"Complètement affranchi des Tahitiennes, j'ai trouvé bien plus intelligent, au lieu de m'asservir au sexe faible, de m'en servir sans plus de sentimentalité."

Double autograph letter signed by Victor Segalen addressed to Emile Mignard. Six pages written in black ink on three lined sheets. Transverse folds inherent to the mailing, angular tear to the first sheet (without loss of text), some restorations using paper strips.
Emile Mignard (1878-1966), also a doctor and native of Brest, was one of Segalen's closest childhood friends whom he met at the Jesuit college Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours in Brest. The writer maintained an abundant and very regular correspondence with this friend in which he described with humor and intimacy his daily life in all four corners of the globe. It was at Mignard's wedding, on February 15, 1905, that Segalen met his wife, Yvonne Hébert.
Fine letter on love, conjugated in past, present and future tenses.
Segalen announces to his friend the marriage of a past acquaintance: « Une se marie qui nous eût été chère, mon cher petit. Car c'est d'elle que tu voulais me parler n'est-ce pas : Alice épouse ou épousera un juge de Châteaulin. Pendant ma fièvre, à San Francisco, m'avait obsédé l'idée qu'elle serait peut-être un jour ma femme ; alors qu'au départ nous étions certes sans une arrière-pensée. » ["One is marrying who would have been dear to us, my dear little one. For it is of her that you wanted to speak to me, isn't it: Alice marries or will marry a judge from Châteaulin. During my fever, in San Francisco, I was obsessed with the idea that she might perhaps one day be my wife; whereas at the outset we were certainly without any ulterior motive."]
Despite his currently unstable sentimental life, he declares solemnly: « J'ai confiance, forcément, pour nous, en l'avenir. Elle viendra, cette Désirée que nous attendons tous les deux. Alors nous serons plus forts, plus dignes d'Elle. Chaque « mieux » constaté en moi-même je le leur reporte en offrande. » ["I have confidence, necessarily, for us, in the future. She will come, this Desired One that we both await. Then we will be stronger, more worthy of Her. Each 'better' that I note in myself I offer to them as an offering."] This "Desired One", Victor would find in the person of Yvonne Hébert, precisely met through Emile Mignard and whom he would marry on June 2, 1905. A few weeks after their meeting, he would offer her a copy of his thesis inscribed with a very fine autograph inscription that echoes our letter: "For my beloved fiancée, my Yvonne. For the one I have always sought. In gratitude for Her and in certainty of infinite affection. April 5, 1905".
But let us return to Tahiti, where Dr. Segalen, after having lived several quasi-marital relationships, has made resolutions: « Complètement affranchi des Tahitiennes, j'ai trouvé bien plus intelligent, au lieu de m'asservir au sexe faible, de m'en servir sans plus de sentimentalité. Je dois avouer que Tahiti ne m'offre à vrai dire aucun type de femme vraiment et totalement désirable. » ["Completely freed from Tahitian women, I found it much more intelligent, instead of enslaving myself to the weaker sex, to use them without further sentimentality. I must admit that Tahiti truly offers me no type of woman really and totally desirable."] He is even indignant at the behavior of newly arrived Europeans: « C'est ainsi d'ailleurs que le comprend mon médecin de division, le Dr Michel du Protet, le croiseur qui nous gère. Sitôt débarqué, il m'a demandé « des femmes ». J'ai pu noter, de sang froid et repu moi-même, les ruts terribles et comiques d'un état-major qui vient de faire 15 jours de mer. Papeete n'ayant pas de ces Maisons Hospitalières que..., ils ont failli violer quantité d' « honnêtes femmes ». Ainsi de même étions-nous, sans nous en rendre compte, à notre arrivée à Nouméa. » ["This is moreover how my division doctor understands it, Dr. Michel from the Protet, the cruiser that manages us. As soon as he disembarked, he asked me for 'women'. I was able to note, coldly and sated myself, the terrible and comical ruts of a staff that has just spent 15 days at sea. Papeete not having those Hospitable Houses that..., they almost raped a quantity of 'honest women'. Thus we were the same, without realizing it, upon our arrival in Nouméa."]
However, amorous wanderings give way to work: « Je travaille. J'ai partagé ma maison en : deux pièces où j'habite et deux autres où j'opère avec Dufour, mon camarade de la Zélée. Ca devient une petite clinique. [...] Nous avons ce mois-ci enlevé : deux lipomes de la nuque, un sarcome de l'orbite, et opéré une appendicite enkystée. » ["I work. I have divided my house into: two rooms where I live and two others where I operate with Dufour, my comrade from the Zélée. It is becoming a small clinic. [...] This month we have removed: two lipomas from the neck, a sarcoma of the orbit, and operated on an encysted appendicitis."] The doctor also continues, in his free time, writing his future Immémoriaux: « Tous les soirs j'ai un gros moment d'hésitation : entre une promenade en cotre, autour des îlots de la rade, par des clairs de lune blancs, avec de jolies petites filles caressantes ; et le retour solitaire à mon « dormir », et les 3 ou 4 h passées en face de grandes feuilles de papier blanc, où doivent se formuler les aventures de mon Promeneur-de-Nuit en quête d'une Bible maorie... » ["Every evening I have a big moment of hesitation: between a walk in a cutter, around the islets of the harbor, under white moonlight, with pretty little caressing girls; and the solitary return to my 'sleep', and the 3 or 4 hours spent facing large sheets of white paper, where the adventures of my Night-Walker in search of a Maori Bible must be formulated..."] The work would finally appear in 1907 at Mercure de France under the pseudonym Max-Anély (Max in homage to Max Prat and Anély, one of his wife's first names), Segalen not being authorized, in his capacity as a military doctor, to sign a fictional work with his patronymic.