47« 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 



fjANrARY I, 1884, 



with in the islands, is, that the powers of the High 

 Cominissiouer have only been used in a one-sided 

 way, to the annoyance, persecution, and prosec- 

 ution of British subjects, never to their protection. 

 Mr. Glissan has had trouble with the natives. On 

 one ocousion a "mob" of them surrounded his hill 

 plantation of Seaview, with the intention of killing 

 him. As he was on the alert, however, they retired, 

 and murdered and ate one of his labour-boys from 

 another island. A year ago a "bushman" presented 

 a musket at Mrs. Glissau m the garden, with the in- 

 tention of intimidation and robbery. The "saltwater" 

 men, by whom he is surrounded, aud from whom be 

 bought his property, are, however, friendly enough. 

 It is the inland tribes, enemies of the men on the 

 coast, who annoyed him. The trouble is now, how- 

 ever all over. The people round about have nearly all 

 become Christian — over 100 converts having beeu made 

 by the native preachers since Mr. Maodouald's absence. 

 Mrs. Glissan, as an observant lady would do, has 

 found out a great deal about the feminine natives 

 which would escape a man's notice. Coming here 

 with the usual English irlea that the islunders are 

 downtrodden and oppressed, and full of sympathy 

 for them, she has gradually had to alter her opmion. 

 She finds neither truth nor gratitude in them. In 

 none of the dialects is there any word to represent 

 thanks. Mrs. Glissan says that the natives at the 

 neighbouring mission on Muna Island have disgusted 

 her bj their want of acknowledgement of the way in 

 which Mrs. Milne has worked amooget theui. "They 

 are untruthful, lazy, and ungrateful. Tlie more you 

 do for them, the leas they will do for themselves," 

 is the verdict of this English lady, who has been 12 

 years amongst them. She tells me some curious inst- 

 ances of lemale native customs on this island. The 

 strangest, perhajis, is that when a girl is betrothed 

 her mother never again looks on the face of the 

 prospective son-in-law; she always avoids liira. If by 

 accident they should meet the mother-in-law turns 

 her head and covers her face with her calico wrap- 

 ping, if she should possess such a thing. I suggest that 

 this custom is oue which many au unhappy lieuedict 

 would hail with pleasure if introduced into civilised life. 

 I believe it would increase the percentage of marriages. 

 AVe go aud view the estate, the Hock of goats, the 

 turkeys, the fowls, the ducks and gese. The property 

 consists of 10,000 acre?. On the lower Hats maize is 

 grown with yams and bauaiias as food for the native 

 labourers. Mr. Glissau has 70 acres under coiiee, and 

 is rapidly clearing and planting the berry. The coffee 

 of the Now Hi--hrides, .as I know by what I have 

 drank, is off a very superior quality. It is a good pay- 

 ing crop too, and can be picked here 20 months after 

 planting. The yield, too, in this virgin soil is some- 

 thing enormous. One patch of 1.3 ncres last year 

 brought six tons of cotfee. The coffee- Selds are at 

 Seaview, 1000 ft. higher than Rathmoi, aid some two 

 to three miles distant. There is a good aud easy road, 

 however. It remind.^i me very much of tbc ascent to 

 Mr. Adolph Joske's plantation on the Navua River, 

 Fiji. A coffee plantation in full bloom is one of 

 the most beautiful sights in the world, the 

 contrast between the snow-white flowers and 

 the deep green of the leaves on the shiubs on these 

 slopes is worlh climbing to Seaview to witness. But 

 more than this rewards my gaze. The blue Pacific 

 is at our feet, dotted with a dozen islands of all sizes. 

 Muna Pell, aud Hincbinbrook are beneath us,Mati.so 

 ia 30 miles off, and near it the Monument, a great 

 rock 500 feet high, home of the seagull, against w hose 

 base the waves dash on a girdle of white foam. 

 The three hills of Mai are in ihe distance, Api 

 looms beyond, aud far in the hoiizon there is a faint 

 cloud, not larger than a man's baud. It is not rain, 

 jjut the imoke of the great volcano of Ambryui, a 



pillar by day and night for 60 miles aronnd. In the 

 morning we are off Api, .in islmd about the same 

 size as Sandwich, some 70 miles in circumference. 

 It has more uiouulainous country, and is thickly 

 wooded, but one misses the verdant terraces of Vat6, 

 Api has a bloody history. The people were aud are 

 still canibals, and m.any massacres of white people 

 have taken place here. There are three copra stations 

 here belonging to the new Hebrides Company. The 

 missionary and his wife c.mplete the total of six 

 white inhabitauts. We sail on towards Ambrym. to 

 the right of the island of Paama and Lopevi, 5,000 ft. 

 high, a smouldering volcano. To the left Mali- 

 colo, as yet only inhabited by two white men, but 

 which Captain Macleod says will some day be the 

 head-quarters of trade io these seas. He should know 

 something of it, as so long back as 1874 he estab- 

 lished a "station" there, a cloud is above Am'^rjm 

 from the ever active volcanoes, but the wind is tak- 

 ing the smoke to the east. The night would he 

 dark, as the moon is hidden by clouds, but 3,500 ft. 

 above our heads the crater gives out a steady 

 roseate light benutiful to behold. Not a small affair 

 is this, as the fire appears to extend for miles above 

 the dip in the moanlain which forms the bed of the 

 volcano. A graud and magnificent sight, yet so pro- 

 saic is man that I can only compare it in my mind 

 to the lights of the blast furnaces in the " Black 

 Couutry," seen from the heights of Barr Beacon or 

 Bromsgrove Lickey. Yet the delicate tints to be 

 seen here could never be produced from a cupola. 

 We are crowded with visitors in the morning. Captain 

 Petersen of the "Aurora " a worthy Swede, but natural- 

 ised Freuchmau, who possesses only one hand, hav- 

 ing blown off the other with dynamite, is early on 

 board. So, too, is "Frangois" the young trader, whose 

 pile of copra on the beach is protected by the tri- 

 colore. Two vessels also floating the flag of France, 

 must vex the souis of the worthy missionaries with 

 fears of annexation and inroads of Marist priests, 

 Francois speaks English fairly, and delights to air 

 his knowledge of the language. He has lately taken 

 a wife Vaca Amhrym, paying her computed value 

 in pigs. Eight of his relations accompany him on 

 board, as a bodyguard. They are all perfectly nude, 

 the b.Tndages they wear only increasing their naked- 

 ness. Their hair is .artistically doue, some of theiu 

 having it worked by the aid of oil and fibre into 

 a thousand separate spikes, which stand on eud like 

 quills of the fretful poicupine. In the matter of ear- 

 rings there is a diversity, but he with the .Jew's, 

 harp dangling from his lobe is evidently "a blood." 

 The chief has a belt made of cocoa-nut fibre and a 

 piece of yarn knotted round his neck — handy to 

 strangle him by. He has a club, but the rest are 

 unarmed. Pipes are stuck in their hair, tobacco 

 in their armlets, and wax matches iu their whiskers 

 Matches, 1 am told, are as good articles of "tr.ido" 

 as one need have. The laziness rf these peoi'le is so 

 great that they will use as many as an Australian 

 bushman ; they will not move a yard to get a 

 "fire-stick" These savages huddle together and shiver 

 in the flight rain. They follow Francois into the cabin 

 aud admire themselves in the glass. The place be- 

 comes redolent of "nigger" aud cocoa-nut oil. 



GROUND PEPPER? 



The attention of the trade is being seriously directed 

 to the fact that so-called ground black pepper is 

 being freely oft'ered at pinces far below the cist of 

 the lowest whole pepper, which is the more remark- 

 able, as the cost of, and loss in, grinding is at le.ist 

 |d. per lb. The chief explanation of this remark- 

 table state of thingB is to be found in the following 

 facts. White and black peppers are both, as is weU 



