encompasses the market-place
+and confusion. This chiseling out of streets in such abrupt fashion is
+puzzling to the person with notions of how tropical people behave. Why
+such timidity in the pursuance of direction and desire? The obstruction
+of the bridge promenade by the main street and of the main street by a
+side street have a tendency to shoot the seer of sights about in a
+fashion comparable to one of those games in which a ball is shot through
+criss-cross sections so that the players never know in what little
+groove it will fall or whether the number will be a lucky one or not.
+
+I first fell into a bank, and the amount of money one can lose in
+exchanging Australian silver notes into American dollars is sufficient
+to dishearten one. The shops were too damp and insignificant to attract
+me much, however, so I ventured on into the outer by-ways of the city.
+There the dungeon-like stores and homes and Chinese combinations had at
+least the virtue of ordinary Oriental manner in contrast to our own. The
+Chinese cupboard-like stores, that seem to hang on the outside of the
+buildings like Italian fruit-stands, held few attractions. There was an
+obvious utilitarianism about them which, strange as it may seem, is the
+last thing the man with no fortune to spend enjoys. Shops and museums
+afford the unpossessing compensation for his penury.
+
+As I made my way ahead to a small open square, my attention was arrested
+by a performance the full significance of which did not at first appear
+to me. At the gateway of a large cigar-factory from which came strolling
+male and female workers, sat two individuals--two women at the women's
+gate, two men at the men's--and each worker was examined before leaving.
+As a woman came along, the inspector passed her hands down the side of
+the skirts, up the thighs, over the bosom,--then slapped her genially
+and off she went. Through it all, the girls assumed a most dignified
+manner, absolutely without self-consciousness and oblivious of the gaze
+of the passers-by. What is more certain to break down a man's or a
+woman's self-respect than becoming indifferent to the opinion of the
+public as to the method of being searched? A Freudian complex formed to
+the point of one's believing oneself capable of theft, the next thing
+is to live out that unconscious thought of theft and to care nothing for
+the censure of the world.
+
+When at work, these girls possessed a sort of sixth sense. The
+cigarettes are handed over to them at their benches to be wrapped in
+bundles of thirty. They never stop to count them--just place the
+required number in their left hands encircling them with thumb and
+fingers, reject an odd one if it creeps in, and tie the bundle. I
+counted a dozen packets, but did not find one either short or over, and
+the overseers are so certain of this accuracy that they never count them
+either.
+
+But what a different world is found at the public school not very far
+from the factory! The building was not much of a building,--just an
+old-fashioned wooden structure with a court. Its sole purpose seemed to
+be to furnish four thousand children with training in the use of a new
+tongue. "Speak English," stared every one in the face from sign-boards
+nailed to pillars. I listened. The command was honored more in the
+breach than in the observance, yet where it was respected strange
+English sounds tripped along tongues that were doubtless more accustomed
+to Tagalog and Spanish. There was nothing shy in the behavior of these
+boys and girls. They moved about with a certain monastic self-assurance,
+less gay than our children, more free than most Oriental youngsters. In
+a few years they will be advocating Filipino independence, in no
+mistaken terms,--if they have not been caught by the factory process.
+
+I went straight ahead and found myself on my way back into the
+city,--but from a side opposite that from which I had left it. The
+squalor and the dungeon-like atmosphere were indeed nothing for American
+efficiency to be proud of. Slums in the tropics fester rapidly. One
+cannot say these places were slums; but they certainly were not native
+villages. One felt that here in Manila America's heart was not in her
+work. Why build up something that would in the end revert to the
+natives, to be laid open to possible aggression and conquest! One felt
+further that the Filipinos did not exactly rejoice in being Americans.
+What they actually are they have long since forgotten. Once
+foster-children of Philip of Spain. To-day the adopted sons of America.
+To-morrow? How much more fortunate their Siamese cousins or relatives by
+an ancient marriage! Yet all who know Manila as it was ten years ago
+agree that there have been vast improvements in a decade. One does not
+include in this generalization the residences and hotels of the
+foreigners, for obvious reasons; still, the welfare of a community is
+raised by good example.
+
+
+That afternoon I stretched in the shade of one of the walls of the old
+walled citadel with its fine gateways. I pondered the significance of
+those stones against which I was resting. One gains strength from such
+structures as one does from the sea,--not only in the actual contact,
+but in the thought that that which human effort accomplished human
+effort can do again. My septuagenarian had returned to the ship for
+rest. I thought of his criticisms of the American occupation of Manila,
+of his suggestions that England would have made of it a fine city. I
+wondered what drove the Spanish to build this wall. To protect
+themselves against Chinese pirates? There is not a country in the world
+that has not tried to safeguard itself against invasion by the process
+of invasion. Yet any attempt to do otherwise is decried as impractical.
+All the while, decay weakens the arm of the conqueror.
+
+But more luring scenes distracted my thoughts. The sinking sun stretched
+the lengthening shadows of the wall as a fisherman, at sunset, spreads
+his serviceable nets. Filipinos passed quietly to and fro; cars,
+motor-cars, and electric cars cut a St. Andrew's cross before me. The
+scent of mellow summer weighted the air. Slowly everything drew closer
+in the net of night.
+
+Two days later I was in Hong-Kong, where the Oriental dominates the
+scene. I was at the third angle of the triangle, and hereafter the
+subject is Asia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BRITAIN'S ROCK IN ASIA
+
+
+1
+
+To one who had received his most vivid impressions of China from her
+noblest philosopher, Lao-tsze, it was somewhat disconcerting to peep
+through the porthole just after dawn and find oneself the center of a
+confusion indescribable. The sleepy, heaving sea was more in tune with
+the mystic "Way" of the great sage. I had not anticipated being thrust
+so suddenly among the masses and the babel on which Lao-tsze, that
+gray-beard child, had tried to pour some intellectual oil.
+
+Yet, I had been living on the top floor of a Chinese "den" for
+twenty-six days between Sydney and Hong-Kong. On board I was ready to
+blame the steamship company for the crowding and the uncleanliness. Had
+there been a dozen murders, I should not have regarded it as unnatural.
+Had I been compelled to spend three weeks in such circumstances, I
+should either have committed hara-kiri or killed off at least four
+hundred and fifty-five to make the decent amount of room necessary for
+the remaining fifty. So I was prepared to exonerate them, to praise them
+for their pacifism and their orderliness in such conditions.
+
+But when I peeped out of the porthole that morning and saw the swarming
+thousands struggling with one another to secure a pittance of privilege,
+which these five hundred had to offer by way of baggage, my heart went
+out to the great sage of 650 B. C. He must have been courageous indeed.
+
+Full families of them on their shallow sampans cooperating with one
+another against odds which would sicken the stoutest-hearted white folk.
+Yet in that Oriental mass there was the ever-present exultation of
+spirit. Laughter and good-natured bullying, full recognition of the
+other man's right to rob and be robbed. No smug morality teaching you to
+be shy and generous in the face of an obviously bad world, a world
+ordered so as to make goodness the most expensive instead of the least
+expensive quality. But I soon discovered that beneath that external
+jollity only too frequently fluttered a fearful heart, filled with dread
+of the slightest change of circumstances.
+
+The distance between the ship and the shore was not like Charon's river
+Styx, but it was a way between the Elysium of an alien metropolis and a
+Hades of hopeless nativity, none the less. Beyond stood the towering
+hills of Hong-Kong with its massive palaces in marble at the very
+summit. Chinese will to live had builded these, but the people had not,
+it seems, enough will left to build for themselves. From the very foot
+of the hills upward rose a steady series of buildings which looked
+surprisingly familiar, yet somewhat alien to my expectations. It was
+something of a shock to me to find that Hong-Kong was Chinese in name
+and character only, while being European-owned and ordered. I felt
+fooled. I had gone to see China, but found only another outpost of Great
+Britain. My American passport had had most fascinating Chinese
+characters on the back of it. But the "Emergency Permit" issued to me in
+Sydney, had none. Between British ports one can always expect British
+courtesy and that largeness of heart which comes from having taken
+pretty nearly all there is worth while in the world without being afraid
+of losing it. So I made some hurried mental adjustments as we chugged
+our way across, amidst bobbing sampans, and convinced myself that it
+might have been worse.
+
+In that great future which will put modern civilization somewhere
+half-way between the Stone Age and itself, the stones of Hong-Kong will
+give investigators much to think about. Everything in Hong-Kong is
+concrete and stone. From the spacious office buildings that stand along
+the waterfront, to the palaces upon the peak, stone is the material out
+of which everything is built. What achievement! What a monument to
+Britain! But as the stones become harder beneath one's feet, one senses
+the toil embodied in them. Male and female coolies still trudge over
+these stony paths, carrying baskets of gravel, tar, or sand higher and
+higher. These structures seemed to me like human bridges which great
+leaders of men sometimes lay for their armies to pass over. Where do
+they lead to? Perhaps to England's greatness; perhaps to the world's
+shame.
+
+At first one is prone to be rigid in one's judgment. There seems too
+much evidence of desire to build securely, rather than humanely or
+beautifully. The Orient, one hears, builds more daintily, more softly,
+more picturesquely; America builds more comfortably and more thoroughly.
+One might add, apologetically, that had not the masters driven these
+coolies to such stony tasks, the poor creatures would simply have built
+another Chinese wall at the behest of one of their own tyrants. Cheap
+labor makes pyramids and walls, and palaces on the peaks of Hong-Kong.
+But it also makes an unsightly slough of humanity about itself.
+Considering how costly pyramids and palaces such as those at Hong-Kong
+are, considering the plodding toil it took to build them, for the sake
+of humanity it is better that they were built of stone, so that
+rebuilding may never be necessary.
+
+Everywhere as we climb we pass rest stations, coolies buying a few
+cents' worth of food, coolies carrying cement. While far beneath lies
+murky, moldy Hong-Kong with its worm-like streets, its misty harbor
+waters, its hundreds of steamers, sail-boats, sampans, piers, and
+dry-docks, and all around stand the peaks of earth and the inverted
+peaks of air. Returning by another route, down more winding and more
+precipitous paths, one passes great concrete reservoirs, tennis-courts,
+an incline railway, water-sheds,--and the city again.
+
+
+2
+
+The days draw on even here, and sunlight is curtained by dim night. The
+din of human voices loses its shrill tone of bargaining, the rickshaw
+men trot regularly but more slowly. Carriers of sedan-chairs lag beneath
+their loads; their steps slow down to a walk. Women by the dozen slip
+by, still with their burdens, but their voices have a note of softness,
+pleasing sadness. And now comes the time of day when no matter in what
+station one's life may be cast, spirit and body shift to better
+adjustment. And through the dim blue mist the shuffling of feet is
+heard, or the sounding of loose wooden slippers like drops of water in a
+well. Whatever revived activities may follow this twilight hour, now,
+for the world entire, is rest,--even in toil-worn, grubbing, groveling
+China, which seems not to have been born to rest.
+
+"Business" is not yet gone from the streets of Hong-Kong, though it is
+now wholly dark. Every one is working as though the day were but just
+beginning and it were not Sunday night. It is impossible to select
+"important" things from out this heap of human debris. Filth, odors,
+activity, jewelry, dirty little heaps and packets of food,--all are
+handled over and over again, and each one is content with a lick of the
+fingers for the handling. Then when quite worn out one may rest his
+bones on the pavement covered with straw or mat, or if more fortunate,
+may have a hovel or a house in which to breed. The number of homeless
+wretches sleeping on the inclined stone pavements of Hong-Kong was
+simply appalling. And Hong-Kong is British made. Hong-Kong was a barren
+island twenty-nine miles in area when seventy-five years or so ago
+Britain demanded it from China; to-day its population is nearly a tenth
+of that of the whole continent of Australia. But what a difference in
+the status of that population! Certainly no man who sees the result of
+over-population in proportion to a people's industrial ingenuity can
+blame Australia for keeping herself under reproductive self-control.
+
+A few of the things one sees as a matter of course in Hong-Kong will
+illustrate. As I was coming down Pottinger Street I was horror-struck at
+the sight of a small boy on his knees groaning and wailing as though he
+were in unendurable agony. I thought at first he was having a fit, but
+it became obvious that there was method in his madness. He was repeating
+some incantation, bowing his head to the ground, tapping frantically
+with a tin can on the stones, and chanting or shrieking out his
+blessings or his curses, which ever the case may have been. He was a
+blind beggar, and though he must have received more money than many a
+coolie does (for even Chinese have coins to give) and in a way certainly
+earned it, I could not but smile at his wisdom,--for at its worst it was
+no worse than the labor of the coolie. Yet from many passers-by he
+evoked only slight amusement.
+
+Upon some steps in an unlighted thoroughfare stood a Chinese haranguing
+a crowd. His voice was not unpleasant, his manner was persuasive. But
+what to? Had he been urging China to stop breeding, to cease this
+worm-like living and reproducing, I should have regarded him as a public
+benefactor. For it made me creepy, this proximity to such squirming
+numbers.
+
+Beside a dirty wall around the corner was a medicine man selling a
+miraculous bundle of herbs. He screeched its powers, gave each a smell,
+which each one took since it cost nothing, and then he went into
+frightful contortions to demonstrate that which these herbs could allay.
+But from the expression on his face it was obvious they could not allay
+his disappointment that the purchasers were few.
+
+At an open store was a crowd. I edged my way up to see the excitement.
+It was a "doctor's operating-room." Upon a bench sat an old man,
+gray-haired and almost toothless. The "doctor" stood astride the
+patients' knees and with a steel instrument, somewhat rusty, calmly and
+carelessly stirred about in the old man's eyeless socket. All the
+sufferer did was to mutter "Ta, ta, ta," pausing slightly between the
+ta's, but never stirring. No guarding against infection out on the open,
+dusty, dirty thoroughfare.
+
+The crowd looked on without any sign of emotion. A few women sat on a
+bench inside, but seemed quite indifferent. There was one exception. A
+little mother with a boy of about six contemplated the performance with
+a pained expression. Her boy's eyes were crossed and turned upward. He
+had to be treated, too.
+
+Finally even these things end. It is nine o'clock. Shops are closing,
+the crowds on the streets die down. And for one brief spell the world
+will rest.
+
+Here we have four examples of life in China. When we examine them
+closely, haphazardly chosen as they have been, there is a strange
+uniformity and contradiction in their basic situations. The blind
+beggar-boy, the charlatan advocate and medicine man, the careless
+surgeon,--at bottom all charlatans, yet all essentially sincere. That
+ranting little beggar howled his lying appeals, but at home, no doubt,
+were other mouths to be fed for which he--blind head of the family--was
+responsible. The herb-specialist seemed, from the tone of his voice,
+sincere in the belief in his remedies; the surgeon, certain of his
+operation. Yet that is what China is suffering from most, and because of
+the faith in their crude panaceas and the conviction that five thousand
+years of tradition gives folk, the Rockefeller Foundation will have to
+work for many generations before it will make China prophylactic.
+
+
+3
+
+There was another incident that illustrated, to me at least, China's
+ailment. Hong-Kong seemed possessed one night. I thought a riot or a
+revolution had broken out, but it was only a house on fire. Thousands of
+Chinese scurried about like rats looking for ways of escape. From the
+littered roof and balcony of a five-story tenement a flame leaped
+skyward as though itself trying to escape from the unpleasant task of
+consuming so dirty a structure. The curious collected in hordes from
+everywhere.
+
+I made my way into this mass not unaware of being quite alone in the
+world. It was interesting to be in this sort of mob. The reason for
+China's subjugation showed itself in the ease with which it was
+controlled. One single white policeman, running back and forth along the
+length of a block, kept the whole mob well along the curb. It was
+amazing to watch the crowd retreat at the officer's approach and then
+bulge out as soon as he passed by. One young Chinese stood out a little
+too far. The officer came up on his rear, yanked him by the ear, and
+sent him scurrying back into the mob. They who dared rushed timidly
+across the street. I remarked this to the policeman. He was pleased. "If
+you want to get closer up, just walk straight ahead," he said. And so I
+did, as did other white men who arrived, without being stopped. That was
+it: we were quite different; we could go. Later a host of special
+police, Chinese and Indian regulars, arrived and relieved this lone
+white officer.
+
+This incident seemed to me to symbolize China's present state. No
+leader, no cohesion, no common thinking. Had the mob been
+resentful,--what then! It was a mob the like of which I had never seen
+before. A dull murmur sounded through all the confusion. It seemed to
+be of one tone, as though all the notes of the scale were sung at once
+and they blended into one another like the colors of the spectrum. The
+people seemed wonderfully alert. Their hearing was keen. Two tram-car
+conductors conversed forty feet away from each other, with dozens of
+yapping Chinese between.
+
+Thus, China enjoys a oneness like that of water. Easily separated,
+lightly invaded, rapidly reunited, her masses flow on together when
+directed into any channel, and it matters little where or why. And the
+white policeman assured me that when the Chinese still wore queues a
+policeman raided a den and tied the queues of fifteen Chinese together
+and with these as reins drove them to prison.
+
+
+4
+
+Yet, what nation or race in the world has maintained such indivisibility
+against so much separation! Think of what the family is and has been to
+China,--its creeds, its government, its entire existence. Yet the family
+and concubinage obtain side by side.
+
+There was evidence of this in British Hong-Kong. Upon the street one day
+I saw another crowd. It was waiting for the appearance of the Governor
+of Canton. When the worthy governor emerged from a very unworthy-looking
+building, the crowd cheered and gathered close around the automobile.
+
+A well-dressed young Chinese in European clothes emerged from the hall.
+I asked him what was toward, surmising his understanding. He spoke
+English fluently and seemed pleased to inform me. So we strolled down
+the street together. He was not very hopeful about Chinese democracy as
+yet, but believed in it and expressed great admiration for America.
+Britain, he said, was not well liked. He spoke of his religion, his
+belief in Confucianism. He regretted that Hong-Kong had no temples and
+that he and his friends were compelled to meet at the club for prayer.
+
+Yet though he was a Confucianist, he decried the family system. "Chinese
+cling too much to family," he said. "One man goes to America, then he
+sends for a brother simply because he is a relative. The brother may be
+a very bad character, but that doesn't matter. So it is in official
+circles in China to-day. Graft goes on, jobs are dispensed to relatives
+worthy or unworthy, efficient or inefficient. And the country is getting
+deeper and deeper into difficulties."
+
+As though to prove the truth of his assertions, he told me of his own
+experiences as a child. "Chinese obey," he said. "My father paid for my
+education, therefore my duty toward him should know no bounds." His
+father had had ten children, only two of whom survived,--he and an elder
+sister. When his father died, he became the head of the family.
+Therefore he had to marry, even though then only fifteen years of age.
+He had been married for sixteen years. I should never have believed it,
+to judge from his appearance. He seemed no more than a student himself,
+but he assured me he had five children,--one daughter fifteen years old.
+Birth-control! Limitation of offspring! Why bother? If his father could
+"raise" a family of ten on "nothing" and then just let them die
+off,--why not he? So does duty keep the race alive.
+
+And duty tolerates that which is sapping the very foundation of the
+race,--not only the enslavement of the wife in such circumstances, but
+the entertainment of the concubine. I saw the way that works.
+
+At the opposite end of the city is the quarter where the concubines
+abound. Life there does not begin till eight o'clock in the evening, if
+as early. The clanging of cans and the effort at music is terrifying.
+Hotels of from four to five stories, with all their balconies
+illuminated, gave an effect of festive cheerfulness which the rest of
+the city lacked utterly.
+
+  [Illustration: IN CHINA DRINKING-WATER, SOAP-SUDS, SOUP AND SEWERS ALL
+  FIND THEIR SOURCE IN THE SAME STREAM]
+
+  [Illustration: SHANGHAI YOUNGSTERS PUTTING THEIR HEADS TOGETHER TO
+  MAKE US OUT]
+
+  [Illustration: THIS OLD WOMAN IS LAYING DOWN THE LAW TO THE WILD YOUNG
+  THINGS OF CHINA]
+
+  [Illustration: CHINA COULD TURN THESE MUD HOUSES INTO PALACES IF SHE
+  WISHED--SHE IS RICH ENOUGH]
+
+Upon the ground floors, which opened directly upon the street, the
+women could be seen dressing for the evening. Nothing in their behavior
+or dress would indicate their profession,--so unlike the licensed
+districts of Japan. The women never as much as noticed any stranger on
+the street. At the appointed time each little woman emerged, dainty,
+clean and sober, and passed from her own quarters to the hotels and
+restaurants where she was to meet her chartered libertine. Her decorum
+approximated saintly modesty, and she moved with a childlike innocence.
+There was throughout the district no rowdyism, no disorderliness.
+Everything was businesslike and according to regulation. Strange, that
+with so much self-control should go so much licentiousness. But it is
+part of the mystery of the Orient.
+
+
+5
+
+Yet, this is no stranger than that with so much of excellence in
+Hong-Kong, there should also go the perpetuation of coolieism; to
+paraphrase, that with so much dignity and honesty in trade should go so
+much inhumanity in the treatment of men. That is the mystery of
+Britannia,--and her success. America went into the Orient and
+immediately began educating it. In answer to a German criticism of
+British educational work in Hong-Kong, the "Japan Chronicle" (British)
+says:
+
+   Considering how much greater British interests in China have
+   hitherto been than American, the Americans are far more guilty of
+   the abominable crime of educating the Chinese than the British,
+   having spent a great deal of money, and induced young Chinese to
+   come to America and get Americanized. Most people, including
+   impartial British subjects, would find fault rather with the narrow
+   limits of English education in China than with its intentions.
+   Hongkong has been for many years the center of an enormously
+   profitable trade, and had things been done with the altruism that
+   one would like to see in international relations, there would be
+   ten universities instead of only one and a hundred students sent to
+   England for college or technical training where only one is sent
+   to-day.
+
+Hitherto, it has been Britain's success that she has not interfered with
+the habits of the races she has ruled. In Hong-Kong she has built a
+modern city out of nothing, but has permitted Asiatic defects to find
+their place within it.
+
+For instance, there was no sewerage system in Hong-Kong,--a fact than
+which no greater criticism could be made of Britain, or of any other
+nation pretending to be civilized. In this no question of altruism is
+involved, but purely one of self-interest. And if greater concern for
+such matters were manifest, doubtless it would work its way back through
+concubinage, ancestor worship, charlatanism in public and private life.
+
+Having taken my chances with criticism, I shall risk praise. Englishmen
+have never, to my knowledge, been given credit for the possession of
+romantic souls; yet nothing but a deep love of romance could be
+responsible for the manner in which Britain has preserved Hong-Kong's
+Chinese face. Despite the fact that it is entirely Western in its
+structure, I never felt the Oriental flavor more in all Japan than I did
+at Hong-Kong. The sedan-chairs that take one up the steeps and remind
+one of the swells on the China Sea in their motion, the thousands of
+rickishaws that roll swiftly, quietly over smoothly paved streets, the
+particularly attractive Chinese signs that lure one into dazzling shops
+with unmistakable Eastern atmosphere, the money-changers and the markets
+dripping with Oriental messes, left an impression on my mind that none
+of my later experiences can dispel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+CHINA'S EUROPEAN CAPITAL
+
+
+1
+
+Under the benign influence of a Salvation Army captain, my feet were
+guided safely through some of the lesser evils of Shanghai. The greater
+could not be fathomed in the short time allotted to me in the European
+capital of China. Miss Smythe, who resented being called Smith, in a
+manner that revealed she had long since ceased to be shy of mere man,
+belonged to New Zealand by birth and heaven by adoption. She chose
+Hong-Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo as temporary resting-places. It was her
+task, every five years or so, to make a complete tour of the Orient to
+collect funds for the Salvation Army. Hence her captaincy.
+
+I was walking along Queens Street, Hong-Kong, somewhat lone in spirit,
+when a rickshaw passed quickly by. The occupant, a fair lady, bowed
+pleasantly to me and disappeared in the mêlée. I could not recall ever
+having seen her face and wondered who in Hong-Kong she could be. Then it
+struck me that she wore a hat with bright red on it. Later that day, as
+I stepped into the launch to be taken across to the _Tamba Maru_, who
+should appear but this selfsame lady. We greeted each other, both
+surprised at the second meeting and at the coincidence of our joining
+the same ship.
+
+"I thought I had met you when I greeted you on the street this morning,"
+she said.
+
+All the way from Hong-Kong to Shanghai she was as busy going from class
+to class as she was on shore, spreading the faith, placing literature
+where it could be found and read, organizing hymn parties and
+discouraging booze. The Japanese on board took her good-naturedly. She
+spoke their language fluently, but I could not see that they drank one
+little cup of saké the less for her.
+
+When we arrived at Shanghai she would have nothing else but that I
+should go with her to some friends of hers for dinner. Into one rickshaw
+she loaded her bags, into another me, with the manner of one handling
+cargo, and then deposited herself in a third. The train made its way
+along the Bund and out of confusion. And that was the way I was
+shanghaied.
+
+Somewhere in a street that might for all the world have been in Chicago,
+our train drew up. It was quiet, had a little open park in it, where two
+streets seemed to have got mixed and, scared at losing their identity
+like the Siamese twins, ran off in an angle of directions. Here at a
+brick-red building with balconies and porticoes, and a dark, damp door,
+we made our announcement and were received. Now what would the world
+have thought if a Salvation Army man had picked up a strange young woman
+on a steamer and haled her into a strange house? None but a Salvation
+Army Lassie could have done what Miss Smythe,--not Smith, mind
+you!--dared to do. We were welcomed as though the appearance of a
+stranger were in the usual course of events, and I was asked to stay for
+dinner. The hostess, a quiet woman, with her pretty young daughter, kept
+a boarding-house, and was always prepared for extra folk.
+
+It was a boarding-house like any I should have expected to find in
+America. The rooms were spacious, hung with framed prints, and dark and
+slightly damp, according to Shanghai climate. There was something
+haunting about the house, but to a homeless vagabond like myself it
+seemed the acme of comfort. And to one who had had no real home meal in
+five weeks or more, but only ship's food, the spread we sat down to was
+delicious.
+
+Miss Smythe did not enjoy her dinner as much as I did, for she feared
+all along that she would not be able to get to church on time. Then it
+was too late for me to regain my ship, so I was invited to spend the
+night under a roof instead of a deck.
+
+The next day I wandered off by myself, but not till I had promised to
+return for Chinese "chow." In the meantime Miss Smythe had spread my
+fame among others of her profession, and made a date for me to go to a
+"rescue house" or some such place that evening. It was a mission home
+for Japanese, run by a woman who, if she wasn't from Boston, I'm sure
+must have come from Brookline. The only thing Oriental about that
+mission was its Japanese. A sumptuous dinner was served which, despite
+the fact that I had had "chow" only twenty minutes before, I was
+compelled to eat. With two heavy meals where one is accustomed to berth,
+accommodations were somewhat crowded.
+
+Everything would have gone well if I hadn't promised to give the
+residents a talk on my travels. I began. Miss Smythe felt that I wasn't
+emphasizing the presence of God in the numerous regions I had visited. I
+took His omnipresence for granted, but she kept breaking into my talk at
+every turn. Two meals inside of two people who both tried to lecture at
+once didn't go very well, especially at a mission in China run by
+Europeans and attended by Japanese. It seemed that there was not
+over-much love lost on the part of the sons of Tenno for those of the
+Son of Heaven, nor did the European missionaries at this place encourage
+the intermarriage of these illustrious spirits. The Bostonian in exile
+on more than one occasion spoke disparagingly of the cleanliness of the
+Chinese, much to the satisfaction of the Japanese. But then, she was
+winning and holding them to the Son of God, and when they reached heaven
+they would all be one. Miss Smythe afterward apologized to me for
+interrupting me during my talk, and we parted as cordially as we had
+met. Some months later I found her roaming the streets of Kobe, Japan,
+as active as ever in the militant cause. Her insinuations about what
+goes on in Japanese inns seemed to me unjustifiable. So I asked her
+whether it was fair to the Japanese and Chinese for her to be forever
+repeating hearsay when she would resent it were I to repeat what I had
+heard about the morality of the Australians. It took her aback, but I am
+sure that she is still pursuing vice and drink and irreverence, aided
+and abetted by the dollars which she extracts from foreign business men
+and reprobates throughout the East.
+
+
+2
+
+But I must get back to Shanghai, even though Miss Smythe is so
+attractive. As long as I remained under her wing I had taken virtually
+no notice of China. So it is in Shanghai; one cannot see the Orient for
+the Occidentals. For if Hong-Kong is an example of adulterated British
+imperialism, Shanghai is one of European internationalism grafted upon
+China. At Shanghai the forces of two contending racial streams meet,
+like the waters at the entrance of Port Philip, and here, though the
+surface is smooth and glassy, there are eddies and whirlpools within,
+which are a menace to any small craft that may attempt to cross.
+
+How strange to wander about streets and buildings quite European but to
+see only here and there a white face! It is an ultra-modern city built
+upon a flat plain. The streams of Chinese that come wandering in from
+regions unknown to the transient, give him a sense of contact with a
+vast, endless world beyond. They might be coming from just round the
+corner, but their manner is of plainsmen bringing their goods and
+chattels to market. In comparison with the Southern Chinese, these are
+giants, but still dirty and most of them chestless. In constant turmoil
+and travail, beggars pleading for a pittance with which to sustain
+their empty lives, limousines making way for themselves between
+rickshaws and one-wheeled barrows, coolies pulling and carrying loads,
+some grunting as they jig their way along, others chanting in
+chorus,--yet all in the "foreign" settlement, amid buildings that are
+alien to them, and largely for men who see only the gain they here
+secure. I wonder if the Chinese say of the Europeans as Americans are
+often heard to say of Italians and Orientals,--that they come only to
+make money and return to spend it?
+
+Yet the white have built Shanghai. Shanghai is not Chinese. Had it not
+been for the white men, the plain would still be swampy, would still be
+a litter of hovels with here and there a mansion flowering in the mud.
+The mud still messes up the edge of things in Shanghai. The creek is an
+example. There are the sampans and barges, some loaded with pyramid-like
+stacks of hay, some with heavy, thick-walled mahogany coffins, the
+myriads of families huddling within the holds, and the murky tides
+washing in and washing out beneath them. Here the sexes live in greater
+intimacy, it seemed to me, than in Hong-Kong. I actually saw one woman
+place her hand in what I was sure was an affectionate way on the
+shoulder of a man: and some were mutually helpful. But otherwise,
+despite the great conglomeration and greater coöperation, in the entire
+mass one cannot see how ancestor-worshipers can show so little regard
+for one another.
+
+In the market-place the confusion is more orderly. Here even white women
+come to stock up their kitchens, and here Japanese women move about,
+sober by nature and by virtue of the superiority they possess as
+conquerors in their husbands' rights. Two girls are quarreling
+vociferously and the more self-controlled look on both sympathetically
+and antipathetically. The washed-down pavement of the market floor is no
+place, however, for a serious bout.
+
+Through the long hours of early evening I wandered into one street and
+out the other. I had become more or less reconciled to the alien aspects
+of Shanghai, to good stores selling good goods, to fashionable hotels
+and spacious residences, but one thing was inalienably alien to it, and
+that was a second-hand book-shop. It had not occurred to me that
+foreigners in China would part with their books if they ever got hold of
+them. And for a moment I was altogether transported, and my magic carpet
+lay in San Francisco, in Chicago, in New York all at once. But it was
+chilly and the rain made the city worse than a washed-down market, for
+it depopulated the streets, leaving me as dreary in heart as in body. I
+was glad when the hour came for me to make my appearance at the kind
+woman's house for chow.
+
+Though I was sorry to hear the missionary at the mission decry the
+Chinese to the satisfaction of her Japanese patrons, and felt that it
+turned me slightly against both, still both Japanese and missionaries
+were kind and attentive to me. In the evening, a young Japanese business
+man called for a motor-car and took us out in the bleak, wet night to
+see the great white way of Shanghai. The rain deflected the strange
+glimmers of electric light through the isinglassed curtains of the car.
+For a time we skidded along over slushy streets, turning into the
+theater district as the attraction supreme. Here the gonfalons drooped
+in the watery air, while Chinese mess merchants stood in out of the rain
+with their little wagonettes of steaming portions. In a whirl we were
+through the cluttering crowds and making for the residential districts.
+Then wide avenues opened out in serpentine ways, shaggy trees dripping
+overhead, the slippery pavement swinging us from side to side as our
+dare-devil Chinese driver sped on to Bubbling Well. For an hour we rode,
+I did not know whither, but everywhere at my right and left were
+palatial Chinese and foreign residences. Without knowing it we had
+turned and were back in Shanghai, and presently within doors again,--and
+asleep.
+
+
+3
+
+Next day, this same Japanese business man volunteered to escort me to
+Chinese City. I would have gone by myself, but every one looked
+horrified at the idea; so I accepted this knightly guide. At the
+appointed time I presented myself at his office. He had asked his
+Chinese clerk to accompany us for protection, and ordered three
+rickshaws. Though he had lived in Shanghai for years, he had never gone
+to see Chinese City, and was glad to avail himself of an excuse for
+doing so now. The Japanese is a natural-born cicerone.
+
+In a few minutes we had left the international section of the
+settlement--that jointly occupied by Britain and America--and wobbled
+into the French district. Suddenly we stopped, and our carriers lowered
+their shafts to the ground. We were at a narrow opening three or four
+feet wide, and I could not understand why we should pay our respects to
+it. "From here we have to walk," said the Chinese, and in single file we
+entered, dropping out of Shanghai as into a bog. That was real China,
+but only as little Italy in New York is real Italy.
+
+The whole of Chinese City can be summed up hastily and in but a few
+words. Narrow, dirty little thoroughfares laid out in broken stone
+paving, tiny shops where luxuries, necessities, and coolie requisites
+are sold,--dark, dirty, open to the damp! What destitution is the
+inheritance of these thousands of years of civilization!
+
+The first thing to greet us, standing out against the general
+wretchedness, was not beautiful. To one accustomed to hard sights and
+scenes, to one not easily perturbed by human degradation, that which
+passed as we entered was sufficient to unnerve him. Upon the wet, filthy
+street rolled a legless boy. He had no crutches; his business required
+none. He was begging: howling, chanting, and rolling all at the same
+time. I could not say "Poor child!" Rather, poor China, that it should
+come to this!
+
+Immediately after, though having no business connections, came an old
+man. Came? Walked crouching, bowing his gray head till it touched the
+filthy pathway. He was kotowing before the menials of China, not its
+empress.
+
+The third was the worst of all. One old, ragged, broken beggar was
+carrying on his back what might have been a corpse, but was another
+beggar; the two--one on top of the other--were not more than four feet
+above the ground.
+
+I felt as though Mara, the Evil One, was trying to frighten me by an
+exhibition of his pet horrors so that I might not go farther. I was not
+being perturbed, the horrors ceased.
+
+But what beauties or treasures were they meant to guard? What was there
+that I was not to see? What ogre dwelt within? Nothing but a bit of
+business, so to speak, in a social bog.
+
+Beside a tideless creek, advertised as a lake, stood a pagoda-like
+structure, just a broken reflection imaged in the mud. As we approached
+we were immediately taken in charge by a Chinese guide and led along a
+path crudely paved with cobblestones into an "ancient" tea-garden. The
+wall around it was topped with a vicious-looking dragon that stretched
+around it. A tremendous monster of wood, it lay there; and perhaps it
+will continue to lie there long after China shall have forsaken the
+dragon. Then from chamber to chamber we strolled, past tables of stone
+and shrines and effigies, and into the heart of China's superstitious
+soul. Though in itself not ancient, what a peep it afforded into
+antiquity,--dull, dead, yet powerful!
+
+For within these secret chambers there were displayed endless numbers of
+emperors and their dynastic celebrities. In one chamber, blue with smoke
+and stifling incense, lighted with red candles, burning joss-sticks,
+behung with lanterns, and crowded with lazy Chinese, we found several
+"emperors" with red-painted wooden effigies of their wives. To me the
+smoke was choking; not so to them. The incense was sweet in their
+nostrils, and nourishing. And in payment for the sacrificial generosity
+and the prayers of fat, wealthy Chinese women who fell upon their knees,
+rose, and fell again, bowing and repeating incantations, they were to
+make the husbands of these women--too busy to come themselves--meet with
+success in business. Seriousness and earnestness marked the features of
+these women, and who can say their faith was ignored?
+
+We emerged from this underground chamber upon another thoroughfare,
+pursuing which we came upon an open, unused plot. Here a circus had
+attracted a crowd. A three-year-old baby, a pretty little sister, a
+feminine father, and a masculine mother were the entertainers. They were
+acrobats. A family row--which, it would seem, is not unknown in
+China--was enacted without any of the details being omitted; nor did
+they stop at coarse and vulgar acts which would have brought the police
+down upon them in America. Yet the audience seemed highly amused, while
+some of the spectators might easily have posed for paintings of Chinese
+bearded saints, or have been models for some of the sacred effigies
+which, not more than a block away, were idols in the temple.
+
+These are the high spots in Chinese City, a city into which I was urged
+not to venture alone. That human life should be considered of little
+worth here is not marvelous; but that any one there should consider the
+prolongation of his own a bit worth the taking of mine, is one of the
+inexplicable marvels of the world.
+
+Is this China? By no means. It is merely the back-wash of the contact
+with European life which has been imposed on China without sufficient
+chance for its absorption. It is no more typical of China than our
+metropolitan slums are really typical of American life. True, they are
+the result of it, but where the rounding out of relationships and
+conditions have been accomplished there follows a graduation of elements
+to where good and evil obtain side by side. And Chinese City is but the
+worst phase of Chinese slums plastered upon Shanghai.
+
+
+4
+
+Poverty in Chinese City is one thing; in Shanghai it is another. It is
+all a matter of the background. Buddha the beggar is still Buddha the
+Prince.
+
+After I came out of Chinese City I took much greater note of the details
+of the life of the coolie, the toiler in Shanghai proper. I was out on
+the Bund. The stone walls hemming in the river Whang-po rise at a level
+round the city. For five feet more the human wall of coolies shuts out
+the tide of poverty and despair from a world as foreign to China as
+water is alien to stone. From both walls a murmur reaches the outer
+world: the swish of the tide, the hum of coolie consolation. I let
+myself believe that they chant beneath their burdens to disguise their
+groans. Up and down the Bund they course, here at exporting, there at
+importing. Their gathering-places are at the godowns, and in and out
+they pass up and down inclined planks, each with a sack, or in couples
+with two or more sacks hanging from their shoulders, never resting from
+these rounds.
+
+At another point they are delivering mail to the ship's launch. Two
+cart-loads arrive. Coolies swarm about the carts, waiting for orders.
+Some are mere boys, but already inured to the tread. As each lifts a bag
+of mail he passes a Japanese, who hands him a stiletto-shaped piece of
+wood with some inscription on it,--painted green to the hilt. He takes
+two steps and is on the gang-plank, two more, and he has burdened
+himself with three bags of mail, and returns; he received and returns
+three sticks. That is the way count is kept of the mail. I couldn't
+understand this close precaution. Could the coolie possibly abscond with
+a bag of mail under the very eyes of an officer?
+
+Two small boys eagerly rushed a distance on, to pick up some bags that
+had been left there. They were acting without order,--spontaneously.
+They would have saved themselves some labor in that way. But the officer
+in charge shrieked his reprimand at them. One, in his enthusiasm,
+ignored the command. The officer rushed after him and boxed his ears.
+The boy received the punishment, but went right ahead with his burden.
+Hardened little sinner! calloused little soul! poor little ant!
+
+One youngster came up, chanting the sale of some sweet-cakes. Looking
+into his face, I wondered what he was thinking just then. He must think!
+No one could be so young and have such a cramped neck, such sad eyes,
+such furrowed brows without hard thoughts to make them so.
+
+In the slush and rain, under semi-poverty and destitution, barefoot,
+ragged, and in infinite numbers,--still they toil. Yet against the
+background of sturdy Shanghai, their labor and their travail does not
+hurt as much as it does in Chinese City. The perplexities of
+life--national, racial, of caste--pervaded my thoughts. Why has China
+remained dormant so long? Why is she now waking? How will she tackle the
+problem of poverty? To me it seems that nations rise and fall not
+because fluctuation is the inherent law of life, but simply because
+universally accepted glory and prestige are positions generally paid for
+by accompanying poverty and disease. No nation can dominate for a long
+time with such coolieism as that in China.
+
+China has standards all her own. We come with our ways and claim
+superiority. China grants it, yet goes her own way. And when we see her
+sons we like them, though we may criticize, condemn, and try to change
+them. This is the oneness of China and the consensus of opinion is that
+it is lovable. People come, employ Chinese as servants, and try to train
+them. They may take that which they think you do not need, carry out
+their own and not your ideas. You in turn rave and roar, but in the end
+they are still there as servants and you as master. But they have
+educated you, you have not changed them. And when you leave China you
+long for them as did that American woman I met in Honolulu who fairly
+wailed her longing aloud to me. China has done this with whole nations,
+and, to the very end of time, whatever nation sets out to rule and
+conquer that new republic must make up its mind to be lost.
+
+And so behind Shanghai is Chinese City, and behind that there is China,
+out upon the flat plains. There is another China yet beyond, and still
+another and as many as there are billows on the sea. Build modern
+buildings and cities, and the Chinese take them and turn them inside
+out, and they are what he wants them to be. This plastic people,--what
+is their destiny? And what, still, is there awaiting the world as they
+fulfil that destiny?
+
+How strange it feels to call her republic! Yet China has taken to
+republicanism as though it had been brewing in her these thousands of
+years. From outward appearances one would never know that she is a
+republic to-day. Some say she really isn't. Coolies still are coolies,
+and Chinese, Chinese. And I dare say she is both empire and republic,
+two in one.
+
+For centuries China has lain dormant as though stung by a paralyzing
+wasp. Centuries have been lost in sleep. But what are centuries, when
+waking is so simple and is always possible? China has wakened. She is
+rising. An hour's work has been accomplished in the first fresh flush of
+the new dawn. Perhaps that is all that will be done that day, the house
+put in a little better order. To-morrow is time enough for real work. A
+Chinese junk comes out of its night-mist retreat with its own dim
+lights. A shrill whistle of a passing launch echoes across the flat
+plains about Shanghai. The rain of yesterday remains only as a sorry
+mist. A vision of clearer day shimmers through, but soon grows dull
+again. China seems to have shaped her climate in her own image.
+
+A two-days' steam to Moji, Japan, on the bosom of that heaving mistress
+the China Sea, and my journey was over for a long while. The sea was
+black, the sky somber; even the sun was sad as it stooped that evening
+to kiss the cheek of Japan good night. I did not know just then that I
+was to say farewell to the sea for two and a half years,--a farewell
+that resulted in _Japan: Real and Imaginary_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+WORLD CONSCIOUSNESS
+
+_The Third Side of the Triangle_
+
+  ... For surely once, they feel, we were
+  Parts of a single continent.
+  Now round us spreads the watery plain--
+  Oh, might our marges meet again!
+
+
+1
+
+I had gone out to the _Katori-maru_ to inspect my quarters. I always
+loved to get away from shore, even if only in a launch or sampan; it was
+so much cleaner and fresher on the bay. That afternoon it was altogether
+too attractive out there, and the city of Kobe lay so snugly below the
+hills that I decided to remain on board till late in the evening, and
+missed the last launch. I hailed a sampan. In this, with the wind
+splashing the single sail and the spray scattering all about us, we
+slipped romantically back to the American Hatoba. It was my last
+entrance to Kobe.
+
+All of the next day I kept changing trains and creeping over Japanese
+hills and rice-fields in my devious and indirect route to Yokohama by
+way of Japan's national shrine, Yamada Ise. A few days later I was on
+board the _Katori-maru_, the newest type of Japanese shrine, the modern
+commercial floating shrine, named after one of the most ancient of
+shrines in Japan. The Katori shrine is said to have been founded some
+twenty-five hundred years ago during the reign of the mythical first
+emperor, Jimmu Tenno. It was dedicated to deities who possessed great
+military skill and has always been patronized mainly by soldiers.
+Transferring shrines from land to sea is a hazardous procedure. For me,
+however, I was ready to give my offering most willingly as long as it
+brought me to Seattle. There were too many people willing to patronize
+floating shrines at that time for me to be too particular about deities.
+
+  [Illustration: FUJIYAMA
+  Japanese roofs may be monotonous--but never so is Fujiyama
+                                               Photo from Brown Bros.]
+
+  [Illustration: SEA, EARTH AND SKY
+  All are one in this glorious Pacific World
+                                               Photo from Brown Bros.]
+
+For a moment, as we slipped away from the pier, I felt what a dying man
+is said to feel when the flash-like review of life's experiences course
+through his sinking consciousness. I saw Japan and all its valleys, its
+dirt and its sublimity; and with all its past confusions I loved it.
+
+Waiting for a final glimpse of Fuji left me idle enough to observe the
+little things about me. There was, for instance, the two-by-two-by-five
+sailor who was showing two Japanese girls through the "shrine" he was
+serving. I followed them about the ship. He was explaining to them
+various mysteries.
+
+The Sailor: "Kore wa otoko no bath. [This is the men's bath.]" To the
+minds of these Japanese maidens such a distinction was surprising.
+
+The Sailor: "Kore wa second class. [This is second class.]" This was
+like treading on sacred ground to these lowly born mites.
+
+The Sailor: "Kore wa kitsu en shitsu. [This is the smoking-room.]" Why a
+special room for so simple a service--and why men only?
+
+He led them above to the hospital. He never made any comments, they
+asked him no questions, but followed, single file, as is proper for
+Japanese girls, agape with curiosity. They passed the life-saving
+equipment. A tiny voice ventured a question. An amazed member of the
+Japanese Government (it was a government subsidized vessel) said, with
+semi-scorn:
+
+"Kore wa? _Boat._ [This? _Boat._]" And they went below.
+
+
+2
+
+All of that forenoon, waiting for the _Katori-maru_ to slip away from
+the pier, I watched for Fujiyama, that exquisite pyramid (to the summit
+of which I had climbed twice), but it was veiled in mist. I wanted to
+see what it looked like from the sea, just as I had seen what the sea
+and the universe looked like from its peak. All afternoon, as Japan was
+receding into the past, I tried to distinguish old Fuji, but there was
+only a glittering edge, like a sword, beneath the low, bright sun. After
+dinner I went on deck and there in all that simple splendor which has
+made it the wonder of the world, stood Fujiyama, with a soft, sunset
+glow beneath its peak. The symbolic sword had vanished. And I felt that
+in all those years and miles and space which gather in my memory as that
+single thing--the Pacific Ocean--nothing transcends in loveliness the
+last view of Fuji from the sea.
+
+Then for two days the world seemed to swoon in mist. The fog-horn kept
+blowing drearily every two minutes; yet the steamer never slackened its
+speed for a moment; in fact, we made more miles those two days than
+during the clear days that followed. We had taken the extreme northern
+route and were soon in a cold latitude. The fog became crisp, as though
+threatening to crystallize, and when I stood on the forward deck it was
+almost like being out in a blizzard. The siren continued to emit its
+melancholy wail across a wilderness of waves lost in mist. One could not
+see the length of the ship. At midnight I woke, startled by the sudden
+cessation of the propellers. For three hours we were stationary, owing
+to engine trouble. The steamer barely rocked, giving me the sensation of
+the deep as nothing ever did before. It was at once weird and lovely,
+and in the darkness I could imagine our vessel as lone and isolated, a
+thing lost in an open wilderness of space. The siren continued moaning
+like the wail of a child in the night, and once I thought I heard
+another siren off in the distance. We started off again and from then on
+didn't once slacken our speed in the least, so large, so spacious, so
+unfrequented is the Pacific in these days.
+
+The fog hung close for so many days that a rumor went round that the
+captain was unable to get his bearings. With neither sun nor stars to
+rely on men's best instruments are altogether inadequate. At half-past
+nine o'clock one evening, however, the steel blinds were closed over the
+port-holes. The ship began to pitch and roll. The waves rushed at us and
+broke against the iron cheek of the vessel. The fittings on deck rolled
+back and forth, and those passengers unused to the sea clung to their
+berths.
+
+Only when we were within three days of the American coast did the sun
+come out. For over a week we had been in a dull-gray world which was
+becoming terribly depressing. We were considerably farther north than I
+had expected to be.
+
+Five days after our departure, I was again at the 180th meridian, and
+enjoyed what only a very eager, active person could enjoy,--a
+forty-eight-hour day. This time, going eastward, we gained a day. I also
+had the pleasure of being within fifty degrees of the north pole just as
+three years before I had been within fifty degrees of the south pole. In
+other words, I had touched two points along the 180th meridian which
+were six thousand miles away from each other, or twice the distance from
+New York to San Francisco.
+
+Calculations are somewhat misleading at times. For instance, when we
+were near the Aleutian Islands, I chanced to compare the records of that
+day's run as posted in the first saloon with those posted in the second
+saloon. The first read 4,240 miles from Yokohama; the second, 4,235
+miles. Japanese handling of figures made the prow of the ship five miles
+nearer its destination than the stern. Japanese historians also have a
+tendency to make such innocent mistakes in their imperialistic
+calculations. Japan's feet do not seem to be able to keep pace with her
+desires.
+
+As though to investigate this phenomenon, a little bird,--slightly
+larger than a sparrow, with the same kind of feathered back, but with a
+white breast, flitted down upon the deck before me,--and began hopping
+about. It approached to within two feet of me, then sneaked into a warm
+place out of sight. A stowaway from birdland, stealing a ride and
+planning, most likely, to enter America without a passport. Perhaps it
+thought that being near the stern of the boat, according to the
+calculations above quoted, it could still remain beyond the three-mile
+limit.
+
+Then the homeward-bound spirit took possession of me,--that selfsame
+realization of my direction which had come over me upon sight of the
+Australian coast three years previously, a psychological twisting which
+baffled me for a time. Another day and we were within the last square
+marked off by the latitudinal and longitudinal lines,--the nearest I had
+been to America in nearly five years. To remind me of my wanderings, the
+flags of the nations hung in the dining-saloon: under nearly every one
+of them I had at some time found hospitality.
+
+
+3
+
+The reader who has followed me thus far has been with me about three
+months on the sea. What to the Greeks and the Romans was the
+Mediterranean, the Pacific will be to us seventy times over. Already
+there is a wealth of literature and of science which has come to us
+through the inspiration of that great waterway. For Darwin and Stevenson
+and O'Brien the Pacific has been mother of their finest passions. In the
+near future, our argosies will cross and recross those tens of thousands
+of miles as numerously as those of the Phoenicians on the
+Mediterranean in antiquity. They will bring us back the teas and spices
+and silks of the Orient. But there are those of us who have watched the
+"White Shadows" of the Pacific who would wish that something were
+brought away besides the ephemeral materials. For there is in the sea a
+kinship with the infinite and the absolute, and who studies its moods
+comes nearer understanding life.
+
+I wandered along one night with a New Zealand man, without knowing where
+he was leading me. Suddenly we came, by way of a narrow pathway, against
+a wall of darkness. We were at the seashore. It was as though we had
+come to the world's end and the white glistening breakers arrived as
+messengers from eternity, warning us against venturing farther. I
+strained my eyes to see into that pitch-black gulch, but I might just as
+well have shut my eyes and let the persistent breakers tell the story of
+the sea in their own way. Afterward I often made my way out to that
+beach and sat for hours, or trod the sands till night left of the sea
+nothing but mournful whisperings.
+
+One day in August, when the first snow fell over our little winter world
+in the far South, I had climbed the hills up to the belt of wildwood
+that girds the city of Dunedin. The very joy of life was in the air.
+Keenly I sensed the larger season,--that of human kinship merged in the
+centuries. I looked across the hills to mountains I had known; but it
+was then not the Alps I saw, not the Rockies, the Aeta Roa under the
+Southern Cross, nor yet the Himalayas nor the snow-packed barriers of
+the Uriankhai, the unrenowned Turgan group. In truth, I was not seeing
+impassable peaks at all, but imprisoned ranges which were themselves
+trying to outreach their altitudinal limitations. It was a world
+consciousness which was mine, and I towered far above the highest peaks,
+above the world itself. I saw no single group, no political sections nor
+geographical divisions, the conquest of ridges, the commingling of
+noises, the concord of peoples. And when men come to this world
+consciousness they will recognize and accept all, include the barrier
+and the plain. They will see these great, sheer rugged peaks knifing the
+floating clouds, yielding to the creeping glaciers, yet one and all,
+when released sweeping down the valleys as impassioned rivers, filling
+the lowest depths of earth, depths deeper than the sea, lower than the
+deserts. In such moments of world consciousness men will have to step
+downward from the bottom of the sea and upward from the summit of
+McKinley. Then barriers will become beacons. Mankind lives at sea-level.
+We care little about our neighbors over the ranges. That mental attitude
+makes barriers real and valleys dark. But when we turn them into beacons
+we shall climb the barriers in order to look into the valleys of our
+neighbors and they will become the ladders of heaven and the light unto
+nations. That is the lesson of the sea.
+
+At present we live at a sea-level, but beneath and behind the barriers,
+are the peaks of earth. Hence walls of houses are as great barriers as
+mountains. Hence even thoughts are barriers and ideals become terrible,
+cold, insurmountable prominences.
+
+But in world consciousness, which is the lesson of the sea, we do not
+reject anything,--the religions, the political parties, the
+anti-religions, and the negations,--but we bring them to the level of
+human understanding by absorption, by taking them in. That is the story
+of the sea.
+
+The ocean breaks incessantly before us, but only the one majestic wave
+thrills as it rises and overleaps the rocky barrier. A forest is densely
+grown, yet only the stately, beautiful tree stirs the forest-lover. The
+street swarms with human beings all of whom are material for the
+friend-maker, yet only one of the mass, in passing, steeps the day's
+experience in the essence of love. But loving that one wave, or tree, or
+being does not shut us against the source of its becoming; rather does
+it teach us the possibilities latent in the mass. That is the moral of
+the sea.
+
+But what is the sea? How can we know the sea? Is it water, space,
+depth? Can we measure it in miles, in the days required to traverse it,
+in steamship lines, by the turning of the screws, or by the system of
+the fourth dimension? To me who have been round the greatest sea on
+earth comes the realization that I have seen only a narrow line of it,
+and that I can only believe that the rest is what it has been said to
+be. Yet my faith is founded on my knowledge of the faithfulness of the
+sea.
+
+The sea, we sometimes say, has its moods, but rather should they be
+called enthusiasms. It is really not the sea at all to which we refer,
+but to something which in the vague world of infinitude is in itself a
+sea whipping the surface of an unfathomable wonder. The sea's moods are
+not in its breakers, any more than is the surface phenomenon which
+floors the region between our atmosphere and ether, the story of our
+earth. We cannot reach down beneath the breakers and learn the secret of
+the heart of the sea. In ourselves, as in the sea, we obtain a record of
+that tremendous silence which is the harbinger of all sound, as the
+heavens are of all color.
+
+One day in New Zealand I witnessed a conflict between the earth and the
+sea. A tremendous wind swept north-westward, and pressed heavily down
+upon the shore. It sent the sand scurrying back into the sea. Even the
+breakers, like the sand, fell back in furious spray like the waves of
+sea-horses,--back into the ocean. The entire length of the beach for
+three miles was alive with retreating spray, mingled with the bewildered
+sand-legions scurrying at my ankles.
+
+One night, on the shores of Otago Harbor, the moon, blasted and blunted
+by heavy clouds, had started on its journey. In a little cave huddled a
+cloud of black night. We had spread the faithful embers of our camp fire
+so they could not touch one another, and wanting touch they died in the
+darkness. We had put the curse of loneliness upon each of them. The
+little cave had become only a darker spot on a dark landscape,--a
+landscape so rough, so rare and rugged, reaching the sea and the
+western sky of night. So rough, so unformed, so uncompleted. The maker
+of lands was beating against it impatiently, rushing it, forming it.
+What uncanny projections, what sandy cliffs! For ages the wind and sea
+have been whipping them into shape. Yet man could remove them with a
+blast or two. For thousands of miles, all round the rim of the great
+Pacific, the same process is going on, day and night. While upon land,
+man has continued working out his mission in the same persistent,
+unconscious manner.
+
+O Maker of lands' ends, O Sea, when will man be formed? When will the
+conflicts among men cease? They have tried to curb one another and to
+subject one another to slavish uses, even and kempt. But still, after
+ages of whipping and lashing, they are still unfinished as though never
+to be formed. Are the various little groups which lie so far apart,
+scattered by some ancient camper, to die for want of the touch of
+comrade, like those embers in the darkness of that empty cavelet?
+
+Here round the Pacific we dwell, each in his own little hollow. May not
+this vast, generous ocean become the great experiment station for human
+commonalty, for distinction without extinction? The dreams that centered
+in the other great seas--the Mediterranean, the Atlantic--were only
+partially fulfilled. But here at the point where East is West, it ought
+to be possible, because of the very obvious differences, to maintain
+relations without irritating encroachment. There was a time when
+passionate desire justified a man taking a woman from another with the
+aid of a club. To-day the decent man knows that however much he may
+love, only mutual consent makes relationship possible. And from the
+frenzy of untutored souls let those who feel repugnance withdraw till
+the force of a higher morality makes the rest of the world follow in its
+wake.
+
+  ... now I only hear
+  Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
+  Retreating to the breath
+  Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear
+  And naked shingles of the world.
+
+  Ah, love, let us be true
+  To one another! for the world, which seems
+  To lie before us like a land of dreams,
+  So various, so beautiful, so new,
+  Hath really neither joy, nor love nor light,
+  Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain:
+  And we are here as on a darkling plain
+  Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
+  Where ignorant armies clash by night.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK TWO
+
+DISCUSSION OF NATIVE PROBLEMS--PERSONAL AND SOCIAL
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+EXIT THE NOBLE SAVAGE
+
+
+1
+
+To the primitive or simple races of the world marriage, divorce, and
+supply of only the elemental wants are the most intense problems.
+Nourishment and reproduction make up the rounds of life. While the
+highly developed nations around the Pacific are concerned with the
+exploitation of the resources of the islands, and with political
+problems growing out of their reciprocal interests, the natives are
+struggling with matters that lie nearer the real foundations of life.
+For them the question of survival is an immediate and pressing one.
+Extinction is facing many of them, absorption by inflowing races is
+creating altogether new difficulties and relationships, such as marriage
+and divorce, while newer conceptions of exchange and trade, the buying
+and selling of meats and vegetables, are introducing social and moral
+factors they could not as yet be expected to understand. Nor can we who
+have thrust ourselves upon them or accepted responsibility for their
+well-being understand our obligations unless we think of them as human
+beings, or without visualizing their problems by human examples. Nor can
+we escape these responsibilities or shirk them. Out of the stuff their
+lives are made of grow the larger problems, those of the relationship of
+the great civilizations that touch each other on the Pacific--Asia,
+Australasia, America.
+
+Threnodies and elegies a-plenty have mourned the passing of the
+Polynesians of the South Seas. The noble savage whose average height
+often measured six feet--plus thick callouses--has stalked among us, as
+a mythical figure, maidens unabashed in their naked loveliness have
+lured men to the tropics oblivious of home ties. Leisure and unlimited
+harems in prospect have afforded many a civilized man salacious joys the
+like of which the white race has not altogether abandoned, but which few
+have the courage to pursue in the open. The passing of these Pacific
+peoples has in some quarters been hailed as an indication of the
+viciousness of civilization; their yielding to virtue has been deplored
+by others. The sentimentalist has clothed them in romance; the cynic has
+stuck horns in their brows. But whether the romancer is wrong or the
+missionary devoid of appreciation of nature unadorned, the passing of
+the Polynesian is an admitted danger. Whether it was the vice of the
+drunken sailor or the clothes of the devout disciple that brought about
+this downfall shall not here be determined. It will be mine merely to
+depict in living examples the episodes that indicate their evanescence,
+and to point to the silent forces of regeneration that are at
+work,--forces that, having accomplished the virtual decease of some of
+the finest races in the world, and yet are bringing about their rebirth.
+
+One cannot live in the tropics without romancing. The simplicity, the
+earnestness of life, devoid of many of the outer signs of avarice so
+consonant with the individualism of our civilization; the slovenliness
+unhampered by too many clothes,--these take one by a storm of pleasure.
+One forgets the natives once were cannibals; or rather, one delights in
+saying to oneself "they were," and forgets to thank the missionary and
+the trader for having altered these tastes before one arrived; one
+exalts every sprawling female into a symbol of naturalness, though
+Heaven knows the soft white skins and hidden bosoms of the North come as
+welcome reminders in face of native temptations. And with Professor
+Brown of New Zealand, one deplores that the selfsame missionaries and
+traders "in spite of their antipodal purposes and methods, alike force
+the race to decay." Their contract with the white race is demoralizing
+even where it aims to be most just and helpful. Their lands, made secure
+to them by legislation (as in New Zealand), often become the means of
+gratifying wild tastes for motor-cars and fineries which leave them
+bankrupt physically and morally.
+
+
+2
+
+It was a steaming day. I had been up from before dawn in order to make
+my pilgrimage to Vailima. Half the morning was not yet gone when I
+returned to the little hotel in Apia, situated beside the reefs, to hide
+myself away from the burning sun. Even within the shade of the upper
+veranda my flesh squirmed beneath my shirt and the shoes upon my feet
+became unbearable. So off went my shoes. Nothing merely romantic could
+have induced me to crawl from under the shadows. There I was content to
+listen to the lapping of the broken waves as they washed shoreward over
+the reefs. There I inhaled the scent of tropical vegetation as it
+reached me, tempered and sifted to the satisfaction of one who dreads
+the sun and its overweening brilliance.
+
+Suddenly a wail lanced the silence. It sounded for all the world like
+the melancholy "extra" which New York newsboys cry through the side
+streets when they wish to make a fire the concern of the world. I sprang
+up and, leaning over the veranda rail, strained my neck in the direction
+of the crier, who was still behind the bend in the road which is Apia's
+Main Street. It seemed to take him an unconscionable time to come into
+view, his voice approaching and receding, and being battologized as
+though by a hundred megaphones. Prancing, crouching, and shading his
+eyes in the manner of an Amerindian scout, he finally made his
+appearance,--a grotesque fiend, one to strike terror to the heart of a
+god. His oiled body glistened in the sun; his charcoal-blackened jaw
+resembled that of a gorilla; while a scarlet turban of cheese-cloth
+wound after the fashion of the Hindu gave flaming finish to this
+frightful impersonation of the devil. Nothing but the presence of the
+army of occupation and the _Encounter_ out in the harbor could have
+allayed my apprehension, not even the vanity of racial superiority or
+the oft-repeated prophecies about this vanishing race. For he seemed
+savagery come to life.
+
+Presently four others, similar personifications of deviltry, came on
+behind him. In addition to make-up, each brandished a long knife used
+for cutting sugar-cane, or a clumsy ax. They squatted, they jumped,
+whirling their weapons in heavy blows at imagined enemies. Never was
+make-believe played with greater conviction, never was the wish father
+to the act with more pathetic earnestness. The pitcher of a chosen nine
+never hurled his ball across an empty field with greater determination
+to win the coming game than did these warless warriors wield their
+weapons.
+
+Slowly from the rear came the army, four abreast, in stately procession.
+There were seventy-five Samoans, each over six feet tall, men of girth
+and bone and pride. Their glistening bodies reflected the sun like a
+heaving sea. Their loins were draped in leaves in place of the every-day
+sulu, with girdles of pink tissue paper round them. Their faces, too,
+were blackened with charcoal, and turbans of red cheese-cloth capped
+them. Those of them who could not secure knives or axes, wielded sticks
+with threatening realism.
+
+In an instant I was in my shoes again and out upon the road, a bit of
+flotsam in the wake of a great pageant.
+
+I fell in with a Samoan policeman, dressed like an English Bobby,
+trailing along in the rear. "What's the trouble?" I asked. "Is this a
+preliminary uprising?" There was much talk of the Germans stirring the
+natives to rebellion against British occupation, but evidently the
+natives had had enough of alien squabbles, and it seemed to matter
+little to them by which of the white invaders they were ruled. A strange
+expression came into the policeman's face, a mixture of awe and
+contempt. He could speak only a very scant amount of English, but enough
+to unlock this awe-inspiring secret. "Tamasese, the king he dead," he
+said. I fumbled about in my memory for coincidences. The policeman was
+old enough to have been an understanding boy at the time Stevenson took
+up the cause of Mataafa as opposed to the German interests and
+antagonistic even to the British and American attitude. It must have
+been strange to him, therefore, to find himself a British policeman in a
+uniform of blue, with a heavy helmet, timidly following a funeral
+procession in honor of the son of a king disfavored of Stevenson,--while
+all about were the soldiers of New Zealand. I got nothing from him of
+any political significance, but much in the way of the spirit of his
+race. For though an officer of "the" law, perhaps the only one of his
+kind in Samoa, he dared not go too close to the ranks of these
+stalwarts. They had come from every islet of the Samoan group, the pick
+of the race, representatives declaring before the whole world: Our race
+is not dead; long live our race!
+
+So, all along the way for over a mile into the country behind Apia,
+continued the procession. Not for a moment did the antics cease; not for
+a moment did the wail of the warriors subside. Every time the advance
+scouts called out, "O-o-o-o-s-o-o-o" [The king is dead], the four behind
+him thundered their denial, "E sa" [Long live the king], and the entire
+regiment droned the confession "O so." For the king was truly no more.
+Not only the king but his kingdom. For not only was there now no
+struggle of aliens over its precincts, but the second conqueror,
+Britain, who once did not think Samoa worthy as spoils, had stepped in
+and taken possession.
+
+The procession filled the native population with awe. No one ventured
+near. A dog ran across the road and was immediately cut down by the
+sugar-cane knife in a warrior's hand. A Chinese, with the contempt of
+the fanatic for the fanaticism of others, drove his cart indifferently
+into their line. Knives, axes, and other borrowed, stolen, or improvised
+weapons found their way into the chariot of the Celestial.
+
+Half-way along, a limping old man whose leg was swollen with
+elephantiasis advanced against them. He challenged their approach. They
+cut the air with furious blows aimed in his direction. He pretended to
+fall, in the manner of a Russian dancer, picked himself up and started
+on a wild retreat. The army had routed an enemy.
+
+Here the roadside spread in open land dotted everywhere with native
+huts. Presently the army arrived at the king's grounds, where a simple
+hut sat back about two hundred feet from the road, with a bit of green
+before it. The army broke "rank," and squatted in a double row just at
+the side of the road. For a few minutes there was silence.
+
+Then out of the group rose Maii, the leader. Silently he strode the full
+width of the space in front of the thirty seated men, leaning lightly
+upon the long rough stick in his hand. His giant-like figure was the
+personification of dignity; his roughened face the acme of sobriety; he
+seemed lost in thought. Facing about, he started to retrace his steps in
+front of the seated men, then, as though suddenly recollecting himself,
+turned his head in the direction of the king's hut and in a subdued tone
+no higher than that in ordinary conversation, addressed the house of
+Tamasese, which stood fully half a block away. Quietly, but not without
+emotion, he spoke and paused; and every time he paused the leading four
+men would shout "O-o-o-s-o-o," and the entire group would answer "O sa."
+Convincing and convinced, the leader proceeded with his oration. An
+hour later, to the minute, he finished.
+
+At the king's house appeared an old man in a snow-white sulu, leaning
+heavily on a stick. I could see his lips moving, but could not hear a
+word. He was speaking to the leader, who could not hear any more than I.
+They kept up the pretense at conversation for a few minutes and all was
+agreed upon. A servant, who had followed the old man with a soft mat in
+his hand which to me looked like silk, advanced cautiously toward the
+warriors.
+
+Two of them jumped instantly to their feet, brandishing their knife and
+ax furiously as though to protect the leader or to drive away evil
+spirits, I knew not which. But certain it was the cautious servant
+became still more cautious, timidly arriving with his offering and
+presenting it to the chief. The manner in which the gift was accepted,
+though solemn enough, was full of admonition, much as to say: "Now,
+don't you do that again." The mat-bearer's heart seemed relieved of a
+great terror, and he started back to the house of the king. On his way
+he passed a mango-tree, stopped, looked up as though he had spied an
+evil spirit, picked up a mango, stepped back, and dramatically hurled it
+at the tree as a boy would who was playing make-believe. At that the
+whole army of stalwarts rose and departed to the right.
+
+As soon as they left the grounds, eleven girls, in single file, each
+with a mat of the loveliest texture imaginable flung to the breeze, came
+out upon the road from the other side of the grounds and followed round
+the front to the right after the way of the warriors. And the ceremony
+was over.
+
+I had squatted on the ground, close to the warriors. They treated me as
+though I were an innocent child who did not know the dangers of evil
+things, nor enough to respect my superiors. Not so the natives. Even the
+policeman with whom I had arrived had retreated to the protection of a
+hut some three hundred feet away from the road. All the people in the
+neighborhood--men, women and children--kept within their own huts, their
+solemn faces full of awe and respect. Nor did the tension slacken until
+the last of the maidens had made her way out of sight.
+
+Thus was the son of the last Samoan king escorted in safety along the
+other way,--a way which to the native mind seemed as vivid and real as
+heaven and hell were to Dante and Swedenborg.
+
+
+3
+
+Exit the Noble Savage. "Think," says Bancroft, spokesman of the arrogant
+"Blond Beast," "what it would mean to civilization if all these
+worthless primitives were to pass away before us." The beginning of this
+end was witnessed and told by Stevenson in 1892, but the natives'
+version of it has yet to be related. Against those who mourn his loss as
+the Hellenist the Greeks, are some of our most practical men.
+
+The Samoans are not vanishing as rapidly as are the Hawaiians and the
+Maories, for two very simple reasons: their climate is not so suitable
+to the white man as is that of New Zealand and of Hawaii. Nor, like
+Fiji, has Samoa been hampered by indentured coolieism, though Chinese do
+come. Racially there seems no immediate prospect of Samoa being
+submerged, though politically it fell before Hawaii did. Socially,
+however, it is going, as are the native features of most of the more
+progressive and more assimilable peoples of the Pacific.
+
+Simple naturalness is fast fading even from Samoa. I do not mean to say
+that because Samoans are drifting farther and farther from their
+primitive customs they are losing their "charm." With progress, one
+expects not oddity, but simplicity; not shiftlessness, but a certain
+tightening up of the finer fibers of the race. It is satisfying to see
+the contrast between the loosely built native hut and that whose pillars
+are set in concrete and roofed with durable materials. But it is
+disheartening when the change is only from thatch, which needs to be
+replaced every so often, to corrugated iron, without any other signs of
+durability. In other words, the corrugated iron roof is no proof that
+the race is becoming more thrifty, less lazy,--but the reverse. It
+indicates that indolence has found an easier way, a more permanent
+manner.
+
+My presence at the ceremony in honor of the royal demise gave me an
+opportunity to see at once some of the best specimens of Samoan manhood.
+It left me with the impression that no race capable of mustering so many
+men of such build was on the decline. There was nothing in their manner
+to indicate servility or despair. And some day Setu, with his knowledge
+of Western civilization gained at first hand, may be the means of
+arousing his fellow-Samoans to great things.
+
+
+4
+
+The process of assimilation and decline is taking place with far more
+rapidity in Hawaii. Hawaii crashed like a meteor into America and was
+comminuted and absorbed. The finer dust of its primitive civilization is
+giving more color to our atmosphere than any other American possession.
+But the real Hawaii is rapidly receding into the past. On the beach at
+Waikiki there is a thatch-roofed hut, but like most of the Hawaiians
+themselves, it bears too obviously the ear-marks of the West, the
+imprint of invasion.
+
+What there is left of the Hawaiians still possesses a measure of
+strength and calmness. Big, burly, self-satisfied, they wend their way
+unashamed of having been conquered. Only a few thousand can now claim
+any racial purity. The mixture of Hawaiians with the various peoples
+now in occupation of their lands is growing greater every year; those of
+pure Hawaiian blood, fewer. And after all, is it any reflection upon any
+race that it has been assimilated by its conquerors?
+
+And assimilated to the point of extinction Hawaii has been. It has
+become an integral part of a continental nation of whose existence it
+had hardly known a hundred years ago. When Captain Cook discovered
+Hawaii he estimated its population at 400,000. Fifty years later there
+were only 130,000. To-day there may not be more than 30,000. The white
+race has had its revenge on these natives for the death of this intrepid
+captain. And the last of the great Hawaiian rulers, Queen Liliuokalani,
+shorn of her power, passed away on November 11, 1917. She, the
+descendant of great warriors and remarkable political leaders, had
+turned to the only thing left her--expressing the sentiments of her
+people in music.
+
+The submersion is nearly complete. Politically, there isn't a son among
+them who would feel any happier for a revival. So little fear is there
+of such a hope ever rising even for a moment in the Hawaiian breast that
+the key to the former throne-room hangs indifferently on a nail in the
+outer office of the present government. I believe that that is the only
+throne-room under the American flag. It is a small room, modern and
+finished in every detail. On its walls hang paintings of kings and
+queens and ministers of state. There is a musty odor about it, which
+could easily be removed. All one need do is open the windows and an
+inrush of sensuous air would sweeten every corner of it. This would be
+doing only what the race is doing with every intake of alien blood.
+
+A broad-shouldered, broad-nosed, broad-faced--and seemingly
+broad-hearted--Hawaiian clerk took me into the room. As we wandered
+about he told who the worthies were, enframed in gilt and under glass.
+Interspersed with some facts was inherited fancy. His enthusiasm rose
+appreciably when he recited the deeds of Kamehameha I, their most
+renowned king.
+
+"Once he saw an enemy spy approach," said my guide. "He threw his spear
+with such force that it penetrated the trunk of the cocoa-palm behind
+which the traitor was hiding, and pierced the man's heart." A merry
+twinkle lit up the cicerone's eyes. That twinkle was something almost
+foreign to the man: it must have been the white blood in him that was
+mocking the tales of his native ancestry.
+
+Aside from these few portraits there was nothing in the throne-room
+which gave evidence of Hawaii's former prestige. Here that king's
+descendants planned to lead his race to glory among nations. And here
+they were outwitted. The guide had recounted among the king's exploits
+his ability to break the back of his strongest enemy with his naked
+hands. Yet the white man came along and broke the Hawaiian back. And
+to-day he who wishes to learn the habits, the arts, and the exploits of
+these people has to go to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu.
+
+A primer got up for children, to be learned parrot-like, and distributed
+to tourists, tells us "the Hawaiians never were savages." We are also
+assured they "never were cannibals," and "speedily embraced religion."
+The first is an obvious misstatement; the second is an apology of
+uncertain value; as to the third, the son of one of Hawaii's best
+missionaries, who just died in his eighty-fifth year, said: "Not until
+the world shall learn how to limit the quantity and how to improve the
+quality of races will future ages see any renewal of such idyllic life
+and charm as that of the ancient Polynesians." Dr. Titus Munson Coan,
+whose father converted some fifteen thousand Hawaiians to Christianity,
+deplored the effect on the native of the high-handed suppression of
+native taboos and attributes their extinction--which seems
+inevitable--to the imposition of clothes which they put on and off
+according to whim, and to customs unsuited to their natures. Dr. Coan
+said that though his father had a powerful voice he remembered that
+often he could not hear him preach because of the coughing and sneezing
+of the natives.
+
+Be that as it may, a visit to the Bishop Museum would quickly contradict
+the primer. There the array of weapons shows that the natives were not
+only barbarous but savage. This is no serious condemnation, for none of
+Europe's races can show any cleaner record. Arts, indeed, the Hawaiians
+had, and sense of form and color. An apron of feathers worn by the king
+required a tax of a feather apiece on hundreds of birds. After this
+feather was extracted, the bird was set free, an indication of thrift if
+not kindliness. Yet they did not hesitate to strip the flesh off every
+bone of Captain Cook and distribute portions among the native chiefs. No
+one has proved that they ate it; but cannibalism is, after all, a
+relative vice and was not unknown in northwestern Europe.
+
+
+5
+
+The passing of the Hawaiians, like that of many other races in the
+Pacific, is due to a cannibalism and a barbarism which are less
+emphasized in the ordinary discussions of the problem. There are more
+ways than one of eating your neighbor. However harrowing that savage
+diet was, it did not work for the destruction of any of these South Sea
+islanders as ruthlessly as did the practice among the Hawaiians of
+infanticide. Mothers were in the habit of disposing of their impetuous
+children by the simple method of burying them alive, frequently under
+the very shelter of their roofs, lying down upon the selfsame floor and
+sleeping the sleep of the just with the tiny infant squirming in its
+grave beside them. Parents were not allowed to have more than a given
+number of children because of the strain on the available food supply.
+This more than anything else depleted the number of natives most
+disastrously. But in addition came the white man with his diseases,
+contagious and infectious,--a form of destruction that, from the native
+point of view, is quite as dastardly as eating the flesh of the
+vanquished.
+
+Certainly, whatever the viciousness of the occasional or annual
+outbursts of passion among these primitive folk, there was no example of
+regulated, insistent pandering to vice such as has been set them by the
+Europeans, especially in Hawaii. There one evening I wandered through
+the very depths of degradation; there I witnessed a process of fusion of
+races which had only one possible end,--extinction. Its Hawaiian name
+had a strange similarity to the word evil: it is _Iwilei_. McDuffie,
+Chief of Detectives of Honolulu, was making his inspection of medical
+certificates, which was part of the work of "restriction," and took me
+with him.
+
+Mr. McDuffie had been standing near the window of the outer office, with
+one foot upon a chair, talking to another detective, when I called out
+his name. Tall, massive, with hair almost gray, a rather kindly face, he
+looked me up and down without moving. I explained my mission.
+
+"Who are you?" he asked bluntly.
+
+A mean question, always asked by the white man in the tropics. Well,
+now, who in thunder was I, anyway? I murmured that I was a "writer."
+"Be round at seven-thirty, and you can come along," he said dryly.
+
+On his office walls hung hatchets, daggers, pistols, sabers, and many
+other such toys of a barbarous world hacking away against or toward
+perfection. On the floor were dozens of opium pipes, taken in a raid
+upon Chinese dens,--toys of another kind of world trying to forget its
+progress away from barbarism. One Japanese continued his game of cards
+nonchalantly. Flash-lights were in evidence, fearlessly protruding from
+hip pockets.
+
+At half-past seven I was there again. As we were about to enter the
+motor-car, I ventured some remark, thinking to make conversation. "Get
+in there," said the chief, abruptly. For an instant he must have thought
+he was taking a criminal to confinement.
+
+Zigzagging our way through the streets and across the river, we entered
+an unlighted thoroughfare, hardly to be called a street. A steady stream
+of straggling shadows moved along like spirits upon the banks of the
+river Styx. Our way opened out upon a lighted section, crowded with
+negro soldiers and civilians of all nationalities. Here, then, and not
+only beyond the grave, class and distinction and race dissolve. A
+perfect hubbub of conversation, soda fountains and plain noise, and
+reeling of drunkies. A futurist conception of confusion would do it
+justice. We were at the gates of Babylon.
+
+A closely boarded fence surrounded this city of dreadful night. Hundreds
+of men crowded the passageway. Within were rows and rows of shacks and
+cottages. Men stood gazing in at open doors and windows. Outside one
+shack a negro soldier remained fixed with his foot upon the door-step,
+but ventured no farther. Within, on a bed in full view, sat a Portuguese
+female, smoking, an Hawaiian woman companion lounging beside her. Both
+ignored the male at the door. But he remained, silent. Hope fading from
+his mind, and some interest elsewhere creeping in, he moved away. The
+Hawaiian woman smiled contemptuously.
+
+Then for three-quarters of an hour we made strange calls. Our card was a
+club which the assistant to the detective--a massive Hawaiian--rapped on
+every porch step, announcing the expected visitor. He was not unwelcome.
+From every door emerged a woman, covered with a light kimono, and neatly
+shod. At cottage after cottage, door after door, they appeared, showed
+their "health" certificates, and retreated. Japanese, Hawaiian, white,
+brown, and yellow. Some extremely pretty and not altogether unrefined
+in manner; some ugly and coarse. The inspection was done hastily. Where
+appearance of the inmate was delayed, a stamp of the foot brought the
+tardy one scurrying out. Some greeted the detective familiarly; others
+showed their certificates and retreated. One Japanese woman called after
+us when we had passed her door without stopping.
+
+Wherever there was any transgression against the proprieties, the
+inspector commanded the guilty to desist, and went on. One woman
+complained that a negro had just attacked her with a knife. She whistled
+and called, she said, "But I might have been killed for all the
+assistance I got." The inspector spoke kindly to her, assured her he
+would order the guard to come round. But nothing was done.
+
+Two or three doors farther on a fat and playful woman entertained a
+number of men who stood outside her porch. The inspector told her to
+keep still. "Just such remarks as that cause trouble. You get inside and
+stay there." She shrugged her shoulders, made faces at him, and danced
+playfully within-doors.
+
+We came upon two groups of negroes, gambling. The inspector slapped one
+of them upon the shoulder in a kindly way and told them to get out of
+sight. "You know it's not allowed here." They moved away.
+
+It was a network of streets. Not an underworld but a hinterland, a dark
+swamp-land, full of scum and squirming creatures. A dreadful city, full
+of "joy" and abandon. A city in which women are the monarchs, the
+business factors, the independent, fearless beings, needing no
+protection. Protection from what could they need? Surely not from
+poverty, for wealth seemed to favor these. From loss of reputation? They
+had no reputations to lose. Protection they needed, but rather from
+themselves than from outside dangers.
+
+For this was a restricted district which harbored no restrictions. This
+was the crater of human passion, of animal passion. The well-ordered
+universe without; within, the toils of voluptuousness. In this pit the
+lava of lust kept stirring, the weight of unbalanced emotion overturned
+within itself. The crater was thought to be deep and secure against
+overflow. But if it did boil over, was it far from the city?
+
+In the city the sound of pianos playing, people reading, swimming-pools
+full, streets crowded with racing automobiles, soda fountains crowded,
+theaters agog, gathering of folks in homes and cafés,--a great world
+with allotted places to keep men and women and children happy; that is,
+away from themselves. A heavy curtain of order protects one section. The
+most disgusting polyandry shrieks from out the other. Yet no savage
+community needed such an outlet for its emotions.
+
+From various sources I learn that that little crater has overflowed. The
+Chamber of Commerce, backed by the missionaries and others, secured
+legislation against the "regulation" of the district in 1917. From
+another source I got it that it was not the forces for good that
+banished it, but that two contending and competing forces for evil had
+mutually eliminated themselves. But still another source gives it out
+that certain "slum" sections where housing facilities are inadequate are
+now the center of evil, and that Filipino panderers are the most guilty.
+And a year after _Iwilei_ was "done away with"--in April, 1918--the
+Chief of Detectives asked for "thirty days" in which to show what he
+could do to clean up the place so as to make it fit for the soldiers to
+come to Honolulu.
+
+Little wonder that, with such examples of "self-respect" and
+shamefulness, lovers of the Hawaiians are throwing themselves into the
+work of saving the few remaining natives from demoralization. Before
+Cook's time these people did not know what prostitution was. Now they
+have lost hope and confidence in themselves. The less pessimistic say
+that another hundred years will see the last of the Hawaiians, as we
+have seen the last of the Tasmanians. Others fear it will come sooner.
+The Hawaiian Protective Association is stimulating racial pride in them
+so that they may take courage anew, and, with what sturdy men and women
+there still are, rejuvenate the race. But the odds are against them, for
+besides disease and demoralization we have introduced Japanese, Chinese,
+and all sorts of other coolies who have completely undermined the
+Hawaiian status in the islands, and are rapidly outnumbering them in the
+birth-rate and survival rate. What factors are at work for possible
+regeneration will be discussed in a later chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+GIVE US OUR VU GODS AGAIN!
+
+
+1
+
+Some of the gravest mistakes the white man has made in his efforts to
+regenerate the Pacific peoples have been indirect rather than direct.
+This fact is best illustrated by the method Australia and New Zealand
+resorted to in order to exterminate certain pests. To eliminate the
+rabbit they introduced the ferret. The ferret then began to reproduce so
+rapidly that it, too, soon became a pest. So the cat was let loose upon
+the ferret. Forthwith the cat ran wild and is now one of the most
+serious problems in Australia.
+
+So has it been in the matter of many of the native races. Commercial
+greed, which was not satisfied to use what native labor was extant
+because it is never the manner of natives to be willing serfs to their
+conquerors, looked everywhere about for people who might be imported
+under crushing conditions and then cast out. It was that which created
+the Japanese and Chinese situation in Hawaii; and it is that which has
+created a similar situation in Fiji.
+
+One would have to be an unadulterated sentimentalist to contend that the
+passing of the natives is not justified by the present development of
+the Antipodes. None of the native elements--the Australoids or the
+Tasmanians or the Maories--would, of their own accord, even with years
+of Caucasian example and precedent, have made of these dominions the
+healthful, productive lands they now are. As long as the problem remains
+one of the ascendancy of the fittest over the fit, it is simple, and
+the present solution justifiable. But the introduction of other races
+who have only their servility to recommend them is a poor practice and
+soon turns into a more serious problem still. In most cases, a little
+patience and foresight would have obviated such contingencies. Had the
+white folk who tried to exploit Hawaii contented themselves with a
+slower development, the Hawaiians would to-day be as secure as are the
+Samoans and the Maories. In all cases such as these and that of the
+Philippines, the native, when given a chance, soon justifies his
+existence and our faith in him.
+
+In Fiji we have an example of the introduction of the Hindu to the
+extinction of the Fijian for the sake of the enrichment of the white
+man. The indentured Indian, small and wiry, who seems too delicate for
+any task and is stopped by none, acts as a reinforcement in the South
+Sea labor market. He glides along in purposeful indifference. As coolie,
+he may be seen at any time wending his way along Victoria Parade,
+bareheaded, a thin sulu of colored gauze wound about his loins. As freed
+man, he is the tailor, the jeweler, the grocer, and the gardener. As
+proprietor he is buying up the lands and becoming plantation-owner. Then
+he bewails the woes of his native land, India, far off in the distance.
+Here in Fiji, where the coolie has a chance to start life anew, the
+longing for rebirth in this world, still fresh, bursts into being. But
+no sooner does it see the sunlight than it turns to crush the Fijian, in
+whose lands the Hindu is as much of an invader as ever Briton was in
+India.
+
+The introduction of the Indian into Fiji was not accomplished without
+considerable protest from small planters, who saw in it and the taxation
+scheme introduced over thirty years ago, great danger to the Fijian
+laborer. Aside from the burdens imposed upon the people by a law which
+compelled them to work for their chiefs without wages, for the same
+length of time that they worked for some plantation-owner with wages,
+there was the equally bad law being "experimented" with which compelled
+the people to pay in kind instead of in money. So serious had the
+situation become that the "Saturday Review" of June 19, 1886, declared:
+"As the Natives must eat something to live, it is perhaps not unnatural
+that many people who know Fiji entertain distinct fears that the
+combination of over-taxation and want of food will drive the Fijians to
+return to cannibalism." The charge of cannibalism was denied by the Rev.
+Mr. Calvert, though further evidence is not at hand, as I have seen only
+the Government's side of the case.
+
+However, with the admission of some 3,800 Indians as indentured laborers
+in 1884 (or thereabouts) among a population of 115,000 natives, the
+vital statistics of the islands have changed so that there were only
+87,096 Fijians against 40,286 Indians in 1911, and 91,013 Fijians
+against 61,153 Indians in 1917. This would seem to indicate a healthier
+state of affairs for the Fijians as well as for the Indians, were not
+the comparison of births with deaths for the last year named taken into
+consideration. This shows that to 3,267 births there were 2,583 deaths
+among the Fijians; while among the Indians the births were 2,196 as
+against only 588 deaths. This proportion obtained also in 1911. The
+struggle between the Fijians and the indentured Indians, even if the
+former were not to become extinct within the century, would place the
+Fijians in the minority in no time; and what were their lands would be
+theirs no more.
+
+This, briefly, is the story of the submersion of the Fijians.
+
+  [Illustration: AN INDIAN COOLIE VILLAGE
+  Near the sugar factory, Fiji
+                              Western Pacific-Herald Post Card Series]
+
+  [Illustration: THIS HINDU HAS USURPED THE JOB OF THE CHIEFTAINS'
+  DAUGHTERS
+  He is grinding the Kava root in a mortar. What the girls are doing
+  with their teeth now no one knows]
+
+  [Illustration: A MAORI HAKA IN NEW ZEALAND
+  It is a procession of gesticulating, grimacing savages whose
+  protruding tongues are not the least attraction]
+
+  [Illustration: A MAORI CANOE HURDLING RACE
+  At Ngaruawahia, North Island, N. Z.]
+
+In itself, the situation is not very serious. What if the Fijian passes,
+or gives way to the Indian? The contribution of the Fijian to the
+culture or the romance of the Pacific is small compared with that of
+other races, such as the Samoans or the Marquesans. Of that more anon.
+But there are problems involved that are of more immediate import.
+Two races like these cannot live together without creating a situation
+of strength or of weakness that is very far-reaching. We are concerned
+with the attitude they assume toward each other, or in the substitution
+of a race like the Indians, with their fixed traditions and destructive
+castes, which will introduce Hindu problems into the very heart of the
+Pacific. India is no longer within bounds, and sooner or later we shall
+be face to face with new conditions. In eliminating the Fijian or the
+Hawaiian, or any other Pacific islander, by the Indian or the Japanese
+coolie process, we are only intensifying the difficulty, unless we are
+ready completely to overlook the questions of likes and dislikes.
+
+
+2
+
+In Fiji one is not yet compelled to ask, "Where are the Fijians?" As
+long as one's gaze is fixed slightly upward, the Fijian face with the
+bushy head of coarse, curly hair stands out against the green of the
+hills. But let the eye fall earthward and the resultant confusion of
+forms and manners forthwith raises the problem of the survival of the
+fittest. For among these towering negroids there now dwell over sixty
+thousand Telugus, Madrasis, Sardars, Hindustanis, and a host of other
+such strange-sounding peoples from India, and "Sahib" greets one's ears
+more frequently than the native salutation. In the smaller hotels the
+bushy head bows acknowledgment of your commands; in the one fashionable
+and Grand Hotel the turban does it. In the course of the day's demands
+for casual service, the assistant is the stalwart one; for the more
+permanent work--as, for instance, the making of a pongee silk suit--the
+artisan is the slender one. If your mood is for sight of sprawling
+indolence, you wander along the little pier and open places among the
+Fijians; if it is for the damp, cool, darkly kind to help you visualize
+the dreams of the Arabian Nights, you enter some little shop in an
+alley with an unexpected curve, in the district of transplanted India.
+
+Feeling venturesome, I let fancy be my guide, though, to tell truth, I
+was escaping from the burning sun. Life on the highway was alluring,
+but, large as the Fijian is, his shadow is no protection. I hoped for
+some sight of him within-doors. The row of shops which walls in the
+highway, links without friction the various elements of Suva's humanity.
+In a dirty little shop I ran into an unusual medley of folk. A blind
+Indian woman in one corner; a Fijian chatting with an Indian in another;
+a boy whistling "Chin-chin"; boys and girls fooling with one another;
+while in the little balcony, like a studio bedroom hung in the deeper
+shadows of the rafters, slept one whose snoring did not lend distinction
+to his paternity. The place was evidently a saloon, but minus all the
+glitter so requisite in colder regions. Here the essential was dampness
+and coolness and improvised night. Hence the walls had no windows and
+the floors no boarding. Hence the brew had need of being cool and
+cutting, regardless of its name; and whether one called it _yagona_,
+_kava_, _buza_ or beer, it had the effect of making a dirty little
+dungeon in hiding not one whit worse than the Grand Hotel in the beach
+breezes. Better yet, where in all Fiji was fraternization more simple?
+
+Still, too much love is not lost between the sleepy Fijian dog and his
+Indian flea. Does the Fijian not hear the white man--whom he respects,
+after a fashion--call his slim competitor "coolie?" And is not _kuli_
+the word with which he calls his dog? Infuriated, conscious of his
+centuries of superiority, the Indian retorts with _jungli_, and feels
+satisfied. His indentured dignity shall not decay. At any rate, he knows
+and proves himself to be the cleverer. The future is his. While the
+Fijian, seeing that the importation the white man calls "dog" gets on in
+life none the less, seeks to steep himself in the Indian's immorality
+and trickery in the hope that he may thereby acquire some of that
+shrewdness, as when he devoured a valiant enemy he hoped to absorb that
+enemy's strength. Thus in that dark little underworld the Fijian Adonis
+vegetates in anticipation of the future Fiji some day to spring into
+being.
+
+Though the Indians are said to despise the Fijians, I saw
+representatives of the two races sitting sociably together upon the
+launch up the Rewa River, smoking and chatting quite without any signs
+of friction. Indian women, all dressed in colored-gauze raiment and
+laden with trinkets, huddled behind their men. They seemed a bit of
+India sublimated, cured of the ills of overcrowding. One woman had
+twelve heavy silver bracelets on each wrist, a number on her ankles,
+several necklaces and chains around her neck, and many rings on each of
+her fingers and toes, with ornaments hanging from her nose and ears. But
+there was more than vanity in this, for, pretty as she was, she refused
+to permit me to photograph her. Not so the men. One Indian had his
+flutes with him and began to play. His eyes rolled as he forced out the
+monotonous tones, over and over again. His heart and his soul must have
+had a hard time trying to emerge simultaneously from these two tiny
+reeds. One bearded patriarch smiled and rose with a jerk when I asked if
+he would pose for me. A young Indian woman crouched on the floor, all
+covered with her brilliantly colored veil. She shared a cigarette with a
+Fijian boy in a most Oriental fashion. But those who know distrust this
+fraternization. It is the subtle demoralization of the Fijian.
+
+For the type of Indian men and women who now accept the terms of
+indenture are even worse than those who did so formerly, and the
+conditions under which they are compelled to carry out their "contracts"
+are such as to develop only the worst traits of Indian nature. In
+consequence, the Fijian is being ground between the upper (white) and
+nether (Indian coolie) mill-stones. His primitive taboos which worked
+so well are taboos no longer. The missionary has destroyed them
+well-meaningly; the plantation-owner has preyed upon them knowingly, has
+turned the predatory native chiefs upon them; and now the riffraff of
+India is loose upon them, too. I am convinced, from what I saw in the
+missionary settlements, that had the missionaries alone been left to
+lead these people away from barbarism, they would have accomplished
+it,--as they partially have. But unfortunately, the one weakness in
+their civilizing process, the overestimation of minor conventions, such
+as the wearing of clothing, only left an opening for the intake of
+diseases and defects of our civilization. The insistence on monogamy is
+another weakness, for to that the steady decline of the native can be
+traced.
+
+This dual process of degradation going on in Fiji is a great
+disappointment to the adventurous. Though the natives number 91,000,
+their ancient rites and festivities are without newer expression,
+without newer form. And though one hears much of Fiji as another India,
+because nearly half the population is Indian, still, as C. F. Andrews
+has pointed out, the utter absence of anything Indian in the
+architecture, the religious practices, or the other expressions of
+Indian ideals leaves one wondering what is wrong with that newer world.
+Everywhere one hears the appeal, "Give the man a chance," and democracy
+and the advocates of self-determination for nations repeat and repeat
+the plea. One believes that somehow if India were partially depopulated
+and the remaining Indians were given a chance, the soul which is India
+would blossom with renewed life and glory. One believes that here in
+Fiji such a miracle might occur. But no promise of regeneration greets
+the seeker, go where he may. Then, too, there is something lacking in
+the native. One is led to conclude that the inhibitions upon the mind
+and the soul of all the Fijians, through the preaching of doctrines
+strange to them, or through the practices of foreigners over them, has
+put the seal upon their lips. Trying to approximate the ruling religions
+and to live in their ways must create emotional complexes in the natives
+that are clogging the wells of their beings.
+
+From Suva for forty miles up the Rewa River, the only manifestation of
+life is in labor. Aside from the crude ornaments on the limbs of the
+women of India there is virtually nothing of art or higher expression to
+be seen. Nothing but the tropical loveliness, which cannot be denied.
+
+
+3
+
+The regeneration of the Fijian seemed more possible after I had spent a
+few moments in the hut of the chief of the district. In the middle of
+the village stood one plain, unpainted wooden house, distinctive if not
+palatial. It was altogether wanting in decoration and with us might have
+passed as a respectable shed. But here, surrounded by thatched huts,
+picturesque when not too closely scrutinized, it assumed exceeding
+importance through contrast.
+
+The door, reached by a flight of four or five steps, stood wide open.
+The interior was not partitioned into rooms. Half of it was a raised
+platform-like divan or sleeping-section, spread with native mats. Upon
+this elevation sat a fine-looking man,--clean-shaven, with a head as
+bald as those of his brethren are bushy, dressed in clean and not
+inexpensive materials, and wearing a gold watch on his left wrist. On my
+being introduced, he greeted me in English so fluent and pure that I was
+considerably taken aback. He was as self-possessed as most Fijians are
+shy. This was Ratu Joni, Mandraiwiwi, chief of eighty thousand Fijians,
+one of the only two native members of the Legislative Council, highly
+respected, and the most powerful living chief of his race.
+
+He remained seated in native fashion, legs crossed before him, and after
+a few general remarks indicated a desire to resume his confab with the
+half-dozen natives--all big, powerful men--facing him on the lower
+section of the chamber. His reception of me was cordial, yet his was the
+reserve of a prime minister. His bearing gave the impression of a man
+intelligent, calm, just, and not without vision. He knew his rank. Had I
+been a native and dared to cross his door-step--plebeian that I am--I
+should most likely have seen dignity in anger. But, though an
+insignificant white man, I still bore the mark of "rank" sufficient to
+gain admission unceremoniously and was given a place beside him on the
+divan. But he had an uncanny way of making me feel suddenly extremely
+shy. I was aware of intruding, of having been presumptuous,--an
+uninvited guest. So I withdrew.
+
+The district over which he rules, though inferior to many another in
+productivity, has always had the reputation for being well kept up and
+in healthful condition and was pointed out as an example to the other
+chiefs as early as 1885. At Bau, five miles the other side of the river,
+Ratu Joni has a home European in every detail. It forms an interesting
+background for his European entertainments. His income is enough to make
+a white man envious. One son, an Oxford man, was wounded in Flanders at
+the outbreak of the war; another was at the time attending college in
+Australia. Ratu Joni is _Roko_ (native governor) of the province of
+Tailevu (Greater Fiji).
+
+Mr. Waterhouse, the missionary who kindly went about with me and made it
+possible for me to meet this chief and to understand some of the native
+problems, gave me a brief story of this impressive man's life. Though
+his father had been hanged or strangled for plotting against the life of
+the chief who ruled then, Ratu Joni succeeded in making his way to the
+fore in Fijian politics. He set himself the task of cleaning up his
+country. Of him it could not be said that he ever had reason to be
+ashamed of his rule. Of him none could say as did a British governor in
+a speech say of another Fijian: "What! has this chief been indolent?
+Perhaps he limes his head, paints his face, and stalks about, thinking
+only of himself; or is it that he squabbles with his neighbors about
+some border town, and lets his people starve?"
+
+One cannot judge a people by the conditions of its chiefs or rulers; but
+with regard to the natives of the Pacific, as in the case of other
+people accustomed to the rigorous life of battle, their safety lies in
+the uses to which they have been put by their conquerors. The British
+Government has utilized the Sikhs, its most difficult Indians, by making
+them the constabulary throughout the length and breadth of its Asiatic
+empire. This has been done in Fiji, too. But the most hopeful sign to me
+in these islands on the 180th meridian was the Fijian constabulary. A
+finer lot of men could not be found anywhere in the world. Not only
+their physique but their intelligent faces and their alacrity suggest
+great promise. One of them came on board our ship with his clean, tidy,
+sturdy wife--a public companionship rare for these people--and was
+received by the officers. His white sulu, serrated on the edge like some
+of the latest fashions on Broadway, hung only to his knees. His massive
+legs and broad shoulders were a delight to look upon. His wife was as
+handsome a woman as I have seen in the tropics. The two gladly posed for
+me, and asked me to send them a print.
+
+
+4
+
+Generally the thought and feeling of the natives in the South Seas come
+to the outer world through the works of white men,--missionaries and
+scientists. But rare indeed is the revelation of the mind of a strange
+people brought to us pure and clear without the white man's bias or
+reaction. Here and there I have run across snatches of native thinking
+that were revelations, but no others so full and vivid as the essay by
+a native Fijian on the decline of his race, which appeared in the
+"Hibbert Journal" (Volume XI). The translator opens the door to the
+Fijian mind as by magic. After reading that, I felt that personal
+contact with these natives akin to contact with any other human being,
+for I looked behind dark skin and bushy head, and saw the spirit of hope
+within. The translator says:
+
+   It shows exactly how an intelligent Fijian may conceive
+   Christianity. That is a point we need to know badly, for most
+   missionaries see the bare surface. It also contains hints how the
+   best intentions of a government may be misconstrued, and suspicion
+   engendered on one side, impatience and reproaches of ingratitude on
+   the other, which a more intimate knowledge of native thought might
+   remove.
+
+The argument of the essay is that "The decline of native population is
+due to our abandoning the native deities, who are God's deputies in
+earthly matters. God is concerned only with matters spiritual and will
+not harken to our prayers for earthly benefits. A return to our native
+deities is our only salvation."
+
+The native reflects:
+
+   Concerning this great matter, to wit the continual decline of us
+   natives at this time, it is a great and weighty matter. For my part
+   I am ill at ease on that account; I eat ill and sleep ill through
+   my continual pondering of this matter day after day. Three full
+   months has my soul been tossed about as I pondered this great
+   matter, and in those three months there were three nights when
+   pondering of this matter in my bed lasted even till day, and
+   something then emerged in my mind, and these my reflections touch
+   upon religion and touch upon the law, and the things that my mind
+   saw stand here written below.
+
+He then takes up the points that have disturbed him:
+
+   Well, if the very first thing that lived in the world is Adam,
+   whence did he come, he who came to tell Eve to eat the fruit? From
+   this fact it is plain that there is a Prince whom God created first
+   to be Prince of the World, perchance it is he who is called the Vu
+   God [Noble Vu].... Consider this: It is written in the Bible that
+   there were only two children of Adam, to wit Cain and Abel. But
+   whence did the woman come who was Cain's wife?...
+
+   It seems to me as though the introducers of Christianity were
+   slightly wrong in so far as they have turned into devils the Vu
+   Gods of the various parts of Fiji; and since the Vu Gods have
+   suddenly been abandoned in Fiji, it is as though we changed the
+   decision of the Great God, Jehovah, since that very Vu God is a
+   great leader of the Fijians. That is why it seems to me a possible
+   cause for the Decline of Population lies in the rule of the Church
+   henceforth to treat altogether as devil work the ghosts and the
+   manner of worshiping the Vu Gods of the Fijians, who are their
+   leaders in the life in the flesh, whom the Great God gave, and
+   chose, and sent hither to be man's leader. But now that the Vu Gods
+   whom Jehovah gave us have been to a certain extent rudely set
+   aside, and we go to pray directly to the God of Spirit for things
+   concerning the flesh [life in the flesh], it appears as if the
+   leader of men resents it and he sets himself to crush our little
+   children and women with child. Consider this:
+
+   If you have a daughter, and she loves a youth and is loved of him,
+   and you dislike this match, but in the end they none the less
+   follow their mutual love and elope forthwith and go to be married,
+   how is it generally with the first and the second child of such a
+   union, does it live or does it die? The children of Fijians so
+   married are as a rule already smitten from their mother's womb.
+   Wherefore? Does the woman's father make witchcraft? No. Why then
+   does the child die thus?
+
+   Simply that your Vu sees your anger and carries out his crushing
+   even in its mother's womb; that is the only reason of the child's
+   death. Or what do you think in the matter? Is it by the power of
+   the devil that such wonders are wrought? No, that is only the power
+   that originates from the God of Spirit, who has granted to the
+   Prince of men, Vu God, that his will and his power should come to
+   pass in the earthly life.
+
+He develops this theme with ever-increasing emotion, until his poor mind
+can think no more.
+
+   Alas! Fiji! Alas! Fiji is gone astray, and the road to the
+   salvation of its people is obstructed by the laws of the Church and
+   the State. Alas! you, our countrymen, if perchance you know, or
+   have found the path which my thoughts have explored and join
+   exertions to attain it, then will Fiji increase.
+
+But Fijians have prayed to God, yet they have not increased, he
+exclaims, faced with the unalterable facts. Why not? Christianity has
+been with them many years. Does God hear their prayer! He proceeds to
+give his own observations of life, and asks: "Is this true, reverend
+sirs? Yes, it is most true." After making some comparisons between his
+land and others, neglected of God in that they have no Vu Gods, he
+expostulates:
+
+   And if the Vu were placed at our head ... there would be no still
+   births and Fiji would then be indeed a people increasing rapidly,
+   since our conforming to our native customs would combine with
+   progress in cleanly living at the present time. Now, in the past
+   when the ancients only worshiped Vu Gods and there was no
+   commandment about cleanly living, yet they kept increasing. Then if
+   ... this were also combined with the precept of cleanly living, I
+   think the villages would then be full of men. Or what, sir, is your
+   conclusion?
+
+A few more excerpts, taken here and there, will reveal the interesting
+mind of this Fijian:
+
+   If this is right, then it is plain how far removed we are from
+   certain big countries. How wretched they are and weak, whose
+   medicines are constantly being imported and brought here in
+   bottles.[1] As for me, I simply do my duty in saying what appears
+   in my mind when I think of my country and my friends who are its
+   inhabitants; for since it wants only a few years to the extinction
+   of the people it is right that I reveal what has appeared in my
+   soul, for it may be God's will to reveal in my soul this matter.
+   Now it is not expedient for me to suppress what has been revealed
+   to me, and if I do not declare what has appeared from forth my
+   soul, I have sinned thereby in the eyes of the Spirit God: I shall
+   be questioned regarding it on the day of judgment of souls; nor is
+   it fitting that one of the missionaries should be angry with me by
+   reason of my words; it is right that they should consider
+   everything that I have here said, and judge accordingly. It is no
+   use being ashamed to change the rules of the Church, if the country
+   and its inhabitants will thereby be saved.
+
+     [1] The translator says in a footnote: "Whites pity Fijians,
+         but they find reasons to pity us. That is what white men
+         generally fail to realize; they put down to laziness or
+         stupidity their reluctance to assimilate our civilization,
+         whereas it arises from a different point of view; and that
+         point of view is not always wrong or devoid of common
+         sense. Is Fijian medicine more absurd than our patent
+         medicines, or as expensive?"
+
+There is great hope for a people with such thinkers among them. And
+if there are such hopes for the Fijians, there are still greater
+possibilities for the Maories, Samoans, Tahitians, and Hawaiians.
+
+
+5
+
+Politically, as separate island races, they are no more. The little
+Kingdom of Rarotonga is one of the last to remain independent. The
+European war, oddly enough, in which Maories and Fijians fought for "the
+rights of little nations," has sold them out completely, just as it did
+Shantung in China. No one thought that a war in a continent fifteen
+thousand miles away would play such havoc with the destinies of these
+people. The "mandates," yielded with such cynical generosity, put the
+seal upon their fate, and opened new international sores.
+
+Pessimistic as this may sound, there are evidences of resuscitation in
+the working out of these mandates, as will appear in the chapter on
+Australasia. The Polynesians are becoming conscious of unity, and talk
+of leadership under the New Zealand mandate is rife in Parliament.
+"Nothing would hasten the depletion of the race more than the loss of
+hope and confidence in themselves," says the Hawaiian "Friend." That
+hope seems to be flickering into new life.
+
+No people have suffered more, directly, from contact with the
+"civilized" white races than the Polynesians. Morally undermined,
+politically deprived of powers, physically subjected to scourge after
+scourge of epidemic introduced by white men, their own standards of
+living brushed aside as vulgar and infantile,--these heliolithic people
+with their neolithic culture approached the very verge of extinction.
+Then the white race began to sentimentalize over them, and sincere
+scientific people to deplore their evanescence. Some of these latter
+have earned the eternal gratitude not only of the natives but of the
+whole world. Some of them I have mentioned in other connections. Two
+others decidedly deserve recognition. Mr. Elsdon Best, the curator of
+the Wellington Museum, is a tall, thin individual who has roamed all
+over the Pacific. He has worked his way for years in the interests of
+the Amerindians, Hawaiians, and Maories. Now he has one of the finest
+museums in the South Seas--excepting that, of course, in Honolulu--in
+which he treasures anything and everything that will help throw light on
+the history of these interesting people. The other is Mrs. Bernice
+Bishop, a part-Hawaiian woman, who established the museum in Honolulu
+which bears her name. These are the centers round which we white folk
+shall be able to gather for the preservation of this other type of the
+human species. In the summer of 1921 a Scientific Congress under the
+auspices of the Pan-Pacific Union and the immediate directorship of
+Professor Gregory of Yale was held to devise ways and means of
+furthering the study of these races, and its work is proceeding apace.
+
+Museums and "models" of native architecture are the modern white man's
+diaries, recalling the acts of ravishment and destruction which his
+development and expansion entailed. Let us hope that out of the efforts
+of scientists will spring a new consciousness of worth, which early
+missionaries and scheming traders did everything to destroy. Yet it must
+not be forgotten that much of our knowledge of these races comes from
+those missionaries who were broad-minded enough to recognize the value
+of recording customs and beliefs, even if their purpose was the more
+effectively to counteract them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+HIS TATTOOED WIFE
+
+
+1
+
+Something there is in the very bearing of the people in the Pacific
+which, despite the obvious differences between us, strikes a note of
+kinship in the mind of the white man least conscious of his true
+relationship to these brown folk. A certain chemical affinity, as it
+were, makes the problem of intermarriage with the Polynesians an
+altogether different matter from that among Eurasians. For in the
+marriage of an Occidental and a true Oriental there is the clashing of
+two antagonistic cultures each equally complex and tenacious, while
+"here there is evidence in the physique of the people that three great
+divisions of mankind have intermixed."
+
+But in the Pacific islands the white man feels himself among his kind.
+The reason is hard to explain. Certainly it is not the loose and
+ungainly Mother-Hubbard gowns which are still the style of the native
+maiden. Yet the stoutish, portly individual who is introduced to you as
+a chief and who parades the street along the waterfront in a suit of
+silk pajamas might easily be a continental sleep-walker who has no
+remembrance of the thousands of years that lie between him and the men
+among whom he is waking. And the white man just arrived drops off under
+the anæsthetic influence of the tropics, forgetful of the thousands of
+years in which he has been busy laying up his treasures on earth.
+
+Under this narcotic influence I wandered along the shores of Apia,
+Samoa, toward sundown, the day before my departure. Within me was a
+melancholy satisfaction, an unwillingness to admit even to myself the
+truth that I was glad to go, like one conscious of being cured of a
+delightful vice. I had had my fill of association with men whose main
+theme of conversation when together was the virtues of whisky and soda
+as an antidote for dengue fever, and when apart, the faults of one
+another. I had watched the process of acclimatization as it attacks the
+souls of men, and pitied some of them. Many would have scorned my pity.
+Some did not deserve it. Others did not need it. The story of one is
+worth while, though it has no solution.
+
+He had been stationed in Samoa as a member of the military staff with
+police duties. Behind him he had left a wife and kiddies. He longed for
+them as only a man struggling against tropic odds to remain faithful to
+his promise needs must long. He was faithful, but she was fearful. She
+was writing to him daily not to forget. No woman forgets easily the
+ill-repute of her fellow-women, and all Northern women distrust their
+sisters of the warmer worlds. Women hear and believe that there is none
+of their kind of virtue in the tropics, and they do not trust the best
+of their men. They do not seem to be at all aware of the fact that
+faithfulness and devotion are as strong impulses in the breasts of the
+dark maidens as among themselves, and that semi-savage girls have
+hearts, too, which can be broken. So this man whose friendship I had won
+urged that I write to his wife and, in my own way, assure her of his
+loyalty. I have never heard the end. But if ever she reads this account,
+I hope she will believe in him.
+
+For there are women in the tropics, just like her, who pray that their
+men will be faithful. I was walking along, thinking of him and of her.
+The evening glow, full to overflowing of tropic loveliness, was all
+about. The white foam of the breakers dashing themselves against the
+reefs out there, a quarter of a mile away, came softly in, over the
+smooth water, to land. The laughter of little children on the beach
+seemed to tease, the hiss of the sea, a combination of elemental things
+utterly without tragedy.
+
+Just then I came upon a group of people gathered at the little pier.
+Strewn about their feet were trunks and bags and kits, indicating
+departure in haste, while the presence of a handful of soldiers,
+standing at attention, was an unspoken explanation of what was toward.
+The civilians clustered in a little group, quiet, communicating with one
+another in whispers. They comprised seventeen Germans, erstwhile the
+wealthiest plantation-owners, now prisoners of war, and their wives and
+children, from whom they were to be parted. The cause of their departure
+is not pertinent here. The human equation is.
+
+As the officer issued his order for embarkation, there was a momentary
+commotion. Soldiers, by no means unfriendly to their prisoners, assisted
+them in the placing of luggage on the boat. The men, turning to their
+women and children with warm embraces, called in forced cheerfulness
+that they would soon be back. All the men stepped into the rowboats and
+with full, powerful strokes of Samoan oarsmen they were borne out across
+the reefs toward the steamer anchored beyond. Upon the beach remained
+bewildered native women and their half-caste children, some of them in
+an agony of grief now run wild. One family lingered, weeping silently. A
+group of two middle-aged women, a girl of about twenty, two small girls,
+and two boys stood gazing out toward the ship. They brushed away tears
+absent-mindedly. A little girl and boy cried quietly. And like that
+white wife in the temperate world, these dark-skinned women of the
+tropics were left to wonder whether their husbands would remain faithful
+to them in a world of which they had vague if not altogether wrong
+notions.
+
+A full, mellow afterglow threw the ship for a moment into relief, and
+twilight lowered. Upon the end pile of the pier sat a young Samoan in a
+halo of dim light. From this modern scene which may some day be the
+theme for a South Sea "Evangeline" I moved away wondering what this
+cleavage of people would mean to the Polynesians. An unconscious
+curiosity led me into the village. It was night. From the various huts
+rang the voices of happy natives. Fires flamed under their evening
+meals. Dim lamps revealed shadow-figures of men and women. A slight
+drizzle brushed over the valley and disappeared. Then the firm tread of
+feet sounded in the dusty road. About twenty girls, two abreast,
+stamping their naked feet, passed by and on into the darkness to drop,
+matrice-like, each into her own home. Earlier that evening they had
+escorted to the ship the white woman who was their missionary teacher.
+One long skiff had held them all. Each had a single oar in hand, short
+and spear-headed, with which she struck the gunwale of the boat after
+every stroke, thus beating time to a native song. Here was another case
+of contact and cleavage. Their teacher was returning to her land,
+leaving them with the glimmer of her ideals, her notions of life and
+loyalty. How much of it would hold them? Coming and going, the fusion of
+races, once of a common stock, is taking place.
+
+
+2
+
+I cannot recall having received any definite invitation from any of the
+principals responsible for the party I attended one evening in Apia, but
+in the islands the respectable stranger does not find himself lonely. It
+was sufficient that I was a friend of one of the guests. Four young men
+who were leaving were given a send-off; and the celebrations were to
+take place in the little Sunday-school shack.
+
+  [Illustration: THREE VIEWS OF A MAORI WOMAN
+    In European clothes
+    With her New Zealand husband at home
+    In her native costume]
+
+  [Illustration: A GROUP OF WHITES AND HALF-CASTES IN SAMOA
+  The father of the two girls was a lawyer and the son of a Sydney
+  (Australia) clergyman]
+
+  [Illustration: A SHIP-LOAD OF "PICTURE-BRIDES" ARRIVING AT SEATTLE
+  Japanese seldom marry other than Japanese women]
+
+  [Illustration: A MAORI WOMAN WITH HER CHILDREN
+  The father is a white man--a New Zealand shepherd]
+
+That evening the little structure was metamorphosed from crude solemnity
+by a generous trimming in palm branches and flowers, as though it had
+been turned outside in. Oil-lamps hung from the rafters by stiff
+wires, unyielding even to the weight of the light-giving vessels. The
+awkwardness of some of the natives in their relations with the whites
+could not be overcome even by their obvious inclination. But the music
+stirred us all into a whirl of equality. It was furnished by an old
+crone of a native woman. She was dressed in a shabby Mother-Hubbard gown
+and her feet were bare. Her stiff fingers worked upon the keys of an
+accordion in a sluggish fashion, as she confused old-fashioned
+barn-dances with sentimental melodies. She was stirred on to greater
+sentiment by the teasing approaches of one white man fully
+three-quarters drunk. As for the dancers,--what to them were
+half-expressed notes? Their own fresh blood more than overcame any lack.
+
+Pretty young flappers, eager for the arms of the white chaps, moved
+about among stolid dames whose purity of race revealed itself in russet
+skins and slightly flattened noses. They had finer features than the
+matrons. The white "impurities" shone out of them. But they were not
+quite free, not quite absolved from the weight of their primitive
+forebears. They were shy and had little to say for themselves, and it
+seemed they wished they could just cast off the high-heeled shoes and
+tight garments and be that which at least half of themselves wished to
+be. Yet they were erect and proud,--and gay.
+
+Behind the curtain which hung across the little rostrum stood tables
+fairly littered with bananas, mangos, and watermelons, mingled with the
+fruits of the Northern kitchen stove,--cakes, pies, and meats enough to
+satisfy a harvesting-gang. And when the call to supper came, the
+invasion of this hidden treasure island and its despoliation proved that
+however much mankind may be differentiated socially and intellectually,
+gastronomically there is universal equality.
+
+There is another basis upon which the wide world is one, and that is in
+its affections. Long after midnight the party would have still been in
+progress but for the threat of the ferry-men. They wished to retire and
+announced that the last boat was soon to start across the
+moon-splattered reefs. There was a hurried meeting of lips in farewell.
+The silver light revealed more than one sweet face crumpled before
+separation. Then with the first dip of their oars into the sea the
+swarthy oarsmen began the song which, exotic and sentimental as it was,
+left every heart as aching for the shore as it did those of the simple
+half-caste maidens for their casual lovers of the colder Antipodes.
+
+"Oh, I neva wi' fo-ge-et chu," drawled the oarsmen, and they on shore
+joined in with the softer voices of that gentler world.
+
+
+3
+
+I had been an unknown and unknowing guest, paying my rates for keep at
+the hotel. For most of an hour I had been in a small upper room with
+three or four white men whose sole object seemed to be to get as drunk
+as they could and to induce me to join them. In those clear moments that
+flash across leary hours, they gave voice to their disapproval of
+intermarriage with the natives. Then I learned of the wedding taking
+place below. My curiosity led me downstairs, and though an utter
+stranger, I made my way into the company. Not for a moment did I feel
+myself out of place. Such is the nature of life in the tropics. Among
+those present were pretty half-caste maidens, slovenly full-blooded
+native matrons, men and women of all ages and conditions of attire.
+There were German-Samoans, English, English-Samoans, American and
+American-Samoans, with a salting of no (or forgotten) nationality. Some
+were in Mother-Hubbard gowns, some in pongee silks, some in canvas and
+white duck, cut either for street or evening wear. One young chap, the
+clerk at the customs, came dressed in the latest tuxedo. And a
+half-caste chief appeared in a suit of silk pajamas.
+
+The marriage-feast was as sumptuous as any that ever tempted the palate
+of man. It was spread not on acres, as in the olden days, but on a long
+table which stretched the length of the thirty-foot room. Photographs
+are everywhere sold displaying so-called cannibal feasts, with huge
+turtles and hundreds of tropical vegetables. However it may have been in
+those days, at this feast the guests were cannibal in manners only. They
+stood round the table and helped themselves with that disregard of
+to-morrow's headache and the hunger of the day after which is said to be
+primitive lack of economy.
+
+As the guests were led out into the dance-hall, one young stalwart took
+the remnant of the watermelon rind he had been gnawing and slung it
+straight at the pretty back of a Euro-Polynesian girl in evening frock.
+She tittered at him. The jollity was running too high for any one to be
+disturbed by anything like that.
+
+Soon the dance was in full swing. Not the tango, which we regard as
+primitive and wild, but sober editions of dances with us long out of
+date. The need is more pressing in the tropics among folk of part-white
+parentage than an appearance of real civilization. And though it is not
+so long in the history of the Pacific since the coming of the first
+white man, there is already an intermediate race growing up which,
+beginning with Samoa, spreads northward and southward and all around as
+far as the reaches of the sea. Nor is the mixture always to be
+deprecated.
+
+The night wore on. The dancing ceased. Flushed faces and perspiring
+forms slipped out into the moonlight. The white collar which had adorned
+the tuxedo of the clerk was now brother to the pajamas. The white men
+who had tried to drown their objections to intermarriage had yielded to
+the lure of the pretty half-caste maidens. One of them now disappeared
+with his "tart."
+
+A traveling-salesman from Suva, thin and wiry, had been in dispute with
+a new civil officer. They contradicted each other just to be contrary.
+The officer had a wife at home to whom he was bound to be faithful in
+matters of sex; in the matter of spirits he could not be unfaithful,
+since in that all the world is one. When the two of them and I left the
+party, they were still disputing the question of intermarriage, in which
+neither believed but on which both had pronounced complexes.
+
+To change the subject, which was bordering on a fight, I asked: "Why do
+the palms bend out toward the sea?"
+
+"Now, what difference does it make to you?" said the salesman. "You're
+always asking why this, why that?"
+
+"Why shouldn't he?" grumbled the officer, more sober and more
+intelligent.
+
+We rambled along. The salesman soon slipped into his hotel. The officer
+and I wandered toward the native village.
+
+"Strange," he said, somewhat sobered by the sea air. "If I met him in
+Auckland I wouldn't speak to him. He's beneath me."
+
+Free and easy as the relationship of marriage seems to be here, one not
+infrequently runs across descendants of very happy and desirable unions.
+I had gone on a little motor jaunt with some of the men of the British
+Club. Our way was along the road the natives had built in gratitude to
+R. L. S., and our destination the home of a friend of his, who had
+married a native woman. The house was of European construction, solid
+and comfortable, with a veranda affording a view of the open sea. The
+interior was in every way as typical of British colonial life as any I
+later saw in New Zealand. There were photographs on the wall, hanging
+shelves, bric-á-brac, a piano,--all importations of crude Western
+manufactories.
+
+The hosts were Euro-Polynesians; the father a lawyer and son of a
+clergyman of Sydney, Australia, who had settled in the islands years
+ago. I do not recall whether, like his closest friend, Stevenson, he was
+buried on the island, but certainly he left by no means unworthy
+offspring, whatever prejudice may say.
+
+Thus, in the mixture of emotions often sterile, and in the bones of
+white devotees is the reunion of the races of these regions being slowly
+effected. And at the two extremities of the Pacific--New Zealand and
+Hawaii--we find the process nearer completion.
+
+
+4
+
+In the journeys to and fro across the vast spaces of the South Pacific
+one rarely meets a white man who takes his native wife with him. One
+such I did meet when slipping down from Hawaii to the Fiji Islands.
+There were two couples on board who always kept more or less to
+themselves, two rough-looking white men, a white woman, and one who for
+all I could tell was a middle-class Southern European woman. She wore
+simple clothes,--a blouse hanging over her skirt and comfortable shoes.
+She was in no sense shy, laughed heartily, moved about with a
+self-conscious air of importance, but with ease, and made no effort to
+hide the curving blue lines of tattooing that decorated her chin. She
+was a Maori princess, and all the vigor of her race disported itself in
+the supple lines of her figure.
+
+Her husband, Mr. Webb, however, was not a British prince. Blunt in his
+manners, he was ultra-radical in his opinions,--a proud member of New
+Zealand's working class. Domineering in his temperament he was, but she
+was a match for him. It was obvious that she had missed in her native
+training any lessons in subservience to a mere husband. She spoke a
+clear, broad, fluent English without the slightest accent, and when her
+extremely argumentative husband made a strong point, she gave her assent
+in no mistaken terms.
+
+At table she was more mannerly than her spouse, though laboring under no
+difficulties whatever in the acquisition of food. I have never seen a
+person more self-possessed. Her royal lineage was writ large in her
+every expression. Though out on deck they both seemed somewhat out of
+place among the white folk and preferred a corner apart, in the
+dining-room they were kin to all men.
+
+I found them both extremely interesting, and when the usual invitations
+were passed round for a continuance of the acquaintanceship after
+landing, I accepted theirs more readily than any other. Blunt and
+without finesse as they were, there was an obvious cordiality and
+virility in their manner, and no man alert to adventure turns so
+promising an offer aside.
+
+Months afterward I was in Auckland, New Zealand, and made myself known
+to them. Most cordial was the reception they gave me when I stepped upon
+the well-built pier that jutted out into the inlet from the little
+launch that brought me there. Back upon the knoll stood Madame, her
+heavy head of curly hair loose about her shoulders. Her very being
+greeted me with welcome, firmness of foot and arm and calmness of poise
+proclaiming her nativity. When I approached, her strong hand grasped
+mine, her face beamed, and she led the way over the grass-grown path to
+the porch with even more self-confidence than when she had gone to her
+seat in the saloon, on shipboard.
+
+Yet it was no saloon they led me into, but a simple hollow-tile
+structure with slate roofing and plain plastered walls. Just an ordinary
+four-roomed house, the haven of the rising pioneer. There were no
+decorations on the walls, no modern equipment of any kind, not even a
+stove. The table was machine-turned, the chairs ordinary, and on the
+mantelpiece stood some bleached photographs. My hosts went about in
+their bare feet, and otherwise as loosely clad as the early November
+spring permitted. They prepared their meals on the open fire, and the
+menu was as simple as anything ever offered me; and for the first time
+in my life I ate boiled eels, the great Maori staple and delicacy. Had
+it not been for the emanation of her genial personality and his
+vigorous, breezy, almost hard pleasure in my presence, I should have
+felt chilled in that habitation. But in place of things was sincere
+welcome. I had proof of that that night, for I was placed in the
+guest-room, upon a soft, comfortable bed, while my hosts themselves
+spread a mattress on the floor in the living-room. Lest I misunderstand,
+they explained that it was their custom, Maori fashion, to sleep on the
+floor, as they preferred the hard support to that of the yielding
+spring.
+
+I woke next morning just as the sun peeped over the hill directly into
+my window. It was a sober dawn,--just a healthy flush of life, with
+crisp, invigorating air. One branch of a young kauri pine-tree stretched
+across the rising orb like nature rousing itself from sleep. And in the
+other room I could hear my hosts moving quietly about, preparing
+breakfast.
+
+Without word of warning or any apparent welcome, the wife's brother and
+his young bride arrived. It was obvious that the visit was no unusual
+occurrence. They made themselves as much a part of the place as
+possible, and were ignored by the white man and his Maori wife as though
+they were servants. Yet they were both, to me at least, delightful. He
+was broad-shouldered, erect, rounded of limb but muscular,--as handsome
+a boy of twenty as I have ever seen, and it gave one joy to see him
+mated to so fine a girl. Their beings vibrated to each other with the
+joy of their union.
+
+And she was as fine a mate for him. Though she accentuated every feature
+of her sex, it was with the joy of fitness for him, not with any effort
+to be alluring. She wore a very close fitting middy-blouse, which made
+more firm the rounded breasts of her young maidenhood. She was supple
+and plump and moved with litheness and grace, full of animal spirits.
+With an affected air she swung about to the step of an American rag, and
+every once in a while she would throw herself into her lover's arms, and
+take a turn about out of sheer happiness. It had never occurred to me
+how extremely civilized and not primitive our rag-time music is until I
+saw these young "savages" affect it. But however ill-fitting the tune to
+their emotions, there was something absolutely natural in their
+adoration and their rushing into each other's arms which no amount of
+civilization could tarnish.
+
+In the afternoon they went digging for eels in the mud of the inlet.
+While they were gone, my host and his wife cleared the yard of overgrown
+weeds and rubbish.
+
+"That's the way they are," said he. "All day long they dance and fool
+away their time. They think they've done a lot if they dig for eels all
+afternoon. When we went away to Hawaii we left them to look after our
+house without charging them any rent. This is what we found when we
+returned. The whole place was overgrown with weeds, the fences were
+broken down, the gates were off, and the place was strewn with rubbish.
+They don't know what it is to be careful." And he struck a match to the
+heap of weeds he and his wife had gathered.
+
+Presently the two lovers returned with a basket full of eels. The young
+"housewife" hung her catch by the tails on the clothes-line to dry, and
+in a pail of clear water washed the mud-suckers they had gathered as
+by-product. Then they felt they were entitled to rest.
+
+All afternoon until late evening they lay upon the spring of an unused
+matressless bedstead, which stood upon the veranda. Their heads were at
+the opposite ends of the bed. He kicked his feet in the air, but every
+time a move of hers showed more of her legs than he thought proper, he
+pulled down her tight skirt. He held an accordion over him upon which
+he played a medley of airs, while she whirled a soft hat with her
+fingers. From their throats issued a fountain of song, harmonious only
+in the spirit of joy which inspired it.
+
+So far they might just as well have been guests at a hotel for all the
+attention their elders paid to them. We had had our meals by ourselves.
+They were simply tolerated. But after nightfall, they joined their
+relatives in a game of cards. Every move provoked a burst of laughter,
+whether successful or unsuccessful to the hilarious one, and never a
+suggestion of strife or thought of gain was manifest.
+
+The Maories are more sober than their kinsmen of the upper South Seas.
+Life was never to them less than a serious struggle. I daresay they are
+happier to-day than they were in their own time, with peace and
+prosperity guaranteed them. But that is problematical. Laughter and play
+are to-day urgent necessities. The dances and games that were native to
+them--when not stimulated by some social event--do not come to them with
+the same old spontaneity. It took considerable begging on my part and
+nudging from Mr. Webb to persuade the women to show me a native dance.
+Donning her skirt of rushes, Mrs. Webb stepped into the center of the
+room, giggling all the while, and insisting that her sister-in-law dance
+with her. The latter took a stick in her hand and they began. But after
+two or three movements they doubled over with laughter, and faltered. I
+kept urging them on. At last they caught the spirit of it, and for a few
+minutes they were as though possessed. Their movements, mainly of the
+hands and hips, were not unlike those of the geisha dances of Japan.
+They kept them up for fifteen minutes. Suddenly they stopped, as though
+struck self-conscious, almost as a modest girl who had wakened from a
+somnambulant journey in her nightgown. They slipped into chairs, and
+were silent. Then for about half an hour they sat "yarning" soberly
+before the hearth fire. And something sad seemed to creep away up the
+chimney.
+
+The two young lovers decided they would take a bath, and went into
+another chamber to heat the water. My bed was spread for me; the hosts
+unrolled the mattress which had been lying in the corner on the floor
+all day. We retired. Then from the other room came sounds of hilarious
+laughter, the splashing of water in the tub, and the slapping of naked
+wet flesh. It kept up for hours, long after midnight. When silence
+finally reigned over the household, an adorably cool moon peeped in at
+our windows, and I knew that the two lovers in the room next mine were
+at last overcome by the conspiracy of moonlight and fatigue.
+
+"Did you hear those mad Maories?" said Mr. Webb to me the first thing in
+the morning. "Such mad things! To keep the whole house awake till long
+after midnight!" Then he, too, seemed to become self-conscious. Wasn't
+he passing reflections on the tribe of his wife? We strolled out into
+the fields. He seemed to feel the necessity of an explanation. Among his
+people, the white folk, though he was not ostracized for having taken a
+native wife (for it is common enough), still it did lower one in the
+social scale. I steered the conversation round till he himself spoke of
+it. He referred to his wife, somewhat soberly. "I like her and am
+satisfied with her. She's a good woman." And during the whole of my
+visit I saw nothing to indicate that their marriage was not a success.
+She was tidy, thrifty, and companionable. He always treated her with
+respect and affection, though once or twice with undue firmness. But she
+always stood her ground with dignity and good-nature. When he poked
+kindly fun at some photographs of her, she smiled and winked at me. Then
+she said of a picture taken of him on the beach: "I wouldn't lose it for
+all the world, just for his sake."
+
+By way of apology for the absence of more furnishings, they explained
+that they had sold out; they were tired of labor conditions in New
+Zealand, of the too great closeness to the "tribe" and in consequence
+had paid a visit to Hawaii, where they bought a plantation. Thither they
+went shortly afterward, the Briton and his Maori wife, he to mix with
+his European cousins, she with her Polynesian kinsfolk, and a more
+general reunion, after centuries of separation, consummated.
+
+Not the least lovable among the fifty-seven blends of humanity that make
+up the inhabitants of the South Seas and the Pacific are these Maories
+and their half-brothers and sisters.
+
+
+5
+
+From a Member of Parliament I had received several letters of
+introduction, one of which was to the famous Dr. Pomare, the native M.
+P. who represented native interests in the Dominion's parliament. When I
+arrived at Wellington, the capital, I presented myself at his office and
+was received by a most genial, well-spoken, widely read individual whose
+tongue would have entertained the most sophisticated of European
+gatherings. There was hardly a subject we touched in which he was not
+well versed, and his native qualities rang out in intermittent bursts of
+laughter such as only a healthy-minded and healthy-bodied individual
+could indulge in. When we began to discuss the question of the virtues
+and vices of his native race, the Maories, he assured me:
+
+"Oh, we're just like any people. There are good and bad amongst us. Some
+of our people will sell their lands, if they can, and buy an automobile
+which they run madly about and then leave in an open plot in ruin. On
+the other hand, one of our women has been very clever with her property,
+has sold it off, and invested her money in stocks so that to-day she
+owns the greatest number of shares in the Wellington tram lines. So you
+see we are just like other people."
+
+And so it is. But there is a slight exception, for I have heard from
+every one that the tendency to revert to type is very great, and that
+one of the wealthiest native woman in the Dominion will frequently leave
+her mansion, her jewels, her limousine, her fine clothes, and spend a
+time in a Maori _pah_, eating eels in the good old native way.
+
+But such reversions cannot last long. Despite that drift, there are
+indications of a racial recrudescence through the half-castes, a
+tendency noticed by students of the primitive peoples throughout the
+Pacific. Hope for the Maories is in the younger elements who have that
+happy mixture in them, called Pakeha-Maori. Visiting a class of young
+women in a commercial school in Dunedin I noticed among them one whose
+dark face and black eyes were full of a certain wicked fascination. She
+was as bright and alert as any member of the class. And when I spoke of
+her to the head of the school, he said, "Oh, that little half-caste
+girl." I should not have known it.
+
+One does not like to be too enthusiastic, but if these savage
+Polynesians can in the course of three generations, and with the aid of
+a slight mixture, change from fierce cannibalism to something as sweet
+and lovable as this, there is indeed great hope for them. What though
+the prejudiced assure you that, however far the mixture may have gone,
+it reveals itself in a tendency to squat when least expected? There is
+in the most civilized of us still enough of the savage strain to make us
+wary of carrying our aversions too far.
+
+Doubtless the Britons of New Zealand would enter any debate with the
+Americans of Hawaii as to which is the superior people, the Maories or
+the Hawaiians. For our own peace of mind let us accept their Polynesian
+kinship at the outset. Both are worth saving as separate races or in
+mixture with others.
+
+The Maori M.P., the rebellious priest, Rua, later released from prison,
+the Hawaiian clerk in the throne-room, the Fijian chief turned governor,
+the Samoan chief in pajamas who, with the customs officials, boarded the
+steamer anchored beyond the reefs, and Mrs. Webb, the princess,--all
+these are natives playing the new part allotted to them in this strange
+new world.
+
+Thus slowly, into the life and fabric of the South Seas, is coming this
+consciousness of rebirth. It is a new class, a new race. Not the
+Eurasians, scorned by the white and the superior Asiatics,--but the
+reverse. Half-caste, but the proud possessors of the virtues of the
+natives, with the strength and superiority of the white; half-caste in
+blood but not always so in spirit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+GIVING HEARTS A NEW CHANCE
+
+
+1
+
+Casual, impermanent, or broken as these unions hitherto have been, their
+cyclonic process of attraction and repulsion has created a suction
+drawing in both good and evil. The white sailor and vagabond who
+ravished the brown maiden never intended to father the consequences. But
+gradually, as communication increased and mutual interests developed,
+greater stability entered into the relations of the races. Marital
+contracts became necessary and, from the point of view of property and
+other acquisitions, even desirable. Readjustment of conceptions of sex
+grew urgent. This entailed the complement, divorce.
+
+From all corners of the world came people whose notions of man's
+relations with woman were as divergent as the seas. The Japanese and
+Chinese brought their Oriental attitude toward women; the American his
+Occidental. Besides, with the passing of native control, European
+nations superimposed European regulations upon the islands. We have,
+then, the introduction of legalism into the casual affairs of the
+tropics, and the vanishing of primitive license. We have the Japanese
+woman, subject to the control of her husband, finding herself protected
+by the laws of another race. These raise her status and her
+self-respect. She rebels against unpleasant sex-unions. Divorce in these
+conglomerate regions, therefore, means the idealization of sex, raising
+it above the stage of animal possession and material interest; based
+upon the sense of justice to woman, it recreates marriage, makes decent
+unions possible.
+
+Hence, in the wake of queer marriages we see even more queer divorces,
+as though hearts, having become self-conscious, seek a new chance. As
+age mellows racial associations, we find that men's hearts the world
+over beat as one, and relationships which are at all compatible seek
+permanency, if not "normalcy."
+
+It was easy enough for a wanderer or a few hundred traders and romancers
+to leave their imprint on the native races. It is another matter when
+the native races are overwhelmed by a hundred thousand aliens of
+twenty-odd races, and the work of amalgamation falls to the lot of the
+white man. An altogether new problem manifests itself,--not only that of
+bringing them together in a legal and permanent manner, but of
+separating such types and individuals as cannot work for the betterment
+of the new race.
+
+Throughout the Pacific already reviewed, the mixture is as yet
+essentially accidental and occasional. But in no spot in the Pacific has
+the problem assumed such serious proportions as in Hawaii, where, added
+to the great diversity of conglomerations, comes the factor of white and
+Asiatic superiority in number. As we have seen, the infusion of this
+flood of foreign blood into the thin native element has fairly swamped
+it. This jungle of humanity seems at first sight utterly beyond cultural
+purification. The streets throb with such multiplicity of little ways
+that one feels bewildered. One has to snatch a sample of the life and
+place it beneath the magnifying-glass of tradition and code to be able
+to separate it from the whole. And that I did one day in Honolulu.
+
+The sun was pouring down in veritable splutters of softness and
+mellowness. It was warm in an all-embracing tenderness of warmth. To be
+in the shade with another human being was here as unifying in spirit as
+sitting before an open fire is on a blizzardy day in the North. And on
+such a day I entered the court-room of Honolulu. The dusty tread of
+people from every land has sounded across this court-house floor and
+all the simple tragedies of life with their hoarse warnings have been
+enacted within its walls. Hundreds of disappointed men and women have
+come into that room hoping to have their lives straightened out, their
+affections given a new chance.
+
+When I entered, the court-room was empty. A massive Hawaiian looked in,
+and walked away. Then a thin white man approached and, when he learned
+what brought me, he sat down on one of the wooden benches to talk to me.
+It was Judge William L. Whitney, who died in New York just recently.
+
+Presently, an emaciated-looking Chinese entered and sat down to wait. A
+small, wrinkled, sallow little woman from the Celestial Republic,
+accompanied by a compatriot, came in after him, and seated herself a
+little distance away. Then came the fat Hawaiian again who had peered in
+earlier, and with that everything seemed in order. Judge Whitney left
+me, approached the bench, and, though he wore only his ordinary street
+clothes, he was forthwith crowned with the halo of his office.
+
+The proceedings began. Proceedings in this case meant great round eyes
+rolling in tremendous sockets, a tongue free with the dialects and
+linguistics of every mixture, and a temperament free from ambition or
+guile. The judge could speak no Chinese, the respondents could speak no
+English, the witnesses (of whom two strayed in later) could speak
+neither English nor Chinese,--and so among them the Hawaiian interpreter
+had all the fun to himself. He was in reality the dispenser of justice.
+
+The case was rehearsed. The Chinese was suing his wife for divorce.
+
+"Where were you when you saw this man kiss your wife?" asked the judge.
+
+The interpreter took up the question in Chinese as though the language
+were part of his inheritance, and after the Chinese spoke, back came
+the reply through the lips of the Hawaiian, but in the first person.
+
+"I was in the garden. When I looked up into our bedroom I saw this man
+kiss my wife."
+
+The evidence was vague. To John Chinaman it meant more than a few facts,
+for his wife had borne him no offspring. What a timid-daring attempt to
+reach out for new life! At home he would just have dismissed her, but
+here it was different. Yet from their appearance it was doubtful that
+either of them would ever have the courage to try to live life over.
+
+This was only one of the many entangled lives that came to be
+straightened out in Hawaii. There are more than forty-seven different
+combinations of races there, such as American and American, German
+and German, Korean and Korean, Russian and Russian, Spanish-Marshall
+and English, Half-Hawaiian and Chinese-Hawaiian, Hawaiian and
+Chinese-Hawaiian, Hawaiian and Hawaiian-Portuguese, Chinese and
+Chinese, Hawaiian and Hawaiian, Portuguese and Portuguese, Spanish
+and Spanish, Spanish-Hawaiian and Spanish-Hawaiian, Portuguese and
+Creole-Spanish-Portuguese, Chinese and Irish, American and
+Half-Hawaiian, Portuguese and Pole, Half-Hawaiian and Half-Hawaiian,
+American and Hawaiian-Chinese, English and Half-Hawaiian, Japanese and
+American, American-Japanese and Japanese, Half-Hawaiian and German,
+Portuguese and Hawaiian, German and Irish, Hawaiian-Chinese and
+Spanish-Italian, Portuguese and Hawaiian-Chinese, Half-Hawaiian
+and Spanish, Porto-Rican and Porto-Rican, Oginawa and Oginawa,
+French-Porto-Rican and Porto-Rican, Swede and Portuguese, English and
+English, Hawaiian and Chinese, American and French-Spanish, Portuguese
+and Japanese, American-Portuguese and German-Irish, Portuguese-Hawaiian
+and Portuguese, Portuguese and German-Irish, Portuguese-Hawaiian and
+Portuguese, Portuguese-Irish and Hawaiian, Hawaiian and American-Negro,
+Portuguese-Hawaiian-Chinese and Chinese. And I am certain that I can add
+another, that of my New Zealand acquaintance and his Maori wife.
+
+They are but one phase of the whole problem of the mixture of races and
+the melting of their silvers and bronzes down to the human essence
+within them. For there were in Judge Whitney's time on an average of two
+hundred and thirty couples divorced under that ceiling every year.
+Figures make human facts seem so remote that I hate to use them. As soon
+as figures are quoted the individuals lose their identity. That which is
+living and real becomes, as it were, an astronomical calculation and one
+might as well talk of stars. But the figures of the divorces in Hawaii
+are in themselves a living thing, as they interpret the life there more
+than words could do; so I'll risk giving a few of the figures Judge
+Whitney published while I was in Honolulu.
+
+The Japanese contributed 49% of the divorces in Hawaii, though they
+comprise only 34% of the population; the Americans, 7%, though they were
+8% of the population. The rest were distributed among the other
+nationalities. This is how those statistics compared with divorce
+statistics in other countries. There were in England out of every
+hundred thousand inhabitants, two divorces per year; in Austria, one; in
+Norway, six; in Sweden, eight; in Italy, three; in Denmark, seventeen;
+in Germany, twenty-three; and in France, the same; in the United States,
+seventy-three; and in the island of Oahu (Honolulu), four hundred.
+
+Hundreds of little folk, a host of children, have passed out of that
+room either fatherless or motherless. Back in the lands which they might
+have called home it would not have happened in just this way, or having
+happened so, it would not have had the same tragic meaning. For in
+Oriental countries fathers frequently put the mothers of their children
+aside. Yet, somehow the tragedies do not fret and strut in such
+distorted ways in lands where distortion is much more common, as in the
+East. In most Oriental countries it is enough for a man to say his wife
+talks too much and declare her divorced, but when he comes to the
+half-way house, Hawaii, he must be cruel, extremely cruel to his wife
+before the law will grant him a divorce. So he is "cruel" in a way he
+may be sure will secure his freedom.
+
+
+2
+
+What the results of all these mixtures will be, no one can as yet tell,
+but the consensus of opinion gives the Chinese-Hawaiian the prize for
+superiority. However promiscuous other races may be, the Japanese seldom
+stoops to conquer in that way. The maiden of Japan shares with the white
+woman an aversion for these strangers in Hawaii, though the number of
+Japanese women who marry white men is far greater than that of white
+women marrying into any of the races in the Pacific.
+
+One of the most prolific causes of divorce in Hawaii has been the
+so-called "picture bride." Because of the exclusion of Asiatic laborers,
+few Japanese and Chinese women have been born in the island. But because
+of their preference for their own women, Japanese sent home for wives.
+To get round the exclusion laws, they stretched the home process a bit,
+selected by photograph the girls they wished, had themselves married by
+proxy (a method recognized in Japan as legal), and then simply sent for
+their "wives." Aside from the subsequent divorces which very frequently
+ensued, there have been cases not without their humorous sides.
+
+One story was told that must be accepted with caution.
+
+Mr. Goto, who just a short while ago was Goto San, wants a wife. He sees
+a go-between who secures for him the pictures of some girls of his own
+district. He makes his selection and the process of marriage is
+accomplished. With something little short of glee, he waits the maid's
+arrival.
+
+She comes. But alas, not alone! Mr. Goto waits with others at the pier.
+Everybody is blessed but him. Chagrin and impatience battle in his
+heart. Nearly everybody has been supplied with a wife. There are only
+two women left. Neither seems to be the one he married. Goto
+thinks,--thinks rapidly. Who will ever know the difference? He claims
+the prettier; she accepts him, and off they dash on their honeymoon, à
+la Occident, a two-day trip round the island of Oahu in a motor-car. And
+never were nuptials more satisfactory.
+
+In the meantime Fujimoto San comes rushing up pell-mell. His garage
+business has kept him. He finds a lone girl, but she does not tally with
+the reproduction he married. "Not so nice," is the first thought that
+flashes across his brain. "Little too broad in the nose, lips thicker
+than those on the photograph. Can I mistake?" But she is the only one
+left. He bows at least a half-dozen times, bows clean over, half-way to
+the ground, but alas! every time his head bobs up he sees the same
+disheartening face, a face he never ordered, a face he cannot accept. He
+must clear up the mystery. He calls the agent. Investigations reveal
+that Goto was there ahead of him; so Fujimoto sets out on a chase after
+the honeymoon pair. It ends in Honolulu two days later, and another
+divorce case comes up in court.
+
+The "picture bride" is now a thing of the past, as the Japanese
+Government has agreed to deny her a passport in accordance with the
+spirit of our treaty with Japan. From the point of view of immigration,
+this may be a solution; but there is a phase of the problem of the
+mixture of races in Hawaii I have never yet seen discussed,--that is,
+the woman. In the case of the Japanese woman, much more than in that of
+the man, entrance to Hawaii or America is freedom such as has never been
+known before. At home she has been taught obedience and deference to
+her husband. There are many others ready to accept that burden if she is
+unwilling. But in Hawaii, where there are so many Japanese seeking wives
+and where she moves among peoples whose standards are an inversion of
+everything she has been taught to regard as virtuous and feminine, she
+finds herself in an altogether different position. On the streets she
+sees many white women treated with courtesy; in the courts women receive
+even more sympathy than men,--to her an unheard-of thing. And so we find
+that when all the divorces in the Hawaiian Islands have been tabulated,
+these little timid creatures of Japan have been emboldened to the extent
+of deserting their husbands in veritable shoals, making up 90% of the
+entire number of Japanese divorces. It is a scramble for readjustment of
+conjugal relations based on something nearer emotional equality.
+
+But where do the Hawaiians come in? will be asked in all reason. They
+are virtually no more. Of the entire race which at the time of their
+discovery by Captain Cook numbered some 130,000 to 300,000, only a few
+thousand are left. At the time of the annexation of Hawaii by America
+(1898) there were some 31,000 Hawaiians of pure blood, or about 28% of
+the population. Of Orientals there was about 42% of the population, with
+24,400 Japanese and 21,600 Chinese. Then there were 15,191 Portuguese,
+2,250 Britons, 1,437 Germans, 8,400 Americans, 1,479 Norwegians, French
+and others combined. Already there were 8,400 part-Hawaiian. From the
+rulers down there was a free mixture, even the queen had a white spouse.
+Some of the best types of Hawaiian women had been married by men of fine
+caliber, unlike almost any other place in the Pacific. The relationships
+were of a permanent nature, for, as the governmental report in
+connection with annexation stated:
+
+   The Hawaiians are not Africans, but Polynesians. They are brown,
+   not black. There has never been and there is not any color line in
+   Hawaii as against native Hawaiian, and they participate fully and
+   on an equality with the white people in affairs, political,
+   social, religious, and charitable. The two races freely intermarry
+   one with the other, the results being shown in a population of some
+   7,000 of mixed blood. They are a race which will in the future, as
+   they have in the past, easily and rapidly assimilate with and adopt
+   American ways and methods.
+
+
+3
+
+In defiance of prejudice, intermarriage between the races in the Pacific
+is taking place. What the result is to be, no one as yet knows
+definitely. The number of white men legalizing their relations with
+native women is large. The tropics are veritable whispering-galleries
+sounding the stories of men who have returned to keep their promises
+even after they have been despatched from the islands under the
+influence of the cup so as to prevent their marrying. In the
+mid-Pacific, in the South Seas, in the Far East, white men are marrying
+native women, even in cases where these have been their mistresses for
+years.
+
+In Japan, many leading white men have married Japanese women, among whom
+the most celebrated has been Lafcadio Hearn. The list is long. In the
+ports, many foreigners have married Japanese women, and though there is
+a strong feeling against it socially, discrimination is not universal.
+The French and the British are not nearly so fastidious in these matters
+as are the Americans and the Japanese. Wherever there is outward
+opposition, it comes from the Japanese side as well as from the white.
+Japanese complain against discrimination here, but we are received with
+no more open arms by them in Japan.
+
+The girl from Japan coming to the West is by virtue of her immigration
+alone to some extent emancipated; but to the white woman turning her
+steps east there is only the emancipation, in part, from drudgery by
+means of ample servants. To the white woman who goes a step farther and
+links herself in marriage with a Japanese or Chinese there is in the
+majority of cases only sorrow, soreness of heart, isolation, and regret.
+It is not that she might not be happy with the individual Oriental, but
+in the East she becomes part of a vicious family system that strangles
+her individuality. Though the maid of Japan is not over-welcome in the
+West, as the wife of a white man she comes into a higher plane of life.
+By no means is that true in the case of the white woman in the East.
+There are too many cases, still warm with regret, to be named in proof
+of the statement. I have come across several cases of American girls who
+had married Japanese and returned with them to Japan. They were content
+enough with their husbands, but their position in the Japanese home was
+intolerable. I remember the loneliness of a New York girl who had gone
+to live in Kyoto. The contemptuous way in which some notable Japanese
+looked at their countryman's white wife was only comparable to the
+treatment she would have received here. The children, born in the same
+labor, are not respected as are either "pure" Japanese or white. The
+Eurasian is frequently disqualified. The white father regrets that his
+children are not Aryan as did Lafcadio Hearn.
+
+This is no attempt to make out a case for the mixture of natives and
+white in the Pacific. There are not enough facts at hand. Unfortunately,
+for the next few hundred years the differences between the peoples
+living on the borders of the Pacific will continue to irritate, and
+experiments in blood-mixture will probably be tried externally. I have
+only mobilized such incidents as have come within my own personal
+observation that will take the problem out of the cold, statistical
+plane. It is with human flesh and blood, human hearts and affections,
+human gropings and aspirations that we are dealing,--not with the
+conflicts of imaginary hordes and with terrifying invasions.
+
+To me, the human elements in Honolulu and throughout the Pacific remain
+a memory of one perpetual stirring of sounds, colors, and desires. The
+whole is not confusing, for it is outside one's consciousness. In a
+sense it is an inverted world consciousness. Instead of nationals
+thinking outward, they have come together and are thinking inward,
+recognizing themselves as part of some whole. Eventually, after all the
+races in the Pacific have been mixed more or less, or have proved
+mixture impossible, they will find some way in which they can dwell at
+one another's elbows without nudging. The mixture may even assume an
+appearance of unity. The color scheme, like a thorough blending of all
+the colors of the spectrum, may yet become white.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+"THIS LITTLE PIG WENT TO MARKET"
+
+
+1
+
+The basket was growing heavier and heavier, and his stomach weaker and
+weaker. How to convert his burden into a meal was a problem, written as
+large upon his face as the delight in the bargains he was making shone
+in the face of the marketer beside him. He was a young chap just
+emerging from boyhood. He had been employed by this restaurant-keeper
+because he said he needed a meal. It was not to be a real job. He was to
+get his meal all right, but not till he earned it by going with the boss
+to market and carrying his basket for him.
+
+The basket was soon full to overflowing, and the young man bearing it
+was nigh exhaustion. They were now going home. At the corner of the open
+square that had been assigned to garden-truck venders the old man
+stopped to buy a rose. He disputed the price with the flower-girl, got
+it at a reduction, and went on. "I always bring my wife a rose from
+market," he remarked in semi-soliloquy, and they disappeared, the young
+fellow with his burden, the old man with his rose.
+
+Thus does the European little pig go to market, and he's the most
+civilized little pig in the world. For hundreds of years he has been
+learning to market, and that most essential of social functions is the
+progenitor of communal life. The way in which it is performed is a test
+of the civilization of a people.
+
+The first democrats and artists of Europe, the Greeks, knew this, and
+made the agora a market-place, a focus of public art, and the scene of
+their political gatherings. Wretched, indeed, was the little pig that
+stayed home when the agora was convoked, for he it was whom the Greeks
+had determined to ostracize. Despite their efforts as democrats, there
+were only too many who had to stay home when the affairs of that world
+were being decided; but as a market, with all the architectural genius
+concentrated on making it attractive and beautiful, and Socrates leading
+his classes through it, it was a certain success.
+
+In the ruder parts of Europe, owing to the absence of means of
+communication and the dangers of carrying one's possessions abroad,
+definite market-places became an imperative necessity, and charters for
+their existence were granted by decree. They became an important means
+of securing revenue.
+
+Even the Church recognized the value of festivals as means of enriching
+itself in a combination of barter with merrymaking and adoration.
+Festivals and fairs alike enhanced the material and the artistic life of
+medieval Europe, and marked, as it were, the embryonic element out of
+which grew all the later laws and ethics of trade. The legitimacy of
+piracy at sea and robbery on land had to be counteracted in some way,
+and the dignity and decency of exchange established.
+
+The evolutionary process by which civilization has achieved some sort of
+business morality may yet be traced in various countries, especially
+among the primitive peoples of the South Seas, the more advanced
+Filipinos, the recently awakened Japanese, the Mexicans, and the
+accomplished New Zealanders. Beneath the surface of the market-place,
+the wide world over, one finds the source of civilization, and at its
+level, the level of human commonalty. For as men hunt to cover up their
+love of wild life and nature, so women market as an excuse for mingling
+with people. There is in the behavior of the marketer all the cunning
+of the animal in search of prey, and the degree to which these instincts
+are developed gives in a sense the measure of a man's civilization.
+
+Even outside the bonds of law and order the mere process of exchange
+tends to establish social ethics. This is nowhere better exemplified
+than at the thieves' market in Mexico or in the hidden reaches of the
+Orient. Thither all robbers bring their stolen wares for sale. Thither
+all the robbed hasten, to recover their lost property. The instinct
+within each and all of them is the gambling spirit. The despoiler is
+eager to sell as quickly and as successfully as possible lest the
+rightful owner arrive and claim the booty. The general public is anxious
+to buy, for the prices naturally are low, and many a bargain may be
+secured. The despoiled, chagrined though they may be at their loss, are
+in part compensated by the hope of a purchase made at somebody else's
+expense.
+
+
+2
+
+I had not known that buying and selling was ever part of the scheme of
+things among people whose needs were as few as those of the South-Sea
+islanders. Saints and philosophers are always teaching us that the most
+desirable state is that in which wants are few, and their indulgence is
+still more limited. But it seems to me that where that condition holds,
+the few necessaries of life become so much more desirable and so much
+more difficult to obtain that, instead of a release from slavery,
+slavery is even more rigorous. Our pictured impressions of the tropics
+are full of breadfruit-trees and fruits growing in abundance without
+labor. But quite the contrary is the case. The fear of famine and the
+insecurity of life have dampened the joys of many a wild man, and the
+pressure of population has only too frequently resulted in infanticide
+and cannibalism.
+
+When, therefore, I heard that there was to be a native bazaar across
+the Rewa River, in Vita Levu, the largest island of the Fiji group, I
+defied the yellow sun that hung overhead, secured a complement of guides
+in two Fijian boys who were more afraid of me than they were of their
+chief, and set out for real primitive excitement. We were pulled across
+the river on a punt secured to each shore by a cable, and made our way
+up the banks in the direction of the sugar-mill.
+
+It was noon when we arrived at the fair-grounds. Aside from long wooden
+tables that stood beneath arbors of palms, there was nothing completed
+by way of preparation. A few straggling natives wended their ways from
+hut to hut of slab-board and thatch, their quiet manners reminding me of
+the monks in monasteries, absorbed in their duties. Gradually, venders
+arrived; the tables began to sprout with banana-leaves and flowers.
+Strings of berry beads were displayed, like fish out of
+water,--appealing eyes of the plant world asking why, with nature so
+near at hand, they needed to be torn from life. Bottles of liquid fats,
+like capsules of the castor-plant, stood ensconced in green-leaved
+packages containing sweet messes that left the eager natives, old and
+young, literally web-handed.
+
+The goods displayed, the crowds from the surrounding huts arrived, drawn
+by an irresistible charm. A Fijian never came with his mate; maiden
+never approached on her lover's arm. Though they all appeared
+indiscriminately, there was no obvious grouping of friends with friends.
+They moved like shoals of fish that had got the scent or the sight of
+food. It was a crowd with every evidence of cohesiveness except that of
+companionship.
+
+To me there was something pathetic in that crowd. An outsider by all the
+laws of centuries of contrary development, I had no means of entering
+their emotional lives, of guessing the promptings which made them leave
+privacy for herding. I had only the most outward signs to go by, and I
+thought what spiritless, barren lives they must lead who could be
+brought together on such an occasion in so casual a mood. For aside from
+the bottles of oil, the strings of beads, and the wrappings of stuff in
+banana-leaves, there was nothing from my view to make a hundred or two
+hundred thousand pounds of sluggish flesh rise from its mats and dare
+the piercing sun.
+
+Yet the women, who did most of the selling, with their unkempt hair and
+their crude alien costumes, awoke to something universal under the game
+of barter they were here called upon to play crudely. Rummage-sales and
+carnivals, dog-shows and dances, likewise change the glitter of blue
+eyes and pink cheeks; and I smiled at the thought of Lao-tsze and
+Tolstoy, who between 650 B. C. and A. D. 1910 preached the ugliness of
+trade.
+
+When the play of barter and exchange had stirred these primitive folk to
+a little more life, they quite naturally sought a way of giving it off
+again; but so foreign did a real bazaar seem to them that they entered
+the recreations with little zest. In these days of savage sedateness,
+with trade becoming more and more a feature and a pastime of life, it is
+not surprising that the natives attend with spirits in abeyance.
+Following the great exchange of beads and oils and edible messes, the
+crowds moved out to a more open space, under the clear sun. There, with
+the aid of a native band, under the conductorship of a Catholic priest,
+they made merry, with strange sounds and more familiar dances. But it
+all seemed perfunctory and not without a touch of sadness. The Fijian
+voice at its best is rich, deep, and stately. One cannot imagine it
+attuned to singing jazz or rag-time. It seems exclusively made for
+hymns. In consequence, the crowds could not rise to the occasion, and
+stood behind the entertainers like so many solemn Japanese in the
+presence of royalty.
+
+
+3
+
+But lest the little pig who stays at home may really starve to death,
+the world sometimes indulges him a little by letting the market go to
+him, and never have I seen a market more picturesque and more
+self-possessed than one of this sort that visited our steamer as she lay
+anchored in the harbor of Manila.
+
+All about us during the night had crept Filipino lighters, their
+gunwales capped with low-arched mats. They hugged the steamer like a
+brood of younglings waiting for their food. They were to receive the
+cargo of boxes and canned goods from New York and other markets of the
+world.
+
+It was still cool. A native Filipino woman squatted on the ridge of a
+lighter top between two men. She was enjoying her morning cigarette. As
+she caught my gaze her face beamed flirtatiously. Then and there I tried
+my tongue for the first time in the real use of Spanish, and failed. As
+the morning advanced, children crept from the darkness of the covered
+lighters; charcoal pails were fanned into a glow like that of the dawn;
+and roosters, tied to the boats by one leg with a string, crowed, their
+contempt, protest, or indifference to a gluttonous and unjust world.
+
+As the hour of breakfast's needs arrived, a thin, long canoe came up,
+insinuating its way among the many more capacious crafts, quietly,
+slowly, like a thing just stirring with the new day. On its narrow
+bottom flopped dozens of little fish in agony, dying of too much air.
+They looked like so many bars of silver when they lay dead. A basket of
+bananas and a few simple vegetables comprised the rest of the stock of
+these aquatic tradespeople, this man and his woman. She squatted
+comfortably, looking from side to side for customers, while he pushed
+the canoe along with easy strokes. They did not cry their wares, and
+handed their stores out as though known to all for fair dealing and
+fearless of competition. Thus with the freshness of morning air they
+stimulated this little world to action.
+
+By noon that day I was slipping through narrow streets, avoiding the
+moldy shops of the main street, seeking out the men and women who make
+life interesting. The coolness of the morning was gone, crowded out by
+steaming noon. The casual, gift-like manners of those two aquatic
+traders was now a thing not even to expect, for I was in the midst of
+civilized trade. Unexpectedly, I came upon the public market.
+
+What a different world! The hand of the law was in evidence. Here,
+despite the general confused appearance, the concrete drains and stone
+tables gave an assurance of at least periodical cleansing. Here the laws
+of barter held men tied to fair dealing, as the roosters were tied to
+those lighters. Venders make a mad dash for freedom through cheating,
+but were jerked back to honesty by the bargain-hunter who watches the
+scales and knows the laws. Values are measured by the size of the pupil
+or the intensity of the gaze; if eagerness is manifest, up goes the
+price.
+
+A Buddhist, looking upon a market like this, if he were unaccustomed to
+pagan ways, would shrink from the sight as we would at a cannibal feast.
+Here the world was calmly cruel. All the things we eat lay in their
+naked ghastliness,--the thin streams of blood, the bulging eyes of
+little creatures, the stiff inflexibility of limbs once quick and
+supple. And the men and women were unconsciously affected by the scene.
+
+For nothing stimulates the snarling quarrelsomeness of human beings more
+than the sight of food or the fear of imposition. The appeals of the
+sellers were mingled with the bargainings and bickerings of the buyers,
+a competition among both to best one another. Two women stood over a
+fish-bin engaged in a matching of wits that might well have been envied
+by filibustering senators. The debate was over a tray of tiny fish.
+
+A white woman, firmly knit in body and in character, made her way
+through the many aisles, purchasing with a precision as clearly
+civilized as it was silent. A Spanish woman, dark and dashing, swung
+through the same aisles like a little whirlwind. There was brilliance in
+her eyes, and brilliancy in the gems on her fingers and in her ears. She
+was exceedingly well dressed, buxom, and attractive, but every purchase
+was made with a gust of austerity and command quite uncalled for. She
+bullied the fisherwoman, she bullied her hackman, she bullied the
+servant who had come to carry her purchases for her; and then she sat
+down at one of the little restaurant tables and ate the strange
+concoctions with a dexterity obviously native to her. She was a
+half-caste, but the Spanish vein was strong in her blood, and Spanish
+passion actuated her. She got into her ancient-looking hackney-coach
+with flash and gusto; but not, however, before she had gained her point
+in the matter of an extra piece of fat upon which she was insisting. She
+was the little pig who had roast beef because she knew how to market
+economically.
+
+
+4
+
+But the little pig that has none, and the one who cries, _wee! wee!
+wee!_ all the way home, in the Far East, is like the Greek about to be
+ostracized by the community in the agora. Indeed, he has been ostracized
+in Japan for hundreds of years, and even modernization and imperial
+edict have changed his status but little. He is known as the _eta_. To
+him has been allotted the task of attending to dead animals, whether
+edible or not, and though his touch profanes the lowest classes of
+Japan, his labor keeps the country clean after a fashion. Much more. Not
+only do these outcasts remove dead carcasses from a careless Oriental
+world, but in one place at least they have been given the sweetest of
+all professions,--that of selling flowers with which to decorate the
+_tokonoma_, the most honorable place in the Japanese home. And all
+through the day, if one is not too much engrossed in the marts of the
+foreign settlement, one will hear the voice of these flower-girls
+calling plaintively, "_Hana! hana-i! hana-iro!_" Flowers are the things
+that stand between her and the degradation of her class, because for
+years the shrine of a loyal servant of the neglected emperor who was
+struggling against a greater and more powerful group of disloyal
+Japanese had been kept fresh with flowers by these _eta_, or outcasts,
+who did not know whose grave they cherished.
+
+  [Illustration: FIJIAN VILLAGE
+  One is content with its peaceful aspects]
+
+  [Illustration: LITTLE FISH WENT TO THIS MARKET
+  Before Japan woke up
+                                                    © Harper Brothers]
+
+  [Illustration: A FIJIAN BAZAR IS A RED LETTER DAY]
+
+  [Illustration: GOOD LUCK MUST ATTEND THESE TRADERS AT THE DOORS OF THE
+  CATHEDRALS IN MANILA]
+
+Otherwise the market in Japan is in the hands of Japanese now in good
+social standing, men who before the opening of the country numbered
+among those not much above the outcasts. To be in trade was worse in
+Japan than in England, and when one watches the behavior of men at
+markets, one is not surprised. One who takes the average trader at his
+word in Japan--not the big concerns, to be sure--deserves to cry, _wee!
+wee! wee!_ all the way home.
+
+While all over the world woman goes to market, in Japan the market goes
+to her. She has had to have most of her daily supplies brought to her
+door by the cobbler, the bean-curd-maker, or the fisherman. In
+consequence, except when she has servants, she has been deprived of the
+educational advantages of market gossip, and has been kept in her sphere
+more easily. She will be the last to come forward to freedom.
+
+Not so the men. All the social advantages of barter and exchange are
+theirs. They communicate their experiences to one another at four
+o'clock in the morning over the fish-tub. They test their wits and their
+eyes with the auctioneer who starts them running in competition with one
+another over an attractive specimen from the sea. Or the more
+imaginative resist confusion in the pit of the stock-market, where they
+keep in touch with their entire country and with the world. They are
+becoming, in consequence, more efficient and more practised in
+world-wide ethics of business.
+
+Yet within the last few years public markets have sprung into vogue in
+Japan, and I look toward a revolution in the relations of the sexes, for
+no woman who goes to market remains long an obedient and submissive
+little soul. This is obvious to any one who wanders into the market of
+Shanghai. There one can see the status of the various women who
+replenish their household supplies and the most humble, it seemed to me,
+was the woman of Japan. She moved about like _Priscilla_ suddenly
+brought back to life and sent to compete with the modern American woman.
+
+
+5
+
+In ancient Greece, of course, no woman of refinement went marketing
+herself. She sent her slaves. But in modern New Zealand not only are
+there no slaves, but there is no one to do any personal service of that
+nature. In the old days, in Europe, the market was the general
+rendezvous where life played its pranks at all levels. The religious
+festivals also afforded dramatic pageantry, and sometimes the two
+interplayed with each other. But in our modern times, when the public
+market is largely supplanted by the great department store, shielded,
+protected, organized into a minimum of human interest and a maximum of
+efficiency, the charm of the market is no more. So, too, our festivals
+have surrendered much of their artistry. This was somewhat revived
+during the war. New Zealand, because of the still evident atmosphere of
+pioneer life, the lack of interlocking systems of communication, and its
+distance from the most advanced places in the world, still affords some
+of that simple charm of a life one reads about. The streets of the main
+cities nightly resemble something one has dimly heard of and never
+hoped to see. The people have laid aside all thought of business or
+barter. There is in their attitude something of that suppressed
+amazement that revealed the thoughts of the South-Sea islanders when
+asked to thrill to an alien band conducted by the Catholic priest. Both
+the whites and the primitives seemed to recall that once they knew how
+to celebrate.
+
+Queens Street of Auckland was decorated one day, and booths were erected
+on which simple products were offered for sale. A parade of two
+fire-department machines, a number of men in Chinese costumes, others
+painted and foolscapped, boys with enormous masks, and girls in
+dominoes, marched through the city, and in their wake was a rush of just
+plain pedestrians. Other than that nothing happened. From five to ten
+thousand people jammed the street. The crowd was essentially like every
+other crowd in the world,--the same in gregariousness, the same in
+hunting after pleasure that abideth but a moment.
+
+One evening the events were more thrilling. Sulky races, men driven by
+girls, and May-pole dances round the street lamps that stand between the
+tram-lines gave a suggestion of antiquity to the city. The only
+difference between these performances and those in the upper regions of
+the tropics was in the absence of palms and green arbors. In place of
+wide spaces were narrow streets, lined with brick buildings and studded
+with iron poles whose only blossoms were glowing electric lights, and
+whose only branches were pairs of stiff arms holding the trolley wires.
+
+So, too, the market side of this carnival was a sharp contrast to the
+fairs and markets in more modernized communities. Britons are
+essentially traders, but they trade by rule. Even when they play
+trading, as at this carnival, they are more constrained. What little was
+done to allay the sober spirit was revived by the element of barter. The
+gambling spirit, checked in normal times, was stimulated. Raffles,
+wheels, and rings were employed to extract coins from the under-zealous.
+The only abandon was in the confetti, which was scattered generously
+about in the throngs.
+
+In the booths conservation was the key-note. Everything, from motor-cars
+to potatoes, was auctioned and raffled. A man from Coney Island,
+accustomed to that hysterical release of emotion, would have felt that
+he was attending not a carnival, but an open market in which only the
+basic necessities of life were in demand.
+
+Not so in Napier, New Zealand, or in Sydney, Australia. There they seem
+as different from their British ancestry as Hottentots are from
+Polynesians. There men and women know how to make merry in ways almost
+unforgettable, and to ripple the smooth surface of sedate civilization
+with lovely flirtations that would weaken the most stoic of mortals and
+paragons of propriety.
+
+Otherwise, in all New Zealand, life goes along in its leisurely,
+businesslike way. Men attend horse-sales with great zest; salesmen rush
+across the country in their little motor-cars, bringing the wares of the
+world's elaborate markets to the doors of stations or ranches;
+auctioneers dash hither and thither to confuse, if they can, farmers
+into the exchange of sheep or cattle.
+
+While tramping along the road to Wellington, I was overtaken by a
+touring-car.
+
+"Want a ride?" asked the driver. And when I mounted, he asked: "Seeing
+our little country, are you? Nothing like it in the world. Ever been to
+a sheep auction? Want to come along?" And the next thing I knew we were
+rushing over the dirt road toward Onga Onga. We drew up at the
+accommodation house with a sudden jolt.
+
+The guest-room was filled with farmers. Sallow, hollow-cheeked, with
+voices that seemed to plow through their brains for thoughts, their
+conversation was labored. Dinner was devoured in semi-silence.
+
+But when they got to the stockyards, they became more alert. The
+auctioneer mounted the fence like an orator. He began cackling like a
+bewitched hen. The farmers moved about, feeling sheep offered for sale,
+the more expert glancing at them with pride in judgment. One sleek
+farmer, whose elaborate motor-car stood by the roadside, scrutinized the
+yards as one who might buy the entire lot as a whim.
+
+The psychology of the auction-sale crowd is distinct from that of the
+bargain-hunter. The latter believes himself to be the winner because of
+the confessed misjudgment of the trader. But the auction-buyer moves
+about quietly, makes his own judgments of values, exchanges opinions
+only with his associates, and waits his chances. At a bargain-counter
+every one rushes for the thing he wants; here the very thing most wanted
+is ignored, as though to lead other hunters off the scent. As soon as
+the sale was over, men fell apart, like boiling rice in a pot when
+suddenly douched with cold water.
+
+So far has civilized man made certain the processes by which he secures
+the satisfaction of his wants that one begins to wonder why men like to
+buy and sell at all. They are like the artisans and the mechanists who
+have become specialized and divorced from contact with the living,
+finished product. So much so is this true that much of New Zealand's
+real marketing is done in London. Once the manager of a station wired
+his London principals:
+
+  SNOWING DURING LAMBING
+
+The principals, according to New Zealand's version, replied:
+
+  STOP LAMBING AT ONCE
+
+
+6
+
+Wander where one may this wide world over, one finds that the places to
+which tourists are drawn mostly are the markets. There one finds the
+richest reward for curiosity. The traveler in foreign lands, especially
+if he is alone and somewhat homesick, knows no pleasanter thrill than
+the sight upon the pier, amid cargoes from every known quarter of the
+globe, of a box of canned goods stamped in black-stenciled letters with
+the seven signs of bliss, "NEW YORK."
+
+When lost in that good old town, it had never occurred to him that ships
+trail the seven seas carrying canned soups and fruits and vegetables to
+black-faced, sprawling-toed savages. But out there in the wide spaces of
+the globe he realizes how strikingly alike are the alimentary failings
+of mankind. Lost in reminiscences, when on Broadway again, he thinks
+himself forever cut off from romance, until he happens to turn into a
+side street, a public market, or even a small chain-store grocery. There
+he finds that in a way romance is not dead. The sedate housewife permits
+herself on occasion to flirt with the butcher or the baker; incidents
+the on-looker has not thought possible prevail here as well as in the
+markets of the Orient. And packages with the imprint of Japan, of China,
+coffee from South America, awaken in him memories irresistible. He goes
+away wishing he were again off there where New York seems like romance
+to him. The day will never come when silks and spices and marts will not
+conjure up in the minds of the most prosaic the very essence of
+romance.
+
+
+
+
+BOOK THREE
+
+DISCUSSION OF THE POLITICAL PROBLEMS INVOLVING AUSTRALASIA, ASIA AND
+AMERICA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+AUSTRALASIA
+
+
+New Zealand and Australia are to-day the only spots in the world wherein
+the white race may expand without encroaching upon already existing and
+developed races. The extent to which they are taking advantage of their
+opportunities, the extent to which they are enlarging the scope and the
+quality of progressive civilization is the measure of their right to the
+maintenance of their exclusive "White-Australasia" policy.
+
+I confess at the outset that I am at a loss for an adequate argument
+against this policy. Narrow, selfish, dog-in-the-manger-like as it may
+be, we are faced with the other question: From time out of mind China
+and India have had two of the largest slices of the world's surface.
+What have they done with them? How can India and Asia, having littered
+up their domains with human beings, ask that more of the world be turned
+over to them for a repetition of the same ghastly reproduction? They
+have made it impossible, with their degradation of womanhood and their
+exaltation of caste and ancestry, for new life to start with anything
+like a decent chance. Is there not every reason to believe that
+permitted to take up quarters in the open spaces of the white man's
+world, they will do the same?
+
+True that the white man, in both of these cases, has wrested his lands
+from existing native tribes. But it was also true that, in New Zealand
+at least, and through Polynesia, the natives were immigrants who in
+their turn imposed on yet more primitive natives, as did the Japanese.
+Furthermore, no race on earth has been given a better opportunity to
+make good than has the Maori in New Zealand. The Australoid seems on the
+whole not equipped for the effort. There have been cases of Australian
+blacks making good. There is the case of the savage who after receiving
+an education became a Shakespearean scholar. But the exception only
+proves the rule. Furthermore, though there is bitter opposition to any
+white man marrying a native black woman in Australia--an opposition that
+is calling for legal action from some quarters so that such marriage
+will be in future impossible--still, the White-Australia policy is not
+aimed against the blacks. These will either take hold of themselves and
+make good, in time, or will die out. Be that as it may, there is no
+answer to the Asiatic demand for admission based on the argument about
+the white man's plunder.
+
+The only other argument is that, if this is the case, the white man must
+get out of Asia. There too, it seems to me, is a weak spot. The white
+man in Asia--as man to man--does not lower the standard of the
+civilization of the native; nor is he ever likely to migrate in numbers
+large enough to create a problem. Only politically, where a
+leeching-process exists, where native industries are destroyed by cheap
+foreign products (like that of cotton goods, which were forced upon the
+Indians by the British, to the utter ruination of the Indian textiles)
+has the havoc been serious. That is a real argument, and it is up to the
+Asiatics so to adjust their own affairs and to come together as to
+"oust" the white man,--a problem for the natives to solve for
+themselves.
+
+There is still another consideration. What of Japan? Japan has national
+unity, she is advancing. Is she, then, to be made an exception in the
+White-Australia policy? The answer is, Japan must do as she would be
+done by, an answer which will be enlarged upon in the chapter dealing
+with Japan.
+
+Having thus focused on the negative phases of this discussion, let us
+see what is written on the inner side of the Australasian shield. Before
+we can at all understand the motives that move Australasia in the
+direction she is going, and foresee the future, we shall have to know by
+what channels she came to be what she is, what ideals are parents to her
+being, and what ideals are her offspring.
+
+Strange as it may seem, Britain's interest in her south Pacific
+possessions have always been more or less mild. When the question of
+annexing New Zealand came up in 1839, the Duke of Wellington said in
+Parliament that Great Britain already had too many colonies. It is
+common knowledge that she gave them as much rope as they would take,
+that when she had the opportunity of acquiring the Samoan group in 1889
+she let it slip, and that she took the Fiji Islands only after their
+chief, Thakambau, offered them in liquidation of unjust debts to
+America. In other words, it was New Zealand and Australia that held on
+to the mother country, instead of the reverse. And in order to
+understand the spirit of the Dominion and the Commonwealth, we must
+consider the reasons for their clinging to "home."
+
+Australia was first settled by men convicted of offences against
+Britain's then crude sense of justice; but New Zealand was devised as a
+colonial scheme under which every feature of British life was to be
+transplanted. When Europeans came to America, political and religious
+freedom was sought. When Great Britain went to New Zealand, eighty-five
+years ago, society was politically and religiously free, but industrial
+organization was awaiting an ambitious hand. In New Zealand it was not,
+as Havelock Ellis puts it so vividly, "the roving of a race with
+piratical and poetic instincts invading old England where few stocks
+arrived save by stringent selection of the sea." They did not come
+because of romantic longing, nor to escape oppression and restriction.
+The story of the development of New Zealand, from settlement and
+conquest of the Maories to the beginning of that legislation which has
+made it famous, is the story of conservatism. When the first shipload of
+colonists set out from England, their prospectus was a document of
+conservatism. The aim of the projectors was to transplant every phase
+and station and class of English life, to build in the other end of the
+world another England.
+
+Doubtless the fathers of this scheme were seeking to overcome the fear
+of forced transplantation which had made of Australia a land of horror
+in anticipation, and hence they spread broadcast accounts of the sort of
+colony New Zealand was to be, which made it alluring. But such are the
+erring tendencies of human nature that Australia, intended to be the
+land of one of the worst forms of indentured and penal servitude and the
+perpetuation of unprogressiveness, set the pace for the entire world in
+untried liberalism in industry, while New Zealand, likewise advanced,
+has developed her latent conservatism in regard to imperialism to a
+marked degree.
+
+  [Illustration: THE MOUNTAINS ARE CALLED THE REMARKABLES
+  Farmer M---- had the reputation for being the worst boss in the
+  Wakatipu (New Zealand)]
+
+  [Illustration: THE BLUE MOUNTAINS OF AUSTRALIA
+  Seen from this side they look more like gorges]
+
+  [Illustration: AUSTRALIA DENUDING HERSELF
+                                               Photo from Brown Bros.]
+
+For apart from the experiments in labor legislation, New Zealand has
+never lost any of the dependence on England. She seems to be afraid of
+her isolation, lest, deprived of communication with the world, she
+should be forced into a condition such as that in which the white man
+found the heliolithic Maories. Canada might become a nation separate
+from Britain; so might Australia. But New Zealand has not even that
+proximity to a continent which made England what she is, for she is
+twelve hundred miles from her nearest neighbor. In consequence, the New
+Zealanders have always maintained a strong leaning toward the homeland,
+whereas in Australia early resentment alienated the settlers. The New
+Zealander to-day is the exact replica of the Englishman as we knew him;
+the Australian is a compromise between an Englishman and an American.
+The modern Australian on the east coast of the continent is as little an
+Englishman as possible. I have heard any number of Australians resent
+being called English. The last "convict" was brought to Australia in
+1840; yet the Australians are very conscious of this stigma on them. The
+other day an English engineer told me that in Subiaco, one of the
+suburbs of Perth, it was impossible for one to join the tennis-club
+whose grandfather was born in Australia--lest that ignoble ancestor
+should have passed on some of the "taint" to his unfortunate offspring.
+Yet in the eyes of enlightened legislation, the taint involved is of
+course questionable.
+
+It is therefore not to be wondered at that Australia kept growing
+farther and farther from England. In the early days each settlement
+maintained its own government, and so great was the jealousy among the
+settlements that they sought to bar one another even in the construction
+of railroads. Victoria built a broad-gage line, New South Wales, a
+narrower, and Queensland the narrowest,--not mere engineering accident
+due to any notion of superiority of the special line, but clearly and
+openly to make communication of one with another difficult. But by 1900
+the settlements had outgrown their childish squabbling, and they became
+federated into the Commonwealth of Australia.
+
+Though this brought them together within Australia, it awoke New Zealand
+to the danger of being drawn into that union against her will. "The
+Melbourne Age" prophesied that in a quarter of a century they would be
+federated. "The fate and destiny of Australia and New Zealand were the
+same and they should be united in the defense of these distant lands
+that were held by people of the same thought and same political system."
+But there never has been much love lost between them. New Zealanders
+have been anathema in Australia, and Australians hadn't a ghost of a
+chance of getting a job in New Zealand. Nor was this a matter of
+different standards of living, except that they both discriminated
+against the Englishman. And not without reason, for the type of
+Englishman who set out for the Antipodes was one who generally had
+nothing to sustain him at home. To the Australasians he was virtually a
+foreigner, and foreigners of any sort are few in the far South, and are
+encouraged still less. Yet there is excessive pride in the fact that
+something like 98 per cent. of the inhabitants are British.
+
+In view of the economic departures they have taken from European
+conceptions, this would seem a paradox. But even among the workers, the
+psychological effect of "home" is apparent to the most casual observer.
+Though material security has been assured by the State, the result of
+much of the legislation in the Antipodes seems to me to have been
+something akin to the class system in England. The worker has become
+legally recognized as a worker, he has been given a minimum wage and
+protection against imposition, but any effort on the part of labor to
+crystallize its ideals is still obnoxious to the masses. There is not
+even any of the impulse found among American workers toward that rise in
+the social scale which is essentially bourgeois. There is a most decided
+tendency to accept the status of worker in the good old English fashion.
+Working-people do not regard themselves as "gentlemen" or as "ladies,"
+these terms in New Zealand having the same significance they have in the
+old country. Deference to one who does not look like a laborer is
+pronounced, and the average workman is more ambitious for the
+"gentleman" than he is for himself. This spirit obtains much more in New
+Zealand than in Australia.
+
+Than dignity in labor nothing in the world could be more worthy. But if
+that dignity spells merely content, it lays society open to a renewal of
+the very class divisions industrial progress has sought to remove. The
+laborer is too content to remain a laborer actively to enter the lists
+against injustice. And in a short time you have those who refused to be
+doped by the talk of virtue in labor on the top, and the laborer at the
+bottom.
+
+Yet, socially and outwardly, there are not the gaps between the classes
+in New Zealand that are found in Australia. There are no great
+restaurants and pleasure places for the rich. All people visit the
+dainty little tea-rooms, and often workingmen come dressed in their
+working-clothes, with unwashed hands. In Dunedin the proprietor of one
+of the best tea-rooms handed out little cards to laborers with "Your
+Patronage is Undesirable" on them, but the public howled his practice
+out of existence. This is largely because the level of life in New
+Zealand is more even. The wealthy do not display themselves over-much,
+and the most obvious club life is that among the workers. Workingmen's
+clubs are equipped with very good libraries and reading-rooms, but also
+with tremendous circular bars fully as much frequented as the
+book-shelves.
+
+The result is that though, from a progressive point of view, New Zealand
+is outwardly tame and sober, from a consideration of health, the
+standard of life is universally good. Any great influx of peoples with
+standards of living that would of necessity demoralize this normality,
+would give the country a setback which might take generations to
+overcome. On the other hand, though the present state of affairs might
+continue indefinitely, unless New Zealand gains in numbers, her place
+among the influential members of the Pacific Ocean nations is certain to
+be strained, if not jeopardized.
+
+Torn between these economic enthusiasms of a small country and the
+restraining influences of a tradition that is essentially imperialistic,
+New Zealand has a pretty hard time of it. Naturally enough, she is
+holding on to her beloved mother country with an excessive amount of
+talk, while at the same time nibbling away at the ties that bind her.
+She is in the hardest position of any of the Pacific countries. By
+tradition adoring England and scorning Australia, emulating the one and
+trying to keep peace with the other, realizing that proximity makes her
+more than a brother of her continental kin, looking toward America for
+applause and assistance, New Zealand is shaping a policy that will
+probably become a patchwork of colors,--and most interesting to look at.
+
+But Australia is cutting the waters with the force of a triple-screw
+turbine. And toward Australia we shall have to look for the leadership
+of British policy in the Pacific. Canada is too close to Europe and
+America ever to become the real leader in the destinies of the Pacific.
+The truth of this statement becomes manifest when one watches the inner
+workings of the island continent. Though New Zealand is more widely
+known for its great liberalism, there is really more freedom of thought
+in Australia, more freedom from traditional thinking, more boldness of
+expression. That was manifest during the war when the conscription issue
+came up. The New Zealand Legislature simply enacted a conscription
+measure. In Australia, the Government tried twice to force it through by
+way of a referendum, and twice it failed. William Morris Hughes, the
+Prime Minister, had gone to England to attend a conference, promising
+that conscription would never be proposed. He was wedded to
+voluntaryism. When he returned, Australians suspected him of having
+conscription up his sleeve. There was an outburst of indignation.
+Australians charged him with having had his head turned by fawning lords
+and ladies at "home" and with sidling up to a title himself. Australians
+are not very keen about rank; in that matter they are more like
+Americans. Hughes nearly committed political suicide by declaring
+himself in favor of conscription. It is said that he was warned by labor
+not to try to put it through without a referendum. What happened then
+illuminates the Australian character.
+
+  [Illustration: AUSTRALIA IS NOT ALL DESERT AND PLAIN
+                                    South Australian Government Photo]
+
+  [Illustration: PEOPLE ARE SMALL AMIDST AUSTRALIA'S GIANT TREE FERNS
+  See the group on the rocks at lower right-hand corner
+                                               Photo from Brown Bros.]
+
+For weeks the country was in as wild a state as pending civil war
+could produce anywhere. The feeling was tense. Conflicts and wrangling
+occurred everywhere. Up to the last night of the discussion it seemed as
+though there would be war. Then came the day of the vote. The quiet and
+the orderliness was one of the greatest boosts for democracy ever
+staged. Everything was bathed in sunny restfulness. Workingmen lay upon
+the grass of the public domain like seals. When they talked it was about
+anything but conscription. Conscription lost. It lost a second time the
+year after. Two main factors stood out against the sending of more men
+to Europe,--labor and Asia.
+
+Almost immediately after the referendum the coal strike occurred. The
+situation became grave. To conserve fuel for industrial purposes, the
+Government prohibited the use of electricity and gas except during
+specified hours. Places of business on the main streets were lit with
+kerosene lamps, movies were closed, the ferry stations stood in
+semi-darkness. People conversed as though certain doom were impending.
+Things looked forlorn indeed. Shops and factories were closing down,
+throwing thousands out of work. One heard remarks about things heading
+for a revolution.
+
+Australia is reputed to have done wonders in the way of solving the
+problems of capital and labor, but there are as many strikes in that
+Commonwealth as in any other state. The country is crystallizing quickly
+and is bound to become more and more conservative. Despite the worthy
+democracy to be found there, every public utterance seemed to bear
+itself as though made by a lord. One is constantly aware of the presence
+of the crown, even though it has been removed, like the sense of
+pressure behind one's ears after having taken off one's spectacles. For
+notwithstanding its democracy, Australia is bound up in the monarchy.
+Revolution was hinted at every now and then, but at its mention one also
+heard the creaking of the bones of empire. It was evident and clear,
+though hardly spoken. One felt the security which comes from the
+accumulation of tradition and custom, but it was not comfortable. Even
+in Australia change seems to be regarded as synonymous with destruction.
+A marvelous structure, this British Empire, and fit for the residence of
+any human being,--but not an American. He is too dynamic, too restless,
+too eager for creation.
+
+And here is where we arrive at the point of meeting and of parting in
+our relations with Australia. America has determined upon keeping the
+country "white" against the invasion of Asia. So has Australia. But
+America has the inclusive tendencies of an empire; Australia the
+exclusive. America is heterogeneous; Australia is homogeneous. American
+strikes are regarded as importations, but what about the strikes in
+Australia? America has a population of 110,000,000 in an area but a
+little larger than Australia, while Australia has only a paltry
+4,500,000. America is trying to amalgamate the diverse races it already
+has without taking in such people as the Asiatics, whose racial
+characters are so unyielding. But Australia is herself unyielding.
+Homogeneous as her population is, she has great difficulty in keeping it
+from disagreement. With a vast region not likely to be touched by labor
+in generations, Australia uses the same arguments against outsiders
+coming in as does America in regions already well developed.
+
+Keeping Australia "white" is the keynote of all Australian politics. For
+this reason half of the leaders waged war against Germany; while to keep
+Australia white, the other half stayed conscription. Labor is at the
+bottom of the "white" Australia policy. The most serious problem the
+country has to face is her insufficient population. Yet what labor is to
+be found there receives no more consideration than anywhere else in the
+world. It is no better off than elsewhere. There is less poverty simply
+because poverty is synonymous with over-population. To protect itself
+against invasion of cheap (not necessarily Asiatic) labor, Australia
+passed the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. To speak of restricting
+immigration into a country containing only four and a half million seems
+suicidal, but Australia went at it without any trepidation and declared
+for the exclusion from "immigration into the Commonwealth ... any person
+who fails to pass the dictation test; that is to say, who, when an
+officer dictates to him not less than fifty words in any prescribed
+language in the presence of the officer" fails to pass in the judgment
+of the immigration officer. This is the crux of the Act; other than
+that, restriction is placed only on those diseased or incapable. In
+other words, this restriction places a person failing in the test on a
+level with the criminal, lunatic, and the leper. It is obviously a
+snare, for it means that an officer may spring any language he may
+choose on an immigrant. He may ask a Frenchman to write Greek, or a
+Greek Spanish, failure to comply giving the officer the power to exclude
+the applicant. The law has kept Australia white, but with pallor rather
+than purity.
+
+Veiled and unveiled, this White-Australia policy was at the bottom of
+the failure of conscription. The spirit which dominated both camps was
+fear of invasion. Argued the pro-conscriptionist: "If we do not stand
+behind the empire and the Allies in this war, Prussia or whoever may
+become her ally in future will swoop down upon us." Argued the
+anti-conscriptionist: "If that is the danger, then let us keep our men
+at home to protect us against this possible peril." The antis were more
+open. They pictured an invasion following the sending of men to Europe,
+and pointed to the importation of coolies for labor in Europe. One
+member of Parliament was fined a thousand dollars and made to enter into
+"cognizance and comply with the provisions of the Regulation" because he
+specified whom they were afraid of,--Japan. And to add grist to their
+mill, a hundred natives of the island of Malta (British subjects, mind
+you) appeared at the beautiful front door of Australia, Sydney Harbor,
+and asked for admission. They did not land. Even Indians are excluded, a
+deposit of five hundred dollars being required of any admitted, to
+guarantee his return. A transport has been fitted out in Java with
+native labor, but Australian workers refused to load it till the
+fittings were torn out and done over by Australian labor.
+
+Now, the White-Australia policy is, if you care to stretch a point, a
+humane attempt to avoid conflict. The Australians say to themselves and
+to the world: "We would rather call you names across the sea than
+scratch your eyes or pull your ears over a wooden fence." They point to
+the American Civil War and the present problem in the South as an
+example. They wish to save themselves future operations by avoiding the
+cancer and are willing to bear the burden of retarded development for
+this promised peace. Let us see how it worked out.
+
+It is interesting to note that in 1915, 890 Germans were admitted to
+Australia, and only 423 Japanese; in 1914, 3,395 Germans and 387
+Japanese. The number of Germans for the two years previous was virtually
+the same, whereas that of Japanese fluctuated from 698 in 1912 to 822 in
+1913, and 387 in 1914. From 1908 to 1915 the Germans entered in
+increasing numbers, while the Japanese decreased. Chinese gained
+admission in vastly greater number than the Japanese, exceeding them by
+1,500 and 2,000 yearly. On the whole the preponderance of arrivals over
+the departure was seldom excessive, most of the steamers from the south
+bound for the Orient being taken up by returning Asiatics. With the vast
+regions of the island continent uninhabited and untouched, this movement
+of Orientals is only evidence of the check the Government keeps on
+invasion. The fallacy in the White-Australia policy is obvious. Its
+psychological significance was pointed to above,--a tendency on the
+part of Australians, though politically democrats, to revert to habits
+of thought inherited from England. England is an island kingdom, but the
+Englishman cannot forget this even when he has taken up his home on a
+vast continent like Australia. In this day and age of steel ships and
+submarines, with possibilities of the airship clear before us, for any
+one to think in an insular way is to lack the common sense of a King
+Canute. Australia has shown that even with an enemy recognized and
+fought she has been unable to remain unified in thought, yet she thinks
+that merely by excluding the Asiatic she will be able to maintain her
+integrity. Capital in Australia would be willing to admit the Oriental
+in order to reduce the cost of labor; but as soon as he becomes a
+factor in commerce--as in the case of the Chinese furniture-makers
+who exploit Chinese laborers and undersell Australian furniture
+manufacturers--Capital becomes wroth and shouts for the exclusion of the
+coolie. Labor, on the other hand, swaggering about the brotherhood of
+man and the common cause of labor throughout the world, becomes just as
+nationalistic when "foreign" labor threatens to undersell it. True that
+it would be easy enough to establish a minimum wage by law, so that no
+Chinese would be allowed to receive less than that wage for his work,
+but the principle doesn't work out so easily. Even with a minimum wage
+and an eight-hour day, the Chinese with his intense application to his
+job and his manner of living would threaten the white man. But have we
+not the same difficulty even among a given number of white men, where
+some are ready to undersell others? Australia, the experiment-station
+for labor legislation, is the last country where one would expect to
+find the exclusiveness which she condemns so vigorously. She has shown
+herself exclusive in her discrimination against the English workingman;
+she has even been exclusive in her attitude toward her neighbor, New
+Zealand (an exclusiveness, which is reciprocated, of course); and
+finally and foremost, she is exclusive of Asiatic and colored people.
+
+This exclusiveness has left a continent with barely the fringe of it
+scratched. To people like the Japanese, Chinese and Indians, this must
+indeed seem the height of selfishness. True, that sparse as her
+population is, Australia has done more to better the condition of her
+people than has Japan or China; and there is the rub. That mere
+excessive breeding gives a nation a right to invade other lands is a
+principle that no decent-minded man could tolerate for a moment. Only
+people to whom woman is merely a breeding-machine would advance such an
+argument. And in the chapter on Japan and the Far East I shall elucidate
+the basic facts in that contention for the elimination of a
+White-Australia policy.
+
+From the Australian point of view, though admitting that hardships are
+bound to result, admitting that ethically discrimination is
+unprogressive, the country is faced by the danger of sheer numbers.
+Idealistically the Australian policy is wrong. Individually, those of us
+who know the Japanese and the Chinese would just as soon live next door
+to them as to any other human beings. But as long as numbers are the
+racial ideal of the East, there is no solution that would not undermine
+quality if quality did not defend itself against quantity. I am ready to
+admit that there are many Australians who are as inferior to the Chinese
+as the coolie is to us. But the Australasian has one virtue: he does not
+breed like the Oriental.
+
+The problem of assimilation and Australianization is intricate and
+sometimes extremely unjust. There is the case of the young Chinese boy
+born and brought up in Port Darwin, North Australia. In every way he is
+an Australian citizen. To further his education and westernization, he
+came to America to study at Harvard, and here fell in love with a
+Chinese student born in Boston. Now, she is an American citizen. They
+are to be married. He has every reason for wishing to return to Port
+Darwin with his wife. But, says the Australian Immigration Law, you
+can't come in because you're a Chinese. "But I'm an American Citizen,
+and the wife of an Australian," she argues. "That doesn't matter. We
+exclude Indians, who are British subjects, from entering Australia, and
+we intend to exclude you. Australia is the only country in the world in
+which the white race is still free to expand, and we intend to keep it
+free for them." "What is America going to do about it?" I asked my
+informer. "What can she do? The only thing she could do would be to come
+to a clash of arms with us, and we intend to let the Chinese do their
+own fighting if they want to. We won't let Japanese who are
+American-born citizens enter Australia; we may seem a bit piggish about
+it, but we intend to hold to our own nevertheless." This question was up
+for the British Minister to decide upon, but at the time of writing no
+decision has yet been arrived at.
+
+That injustice such as the above is bound to result is obvious. But for
+generations to come the onus rests on the Orientals, and on those white
+men who would profit by either cheap or untiring laborers whose minds
+ask for nothing, and whose bodies are content with little.
+
+Though Australia's contribution to the intellectual welfare of the world
+has as yet been slim, the advance in political and economic thought has
+been exceedingly worth while. The freedom of the individual to go his
+way in life, to develop the best that is in him, the standard of general
+welfare and the quality of life as a whole so far excels the average of
+Oriental social life that Australasia is justified in trying to prevent
+the dilution of its concentrated comfort. We all know and admit that
+both China and Japan have civilizations, intellectual and artistic, the
+like of which might well be emulated in the West. But beneath it all is
+the dreadful waste of human life for which China and Japan must give
+answer before demanding of the West certain physical and material
+advantages which we have.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+JAPAN AND ASIA
+
+
+When I completed the final section of my book "Japan: Real and
+Imaginary," last year, and sent it to the publisher, I was not a little
+worried lest the movement of events in the Far East proceed so rapidly
+that the cart upon which I was riding slip from under me and leave me to
+rejoin the earth as best I could. So fast did things run that I thought
+surely there would be a revolution in Japan, or at least universal
+manhood suffrage, and that without doubt Japan would withdraw from
+Shantung. I am afraid I shall have to confess that the wish was father
+to the thought. So far nothing has happened in that intricate island
+empire seriously to affect any of the generalizations in that book. Nor
+have any criticisms from my Japanese friends come forward so that I
+might now be able to alter my position in any way.
+
+However, enough has happened to make it necessary for me to extend and
+enlarge upon some of the phases of the Japanese situation as they now
+obtain. In my former book I handled Japan as an integer, avoiding
+implications. Here I shall attempt to show how the Japanese phase of the
+problem of the Pacific affects the three important elements round the
+Pacific,--America, Australasia, and Asia. Under that head I shall have
+to begin where I left off in "Japan: Real and Imaginary," with the
+question of emperor-worship and its natural offspring, Pan-Asianism and
+the so-called Monroe Doctrine of Asia; with the ingrowing phases of it,
+democracy in Japan, and the Open Door without; with Japan's new
+mandates and what she is doing with them; with the fortification of the
+Bonin Islands and the Pescadores.
+
+At the very outset, let me crystallize in one short paragraph the
+essence of the whole situation. We have in Japan now a heterogeneous
+nation whose ideals are essentially those of imperialism, the political
+grip on the people being based on the worship of the emperor. The
+outward consequence of this is that the entire nation is fairly united
+upon the questions that affect the nation as a whole, such as
+Pan-Asianism, the leadership of Asia. But if that were all, Japanese
+rulers would have things pretty much their own way. This strange
+consequence results, however,--that having been stimulated to feeling
+that a Japanese is the most superior person on earth, the populace, in
+this pride, is demanding greater recognition for themselves as
+individuals. Hence that which the military and naval parties in Japan
+win in their hold upon the people through increased pride of race, they
+lose in the enhanced difficulty which comes from a restive population.
+Added to which are the numerous alien elements that aggression has
+inherited,--a rebellious Korea and Formosa, a boycotting China, and a
+native element that sees itself being flaunted by world powers and
+unable to obtain recognition of racial equality.
+
+It is Japan's misfortune that she is still unable to live down her
+reputation. With all her might she is trying to stand up to the world as
+a man, and not as a pretty boy such as she has been regarded heretofore.
+Hence, it is necessary, that after having paragraphed the make-up of
+Japan, I do the same with the attitude of the world toward Japan.
+Wherever I have gone I have been asked a certain type of question that
+seems to me to hold the mirror up to Japan. The questions are generally
+these: What business is it of ours, after all, what Japan does in Asia?
+Isn't it only the conceit of the white man that makes him regard himself
+as superior to the Japanese? Isn't it true that the Japanese haven't
+any room for their surplus population? Or, the more knowing, those who
+have read up on the subject--like the man who signed a contract with a
+publisher to produce four boys' books at once, one of which was on
+Shintoism in Japan--assume this attitude: "Let them adore their
+emperors; it's a charming little peculiarity." There is still a third
+group. It belongs to the adolescent class, to the age of boys who
+threaten to lick other boys with their little finger, or "I'll fight you
+with my right hand tied behind my back," and has been fed by the
+romancers who portrayed everything Japanese as petite and charming. The
+_Miles Gloriosus_, suffering from political second childhood, asserts:
+"America could wipe the floor with Japan with one hand, just as she
+could Ecuador." This statement was made by an Englishman with remarkably
+wide international experience.
+
+Now, until Japan lives down this reputation she will be forced to make
+as big a showing of her might as is safe, and until then we shall
+doubtless have ample reason for shouting for an increased navy and an
+increased army. In other words, as long as we continue to publish the
+impression that Japan need not be regarded seriously, so long will Japan
+have to continue to convey the impression that she might become a
+menace. To deny that Japan is a disconcerting problem is to stick one's
+head in the sand. But Japan is no more of a menace to us than we are to
+her. Japan is not simply going to walk across the Pacific and slap us in
+the face. If any such catastrophe takes place over there, it will be a
+conflict. "A conflict supposes a violent collision, a meeting of force
+against force; the unpremeditated meeting of one or more persons in a
+violent or hostile manner" with another, according to Crabb. On the
+other hand, it is equally true that those who urge and stimulate war
+talk with Japan are playing into the hands of special interests that are
+too narrow in their thinking and too broad in their avarice, and make
+war inevitable.
+
+There is only one solution, and that is the presentation of facts. But
+facts alone are sometimes worse than figures. They lie like a trooper.
+Hence we are in the habit of saying: It is an honest fact. Facts are the
+most irresponsible things in the world, and without the motives and the
+spirit that underlie every circumstantial thing in life, they are the
+source of all conflict and all sorrow. Therefore, let us consider the
+questions that appear to be typical enough to clarify the situation, but
+with the motives and spiritual factors included in the answer.
+
+First of all, then, is it really any of our business what Japan does in
+Asia? I shall have to split this question in two. The "our" side of the
+matter will have to be answered in the succeeding chapter on America in
+this Pacific Triangle. Here I shall handle it by inverting it. Is it any
+of Japan's business what interest we take in Asia? This may sound like a
+pugnacious question, but it is asked with all due respect to Japan. It
+raises the question of the Open Door in China, of Pan-Asianism, of the
+misnamed Monroe Doctrine of Asia. We have come to a new stage in the
+history of the world. People with a developed sense of justice no longer
+admit that a man may declare himself monarch of all he surveys without
+consideration of the rights of the inhabitants of the "surveyed" areas.
+When, during the war, everything was being done to placate Japan, a
+certain "understanding" was reached between Secretary Lansing and
+Viscount Ishii. While declaring for the Open Door it acknowledged the
+precedence of propinquity over distance, of time, place, and
+relationship. That is, it admitted that Japan was nearer the continent
+of Asia geographically than was America. A very remarkable observation
+it was. Certainly had that not been put in black and white,
+"understanding" would never have been possible. But what was the result
+of that "understanding"? Japan immediately translated it into a "Monroe
+Doctrine of Asia." Here, then, was a fact. Japan most decidedly is
+nearer Asia than are we. Ergo, Japan has the right to set herself up as
+the god and little Father of China, to declare the Mikado Doctrine of
+Asia. But is there any parallel whatsoever? Not only no parallel, but an
+apparent contradiction in the use of the Monroe Doctrine from the
+American angle; for that pronouncement involved non-interference in
+European or foreign affairs. If we adhere strictly to the Monroe
+Doctrine we have no right to set any limitations for Japan. Our concern
+is only with the Americas. Even the amount of understanding involved in
+the Ishii-Lansing agreement is in violation of our doctrine of
+isolation. On the other hand, we virtually pledged ourselves to keep our
+own hands off South America, Hence, the Monroe Doctrine, if applied to
+Asia by Japan, would mean the denouncement of the Twenty-one Demands
+made on China in 1915, the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Shantung
+and Siberia, the return of independence to Korea,--and then the demand
+on the part of Japan that all European powers abstain from further
+extension of their influence on the continent of Asia. If ever a Monroe
+Doctrine of Asia was really declared, it was in the principles of Hay in
+his Open-Door policy. If Japan should set herself up as the guardian of
+Asia in this wise, she would never raise the question of whether we have
+any business in Asia or not. It would not be necessary. And Japan would
+be able to enjoy the fruits of propinquity to her heart's content. Then
+Japan would truly be the sponsor for a doctrine that could be called the
+Mikado's Doctrine of Asia and its worth would recommend itself to the
+respect and admiration of the world. But this, of course, is a dream,
+and in the words of a worthy Japanese author who "deplored" in his book
+"the gross diplomatic blunder which Japan made in 1915 in her dealings
+with China" and the "atrocities perpetrated in the attempt to crush the
+Korean uprising": "Manifestly, the dawn of the millennium is still far
+away. We have to make the best of the world as it is."
+
+Into these criticisms of Japan's foreign policies one could read the
+usual white man's conceit,--asking that a yellow man make such
+sacrifices as no white man has ever made. There is nothing further from
+my mind. There is only a groping down into the depths of Japanese
+practices to discover, if possible, a real basis for the justification
+of her Pan-Asiatic pretensions.
+
+To me, Oriental civilization is something to conjure with.
+
+There is in the Far East more art and beauty than there is in America.
+When Europe was so poor as to make the Grand Moguls laugh at the simple
+presents which Englishmen brought them, to remark with scorn and truth
+that nothing in Europe compared with the silks and gold and silver of
+the East, the white man was humble. He wandered all over the world in
+search of riches which were unknown to him except by hearsay. His
+dominions never extended over such vast spaces as seemed mere
+checker-boards to Oriental monarchs. But the white man had his ships,
+his latent genius, and these he has developed to where his realms now so
+far outstrip the realms of old as thought outstrips creation. With these
+the white man has secured for himself a place in the world which the
+brown and the yellow man now greatly envy. But the Asiatics have much to
+look back upon and be proud of.
+
+How much of this splendor is Japan's? A great deal! But not as much as
+the splendor of China, nor as much as that of India. Japan is to the
+East what England is to Europe. Japan is building up her ships and her
+material arts to such an extent that she is destined to wield and does
+now partly wield the same influence in Asia that England wields in
+Europe. But is that to be her sole contribution? Is that to justify her
+place as leader of Asia? Let us see.
+
+In Europe to-day there is no crowned head who really rules. The monarch,
+where he does exist, is the memorial symbol of the nation's past. But
+the basis of rule is the people. The extent to which democracy exists in
+fact is not for this chapter to discuss. The slogan of rulership is
+democracy. Even China calls itself a republic. Round the Pacific alone
+are three great republican or democratic countries--Australia, New
+Zealand, America--whose people are reaching for greater and greater
+independence in the working out of their own destinies.
+
+But what have we in Japan? We have a monarchy with a "constitutional"
+form of government. The monarch is said to have held his power from the
+beginning of time. He is literally regarded as a descendant of the gods
+who created Japan,--which was then the world entire. The myth of his
+origin would not be very different from any other myth of the origins of
+rulers, were it not for the recent developments in the history of Japan.
+At the time of the restoration of the previous emperor to power, it was
+decided by the rebellious daimyo that the long-neglected mikado, he who
+for hundreds of years had had absolutely no say in the government of his
+lands, should be restored to power. That is to say, because there was no
+one daimyo who could himself take the leadership and become shogun, they
+determined to rule with the tenno as nominal leader, but themselves as
+the real rulers. Other than in the superstitious reverence of the
+ignorant masses for the symbol of the tenno--whose person they had never
+seen--that lowly illustrious one might just as well have been
+non-existent for all the say he had in his country's affairs. So far,
+the situation might not be different from that in England, but England's
+Parliament is in the control of the Commons, while Japan's Diet--both
+upper and lower houses--is at the mercy of the cabinet, which, though
+ostensibly responsible to the emperor, is actually in the control of the
+genro and the military and naval clans. The worship of the emperor, on
+the other hand, is made part of the political function, the better to
+cow the masses into reverential obedience to the wishes of the actual
+rulers.
+
+The basis for this theocratical grip on the people is Shintoism. With
+the Restoration in 1868, Shintoism, that ancestor-worshiping cult, was
+revived as the spiritual core of the new empire; Buddhism was sent
+packing, and all the cunning of pseudo-historians was resorted to to
+bolster up this effete and primitive national ideal.
+
+"Let them worship their old emperor," say some, largely those with a
+love of pageantry in their unconscious. And no one could raise an
+argument against this if that was where it ended. If it merely meant the
+binding together in a communal nationalism the thought and devotion of
+the people, it would be a desirable performance. But the natural result
+of an artificially stimulated nationalism based on a myth and a
+deception is that it becomes proselytic in its tendencies. It is not
+satisfied with its native influence, but begins to reach out. In other
+words, it takes upon itself the duty of making the entire world one,
+just as religion and democracy seek to convert the world. And Shintoism
+is a short step to Pan-Asianism. Pan-Asianism is the logical consequence
+of Shintoism.
+
+What is Shintoism? In this connection, none is more authoritative than
+Basil Hall Chamberlain, Emeritus Professor of Japanese and Philology at
+the Imperial University of Tokyo, and author of numerous scientific
+works on Japan. In "The Invention of a New Religion" he says (page 6):
+
+   Agnostic Japan is teaching us at this very hour how religions are
+   sometimes manufactured for a special end--to observe practical
+   worldly purposes.
+
+   Mikado-worship and Japan-worship--for that is the new Japanese
+   religion--is, of course, no spontaneously generated phenomenon.
+   Every manufacture presupposes a material out of which it is made,
+   every present a past on which it rests. But the twentieth-century
+   Japanese religion of loyalty and patriotism is quite new, for in it
+   pre-existing ideas have been sifted, altered, freshly compounded,
+   turned to new uses, and have found a new center of gravity....
+   Shinto, a primitive nature cult, which had fallen into discredit,
+   was taken out of its cupboard and dusted.
+
+Thus Shintoism, a cult without any code of morals, in which nature was
+worshiped in primitive fashion, was made the basis of the national
+ideal. There is nothing in Shintoism that might with the greatest
+possible stretch of imagination become the ideal of any other nation in
+the world. However much Japan might assume the economic leadership of
+Asia, it would never be because she could obtain a following for her
+Shinotistic ideals. "Democracy" has become a rallying cry even to the
+Japanese, but there is nothing in Shintoism that might counteract that
+appeal.
+
+  [Illustration: JAPAN'S FIRST REACTION TO FOREIGN INFLUENCE]
+
+  [Illustration: SECOND STAGE IN WESTERNIZATION
+  Some of my students leaving Kobe for a cross-country hike]
+
+  [Illustration: THIRD STAGE IN WESTERNIZATION
+  This is not England, but Shioya, Japan]
+
+  [Illustration: FOURTH STAGE IN WESTERNIZATION
+  This is not Manchester, but Osaka, Japan]
+
+"What about Bushido?" Japanese will ask. Regarding this, it is also well
+to read what Professor Chamberlain has to say:
+
+   As to Bushido, so modern a thing is it that neither Kaempfer,
+   Siebold, Satow, nor Rein--all men knowing their Japan by
+   heart--ever once allude to it in their voluminous writings. The
+   cause of their silence is not far to seek: Bushido was unknown
+   until a decade or two ago! _The very word appears in no dictionary,
+   native or foreign, before the year 1900._ Chivalrous individuals of
+   course existed in Japan, as in all countries at every period; but
+   Bushido as an institution or a code of rules, has never existed.
+   The accounts given of it have been fabricated out of whole cloth,
+   chiefly for foreign consumption. An analysis of medieval Japanese
+   history shows that the great feudal houses, so far from displaying
+   an excessive idealism in the matter of fealty to one emperor, one
+   lord, or one party, had evolved the eminently practical plan of
+   letting different members take different sides, so that the family
+   as a whole might come out as winner in any event, and thus avoid
+   the confiscation of its lands. Cases, no doubt, occurred of
+   devotion to losing causes--for example, to Mikados in disgrace; but
+   they were less common than in the more romantic West.
+
+And when it is further taken into consideration that Bushido, or the
+so-called code of the samurai, was the ideal of a special class, a class
+that held itself aloof from contact with the _heimin_, or common people,
+whom it at at all times treated with contempt, and cut down even for no
+other reason than that of trying the edge of a new sword, one sees how
+utterly unacceptable it would be to peoples of other races and nations
+asked to come to the support of its standards. And according to one
+Japanese spokesman in America, only by methods that "had the appearance
+of browbeating her to submission by brandishing the sword" was China
+brought to accept the infamous Twenty-one Demands.
+
+I search my memory and experience earnestly trying to find a basis for
+Japan's leadership in Asia that is not materialistic, and I cannot find
+any. Energy and intellectual capacity Japan has. Her present leadership
+in practical affairs is a great credit to her. In time, when greater
+leisure will become the possession of her teeming millions, there is
+doubtless going to appear much more that is fine and valuable in the
+fabric of the race. For Japan has fire. Her people are an excitable,
+flaming people who may burst out in a spasmodic revulsion against their
+commercialization. But for the time being, her only right to a voice in
+the destinies of Asia is found in her industrial leadership of the East,
+but that is a leadership which is fraught with more menace to Japan than
+to the world.
+
+Let us review hastily the results of this preëminence. From being one of
+the most admired nations in the world, Japan has suddenly become the
+object of almost universal suspicion. To a very great extent, commercial
+jealousy is playing its part in this change. But that is not all, by any
+means. There is as much enmity between British and American traders in
+the Far East as there is between Japanese and American, or any other two
+groups of nationals.
+
+But the animosity toward Japan is deeper than that of mere trade. It
+lies at the bottom of much of the seeming equivocation of Japan's best
+foreign friends. I was talking recently to one of the leading members of
+the Japan Society in New York, and said of myself that I deplored being
+regarded as anti-Japanese in some quarters, because I was not. "But,"
+spoke up this Japanophile, "the majority of the members of the Japan
+Society are anti-Japanese, or pro-Chinese, if you will." They are trying
+their best to defend Japan, it would seem, and to cement bad relations
+with good, but the result is that the ground of many sympathizers of
+Japan is constantly shifting, though perhaps unconsciously. It is due, I
+presume, to the disappointment of people in that, having regarded Japan
+as worthy of their sympathy and adoration, they are now finding that all
+is not as well as it might be.
+
+Then there is that peculiar twist to Japanese psychology that somewhat
+unnerves the Westerner. This is not a language difficulty, though it is
+best illustrated by a linguistic example. A Canadian in Kobe told me
+that he felt a strange shifting in his own mentality as a result of the
+study of Japanese, something queer entered his thinking processes. This
+is of course absurd as a concrete argument, but it indicates that which
+I am striving to uncover in the Japanese mind and method which works
+upon the Western mind, and puzzles and perplexes the white man in his
+relations with the Japanese. And in the wider fields of Japanese life,
+it makes us tighten our muscles when we survey and weigh the expressions
+of the best Japanese minds, expressions by which they hope, earnestly no
+doubt, to better our relations with them.
+
+Take, for instance, the growth of democracy. As I have said, when I left
+Japan it was with a sense of revolution impending. Agitation had got so
+far out of bonds that it seemed nothing but complete collapse of the
+Government could follow. The agitation has gone on, violent expressions
+are often used, democracy is hailed and Japanese "propagandists" abroad
+assert with a boldness that is inexplicable their faith in democracy and
+their hatred of militarism and bureaucracy. But democracy in Japan is
+virtually non-existent. Japan is to-day no nearer liberalism than Russia
+was in 1905. One dreads to make parallels, when one thinks how it was
+that Russia got rid of her czars, that the dreadful war in Europe alone
+made it possible for a change in the Russian Government. Is it going to
+take such a war to accomplish this in Japan? Some of the most ardent
+Japanese in America boldly answer, "Yes."
+
+Again, China! Many Japanophiles will say that our love of China is based
+on our trade with her, and her own weakness to resist it, while at the
+same time pointing to our enormous trade with Japan as proof of
+friendship. That is false. True, that, compared with Japan, China is no
+"menace" to America. But though China is the root of our problem, there
+is something in the nature of the true Oriental that makes him charming,
+jovial, childlike and lovable. Japan is, of course, not truly Oriental.
+Japan is essentially Malay, mixed with some Oriental and a little
+Caucasian. But in the two and a half years of my residence in Japan I
+did not once come across a white person who had that same unexplainable
+admiration for the native that is the outstanding characteristic of
+white men in China. Be that as it may--and that is, after all, a
+personal matter--that which enters into the Sino-Japanese problem is the
+attitude of the Japanese to the Chinese. None was so ready to exalt the
+Japanese as were the foreigners after the Boxer uprising in 1900. Then
+the Japanese were hailed for their helpfulness and their dexterity. But
+the manner of Japanese in China to-day goes against the grain of people.
+They ask themselves constantly: For nearly seven years Japan has
+promised faithfully to withdraw from Shantung, and her promises are as
+earnestly being expressed to-day. Is it, then, so hard to remove troops?
+Not so hard to move them in, it seems.
+
+Those of us who listen to Japanese promises are from Missouri. Japan in
+conjunction with the Allies sent troops to Siberia to "protect"
+Vladivostok. Each of the Allies were supposed to send seven thousand
+troops. Japan sent close to one hundred thousand. She has earnestly
+promised to withdraw them ever since. Why are they not withdrawn?
+
+Then comes the hardest thing of all to reconcile with her
+promises,--Japan's actions in Korea. It is easy to sentimentalize over
+the fate of nations. Korea's independence is a slogan that doesn't mean
+much, though Korea claims four thousand years of civilized existence. An
+independent Korea doesn't offer very great promise, even if one is
+constrained to sympathize with her aspiration for independence. Korea
+might just as well be an integer of the Japanese Empire. She had ample
+time in which to expel foreign intriguers and denounce her own grafters,
+for the sake of independence, years ago. But what has that to do with
+Japanese atrocities in Korea? What has that to do with the action of
+Japanese merchants who, according to Japan's own envoy to Korea, Count
+Inouye, acted worse than conquerors. Count Inouye said:
+
+   All the Japanese are overbearing and rude in their dealings with
+   the Koreans.... The Japanese are not only overbearing but violent
+   in their attitude towards the Koreans. When there is the slightest
+   misunderstanding, they do not hesitate to employ their fists.
+   Indeed, it is not uncommon for them to pitch Koreans into the
+   river, or to cut them down with swords. If merchants commit these
+   acts of violence, the conduct of those who are not merchants may
+   well be imagined. They say: "We have made you an independent
+   nation, we have saved you from the Tonghaks, whoever dares to
+   reject our advice or oppose our actions is an ungrateful traitor."
+   Even military coolies use language like that towards the
+   Koreans.[1]
+
+     [1] In _Nichi, Nichi Shimnun_, quoted by Professor Longford in
+         _The Story of Korea_, pp. 137-338.
+
+The atrocities in Korea committed by the Japanese in the uprising of
+1919 would parallel the most exaggerated reports of what happened to
+Belgium. Yet America's treaty with the Kingdom of Korea, ignored when
+Japan annexed the empire in 1910, has never been abrogated. Where is
+Bushido in Japan, that it does not rise in indignation at these
+atrocities? It has done so, but so faintly that it might just as well
+have saved itself the effort. Apology after apology, but atrocity
+following each apology with the same inexorable ruthlessness of fate.
+Likewise, the massacres in Nikolajevks, and Chien-tao are still
+unanswered. They require a public apology of some sort.
+
+If I am charged with deliberately selecting things derogatory to Japan,
+I can only say that nothing, in my mind, that Japan may have done for
+the good of Korea and of the world, none of the virtues which Japan
+possesses can ever counterbalance these crimes. Yet intelligent Japanese
+write:
+
+   Fortunately, a change of heart has come to the Mikado's Government
+   ... there will be established ... a School Council to discuss
+   matters relating to education. [No mention is made of the
+   up-rooting of the native language.] The step may be slow, but the
+   goal is sure. Korea's union with Japan was consummated after the
+   bitter experience of two sanguinary wars and _the mature
+   deliberation of the best minds of the two peoples_.
+
+The italics are mine. Who were these minds? No mention is made of the
+assassination of the Korean Queen by Japanese, later "exonerated." In
+other words, now that the lion has eaten the lamb he is going to tell
+the lamb the best way in which he can be digested, for they are
+"discussing matters" to their mutual advantage.
+
+One is inclined to become bitter in the rehearsal of such facts, the
+feeling being induced by the evasive apologies of rhetoricians. But
+these outstanding facts must be faced if any true judgment can be formed
+of Japan's position in the Far East: If it is her aim merely to dominate
+in Asia, then Japan has set out to do it masterfully. But if the
+leadership of the yellow race is her aim, if Pan-Asianism means the
+uplifting of all Oriental races now under the heel of the white race,
+then Japan has chosen the most unfortunate line of action. She is
+running an obstacle race in which the silken garments of Bushido are
+likely to suffer considerable wear and tear. Credit Japan deserves for
+her administrative ability. Certain it is that no country in the Orient
+to-day has the same capacity to rule that Japan has. In international
+affairs, Japan has proved herself a match for the shrewdest diplomats of
+the Western world. It is not to be marveled at that the yellow races
+should be willing to yield her her position and her prestige. Thousands
+of Chinese who could not afford a Western education are now being
+educated in the universities of Japan; many Indians are doing likewise.
+In the simple matter of road-building, Japan has done what few Oriental
+countries seem to have the capacity to do. It is natural that the Orient
+should look to Japan for leadership in government and industry, in
+direction and help. But is Japan giving it?
+
+The experiences of Tagore in Japan are not reassuring. He turned from
+Japan as from a gross imitator of the West from which he had escaped. He
+expressed keen disappointment at what he saw in modern Japan. In the
+"New York Times," recently, there was an article by a Chinese called
+"The Uncivilized United States," the thesis of the writer being that the
+Americans lacked the gentlemanliness of the English. The Chinese was
+obviously a great admirer of the Japanese and repeated over and over
+again that the Tokugawas were great rulers because they advocated the
+rule by "tenderness of heart"; but he, too, despaired of the modern
+Japan, of its great industries and little heart.
+
+That, of course, has been the oft-repeated criticism of America from
+older countries, and need not discourage Japan. But Japan is making that
+greater error of believing that a world which has won civil liberty and
+enlightenment after so many centuries of strife, has builded for the
+masses at least a semblance of economic freedom and democracy, is going
+to yield all this blithely to an antiquated ideal of Oriental
+imperialism that has not even the virtues of Oriental mysticism to
+recommend it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+AMERICA
+
+
+1
+
+Johnny Appleseed, whose real name was John Chapman, ended his career at
+Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1847. Step by step he made his way over the
+wilderness, winning the good-will of the pioneers and the devotion of
+the Indians, and planting apple-seeds which time nourished into
+orchards. Johnnie Appleseed has been glorified by Vachel Lindsay,--and
+with him, not a little of the richness of life that went into the
+make-up of America.
+
+Unfortunately, Johnny Appleseed died in Indiana, at the early age of
+seventy-two. Had he lived twice as long he would most likely have
+reached the coast. By most he was regarded as rather a queer character,
+but there were men who felt the current of greatness in his being, and
+to-day Johnny Appleseed might well be hailed as the symbol of America.
+
+For if the virtue of England lay in that process of selection which was
+the result of "the roving of a race with piratical and poetic instincts
+invading old England where few stocks arrived save by stringent
+selection of the sea," how much more is the hardihood of pioneering the
+very bone and marrow of America. For the sifting process here did not
+end merely by the crossing of the Atlantic. To those who broke through
+the fears of the Atlantic, lanced the gathering ills of Europe, that
+Eastern ocean was only the symbol of a tradition. The way has been kept
+open by the passage of millions of men and women and children who, year
+after year, for four centuries, have been invading young America. But
+what is that coming compared with the arduous reaching out across the
+wilderness of this vast continent itself, a reaching that left its
+mile-stones in the form of log cabins, graves, and roaring cities.
+Following the trade-winds or beating up against the billows of the
+Northern seas was a joyous pastime compared with the windless waiting
+and tireless pressing on of the prairie schooner. The conquest of the
+mountains, of the Mississippi, of the treeless plains, of the desert,
+and of the rocky barriers in the farthest West is a story replete with
+tragic episodes, and it is destined to become the dominating tradition
+of America.
+
+It is a strange story, and because it was essentially so lowly in its
+early impulse, because it was seemingly a secondary phenomenon, snobs
+and cynics dispose of it with indifference. The movement westward was
+undertaken by men of small means and little culture. Pathetic in its
+simple requirements, seeking fortunes that always lay on the fringe of
+fortune, moving on with a restlessness that seemed to despise rest and
+ease, it still left in its wake sorrows that approached tragedy but
+never felt it. If "Main Street" is a necessary corrective, "The Son of
+the Middle Border" is the crystallization of an unconscious ideal. This
+westward movement is a vivid rehearsal of a belated migration that tells
+the tale of man's first yielding to the mobile impulse in his nature, an
+impulse that has made of him the conqueror of the globe. These thousands
+of Johnny Appleseeds were not utilitarian seekers after wealth alone; in
+them was the unconscious mother principle yielding to the forces that
+were fathering a new race.
+
+And that new race has come. Centuries of arduous trial and tribulation
+have molded it. Go where you will, except for some slight differences in
+tonal expression, there is one people. Beneath their Americanism are the
+crude complexes resulting from a war between refinement and the unkind
+forces of nature. The pioneers had all known what civilization meant,
+but circumstances thwarted their inclinations. They brought with them a
+respect for woman which no other people had known so well. Primitive and
+Oriental people--and many European races of to-day--do not have the same
+exalted notion of woman, simply because they have developed along with
+women whose functions of life were determined by the savage
+circumstances. But Americans found themselves in the continent with few
+women, and those in danger of savage ruthlessness. Hence they became
+doubly concerned for their welfare, even to the point of sentimentalism.
+
+So, too, with regard to personal liberty. The pioneer knew what his
+freedom meant to him, and fought for it as a lion or a tiger fights for
+his. Too frequently his own freedom could be bought only at the expense
+of others around him. The word itself became a magic with esoteric
+properties. Hence we find throughout our West a fanatical regard for the
+term "freedom" that sometimes works itself into a frenzy of intolerance.
+So fine are the achievements of our coast states, on so high a level is
+the standard of life, that men cannot see the exceptions. When such are
+pointed out to them there arises in their unconscious a fear of those
+horrible days, a something which terrified their childhood and which
+must be downed as the ghost of a crime one imagines himself to have
+committed. Hence, not to be "with" certain people in the West in the
+shouting adulation of their state or their city or their orchards is a
+worse sacrilege than counteracting one prayer by another ritual. The
+winning of the West was the aim of all the pioneers. For years and years
+they were faced with the most obvious threats to its consummation.
+Mountains, climate, savages, European jealousies, lack of
+population,--everything that spelled despair stood before them. But an
+uncomprehended passion drove them on. Perhaps it was the recrudescence
+of intolerance which marked the early settlers in the East. Perhaps it
+was the lack of opportunity resulting from overcrowding after the
+advertisement of the desirability of life in America. It may have been
+any one of a dozen possibilities that kept men and women moving on and
+on and on,--nor always, by any means, the yielding to ideals. But on it
+was and on it continued till the Pacific was reached.
+
+This, superficially, is the accepted story of the development of our
+West. I have attempted neither criticism nor laudation. It is an
+unavoidable approach to the discussion of America's place in the
+Pacific, an approach which even the most Western of our Westerners is
+not always prone to take cognizance of. But within it lies the kernel of
+future American life. To some, like the founders of the State of Oregon,
+it was more defined. Some as early as 1844 realized that to the nation
+which developed the coast lands belonged the spoils of the Pacific and
+in its hands would lie the destinies of the largest ocean on the globe.
+The opening of the Panama Canal has placed the Pacific at the door-step
+of New York, and fulfilled the dream.
+
+But to the vast majority of people on the coast to-day, occupation and
+development of those enormous areas seem to carry with them opportunity,
+but little responsibility. They have one concern which is akin to fear,
+and that is of the Japanese. They only vaguely grasp the significance of
+their fate. They do not see that they have hauled in a whale along with
+their catch and that unless they are skilful they will drag the whole
+nation into the sea with them.
+
+But if they have forgotten the vision for the appearance of the catch,
+what about the East? The East is as indifferent to matters pertaining to
+the Pacific and the West. Its face is turned toward Europe. We think
+that America is a nation, but the utter ignorance of one section with
+regard to another, the lounging in local ease, is appalling. Easterners
+are like the philosopher who when told that his house was on fire, said
+it was none of his business, for hadn't he a wife to look after such
+things! These are strange phenomena in a democracy. People think that
+they discharge their duty by voting, but how many people are in the
+least concerned with the problems that will some day light up the
+country like a prairie fire? Westerners are generally much more
+acquainted with Eastern affairs. As unpleasant as is the promotion
+publicity of Los Angeles, it is a much more healthful condition than the
+seeming ignorance of New York in matters pertaining to Los Angeles.
+
+Yet while the East is aflame over affairs in Europe--the Irish Republic,
+for instance--it probably thinks that Korea is the name of a Chinese
+joss over which no civilized man should bother to yap about. This
+indifference is not to be found in the man on the street alone. That man
+is often uninformed simply because the dispensers of information are
+uninformed. There is much he would want if he knew its value to him. And
+so while we are becoming embroiled in European affairs another and
+henceforward more sinister problem is threatening to back-wash over us.
+
+It was while in such an apathetic state that America changed her status
+from a continental republic to a colonial empire. Few Americans have
+ever taken any interest in their insular possessions. Hawaii and the
+rest had fallen to the lot of the Government, and would sooner or later
+be returned; that was the sum and substance of their outlook on the
+whole affair. That the Monroe Doctrine ceased to be a real factor with
+the acquisition of these outlying possessions, that we virtually
+abrogated it, did not seem to matter much. At large, the notion was that
+American altruism would never involve the country in any difficulty.
+
+But whatever a man's motives, once he has stuck his tongue against a
+frozen pipe only a tremendous outpouring of altruism will ever detach
+it. America began her adventures in the Pacific when she urged young men
+to go West. Now we have the whole continent, we have Hawaii, the
+Philippines, Pago Pago, Samoa, and Alaska,--a hefty armful. Are we going
+to let these things go, or are we simply going to drift to where they
+drag us into conflict with others who want them and want them badly? We
+cannot merely blow them full of democracy and then wait for any one who
+wishes to to prick the bubbles. For it must be borne in mind that the
+issues are clear. The Pacific cannot remain half-citizen and
+half-subject. Every time we stir up within a small island the
+self-respect of individuals, we destroy the balance of power between an
+expression of the wills of people and the wills of autocracies. Is
+America going to set out to make the world safe for democracy in Europe
+and then withdraw just when Europe needs her help most? Is she going to
+continue to make treaties with small nations like Korea and then when
+Korea is devoured body and soul simply overlook the little fellow as
+though he had never existed.
+
+Let me make the case of Korea clearer by a parallel. We had a treaty
+with the Kingdom under which we had assured her that in the event of any
+other power interfering with her independence we would exert our good
+offices toward an amicable solution. Then came the Russo-Japanese war.
+Korea received a pledge from Japan that her sovereignty would be
+protected if she permitted Japanese troops to pass over her territory.
+Korea, at the risk of being devoured by Russia for violating neutrality,
+acceded to Japan's request. Five years after the Russo-Japanese War,
+Korea was annexed by Japan, and we said never a word in her favor. Nor
+have we ever denounced our treaty with Korea.
+
+But here is the parallel. Belgium refused to let Germany cross her
+territory. Because of Germany's invasion of Belgium, Great Britain
+entered the war. What if Great Britain now decided to annex Belgium?
+What if America did so?
+
+Yet Colonel Roosevelt, who was so vociferous in his denouncement of the
+Wilson Administration for its early neutrality in the face of the rape
+of Belgium, himself condoned the annexation of Korea by saying that
+inasmuch as Korea was unable to defend herself it was not up to us to
+rush to her assistance. In other words, our treaty was only a scrap of
+paper which was to be in force if the other high contracting party was
+strong enough to have no need for our aid.
+
+Is America going to drag China into world wars with promises of
+friendship, and then concede Shantungs whenever diplomatic shrewdness
+shows her to be beaten? Is she going to promise the Philippines
+independence, allow her governor-generals to withhold their veto power
+for years so that the natives may the better handle their own affairs,
+and then simply let any who will come and undermine or explode the thing
+entire?
+
+This is not meant to imply by any manner of means that America is to
+display force and employ it for the sake of democracy. It is not navies
+nor armies that will count, but principles. It is America's duty as a
+free country to encourage freedom and discourage autocracy. And in that
+spirit, and that alone, can she justify her place in the sun. On several
+occasions she has done so, though only those in which the Pacific are
+involved need reference here.
+
+
+2
+
+Apropos of the Philippines: Two factors and two alone are involved. It
+is not a question of whether America shall or shall not hold on to the
+islands. In that America has given her word. The Philippines will
+become, must become, free. There, as elsewhere, it is not our concern
+whether one group or another gains the upper hand. It is not our concern
+that the Filipinos, being Malay-Orientals, will evolve a democracy that
+is not compatible with our notions of democracy. Our concern is, and has
+been repeatedly stated to be, only the welfare and happiness of the
+Filipinos. McKinley, Taft, Roosevelt, Wilson,--all have considerably
+discoursed upon Filipino independence and Filipino welfare. We have
+recently been on the very verge of granting independence, but,
+unfortunately, oil has been discovered by the Standard Oil Company, and
+the question will doubtless now depend on the amount of oil there is. If
+a great deal, then fare thee well Filipino independence! However, the
+real reason for our being in the islands is neither the altruistic
+concern for the democratization of the people, nor to protect the
+immediate interests of sugar, tobacco, or oil-handling capitalists. The
+one and only basis for our action should be the extent to which Filipino
+independence or our protectorate ministers to the peace of the Pacific.
+If an independent Philippines will allay the suspicions of Japan, then
+they should be independent. But Japan would have to give more than the
+usual promise of her word that she would keep her hands off the
+Philippines. The extent to which her word may be relied upon can easily
+be determined. One need only mention Korea, Shantung, Siberia, the
+Marshall Islands. We say to Japan: "As soon as you live up to the
+promises in your treaty and other relations with these Orientals, we
+shall be able to accept your further promises in regard to the
+Philippines."
+
+Yet it must not be overlooked that Japan saw our coming to the
+Philippines with apprehension. Japan is an Oriental nation and cannot
+understand any one doing anything out of pure goodness of heart. Fact
+is, neither can we. Let the most honest man in the world offer any other
+a solid-gold watch and that other would suspect something was wrong. We
+declared to the world that we had only the best intentions toward the
+Philippines--to democratize them. To Japan that was like holding up a
+red flag to a bull. What, you are going to create a democratic sore
+right in my neighborhood? That will never do. It might be catching. And
+Japan is not interested in contracting democracy as yet,--that is,
+official Japan. Even liberal Japanese are doubtful. When in Japan, I
+interviewed the democratic M.P., Yukio Ozaki. He turned, without
+question from me, to the subject of the fortification of the
+Philippines. He pleaded that the forts be dismantled. In the event of
+that plea failing, what could Japan do, he asked, other than proceed to
+fortify the Marshall Islands? Yet at that time Japan had not even been
+granted a mandate over these islands. The logic of his appeal is
+irrefutable. But this is a sort of vicious circle. Who is to begin, and
+whom shall we trust?
+
+One thing is certain,--that in that whole problem of the control of the
+islands of the Pacific, whether by annexation, protection, or mandate,
+lies the seed of the future peace of the Pacific. And unless in each and
+every case the natives are given the best opportunities of
+self-development, that nation responsible for their arrested condition
+is going to be the nation upon whose conscience will rest the sorrows of
+the world.
+
+In regard to the Philippines, this must be remembered,--that we are
+dealing with human beings, not problems and principles. The stuff one
+generally reads about foreign places might be just as descriptive of the
+inhabitants of Mars. Little wonder that those for or against
+independence or protection fail to win their case! We must remember that
+for twenty years we have been building up the hopes of children whom we
+taught in our schools, with our money and our ideals. They are now, many
+of them, active men attending to the work of the Filipino world. They
+are our foster-children and would be fools not to want to live their own
+lives in their own way. Our policy in regard to them must be a negative
+one; from now on it cannot be positive. All we can say to them is what
+we cannot and will not permit them to do; we have no right henceforth to
+say what they must do. We can say that we will not permit them to invite
+any other nation whose governmental ideals are likely to threaten ours.
+The world must continue on its road toward the greater and greater
+liberation of peoples, hence we cannot permit them to step back toward
+any form of imperialism. We cannot permit them to invite unlimited
+numbers of Orientals who might swamp them. They must maintain the
+Philippines for the Filipinos, with as much generosity thrown in as will
+not endanger that. We must remember that our effort in the Philippines
+is the first in which any government has attempted to treat its subject
+natives with any degree of equality,--legally, if not socially. If the
+world is to move on toward greater freedom--which is needed, Heaven
+knows!--we must not let the Philippines be an example of the failure of
+democratic management of natives.
+
+
+3
+
+In all this some may discover implications that our hold on the
+Philippines should be maintained purely for strategic reasons. That may
+be the purpose of the imperialistically minded. There may be some who
+will read into this fear of Japan or a bellicose attitude irritable to
+her. Neither interpretation would be accurate, for behind all this are
+certain historical factors which prove that whatever use statesmen may
+make of world situations, evil designs will be frustrated so long as the
+circumstances which created the primary conditions were not evil.
+Specifically, because the earlier relations between Japan and America
+were brought about through essentially good motives, these later
+developments can be kept to a sane path. And severe as may be our
+present criticisms of Japan, so long as the purposes behind them are
+good, they can have only a desirable result.
+
+When Commodore Perry went to Japan in 1853, his only desire was to open
+that country to trade. It may seem now that for the sake of peace in the
+Pacific it would have been better had he been guided by the spirit of
+conquest. Had Japan been conquered in the early days, she would never
+have come to the fore as a possible menace. But she was not. It does not
+follow, however, that that was unfortunate, for the earliest relations
+between Japan and America were amicable and basically altruistic. The
+relations between us have continued to be amicable, but altruism has
+slowly given way to envy and jealousy. But the point that is missed in
+all this reference to these cordial relations of the past is that
+inasmuch as America was a great moral influence upon Japan in the early
+days, she might continue to be that to-day. Cock-sure as Japanese
+statesmen have become, and pugnacious as some Americans seem toward
+Japan, a strong moral attitude will still do more to check hostility
+than all the shaking of sabers and manoeuvering of dreadnaughts. We
+need the Philippines more as a base for democratic experiment than as a
+fortified zone. We need them as one needs a medical laboratory for the
+manufacture of serums in the time of plague,--for the manufacture of the
+serum of political freedom, of the rights of people to develop and to
+learn to be free. And this experimental station should stand right there
+at the door of Japan--and of British and French concessionists, if you
+please, in China--and of China itself, for none of them has any faith in
+this educating of natives and making them your equals. Only down below
+the line, in New Zealand and Australia, far from where it can really
+affect Japan, is that experiment being carried on. And more than all
+else, when Japanese imperialism is spreading its wings, when Japanese
+bureaucracy is throwing out its chest in pride and telling its poor,
+impoverished people, "See what I am doing for YOU," we need that serum
+station in the Philippines where a solution of democracy and freedom
+may continue to be made,--be it ever so weak.
+
+And it needs to be injected into Japan. Some of it is already working in
+that empire. Japan needs more, it needs to be reinforced. Democracy in
+Japan is struggling for a foothold. Let the germs of democracy persist
+in the Philippines and be rushed to the island empire. And let America
+stand as a great moral force, impressing upon Japan that the rights of
+the people shall not be suppressed. But that will never be unless the
+people in America who stand for liberalism, for true democracy, for all
+that America has hitherto meant wake up to the seriousness of the
+situation in the Far East and cease to turn from it with sentimental
+notions about Lafcadio Hearn's Japan. There are two Japans.
+
+Both of these Japans are watching America closely. They are watching the
+actions of America in the Philippines, they are following in the
+footsteps of America in China. That need not be taken too literally, for
+there are two meanings to it. One example points in one direction,
+another in another. But one or two by way of illustration will do.
+
+When America returned the Boxer Indemnity Funds to China for educational
+purposes a new precedent was established in international affairs. No
+other nation had the moral courage to follow suit. But just at the close
+of the war, Japan, having replenished her exchequer considerably,
+unloosened her purse-strings and returned the balance of the indemnity
+funds to China. It was a case of thrifty self-denial, a tardy giving
+back of gold that none of the powers were really entitled to. As
+misguided and foolish as the Boxer Uprising was, still had it been a
+little better organized, none of the evils from which China is suffering
+to-day would obtain. China should have been as wise in her method as she
+was in impulse. However, it is good to see Japan doing so much. She
+should be encouraged.
+
+Again, seeing that American missionaries--and others--are influencing
+China in the direction of Occidental culture, Japan is following suit.
+Here it is likewise a tardy giving back to China what Japan took from
+her centuries ago, for Japanese Buddhism is only the sifting of the
+Buddhism that made its way from India by way of China and Korea. Still,
+it is worth noting that intellectual and moral precedents are often as
+forceful as more materialistic weapons.
+
+Observing the influence that doctors and hospitals wield in China,--the
+Rockefeller Foundation, for instance,--the Japanese are following suit
+and establishing hospitals in the interior. Educational and industrial
+work likewise will lead the way for educational and industrial work by
+Japanese in China. Witnessing the force of friendship in America's
+relations with China, the public in Japan is protesting against the
+antagonizing of this gigantic neighbor to whom the Japanese bureaucratic
+wolf has been making such grandmotherly pretentions. And indeed there is
+much good reason for the protest, for the Japanese merchant who expected
+so much juice in that Chinese plum found that because of antagonism,
+because of the rape of Shantung, the plum momentarily became a lemon, to
+use a vulgar expression. Japan, after the "peace" Conference
+contemptuously handed over what didn't belong to it but a duped
+assistant in the prosecution of the war against Germany learned that
+there are more ways than one of killing a cat. And China proceeded to
+gnaw at the vitals of the Japanese bureaucratic wolf in a most telling
+fashion. China declared a boycott of Japanese goods that was so
+effective that it brought about a financial slump in Japan from which
+she is not yet fully recovered. China was of course forced to yield. One
+cannot live on sentiment, and when Japanese goods are the nearest and
+cheapest at hand, what could China do?
+
+If only Japan could see the real significance of this she would at once
+withdraw all her nefarious demands on China, proceed sincerely and
+honestly to win the friendship of China, and then undermine the very
+ground of every foreign trader because of her propinquity. But
+bureaucrats are blind. They are moles that move underground. The ground
+of China is all broken up on that account. One of these days the Chinese
+giant will clumsily step, not in the wake of the mole, but on the mole
+itself. Inadvertently, of course; giants are such clumsy things!
+
+
+4
+
+These, then, are some of the ways in which Japan has and has not
+followed in the footsteps of America.
+
+Let us follow the Chinese giant a bit, and see what blundering paths he
+has pursued. Unfortunately, he has had his mind too much on the American
+colossus to observe the mole. And so he blundered into accepting a
+republican form of government. A vain _Malvolio_, he thought he was
+being honored with blue and yellow ribbons on his enormous legs, but to
+stretch the metaphor a little farther, it turns out that these alien
+Lilliputians are strapping him securely down to earth. The ribbons and
+the Lilliputian bands are the foreign-built and foreign-controlled and
+operated railroads which have been talked of with sanctimonious
+metaphors to make them palatable. And now China parades herself before
+the world as a republic. That is some of the influence of America. The
+Republic of China is our own handiwork. Is it anything to be proud of?
+Poor China is a battered republic, with hands outstretched, appealing to
+us for help. As I write the newspapers tell of the appeal of Dr. Sun
+Yat-sen, recently elected President of the South China Republic. After
+surveying what he regards as the situation, exposing the Peking
+government, declaring that but for its intriguing with Japan there would
+have been unity between North and South, and that the Northern
+militarists were profiteering in food during the recent famine, and
+charging them with a string of other crimes, he adds:
+
+   Such is the state of affairs in China that unless America, her
+   traditional friend and supporter, comes forward to lend a helping
+   hand in this critical period, we would be compelled against our
+   will to submit to the twenty-one demands of Japan. I make this
+   special appeal, therefore, through Your Excellency, to the
+   Government of the United States to save China once more, for it is
+   through America's genuine friendship, as exemplified by the John
+   Hay doctrine, that China owes her existence as a nation.
+
+Now let us listen to the word from Japan on American diplomacy in China.
+The "Asahi Shimbun" said:
+
+   Of all the foreign representatives in Peking the American was the
+   least known previous to the revolution. A lawyer by profession, he
+   was not credited with any diplomatic ability or resource. Yet he
+   will reap more credit than any of the others on account of the
+   ability and energy which he has displayed. But what have our
+   Government and our diplomacy done to counteract the American
+   influence? Our interests in China far exceed those of any other
+   country, and yet our officials have allowed themselves to be
+   outplayed by a diplomatically untrained lawyer. China, which ought
+   to look to Japan for help and guidance, does not do so, but looks
+   to America. The inertia of the Kasumigaseki has given Mr. Calhoun
+   an opportunity to restore American prestige in the neighbouring
+   country.
+
+Japan has done nothing to gain the good-will of China, and America is
+constantly veering her ship with its treasury of Chinese good-will more
+and more in the direction of Japan. We had in Japan a man of unusual
+gifts and sagacity. Mr. Roland S. Morris, American Ambassador under the
+Wilson administration, though avowedly a friend of Japan, certainly had
+a most unenviable position to maintain. He seemed peculiarly fitted for
+his post, for during his years in Japan, notwithstanding the innumerable
+missions that moved like settings on a circular stage, and the infinite
+number of dinners that fall to the lot of distinguished foreigners in
+Japan, he never seems to have got political indigestion. And doubtless
+he is to-day a friend of China.
+
+With an eye to the "special interests" of Japan, Dr. Paul S. Reinsch was
+permitted to throw up his hands in despair. We were not doing much to
+save China from being Shantung-ed. Because Mr. Crane once
+undiplomatically expressed himself in ways unwelcome to Japan, he was
+recalled before he got beyond Chicago. Several years later, Mr. Crane
+succeeded in smuggling himself through to China as American Minister,
+and as far as may be seen, he did noble work in connection with the
+Famine Relief last winter. Now we have dispatched a Japanophile to
+China. Dr. Jacob Gould Shurman was so strongly impressed with the
+schools of Japan that he gave up Cornell University to go to China and
+help Japanize the Celestial. At least, that is the mood in which he left
+America. A man who knows him well and is close to the inner circle of
+American financial affairs in China assured me the other day that
+Shurman would not be in China six months before he would completely
+reverse his sentiments, and regard Japan's work in China as it is
+regarded by every one there who is not a Japanese official.
+
+Poor deluded, short-sighted Japan! She could have China as a plaything
+if she only went about it properly. Propinquity could put special
+interests in last year's list of bad debts if Japan sincerely, honestly,
+firmly made a friend of China, threw the doors wide open,--and then
+laughed a hearty, healthy laugh at the efforts of white men to outwit
+her in Asia. Propinquity has made Japan Oriental, it has given Japan a
+script that opens the doors for her more than for any other alien:
+Oriental methods, Oriental concepts, Oriental customs and requirements
+give Japan a better chance in China than all her millions of soldiers
+and dreadnaughts ever will. Yet the little mole loves it underground.
+
+
+5
+
+Thus we are blindly following the Japanese mole. We are catering to
+Japanese "sensitiveness" by sending diplomats with a list in the
+direction of Japan now. Presently, I presume, we shall withdraw our
+diplomats from China as we did from Korea, and forget about it. But,
+then, of course, we sha'n't. Things in the Far East are not going to pan
+out so easily, not in the matter of China and Japan. Ever since the
+first American clipper flirted with Chinese trade, American interests
+have been involved in the interests of China, and they will continue to
+be so involved. Without ordinary, decent, honest trade among nations,
+the relationship of peoples ceases to have its reason for existence.
+Just imagine a world of nothing but tourists! But decent trade is not
+the forcing of opium on a country against its will, as Britain forced it
+on China in the early days and as Japan forces it to-day. Decent trade
+is not the impoverishing of native industries by the introduction of
+cheap products from Japanese, European, and American factories. Neither
+is decent trade altruism. The spirit of really decent trade may be
+found, though not yet fully defined, in the motives behind the
+consortium; but, then, that scheme has not yet been proved workable. Its
+future remains to be seen, and I shall later describe it as far as it
+has gone.
+
+It has been admitted, even by the most prejudiced--and by Japanese--that
+America's practices in the Far East, and China in particular, have been
+essentially well-principled. The Philippines are restively seeking
+independence, but they cannot claim that America's protectorate has been
+discreditable. One could go on all the way through to the return of the
+Boxer Indemnity, and the only serious charge that can be made with truth
+is that altruism has often been accompanied by indecision and
+inefficiency.
+
+The question that now faces the world is whether the effect of Western
+democratic governmental methods, which seem to have made a sudden, yet
+vital, impression on the minds of the Chinese, shall become effective
+with time, or shall be uprooted by another Oriental country for whom we
+have expressed constantly the most affectionate regard. We do not love
+a child less because it needs correction; correction, we realize, is the
+necessary accompaniment of growth. Japan needs to be shown the error of
+her ways; not in high-flown moral terms, but in just plain, everyday
+examples of the impracticability of her doings in China. Thus, having
+been instrumental in the opening of Japan to the world; having acquired
+possessions in the Pacific which must remain the outposts of democratic
+management of native peoples; having set an example of disinterested,
+generous treatment of unwieldy China; having stood by as her friend, as
+her preceptor, her sponsor; having, in a word, made that inexplicable
+journey from the Atlantic to the farthest reaches of the Pacific, let
+the robin say of Johnny Appleseed:
+
+  To the farthest West he has followed the sun,
+  His life and his empire just begun....
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+WHERE THE PROBLEM DOVETAILS
+
+
+1
+
+I have come now to the most delicate and most difficult task in the
+whole problem, that of the dovetailing of nations. Twice has this phase
+of the subject come before us: once when we met it in that welter of
+racial experiments, Hawaii and the South Seas in general; and again in
+that great outpost of the white race, Australasia. But in the one it is
+too localized, and the other too much in anticipation. In Hawaii it is
+hard to say which race has justly a prior right to possession; in
+Australia the problem is only imminent.
+
+But in California and the entire West the impact of the two races of the
+Pacific has taken place. Nothing but a just solution can possibly be any
+solution at all. Let me therefore define the problem at the very outset,
+lest that which is really irrelevant be expected, or insinuate itself
+into the discussion.
+
+Primarily, the problem of Japan in America is not a racial one.
+Primarily it is political, and hinges upon the rights of nations.
+Secondarily, it is economic, and only in so far as the political and
+economic factors are unsolvable can the problem become a racial one, and
+terminate in conflict. All attempts at handling the situation which do
+not take into consideration these two factors would be like crossing the
+stream to get a bucket of water. For nothing can be done without
+reciprocity, and reciprocity is the last thing that Japan would ever
+consent to, as it involves a transformation in her political philosophy
+and the relinquishment of her own position from the very outset. Hence,
+before we can even approach the consideration of facts in California, we
+must get clearly in mind exactly what Japan is doing within her own
+territories. Japan is the appellant. Japan demands that her people be
+given free entry the world over. We are not asking her to let our people
+enter Japan and her possessions as laborers and agriculturists. Hence,
+before she can make her plea at all rational, she must show that she
+herself is not discriminating in the identical manner as the one she
+objects to.
+
+Now, in only one or two instances have I seen that question emphasized.
+In all the literature I have read emanating from Japanese sources, in
+the lectures of its propagandists here, I have never seen it faced
+fairly and squarely. The actions of Japan are ignored or glossed over.
+The protagonists of Japan in California--Americans, mind you--make of it
+purely an American issue, as though discrimination were a fault peculiar
+to ourselves. Two blacks don't make a white, but neither do two blacks
+quarrel with each other for being black.
+
+The questions in the order of their importance then are:
+
+Does Japan permit the free entrance of alien labor?
+
+Does Japan permit the ready purchase by aliens of agricultural land?
+
+Does Japan make the naturalization of aliens easy?
+
+Does Japan permit the denaturalization of its people abroad?
+
+Now, these are all political problems, for the simple reason that the
+very economic conditions of Japan make them unnecessary. That is,
+Japanese labor is essentially cheap labor, and owing to the great
+crowding there would be little likelihood of any great influx of Korean
+or Chinese labor were the bars not raised fairly high. And the bars are
+high. The number of Koreans admitted is greater largely because Koreans
+are now subjects of the mikado, but even they are kept in check by
+Japanese objections to their entrance, and conflicts between Japanese
+and Koreans are not unknown. Chinese are permitted to enter Japan only
+by special permission from the local authorities, as provided for in a
+regulation in force since 1899. Forgetting the two hundred and fifty
+years during which the doors of Japan were sealed; forgetting that even
+after the opening of Japan a foreigner had to obtain a special passport
+to travel from Kobe to Kyoto, a distance of forty miles inland;
+forgetting all the psychological factors that have by no means broken
+down the crust that still closes most of Japan to alien possession or
+acquisition, one is still amazed at this discrimination against
+fellow-subjects and Chinese, to whom the Japanese are in some essential
+way, at least, related.
+
+But let us see what happens to these people when they do get in. Let me
+quote a statement in the bulletin of the East and West News Bureau, a
+Japanese propaganda agency located in New York.
+
+   In Japan proper the Korean laborers are estimated to number about
+   20,000. Compared with Japanese laborers they are perhaps superior
+   in point of physical strength, but in practical efficiency they are
+   no rivals of the latter. They feel that they are handicapped by
+   strange environments and different customs, which partly account
+   for their low efficiency. But experienced employers assert that the
+   Koreans are markedly lazy, and that their work requires overseers,
+   which naturally results of curtailment of their wages.
+
+   According to inquiries by the Osaka police on conditions among
+   Korean laborers in the city, many of them have been thrown out of
+   employment on account of the economic depression; that they are
+   mostly engaged in rough work, such as carrying goods around or
+   digging holes, etc., as unskilled laborers. It states that they are
+   indolent and have no interest in work which requires skill and
+   attention; they are simply contented as cheap laborers.
+
+This quotation is illuminating in many ways. First, it strikes me as
+being anything but fair play on the part of Japanese in America to send
+out such discriminating and unkind accounts of a people whom they have
+now taken in as fellows in an empire, and whom they are "trying to
+assimilate." Secondly, it is not quite true, for Japanese manufacturers
+are going to Korea with their factories. If Korean laborers are
+efficient in Korea, why not in Japan? But the fact of the matter is that
+the Japanese, quite naturally, are not going to give the best jobs to
+Koreans with their own men round about.
+
+Now let us see what the British Vice-Consul at Osaka has to say of
+Japanese labor, in a report to Parliament. Admitting that external
+conditions have much to do with the poor quality of the Japanese
+workman, and that in time and under better conditions he will improve,
+the vice-consul says: "The standard [of intelligence] shown by the
+average workman is admittedly low," while some of his sub-captions are:
+"Docility," "Apathy," "Cheerfulness," "Lack of Concentration," "Scarcity
+of Skilled Labor," and under the caption "Why Wages are Low" he says:
+"Labor is plentiful and inefficient."
+
+It is seen, therefore, that the opinion of the vice-consul in the matter
+of the Japanese is similar to that of the Japanese in regard to the
+Korean; and so it goes. The point in the whole question, to my mind is,
+that Japanese discriminate as much against other races as they are
+discriminated against. Not until Japan lays low the chauvinistic notions
+about the superiority of the most inferior Japanese to the best
+foreigner can we expect that other nations will set to work to remove
+the obstacles toward a clear understanding.
+
+In America the very reverse is true. No one ever asserts that the
+Japanese is inferior to a white man. What is said is that the white man
+is essentially an individualist who at maturity starts off in life by
+himself, whereas the Japanese is bound by all sorts of notions of
+ancestor-worship which submerge him completely in the group.
+Furthermore, as a group the Japanese are able to overcome the greatest
+odds that any individual can raise against them. The nature of that
+group-consciousness will be analyzed in the answer to some of the other
+questions.
+
+
+2
+
+But to return to Japan: That Japan has no occasion for fear of a serious
+invasion of aliens is evident from recent figures that show that there
+are only 19,500 foreigners there, of whom 12,139 are Chinese, 2,404
+Britons, 1,837 Americans, 687 Russians, 641 Germans, and 445 French.
+These figures are, however, unreliable, and antedate the Russian
+Revolution. However, the question here pertinent is whether any of these
+would be permitted to engage in such industries as the Japanese engage
+in here; for instance, agriculture. That can be answered in the
+negative. The Japanese land law, however generous it may seem from mere
+reading of the statutes, does not extend that privilege to foreigners.
+The first proviso of the law is that the person desiring to own land in
+Japan shall be from a country wherein Japanese are permitted to own
+land. In other words, if America does not allow a Japanese to acquire
+land, no American can do so in Japan. As it stands, therefore, no
+Japanese can complain if American laws make a similar ruling. The second
+provision excludes from any and all ownership, in any and all
+circumstances, the Hokkaido, Formosa, Karafuto (Sakhalin), or districts
+necessary for national defense. Considering that every other inch of
+ground is held in plots of two and a half acres per farmer, to whom they
+are the beginning and end of subsistence, the privileges innocently
+extended are mighty short. The law virtually excludes all right to any
+agricultural lands that any foreigner might be able to avail himself of.
+
+There is one kind of real property foreigners do wish to own, and that
+is property for business purposes. But they cannot own that, even; they
+may only lease it on long leases under conditions that are frequently a
+hardship and often enough insecure. They may lease land under the
+so-called superficies lease, but that means virtually evading the law,
+and is always expensive. Even ordinary leases are frequently encroached
+upon, as foreigners in the ports are only too well aware. While I was in
+Kobe, Japanese were forcing foreign business firms out of the former
+foreign settlement, which fully fifty years of white men's toil had
+converted from a worthless bit of beach land into one of the most
+up-to-date "suburbs" in the Orient, and which is now the best part of
+Kobe. This was done by calling in leases, by making the rents
+prohibitive, and by "buying out" foreign lease-holders at almost
+exorbitant rates, just as the Japanese buy out white men in California.
+One British druggist, Dr. Richardson, sold for $225,000 a corner plot
+for which he had paid $12,500. He made a great profit in the deal, but
+the process by which he, and others, were bought out is indicative of
+the methods of the Japanese. For behind many of the real-estate dealers
+was the Government, making loans at most favorable rates of interest
+with the sole object of getting back into Japanese control as much of
+the port plots as possible,--cost what it might. Even men of lifelong
+residence in Japan must form themselves into corporations with their
+wives and some Japanese as members, in order to own the land upon which
+their residences are built. Some of these cases I investigated for the
+"Japan Chronicle" and learned from the priest of the Catholic Church
+that pressure was constantly being exerted upon him to make him
+relinquish his hold upon the ground on which the church stands, because
+it is in the heart of the business section. He said he did not know how
+long he would be able to hold out against them.
+
+How corrupt landlords may overstep the bounds is illustrated by a case
+reported in the "Chronicle" of February 10, 1921. The editor says:
+
+   The notorious Clarke lease suit is a case in point. This was a
+   lease for twenty-five years, renewable for a further term of
+   similar duration. A syndicate of Japanese was organized which
+   purchased the land, knowing of the burdens upon it, with the hope
+   of worrying the lease-holder either into paying more rent or into
+   selling the lease for an inadequate sum. Suit after suit was
+   brought in various names, until at last a court was found to give
+   judgment raising the rent on the ground that taxes had increased
+   and the value of surrounding properties had expanded since the
+   lease was made. In justification of a judgment upholding this
+   decision, the Osaka Appeal Court declared that there was a local
+   custom in Kobe which permitted a landlord to raise the rent in
+   certain circumstances. No evidence was produced in support of this
+   contention, which was clearly against all contract law and rendered
+   lease agreements meaningless. The result was that the gang of
+   speculators who had banded themselves together to despoil a
+   foreigner were successful. The holder of the lease was forced to
+   sell and the syndicate profited greatly.
+
+If the argument is raised that you will find bad people everywhere, and
+that one cannot take the poorest type of person and set him up as the
+example, let us recall the case of the Doshisha University. There,
+because of these selfsame land and property laws, The American Board of
+Commissioners for Foreign Missions placed the million dollars' worth of
+property in the hands of Christian Japanese directors. Presently the
+Government brought pressure to bear upon these directors, and they
+yielded to their Government. In February, 1898, they virtually ousted
+the foreign owners, turned the institution into a secular college, and
+saw nothing dishonest nor immoral in the action. Japanese have of course
+come to a better understanding of the rights in such cases, nor am I
+trying to impugn the integrity of the "better-class" of Japanese. I am
+merely bringing evidence to prove that not only are Japanese laws with
+regard to the ownership of land by foreigners as discriminatory as those
+of California, but their interpretation is a serious handicap to aliens
+in Japan.
+
+In America the fight is not to prevent Japanese from taking hold of land
+for business purposes, but to prevent them from monopolizing
+farming-lands, which, as Mr. Walter Pitkin has shown so clearly in his
+book, "Must We Fight Japan?" are rapidly passing out of American hands
+because of our vicious shallowness in agrarian matters. I am not as yet
+bringing up the question of fairness, justice, generosity, or the rights
+of over-crowded Japan. I am merely making parallels which seem to me
+telling.
+
+
+3
+
+Does Japan make the naturalization of aliens easy? As far as the letter
+of the law goes, there appears nothing in the eyes of a layman that
+might stand in the way of a man, already married and with children, from
+becoming a Japanese subject. There is no legal discrimination against
+any race or color. But notwithstanding that there now are 20,000
+foreigners in Japan, and that the number throughout the years must have
+been much greater, there are on record only nine cases of foreigners
+having been naturalized between 1904 and 1913; two English, two
+American, five French; and ten cases of adoptions by marriage into
+Japanese families. These, to my knowledge, do not include men previously
+married. They are all cases of men who have married Japanese women, or
+of women who have married Japanese men. There have been 158 Chinese who
+became naturalized. This does not indicate that naturalization is
+easy--except by marriage--and the general consensus of opinion is that
+it would take a man fully fifteen years to become naturalized in the due
+process of law.
+
+Furthermore, the restrictions attached to the acquisition of Japanese
+nationality take all the sweetness out of the plum, for even after you
+have gone through the regular processes and have been permitted to sit
+"amongst these gods on sainted seats," there are still exalted pedestals
+beyond your reach. You may not become a Minister of State, President, or
+Vice-President, or a member of the Privy Council; an official of
+_chokunin_ (imperial-appointment) rank in the Imperial Household
+Department; an Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary; a
+general officer in the army and navy; president of the Supreme Court, of
+the Board of Audit, or of the Court of Administrative Litigation; or
+member of the Imperial Diet. Nor are the professions in all cases open
+to you.
+
+However, this is a minor matter compared with that of the inability on
+the part of any Japanese to accept another nationality without official
+consent. If he resides abroad after his seventeenth birthday he cannot
+in any circumstances become a citizen of that other country unless he
+has completed his military service. Women may freely relinquish their
+nationality through marriage; not so men. If men are born abroad, they
+must make a voluntary request for denaturalization between the ages of
+fifteen and seventeen, but such other factors are involved that only a
+negligible number of American-born Japanese have ever attempted to rid
+themselves of their ancestral connections; and there is one case on
+record in which the Government refused on a technicality, for the child
+had applied for denationalization according to Western reckoning,
+whereas Japanese count the child's age as from the day of conception,
+not birth.
+
+In view of this, then, there seems no point whatever in the fuss made
+about Japanese being barred from citizenship. Again, I am not discussing
+the advisability of this restriction, but merely trying to brush aside
+many of the webs that have been spun for the netting of sympathy. The
+relations between Japan and America are thus involved in an infinite
+number of petty political regulations on each side, and nothing but a
+complete sweeping away of all restrictions on both sides would ever
+assume even the semblance of justice. But how far is Japan ready and
+willing to go in this denationalization of herself? The most casual
+study of her nationalistic aims and aspirations answers that question.
+
+That the problem is essentially a problem for Japan to solve is
+self-evident. That it is political and not racial, and that this
+political problem is rooted in Japan's economic condition, is likewise
+clear. For no nation loses its nationals except when the conditions at
+home are worse than those abroad, worse than those of the country to
+which her people wish to emigrate. Australia and New Zealand find it
+almost impossible to lure out British laborers, while Germany's desire
+for room was largely for the utilization of her mechanics and scientists
+and others whom she had trained in such large numbers that she hadn't
+enough work for them at home. Two changes in the structure of world
+economics have accentuated a condition of racial conflict which have
+hitherto been virtually non-existent. Religious and political conflicts
+have always obtained, but the color line has been drawn only in very
+recent times. As long as black and yellow people have been of a lower
+order and have been willing to serve the white, there was never any
+serious disorder between them. The color line is not marked even in
+Europe to-day, for the same reason that it is not marked in Japan.
+Europe is herself too crowded to be a desirable immigration station.
+Whatever the causes of conflict may have been, to-day it is clear that
+they lie in the endeavor on the part of white labor to maintain a better
+standard of living than Oriental labor has yet attained. And in exactly
+the degree to which certain Oriental labor groups have risen above
+others, the conflict becomes manifest,--to wit, the objection on the
+part of Japanese labor to Korean and Chinese coolies. No serious
+conflicts take place between Fijian laborers and Indian coolies, because
+the Fijian maintains his standard under competition, that being lower
+than the Indian's.
+
+We have therefore to study the problem of Japanese in America, the
+so-called race conflict, not so much as it develops here but at its
+source, Japan. And there, if I read Japanese conditions aright, the
+problem is political and psychological in the main. Japan has come very
+far along material modernization; she has virtually stepped up to the
+front rank of nations. But the most casual observation reveals that that
+is only so in part, that the advance is made as a government, not as a
+people. That government is rooted in antiquated notions, is vicious in
+many of its aspects, and is opposed to even the most conservative
+developments of Western countries. That government refuses to recognize
+the social forces that are at work within Japan for the leveling upward
+of classes. And there is the rub.
+
+
+4
+
+Glancing over the history of the nineteenth century, we realize that all
+nations have passed through a continuous struggle of the masses for
+betterment of their conditions, political and social as well as
+economic. During the greater part of that century Japan lay dormant, its
+masses mentally mesmerized. The sudden impact of the West has stunned
+the people more than awakened them. Only part of the social body is
+coming to life,--a limb, an essential organ. To be generous, I might say
+the brain is working, though from many of the actions of Nippon that
+would seem doubtful. But certain it is that whether it is the brain or
+merely the spinal column, instead of limbering up the rest of the body
+as rapidly as possible, it is trying to retard it. Hence, the feverish
+condition of the country.
+
+This is not mere speculation. As I have said, only such countries as
+have an inferior economic condition suffer from the exodus of their
+laboring people. That exodus takes place for several reasons. From
+Europe it has come because of the hunger for religious freedom, to
+escape political oppression, or merely to get a new start in life. And
+though we have few political or religious exiles in America from the
+Land of the Rising Sun, they come because of an unconscious desire for
+relief from Japanese social domination. I am convinced that that which
+most Japanese so prefer in America is that sense of individual
+freshness, that desire for individual expression, for freedom from the
+clutch of family and oligarchy. It is unconscious, and without doubt few
+Japanese when brought face to face with the issues would admit it, so
+deeply ingrained is the education and training at the hands of the
+political administrators. Only here and there is some such statement
+made, with an eye to the press and the galleries.
+
+Were Japan to extend to the masses greater freedom, there would be
+plenty of work for them at home. There is scientific advancement to be
+made. Japanese are frightfully behind in the scientific habit. I have
+been told by a friend at one of our greatest institutions of medical
+experimentation that with but one exception the Japanese who come there
+have to be constantly dismissed for their incompetence. There was no
+anti-Japanese sentiment in the mind of the person who made this
+statement. Japanese still need generations of training to acquire the
+scientific spirit. Their historians prove this. In the business of life
+Japanese have plenty of work at home which could easily absorb all the
+man-power, both masculine and feminine, at their command, without the
+necessity of shipping any of it abroad. But the vulgar acquisition of
+wealth, the vulgar acquisition of political prestige in the world, the
+vulgar appeal for equality which no man or nation with true dignity and
+self-respect would mouth to the extent that Japanese officialdom has
+mouthed it, the vulgar wearing of its sensitiveness on its sleeve,--it
+is these with which bureaucratic Japan is preoccupied. While, at home,
+every effort on the part of Japanese to secure manhood suffrage, to
+arise to the dignity of true men, of which the masses are as capable as
+any race on earth, is discouraged. On the one hand pleading, in
+mendicant fashion, for racial equality abroad; on the other, refusal to
+give the people at home racial equality. On one hand it is asserted
+loudly that "The Japanese do not like to be regarded as inferior to any
+other people. In no country will they be content with discriminatory
+treatment";[1] on the other, Prime Minister Hara answers the demand for
+the franchise with the maudlin fear that it would break down
+"distinction."
+
+  [1] From the _Kokumin_, a leading newspaper.
+
+So that the problem of Japan and the world is largely a political
+problem which she must face at home. Raising the standard of living;
+increasing the economic welfare of the masses; extending the rights of
+the people who are clamoring for it in sections, not only to the
+intelligent elements but down to the very _eta_; cleansing the social
+pores of the empire,--these will in themselves automatically solve the
+problem for the world. The people don't want conquest. They are not
+aggressive. But the misguided leaders,--there's the rub.
+
+
+5
+
+As to Japan in America--or, more specifically, the Japanese in
+California--the problem is for us to solve. I once heard an American
+sentimentalist who practises law, and hence assured an audience he ought
+to know what he was talking about, say that the trouble in California
+was that the Japanese will work and the American is an idler and won't
+work. Why he wasn't howled out of the auditorium I don't know. That
+America has reared this vast continent and made it one of the most
+productive countries in the world did not seem to enter the head of this
+lawyer. Yet the Japanese problem will not be solved by exclusion alone.
+
+We hear constantly that the reason for the conflict is that Japanese as
+groups and as tireless workers are able to outwork Americans; and, in
+certain special types of industry, that is proved. But were the
+conditions made more acceptable to Americans in those industries, and
+were we to devise mechanical means of production suited to them, it
+would not be long before Japanese labor would find it extremely
+unprofitable to come here, just as it finds it unprofitable to go to
+Manchuria and Korea, where it has to compete with the cheaper Chinese
+and Korean labor. Laws and restrictions can always be evaded, and the
+price of vigilance is more costly than the gain. But those laws that are
+basic in the condition of life no man can evade.
+
+The Gentlemen's Agreement has not worked because gentlemen themselves
+seldom work. It has not worked because it has denied America the right,
+as all nations claim it, to determine who shall or shall not come in.
+Gentlemen never exact such agreements from their friends. They realize
+that a man's home is his domain, to be entered only on invitation.
+Furthermore, the agreement is not mutually retroactive. It says that
+Japan has a right to decide the issue, and promises not to permit coolie
+labor to enter America. I shall not enter the statistical controversy as
+to whether flocks of Japanese have or have not evaded the agreement. An
+agreement such as that should be evaded, and was loose enough to make
+evasion simple. That is enough of an argument.
+
+Japan pleads for room on account of the tremendous increase in her
+population every year. When a great appeal is made, the number is stated
+as 700,000 or 800,000, according to the emotional condition of the
+appellant. Professor Dewey contends that the Japanese Government, in its
+own records, admits to only some 300,000 or 400,000 a year. Whether the
+increase in California is or is not as stated, on one side or the other,
+matters little. Japan's grounds for appealing for room are sufficient.
+If the increase is so disgustingly large in Japan, it stands to reason
+that it would be as large, if not larger here, where economic
+opportunity makes increase possible and desirable. Every child born in
+America is a handle worth getting hold of. But on the other hand, it is
+also true that wherever Japanese better their standard of living their
+birth-rate falls, as with every race. In which case there is only one
+answer to Japan's appeal for more room: Better your standard of living
+and you will not need to invade our house. That disgusting process of
+breeding which aggressive nations indulge in should be decried from the
+house-tops. It is no great mark of civilization to breed like mosquitos.
+Mosquitos need to reproduce by the millions because their eggs are
+consumed by the millions by preying creatures. Civilization makes it
+possible for those born to survive. (See Appendix D.)
+
+Some students of Far Eastern affairs, like J. O. P. Bland, urge that
+Japan has a right to the occupation of Siberia; and none will gainsay
+that. But the fact is that though free to go both to Korea and
+Manchuria, Japanese have not gone to these regions even to the extent of
+one year's increase in population during the last ten years. Where,
+then, is the argument? As has been shown, they do not go as settlers
+because cheap continental labor makes it unprofitable. They go as
+business-men, as the advance-guard of the empire, as the rear-guard of
+the army. No one has ever raised a voice against the migration of
+Japanese to these unpopulated regions--with the exception, perhaps, of
+the natives. But ever and always one feels the hand of imperial Japan
+behind each little man from the empire, and that hold on her nationals
+is the thing that vigorous nations resent, because it threatens to
+impair their status.
+
+That is what California and the sixteen other states who share her views
+feel. They are conscious of some subsidy behind every extensive purchase
+of land. From somewhere Japanese get enough money to buy anything they
+want. It is always the paternalistic arm of the Government round every
+little son of Nippon, or the embrace of his family. That is where the
+problem begins and that is where it ends. If only some chemical
+substance could be discovered that, when poured over the Oriental, would
+separate him from the mass, he would be as good a fellow as can be found
+anywhere in the world. But that was what always irritated me in my
+relations with Japanese in Japan. I never met a man I liked but that in
+order to enjoy association with him I had to tolerate his group. If I
+started off anywhere with one, I soon had a retinue. That racial
+clannishness is to be found everywhere, but nowhere is it more sticky
+than in ancestor-worshiping Japan.
+
+Consequently, in whatever manner the problem is finally solved
+here in America, one thing is agreed upon by both Japanese and
+anti-Japanese,--that those here will have to be redistributed over the
+country, their clannishness broken up. That is a problem which affects
+not only the Japanese. However, nothing that is now done should in any
+way be retroactive so as to deprive any single Japanese of the fruits of
+his labor. Whatever solution is found for the Japanese problem in
+America, one thing is certain,--that no war will ever be fought because
+of Japanese immigration to America. Japan, as has been shown, would have
+to readjust her own political thinking to such an extent as virtually to
+revolutionize conditions in Japan in order to make an issue of the
+citizenship problem and the matter of alien landownership here. Such a
+revolution would considerably reduce the scope of the issues, they would
+fall apart and virtually cease to exist.
+
+If we are looking for the causes of a possible conflict in the Pacific,
+they must be sought not in California but in China. The dovetailing of
+the angle of our triangle in America is contingent upon the dovetailing
+of the angle of the triangle in Asia. The one in America can be
+dislodged only by a wrenching apart of the angle in Asia.
+
+Japan's hegemony in Asia is a serious matter. Japan is an industrial
+nation now. She is entitled to access to unused resources in China.
+Propinquity accedes this, but propinquity precludes the necessity of
+submerging China in the process. The Open Door in China means peace in
+the Pacific. We leave it to time to determine what the walling up of
+that door would mean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+AUSTRALIA AND THE ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE
+
+
+1
+
+The tempest in the European teapot has become a tornado in the Pacific.
+Small as the Balkans are, they were the stumbling-block in the way of
+the downward expansion of the European powers.
+
+The tragedy in Europe has left Europe in the background. Civilization is
+rapidly veering round in the direction of the Pacific. There are little
+nations to-day whose possession is as fraught with unhappy consequences
+as anything in southern Europe ever was. Yet we hear innocent dispensers
+of information assure us that Yap is only a little speck in the Pacific
+over which no one would think of going to war. They forget that America
+nearly went to war with Germany in 1889 over the Samoan Islands, which
+then meant much less to her. And the settlement in Europe at the Peace
+Conference has greatly enhanced the position of the present powers in
+the Pacific.
+
+Until very recently two developments in Pacific affairs had not been
+given as much prominence in the press as they deserved. One, the
+Anglo-Japanese Alliance, and the other the British Imperial Conferences,
+held every other year since 1907. Just in proportion as the Imperial
+Conferences have become, as it were, a super-Parliament to Great
+Britain, so has the Anglo-Japanese Alliance waned. And just as the
+so-called mandates over the various island groups in the mid-Pacific
+congeal from lofty aspirations to concrete management there are emerging
+in the Pacific the identical antagonisms that made of the little group
+of states in Southern Europe the cause of the conflict.
+
+The Anglo-Japanese Alliance was formed in 1902. Its aim was to oust
+Russia, and to guarantee British interests in China. Later on it was
+revised to include Japanese protection over India. But consonant with
+that agreement there blossomed in the British Empire a new thing to be
+reckoned with,--an independent Australian navy. That navy has by no
+means matured, it is not and cannot for years to come be a great
+consideration in the Pacific, but it has been from the start prophetic
+and explanatory of much that is taking place to-day. It is at the bottom
+of the problem, because it is the beginning of Australian independence,
+of her rise to nationhood. Let me rehearse the historical incidents in
+connection with this development.
+
+Now, until the advent of that navy all the colonies had been paying
+certain sums yearly toward the maintenance of the British Navy,--Canada,
+Australia, New Zealand alike. But with the federation of the
+Commonwealth, Australia began to agitate in no mistaken terms for a navy
+of her own, to be built and manned by Australians, and kept in
+Australian waters, rushing only in an emergency to the support of the
+empire. Canada decided otherwise,--i.e., to build her own ships, but to
+merge them with the home fleet; New Zealand continued the old scheme.
+Being twelve hundred miles away from Australia, her isolation and her
+inadequate resources and population made her more timorous. With
+Australia the construction of a separate little fleet was the beginning
+of a straining at the leash. Then came the Anglo-Japanese Alliance,
+which, while it allayed the fears of the Australians somewhat,
+intensified certain other phases of the problem, such as the
+White-Australia policy. The Russo-Japanese War did nothing to allay
+apprehension on the part of the Australasians.
+
+For years both the Dominion and the Commonwealth were absolutely
+obsessed by the naval question. Sir Joseph Ward, the Prime Minister of
+New Zealand, championed a single, undivided imperial navy; the late Mr.
+Alfred Deakin of Australia stood out strongly in favor of an independent
+navy. Seeing little hope of a very strong concession from England,
+Deakin extended and urged an invitation, in 1908, to the American fleet
+to visit Australia. He admitted that his object was to arouse Britain to
+fear an Australian-American "alliance." The thrust went home. The
+English "felt that it was using strong measures for an Australian
+statesman to use a foreign fleet as a means of forwarding a project
+which was not approved by the Admiralty." But even Sir Joseph Ward let
+himself go to the extent of declaring that they welcomed America as
+"natural allies in the coming struggle against Japanese domination."
+
+And when at last the American fleet came to Australia, it received an
+ovation such as still rings in the conversation of any Australian with
+an American. For an entire week Sydney celebrated. Melbourne followed
+suit; New Zealand could not but take up the cue. Every one pointed with
+pride to the similarity between the Australian and the American.
+Australian girls virtually threw themselves into the arms of American
+sailors. It is even said that many a sailor remained behind with an
+Australian wife. Not even the Prince of Wales (now King George) was
+given such an ovation.
+
+After that visit, so cordial was the attitude of Australians that
+everywhere they talked of floating the Stars and Stripes in the event
+of--what? In the event of pressure from Downing Street or from Tokyo.
+The Australian temperament is not one which buries its grievances or
+harbors ill-feeling. The Australian speaks right out that which is on
+his mind. And though much must be discounted because of this bubbling
+personality, almost primitive in its extremes, nothing that affects
+Australia can long be ignored by us.
+
+Frankly, the situation is this: Australia is set on her so-called
+White-Australia policy. Australia made it clear to England that,
+alliance or no alliance, she would never swerve from her policy of
+excluding Japanese and Chinese. When the American fleet appeared,
+knowing the exclusion of Orientals practised in America, Australia felt
+that bond of fellowship which comes from common danger. And everything
+was done to develop friendship; America became the pattern for
+everything Australian. Never particularly fond of the Englishman, at
+times discriminating against him as much as against the Oriental,
+advertising that "No Englishman Need Apply" when looking for labor,
+afraid of the little yellow man up there,--Australia naturally looked to
+America as a possible defender.
+
+But along came the European war. Great Britain was in danger. America
+held aloof. Then everything changed. The wave of anti-American sentiment
+in Australia was much more pronounced than in New Zealand. This was a
+strange anomaly, for inherently New Zealand is much more imperialistic.
+But it was characteristic of the Australian. There was almost a boycott
+against American goods. One firm published a scurrilous advertisement
+which the American Consul-General at Melbourne showed me and said he had
+sent to Washington. For a time it looked rather serious, but in view of
+the Australian character, its importance was not very great. It was the
+impetuosity of a little boy, disgruntled because his opinion was not
+feared. Many said openly: "We were so fond of America and thought you
+were our friend. From now on we don't want anything from you. We don't
+want your protection."
+
+Yet, as late as December 8, 1916, the Sydney "Morning Herald" said
+editorially: "And _those of us who think of a possible run under
+America's wings_ forget that her strength at present is proportionately
+no greater than our own [Australia's]. She is not ready for either
+offence or defence and she knows it. This being so, can we ask Great
+Britain," etc. The feeling toward America at that time was only
+commensurate with the petty jealousies that now rankle somewhat because
+of fear that America has taken to herself too much credit for the
+accomplishment of victory. But then it gave that stimulus to navalism in
+the South that the Australians wanted; further, it gave birth to the
+movement for greater independence in imperial affairs, which for
+twenty-five years had determined the policies of the several states.
+
+Just recently a New Zealand navalist, writing in the "Auckland Weekly
+News" (New Zealand), brought up the dread specter "balance of power"
+again, calling attention to the fact that inasmuch as Japan is a great
+naval power and America is increasing her naval strength, it is for
+democratic Australasia to see to it that Great Britain does not lag
+behind with its fleet in the Pacific,--to maintain the balance of power.
+And the further sad fact was revealed that Australasia (seen in the
+expression of this one individual at least) did not care particularly
+whether, in the event of conflict, they were on the side of America or
+Japan.
+
+Feeling did not take the same turn in New Zealand. That little country
+continued in its more imperialistic tendencies, was content to be a
+finger in the great hand of empire. In 1909, at the Imperial Conference,
+Mr. Joseph Ward sprung a surprise by offering a battle-cruiser to the
+Government without consulting his constituents at home. For this he was
+knighted. But the New Zealanders were in a mood to make him pay for it
+himself when he returned. Mr. (now Sir Joseph) Ward was severely
+criticized for what he did. He was ridiculed even by the university lads
+during their "Capping Carnival." They took him off in effigy and carried
+a little boat with a sign saying: "This is the toy he bought his crown
+with." Upon his return from the conference he lost his Prime
+Ministership and a "conservative" government came into power. Later
+developments so justified him that he became a sort of political idol
+for a while. When the cruiser visited New Zealand, in 1913, the
+excitement knew no bounds.
+
+Germany was always regarded as a potential enemy. The colonies had
+always arched their backs at the proximity of German possessions in the
+South Seas. When in 1889 Samoa was the bone of contention, the colonies
+were rather eager to have America take it, in preference to the Germans.
+Then, as Japan came to the fore, America as a potential protection
+became more and more obvious to Australasians. The Panama Canal
+intensified their conviction. They looked forward to a combination of
+British and American power for the furtherance of peace as they
+conceived it should be maintained, and consciousness of their own
+destiny in the Pacific was stimulated. Suddenly they were brought close
+to the United States. The anti-Japanese riots in California, the
+annexation of Hawaii, the protectorate over the Philippines all pointed
+to the Australasians lessons for their own guidance. They could not
+expect from England the same keen interest in racial questions which
+manifested itself in America. America demonstrated the dangers of having
+two unmixable races like the white and the black together; Hawaii showed
+them that Asiatic immigration is a breeder of trouble. They do not seem
+to see that circumstances are not the same, that the pressure of
+population has become much more keen, that industrial conditions in the
+world to-day are altogether different from what they were when Great
+Britain refused to have her American colonies put down the kidnapping of
+Africans; that America to-day has 110,000,000 people and has encouraged
+them to come from every country in Europe, as Australia does not.
+
+Australia looks only at the most obvious phase of the problem,--that
+certain people are not happy together. Whether or not she
+over-estimates her own strength against the pressure of changed
+conditions, remains to be seen, but she is pursuing her own course with
+a certain steadfastness that is at once a pathetic blindness and a
+courageous self-assertion. In a country whose political outlook is
+essentially generous, whose labor experiments have been extremely costly
+to her, it strikes one as a great contradiction of principle. How can a
+labor government be so utterly opposed to the extension of ideal
+opportunities to laborers from other lands seeking to enjoy them? How
+can she be so utterly capitalistic on a national scale when nearly
+everything within her own ken is laboristic? The explanation of this
+enigma lies in a certain measure in the manner in which Australia has
+set about making herself independent of her mother country and, while
+working indirectly for the break-up of the empire, is becoming imperial
+in her own small way. All these counter currents must be seen clearly
+before understanding can follow. They whirl about the pillar of
+imperialism--England--and have come out clearly since the war. They
+hinge upon the mandates over the South Sea Islands.
+
+
+2
+
+While, as has been shown, Australia has for twenty years pursued a
+course that threatens to lead toward separation from England, New
+Zealand has bound herself closer and closer. Australia, however, has
+been extremely shy of any semblance of rupture. She does not want to
+break away. She feels her isolation too much. But what she wants is in a
+sense the rights that American states have within the Union. She wants
+to be independent, to be able to develop in her own way, to expand, if
+necessary, without danger of attack. This spirit is inherent in the
+Australian temperament. When I told any Australian that I was traveling
+and tramping on "me own," he could not understand it. He could not go
+without a mate. He wanted to be sure that if he got into any scrape and
+was with his back to the wall, his mate was there to help him. Still, he
+wanted to fight alone. It did not seem to occur to any of these people
+that a civilized man might go the wild world over and not have occasion
+to fight. And this trait comes out in Australian international
+relations. She wants to pursue the White-Australia policy contrary to
+sentiment in England, to develop her own navy, to hold the whole
+continent against the time when full nationhood will have become a
+reality. But for the time at least she will not declare her independence
+of Great Britain. She will not even give Britain the imperial preference
+in trade which would compensate her for her trouble. But she did show in
+the last war that she realized her responsibilities. In the Boer War it
+was said that her assistance was merely for the sake of giving her men
+adventure and practice for possible later use in her own defense. And in
+this war conscription was defeated because, as it was openly declared,
+it was not certain what the turn of affairs in Europe might be. It was
+felt imperative that the men be not all gone and the continent left
+undefended. And that contingency was voiced by the Premier of Queensland
+as involving--Japan. To the outsider, Australia's attitude seems
+extremely selfish, but to enthusiastic young Australia, with the wide
+world before her, with a future that looks as promising as that of
+America, it seems the only logical one. And as long as her potential
+enemies do not take the trouble to show by deeds that they are not
+enemies, her reasoning is not unjustifiable.
+
+But a strange thing has happened to Australia. She has got what she was
+after, and now she hardly wants it. She fought for the imperial
+conference method of settling imperial affairs. Australians have time
+and again declared that though an empire, they are a nation first and
+foremost. That the empire represented too heterogeneous a list of
+peoples for them to forget that an Indian, though part of the empire, is
+still an inferior as far as they are concerned. And Australia realized
+that the mother country could not see eye to eye with her on that score.
+Yet she insists on the Anglo-Japanese Alliance remaining in some form
+acceptable to her and to America. How is that to be? What has happened
+since peace was declared?
+
+Australia and New Zealand were loudest in the protest against the return
+of the South Sea Islands to the Germans. New Zealand soldiers had taken
+Samoa; the Australian navy--what there was of it--had cleared the
+neighboring seas of German raiders. But though they asked that Germany
+be deprived of the possessions, and though the leaders thundered for a
+New Zealand mandate over Samoa and an Australian mandate over New
+Guinea, the people realized that they did not particularly care for the
+burden of looking after these lands. Mr. Hughes of Australia urged
+annexation. The people as a whole preferred that Great Britain should
+annex them and guarantee the dominions against possible dangers from
+enemy control. They felt they could not stand the cost of governing
+them. They were even not averse to their being turned over to America.
+They have come to realize that they were much better off before the war,
+when they merely contributed their small quota to the support of the
+navy; now Great Britain has intimated that she can no longer maintain
+that navy without their full share in its costs. Besides, the mandate
+over the islands is not going to be simple.
+
+
+3
+
+Before giving consideration to the developments which not even the
+Australasians had anticipated, let us look upon the gains they have
+made. They have acquired some new possessions which make of them an
+empire within the empire, as it were. The islands of the south Pacific
+are to be ruled as though they were an integral part of New Zealand and
+Australia, yet they have their own facets just as the Dominions had
+their own problems within the empire. They afford them certain
+commercial advantages: copra and cocoa from Samoa, phosphate from Nauru,
+which alone has an estimated deposit amounting to forty-two million
+tons. Nauru is of utmost importance to them because they are extensive
+agricultural countries. It has been agreed that Great Britain take 42%,
+Australia 42%, and New Zealand 16% of the export. The South Seas as a
+whole supply 14.7% of the world's copra supply, and this may yet be
+greatly increased. But this is nothing compared with the advantages they
+afford as ports of call. Further, if the plan of linking the islands
+together by wireless is effected, they will become an outer frontier for
+the Antipodes of inestimable value. There is even a faint suggestion of
+binding them together into one separate governmental entity,--a buffer
+state, as it were, between the big powers in the Pacific.
+
+But what are these few assets compared with the greatly extended line of
+defense now left to the Dominion to keep up? What is that to the great
+problem of how to develop the native races? Australia is interested in
+developing Queensland, a tropical region, not the distant island beyond.
+The question of labor is bad enough for themselves, without having added
+regions to worry about. Throughout the Pacific the problem of where to
+secure man-power is pressing. Hawaii cries for labor; Samoa is in a
+similar state; Fiji is troubled with the indentured Indians now there.
+Go where one will, the islands would yield readily enough if cheap labor
+were available. But Australia and New Zealand are not willing to exploit
+these islands at the expense of cheap Asiatic labor which evolves into a
+racial problem as soon as its returns become adequate. As for the
+mandates both labor and capital in the South Seas are not keen about
+these war orphans. A further problem is, what will happen when the
+policy applied to island possessions conflicts with the course permitted
+by the law of the mandate? What is worse yet, the mandate over the South
+Seas has brought Japan closer by hundreds of miles to both New Zealand
+and Australia, and has thrown open the question of admission of Asiatic
+people to these islands. The Australasians feel that they are obliged to
+protect not only themselves from Asiatic competition, but the native
+races as well. If they are to carry out the provisions of the mandate to
+rule the islands for the good of the natives, they feel that they cannot
+introduce Asiatic labor, which undermines the natives economically and
+morally every time it is attempted. These are some of the problems
+Australasia inherited from the Peace Conference.
+
+How have they affected the relations of New Zealand and the Commonwealth
+of Australia with Great Britain? They have put a new strain upon the
+empire as such; they have put an added strain upon the relations between
+Japan and Great Britain; they have driven a wedge into the
+Anglo-Japanese Alliance.
+
+Further, the whole question of mandates as it pertains to the Pacific
+has completely opened new sores. The island of Yap, which has been in
+the press so much of late, is an example. A blow at so vital a factor in
+world relations as cables would be like a blow on the medulla oblongata.
+Yet under that new and misleading term, "mandate," Yap became Japanese,
+and the near future is not likely to know just what was done when
+Germany's colonies were apportioned under its ruling. Yet what is fair
+for Great Britain and the Dominions should be fair for Japan, and if
+mandate means possession for one it ought to mean it for the other. But
+where do we come in and where the peace of the Pacific? Already, as
+stated elsewhere, Japan has had in mind the fortification of the
+Marshall Islands. She is proceeding to fortify the Bonin Islands and the
+Pescadores. She is, according to a very recent rumor,--and rumors are
+really the only things one can secure in such matters,--establishing an
+airship station on the southeast coast of Formosa,--not on the west,
+which would shorten her distance to China, but on the east, cutting down
+mileage to the Philippines. And we? Well, we know what we are about,
+too. Hence, the sooner such matters as mandates are defined, the better
+for the world.
+
+
+4
+
+How would these things work out with the new British arrangement as to
+the control of the Dominions? We have seen that behind the whole
+struggle for the development of an Australian navy was the desire for
+greater independence. As long as the war lasted, no troublesome topics
+were broached. Now that the war is over, one may expect the feathers to
+begin to fly. The Dominions are not stifling their desire for greater
+and greater freedom. They were involved in a colossal war without ever
+having been consulted. They feel that now they have earned their right
+to express judgment on international affairs. They realize that nothing
+could be done effectively if Downing Street were hampered by several
+wills at work at the same time. Yet it is obvious that the people of the
+Dominions are concerned first with their own affairs, as nations, and
+are devoted to Britain only in a secondary manner. They are now
+conscious of their power, and are determined to wield it. They have made
+and are doing everything to continue to make friends on their own, by
+whom they mean to stand through thick and thin. At the Peace Conference
+they were not inferior to any of the deliberators, and signed the Peace
+Treaty as virtual members of the League of Nations.
+
+"But," asks the Wellington "Evening Post," "are the Dominions ever to
+cast an international vote against the Mother Country on a question
+relating, say, to the future of the Pacific regarding which their
+interests and wishes might rather harmonize with those of the United
+States?"
+
+Mr. Massey, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, on the other hand, held
+"that the Dominions had signed the Treaty not as independent nations in
+the ordinary sense, but as nations within the Empire or partners in the
+Empire."
+
+But to show how complicated the whole position was, a Mr. W. Downie
+Stewart, M.P., pointed out that
+
+   When New Zealand signed the Peace Treaty ... she took upon herself
+   the status of a power involving herself in all the rights and
+   obligations of one of the signatories.... That means that she may
+   have created for herself a new status altogether in the world of
+   foreign affairs, and instead of being an act to bring together more
+   closely the component parts of the Empire, it may be that it was
+   the first and most serious step toward obtaining our independence
+   and treating ourselves as a sovereign power.
+
+And in connection with Samoa he says the time may come when, having been
+recognized as an independent power, they will be told "we look to you in
+future, whenever a question of internal affairs arises, to act as an
+independent power, making peace or war on your own initiative."
+
+Prime Minister Hughes, of Australia, however, has been steering a middle
+course. He points to the dangers lying ahead, and to the absolute
+necessity of keeping close to Britain. He urges that the alliance with
+Japan be renewed, but in such a way as to leave no danger of losing
+America's friendship. But he shows that the spirit of independence is
+still uppermost in Australia. Declaring that "The June Conference has
+not been called to even consider Constitutional changes," he adds: "It
+it is painfully evident from articles which have appeared in the press
+and in magazines ... that to a certain type of mind, the Constitution of
+the British Empire is far from what it should be."
+
+But though Hughes is to-day the leader of Australia, it is not because
+he has the country back of him. It is rather because there is
+unfortunately no better man on hand. He has never cared much for
+consistency, and even in the matter of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance there
+is a suggestion of yielding that makes one feel uncertain. He has
+declared that at the present conference the question of a reorganization
+of the Government so as to give the Dominions a direct share in the
+control of imperial affairs is not even being thought of, but it is
+evident in his speech that that question is going to be delayed only
+because more pressing matters, such as the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and
+Imperial Naval Defense, must be dealt with first. In other words, as
+spokesman he realizes that "little" Australia, with its five million
+people and its vast continent has asked too much of its parent to be
+allowed to stand alone. So he is pouring oil on the troubled waters by
+trying to devise an Anglo-Japanese Treaty "in such form, modified, if
+that should be deemed proper, as will be acceptable to Britain, to
+America, to Japan, and to ourselves."
+
+But there is a third consideration in this whole question, and that is
+Japan. What is Japan going to say about it all? For some time Japanese
+have been rather cool in their enthusiasm over the alliance, because it
+seems to them to have outlived its usefulness and because Article 4
+absolves Great Britain from assisting Japan in the event of war with
+America. The "Osaka Asahi," one of the most influential of Japanese
+journals, has boldly advocated its abrogation. The reason for both
+British and Japanese indifference is obvious. Russia and Germany are out
+of the way. British mercantile interests are not at all satisfied with
+Japanese methods in China. The alliance has been disregarded
+twice,--when the Sino-Japanese Military Agreement was signed, and when
+the Twenty-one Demands were made. Furthermore, the alliance never
+protected Japanese interests when they came in conflict with the
+interests of the colonies, nor has it prevented British interests from
+suffering in the Far East. As a protective alliance it has little more
+to do except to guarantee Great Britain against Japan and Japan against
+Great Britain. China is extremely antagonistic, because she deems
+herself to be the worst sufferer. She is the main point under
+consideration, yet she has not been consulted. Hence she has done
+everything in her power to arouse public opinion against its renewal.
+
+Nevertheless, Japan has been concerned enough for the renewal of the
+alliance to make a departure from her age-long attitude toward the
+imperial family that is extremely interesting if not illuminating. The
+recent visit to England of Prince Hirohito, heir to the throne, while
+meant to widen his grasp of world affairs, was certainly intended also
+to arouse public feeling there in favor of Japan and the alliance. This
+was the first time that any Japanese prince of the blood had left Japan.
+He hobnobbed with the common people, a thing unheard of in Japan. But if
+he succeeded in winning popular approval for the alliance, it was
+doubtless worth while from the Japanese point of view. Otherwise the
+risk would not have been justified, for such visits are not without
+their dangers. It is interesting to recall that when Nicholas,
+Czarevitch of Russia, made a tour of the world upon the completion of
+the Siberian Railway, in 1891, he passed through Japan. An attack upon
+his person by a Japanese policeman nearly brought down the wrath of the
+czar upon Japan, and there was much explanation.
+
+While Japan was anxious to have the alliance renewed, she argued that
+England was more in need of it than she. America, she said, had somewhat
+eclipsed England. Japanese feel that England must now lean on Japan as
+never before. They felt this when the alliance was formed. Count
+Hayashi, in his "Secret Memoirs," quotes a statement attributed to
+Marquis Ito, as follows:
+
+   It is difficult to understand why England has broken her record in
+   foreign politics and has decided to enter into an alliance with us;
+   the mere fact that England has adopted this attitude shows that she
+   is in dire need, and she therefore wants to use us in order to make
+   us bear some of her burdens.
+
+Ito was then playing Russia against England. To-day England is being
+played against America, and the colonies are eager to utilize the
+feelings of Japan and America for a greater Pacific fleet and for their
+own augmented freedom within the empire. There is much talk of a secret
+agreement existing between Japan and Great Britain. Even if there were,
+Great Britain would be able to live up to it, in the event of war
+between Japan and America, only at the risk of losing her colonies.
+
+However, that need not be taken as a serious check, for though Great
+Britain wants her colonies, she does not want them enough to forego all
+other considerations. On the other hand, a good deal of the pro-American
+feeling in the colonies cannot be accepted too easily, for, as we have
+seen, when America remained neutral they forgot blood relationship in
+their criticism. To-day there are interpretations of the alliance which
+would put Great Britain in exactly the same position toward her younger
+"daughters" for which Australasia condemned America in 1914-17. But both
+the psychological and material elements in the situation point to an
+absolutely united front in Australasia for America in event of all the
+talk about war with Japan coming to a head. That is best illustrated by
+a statement in the "Japan Chronicle." The editor says: "As we have
+repeatedly pointed out, it is unthinkable that Britain should join Japan
+in actual warfare with America. No Ministry in England which
+deliberately adopted such a policy would live for a single day." And the
+colonies, from Canada to Australia, will echo that sentiment, as they
+did boldly at the Conference.
+
+But it seems that with so much of the world vitally interested in
+maintaining peace in the Pacific there should be no difficulty at all in
+so doing. The colonies are sincere in their desire for amity with
+America; nor is it merely a matter of common language. No one who has
+taken the trouble to inquire into Far Eastern affairs finds the handicap
+of language even the remotest cause of misunderstanding. Actions speak
+louder than words, and none but the ignorant can now misread what is
+going on in Asia. Let but those actions coincide with the promises made,
+with the spirit of the alliance and with the constant expression of
+amity and good-will, and we shall see the mist of war in the Pacific
+clear as before the glories of the morning sun.
+
+There seems, therefore, no justification for the renewal of the
+Anglo-Japanese Alliance. It is to all intents and purposes virtually
+dead. Alliances on the whole have proved themselves treacherous
+safeguards. Is there not something which can be substituted for them?
+Cannot coöperation among nations replace intriguing misalliances, with
+their vicious secret diplomacy? One way has been launched, and in the
+succeeding chapter its character will be analyzed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE CONSORTIUM FOR FINANCING CHINA
+
+
+1
+
+If all goes well, the open shop in international finance is a thing of
+the past; at least so far as China goes. On May 11, 1920, exactly
+eighteen months after the signing of the armistice, Japan formally
+declared her willingness to enter the new consortium for lending money
+to China, and on October 15, following, representatives of the British,
+French, Japanese, and American banking-groups met in New York and there
+signed the provisions by which they are for the next five years going to
+finance China under what is known as the Consortium Agreement.
+
+For a full year after the signing of the armistice, Great Britain,
+France, and America had been ready to act in consort in the matter of
+future loans to China, but Japan insisted on excluding from the terms of
+the agreement international activity in Manchuria and Eastern Inner
+Mongolia. These two provinces have virtually become Japanese territory.
+Into these she has extended her railroads or added to those built by
+Russia, and over these she watched as a hen over ducklings. And because
+she strenuously sought to manoeuver the Allies into admitting her
+prior rights to these regions, the consummation of the Consortium
+Agreement was delayed and delayed. Japan finally yielded, at the same
+time claiming that the powers conceded her special interests; while
+they, through their chief representative, Mr. Thomas W. Lamont, claimed
+that Japan waived these interests. We shall presently see what happened,
+but in the meantime it is obvious that both yielded and both won
+out,--and that no nation is to-day sufficiently powerful and
+self-contained to be able to stand apart from the rest of the world. The
+closed shop in international finance has been ushered in, and the union
+of world bankers is now known as the Consortium.
+
+In a chapter it is hardly possible to make more than a hasty survey of
+so intricate a stretch of history. China before the war with Japan was
+free from debt, but in order to meet the indemnity demanded by Japan she
+was compelled to raise money abroad. The scramble among the foreign
+powers to advance this money gave China certain advantages. Her own
+capitalists had money enough to pay off this indemnity immediately, but
+they did not trust their government and hoarded their funds. They knew
+that with the Oriental system of "squeeze" only a fraction of it would
+succeed in freeing their country.
+
+Another factor conspired to introduce alien domination over China,--her
+lack of railroads and modern industries. She had wealth, man-power,
+everything that an isolated nation could possibly desire, but she was no
+longer an isolated nation, and she had nothing that an active nation
+among nations needed for its very existence. Instantly, along with the
+loans, came concessions for railroad-building, and the development of
+China began. So deeply was China getting embroiled in alien machinations
+that five years later, seeing that the young emperor himself, Huang-Hsu,
+was head-over-heels in love with Western ways, the reactionaries
+precipitated the Boxer Uprising in 1900. This only resulted in another
+overwhelming indemnity, which China has not yet succeeded in paying off.
+Consequently, more loans had to be made, and more urgent still became
+the necessity for means of transportation and for the modernization of
+industry.
+
+The Russo-Japanese War, which ordinarily might have meant a modicum of
+relief to China, only succeeded in entrenching her enemy much more
+securely at her very door, and another period of alien scrambling over
+Chinese loans set in. Coöperation among various groups of foreign
+bankers regardless of nationality was not unknown, for absolute
+competition would most likely have been fatal. But thoroughly
+thought-out getting together was, in view of the existing jealousy among
+nations, inconceivable. Still, to such a pass had this suicidal
+competition come that by 1909 a consortium was proposed which aimed to
+include Russia, Japan, Germany, France, England, and America. It began
+to work, but Secretary of State Knox made a proposal for the
+neutralization and internationalization of the Manchurian railway system
+which met with a cold no from Japan. Shortly afterward Japan made an
+agreement with Russia which completely frustrated Knox's proposals, and
+the thing virtually fell through.
+
+In 1913, President Wilson took the matter in hand. He refused to become
+a party to a scheme which, in his estimation, instead of working for the
+rehabilitation of China and the Open Door bound her helplessly. And ever
+since China has been getting "the crumby side" of every deal. For the
+plan as it then existed had no provisions against the pernicious
+practice of marrying China to one power after another with concessions,
+without giving any guaranty of the preservation of her dower
+rights,--freedom in her industrial and political affairs.
+
+Russia then was Japan's "natural" enemy. Russia was threatening the
+"very existence" of Japan. Yet when Knox's proposal came up, Japan was
+ready to unite with Russia in order to keep the others out of Manchuria.
+She had to use that argument to save her face. Bear this in mind, for we
+shall presently see that a second time Japan used this argument in order
+to keep the consummation of the consortium in abeyance. It was more than
+a plea for special interests because of propinquity; it was a plea that
+the peace and safety of the empire demanded it.
+
+Propinquity! The pin in that word has pricked nearly every one who has
+shown any interest in China, no matter where. Japan used propinquity as
+a justification of her annexation of Korea, breaking her word to that
+kingdom in so doing. Yet Japan contends that she never has broken her
+word. Japan is a nation true to her word, but, like many another nation,
+is loose in her wording. She has guaranteed the Open Door in Manchuria
+and Mongolia,--and Korea. In Korea the door is shut, and Japan has made
+entrance to the other spheres of little advantage. Ill-content with
+penetration of these regions, she has, by means of her railroads there,
+sought to divert the course of Chinese trade from Shanghai through
+Manchuria and Korea and Japan. In this there is nothing intrinsically
+wrong. But she goes farther and tries to exclude consortium activity in
+other fields in these two provinces. But that these are not the only
+slices of China she is after,--that they are, in fact, only
+stepping-stones for the final domination of the great republic,--is
+attested to by certain well-known facts in Far Eastern affairs.
+
+Japan and her friends assert she never has broken her word; her enemies
+declare she is sinister and not to be trusted. Neither statement is
+correct. Her methods may sometimes be sinister, but no one who follows
+events in the Far East is unaware of them, and Japan has taken no pains
+to conceal them. Actions speak louder than words. But has Japan actually
+never broken her word? We have already referred to Korea, whose
+independence Japan has guaranteed by published treaty. During the war
+Japan carried out the requirements of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, but
+Article V reads:
+
+   The High Contracting Parties agree that neither of them will,
+   without consulting the other, enter into separate arrangements with
+   another Power to the prejudice of the objects described in the
+   Preamble of this Agreement.
+
+Notwithstanding this clear stipulation, Japan immediately after
+capturing Kiao-chau from Germany, without consulting Great Britain as
+herein provided, issued the Twenty-one Demands on China. Of these Group
+V alone would have made a vassal state of China had she accepted them.
+Knowledge of these were kept from Britain completely, but when they
+finally leaked out, Japan vociferously denied them. Downing Street was
+not pleased, but there was much to be done in Europe just then. In 1918,
+Japan a second time made an arrangement with China without consulting
+her ally, Great Britain. This time it was the Sino-Japanese Military
+Agreement. At the moment Russia withdrew from the war and released the
+German prisoners, and that was the excuse for imposing combined military
+action under Japanese officers.
+
+As though this were not enough, when the success of Germany on the
+western front was at its height, Count Terauchi, Prime Minister and
+arch-plotter in China, came out with a statement published by Mr.
+Gregory Mason of the "Outlook" to the effect that it was not unlikely
+that some understanding, if not alliance, might be effected between
+Japan, Russia and Germany. And the rumors of such an understanding
+having been actually arrived at, have since been shown to have had just
+foundation.
+
+Furthermore, since 1917, according to "Millard's Review" for April,
+1920, Japan has lent China about 281,543,762 yen or thereabouts,
+privately, for political and industrial purposes, for reorganization,
+railway construction, munitions, canal improvements, flood relief,
+wireless, forestry, war participation, and other undertakings.
+
+These things must be recalled in considering the new consortium, as they
+show what led up to its final consummation. These actions of Japan
+indicate encroachment upon China to the extent of virtually closing the
+Open Door. In this regard, the alliance has had a dual effect: while it
+makes possible for Japan to go as far as Britain would dare go, and even
+farther, on the other hand it tends to keep Japan in check. Hence, the
+state of mind of the Japanese on the subject of the treaty has been
+contradictory. They have regarded its renewal and its abrogation with
+about equal anxiety. From a moral point of view, they dare not stand
+alone in the world, being the only great autocracy remaining. Conscious
+of their power and twitching under the restraint which the alliance
+imposes, yet needing its support, they are trying to make it appear that
+Great Britain needs it fully as much.
+
+As far as Great Britain goes, the alliance was formed chiefly to
+guarantee the interests of the empire, but also the Open Door and
+China's integrity. That is, that Japanese Yen and British Sovereigns
+should have full freedom to go to China to earn a living. Let us see
+what the various treaties and understandings purport to accomplish.
+
+The Anglo-Japanese Alliance assures "The preservation of the common
+interests of all Powers in China by insuring the independence and
+integrity of the Chinese Empire and the principle of equal opportunities
+for the commerce and industry of all nations in China."
+
+The Root-Takahira Understanding declares: "The Policy of both
+Governments [Japanese and American], uninfluenced by any aggressive
+tendencies, is directed to the maintenance of the existing _status quo_
+in the region above mentioned and to the defense of the principle of
+equal opportunity for commerce and industry in China." In other words,
+without an alliance, America has secured from Japan an understanding
+guaranteeing the integrity of China and the Open Door for her pet, the
+Dollar. Hence, except for the fact that it made no promises to the
+effect, "My Ally, right or wrong, but still my ally," this agreement
+says that the American Dollar has as much right to earn a living in
+China as the Yen has.
+
+But in the meantime the Yen has been having it all his own way, for the
+Sovereign and the Franc and the Dollar were very busy doing things in
+Europe. And in good Oriental fashion the Yen has been breeding, and
+breeding rapidly. He was going to China, as we have seen, by the million
+and keeping China's interests and integrity, which all had guaranteed,
+in a very feverish state, notwithstanding alliances and agreements born
+and in embryo.
+
+This, at bottom, is what the whole Far Eastern problem is,--all of the
+governments seeking opportunities in China and mutually binding and
+barring one another from aggression and concessions. They have all
+guaranteed China's "integrity," but none, except America, has actually
+lived up to the agreement, and China's integrity is rapidly ceasing to
+be an integer.
+
+Now, if that were all there was to it, debate would be childish, but
+integers, like the atom, are not easily divided without creating
+something new. The atom becomes an electron; and the integer, when a
+nation, becomes a source of international conflict. Hence, it is of the
+utmost importance that China remain an integer. The Anglo-Japanese
+Alliance has failed to maintain China's integrity. The Root-Takahira
+Agreement seemed to cover the ground well enough, but that it was not
+sufficient is proved by the later necessity on the part of Mr. Lansing
+to supplement it by his so-called "understanding" with Viscount Ishii.
+However, that the Ishii-Lansing Agreement is loose and inadequate was
+obvious on the face of it and it was shown to be absurd when the
+Consortium Agreement was being negotiated. It seems that
+Secretary-of-State Lansing, realizing that his "agreement" with Ishii
+was being translated into a Monroe Doctrine of Asia, as it was never
+intended to be, fostered the new Consortium Agreement in order to throw
+a ring round the Ishii-Lansing Agreement and define its limitations.
+With the very first approach the promoters of the consortium made to
+Japan, Japan, as we have seen, began eliminating from its scope
+everything that propinquity permitted, threatening not only the
+consortium but the various previous agreements. I state these facts not
+to condemn Japan, but to delve into the psychology of the powers who, at
+the Peace Conference at Versailles, came to the conclusion that the only
+solution for the situation in the Far East was a coöperative scheme.
+They must be borne in mind in order to understand why Japan withheld
+from concurring, and finally yielded.
+
+
+2
+
+America was viewing all this with no little apprehension. Matters in the
+Far East were extremely precarious at the time she entered the war. It
+was in order to reassure Japan and merely as a restatement of issues
+that the Ishii-Lansing Agreement was made. Japan's propinquity was
+recognized. But it was also recognized that the Open Door was being
+walled up. Hence, the American Government, which had withdrawn from the
+Sextuple Consortium, suggested that a new consortium agreement be made
+in which the four leading powers take equal part. These powers had been
+drawn closer together during the war, and that concord was to be taken
+advantage of before it had a chance to dissipate.
+
+At the time that I wrote the article on "Lending Money to China" for the
+"World's Work," August, 1920, the whole consortium scheme was shrouded
+in mystery. Since then the correspondence that took place between the
+powers has in part been published. The way it developed is worthy of
+being outlined.
+
+The American bankers had been asked by the Government to enter the
+proposed consortium. They were not over-enthusiastic about it, for at
+the time they felt they had enough demand at home and in Europe for
+such funds as they could command. They realized that at that time (July,
+1918) they would be expected to carry, with Japan, both England and
+France, but they agreed that "such carrying should not diminish the
+vitality of the membership in the four-Power group." But they did
+stipulate that "One of the conditions of membership in such a four-Power
+group should be that there should be a relinquishment by the members of
+the group either to China or to the group of any options to make loans
+which they now hold, and all loans to China by any of them should be
+considered as a four-Power group business."
+
+Lansing replied to the bankers, accepting their stipulations, obviously
+his main intention in working for the consortium being, as I have said,
+to encircle the problem with a view to defining its limitations so as to
+make it impossible for Japan to interpret his agreement with Ishii too
+broadly.
+
+These communications were transmitted to the British Foreign Office,
+prompting a reply from Mr. Balfour on August 14, 1918, wherein he
+inquired whether it was the intention of the American Government to
+enter the $100,000,000 loan to China for currency reform which was then
+under consideration and toward which Japan had already made two separate
+advancements; and whether it was the intention of the United States to
+confine activities to administrative loans or to include industrial and
+railway enterprises as well. Lord Reading made inquiry of the State
+Department and determined that both types of loans had been considered.
+
+It is obvious from these communications that both Japan and Great
+Britain wished to retain their special interests in regard to the
+existing railway and industrial loans, and balked at their being pooled
+with those of the consortium. But England was ready enough from the
+beginning to forego these. The United States held "that industrial as
+well as administrative loans should be included in the new arrangement,
+for the reason that, in practice, the line of demarcation between those
+various classes of loans often is not easy to draw."
+
+Everything went along smoothly until Japan was consulted, and then it
+was found that while she was willing enough to enter into a consortium
+for the whole of China, she was emphatically unwilling to have Manchuria
+and Mongolia included. From the very beginning, the American, British,
+and French banking-groups and governments most decidedly refused to
+accede to Japan's demands in this matter, declaring that such a
+rendering would simply open up the sores of spheres-of-interests and
+concession-hunting, and completely nullify the purposes and intentions
+of the consortium. The Japanese argument is amusing. When Japan first
+encroached upon Manchuria and Mongolia, it was because of danger to her
+safety from Czarist Russia. Now she was face to face with Bolshevist
+Russia, and she trembled for her safety in these terms:
+
+   Furthermore, the recent development of the Russian situation,
+   exercising as it does an unwholesome influence upon the Far East,
+   is a matter of grave concern to Japan; in fact, the conditions in
+   Siberia, which have been developing with such alarming precipitancy
+   of late, are by no means far from giving rise to a most serious
+   situation, which may at any time take a turn threatening the safety
+   of Japan and the peace of the Far East, and ultimately place the
+   entire Eastern Asia at the mercy of the dangerous activities of
+   extremist forces. Having regard to these signals of the imminent
+   character of the situation, the Japanese Government all the more
+   keenly feel the need of adopting measures calculated to avert any
+   such danger in the interest of the Far East as well as of Japan.
+   Now, South Manchuria and Mongolia are the gate by which this
+   direful influence may effect its penetration into Japan and the Far
+   East to the instant menace of their security. The Japanese
+   Government are convinced that, having regard to the vital interests
+   which Japan, as distinct from the other Powers, has in the regions
+   of South Manchuria and Mongolia, the British Government will
+   appreciate the circumstances which compelled the Japanese
+   Government to make a special and legitimate reservation
+   indispensable to the existence of the state and its people....
+
+The utter fallacy of this is obvious. The consortium was not a
+miracle-worker. Its efforts would necessarily extend over a series of
+years; its principals were as opposed to Bolshevism as Japan was. But
+there was Japan,--bureaucratic, imperialistic Japan,--shedding tears
+over the prospect of what might happen to her people from Bolshevism if
+the consortium were permitted to take a share in the development of
+Manchuria and Mongolia,--to which she has no right other than that of
+her might.
+
+No pressure such as could be said to be in the nature of an ultimatum to
+join the consortium was exerted, of course, but it was obvious that
+unless Japan withdrew her objections the consortium would not
+materialize. Japan made an effort to get the other powers to make some
+written statement or accept her formula securing to her these special
+rights; but the others were adamant. Japan specified just what she
+feared,--the construction of other railroads.
+
+The United States replied:
+
+   The American Government cannot but acknowledge, however, its grave
+   disappointment that the formula proffered by the Japanese
+   Government is in terms so exceedingly ambiguous and in character so
+   irrevocable that it might be held to indicate a continued desire on
+   the part of the Japanese Government to exclude the American,
+   British, and French banking groups from participation in the
+   development, for the benefit of China, of important parts of that
+   republic, a construction which could not be reconciled with the
+   principle of the independence and territorial integrity of China.
+
+It is interesting to note that in all these communications, the Japanese
+Government is constantly referring to its own special interests and
+dangers, whereas the others repeat and repeat their concern for the
+integrity of China. It may be, after all, that the Japanese Government
+is the more honest, though America's stand is unchallengeable.
+
+I have dwelt sufficiently, I believe, with the emanations from behind
+departmental doors. The human elements are much more interesting.
+Suffice it to say that Japan held out for a long, long time, and things
+seemed hopeless. At last, after an understanding with all those
+concerned outside Japan, Mr. Thomas W. Lamont went to the Far East as
+spokesman for the other powers, to carry on negotiations with Japan.
+
+Unfortunately--whether by design or not I have no way of telling--an
+American business mission also went to Japan at that time, upon the
+invitation of Baron Shibusawa, popularly known as the "Schwab of Japan."
+Everybody got these two parties mixed, but I have since been very
+earnestly assured that Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip, who headed the business
+mission, had nothing whatever to do with Mr. Lamont's mission. Be that
+as it may, it was certain even from the twin-reports that while the
+business mission was being lavishly entertained, Mr. Lamont was seeing
+all that he wanted to see, and saying all that he wanted to say. The
+mission was discussing with Junnosuke Inouye, Governor of the Bank of
+Japan, and Baron Shibusawa, and others such questions as Japanese
+immigration, the Shantung situation, the invasion of Siberia, and the
+submarine cables. All that the world at large got as to the decisions
+arrived at was the fact that views were exchanged in a friendly manner,
+and some delightfully amusing articles from the pen of Julian Street who
+was the scribe of the occasion.
+
+In the meantime, Lamont, who seems to be a man for whom a dinner has
+little attraction, left the impression on the Japanese Government that
+Japan and Japan alone would lose by holding back. When he left Japan, to
+go to China, the Japanese Government was still determined on securing
+from the powers exemption for Manchuria and Mongolia.
+
+But a series of subsequent events helped Japan to make up her mind.
+First and foremost among these was the financial slump in Japan, which
+was seriously embarrassing. This was followed by financial stringency in
+Manchuria and the eagerness of the directors of the South Manchurian
+Railway,--who are at present involved in a far-reaching scandal for a
+loan which could not be floated in Japan and which was sought in
+America. Third, as either cause or effect, was the situation in China.
+China, on account of Japan's courtship of the Peking militarists and the
+rape of Shantung, had instituted a boycott of Japanese goods the
+bitterness and force of which Japan had learned to respect. These
+circumstances alone might have been enough to drive a nation to
+desperation; but a sensitive nation like Japan would suffer these things
+a thousand times over in silence. One thing Japan cannot stand, and that
+is the distrust of the world.
+
+And the Lamont party found from the moment it left Nagasaki for China
+until the moment it set foot again in Shimonoseki on its return that
+there was not a white man nor a yellow man who had a good word to say
+for Japan. Japan was an isolated country socially,--isolated a thousand
+times more definitely than she is geographically. And the good sense of
+the Japanese has brought them to a realization that that does not pay.
+Japan wants the good-will of the world, and she wants it sorely.
+
+When Mr. Lamont arrived in China he did not find the same atmosphere he
+had found in Japan. The fact that he had been in Japan first added to
+the suspicions of the Chinese. They had many things to ponder over and
+be suspicious about. China remembered the processes of westernization
+which she had had to answer with the Boxer Uprising in 1900. But China
+has never forgotten the return of the Boxer indemnity by the United
+States.
+
+In Peking some students threatened to stone the hotel at which Mr.
+Lamont stopped. A few came as special representatives of the student
+body, according to one report, and quizzed Mr. Lamont for two hours.
+They left apparently satisfied. Their strong plea was that no loans be
+made to the Government until peace between North and South was
+established.
+
+The press of China and the people of China were divided. Some of the
+Japanese, who owned papers in China, sought to alienate the sympathy of
+the Chinese for America; some tried other tactics. The Chinese
+militarists in Peking who had tasted of the flesh-pots of Nippon were
+not over-anxious to put themselves on a diet. Chinese patriots saw in
+the new consortium a rope of a different fiber. The consortium party
+found itself double-crossed by obvious agencies.
+
+In a measure this was justified all the way round, for the undertaking
+was shrouded in secrecy on many points which could not but discredit it
+in the eyes of many. Perhaps this was unavoidable, but it was none the
+less natural that China should be wary. In her own sort of way, China
+was taking inventory. The last loan of $125,000,000 only arrived in
+China as $104,851,840 after deductions for underwriting had been paid.
+And before the sum can be paid off, it will have cost China $235,768,105
+by way of interest and commissions. And China knows that only a small
+part of this tremendous sum had gone into actual constructive work.
+
+Yet China needs assistance. Railroads are the world's salvation and
+China's crying need. But for lack of railroads, China would to-day be
+the most powerful nation on earth, financially and politically. And the
+fact that her railroads are short while those of other countries are
+long makes of her a prey to those tentacles of trade against which she
+is helpless. China has to-day only about 6,500 miles of railroad: she
+needs 100,000. She who built the rambling wall has still only
+foot-paths. She needs 100,000 miles of highway. Her canals, which a
+thousand years ago kept the country open to trade and partially free
+from famine, have fallen into disrepair. She needs telegraphs,
+telephones, wireless. If only the money she borrowed went into such
+enterprises China would repay the world a thousandfold.
+
+It was therefore natural that China should be suspicious, and likewise
+natural that she should be willing to be convinced. What young China
+wanted most was definite and outspoken assurance that her integrity as a
+nation would not be jeopardized.
+
+The leading Chinese newspapers expressed their gratitude at repeated,
+assurances of due respect being given to Chinese public opinion and
+promises to refrain from interfering in her internal affairs. But
+others, like the China "Times," said:
+
+   The British plan to control our railroads jointly, and the American
+   plan is to monopolize our industries jointly, while the Japanese
+   plan to monopolize all our railroads, mines, forestry, and
+   industries. Any one of these plans will put our destiny in their
+   hands.
+
+It also declared: "Although it has been reported that Japan will make
+certain compromises, it is hard to say to what extent these will go."
+
+To this Mr. Lamont said: "It now remains for the Japanese Government
+formally to confirm this desire [of the bankers to join]. If they fail
+to do so and if Japan remains outside the consortium, I should think
+that Japan might prove to be the chief loser." He next made it clear to
+China that she would first have to establish peace if she is to be
+helped. Aside from the reorganization of the currency, the consortium is
+going to see to it that a sufficiently safe audit system is established,
+so that it will be sure that all loan expenditures go as far as they
+should into the properties themselves. Further, the Chinese Government,
+in order to save some cash, refused to pay on certain bearer bonds which
+had come back rather curiously. These were formerly German property
+bonds on the Hukuan Railway loan which Germany had evidently sold off
+before the war. They had now come back by way of England and America.
+The Chinese Government wanted proof of transference on bearer bonds. Mr.
+Lamont pointed out to them that this action would totally discredit them
+and that the ability to secure further investments would be very slim
+unless these were redeemed. Mr. Lamont then returned to Japan.
+
+Then it became known that the Japanese Government had finally given its
+consent. In Japan, opinion ranged from imperialistic chauvinism to
+liberal recognition of the consortium as a way out of the mess. On May
+11 things came to a head. Mr. Lamont stated on his return to America
+that:
+
+   The fact that Japan has come into the Consortium for China without
+   reservations should be made clear. The agreement that the Japanese
+   banking group with the approval of its government, signed at Tokio,
+   leaves nothing to be desired on this point; but in Japan, while
+   there was perfect readiness by all authorities to announce that an
+   understanding had been reached, there seems to be some reluctance
+   to make public any statement that the Japanese Government had
+   withdrawn its reservations as to Manchuria and Mongolia. It is only
+   fair, therefore, that every member of the American banking group
+   and American investors generally should clearly understand the
+   facts.
+
+Still Viscount Uchida, the Foreign Minister, insisted:
+
+   While other powers can afford to regard the new Consortium solely
+   as a business matter Japan is otherwise situated, since her vital
+   national interests, such as national defense and economic
+   existence, are apt to be involved in enterprises near her border.
+   When the three other governments expressly declared to Japan that
+   they not only did not contemplate acts inimical to her vital
+   interests but were ready to give assurance sufficiently
+   safeguarding them, the Japanese Government decided to confirm the
+   Paris agreement.
+
+What Japan expected the powers to say other than just that is a matter
+for diplomats to play with. To the common person this statement is
+absolutely meaningless. It is a generalization which leaves the door
+open for Japan to object to loans for any work which she feels will
+jeopardize her national life or vitally affect her "sovereignty." Any
+railroad scheme which might become a competitor by diverting freight
+from Manchurian lines owned by Japan would be a menace to Japan's
+sovereignty.
+
+For instance, it seems understood that among these vital interests are
+certain loans to Chinese capitalists and corporations. And doubtless
+Japan would right now much rather have the millions which she has sunk
+in China in her own hands. But if these loans are recognized, what
+guarantee is there that even under the nose of the consortium further
+"loans" will not be made?
+
+Is it likely that Japan will relinquish her hold on the South Manchurian
+Railroad, which in her opinion is of strategic importance? If the
+consortium is to have no say in such vested interests, obtained before
+its conclusion, how is it going to secure itself against these very
+interests being used as a means of breaking up the unity of the
+cooperative enterprises? How is so sweeping a clause going to be kept
+within bonds? If Japan is left in full control of the Manchurian
+railways, if the consortium has not really dissolved the Sino-Japanese
+Military Agreement, if Japan is to control the German-built railways in
+Shantung, how is the consortium going to better things in the Far East?
+There is altogether too much silence on many points in the consortium
+project for the world to have any real assurance. Secret diplomacy
+having been discredited, it seems that bankers have themselves broken
+into diplomacy. Of course, individuals have a perfect right in this
+modern world to discuss whatever matters they like,--and governments,
+too, for that matter,--but it should seem that the people as a whole
+whose money, whose happiness, and whose lives are involved have a right
+to know to the last detail what has been traded off in the making of the
+consortium. China evidently was placated by Lamont with full
+explanations of what the consortium intended. In brief it was this:
+
+The agreement calls for the pooling of all such interests of the several
+powers in China as had not been already developed separately, in a "full
+and free partnership." In this way it is hoped that future spheres of
+influence will be eliminated, jealousies between the powers be done away
+with, and Chinese grafters be prevented from pitting one power against
+the other for their own selfish ends. Chinese complain that now they
+will not be able to secure loans on a competitive basis and that
+therefore they are being more surely strangled. That is partially true.
+But it is also true that corrupt Chinese officials have been keeping
+China and the world in turmoil for their own greedy ends. Both of these
+things must be stopped if peace is to obtain in the Pacific.
+
+The guarantees given to China were to the effect that in no
+circumstances would the consortium undertake such private enterprises as
+banking, manufacturing, or commerce, but would devote itself entirely to
+the construction of railroads, the laying of highways, and the
+reorganization of China's currency. The consortium was to make loans to
+the central or provincial government only, but as a condition of their
+advancement, peace between the North and South was urged. The consortium
+was not to interfere in the domestic affairs of China. Loans were to be
+made only with the approval of the governments behind the bankers. Nor,
+of course, can you compel any one to borrow money from you, wherein
+China has the whip hand. Herein lies a very important possibility.
+
+China has plenty of money. Its bankers hoard enough to clean up the
+country's debts in no time. But they cannot trust their governmental
+officials; they never have trusted them. But just lately these bankers
+have been awakening to the wisdom of foreign financial methods, and are
+adopting them. This may be the first good result of the consortium.
+
+On the other hand, should the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance
+displease China, she may refuse to recognize the consortium. What then?
+China has set out to strangle the alliance, which was formed without
+consulting her. But we speculated enough in the last chapter to show
+that should the consortium really work, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance
+would cease to have any functional value.
+
+But there are dangers in the consortium,--and even in the coöperative
+development of China. If Japan joins whole-heartedly in the consortium,
+she may be the greatest gainer. For here are all the powers mutually
+developing China, laying railways, and opening up the resources of the
+country. Who, more than Japan, is going to tap China's unlimited raw
+supplies,--the coal in Shansi, for instance, which is enough to supply
+the world's needs for a thousand years? And should Japan in the end
+still seek the hegemony of the East, she could utilize these railroads
+and resources for her own aggrandizement. Who could stop her? Have not
+the separate governments given Japan their assurance that she "need have
+no reason to apprehend that the consortium would direct any activities
+affecting the security of the economic life and national defense of
+Japan?"
+
+There is, it is said, only little left to be told, but that little may
+be more than enough. But if China is really helped to strength and
+independence, then the greatest menace that has ever faced mankind will
+have been averted, and China, a country with the oldest culture in the
+world, will have been won back to civilization. Not in emasculated
+alliances but in a healthy cooperation will the peace of the Pacific be
+preserved. And the consortium, as things are in the world, is the first
+example of international good sense known to modern history.
+
+Now, the Consortium Agreement is not an idealistic scheme. The powers
+recognize that the future peace of the world depends on how they manage
+their affairs in China. If the consortium throws all secrecy to the
+winds and comes out openly and at all times for the principles on which
+it was formed and for which the several governments have guaranteed
+their protection to these banking-groups, what use is there going to be
+for the alliance? Perhaps, to paraphrase President Wilson's statement
+when he went across the Atlantic with his challenge for the freedom of
+the seas, Great Britain and Japan may now have to say to the world:
+"Gentlemen, the joke's on us. Why, if the consortium works in China
+there is going to be no need of an alliance!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+UNCHARTED SEAS
+
+
+We have taken a long journey together. The main routes along the Pacific
+which are the highways of our past and future intercourse have been
+inspected. But the great Pacific basin is not yet everywhere safe for
+navigation. There is, I understand, a scientific expedition now at work
+thoroughly charting every inch of that wonderful watery waste. There is,
+I know, a scientific body under the directorship of Professor Gregory of
+Yale for the thorough research of ethnological materials among the races
+of the Pacific. But aside from the efforts of individuals, politically
+and socially and hygienically, there is nothing going on to bind the
+peoples together. I had nearly forgotten that a year ago we did send out
+a political expedition to the Far East, a Congressional expedition which
+spent four days in Japan and, I daresay, a week in China. Otherwise, we
+are still at the mercy of individual scribes, who, like myself, have
+their own points of view, their own motives, and their own reactions.
+
+For years I have read religiously every interview reported in the press,
+with spokesmen for one country or the other on the Pacific. The mass of
+clippings I have accumulated I have time and again sifted carefully for
+some word or sign that might indicate the real problem. But I have
+failed to find any. I cannot lay the responsibility on the press. It
+rests with the individuals who have been asked to give their opinions.
+But as far as substance goes, they may all best be illustrated by a
+sentence from the speech of Viscount Uchida, the Minister for Foreign
+Affairs, delivered before the Imperial Diet. I have the speech as it
+came to me from the East and West News Bureau. The sentence I have
+selected, for the translation of which the Viscount is of course not
+responsible, is this: "It is true that this friendly relationship is not
+without an occasional mingling of incidents; that is almost inevitable
+in any international relations." All speeches such as these are
+remarkably free from definition. Speech after speech is reported, all
+plead for understanding, but in none of these is any basis for
+understanding given. Sentiment will not dissolve international
+suspicion.
+
+Right here I should like to make it clear that Japan is not the only
+nation that is being maligned, as some would have us believe. Exclusion
+is practised not against Japan alone, though in other cases it is
+practised in a different manner. The Honolulu Chamber of Commerce
+excludes white men from entering its sacred sanctums nearly as much.
+Unless you are approved by the chamber, you will find it very difficult
+to take up a profession. As I look back over my years of wandering in
+the farthermost reaches of the Pacific I recall incident after incident
+that is indicative of what is toward.
+
+Wherever competition is rife, the competitors lay themselves out to be
+courteous and friendly, but in the long runs that dissect the waters of
+that ocean, so secure have many of the steamship companies felt that
+decency has frequently been forgotten. The carelessness of the rights of
+the unhappy voyager who merely pays for a privilege on the Union
+Steamship Company is not conducive to international good feeling. The
+lack of common courtesy on the part of many of the employees of this
+company is proverbial even among the Britons in Australasia. Peoples in
+the goings and comings gain their impressions of countries very often
+from such samples as are forced upon their attention en route. And over
+the bars in the distant lands compatriots give vent to recriminations of
+the compatriots of other nations in a manner not flattering to either.
+
+One of the most unfortunate features of the whole problem of the Pacific
+is that only too often the men who are accountable for the most serious
+sources of dislike are men who at home would be kept in check by a
+healthy fear of social ostracism. But once a white man enters trade in
+an Oriental port as a clerk or salesman, he seems to consider it his
+bounden duty as a representative of his country to run down the natives
+as viciously as he dare. I have seen white men who at home would hold
+their tongues lest they offend some decent woman's ears with their vile
+language assume an air of superiority toward the men amongst whom they
+are living that is certainly not conducive to international amity. I
+have heard them express a longing for a chance some day to come back and
+"lick" these natives that, considering the human sufferings involved, is
+at the very depths of unrighteousness.
+
+Nor is this feeling directed against Orientals only. I have heard
+serious statements from Americans against the British that are not only
+unjustifiable but astounding. And the British themselves maintain a
+lordly superiority to all others. The boast that "the sun never sets on
+English soil" is illustrative of a certain provincialism among Britons
+that is not healthful from an international outlook. Britons generally
+take such routes hither and thither as leave them always within the
+British Empire, and the result is a dull point of view with regard to
+foreign lands. To be regarded as a foreigner is a source of great
+irritation to a Briton; he cannot stand this "slur" when passing through
+America. Even within the British dominions themselves there are childish
+prides that make understanding impossible,--the New Zealander being
+against the Australian and both against everybody else.
+
+These antagonisms more than all else are at the bottom of the confusion
+obtaining to-day in the Pacific. Their utter folly and futility are
+simply suicidal. Were it not better that we study carefully the social
+and political ideals of every race on the Pacific and see in what
+manner such changes may be effected as will preclude conflict? Is not
+America's preëminence in the Pacific to-day due to her return of the
+Boxer indemnity, to her attempt at winning the sympathy of the Filipino,
+to her friendship for China? Cannot the sympathy and the emulation of
+races supplant their enmity and jealousy? In the manner in which the
+various peoples of the Pacific turn to their problems lies permanent
+peace. There is already a considerable veering round of national
+conceptions toward the recognition of our common welfare being dependent
+on mutual development, as in the case of the consortium.
+
+One gets tired of the perennial expressions of felicitation of the
+"leaders" of states, of the sentimental balderdash which emanates from
+international "functions" of the world's "best" people, who don one
+another's garments and pledge one another eternal affection, of those
+who assure us that the fact that one nation has placed with "us" an
+order for the latest type of electrically driven super-dreadnaught
+indicates the love and fellowship obtaining between us. Only four years
+ago, Viscount Bryce admitted that "Most of us, however, know so little
+about the island groups of the Pacific, except from missionary
+narratives and from romances, like those of Robert Louis Stevenson, that
+the recent action of the white peoples in the islands is practically a
+new subject, and one which well deserves to be dealt with." And despite
+all those speeches, despite all the international societies--that exist,
+it seems, only to entertain celebrities, not to uncover
+misunderstandings that they may truly be corrected--real irritation
+comes from the average man's notions, and to him should attention be
+directed.
+
+Those vast spaces to which Viscount Bryce referred, once regarded with
+such awe, are now criss-crossed with a veritable network of steamers.
+They have made short shrift of the distances between the East and the
+West. We may invite one another across for week-ends, but not
+necessarily for life, and the impressions each brings away with him will
+go toward making up the sum total of what is going to be the thought of
+the Pacific. Are we to navalize the Pacific or to civilize it? Are we to
+convert every projecting rock into a menace, or are we to be honest
+navigators exposing every treacherous island for the safety of all
+races? Are we to scramble for interests in the Pacific, or are we to
+help races there to rise to strength and independence, so that each will
+be a healthy buffer against aggression? The "Valor of Ignorance" is not
+to be met with the blindness of force.
+
+I sought to obtain a bit of information once from a dispenser of
+"understanding" located in New York, but he tried to lead me off the
+scent. It was not, he feared, to his country's credit that such and such
+facts be known. He was very sensitive, and gave me no assistance. This
+covering up of our weaknesses before the eyes of our neighbors is
+certain to lead to disaster. This putting our best foot forward, only to
+have the other ready for a nasty kick, is not going to bring about
+amity. If there is an ideal worthy of emulation in any race in the
+Pacific, we ought to know and honor it. If there is a sore which needs
+scientific political treatment, let us attend to it. Our problems are
+well defined, if we will but look for them; our obligations are clear,
+if we will but undertake them courageously.
+
+We are not going to solve our problems as we did with the coming of
+Japan into the range of the world,--by adulation. To-day we are
+suffering from the effects of having made the Japanese feel that they
+are perfect and to be adored. The problem is one of unadulterated
+education, of education in the simple arts of self-support among the
+primitive people, and self-government among the more advanced.
+
+But if our efforts are to be fruitful we must avoid abstract education
+which leads to hair-splitting. It is to be education in the
+fundamentals,--education in the use of hands and brain for self-support
+and mutual happiness founded on justice. It is to be education of
+ourselves as well as of those we wish to elevate.
+
+But the problem is even deeper than that. Merely elevating other races
+will not preclude conflict. Germany was well educated and on a level
+with, if not in many ways superior to the nations roundabout her. Her
+very development created friction. And the talk of Japan as a menace is
+largely due to the fact that Japan has grown out of the lowly state in
+which her exclusionists had placed her for two hundred and fifty years.
+As yet China is no "menace," for China has still her teeming hordes who
+curtail one another's usefulness.
+
+Nor, as I have said in the chapter on Australasia, will the problem of
+our relationship with the people of the Pacific be solved by the effort
+of labor to keep up its own high standards by the exclusion of those of
+lower standard.
+
+Nor will the problem be solved by our assuming more and more
+protectorates over simple nations unused to the tricks of diplomacy.
+
+Our problem will be solved only by working assiduously for international
+coöperation. Our problem will clear away when all nations establish
+departments open to civil-service appointments of people who will enter
+the field of education and uplift work without other compensation
+possible than that of an honest salary. There should be a Department of
+Education for the Pacific in which the people of the United States do
+out of their own funds what we did in China out of the moneys paid in
+the Boxer indemnity. This department would study the races of the
+Pacific with a view to finding what are the special requirements of each
+particular people and how they can be supplied. There should be a Bureau
+of Social Hygiene and Sanitary Engineering recruited from the American
+student body with luring pay, drawing thousands of young physicians and
+engineers out into the various Pacific islands to study the questions of
+the eradication of disease and the care of body and mind. There should
+be a Bureau of Civics and International Law carrying to the peoples of
+the Pacific whose simplicity lays them open to the chicanery of
+political parasites the simple truths of human relationships as we
+understand them. So the entire fabric of civilization might be spread
+over the waters of the Pacific. But to guard against the possibility of
+some sword piercing it and rending it must come the voice of
+civilization calling shame upon the present practices of any nation now
+operating in the Pacific in other than pacific ways.
+
+All this must be done not by America alone, but by all the people now in
+a position to coöperate. Just as Japan codified her laws and changed
+them in conformity with those of the West, so as to regain full rights
+over foreigners in her own territory, so must all the nations reorganize
+their laws in conformity with the best interests of all. There must be
+judges in all lands who know the laws of other lands as well as their
+own and an attempt be made to bring them all in greater conformity to a
+universal standard of justice, of right and wrong. There must be
+educators set to work studying the educational systems of nations on the
+Pacific so as to bring the methods more and more in line with one
+another. There must be departments of health advising one another how so
+to remedy conditions as to eliminate the danger of spread of plague. It
+is not enough that we have an excellent department of health vigilant in
+the exclusion of plague; our department of health should co-operate with
+that of Japan and of Australasia, and of every island in the Pacific. In
+other words, we must realize that the problems of every group anywhere
+in the world affect for good or ill our own welfare.
+
+Our problem in the Pacific is therefore ten times more complicated than
+that which faced the powers in Morocco, Africa and Persia. While the
+diversity of nations was great in Europe, in the Pacific it is greater.
+But while the relationship in the Balkans was in some cases close, not
+only in sheer propinquity, but in development, in the Pacific not only
+is the blood running in the veins of the races in many cases extremely
+alien, one to the other, but the distances separating them in space and
+in development make coöperation and getting together difficult. This
+makes it easier for selfish nations to place themselves as wedges
+between them. The scramble after mandates in the Pacific indicates the
+recognition of their importance.
+
+But in inverse ratio,--in so far as the races of the Pacific have none
+of the irritating intimacy which obtained in Europe, the problem is
+clearer. The repetition of the intrigues which Germany, through her
+daughter on the Russian throne, could carry out, is here impossible.
+Only once in my knowledge has royal intermarriage been attempted and it
+proved a failure. The Japanese changed their law against the marriage of
+their royalty with royalty of another race in favor of Korea--and to
+forestall a Japanese-Korean union we are told, the Ex-Emperor of Korea
+committed suicide. Insurrection followed. The marriage has since taken
+place, but Korea is no longer an independent empire.
+
+The more pronounced differences of race should perhaps be recognized,
+but recognized with sympathy. Each race then presents its own problems.
+But over all must come recognition of the commonalty of man. This does
+not mean international fawning and flattering of one another. Racial
+equality must be admitted, but not as Japan sponsored it,--with the
+existence of her own castes and classes, and the oppression of
+Korea,--but in full recognition of the latent possibilities in all
+peoples. Japan regards herself as infinitely superior to all mankind.
+So do we. But that must be replaced by realization of the historical
+worthiness of Orientals as well as Caucasians.
+
+We have in the Pacific, as has been seen, a great number of races in
+varying degrees of development. Most of them know little of one another
+and hate one another less. They have never been close enough for serious
+conflict, and they need never be. We can instil into them through
+educational channels a regard for one another which all the love-potions
+in the world could not pour into the races of Europe, inured to war and
+slaughter and religious bigotry.
+
+There is still one great obstacle in the way of a peaceful solution of
+the problems of the Pacific, an obstacle that can be overcome only by a
+rapid evolution or revolution. Even as the forces for the greater
+liberation of the people are at work in China, now bound no more by her
+own swaddling-clothes of imperialism, so must they be encouraged in
+Japan, whose bureaucracy is to-day entangling not only her own liberal
+elements, but a greater number of nations in the Pacific. Jingoists
+speak of the yellow peril as though it were a single thing, elemental
+and simply conquerable. But it is not very different from the peril of
+imperialism everywhere.
+
+In the working out of the problems of the Pacific, Japan is the farthest
+from our ken. Our relations with Australia and New Zealand and with
+Canada--apart from Great Britain--are already more or less intimate.
+Just as Japan is beginning to realize that she must make China her
+friend, so must we four Western nations on the Pacific realize the
+fullness of the possibilities in coöperation. There should be an
+exchange of opinion, a greater supply of news from one to the
+other,--news of personal, educational and geographical value, in the
+nature of local news. With these four countries as a nucleus and the
+same thing going on between China and Japan, the problem of the East
+understanding the West will be simplified.
+
+But we must show that we appreciate the fine points in the Oriental
+civilizations, while the Orient will have to remove from its conscience
+the hatred of the foreigner. The millennium? Not in the least. Just the
+beginning of our groping toward human commonalty.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+A
+
+  Mr. Sydney Greenbie,
+    New York, U.S.A.
+
+DEAR SIR:
+
+Your letter of 26th March has been forwarded to me from Samoa. I
+relinquished the Administration when Civil Government was established
+there.
+
+The Chief whose funeral you saw was TAMASESE, a son of the late King
+Tamasese.... MATAAFA, the son of King Mataafa, died in the influenza
+epidemic in 1918 and I dug his grave with my own hands, everyone working
+hard to avoid a pestilence.
+
+The Chief TAMASESE was made much of by the Germans when they were in
+Samoa, was taken a trip to Berlin but was not allowed to visit England.
+He remained pro-German to the end; one of the few Samoans who did so.
+
+On his death-bed Tamasese remembered a promise made to his deceased
+father (he said the spirit of his father appeared to him and reproached
+him) that he would bring the late King's bones to the family burying
+place and he could not die in peace until this was done. I was
+approached in the matter and at once sent a Government launch with the
+family party to get the bones, and they were put in a coffin and buried
+in the family ground. This done, Tamasese passed away in peace in a very
+short time.
+
+You are probably aware that when Tamasese's body was lying in state the
+hair was sprinkled with gold dust and a German crown made of white
+flowers was placed on the coffin. The widow had a Samoan house built
+alongside the tomb on the Mulinuu peninsula and lived in it for some
+months in spite of the stench which came from the tomb. She died in the
+influenza epidemic in 1918, having in the meantime named one of the
+native Samoan judges.
+
+I am sorry the information I can give you is so meagre, but I have not
+my records here as yet.
+
+                                             Yours faithfully,
+                                                    ROBERT LOGAN,
+                                                              Colonel.
+  Weycroft,
+  Axminster,
+  Devon, England,
+  13th July, 1921.
+
+
+B
+
+DEAR MR. GREENBIE:
+
+Your letter of Feb. 20th was forwarded on to me here, and reached me
+yesterday.
+
+I regret that I cannot tell you definitely as to the celebration held in
+Samoa in 1915, in honor of the late "King"; I returned to Samoa in 1917
+after an absence of some years, and heard nothing of it. I think,
+however, that the celebration must have been for Mataafa, as the natives
+told you that the deceased Chief had been the favorite of Mataafa.
+
+Stevenson rather despised Laupepa who although an amiable man and the
+rightful King, was of feeble character, and when broken up by the
+suffering and indignity of his deportation by the Germans, weakly ceded
+the throne to Mataafa out of gratitude for the stand taken by the latter
+on his behalf during the years of his exile.
+
+My own conviction is that, had R. L. S. lived a few years longer, he
+would have realized that his championship of Mataafa was a mistake, and
+precipitated the very event he wished to avoid--the German rule in
+Samoa.
+
+                          Very sincerely yours,
+                                                            ----------
+
+
+C
+
+                                                    Apia, Samoa,
+                                                    October 5th, 1904.
+  A. M. Sutherland, Esq.,
+    San Francisco, U.S.A.
+
+DEAR SIR:
+
+The kind invitation extended to me by the members of the "Stevenson
+Fellowship" through your welcome letter or the 17th August, 1904, has
+been received by me with great delight. I thank you and the Committee
+from the bottom of my heart for remembering me, and for including my
+name in the long list of friends whom Tusitala has left behind to mourn
+his irreparable loss. I would have very much liked to be present and
+meet you all on this fitting occasion, but the fact is, my health and
+old age will not permit me to cross the vast waters over to America. So
+I send you many greetings wishing the "Stevenson Fellowship" every
+success on the 13th November next. And whilst you are celebrating this
+memorable day in America, we shall even celebrate it in Samoa. It is
+true that I, like yourselves, revere the memory of Tusitala. Though the
+strong hand of Death has removed him from our midst, yet the remembrance
+of his many humane acts, let alone his literary career, will never be
+forgotten. That household name, Tusitala, is as euphonious to our Samoan
+ears as much as the name Stevenson is pleasing to all other European
+friends and admirers. Tusitala was born a hero, and he died a hero among
+men. He was a man of his word, but a man of deeds not words. When first
+I saw Tusitala he addressed me and said: "Samoa is a beautiful country.
+I like its people and clime, and shall write in my books accordingly.
+The Samoan Chiefs may be compared to our Scotch Chiefs at home in regard
+to their clans." "Then stay here with me," I said, "and make Samoa your
+home altogether." "That I will, and even if the Lord calls me," was the
+reply. Tusitala--story-writer--spoke the truth, for even now he is still
+with me in Samoa. Truth is great and must endure. Tusitala's religion
+and motto was: "Do ye to others as ye would have them do unto you."
+Hence this noble, illustrious man has won my love and admiration, as
+well as the esteem and respect of all who knew him. My God is the same
+God who called away Tusitala, and when it has pleased Him for my
+appointed time to come, then I will gladly join T. in that eternal home
+where we meet to part no more.
+
+With perfect assurance of my best wishes for your progress and
+prosperity,--I remain, dear sir, cordially yours,
+
+                                                     M. I.
+                                               C. C. MATAAFA
+                                                  High Chief of Samoa.
+
+
+D
+
+                                                        April 24, 1921
+
+DEAR MADAM:
+
+Thank you very much for the letter which came some four months ago. I
+read it over, over and over again to memorise every word of the letter,
+and it was a glad toil. I thought of you and Mr. ... I thought of
+Messrs. F.... D.... and R.... and Miss G...., every body to-gether and
+every body separate that gave me untold happiness, and I heard the
+throbs of my heart. I told to my wife who is very glad to hear from me.
+As you know I got married in the year of 1913. And we have five children
+now. Please don't be scared! Two boys and three daughters. Takako oldest
+daughter six year, seven months old. Takashige, William (boy) four
+years; Fuziko Elsie two years and nearly four months; Chiyeko, Lucie
+eight months old. And this made me perfect papa, which is my joy and my
+pride! Beside this I have thirty acres of orange orchard (four years
+old) all is my own, and my wife's now which brought me four
+(boxes-horses) (?) poor fruit year before last, and seventy two boxes
+better fruit last year. I am expecting greater crop this fall. I read
+Mr. ---- article about June drop in California Cultivator, and irrigated
+my orchards last December and this year I started to wet from February
+which no body does this in this visinity (orchardists of here keep
+orchards with weeds and wild oats as high as my shoulder all winter and
+they wait irrigation until orchards perfectly dry and cracke.) I am
+taking care our orchards after Mr. ---- idea mostly with some of my own,
+as I feel as it mine but all of them are a collection of idea of other
+people's experiences.
+
+I have debt of five thousand five hundreds dollars which need not to pay
+interest except one thousand five hundred dollars. This is my joy and my
+pride too, is it not?
+
+Five children and five thousand five hundreds dollars debt are not big
+job to carry on, for me, but they make me very busy indeed. For this
+reason, I do not write to my friends, as often as I wish, of course I
+can, if I do, like this one, but it is great strain for me now.
+
+Therefore please will kindly excuse, I shall not write you again until
+next Christmas probably.
+
+Please remember me to Mr. ---- and All your family.
+
+When you will come to Terra Bella to see Mr. ----.
+
+When you have spare time, and when you thought of old servant, please
+stop a moment at my humble dwelling place and give me chance to hear
+your voice directly. That will be my honor, that which will encourage
+me, if it is possible with Mr. F. P. It will be a greater honor for us.
+Befor I ask you to come to see us, we should go to see you first, but
+just excuse for the reasons as above written.
+
+I shall leave the pen with prare of your sound health, and happiness.
+God be with you.
+
+                                            From your old servant
+                                                            --------
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+  Adelaide, 132, 146
+
+  Adler, 90
+
+  Africa, 391
+
+  Alaska, 5, 317
+
+  Albatross, 129 _et seq._
+
+  America: 10, 22, 100;
+    pioneer, problems of, 312, 314;
+    insular possessions of, 316 _et seq._;
+    adventures of, in Pacific, 317 _et seq._;
+    diplomacy of, in China, 326;
+    Japan in, 342 _et seq._;
+    Japanese immigration to, 345;
+    attitude of, toward Eastern affairs, 371 _et seq._
+
+  Ameridians, 6, 23, 25, 119
+
+  Andrews, C. F., cited on self-determination, 228
+
+  Andrews, Roy Chapman, quoted, 22
+
+  Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 355, 357, 359-360, 363, 367, 381
+
+  Antarctic, 10
+
+  Anthropologists, 24
+
+  Antipodes: 9, 26, 76;
+    legislation in, 285 _et seq._
+
+  Apia: 87, 88, 100, 101, 105, 207;
+    a party in, 240 _et seq._
+
+  Arafua Sea, 139, 157
+
+  Aryans, 20
+
+  "Asahi Shimbun," quoted on American diplomacy, 326
+
+  Asia: relation of, to human existence, 6 _et seq._, 14, 18, 22;
+    culture of, 23;
+    Britain's rock in, 168-178
+
+  Atlantic, 141
+
+  _Atua_, 76
+
+  Auckland: 13, 110, 114;
+    market, 272;
+    Art Gallery, 118
+
+  "Auckland Daily News," 351
+
+  _Aurora_, Shackleton's ship, 128
+
+  Australasia: political problems affecting, 281-296;
+    intermarriage in, 355 _et seq._
+
+  Australasians: games of, 355 _et seq._
+
+  Australia: 5, 6, 9, 14, 22, 53;
+    population of, 150, 158;
+    and the labor problem, 289 _et seq._;
+    and immigration, 292;
+    and labor legislation, 293, 294;
+    attitude of, toward independence, 353;
+    and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 347-363
+
+  Australian Immigration Law, 295
+
+  Australoids, 21
+
+  Ava: 93, 94;
+    making of, 69, 70
+
+
+  Balboa: discovery of the Pacific by, 3 _et seq._;
+    quoted, 3, 10
+
+  Balkans, 391
+
+  Bancroft, quoted, 212
+
+  Banda Sea, 139
+
+  Bagg, Mr., 145
+
+  Ban, 230
+
+  Bass Straits, 131
+
+  Beach-combers, 89
+
+  Belgium, 317
+
+  Best, Mr. Elsdon, 235
+
+  Birds of New Zealand, 124, 125
+
+  Bishop, Mrs. Bernice, 235
+
+  Black-birding, 68
+
+  Bland, J. O. P., 344
+
+  Bluff, 129
+
+  Boas, Franz, quoted, 24
+
+  Boer War, 354
+
+  Bondy, 132
+
+  Bonin Islands, 357
+
+  Botany Bay, 6, 132
+
+  Boxer Indemnity Fund, 323, 328, 389
+
+  Boxer Uprising, 308, 365
+
+  Brisbane, 136, 152
+
+  Britain, outpost of, in Asia, 168-178.
+    _See also_ England, Great Britain
+
+  British Club, 96
+
+  Brown, Dr. McMillan, 25
+
+  Bryce, Viscount, quoted on Pacific Islands group, 387
+
+  Buddha, 8
+
+  "Bulletin," Honolulu, 38
+
+  Bushido, 305, 309
+
+
+  Calhoun, 326
+
+  California, 40, 103, 104, 343, 345
+
+  Cannibalism, 27, 28, 216
+
+  Canoes, 25
+
+  Canton, 4
+
+  Cape Horn, 5
+
+  Cape Liptrap, 131
+
+  Caroline Islands, 125
+
+  Caucasia, 17, 28
+
+  Celebes Sea, 139
+
+  Chamberlain, Professor Basil Hall, quoted on Shintoism, 304, 305
+
+  Chaplin, Charlie, 43
+
+  Chapman, John, 312
+
+  Chatham Islands, 26
+
+  Chidley, 149
+
+  Chicago, 184
+
+  China: Great Wall of, 4;
+    effect of famine in, 27, 39, 129;
+    licentiousness in, 176, 177;
+    coolieism in, 177;
+    waking of, 189;
+    standards of, 189, 190;
+    and the Twenty-one Demands, 306;
+    American trade with, 308;
+    bureaucracy and, 324 _et seq._;
+    development of, 365;
+    consortium for financing, 364 _et seq._, 373;
+    need of constructive work in, 377;
+    latest loan to, 377
+
+  China Sea, 139, 141
+
+  Chinese: 30, 132, 133;
+    gambling, 141;
+    music, 176;
+    superstition of,  186
+
+  Chosen People, 21
+
+  Christchurch, New Zealand, 109, 143
+
+  Civil War, 120
+
+  Coan, Dr. Titus Munson, cited, 215, 216
+
+  Cocoa plantations, 105
+
+  Compasses, 25
+
+  Confucius, 6
+
+  Consortium: Agreement, 370;
+    function of the, 381, 382, 383
+
+  Consumption, 120
+
+  Cook, Captain James, 5, 7, 18, 28, 216, 261
+
+  Coolieism, 177, 212, 343
+
+  Copra, 53, 56, 57
+
+  Coral reefs, 37
+
+  Cradle of Mankind, 21
+
+  Culture, 27
+
+  Customs, 23
+
+
+  Dante, 89
+
+  Darwin: quoted on South Pacific, 22, 24, 28
+
+  Davuilevu, 61, 62
+
+  Deakin, Mr. Alfred, 349
+
+  Dengue fever, 110
+
+  Desolation Gully, 112
+
+  Dewey, Professor: cited on Japanese birth rate, 343
+
+  Divorce, 254 _et seq._
+
+  Draft Act: in relation to the Maories, 123
+
+  Drake, Sir Francis, 4, 7, 9
+
+  Dunedin, New Zealand, 109, 112, 113, 127
+
+  Dutch, 4, 10
+
+
+  East and West News Bureau:
+    statement of on alien labor in Japan, 332, 385
+
+  Easter Islands, 25
+
+  _Eastern_, the, 132, 133, 136
+
+  Eden, 17, 23
+
+  Elephantiasis, 94, 95
+
+  Ellis, Havelock, quoted, 283
+
+  Emerson, 108
+
+  England, 19, 20, 22, 24.
+    _See also_ Great Britain
+
+  English, 19, 20
+
+  English Corporal Correction League, 135
+
+  Episcopal See of Australia, 138
+
+  Equator: astride the, 128-142
+
+  Europe, 17, 20, 22
+
+  Europeans: 18;
+    effect of famine on, 27, 52
+
+  "Evening Post," Wellington, New Zealand, quoted, 358, 359
+
+  Extinction: danger of, of primitive races, 205 _et seq._
+
+
+  Famine: effect of upon civilized nations, 27
+
+  Fan-tan, 141
+
+  Fiji: 11, 12, 13, 18, 21, 32;
+    relation of, to the Pacific, 52 _et seq._, 81, 105, 356
+
+  "Fiji Times," Manager of, quoted, 58
+
+  Fijians: 14;
+    characteristics of, 19, 20, 21;
+    study of, 52-78;
+    personal appearance of, 59, 60;
+    characteristics of, 64 _et seq._;
+    dances of, 67;
+    women, 70 _et seq._;
+    tastes of, 71 _et seq._;
+    music and dances of, 71, 72;
+    schools for, 76, 84, 85, 86;
+    jail of the, 73;
+    submersion of, 223 _et seq._
+
+  Filipinos: habits and customs of, 162 _et seq._
+
+  Fire-walkers of Mbenga, 13
+
+  Food, 27
+
+  Formosa, 298
+
+  Four-River Group, 372
+
+  France, 100
+
+  Frenchmen, 20
+
+  Fujiyama, 35, 193
+
+
+  German New Guinea, 156
+
+  German Plantation Company, 89
+
+  Germans: in Samoa, 88, 89, 90
+
+  Germany, 24, 100, 389, 391
+
+  Golden Gate, 7
+
+  Governor of Samoa, 101
+
+  Great Barrier Island, 13
+
+  Great Barrier Reef, 136, 137
+
+  Great Britain:
+    attitude of, toward Pacific possessions, 283 _et seq._, 360, 361;
+    attitude of toward her colonies, 362
+
+  Great Wall of China, 4
+
+  Gregory, Professor, 384
+
+
+  Haleakala, 48
+
+  Halemaumau, 51
+
+  Hauraki Gulf, 13
+
+  Hawaii: music of, 8, 9, 16, 17, 23, 32;
+    aspirations of, 42;
+    birth-rate, 43;
+    assimilation in, 43;
+    foot-binding in, 44;
+    kinship, 44;
+    racial evanescence, 44;
+    dances of, 72, 105;
+    divorce in, 255 _et seq._;
+    census of, 261, 317, 356
+
+  Hawaiians: 14, 20, 30;
+    racial purity percentage of the, 213 _et seq._
+
+  "Hawaiki," by Percy Smith, cited, 26
+
+  Hearn, Lafcadio: cited on fruit of intermarriage, 263
+
+  Heasley, Inspector, 97
+
+  Heinie's, 39
+
+  Heliolithic man, 18
+
+  "Hibbert Journal," quoted on Fijian mind, 232-234
+
+  Hilo, 48
+
+  Hindus, 78
+
+  Himalaya Mountains, 22
+
+  Hong-Kong: 109, 141, 167, 169 _et seq._;
+    slums of, 171;
+    poverty in, 172;
+    surgery in, 176;
+    birth-rate in, 176;
+    music in, 176
+
+  Honolulu: 7, 9;
+    our frontier in the Pacific, 30-51;
+    the spirit, 37 _et seq._, 235.
+    _See also_ Hawaii
+
+  Huang-Hsu, 365
+
+  Hughes, Premier William Morris:
+    attitude of, toward conscription, 288, 355, 359, 360
+
+  Hukuan Railway, 378
+
+
+  Imperial Conferences, 347 _et seq._
+
+  Imperial Diet, 384
+
+  India, 17, 18, 21, 63, 117
+
+  Indians, 77
+
+  Infanticide, 216
+
+  Inouye, Count: quoted on Japanese merchants in Korea, 309
+
+  "Invention of a New Religion," by Basil Hall Chamberlain,
+    quoted, 304, 305
+
+  Ishii-Lansing Agreement, 370, 371
+
+  Izanagi, 21
+
+  Izanami, 21
+
+
+  Japan: 4, 5, 7, 9;
+    awakening of, 28, 29, 132, 135, 282;
+    in relation to the Pacific problem, 297 _et seq._;
+    foreign policies of, 299 _et seq._;
+    race-pride of, 302;
+    government of, 303;
+    Democracy in, 305;
+    attitude of, toward commercialization, 306;
+    American trade with, 308;
+    in Siberia, 308;
+    Buddhism in, 324;
+    relations of, 326 _et seq._;
+    and alien labor, 331;
+    foreign population statistics of, 334;
+    naturalization in, 337 _et seq._;
+    science in, 341 _et seq._;
+    in America, 342 _et seq._;
+    birth-rate, 343;
+    attitude of, toward financiering China, 373, 374;
+    attitude of the Orient toward, 376;
+    and the Pacific problem, 379;
+    and Manchurian railways, 380
+
+  "Japan Chronicle,"
+    quoted in British educational work in Hong-Kong, 177;
+    quoted on English policy, 362
+
+  "Japan: Real and Imaginary," by Sydney Greenbie, 297
+
+  Japanese: 21, 25, 30, 31;
+    races, 72, 94.
+    _See also_ Japan
+
+  Java, 4, 22
+
+  Joan of Arc, 51
+
+  Junnosuke Inouye, 375
+
+
+  Kaiser, the, 104
+
+  Kamehamea, 36, 50, 215
+
+  Kaneohe, 35, 36, 51
+
+  Kapiolani, 51
+
+  _Katori-maru_, 192
+
+  Keats, quoted, 3
+
+  Kellerman, Annette, 148
+
+  Kiao-chau, 368
+
+  Kilauea, 8, 50
+
+  Kinglake, 24
+
+  Kinship of Pacific peoples, 20 _et seq._
+
+  Kipling, 116
+
+  Knox, Secretary, 366
+
+  Kobe: business situation in, 335
+
+  Korea: 4, 298;
+    Japan's actions in, 309;
+    the case of, 317, 324, 391
+
+  Kyoto, 7
+
+
+  Labor: conditions in New Zealand, 6;
+    in Fiji, 13 _et seq._;
+    legislation in New Zealand, 116;
+    indentured, 222
+
+  Lake Rotorua, 122
+
+  Lali, 71, 73, 78
+
+  Lamont, Mr. Thomas W.: 364;
+    negotiations with Japan by, 375;
+    mission of, to China, 376, 377;
+    statement of, 379, 380
+
+  Language, 22, 23
+
+  Lansing, Mr.: 370;
+    attitude of, toward loans to China, 372
+
+  Lao-Tsze, 269
+
+  Laupepa, 395
+
+  League of Nations, 358
+
+  Legend: and the Pacific, 24 _et seq._
+
+  "Lending Money to China," by Sydney Greenbie, 371
+
+  Leper Island, Molokai, 8
+
+  Levuka, 75, 85
+
+  Lindsay, Vachell, 312
+
+  Little Barrier Island, 13
+
+  Logan, Colonel Robert: 101, 104;
+    letter of, 395
+
+  London, Charmian, 38
+
+  London, Jack, 10
+
+  Longford, Professor, "The Story of Korea," quoted, 309
+
+  Los Angeles, 30
+
+  Lost Tribes of Israel, 23
+
+  _Lurline_, 7, 9
+
+  Luzon, 158
+
+
+  Mackaye, Arthur, 36 _et seq._
+
+  Magellan, 4, 9, 18
+
+  Magneta Island, 137
+
+  "Main Street," 313
+
+  Malays, 308
+
+  Manchuria, 344, 373
+
+  Mangoes, 105
+
+  Manila: 32, 141, 158 _et seq._;
+    description of, 163 _et seq._, 271
+
+  Manoa Valley, 33, 34, 37
+
+  Manono, 87
+
+  Maories: 20, 23, 26;
+    dances of the, 72, 110, 118 _et seq._;
+    vital statistics of, 123;
+    racial discrimination against, 250
+
+  Maoriland, 17
+
+  Marital contracts, 240-253
+
+  Markets, 265-278
+
+  Marquesas, 5, 26, 52
+
+  Marshall Islands, 319, 357
+
+  Martin, Alonso, 4
+
+  Mason, Mr. Gregory, 368
+
+  Mataafa, 396;
+    letter, 395, 396
+
+  Mbenga: mystic fire-walkers of, 13
+
+  McDuffie, Mr., 217, 218
+
+  Melanesia, 18, 19, 23, 26, 27
+
+  Melanesian-Fijians, 20, 21
+
+  Melba, Madame, 145
+
+  Melbourne, 129, 143, 144, 349
+
+  Melville, 10, 24
+
+  Message, Mr., quoted, 61
+
+  Micronesia, 23, 26, 27
+
+  Migrations, 20
+
+  "Millard's Review," 368
+
+  Mindanao, 140, 158
+
+  Mindoro, 158
+
+  Missionaries: 19;
+    Fijian, 65 _et seq._, 68, 69, 73, 121, 231, 236
+
+  Moa, 28
+
+  Moji, 191
+
+  Molokai, the leper island, 8
+
+  Molucca Sea, 139
+
+  Mongolia, 373
+
+  Monroe Doctrine, 316
+
+  Monroe Doctrine of Asia, 297 _et seq._, 320
+
+  Monterey, 103
+
+  Montessori Method: in Fiji, 67
+
+  Mormon missionaries, 23
+
+  "Morning Herald," Sydney, quoted on America's War policy, 350, 351
+
+  Morocco, 390
+
+  Mt. Eden, 110
+
+  Mount Vaea, 103
+
+  Mua Peak, 87
+
+  Mulinuu, 91
+
+  Mummy-apples, 20, 59
+
+
+  Nagasaki, 376
+
+  Napier, New Zealand, 276
+
+  Napoleon: 20;
+    in relation to Fijian legend, 21
+
+  Negros, 158
+
+  New South Wales, 146
+
+  New York, 111, 113, 184, 270, 364
+
+  "New York Times," on Japanese, 311
+
+  New Zealand:
+    labor conditions in, 6, 13, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 72, 84, 105;
+    study of, 108-127;
+    home life in, 111;
+    the bush of, 111;
+    farmers, 112 _et seq._;
+    newspapers, 113;
+    population, 113;
+    characteristics, 114, 115;
+    girls, 115;
+    progressiveness, 116;
+    development, 117 _et seq._;
+    Parliament, in relation to the Draft Act, 123, 133, 145;
+    and the class system, 286 _et seq._;
+    policy toward England, 353
+
+  _Niagara_, the, 9, 10, 11, 16, 53, 62, 79, 86, 111
+
+  Nichi Nichi Shummun, 309, note
+
+  Nicholas of Russia, 361
+
+  Night-blooming cereus, 33
+
+  Niuafoou, 12, 13
+
+  North Island, 112
+
+
+  Oahu: 40;
+    College, 63
+
+  O'Brien, Frederick, 10, 24
+
+  One hundred and eightieth meridian, 11, 13, 195
+
+  Open Door, 367, 369, 371
+
+  Origins of races, 22
+
+  "Osaka Asahi," 360
+
+  "Outlines of History," Wells, 29
+
+
+  Pacific: discovery of, 3 _et seq._;
+    significance of, 7;
+    effect of the mid-, on time, 11;
+    kinship of Pacific peoples, 20 _et seq._;
+    Darwin quoted on South, 22;
+    origin of, cultures, 23;
+    Griffith Taylor quoted on size of, 24;
+    counter-invasion of, 28 _et seq._;
+    our frontier in the, 30 _et seq._;
+    relation of Fiji to the, 52;
+    outposts of the white man in the far, 143 _et seq._;
+    our peg in the far, 158-167;
+    ideals that dwell around the, 199-201;
+    Hindu problems and the, 225;
+    political problems of the, 281 _et seq._;
+    adventures of America in the, 317 _et seq._;
+    causes of confusion obtaining in the, 386, 387
+
+  Pago Pago, 10, 82, 317
+
+  Paleolithic life, 16
+
+  Pali, the, 35, 37, 50
+
+  Panama Canal, 315
+
+  Panama-Pacific Exposition, 79
+
+  Panay, 158
+
+  Pan-Pacific Union, 236
+
+  Papuans, 53
+
+  Pasig River, 161
+
+  "_Paul and Virginia_," 137
+
+  Pavlova, 46
+
+  Peace Conference, 357, 358, 371
+
+  Peace Treaty, 358
+
+  Persia, 390
+
+  Pescadores, 357
+
+  Pharaohs, 25
+
+  Philippines: 6, 32, 140, 317;
+    problem of the, 318 _et seq._;
+    and independence, 328
+
+  Pilgrims, 17
+
+  Pleistonic period, 20
+
+  Polyandry, 220
+
+  Polynesia: 17, 18, 23, 27;
+    present status of, 29
+
+  Polynesians: 19;
+    origin of the, 20, 23, 24, 25, 28, 52;
+    dances of the, 72, 88, 206;
+    character of the ancient, 215;
+    and the problem of intermarriage, 237 _et seq._
+
+  Population: limitation of, 27, 28;
+    decline of, 30 _et seq._
+
+  Port Chalmers, 129
+
+  Port Williamson, 132
+
+  Portuguese, 4, 30
+
+  Poverty Bay, 28
+
+  Prisoners: Fiji, 73, 74
+
+  Promotion Committee: of Honolulu, 34;
+    "Primer" of the, 41
+
+
+  Queensland, 138, 146
+
+
+  Race-blending, 28 _et seq._
+
+  Rangatora, 120, 121
+
+  Rarotanga, 93
+
+  Ratu Joni, 230
+
+  Reading, Lord: on loans, 372
+
+  Reinsch, Dr. Paul S., 326, 327
+
+  Rewa River, Fiji, 18, 19, 60, 62, 67
+
+  Rickshaws, 171, 178
+
+  Rockefeller Foundation, 173, 174, 324
+
+  Rolland, 108
+
+  Roosevelt, Colonel, and Korea, 318
+
+  Root-Takahira Agreement, quoted, 369, 370
+
+  Rua, Maori priest, 127
+
+  Russia, 308, 391
+
+  Russo-Japanese War, 317, 348, 365
+
+  Ryecroft, Reverend Mr., 65 _et seq._, 68
+
+
+  Salvation Army, 44, 45, 179
+
+  Samoa: 10, 11, 13, 19;
+    cosmogony, 21, 23, 26, 52, 84, 238, 317, 356
+
+  Samoans: 14;
+    dances of the, 72;
+    study of the, 79 _et seq._;
+    songs of the, 80;
+    dances of the, 83;
+    hospitality of the, 93 _et seq._, 208
+
+  Samurai, 305
+
+  San Francisco, 7, 10, 184
+
+  Santa Anna Valley, 137
+
+  Savii, 26, 87
+
+  Scientific, 236
+
+  Scientists, 231
+
+  Seattle, 193
+
+  Sedan chairs, 171
+
+  Shackleton, Sir E., 128
+
+  Shanghai: China's European capital, 179-191;
+    description of, 192 _et seq._;
+    slums of, 185;
+    the Chinese city, 185 _et seq._;
+    market, 274
+
+  Shantung: 297;
+    rape of, 324
+
+  Shaw, 108
+
+  Shibusawa, 375
+
+  Shimonoseki, 376
+
+  Shintoism: 299;
+    defined, 304, 305
+
+  Shurman, Dr. Jacob Gould, 327
+
+  Siberia, 344
+
+  Siberian Railway, 361
+
+  Sikhs, 231
+
+  Sino-Japanese Military Agreement, 380
+
+  Sino-Japanese War, 365
+
+  Slums;
+    tropical, 165;
+    Hong-Kong, 171
+
+  Smith, Percy, cited, 26
+
+  Smythe, Miss: 179;
+    work of, 180-182
+
+  Solomon Islands, 65
+
+  "Son of the Middle Border," 313
+
+  South Manchurian Railway, 375, 380
+
+  South Pole, 128
+
+  South Seas: 5 _et seq._, 10, 12 _et seq._, 14, 30 _et seq._;
+    style, 32, 57, 74, 80, 82
+
+  Spanish, 10
+
+  Sponges, 37
+
+  St. Helena, 20
+
+  Stevenson, R. L.: 10, 88, 100;
+    pilgrimage to tomb of, 100-105;
+    home of, 103, 387, 395
+
+  Stevenson Fellowship, 395
+
+  Stewart, Mr. W. Downie: quoted on status of New Zealand, 359
+
+  Stone Age, 89
+
+  Street, Julian, 375
+
+  Sulu Sea, 139
+
+  Sulus, 65
+
+  Sun Yat-sen, Dr., 325;
+    quoted, 326
+
+  Superstition, 25
+
+  Suva, Fiji, 11, 13, 20, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 73, 75, 76, 84, 105
+
+  Sydney, 9, 12, 132, 139, 146 _et seq._
+
+
+  Tagalog, 165
+
+  Tagore: 116;
+    experiences of in Japan, 311
+
+  Tahiti, 17, 26, 28, 52
+
+  Talume, 12
+
+  Tamasese, 395
+
+  Tamba Maru, 179
+
+  Tasman, 9, 10
+
+  Tasman Sea, 128
+
+  Tasmania, 132
+
+  Tattooings of Time, 17
+
+  Taylor, Griffith: quoted on size of Pacific, 24
+
+  Te Noroto, 124
+
+  Terauchi, Count, 368
+
+  Thomson, Basil, cited, 13
+
+  Thursday Island, 155
+
+  "Times," China: quoted on foreign control of industries, 378
+
+  Thoreau, 95
+
+  Tokyo, 349
+
+  Tolstoy, 269
+
+  Tongans, 19, 77
+
+  Torres Straits, 139
+
+  Townsville, 137
+
+  Traders: in the Far East, 55, 89, 236, 306
+
+  Tradition, 22
+
+  Tulane, 13
+
+  Turks, 20
+
+  Tusitala, the tale teller (Stevenson), 103, 395
+
+  Typee, 5
+
+  Typhoons, 141
+
+
+  Uchida, Viscount: quoted on Consortium, 379, 384
+
+  Union Steamship Company, 129
+
+  Upolu, 87
+
+
+  Vailima, Stevenson's home, 88, 100, 101, 103
+
+  Vancouver, George, 5, 7, 18
+
+  Venice of the Pacific, 25
+
+  Vice: among the primitive races, 217
+
+  Victoria, 146
+
+  Vikings, 25
+
+  Virginia, 151
+
+  Vladivostok, 308
+
+
+  Waikato, 124
+
+  Waikiki, 39
+
+  Waitemata Harbor, 13
+
+  Ward, Sir Joseph, 349, 351
+
+  Waterhouse, Mr., 69
+
+  Waterspouts, 140
+
+  Webb, Mr., 245
+
+  Wellington: 97, 109, 113;
+    Museum, 235
+
+  Wellington, Duke of: cited on Britain's colonies, 283
+
+  Wells, H. G., 29
+
+  "When the Sleeper Wakes," Wells, 29
+
+  White Australia policy, 291, 292, 294, 348, 350
+
+  Whitney, Judge William L., 256-258
+
+  Wilson Administration, 318
+
+  Wilson, President, 382, 383
+
+  _Wimmera_, 131
+
+  World War, 234, 350
+
+  "World's Work," 371
+
+  Wright, Mr., of the "Bulletin," 38 _et seq._
+
+  Wurm ice age, 26
+
+
+  Yamada Ise, 192
+
+  Yokohama, 192
+
+  Y. M. C. A., 38
+
+
+  Zamboanga, 140, 158
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pacific Triangle, by Sydney Greenbie
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41716 ***