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CHAPTER XIX.

We have had a very gay week, including several festivities on board the three French men-of-war now in harbour. On Saturday I was invited to dine on board Le Limier, with the Greens, Viennots, and Verniers. (In case your French fails you, I may remind you that a limier is a blood-hound; a fact which I only recollected on seeing canine heads on all the boats.) M. Puèch is a good friend of the French Protestant Mission, and his visit to Tahiti is a happy event for all its members. After a pleasant dinner, we sat on deck to hear the sailors sing, and then went off in small canoes for a nearer sight of the pêche à flambeaux, which was going