The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-13
LIFE IN HAPPY FIJI.
Where the Men and Women
Dress Like Adam and Eve.
JOYS OF A PRIMITIVE RACE.
Two Eastern Rail way Contractors Sneak
or Glasses of Laborers-Trip to the
Okanogan Mines.

Captain William Colby. of Port Blakeley was
al the Occidental hotel. The captain, who Is
commander of the lumber schooner Corsair, is
one OF the best, and the best-known, sailors on
the Pacific ocean. He has carried lumber to
pretty nearly every Pacific port of consequence
and has visited most OF the islands. His next
trip, on which he will start in a few weeks, will
De for China. The last one he was TO the Fiji
Islands, and 1t Is the shortest round trip on rec
ofd Leaving here Jan uary a, he returned in
three months and twenty days.
81 took lumber to Suwa," said he last night
'and to Lambssse- Suwa is, of course, quite a
settlement, but Lambesse 10 an island never
visited by ships. 1t lies back of suwa, and to
reach IL you have to so around through very
ol1dcult pass back of the great sea reef An
English company is now preparing to start big
sugar plantation in Lambesse. and, OF course,
lumber is wanted there now. They are clearing
$4,000 acres, but when / went there they had
only one-fourth of that work done They will
have to build wharyes and warehouses, and, as
result, the growth of the demand for lumber
VIII be pretty steady
"At Lambesse we found the natives in all
their primitive simplicity. You know it is only
few years ago that they were cannibais. Be-
sides that they used to kill their parents when
the latter became old and decrepit A son
would say to his father mother: 'You are old
and weak now; go out and dig you grave
The parent would obey, and when he had
gotten the hole deep enough, the dutiful son
would come along and with a club knock the
Old man or woman in the head and cover him
up with dirt.
'But the missionaries have been at work and
stopped that sort of thing. The natives,
pecially the women, are very pious and go to
church four or five times dav. The church
dues are collected not in money, but in the
produce OF the islands. For instance in their
language the English church is known as the
coeoanut meat church. because the English
church revenues are paid in the cocoanut meat,
or copra. The Presbyterians have the coeoanut
Oil church, and the Catholics the dried shell
fish church.
I'm spite of the missionaries the natives are
very simple in their style of living They don't
have to Work. because if they will open their
mouths food will lall in. The islands abound
with nuts and fruits OF all sorts. You can hire
men TO work by giving them tobacco for they
are very fond of that. began by paying out
full pounds OF tobacco, but when my stock ran
short called two plugs pound. The natives
made no objection to short weight, and after
ward found that the missionaries were calling
one plug pound. So you see had been alto
gether too conscientious.
"The natives are extrayagantly fond OF drink,
but any one selling them liquor is liable to a
heavy fine. The chief, or king, buy what
he peases, and he gets royalty drunk.
ave visited the village fourteen miles inland,
where he lives and his house is somewhat bet
ter than the rest. The queen was very hospit-
able, and prepared to give us some of the native
liquor. She called in a dozen young women, who
sat down around big bowl or vat, and began
chewing certain root AS fast as they chewed
1t up they spit it into this vat. To this PUPPY
stuff water is added and then the solid part is
SKINNED out, leaving the liquid drink. 1 was
not anxious to taste the stuff, but had to, for
fear of offending the royal family.
1--WE entertained the queen and q lot of
her friends on our ship. They
came swimming out from the shore
splashing and making great noise to brighten
away the sharks. You see when lot of them
go together the sharks are afraid, but a man
who is alone wiz be attacked. Neither the men
nor the women wear clothing, but they have no
feeling of shame on that account These women
clambered up the side of my vessel, all of them
stark naked except the queen She had on a
small girdle with q little apron of woven fibre.
offered her pound Of tobacco for it, and
without the slightest hesitation she took 1t of
and handed it to me-
.'Most of the men have but one wife, though
the chiefs sometimes have more. They are, how
ever more chaste than the people here in this
country. Ii a sailor would run after any woman
who came out 70 the ship she would jump over
board and swim OFF.
"In personal appearance they are much like
the kanakas, except that their hair is very
bushy. They have it filed with lime to kill the
yermin."
81 brought the queens robe home as present
tn nv wife,