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

THE SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS 279

voyage Without any whites except the officers ; the
result was most satisfactory. The natives, when
carefully and patiently trained, work quite as well as
low—class whites, and have proved themselves capable
of more than plantation work.

It was a bright morning when we entered the
lovely Graciosa Bay on Nitendi. The island had a
much more tropical aspect than those of the New
Hebrides, and the vegetation seemed more varied
and gayer in colour. Natives in canoes approached
from every side, and all along the beach lay populous
villages, a sight such as the now deserted shores of
the New Hebrides must have afforded in days gone
by. Hardly had we cast anchor when the ship was
surrounded by innumerable canoes. The men in them
were all naked, except the teachers the missionaries
had stationed here; all the others were genuine
aborigines, who managed their boats admirably, and
came hurrying on board, eager to begin bartering.

The natives here have a bad reputation, and are
supposed to be particularly dangerous, because they
never stir from home without their poisoned arrows.
A missionary had recently been forced to leave the
island, after having been besieged by the natives for
several days. But it would seem that they are not
hostile unless one of their many intricate laws and
customs is violated, which may happen easily enough
to anyone unacquainted with their habits.

I took up my quarters with the only white man in
the place, a Mr. M., who managed a cocoa—nut planta-
tion for an Australian company with boys from the