{"id":"01KG8AM411TBN1VTQN8Y0F4K9W","cid":"bafkreiba4u6bl5k3qkcnofgtcm776v5hvmtu77e4x7nmwoi4g6fys2hiza","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1252,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","start_line":1193,"text":"CHAPTER THREE\r\n\r\nSOME ACCOUNT OF THE LATE OPERATIONS OF THE FRENCH AT THE\r\nMARQUESAS--PRUDENT CONDUCT OF THE ADMIRAL--SENSATION PRODUCED BY\r\nTHE ARRIVAL OF THE STRANGERS--THE FIRST HORSE SEEN BY THE\r\nISLANDERS--REFLECTIONS--MISERABLE SUBTERFUGE OF THE FRENCH--DIGRESSION\r\nCONCERNING TAHITI--SEIZURE OF THE ISLAND BY THE ADMIRAL--SPIRITED\r\nCONDUCT OF AN ENGLISH LADY\r\n\r\n\r\nIt was in the summer of 1842 that we arrived at the islands; the French\r\nhad then held possession of them for several weeks. During this time\r\nthey had visited some of the principal places in the group, and had\r\ndisembarked at various points about five hundred troops. These were\r\nemployed in constructing works of defence, and otherwise providing\r\nagainst the attacks of the natives, who at any moment might be expected\r\nto break out in open hostility. The islanders looked upon the people who\r\nmade this cavalier appropriation of their shores with mingled feelings\r\nof fear and detestation. They cordially hated them; but the impulses\r\nof their resentment were neutralized by their dread of the floating\r\nbatteries, which lay with their fatal tubes ostentatiously pointed,\r\nnot at fortifications and redoubts, but at a handful of bamboo sheds,\r\nsheltered in a grove of cocoanuts! A valiant warrior doubtless, but\r\na prudent one too, was this same Rear-Admiral Du Petit Thouars. Four\r\nheavy, doublebanked frigates and three corvettes to frighten a parcel of\r\nnaked heathen into subjection! Sixty-eight pounders to demolish huts of\r\ncocoanut boughs, and Congreve rockets to set on fire a few canoe sheds!\r\n\r\nAt Nukuheva, there were about one hundred soldiers ashore. They were\r\nencamped in tents, constructed of the old sails and spare spars of\r\nthe squadron, within the limits of a redoubt mounted with a few\r\nnine-pounders, and surrounded with a fosse. Every other day, these\r\ntroops were marched out in martial array, to a level piece of ground\r\nin the vicinity, and there for hours went through all sorts of military\r\nevolutions, surrounded by flocks of the natives, who looked on with\r\nsavage admiration at the show, and as savage a hatred of the actors.\r\nA regiment of the Old Guard, reviewed on a summer’s day in the Champs\r\nElysees, could not have made a more critically correct appearance. The\r\nofficers’ regimentals, resplendent with gold lace and embroidery as if\r\npurposely calculated to dazzle the islanders, looked as if just unpacked\r\nfrom their Parisian cases.\r\n\r\nThe sensation produced by the presence of the strangers had not in the\r\nleast subsided at the period of our arrival at the islands. The natives\r\nstill flocked in numbers about the encampment, and watched with the\r\nliveliest curiosity everything that was going forward. A blacksmith’s\r\nforge, which had been set up in the shelter of a grove near the beach,\r\nattracted so great a crowd, that it required the utmost efforts of the\r\nsentries posted around to keep the inquisitive multitude at a sufficient\r\ndistance to allow the workmen to ply their vocation. But nothing gained\r\nso large a share of admiration as a horse, which had been brought from\r\nValparaiso by the Achille, one of the vessels of the squadron. The\r\nanimal, a remarkably fine one, had been taken ashore, and stabled in a\r\nhut of cocoanut boughs within the fortified enclosure. Occasionally it\r\nwas brought out, and, being gaily caparisoned, was ridden by one of the\r\nofficers at full speed over the hard sand beach. This performance was\r\nsure to be hailed with loud plaudits, and the ‘puarkee nuee’ (big hog)\r\nwas unanimously pronounced by the islanders to be the most extraordinary\r\nspecimen of zoology that had ever come under their observation.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPECS9VN6EYZC9FBTYQP","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JYRSHWXR7JM0HYS9D4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM4119FVQ647FKR0AAVW0","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.657Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:33.322Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}