XI 
EARLY MORNING 
149 
the Eugenias are fruit-bearing, and the fruit varies in 
size from that of a large apple to others the size of 
cherries. The leaves of one of the large varieties is an 
antidote to the bite of the brown snake. 
The tide had just turned as we woke next morning, 
the sunny waves were tossing and tumbling their foam 
along the beach, and the sun rose on the dome of a 
vividly blue sky. Everything was dripping still with 
moisture from the heavy night dew, and we looked out 
on to a medley of brilliant colouring : such spring 
foliage of greens, strange plants everywhere ; such a 
wealth of cocoa-nut palms with their nuts in every 
stage of ripeness, from green to yellow and brown. 
Papaw trees with great yellow melon -shaped fruits 
under the tuft of leaves above their tall stems, giant 
bamboos, and quantities of banana palms grow about, 
while the ground in places is blue with convolvulus 
and a kind of clitoria that creeps everywhere. The 
natives, waist-deep in the water, were making an early 
start with their canoes, and the sand was strewn with 
their fishing tackle, spears, and baskets ; the mats of 
their sails for a moment flapped loudly in the wind as 
they hoisted them, spreading to the breeze. Away 
the whole flotilla sailed. A bath had been provided 
for me, and it was no easy matter taking this, for the 
natives, wishing, I suppose, to see if I was white all 
over, would keep peering through the small opening in 
the wall that did duty as a window. The natives all 
bathed in the sea, and the children spent half their 
day splashing and playing about in the water. 
Our creature comforts had now to be attended to. 
I watched our breakfast being prepared. It consisted 
of yams which they put into a banana leaf with the milk 
and fruit of the cocoa-nut scraped into it ; it was then 
cooked by steam and served up in the same leaf, never 
