The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-01-23

cotton plantations. They work more
steady than the proud, sometimes
naughty, natives. They are brought
in shiploads. There is carried on here
however, nearer approach to sys-
tenn Of slavery than any where else at
present. Indian coolies. unwittingly
contract to be shipped from home at
the cost Of the company, to the islands,
are bound to stay five years at
pittance per year, with the understand
ing that if their return passage is to be
paid by the company, they must renew
their contract for another Ave years.
At the end of tho first 1--WE years. mono
are able to pay their passage and are
of course compelled to remain at the
same low wages, returning to their
native country at the end of the time
with no visible reward for their toll.
Aside from sugar, the chief industry
at the presant time, is exporting the
products of tho cocoanut. Large and
luxuriant are the cocoanut plantations,
which, beside producing copra for trade,
furnish meat and drink from the nuts,
salad from the top shoots, cordage from
the fibre, thatch baskets and fans, from
the leaves, torches from their ribs, cups
and lamps from the she'll.
The bread fruit, about which Byron in
the use of poetic license said:
"Bakes it's unauthorized loaves
Without furnace in unpurchased
groves"
With it's massive green lobesis COM
mon about the villages among gardens
of Yam and Tare. Onions, cabbage
pumpkins, peas and other foreign vege-
tables have been introduced. These
descendants of cannibals are mainly
vegetarians, though they now
keep poultry and pigs about and in their
houses.
The native still wears merely sulu
skirt made of fibre and leaves, quite
enough for this climate. Their huge
mops Of hair are powdered and dyed
with lime, and the Fijian usually has to
be equipped with a wooden rest upon
which he may lay his head at night,
without disarranging the thick mat of
hair which will at times measure six
inches from the outer surface down to
the head. The savage painting and
tstooing is dying out, but he will now
put blackening on the face and smear
himself all over with oil as protection
against the sun. They are still fond Of
whale teeth and wild boar tusk neck
laces around the neck and seashell
belts about the body.
The climate is not supposed to be un-
healthy but to Europeans and Ameri-
cans is enervating. Snow is unknown
and hail, rare. The average annual
rainfall is one hundred inches, falling
throughout the year, but the larger
bulk during our summer months. This
is likewise the season for terrific hur.
ricanes. In the course of time the white
man falls into the habit Of using the
favorite word Of the native, "malua" OF
tomorrow"
The first white men to reach FIJI
we're escaped convicts from Australia
who allied themselves with savage
tribes, slaughtering and eating theil
victims, only in turn to be killed ant
eaten themselves. Next came whaler
and interruptions traders, who CAV,
them no better impression of the whites
The dawn of new Fiji came will
the missionary. The Wesleyans ap
preached them from the Tonga group
Their treatment of the native and tn,
message they bore soon changed tn
tone of life and the regime of cannibal
ism went down before the teaching O
the brotherhood of man and the value O
, the soul. Methodism, Presby terianism
Episcopalianism and Catholicism is rep
resented here. In one Of the NOR
, northern islands, with a population Q
over two Thousand, the entire islam
| have been converted to Christ. A sim
i pie faith, indeed it is, and an imperfec
i child-like life they live, but the presen
r condition over the past is little short c
: marvellous.
j, With the introduction of Christianit
: have come the vices of the white maj
With this they must contend in thei
. new found faith. AS result of foreig
l vice the population decreased fiftee
. thousand in the ten years from 189
i, This has been partly due to the bring
s ing of infectious disease and partly t
' the inconsistent and irregular adoptio
t Of European clothing.
1t is difficult to realize that less tina
half century ago, their reputation wa
b for cannibalism, "long pig" being the
d favorite dainty furnished by friends a
f we'll as foes; for human sacrifices j
j which victims gave themselves up to /
a burned alive, as was the lot Of old an