to his course of action. He had a
hurried interview with two other English planters, and a partnership of
three was formed in half an hour. They had then made an agreement with
Malie and another chief to lease all the unoccupied country for many
miles on each side of Samatau Bay.

"Now," the letter went on, "here is what we purpose to do. We are going
to found the biggest cotton and coffee plantation in all the South Seas,
and will make a pile of money. But the one all-important thing is
to have plenty of labour, and that we can only obtain from other
islands--New Britain, the Solomon Group, and thereabouts, and also from
the Equatorial Islands. But it is risky work recruiting labour with
small, weakly-manned schooners. What is required is a big lump of a
vessel, well armed, and with two crews--a white crew to work the ship
and a native crew to work the boats. The _Esmeralda_ is just the ship.
She can carry six hundred native passengers, and in two trips we shall
have all the labourers we want, instead of getting them in drafts of
fifty or sixty at a time by small schooners--which would always be
liable to be cut off and all hands killed--especially in the Solomon
Islands.

"I laid our scheme before Mrs. Marston, and, to be as brief as possible,
she is not only willing to let us charter her ship, but also wishes to
take a share in the venture. But she wants you to keep command of the
_Esmeralda_, as I trust you will."

Then followed a long list of stores, trade goods, arms, ammunition, &c,
&c, which Raymond wished Frewen to purchase in Sydney, and the letter
concluded with a request for him to leave for Samatau as quickly as
possible.

On a separate sheet he made mention of Villari, saying that he had
thoroughly recovered from his wound and was living at Apia.

"To tell you the truth, we are all glad he has gone away from us, for he
fell madly in love with Mrs. Marston, and proposed to her, and took
her kindly rejection of him very badly. He then left the house, but has
twice since come to see her. At last she began to get alarmed at
his conduct, and finally I had to frankly tell him that he was an
undesirable visitor. It stung him deeply, but he persists in writing her
the most passionate letters, asking her to reconsider her decision. I
am sorry for the fellow, as we all liked him. Frohmann, the new German
doctor at Apia, told me that he believes the poor fellow is not 'all
there' mentally."

CHAPTER XIV