rm in Germany, who have a secret method of tanning and softening
them, and rendering them fit for many purposes for which leather is
used--travelling bags, coverings for trunks, etc.)

The women helped to make the oil, caught fish, robber-crabs and turtle
for the whole party, and we were a happy family indeed. We usually lived
on shore, some distance from the spot where we dried the shark-fins, for
the odour was appalling, especially after rain, and during a calm night.
We dried them by hanging them on long lines of coir cinnet between the
coco-palms of a little island half a mile from our camp.

But we did not always work. There were many wild pigs--the progeny of
domestic stock left by Captain Hayes--on the larger islands, and we
would have great "drives" every few weeks, the skipper and I with our
rifles, and our crew of fifteen, with their wives and children, armed
with spears. 'Twas great fun, and we revelled in it like children.
Sometimes we would bring the ship's dog with us. He was a mongrel
Newfoundland, and very game, but was nearly shot several times by
getting in the way, for although all the islands are very low, the
undergrowth in parts is very dense. If we failed to secure a pig we were
certain of getting some dozens of large robber-crabs, the most delicious
of all crustaceans when either baked or boiled. Then, too, we had
the luxury of a vegetable garden, in which we grew melons, pumpkins,
cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, etc. The seed (which was Californian) had
been given to me by an American skipper, and great was our delight to
have fresh European vegetables, for the islands produced nothing in
that way, except coconuts and some jack-fruit. The lagoon teemed with
an immense variety of fish, none of which were poisonous, and both green
and hawk-bill turtle were captured almost daily.

How those natives of ours could eat! One morning some of the children
brought five hundred turtle eggs into camp; they were all eaten at three
meals.

That calm, quiet night the heat was somewhat oppressive, but about ten
o'clock a faint air from the eastward began to gently rustle the tops of
the loftiest palms on the inner beaches, though we felt it not, owing to
the dense undergrowth at the back of the camp. Then, too, the mosquitoes
were troublesome, and a nanny-goat, who had lost her kid (in the oven)
kept up such an incessant blaring that we could stand it no longer,
and decided to walk across the island--less than