THE CHOICE OF A SITE FOR WORK 97 
negroes cut down on their own account and then offer 
to the company works out cheaper than what the 
latter get through their contract labour. On the other 
hand, the supply from the free natives is so uncertain 
that it cannot be relied upon for trade purposes. They 
may take it into their heads to celebrate a festival, 
or to have a big fishing expedition just when the demand 
for timber is greatest, so the companies, while they buy 
all they can from the natives, also keep their own 
labourers constantly at work. 
« 
* * 
When a suitable spot has been discovered, there come 
to it either the men of a village who have agreed to 
exploit it together, or the white man with his labourers, 
and huts are erected to live in. The great difficulty is 
food. One is faced with the problem of securing sup- 
plies for from sixty to one hundred men for weeks and 
months together, and that in the middle of the virgin 
forest. The nearest village and the nearest plantations 
are perhaps twenty-five miles away, and only to be 
reached by a weary struggle through jungle and swamp. 
Unfortunately, too, the staple foods of banana and 
manioc * are bulky, and therefore troublesome to 
transport ; moreover, they only keep good for a few 
days. The great drawback attaching to Equatorial 
Manioc, better known perhaps to English readers as cassava, 
belongs to the Euphorbiaceae. The two chief kinds are Manihot 
utilissima, the bitter, which contains the hydrocyanic acid, and 
Manihot Aipi, the sweet, which is harmless. The roots are 3 feet 
long and 6 to 9 inches in diameter, filled with milky juice. The 
starch as prepared for food is known first as Brazilian arrowroot, and 
this, when further prepared, as the tapioca of commerce. (Encycl. 
Brit., s.v.) 
P.F. 
H 
