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

254 WITH NATIVES IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC

Here were the headquarters of a rubber planting
company; but the rubber trees had not grown well,
and the company had started cocoa-nuts. I had met
Mr. Ch., the director, before, and he took me in.
The company owned a motor-launch, which cruised
all through the Banks Islands, visiting the different
plantations; this gave me a good opportunity to
see nearly all the islands. The sea is much more
dangerous here than in the New Hebrides, being
open everywhere; and the strong currents cause
heavy tide rips at the points of the jagged coasts.

An excursion to Gaua was a failure, owing to bad
weather. After having shivered in a wet but for four
days, we returned to Port Patterson only just in
time; for in the evening the barometer fell, a bad
sign at that season, and the wind set in afresh. The
launch was anchored in a sheltered corner of the bay,
near an old yacht and a schooner belonging to Mr. W.,
a planter on a neighbouring islet. All the signs
pointed to a coming cyclone, and suddenly it shot
from the mountains, furrowed the sea, and ruled
supreme for two days. From the director’s house I
watched the whirling squalls gliding over the water,
lifting great lumps of spray, that shot like snow over
the surface and disappeared in the misty distance.
Rain rattled in showers on the roof; everywhere was
a hissing, rushing, thundering; the surf broke in
violent, irregular shocks like the trampling of an
excited horse; the wind roared in the forest till the .
strongest trees trembled and the palms bent over
with inverted crowns. In a moment the creeks