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

LIFE ON A PLANTATION 47

working on his plantation for quite some time, and
everything had gone well, until one day one of them
had fallen into the Sarrakatta and been drowned.
According to native law, Mr. Ch. was responsible for
his death, and should have paid for him, which he
omitted to do. At first there was general dismay,
no one dared approach the river any more; then the
natives all returned to their villages, and a few days
later they swarmed round the plantation with rifles
to avenge their dead relative by murdering Mr. Ch.
He was warned by his boys, Who were from Malekula
for the most part, and this saved his life. He armed
his men, and after a siege of several weeks the bush—
men gave up the watch and retired. But no one
would return to work for him any more.

Altogether, the bushmen of Santo are none too
reliable, and only the memory of a successful landing
expedition of the English man-of-war a year ago
keeps them quiet. On that occasion they had
murdered an old Englishman and two of his
daughters, just out of greed, so as to pillage his store.
They had not found much, but they had to pay for
the murder with the loss of their village, pigs and
lives.

I tried to find boys at the south-west corner of
Santo, where the natives frequently descend to the
Shore. A neighbour of Mr. Ch., a young French-
man, was going there in a small cutter to buy wood
for dyeing mats to sell to the natives of Malekula,
and he kindly took me with him. We sailed through
the channel one rainy morning, but the wind died