Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-07-27


there was the wife and child to keep.
When I got the offer to go to New
Britain md open up some new trad
ing stations, I jumped at it, without
thinking overmuch of the risk.
II was fool, I know, and now, if
I could only take it all back" He
took another cup of kava to hide his
emotion.
I could think of nothing appropriate
to say, SO sat and waited, while the
girl, squatting Oh the floor, looked up
in her masters face and thoughtfully
began to prepare second bowl OF
kava.
At last he resumed the broken mar
rative: "We got on alright as long as
we were at the head station, where
there were several whites, and the
natives had, in way, learned some
manners. But when l went away to
distant parts of the isle to open up
new stations I began to feel sorry that
I'd brought the missus with me. But
she would not hear of going back, not
she; she swore she'd stick to me
through thick and thin, and so she did
till the end.
''But to cut long story short.
We opnned up three or four stations
safely enough. We used to go, just
ourselves, in boat with our box of
trade and u crew of four boys from
the Duke of York's isle. They were
more afraid of being eaten than we
were, SO they stuck to us pretty close.
1T was the cheek of the thing that
did it, and I wonder now, when
look back, that we were not killed and
cooked dozen times over. The na-
tives simply could not understand a
white man coming among them like
that oil alone, and they were so aston
ished that they forgot to attack US.
"They were poor lot of savages,
and if you gave one of them a piece OF
print he would hang it around his
neck and walk away rs proud as
Punch. They were always fighting
among themselves. and thought NO
more of killing a man than we would
of shooting pigeon. Why, I've seen
"a Jouns- follom-oxeCuted there just ror
stealing cocoanut off chiefs tree,
and if they had dared they would
have killed me just rs readily for the
sake of my trade.
''They hadn't much to buy goods
with, either, little copra and some
beche-demer and pearl shells. They
wanted axes aud tomahawks and
knives, but most of all they wanted
tobacco pipes, common clay pipes.
What they did with them I don't
know, for they did not buy any to-
bacco. Kept them es a sort of idol or
fetish, I suppose. They would sell
everything they had to get pipe, and
especially black one, and it was be-
cause of those cursed pipes that I lost
my wife aud nearly lost my own life,
too. Perhaps it might have been as
well, he added, despondently.
Nonsense, man." I interposed, Us
cheerfully as 1 could, "but how did
it happen; tell me about it"
cit was the fourth place was at.
think, avid part, where no mission
ary had ever dared to set his foot.
We were long way from the. main
station, and I had to depend upon
myself entirely. 1t was up at the head
of a deep bay, and there were Q lot of
mangroves, 1 remember, growing
along the beach, and then you won't
up steep bank ten or twelve feet
high, ON top of which was the village.
"Well, the chief was very glad to
see me; he said they wanted white
trader badly, and invited me to stop.
So L pitched on likely spot ir the
middle OF q grove of palms, close to
the beach, you may be sure. We soon
ran up rough bamboo house, aud I
got the wife and children, for there
were two by this time, into it. Then
we carried the goods ashore, hauled
up the boat and I sat down to wait
tOf my customers.
IT might have been waiting till this
day, for all the business I did. The
chief was verypleasant and fair spoken
and took all the presents 1 gave him
with the greatest condescension. But
when it came to trading I found the
people were so poor that they'd moth
ing to trade with. I got about hun
dred pounds of copra and little pearl
shell in n week, that was all. I soon
made up my mind that the place was
not good enough for my business, and
besides, from one or two little things
I'd noticed, came to the conclusion
that it would be healthier to leave as
soon as possible.
cit would not do, knew, to appear
in hurry to get away, so took mat
ters easily, and gradually packed up
the trade and got everything ready
for starting. But, quiet as I was about
it, the natives were too smart for me.
They saw what L was up to, and the
word went round the village that the
white men was not to be allowed to go
away and to take all that lovely trade
with him. I was in tight place, and
I knew it, and the boats crew just sat
shivsring in their naked feet, for they
felt that their fate would be the same
as mine.
'But the old woman was not afraid
at all. 1t was wonderful the way she
kept up, with the two babies to look
after and oil cooking and work of the
house to do. AS for me, was pretty
we'll worn out with watching, and did
not get wink of sleep for three nights.
The natives would come around
friendly enough during the daytime
and look at our goods, and we had to
treat them pleasant, for it would never
do to let them see that we were afraid.
But at night we had to be all on guard,
for we never knew at what moment q
rush might be made. I had raised a
kind of rough stockade of bamboo
about the house, and within this 1
posted the four men Of the crew, each