CHAPTER XXIV 



FORTUNATE ISLANDS 



In the family traditions of most peoples there are 

 usually stories of some particular Fortunate Islands 

 where, in exquisite sunshine and eternal spring, an inno- 

 cent and childlike people disport themselves amongst 

 flowers and splendid fruit trees, earning their subsistence 

 with the merest apology for labour, and redeemed by 

 Nature's exuberant fertility from that drudgery which is 

 the common lot of mankind. 



The facile pens of enthusiastic, if badly informed, 

 writers have discovered Utopias in the West Indian 

 Islands, in the South Seas, and in the Canaries, which 

 last appear to have been the original Fortunate Islands 

 of the classical world. 



At first sight such islands within or just outside the 

 tropics do seem to answer the conditions of Utopia. 



Fresh sea-breezes prevent the oppressive and exhaust- 

 ing effects of ordinary tropical heat. There are often 

 neither mosquitoes nor malaria. The warm transparent 

 water yields an abundance of fish, and the soil is fertile 

 and returns abundantly for any half-hearted attempt at 

 plantation or cultivation. 



These islands are the home of the cocoanut, banana, 

 mango, and often of the sago palm, the most abundantly 

 productive food plants known to mankind. An acre of 

 bananas will carry one thousand plants, which may give 

 some iooo to 1500 bunches in the year, which is about 

 9! tons. The cocoanut is also exceedingly prolific, and 

 can be used for all sorts of purposes. The bread-fruit is 



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