Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific

and P

ry old mail-steamer of the Messageries Maritimes, plying b

income to the town. The latter has never grown to the size originally planned and laid out, and its desolate squares and decayed houses are a depressing sight. Two or three steamers and

displaying unappetizing food, curios and cheap millinery. At each corner is a dismal sailors' bar, smelling of absinthe. Then we come to an empty, decayed square

nk some more absinthe and go to bed early, after having visited a music-hall, in which monstrous dancing-girls from Sydney display their charms and moving-picture shows present blood-curdling dramas. Then there is the Governo

s meant to form a base of naval operations, and strongly fortified. But after a few years this idea was abandone

es not impress one as tropical. The rounded hills are covered with shrubs, and only in the valleys are there a few tr

at barrier-reef which surrounds the isle with an almost impenetrab

at Nouméa, and her departure for Vila,

angry, while the few natives did not care, but found a dry corner, rolled themselves up in their blankets and dozed. When we finally left, heavy squalls were rushing over the sea; in the darkness a fog

tails and we could recognize the tops of the giant banyan trees, towering above the forest as a cathedral does over the houses of a city. We saw the surf, breaking in the coral cliffs of flat shores,

the eruption of a volcano, when one cloud pushes the other before it and new ones are ever behind. It seemed as if each tree were trying to strangle the others in a fight for life, while the weakest, deprived of their

RE HIS PRIMITIV

f the sea from the green of the forest and intensified every colour in the landscape. It was a vision of the

glimpses of cool bays across glassy, deep-green water, and before us lay a broken line of light-colour

habitants came on board. A kind planter brought me and my belongings ashore, and I took up my quart

icials. There is little life, and only the arrival of the ships brings some excitement, so that the stranger feels bored

orses promenaded about. But the view is one of the most charming to be found in the islands. Just opposite is the entrance to the bay, and the two points frame the sea most effectively, numerous smaller capes deepening the perspective. Along their silhouettes the eye glides into far spaces, to dive beyond the horizon into infinity. Iariki is just in front, and we can see the well-kept park around the British Residence, with its m

but the Resident seemed to think that I only intended a short visit to the islands, and he proposed to take me with him on a cruise through the archipelago and to deposit me at the Segond Channel, an invi

It may be caused by the fact that the French Resident is, as a rule, recalled every six months, while the British Resident had been at Vila for more than three years. Mr. King received me most cordially and also of

cquaintance of the British judge and

ne by she had been an elegant racing-boat, but was now somewhat decayed and none too cle

rong and lively and great fighters, and would be perfect material for a police force were they not such confirmed drunkards. Because of this defect they all had to be dismissed soon afterwards and sent back to their own country, as in Vila, instead

e water is so deep that small craft cannot anchor. Yet it would be preferable to Port Vila, as the climate is much better, Vila being one of the hottest, stuffiest and rainiest spots in the group, and its harbour is becom

and generally sit on the tops of the highest trees where a European can hardly discover them. The natives, however, are very clever in detecting them, but when they try to show you the pigeon it generally flies off and is lost; and if you shoot it, it is hard to find, even for a native. T

ular day, but it ended most gaily with

ing. The sky was bright with stars, but below decks it was dark and stuffy. Now and then a bi

ing before. We then resumed our journey in splendid weather, with a stiff breeze, and flying through blue spaces on the bright waves, we rapidly passed several small