252 
CBUISE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
plant, but we were rather too far off to make out the 
other objects of cultivation. The beach is of pure 
white coral sand, and above it are almost continuous 
groves of cocoa-nut trees, with here and there groups 
of native huts — pretty, light, basket-like dwellings, 
mounted on wooden piles 10 or 12 feet high. 
About noon we entered the strait between the ill- 
starred little island of Matan, where Magalhaens met 
his death, and Zebu, and had a distant view of the 
monument erected by Queen Isabella II. to his 
memory. In the afternoon we anchored off the town 
of Zebu, an active business place, with a population 
of about 35,000. There are a few roomy and hand- 
some houses, "but for the most part it consists of a lot 
of tumble-down shanties and rickety old buildings, 
with a great show of poverty and but little riches. 
The chief articles of trade are Manilla hemp and 
sugar ; coffee is also grown, . and tobacco in con- 
siderable quantities. Coal of very fair quality has 
been found, and would form a lucrative article for 
exportation ; but the great difficulty at this place, as 
in the rest of these islands, is the scarcity of labour. 
The natives will not work. The banana, the cocoa- 
nut, and the bamboo supply them with all they re- 
quire of food and shelter ; and the additional luxury 
of a little rice, and dried fish to flavour it, is pur- 
chased at the price of half a day’s labour in the 
week. The soil is, however, evidently productive to 
a marvellous extent ; and the same redundancy which 
