148 OUR SEARCH FOR A WILDERNESS. 



bend of the river. No more could Frederick mingle witli his 

 tribe, and on his knees and in tears he had begged Mr. King 

 to keep him and shelter him on the Government Island. 

 The vendetta would follow him through life and it was 

 almost certain he would be killed sooner or later. 



The calm of the evening was perfect, undisturbed by all 

 this hidden tragedy. When the moon was well clear of 

 the trees, some great frog hidden in the swamp began his 

 rhythmical kroiik! kronk! kronh! and tiny bats dashed about, 

 splashing the surface of the water as they drank or snatched 

 floating insects. 



The yap! yap! of a passing but invisible Skimmer came 

 faintly, and the throbbing roll of a second kind of frog rumbled 

 out of the dusk across the river. The moonlight became 

 ever stronger and now a Kiskadee called sleepily from his 

 great untidy nest in the distant village. A sharp whip- 

 lash of sound came to our ears and we knew that a 

 Parauque '" had awakened from his diurnal slumber. An 

 answering cry sounded near at hand in the garden and we 

 could distinguish the two connected tones. The splash of 

 paddles announced the return of the rest of our party as an 

 Indian woman began a droning song from the fire before 

 her hut a few yards away. 



Impatient as we were to get into the real "bush," the 

 days at Morawhanna were delightful. From INIr. King we 

 learned a great deal about England's government of this 

 out-of-the-world colony. We were especially interested in 

 the protection of the indentured coolie. In the first place 

 the coolie labor market is never allowed to become over- 

 crowded. Each employer sends in an order for the exact 

 number of workmen which he refjuires, so that the supply 

 brought over is never greater than the demand. The coolie 

 gets free passage from India to South America, and is 

 guaranteed work at a minimum wage of a shilling a day, 



