sterling physique can stand
the awful labour and hardships of gold-mining in the Possession. Deadly
malarial fever adds to the diggers' hard lot in New Guinea, and the
natives, when not savage and treacherous, are as unreliable and as lazy
as a Spanish priest.

In conclusion, I can assure my readers that there is no prospect for any
man of limited means to make money in the South Seas as a trader. Any
assertions to the contrary have no basis of fact in them. In cotton and
coco-nut planting there are good openings for men of the right stamp; in
the second industry, however, one has to wait six years before his trees
are in full bearing.

CHAPTER XV ~ THE STORY OF TOKOLME

Early one morning some native hunters came on board our vessel and asked
me to come with them to the mountain forest of the island of Ponape in
quest of wild boar. Glad to escape from the ship, which lay in a small
land-locked harbour on the south-eastern side of the island, I quickly
put together my gear, stepped into one of the long red-painted canoes
alongside, and pushed off with my companions--men whom I had known for
some years and who always looked to me to join them in at least one
of their hunting trips whenever our brig visited their district on a
trading cruise. Half an hour's paddling across the still waters of the
harbour brought us to a narrow creek, lined on each side with dense
mangroves. Following its upward course for the third of a mile, we came
to and landed at a point of high land, where the-dull and monotonous
mangroves gave place to giant cedar trees and lofty palms. Here were two
or three small native huts, used by the hunters as a rendezvous. Early
as it was, some of their women-folk had arrived from the village, and
cooked and made ready a meal of baked fish and chickens. Then after the
inevitable smoke and discussion as to the route to be taken, and telling
the women to expect us back at nightfall, we shouldered our rifles and
hunting spears, and started off in single file along a winding track
that followed the turnings of the now clear and brawling little stream.
At first we experienced considerable trouble in ridding ourselves of
over a dozen mongrel curs; they had followed the men from the village
(two miles distant) and the women had fastened all of them in, in one of
the huts, but the brutes had torn a hole through the cane-work side of
the hut and came after us in full cry. Kicking and pelting them with
sticks