f turtle shell from the trader, as
well as some from the king and his mother. The old lady treated us right
royally, and, a few hours before we sailed, a canoe-load of fruit and
drinking coco-nuts were sent off to the ship, with her compliments.

BOBARAN

When our boat touched the beach in front of the trader's house just as
the dawn was breaking, I thought Kabaira Bay one of the loveliest places
in the Pacific, and said so to the man I had been sent to relieve. He
quite concurred in my opinion of the beauties of the scenery, but said
that he was very glad to get away. Then, being a cheerful man, though
given to unnecessary blasphemy, like most South Sea Island traders, he
took me out to the rich garden at the back of the station and showed
me the grave of his predecessor, who had died of fever a year before.
Further on, but outside the enclosing fence, were some more graves, he
said.

'Whose?' I asked.

'Captain Murray's, his mate's, and two of his cutter's crew.'

'Fever?'

'No,' he replied, with some slight surprise at my ignorance; 'the
natives killed 'em a couple o' years ago. An', see, just over there by
Point Luen, is the Hon. Mr Willington's house. He was a nephew of Lord
L------. I goes there sometimes and rips a board out o' the floor when I
wants one.' ^

'Mr Wellington gone away?' My friend _was_ surprised this time. 'Why,
you _must_ be a new chum in New Britain. Why, Willington ain't dead six
months.' 'Fev--'

'Fever be -------. No, he got speared when he was lying in his bunk
readin' a book one night. _I_ told him that the niggers would pay him
out for a-playin' crooked with em'; but he was too cock-a-hoopy to
listen to a feller like me.'

'Any more white men buried in Kabaira? 'I asked after a while, as we
walked back to the house to take stock of my host's trade goods.

'No, that's all that's planted here--at least, all I know of, and I've
been here, in New Britain, five years. There's been a good many Dutchmen
killed on the coast here, and over in New Ireland, but I didn't know
any of 'em. An' they're such a silly lot o' duffers, that they reg'lar
tempts these New Britain niggers to kill 'em; and then the beggars, not
knowing an Englishman from a Dutchman, are ready to murder anyone with
a white skin. So you look out, young feller. These niggers here are a
rotten bad lot. But I'll interdooce yer to Bobaran. He's the biggest
cut-throat of em' all; but he an' me is good pals, and onct y