THE SANDAL WOOD OF THE SOUTH-SEA ISLANDS. 373 



is technically termed "trade" consisting of iron instruments, arms and 

 ammunition, calico, &c. 



Formerly the sandal wood trade was carried on under much greater 

 difficulties than now, on account of the fierce and treacherous disposition 

 of the islanders, who have repeatedly attacked, sometimes successfully, the 

 vessels employed in it, and more frequently boats' crews and shore parties 

 were cut off. That many of those attacks were provoked by the white 

 traders is a matter of notoriety, but in most cases the reverse is attempted 

 to be made out, and many murders and other atrocities committed by the 

 sandal wood traders have been carefully concealed by those who, it may be 

 inferred, could not justify them. 



On the other hand, it is positively certain, that in several instances the 

 natives have been the unprovoked aggressors. The sandal wood is either 

 brought off by the natives to vessels or boats about the coast, or is collected 

 and stored up at various stations, left in charge of a white man or two, 

 when such can be done with safety. Some of these stations are of con- 

 siderable importance, as those at Tana and the Isle of Pines, belonging to 

 Mr. Paddon, where there are extensive stores containing articles suitable 

 for conducting the sandal wood trade, and supplying and refitting the small 

 vessels which rendezvous there from time to time. 



The sandal wood collected in the South Sea Islands is intended to reach 

 its ultimate destination in China, where I believe the quantity now stored 

 up is very great, the unsettled state of that country at present having 

 greatly affected the trade, and rendered it prudent for the owners to hold 

 on until the market takes a favourable turn. In China, sandal wood is 

 usually worth from 201. to SOL a ton. In such of the South Sea Islands as 

 produce it, the sandal wood is often employed to scent the cocoa-nut oil used 

 to anoint the body and smear the hair. For this purpose, the wood is 

 rasped down with a piece of shark's or other rough fish skin, and introduced 

 into the oil which in course of time becomes strongly scented. As a 

 perfume, however, it does not seem to suit the taste of the Euroj>eans. A 

 handful of the shavings of the wood will prevent moths from attacking 

 clothes of any description, and I have successfully used the same means 

 to keep away insects from preserved specimens of Natural History. Sandal 

 wood is also an Australian product. 



Some few years ago, a considerable quantity was collected in Western 

 Australia and sent to China, but on account of its very inferior quality, it 

 did little more than pay expenses, and the speculation was abandoned as 

 being an unprofitable one. About six years ago, a small vessel, the 

 < Will o' the Wisp,' was despatched from Sydney, to procure sandal wood on 

 the north-east coast of this colony, but various disastrous occurrences 

 caused the early abandonment of the voyage. A little of the supposed 

 sandal wood procured on this occasion, and which I saw was commercially 

 valueless, being the product not of a Santalum ("of which genus there are 

 several Australian species), but of Exocarpus latifolia, a tree belonging to a 

 different natural order of plants. 



