and the pink of courtesy. He had come to examine the ship's papers,
and to receive the new governor.

A look of blank amazement appeared upon the round face of M. L'Hermier
des Plantes when it was conveyed to him that this solitary
whaleboat had brought a solitary white to welcome him to his seat of
government. He had been assiduously preparing for his reception for
many hours and was immaculately dressed in white duck, his legs in
high, brightly-polished boots, his two stripes in velvet on his
sleeve, and his military cap shining. He knew no more about the
Marquesas than I, having come directly via Tahiti from France, and he
was plainly dumfounded and dismayed. Was all that tender care of his
whiskers to be wasted on scenery?

However, after a drink or two he resignedly took his belongings, and
dropping into the wet and dirty boat with Bauda, he lifted an
umbrella over his gaudy cap and disappeared in the rain.

"'E's got a bloomin' nice place to live in," remarked Lying Bill.
"Now, if 'e 'd a-been 'ere when I come 'e 'd a-seen something! I
come 'ere thirty-five years ago when I was a young kid. I come with
a skipper and I was the only crew. Me and him, and I was eighteen,
and the boat was the _Victor_. I lived 'ere and about for ten years.
Them was the days for a little excitement. There was a chief, Mohuho,
who'd a-killed me if I 'adn't been _tapu'd_ by Vaekehu, the queen,
wot took a liking to me, me being a kid, and white. I've seen Mohuho
shoot three natives from cocoanut-trees just to try a new gun. 'E
was a bad 'un, 'e was. There was something doing every day, them days.
God, wot it is to be young!"