ined
to wait and consult with the new Governor, who was coming out with a
fresh batch of three hundred people. No work at settlement was begun,
for Rabardy considered the former site could be bettered. Meanwhile,
there arrived a barque of one thousand tons, the _Marquis de Rays_,
deeply laden with cotton and sugar machinery, stores, provisions
and medicines, and a large amount of trade goods for barter with the
natives. These latter, although not cannibals like the people of the
neighbouring Island of New Britain, were a very low type of savages, and
their mode of life was disgusting in the extreme; whilst their wild and
ferocious appearance was in harmony with their stark nudity. Still the
_Genil's_ people established friendly relations with them, and were
supplied with fruit and vegetables, such as yams and taro.

On October 17th the steamer _India_ arrived with her emigrants, and the
new Governor, M. de Prevost, nothing daunted by the unfortunate previous
experiences of the colony and its mismanagement, set to work with
Captain Rabardy to get things in order.

A fresh site was chosen for the actual settlement, and the new arrivals,
joining heartily with the _Genil's_ people, began to clear and build.
The Italians and Spaniards toiled, in happy expectation of future
prosperity, with their French fellow-settlers, and hope ran high. But
already the deadly malaria had begun its work, and ere long more than
half of the many hundreds of colonists were suffering from fever, and
soon some died. Then suddenly the Governor, who hitherto had cheered
them up by his example and energy, announced his intention of going to
Sydney in the _Genii_ (the _India_ had sailed for France) to procure
cattle and a fresh stock of provisions. He never returned. Months and
months went by, and the colonists waited and waited, while the fever
carried off someone every few days; and then their hearts failed them,
and they longed for the lands they had left for a chimera. A sad
two months passed, and then one day another steamer--the _Nouvelle
Bretagne_--came into Liki Liki Bay. She had brought out some three
hundred more colonists, Spanish people, who listened, with doleful
faces, to the tale of those who had preceded them to the Utopia of
Charles du Breil. Rabardy, of the _Genil_, who, a month later, was to
die of fever, game to the last, consulted with Captain Henry, of
the _Nouvelle Bretagne_ and, as they talked on the poop deck of the
newly-a