in Marquesan
and rude drawings: one of the pier, not badly done; one of a murder;
several of French soldiers in uniform. There was one legend in French:
"_Je n'est_" (sic) "_pas le sou_." From this noontide quietude it must
not be supposed the prison was untenanted; the calaboose at Tai-o-hae
does a good business. But some of its occupants were gardening at the
Residency, and the rest were probably at work upon the streets, as free
as our scavengers at home, although not so industrious. On the approach
of evening they would be called in like children from play; and the
harbour-master (who is also the gaoler) would go through the form of
locking them up until six the next morning. Should a prisoner have any
call in town, whether of pleasure or affairs, he has but to unhook the
window-shutter; and if he is back again, and the shutter decently
replaced, by the hour of call on the morrow, he may have met the
harbour-master in the avenue, and there will be no complaint, far less
any punishment. But this is not all. The charming French Resident, M.
Delaruelle, carried me one day to the calaboose on an official visit. In
the green court, a very ragged gentleman, his legs deformed with the
island elephantiasis, saluted us smiling. "One of our political
prisoners--an insurgent from Raiatea," said the Resident; and then to
the gaoler: "I thought I had ordered him a new pair of trousers."
Meanwhile no other convict was to be seen--"_Eh bien,_" said the
Resident, "_ou sont vos prisonniers?_" "_Monsieur le Resident,_" replied
the gaoler, saluting with soldierly formality, "_comme c'est jour de
fete, je les ai laisse aller a la chasse._" They were all upon the
mountains hunting goats! Presently we came to the quarters of the women,
likewise deserted--"_Ou sont vos bonnes femmes?_" asked the Resident;
and the gaoler cheerfully responded: "_Je crois, Monsieur le Resident,
qu'elles sont allees quelquepart faire une visite._" It had been the
design of M. Delaruelle, who was much in love with the whimsicalities of
his small realm, to elicit something comical; but not even he expected
anything so perfect as the last. To complete the picture of convict life
in Tai-o-hae, it remains to be added that these criminals draw a salary
as regularly as the President of the Republic. Ten sous a day is their
hire. Thus they have money, food, shelter, clothing, and, I was about to
write, their liberty. The French are certainly a good-natured people,
an