THE SCHOONER CORONET CHARTERED TO CHASE A TAHITIAN PRINCESS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 740, 23 June 1876, Page 3

THE SCHOONER CORONET CHARTERED TO CHASE A TAHITIAN PRINCESS.

—o Royal circles in Tahiti have been startled by the announcement that the Princess Mary Ann had eloped with a half-caste named John Salmon. The princess is heiress to the throne of Raratonga, the chief island of the Hervey group, or, as it is sometimes called, Cook’s Archipeligo. Salmon is related to the well-known Salmon family of Tahiti, the mother of whom claims to be as high a chiefess as Queen Pomare, the present ruler in name of Tahiti. When the Princess Mary Ann fled, her Aunt, Queen Makea, of Raratonga, chartered the Auckland schooner Coronet, Captain Rose, to pu-sue the fugitives. The Coronet sailed for Mangia, one of the Hervey group, and came up with the schooner Humboldt, Captain Sanford, a gallant Californian. Captain Rose made known his mission, when Captain Sanford replied that he had the Princess Mary Ann and five maids of honor on board, with the gay Lothario Salmon in their midst. Captain Rose demanded the Princess and maids of honor, at the seme time exhibiting a perpetual decree of banishment for Salmon from the island of Raratonga. After a confab, Captain Sanford concluded to give up the royal parties, and when the Princess Mary Ann found that she was to be separated for ever from her lover and paramour, she, woman-like, wept, a sea of tears. But it was of no avail, and the only consolation offered—usually sufficient to console the natives was a grand feast on hoard the Humboldt. They danced and wept alternately, in true native style. Finally the Coronet, with her royal freight on board, departed for Raratongs, leaving the forlorn Salmon to pine apay on the lonely island of Mangia. But ho vows he will yet possess the Princes whom he has lost and mourns. It may he interesting to add that the romantic Mary Ann is young and handsome, very wealthy, and the heiress of two thrones, that of Queen Makea and that of her brother King David. This royal runaway episode has profoundly agitated all classess at Tahiti, as several Americans and Englishmen are eager to capture Mary Ann and thus come in to play the role of quasi Southsea Kings It will be seen that foreigners in the Pacific isles have an eye to the main chance, and never hesitate to got away with a barbarian Princess if she is at all prepossessing and has that admirable thing called coin in abundance.

Talleyrand’s -wife was more remarkable for her beauty than her intelligence, though it is that some of the stories told of her excessive naivetd may have been invented for her benefit, and others may have been given to her which originated in other quarters. There are sceptics, for example —and M. Araddde Pichot is one of them—who doubt whether the Robinson Crusoe story, which is the best one told of her, ought to be given to Madame do Talleyrand. As a stray reader hero and there may not know this anecdote, it would be a pity to omit it. It is this : —Talleyrand was going to entertain at dinner M. Dinon, a savant, who had been to Egypt with the army of of tho First Consul. Talleyrand on the day of the dinner informed his wife that she would have at her right at table a learned man and a traveller, and that she would do well before he arrived to glance at his volume, which she would find on his library tablo. Madatno de Talleyrand, at dinner, by way of compliment to tho author, spoke of the immense pleasure which she had found in the narrative of his adventures. “ But you must have found it very tiresome being alone on a desert island," she said. “Madame, Ido not understand,” said M. Dinon. “Oh, but you must,” she said ; “ and you must have been very happy when your man Friday arrived.” Madame de Talleyrand had by mistake been reading tho “Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.” M. de Talleyrand, it is said, remarked on one occasion when she had committed some such mistake, “A witty wife can compromise her husband, but a foolish wife can only compromise herself.”—Belgravia,