roared on the coral reef, was heard on our starboardquarter, and we were again, sea-loving children of a sea-loving race, once more on the broad bosom of the Pacific, outward bound for some islands at the gateways of the day.'

CHAPTER XVII.

" FROM ISLAND UNTO ISLAND AT THE GATEWAYS OF

THE DAY.'

THE selection of trade' for an all-round cruise requires experience and judgment. It used to be a foolish saying in England, 'Oh, anything will do for the colonies;' but anything woN'T do for the islands. The owner of the Belle Frances dealt mainly with the beachcombers and the chiefs, but the articles which would suit one group would be unsalable in the next. In some of the archipelagoes even the different islands differed in taste to a remarkable degree. Certain goods can always be safely taken, and a large profit can be relied on, even on Levuka prices, which for many articles of trade articles of 'trade' are much higher than London figures. If a suitable vessel were chartered in London, with good passenger accommodation, and loaded with quick-selling cargo, it would be comparatively easy for any persons whom this book may interest to study things Polynesian themselves in a very comfortable fashion, and so carry out poor Jackson's idea of a sort of scientific expedition. In addition to an exceptionally beautiful cruise, with almost certain

fair weather and calm sea, money should be made by those interested, and arrangements could be entered into which would lay the foundation for a profitable growing trade. I merely throw out the hint to gentlemen who may be glad to learn that there is still a region which, although discovered in great measure by a certain Captain Cook, is as yet uninvaded by the tourists of the same name.

The islands of the Low Archipelago,' or the Tuamotus (sometimes called Paumotus, signifying a 'cloud of islands '), are well worth a short account. The group, or groups, extend over sixteen degrees of longitude, and consist of seventy-eight islands, all coral atolls, all with the exception of three having lagoon reefs, varying in size from a few miles to over a hundred miles in circumference. The population may be set down at 5000, of which perhaps not more than a fifth are in a state of primeval barbarism.

In former times these people were so famous for their bravery that Pomare the Great, of Tahiti (called so by reason of his conquests), invariably employed them as his guards.

All who know these people say they feel safer in their company than in that of any other natives of the Pacific, and under circumstances of difficulty and danger this is especially noticeable. The Tuamotu is naturally independent, and he demands of his employers good pay and good usage. They are nearly all Catholics, and make very good converts; but they have a great predilection for rum, and are rather fond of an occasional free fight. On the Manga Reva there is a Catholic bishop and a body of clergy.

Of the seventy-eight islands in the group thirtyfive are known to contain pearl-shell in their lagoons, and there can be little doubt that the large pearl which was purchased by the Queen from Messrs. Storr and Mortimer for £6000 came from these islands. The majority of the islands are incapable of any cultivation except for the growth of the cocoa-nut, consisting almost entirely of coralline sand, with very little soil. Limes, however, flourish, and fig-trees attain great luxuriance. A few of the islands (notably Manga Reva, a basaltic island over 2000 feet high) possess fertile soil. Manga Reva has five islands. within its reef, one of which is clothed with forest and watered abundantly.

I have before mentioned the pandanus, or screwpalm; this remarkable tree flourishes most abundantly in the Tuamotus; though it is to be found more or less all over the islands of the Coral Sea. This is a most valuable product, and deserves to be better known. It is a very suggestive fact that the pandanus, custardapple and other tropical productions of this region are found in a fossil state in the Isle of Sheppey, in England. The pandanus is called 'screw-palm' for the reason that it grows with a twist, like the screw of an augur. Its height is generally from twenty to forty feet, the stem being straight like a column, sending forth branches at regular intervals in such a form as sometimes to remind one of the golden candlestick in the tabernacle of Moses. Each of these limbs terminates in a tuft of long drooping leaves, having in the centre a large yellowish flower, of an overpowering odour, very agreeable, but sickly by reason of

its intensity. Underneath this tuft hangs the fruit, which is of a dark green colour, outwardly of the size of a man's head, and a form resembling a pineapple, or more exactly that of the cone which on ancient sculptures is made to surmount the thyrsus of Bacchus. This fruit is commonly regarded by white men not only as unpalatable, but even as uneatable; nevertheless, it constitutes almost the sole subsistence of thousands of natives in the Kingsmill and Marshall Groups, where no vegetable food exists.

When the fruit is ripe it easily comes to pieces, and is found to consist of a multitude of separate capsules, each of the form of a truncated cone, with square corners, the small ends being arranged around a central cone. Their surface is bright and smooth as ivory; in one species yellow, in the other blood-red. The outer end is as hard as a stone, the inner soft, of the consistence of sugar-cane, and containing an equal if not larger proportion of saccharine matter. The interior of the capsule is fibrous. The custom of the natives is to chew the soft end, and having thus extracted all the nutriment, to throw on one side the hard portion, which they let lie in the sun till thoroughly dry, when they crack it between two stones and extract the kiko or kernel, which is similar to a filbert and very wholesome. The ripe fruit when boiled down produces a large percentage of excellent molasses; also, when steamed in the Sawaiori oven and mashed up in warm water, it yields an intoxicating liquor when fermented, and a strong spirit by distillation. But the chief use to which it is devoted is the preparation of what is called on the equator kabobo,