190 
PRIVATIONS. 
milk as a pudding. When I was well punctual- 
ity was enforced, but later, when Kobez was left 
to himself, and when he had to hunt for food, 
he offered the meal at various hours, from 8 a.m, 
till 3 r.M. Shall I ever forget how I suffered 
from faintness for food in that place 1 In the 
afternoon we had a cup of tea, and should have 
dined at sundown, about 6.30. Sometimes we 
had that meal (the same viands as at breakfast) 
ready at 4 in the afternoon, and sometimes 
not till 10 P.M., when I was so sleepy and tired 
that I had gone to bed. Kobez seemed to have 
no power of reckoning time or arranging his 
work. 
I think I have said that the fowls were of 
excellent quality, being reared chiefly on the 
grains of Indian com spilled in stamping; but 
the fish were even more delicious. Indeed I 
have never anywhere seen such variety, or 
tasted such excellence. Fortunately we got 
very fond of having them cooked in cocoa-nut 
oil (which some people cannot taste) ; and I 
used to think we could never be badly off beside 
this teeming sea. But the natives would not 
go fishing for us when they had got surfeited 
with our goods. Occasionally they w T ent out 
to take for themselves, and when we saw them 
