THE FRENCHMAN ABROAD.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."] Sta,—Seated the other day by the margin of this little harbour I fell into conversation with my neighbour, an elderly Frenchman with a picturesque beard and of somewhat vaga- bond aspect. "Paris," he said presently, " is the centre of the universe; from it roads radiate in all directions; it takes the lead in politics, in science, and in art, and"—here his eyes sparkled—" how incomparable are its cafes awl its theatres." "And yet," I said, feeling that the call of the wild must indeed be strong, "you leave it all for an island in the Pacific?" "Madame," he replied, " the good God has so made man that after a while everything for him loses the freshness of its charm. It is so, alas! even with la belle Paris. I, therefore, from time to time come out into the wildernese pour m'ennuper. I roam, as I have told you, over the mountains here in the interior. I bear this life till it is no longer supportable, then, as with youth renewed, I return to the- supreme joys of Paris." Thus was fresh light thrown on the true ends of a French
colony.—I am, Sir, &c., KATLEERIZCS ROUTI,EDGIL Papeete, Tahiti, French Oceania.
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