VII. 



THE VISIT OF THE TRADERS TO THE 

 ART! ISLANDS. 



.CANNOT quit these far-off islands without 

 giving you a little more information con T 

 cerning them. 



We are, as I said before, out of the 

 track of civilized life. Vessels rarely find their 

 way hither. The people are mere savages ; there 

 are neither towns nor cities, such as we are accus- 

 tomed to see ; and the dense Tropical forest 

 stretches for miles around us. But Nature revels 

 in undisturbed freedom ; and creatures of beauty 

 and plants of wild and splendid luxuriance are 

 found on every hand. The group called the Aru 



