IN THE JAWS OF A CROCODILE. 



340 



markably tiiis crop varieB in tlie same locality — in 

 tliat year tlie total number of trees was 4^600,000^ — 

 and that there has been a Bteady increase since, 

 both in tlie nnmber of trees and in the quantity 

 of finiit they have yielded ; but yet not more than 

 one-half the number are planted that might be if 

 the population was sufficiently great to take proper 

 care of them. With such an enormous yield a large 

 surplus is left in the hands of the government after 

 it has paid the natives who cultiyate it, the percent- 

 age to the chiefs, and the cost*of transportation from 

 the small store-houses in the interior to the large ones 

 at Menado, from which it is put on board of vessels 

 either directly for foreign ports or to be taken to Ma- 

 cassar and thence be reshipped to Europe. Tliough 

 the government wishes to give up its monopoly in 

 the cultivation of spices in the Baudas and Moluccas, 

 I did not hear that it is particularly anxious to do so 

 here with the profitable cultivation of coifea 



From the store-houses we walked to the hospital, 

 where I was shown a patient whose case was most re- 

 mai'kable. He was a native of Kema, and was bath- 

 ing in one of the streams that fiow thi*ough the village, 

 when suddenly he found his head between the teeth 

 of an enormous crocodile. Fortunately, the great 

 reptile did not close his jaws, nor settle down with 

 his prey as usual, and another native, hearing the 

 cries of his friend, caught a large stick, and beat the 

 brute until he let go. The man was at once brought 

 here to the hospital, and has now nearly recovered. 

 On his left jaw-bone there was one continuous inci- 

 sion from the ear to the chin, and on the right side 



