The Hawaiian gazette., 1873-03-12

knife, like hedge-knife, loosening the gravel
with the point, and pulling up the weeds and
small brush by hand.
The cultivation, therefore, is all done, and will
have to be done, with hedge-knives and whale
mems spades, or similar hand implements and
to free the ground from weeds and small brush
they must all be pulled up by hand, as people used
to pull fax many years ago. Those who have lived
on the group for over twenty years, and are well
acquainted with all the islands, estimate that
there are not two thousand acres in the whole
country that could be cultivated with pillow. In
fact, have seen what they call plantations there
that am confident Span of horses could not
be driven across the field in a straight line
without being hitched to anything, not to say to
pillow, for the rocks. Yet this land was planted
in cotton and corn. l can not see how this
country, covered as it is with q dense tropical
forest, which has to be removed can offer any
inducements to the American agriculturist, &C.
customed as he is to gang-plows and cultivators.
Cotton grows three or four years with one
planting, By trimming down once year. When
Tue SOttOu tHel paul COIh duiOuS H.
and they say they can raise twenty-five bushels
to the acre. One third at least is destroyed by
rats, that find safe and convenient burrows among
the rocks. The islands are covered with dense
growth of tropical trees and vines, from the
waters edge to the tops of the mountains. Among
the forest trees are the banyan, the vi, .he Sa-
moan chesnut, and the wild orange; among the
shrubs are species of wild nutmeg and wild
coffee. These must have been the coffee, nutmeg
and orange alluded to by Capt. Wakeman in his
report. They bear about the same resemblance
to the real article that grindstones and chalk do
to cheese. l could hear of but two coffee trees
on the whole group. One was at Apia, and the
other at Savai. One man at Apa planted
number of coffee trees a few yeas ago {: they
are all dead now. Two kinds of cotton are
grown, the kidney and Sea Island. The former
is worth two cents per H., and the latter five
cents, in the seed. The maximum product is
about LOCO fbs per acre in the seed and four lbs
in the seed will make one H. ginned
Cobra Is worth from $40 to $50 per ton at
Apa. Cotton and cobra find ready market
either with the Sydney traders or at the house
of Godfrey & Co., (Germans) at Apa, who do
most of the business of the islands, They have
a plantation about five miles from Apia, on
which they raised two hundred acres of cotton !;
but noticed that where they planted cotton they
were to be the product of the future. They work
their land with aborers obtained from the Savage
and Line Islands They are miserable and dis
gushing looking SET laborers.
While there learned some facts about the
PolyDesian Land Company from those that we're
competent to give correct information. The
Polynesian Land and Commercial Company have
expended from ten to twenty thousand dollars in
advances on different tracts of land OIL Upolu
and other islands, and got papers signed by the
natives claiming to own the land before the con-
suls of the port, the purchasers agreeing to have
the land surveyed. and the balance paid in six
weeks from the date of the bargain. Some of
these papers are dated as far back as last
April. No surveys have yet been made and
the natives claim forfeiture of the agreement,
and IN some instances have sold the land ngain
to the agent of the German Company, receiving
full payment and giving bona fde deeds. In
some instances they have advanced money to
two or three different natives for the same tract
Of land, and in others there is no stipulated price
per acre, or otherwise. They sent a surveyor
over to the southwest side of the island 20 sur
vey tract they had purchased, and he was told
by the natives that he could not survey the land
as long as they were living on it, and he must
hunt up the man that sold it to point out the
boundaries. From what l could learn the Land
Company has, as yet, legal and complete title
to but very little land and what their prospective
title may be will depend very much on the amount
of money they may send to pay for it. Parties
who went down on the Menchicoff for the pur-
pose of buying land, reported that they could
not buy any for less than from five to ten
dollars per acre. They had an idea at Apa that
all California was coming down there and no
lots could be bought for any price commensurate
with the business that could be done One man
offered lot of about thirty feet by eighty, he
tween the street and the sea, for 81 900, with
the understanding that roadway six feet wide
was to be left. Small lots can be leased for from
five to ten dollars per month.
The climate is moist and of an average tempera
ture of about S., which makes labor in the sun
very exhaustiDg. The natives proud, hauglIty
race, and as couceited in their being a superior
people as any down-cast Yankee or Englishman can
be- They show no disposition to submit to any adj
vice or dietation from foreigners, to whom they
apply the vilest epithets in their language, and call
them pigs, as only fit to be eaten. They are the
greatest thieves imaginable, but a splendid race
They wear but little clothing, which
consists of piece of Calico or braid of XII leaves,
around their loins, reaching nearly to the knees.
The men tattoo their bodies and legs down to the
knees Some of the half-whites and wives of white
men are more advanced, and wear loose gowns,
like the women here. All such become the sport
of the proud beauties of the pure Samoan race, who
will ask them if their bodies rotten are they
ashamed of their physical organization, that they
cover themselves. They are very proud OF their
fine forms.
Fashion has its freaks among the Samoans as well
as in more enlightened countries. The most notice
able is the manner of cooring their hair which is
to rub on it the milk of lime, let it remain for
day or two, and then wash 1t out with the juice of
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