ter to take me to Tassimaloun in
Big Bay; so I bade a hearty farewell to the good Father, whom I have
never had the pleasure of meeting again.

CHAPTER VII

SANTO

There are hardly any natives left in the south of the Bay of
St. Philip and St. James, generally called Big Bay. Only to the
north of Talamacco there are a few villages, in which the remnants
of a once numerous population, mostly converts of the Presbyterian
mission, have collected. It is a very mixed crowd, without other
organization than that which the mission has created, and that is
not much. There are a few chiefs, but they have even less authority
than elsewhere, and the feeling of solidarity is lacking entirely,
so that I have hardly ever found a colony where there was so much
intrigue, immorality and quarrelling. A few years ago the population
had been kept in order by a Presbyterian missionary of the stern and
cruel type; but he had been recalled, and his place was taken by a man
quite unable to cope with the lawlessness of the natives, so that every
vice developed freely, and murders were more frequent than in heathen
districts. Matters were not improved by the antagonism between the
Roman Catholic and Presbyterian missions and the traders; each worked
against the others, offering the natives the best of opportunities to
fish in troubled waters. The result of all this was a rapid decrease
of the population and frequent artificial sterility. The primitive
population has disappeared completely in some places, and is only to
be found in any numbers far inland among the western mountains. The
situation is a little better in the north, where we find a number of
flourishing villages along the coast around Cape Cumberland.

The nearest village to Talamacco was Tapapa. Sanitary conditions
there were most disheartening, as at least half of the inhabitants
were leprous, and most of them suffered from tuberculosis or
elephantiasis. I saw hardly any children, so that the village will
shortly disappear, like so many others.

Native customs along the coast are much the same as at Port Olry, but
less primitive, and the houses are better built. There is wood-carving,
or was. I found the doorposts of old gamals beautifully carved, and
plates prettily decorated; but these were all antiques, and nothing
of the kind is made at the present day.

The race, however, is quite different from that around Port Olry. There
are two distinct types: one, Melanes