rain penetrated everything. I have rarely passed a longer
night or felt so lonely. The new day revived my spirits, breakfast
did not detain me long, as I had nothing to eat, so I kept along the
shore, jumping and climbing, and had to swim through several lagoons,
swarming, as I heard afterwards, with big sharks! After a while the
coral shore changed into a sand beach, and after having waded for some
hours more in the warm water with the little rags that were left of my
boots, I arrived dead tired at the plantation of Mr. R. He was away,
so I went to his neighbour's, who was at dinner and kindly asked me
to join him. Although it was only a flying-fox, I enjoyed it as a
man enjoys a meal after a twenty-four hours' fast.

The men were just starting for Mr. Ch.'s, and took me with them. My
adventure had taught me the impassableness of the forest, and after
that experience I was never again tempted to make excursions without
a guide.

CHAPTER IV

RECRUITING FOR NATIVES

A few days later the English steamer came, bringing my luggage but
no hope of improvement in my dull existence. A French survey party
arrived too, and set to work, but as they had not enough boys with
them, I could not join them. I spent my days as well as I could,
collected a few zoological specimens, and read Mr. Ch.'s large stock
of French novels until I felt quite silly.

At last an occasion offered to see primitive natives. George, the
son of a neighbour, had agreed to go recruiting for Mr. Ch. As I
have said before, providing sufficient labour is one of the most
important problems to the planter in the New Hebrides. Formerly there
were professional recruiters who went slave-hunting as they would have
followed any other occupation, and sold the natives to the planters at
a fair profit. In their schooners they hung about the shore, filled
the natives with liquor and kidnapped them, or simply drove them on
board wholesale, with the help of armed Loyalty boys. Their methods
were as various as they were cruel, murder was a daily occurrence, and,
of course, the recruiters were hated by the natives, who attacked and
killed them whenever they got a chance. The better class of planters
would not countenance this mode of procedure, and the natives are
now experienced enough not to enlist for work under a master they
do not know. Also the English Government keeps a strict watch on
the recruiting, so that the professional recruiter is dying out,
a