SCARCITY OF TOOLS, 
before described, without the slightest inconvenience^ 
If tf»e master missed a man from the working place, 
and went to tlie lines in search of him, on enter- 
ing the dark room, dazzled by the sudden change, and 
somewha* blinded with smoke, he would for sometime 
see nothirig. The cooly was w^dl aware of this, and would 
speedily clamber over the low partition wall, into the 
next room, and probably into several others, in suc- 
cession. Then peeping out of the door of his last 
landing, if ail was clear, he would make a bolt back 
to the working place, where, on the master’s return from 
his uucuccessful search, he would see him hard at 
work. Probably no questions would be asked, as the 
cooly w’ould be considered as having never left his 
"work. It would be a most useless to make strict in- 
quiry amongst the others of the gang as to the 
exact state of matters: it would either lead to a 
long list of falsehoods, or “ Teriy a lUcilj ” “We know 
nothing about it.” They woiTc telT^n each other, 
unless there be some private spite, dislike, or quarrel, 
A very common trick used to be, to come to 
tnorning muster, without the pruning-kiiife, then, instead 
of going straight to work, they had to go back to 
the lines for their knives. 
The system now generally adopted of givipg out the 
priining-knives every morning at muster, and taking 
them in, wdien work is done, in the afternoon, has 
put an end to this subterfuge. 
T'he remark about pruning-knives was equally ap- 
plicable to all tools. The system was a promiscuous 
giving out of tools after morning muster, or ra her 
letting the coolies hdp themselves from the miscel- 
laneous heaps scattered about all over the store, the 
result being that few or none brought them back in 
the evening. When the bugle sounded at 4 p. m. to 
leave off work, the cooly would throw down bis hoe, 
and make off. Some w^ho bad good tools would hide 
them, so as to find them next morning. Next morn- 
ing they were absent, or perhaps ordered off to some 
other w'ork, and tim hidden tool was forgotten and 
lost. Sometimes when tools became very scarce, wq 
knew there were plenty on the estate somewhere; wo 
w^ould make a raid in search of them ; this was gener- 
ally once a month, befoie pay day. The rooms of 
the lines were all ransacked, searchers were sent OAit 
into the coffee, and any number of mamoties, axes, 
scrapers, Ac., found stowed away below logs, f under 
coffee trees, and sometimes even buried in the soft 
io »9e earth. Where the digging of drains or manure holes 
had been going on, this sort of thing was a great 
annoyance, and hindrance to the work. Tools were 
never to be got when wanted, it was useless ordering 
