he
natives except as seed, or for the extraction of oil.

Some varieties of this tree grow to a height of sixty or seventy feet.
As all the nuts are at the top the gathering of them would be an
extremely difficult matter were it not for an ingenious contrivance by
which the natives manage to climb the trees; for it may be easily
understood that to _shin_ up an exceedingly rough pole of seventy feet
high, with bare legs, would try the mettle of most men--civilised as
well as savage. The plan is simple. The native strips off a piece of
tough bark from a branch, and therewith ties his feet together, leaving
them, however, several inches apart, grasping the trunk with his arms he
presses his feet against each side of the tree so that the piece of bark
between them catches in the roughnesses of the stem; this gives him a
purchase by which he is enabled to leap or vault up like a monkey.

The wood of the tree is excellent. The natives make pillars for their
houses and their best spears from it. A species of what we may call
natural cloth is found, ready-made, on its leaves, with which they make
sacks, and shirts, and jackets. Plaited leaflets form coverings for
their floors. Baskets are made from the leaves, matting and cordage of
the fibrous husk, and oil is extracted from the nut. Besides all this,
the shells of the old nuts are used as water-bottles, and, when carved
and highly polished, they form elegant drinking-cups.

The perfect adaptation of the bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees to the
varied wants of the South-sea islanders tells, more eloquently than
could be told in words, of the wisdom and benevolence with which the
Almighty cares for His creatures, even while those creatures are living
in the habitual neglect of Himself, and in the violation of all His
laws.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

TREATS OF SAVAGE WARFARE AND SOME OF ITS CONSEQUENCES.

It has been said that the natives of the innumerable islands of the
South Seas are fond of war.

All travellers to those regions bear witness to this fact. When Cook
went there, the natives of all of them were absolute savages. At the
present time a great number of the islands have been blessed with the
light of Christianity, but some of them are still lying in the state of
degradation in which they were first found.

At this moment, reader, while you ponder these lines, there are men of
the South Seas who wander about in a state of nudity and idleness; who
practise