oon as he can walk will smoke in an old
pipe the poisonous tobacco furnished specially for the natives, which is
so strong that it makes the most inveterate European smoker ill. "Gin
and brandy have been introduced successfully," but the natives as a rule
make horrible grimaces in drinking them, and invariably drink two or
three cups of water immediately _to put out the fire_, as they say.

These natives speak a kind of "pigeon English." It would be pigeon
French, doubtless, had their first relations been with the French
instead of the English. The government has now stopped the sale of
spirituous liquors to the natives, and recommended the chiefs to forbid
their subjects smoking until a certain age, but no precautions yet taken
have had much influence upon their physical condition. They are rapidly
dying out. The most prevalent disease is pulmonary consumption, which
they declare has been given them by the Europeans. Fewer and fewer
children are born every year, and in the tribes about Pooebo and some
others these are almost all males. Here is a curious fact for
scientists. Is not the cause to be found in the deteriorated physical
condition of the women? Mary Trist, in her careful and extensive
experimentation with butterfly grubs, has shown that by generous feeding
these all develop into females, while by starving males only appear.

M. Garnier believes that the principal cause of the deterioration and
decay of the natives in New Caledonia is the terrible tobacco that is
furnished to them. "Everybody pays for any service from the natives in
this poison." A missionary once asked a native convert why he had not
attended mass. "Because you don't give me any tobacco," replied this
hopeful Christian. To him, as to many others, says M. Garnier, going to
church means working for the missionary, just as much as digging in his
garden, and he therefore expects remuneration. The young girls in
regions where there are missions established all wear chaplets, for they
are good Catholics after a fashion, and generally refuse to marry
pagans. This operates to bring the young men under the religious yoke.
Self-interest is their strong motive generally. The missionary makes
them understand the value of his counsel in their tribes. It means their
raising cocoanuts for their oil, flocks of chickens and droves of hogs,
for all of which they can obtain pipes, quantities of tobacco, a gun,
and gaudy-colored cottons. When the chiefs find tha