Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-24

sionary but that they wanted a trader
still more
Furthermore they have been making
oil for more than a year. in expecta-
tion Of a ship coming, but none has
come. Rabalau says that they have
more than a hundred tons Of oil, and
cannot make any more, as they have
nothing to put II in.
Some of II is i'm old canoes some in
Thousands Of big bamboos and some In
followed out trees. They have whips of
ivory nuts and are just dying to get
muskets tobacco and beads. Not a
soul in Levuka except Rabalau and me
knows It.
"Now. Woodlark is the place for us.
Anyway I've bought all the oil casks |
could get and a lot more In shocks
and so let us hustle and get away"
We did hustle. In twenty-four hours
we were clear of Levuka reef and spin
ming along to the west-northwest be-
fore the strong southeast trade wind
for our run Of 1000 miles.
Day and night the little schooner
raced over the seas at a great rate. and
we made the passage in seven days
dropping anchor off the largest village
on the island, Guasap. In ten minutes
our decks were literally packed with
Had they chosen to kill us and seize
the schooner it would have been an
easy task, for we numbered only eight
persons-captain, mate bosn, four ma
tive seamen and myself.
We learned that two months previ-
ously there had been q terrible hurri-
cane, which lasted for three days and
devastated o-thirds of the island.
Thousands of cocoanut trees had been
IL 1nn hn1 ont
away many villages on the coast.
So violent was the surf that the
wreck of the sunken ship OH Elane
island had been cast up in ragments
on the reef, and the natives had Sc
cured q quantity of logs of splendid
sandal wood, copper and Muntz metal
bolts. These l at once bargained for,
after had seen the collection, and for
two old Tower muskets, value 5s each,
obtained the collection--worth G250.
/ had arranged with the chief and his
head men to buy their oil in the morn
ing, and White and l found it hard to
keep our countenances when they joy
fully accepted to fill every Cask we had
on the ship, each for 90 sticks of to-
bacco, a cupful of fine red beads and a
fathom of red turkey twill. Or for
five casks l would give a musket, tin
of powder, 20 bullets and 20 military
caps.
In ten minutes I had secured eighty
tons of oil, worth $50 ton. for trade
goods that cost White less than 920
And the beauty of it was that the ma
tives were so impressed by the liber
ality of my terms that they said they
would supply the ship with all the
fresh provisions-pgs, fowls, turtles
and vegetables-that 1 cared for.
AS White, and [, after our palaver
with the head men, were about to re-
turn on board we noticed two children
who were wearing a number of silver
coins strung on cinnet fiber, around
their necks. We called them to us,
looked at the coins and found that
they were rupees and English five
shilling pieces.
l asked one of our Fijian sealnen
who acted as interpreter, to ask the
children where they got the coins.
ION the reef" they replied. ''There
are thousands of them cast up with the
wreckage of the ship that sunk a long
time ago. Most of them are like these"
showing five shilling piece, but there
are much more smaller ones like these,''
showing the rupees.
Are there any yellow ones" asked.
No, they said, they had not found
any yellow ones, but they could bring
me basketfulS of those like they had
shown me.
Whites eyes We're cleaning with ex-
citement. 1 drew him and the Fiji
man aside and said to the latter
quietly:
Sam, don't let these people think
that these coins are of any more value
than the copper bolts Tell them that
for every hundred pieces they bring
on board-no matter what size they
may bel will give them a cupful of
fine red beads, full measure. Or if they
do not care for beads 1 will give two
sticks of tobacco or a siX-inch butcher
knife of good, hard steel"
The last three words made White