[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
108 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC
the gay shouts were silent, the beautiful, brown,
supple-bodied young men were gone, and I no longer
felt the joy of living which had been Vao’s greatest
charm. The old men were sulky and sad, and spoke
of leaving Vao for good and settling somewhere far
inland. It is not surprising that the whole race has
lost the will to live, and that children are considered
an undesirable gift, of which one would rather be rid.
What hopelessness lies in the words I once heard a
woman of Vao say : “Why should we have any more
children? Since the white man came they all die.”
And die they certainly do. Regions that once
swarmed with people are now lonely; where, ten
years ago, there were large villages, we find the desert
bush, and in some districts the population has de-
creased by one—third in the last seven years. In
fifteen years the native race will have practically
