18 GOVERNMEXT. 



amongst them ; and it is to his past discretion that many a white 

 man, myself among the numbei', has owed his safety when landing 

 on St. Christoval. 



When this island was being survej-ed by the officers of H.M.S. 

 " Lark," in 1882, we learned that there was head-money out for a 

 white man's head in a district on the north side and nearly opposite 

 TJgi. It appeared that about a year before a fatal accident had 

 occurred on board a trading- vessel through a revolver going off 

 unexpectedly and killing a native belonging to the district. It was 

 the current opinion of resident traders that sooner or later the 

 required head would be obtained. As characteristic of a trader's 

 experience in these islands, I may add that on one occasion when 

 visitinof Mr. Bateman, a trader residing then on the north coast of 

 Ugi, I was told by him that about a month before a friendly Malaita 

 chief had arrived in a large canoe at Ugi with the information that 

 head-money had been ofiered by another Malaita chief for the head 

 of a white man. The chief who brought the news advised Mr. 

 Bateman to remove his residence to the interior of the island ; and 

 the natives in his vicinity were very solicitous that tlie warning 

 should be heeded. 



I learned from Mr, Stephens, who has resided on Ugi for several 

 years, that on one occasion when he was resident on Guadalcanar, 

 on returning from an excursion up the bed of one of the streams, 

 a messao:e was received from the chief of a village in the interior 

 warning him not to make any more similar excursions or he 

 would take his life. The chief of the village, under whose pro- 

 tection Mr. Stephens was residing, took up the matter as an insult 

 to himself; and sent a reply to the effect that if the neighbouring 

 chief wished to remain on terms of amity with him, he should at 

 once send a head in atonement for the threats directed against the 

 white man. A day or two afterwards, Mr. Stephens saw the head, 

 which had been duly sent. 



The little island of San^a Anna, although but 2|- miles in length, 

 supports two principal villages, Otagara and Sapuna, which are as 

 often as not at war with each other, although only separated by the 

 breadth of the island. Such was the state of affairs durino; one of 

 our visits to Port Mary in this island ; and the fact that the natives 

 of the two villages were connected by inter-marriages did not act as 

 a deterrent in the matter. Through the restless spirit of Mai, the 

 head-hunter before referred to, some old grievance had been dug up, 



