* * * * *

Pigs were the next trouble--my own pigs and the pigs of the general
public. When I landed on the island I had brought with me from Sydney
a lady and gentleman pig of exceedingly high lineage. They were now
the proud and happy parents of seven beautiful little black-and-white
piglets, and at any hour of the day one might see numbers of natives
looking over my wall at the graceful little creatures as they chased one
another over the grass, charged at nothing, and came to a dead stop with
astonishing rapidity and a look of intense amazement. One fatal day I
let them out, thinking they would come to no harm, as their parents were
with them. As they did not return at dusk I sent E'eu, the under-nurse,
to search for them. She came back and told me in a whisper that the
father and mother pig were rooting up a sweet-potato patch belonging
to the local chief. The piglets she had failed to discover. Enjoining
secrecy, I sent E'eu and Harry to chase the parents home. This was
effected after considerable trouble, but the owner of the potato patch
claimed two dollars damages. I paid it, feeling his claim was just. Next
morning the seven piglets were returned one by one by various native
children. Each piglet had, according to their accounts, been in a
separate garden, and done considerable damage; and 'because they' (the
piglets) 'were the property of a good and just man, the owners of the
gardens would not hurt nor even chase them,' etc. Glad to recover
the squealing little wanderers at any cost, I gave each lying child a
quarter-dollar. Next day I had a piece of ground walled in with lumps
of coral and placed the porcine family inside. Then I wrote to the
councillors, asking them to notify the people that if any of the village
pigs came inside my fence and rooted abyssmal holes in my ground, as had
been their habit hitherto, I should demand compensation. His Honour the
Chief Justice stated in court that this was only fair and right; the
white man had paid for the damage done by _his_ pigs, and therefore he
was entitled to claim damages if the village pigs caused him trouble.
(I had previously squared his Honour with the promise of a male sucker.)
One day the seven young pigs escaped from their mother and went out for
a run on the village green. They were at once assailed as detestable
foreign devils by about two hundred and forty-three gaunt, razorbacked
village sows, and were only rescued f