ANCESTRAL SHADE 



Time was when, settling on thy leaf, a fly 

 Could shake thee to the root and time has been 

 When tempests could not." 



COWPER. 



IF it were possible to recall the spirits of the departed 

 of this Isle to solemn session and to exact from them 

 expression of opinion as to the central point of it, the 

 popular, most comfortable and convenient camping- 

 place, there can be no question that the voice of the 

 majority would favour the curve of the bay rendered 

 conspicuous by a bin-gum or coral tree. Within a few 

 yards of permanent fresh water, on sand blackened by 

 the mould of centuries of vegetation, close to an almost 

 inextricable forest merging into jungle, whence a great 

 portion of the necessaries of life were obtained, and but 

 ten paces from the sea, the tree stood as a landmark, 

 not of soaring height, but of bulk and comeliness withal. 

 Generation after generation of careless coloured folk 

 must have been born and bred under its branches. 

 When the soil became rank because of continuous 

 residence and insects of diabolical activity pestered its 

 occupants, the camp would shift to another site; but 

 there existed proofs that the bin-gum-tree localised the 

 thoughts of those aimless, unstable wanderers to whom 

 a few bushes stuck in the sand as a screen from prevailing 

 winds represent the home of the hour and all that the 



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