PLANS AND PERFORMANCES 43 



Federal Legislation), and being able to enjoy the sleep 

 which is said to be that of the just. 



Occasionally there are as many as four blacks about 

 the place. They come and go from the mainland, some 

 influenced by the wish for the diet of oysters for a time. 

 " Me want sit down now ; me want eat oyster." At rare 

 intervals we are entirely alone for months together, and 

 then cultural operations stand still. Twice, a considerable 

 portion of the plantation was silently overrun by the scouts 

 of the jungle, and had to be re-surveyed in order to locate 

 smothered-up orange-trees. Our staff, domestic and other- 

 wise, usually consists of one boy and his gin, and save for 

 the housework, affairs are not conducted on a serious or 

 systematic plan. The spur necessity not being applied, 

 there is no persistent or sustained effort to make a profit, 

 and, of course, none is earned. 



In a few months from the felling of the first strip of 

 jungle and the burning off of the timber and rubbish, 

 however, we grew produce that went towards the main- 

 tenance of the establishment. That pious old man who 

 lived to the majestic age of 105, and during the last 

 ninety years existed wholly upon bread and water, was not 

 the only one who had " a certain lusting after salad." 

 Until we grew fruit, the papaw, the quickest and amongst 

 the best, vegetables were more necessary. 



Our plantation, all carved out of the jungle, has an 

 area of 4^ acres. We have orange-trees (two varieties), just 

 coming into bearing, and from which profits are expected ; 

 pineapples (two varieties), papaws, coffee (Arabica), custard 

 apples, sour sop, Jack fruit, pomegranate, the litchee, and 

 mangoes in plenty. Sweet potatoes are always in successive 

 cultivation, also pumpkins and melons, and an occasional crop 

 of maize. Bananas represent a staple food. We have had fair 

 crops of English potatoes, and have grown strawberries of 

 fine flavour, though of deficient size, among the banana 

 plants. Parsley, mint, and all " the vulgar herbs " grow 

 freely. Readers in less favoured climes may hardly credit 

 the statement that pineapples are so plentiful in the season in 



