the natives; but of course the islanders, with their rude and primitive weapons, were speedily conquered. The French built docks and jetties in addition to their fortifications, but they have been of little practical use. We found that the most of the jetties had rotted away, and in place of the former garrison of five hundred men there are now about sixty soldiers and a few policemen.
"The Governor treated us very kindly, and at our first call upon him he invited us to dine with him, where we met his amiable wife and the officers of his staff. Colonel Bush invited them to dine on the yacht. As the cabin is limited, we had the Governor and his wife on one day and the officers on another, and I am sure they all enjoyed our visit. Strangers come here so rarely that our advent made an agreeable break in the monotony of their lives.
"There are some fifty foreigners living here, and they include several nationalities—English, American, Irish, Scotch, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, and Peruvian. Some of them are engaged in business, but there is not a great deal of it, as the colony has not been successful. Cotton is the principal article of cultivation, and there is a small trade in beche-de-mer, the famous sea-cucumber of which the Chinese are fond. It brings a high price in the markets of Canton and Shanghai, sometimes selling as high as five hundred dollars a ton. One of the Englishmen, who has a store in the little settlement, said that several of the cotton plantations had been abandoned, owing to the difficulty of getting laborers for them. The natives are disinclined to work, and laborers from other islands cannot be had in sufficient numbers. Several hundred Chinese have been imported, and also some laborers from the Gilbert and Loyalty Islands. The Chinese make very good colonists, and many of them have plantations of their own, which they manage very successfully.
"The same gentleman showed us a fungus that comes from the valleys between the mountains; it looks very much like a scrap of dried leather, and would not be considered worth much to one who did not know about it. It brings a good price in China, where it is used for making soup. We tried some of it at dinner one day, and found it not at all disagreeable to the taste; in fact it was so good that our steward bought nearly a barrel of it for future use.
"There is a road around the head of the bay which was built by the French soon after their arrival, but has been neglected and is not in good repair. Our host took us on a ride along this road, from which the view is delightful. In front is the deep blue water of the
