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

54 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

better class of planters would not countenance this
mode of procedure, and the natives are now ex—
perienced enough not to enlist for work under a
master they do not know. Also the English Govern—
ment keeps a strict watch on the recruiting, so that
the professional recruiter is dying out, and every
planter has to go in search of hands for himself.
But while the English Government keeps a sharp
eye on these matters, the French Government is
as lenient in this as in the question of the sale of
alcohol, so that frequent kidnapping and many
cruelties occur in the northern part of the group, and
slavery still exists. I shall relate a few recruiting
stories later on : some general remarks on the subject
may not be amiss here.

In years past the natives crowded the recruiting
schooners by hundreds, driven by the greed for
European luxuries, by desire for change, and in~
experience; to-day this is the case in but very few
and savage districts. Generally the natives have
some idea of what they may expect; moreover, by
trading with coprah they can buy all they need and
want. They enlist nowadays from quite different
motives. With young people it is the desire to travel
and to “see the world,” and to escape the strict
village laws that govern them, especially in sexual
matters, and to get rid of the supervision of the whole
tribe. Sometimes, but only in islands poor in cocoa-
nut trees, it is the desire to earn money to buy a
woman, a very expensive article at present. Then
many seek refuge in the plantations from persecution