Accomplishments of veturned Labourers. 201 
of their thus being brought gradually within the pale of civiliza- 
tion ; but it is as pure a lot of fiction as ever that distinguished 
novelist wrote—at least as far as the New Hebrideans are con- 
cerned, and they represent a large proportion of the labourers, 
as well as fair specimens of all the rest. 
The returned labourer is not civilized a bit by his sojourn 
abroad—that is my experience. He may wear clothing, and 
may appear quiet and steady when on the plantation, for there 
he cannot help himself. But no one can judge from his ap- 
pearance and behaviour there what he will do afterwards, and 
no one who was not remarkably shortsighted would think for a 
moment of doing so. Let those who write and speak after the 
manner of the novelist accompany the natives back to their 
island homes, and watch their behaviour there ; then, but not 
till then, will their observations and statements be worthy of 
credit. How inexpressibly shocked would the good Mr. 
Trollope be to see his civilized native, his model reclaimed 
savage—who has learnt to plant, and dig, and wear clothes, 
and be proud of them, moreover — contemptuously fling 
aside the cherished garment, plaster himself with horrid paint, 
resume with eager delight the heathen abominations of which 
he has so long been deprived. and speedily appear again in his 
primitive condition. And yet this is the custom with the re- 
turned labourers here. 
The only accomplishment I know which they bring back, 
and of which they are proud, is the facility of swearing in the 
English language. The fact is, that they not only relapse 
at once into their old barbarous ways, but I believe that they 
are actually worse men after their return—more degraded, if 
that be possible, and certainly more vicious—than before. 
The plantations are finishing schools of a high order, for they 
turn out some of the most accomplished specimens of savage 
scoundrelism imaginable—men who have engrafted on their 
PQ 
