The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-19

under the wide and starry sky, Dig the grave and let me lie;
 Glad did I live and gladly die,
 And laid me down with will.
 This be the verse you grave for me Here lies where he longed to be;
 Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
 And the hunter home from the hill.
 The traveller is at once impressed with the unusually fine appearance of the natives. The men are strong and muscular and healthy looking. while the women might certainly be called robust. l never saw such hair; 1t would be impossible to use anything weaker than a curry comb in the dress ing thereof. Indeed, the only method of cleansing it seems to be by means of ashes and strong lye, and that ac- counts for the startling combination of jet black and bright red on the same head. The natives are pleasant man. nered and perfectly friendly, and a stranger may travel alone over the land with, perfect safety. Our stay will be of but two hours duration, so that we can catch but glimpse, which we do by wandering around near the port. The native huts, which have | OSSh SAoNoSu away HUH tilt WGITi front by the houses and stores of the | foreigners, we find facing small river which flows in from the hills. Simple structures all of them mere scaffolds with heavily matched roofs over which the mango and bread-fruit trees stand guard. The floors are of stone, and the i only furniture consists of some rolls of mating. All the cooking is done out side, the entire life of the occupant be- ing open to inspection"
 The marvellous progress of Australia and New Zealand during this century is | one of the wonders of the modern world. The traveller to the South seas finds it difficult to realize that the country, which is the home of hun dreds of thousands of Anglo Saxon people with schools and churches and almshouses only 100 years ago was the home of savage blacks, cannibals who l tattooed themselves in a manner so frightful that even now the appearance of an old man of the native tribes in spires gruesome feeling in the mind of the beholder Only fifty years ago New Zealand and Australia were little better than penal institutions, but such is the change wrought among the Ma ories by contract with civilization, that the native tribes, from wandering sav- ages, have been converted into indus trious, self-reliant and in many cases exemplary citizens.
 New Zealand is as large as Missouri and Arkansas put together, and in a
 territory of this size there is abundant room for variety in scenery, but it is something of a surprise to learn that in
 this great island there is a mountain range which rivals, both in extent and in height, the Alpine system of Central Europe. Still further diversity is found in the New Zealand Alps by the fact that many of the mountains are vol
 canoes and that eruptions and earth
 quakes are of painfully common oc-
 currence. New Zealand, however, pre-
 sents to the traveller few attractions
 besides it's natives and it's Alpine sys-
 tenn, for the English people are even
 as other English, differing in ID re- spect from those of Australia or
 Canada.
 Tasmania, now extensively settled
 by English colonists, was, up to the ! middle of this century, little more T than convict station, and Port Ar
 thur where most of the convicts were
 confined, attained an unenviabla no
 toriety many years ago on account of
 its model prison," the name being be-
 slowed upon it by a former keeper
 from the fact that the prisoners were
 glad to get out of it even by death
 'On his arrival the convict was sent
 first to the penitentiary, or main build
 ing. For bad behavior, or at the will of
 his captor he went to the model pris-
 on and to solitary confinement. Then
 followed the lunatic asylum and the hospital, and then the Island of the
 Dead closed the shapter. From all ac-
 counts, the conyicts dreaded less the
 Island of the Dead than the abodes ot the living, and even formed a murde, club in order to get there, club ir which, upon drawing lots, convict would murder his mate, thereby insur.
 ing his own execution, and so the rest
 and peace of the grave was secured fol
 both. Just as the sun was setting to- day, we sailed out over the placid wa.
 ters of this beautiful bay to where tho Island of the Dead floats upon its , shimmering surface. We find a pebbly
 beach, tangle of wild flowers, and tht waving boughs of many trees, unde which gleam the headstones of som, . dozens of free men. But not in these ! does the interest center, but in tn, great outer circle of graves, where nameless now and forever, 1,7o0 con , victs sleep where none will ever dis . turb their rest-two, and sometime three, in one grave, but that matters , little. They were used to narrow quar . ters in life and mind 1t not now tha life's fitful fever Is over forever. So le . us leave them. If their crimes wer
 great, so was their punishment. There , fore, they and this world are quits, ant
 she can afford to give them this rest ing place that kings might envy, "Th , Island of the Dead.' y
 Some idea of the perils among whicl I the residents on Southern islands al ? ways live may be gained from the au f thor's statements. concerning the ar chipelago through which he sailed iron E Australia to Java.
 9 These islands are all volcanic. In s Bonda isles, three little tropical gems t are rich In cocoanuts, dates, oranges = figs and mangoes, but they are consid . cred unsafe for residence, as it is be l, lieved that they may sink into the se l at any moment. In the great convul Il I