[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

LIFE ON A PLANTATION 4 5

Sydney, and soon carousing is in full swing, until the
bar closes.

All next day the steamer stays in the channel,
taking on produce from every plantation, and for two
days afterward merrymaking is kept up, then the
quiet monotony of a tropical planter’s life sets in once
more.

Sometimes a diversion is caused by a boy rushing
up to the house to announce that some “ men-bush”
are approaching. Going to the veranda, we see
some lean figures with big mops of hair coming
slowly down the narrow path from the forest, with
soft, light ‘steps. Some distance behind follows a
crowd of others, who squat down near the last shrubs
and examine everything With shy, suspicious eyes,
while the leaders approach the house. Nearly all
carry old Snider rifles, always loaded and cocked.
The leaders stand silent for a while near the veranda,
then one of them whispers a few words in broken
“biche la mar,” describing what he wants to buy——
knives, cartridges, powder, tobacco, pipes, matches,
calico, beads. “All right,” says Mr. Ch., and some
of the men bring up primitive baskets of cocoa-nut
leaves, filled with coprah or bunches of raw cocoa-
nuts. All of them, especially the women, have
carried great loads of these things from their villages
in the interior on the poorest paths, marching for
days.

The baskets are weighed and the desired goods
handed to the head-man. Here the whites make a
profit of 200—300 per cent., while on the other islands,