The Old and the New Style of 
South Sea Trader . 
T HE old style of trader has disappeared from 
the South Pacific, though north of the 
Equator he is still to be found. Thirty years 
ago he lived like a king, and called no man 
master, and, save the then slowly-growing mis¬ 
sionary interference in his domains, had nothing 
to trouble him. A year or so ago in an English 
paper there appeared a long article on “ the 
traders of the South Sea Islands,” wherein the 
old style of men were described as being nothing 
short of a band of red-handed cut-throats and 
inhuman savages. Their days were spent in 
shooting indiscriminately all those who crossed 
them, and their nights in the most hideous de¬ 
bauchery and drunkenness. They were always 
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