CALLED TO HEAD-QUARTERS.

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use of the French nation as represented by M. le Commandant.

There was nothing for it but to obey a summons issued in so solemn a manner, and go up to the Commandant's in person to answer all these grave charges. And here a new difficulty arose. The head-quarters of this army of fourteen men and a sous-lieutenant was six miles off; and as for walking all that distance in the heat of a tropical sun, it was not to be thought of. Matters looked grave, and we were seriously consulting in English as to the propriety of making a rush at our two little friends. and taking them, chassepots and all, over to the New Hebrides with us, when the missionary appeared, and volunteered the loan of his fat pony. Seated in triumph on this beast I proceeded, with my legs hanging down to the ground and altogether guiltless of stirrups, to scramble through the jungle that covers this island, now threading my way through native villages lying among cocoa-nut trees, now emerging suddenly on the coral beach, and startling groups of girls getting shellfish among the rocks, or bathing in the deep pools beside the path.

M. le Commandant, as he styled himself, received me civilly, and ushered me into his domain, consisting of three little mud huts and one banana tree,

on perhaps the hottest spot of the whole island. 'This,' he said, 'is my house,' pointing to the

6

biggest one; that other is the guardhouse, where at present, I regret to say, six men and the sergeant (the only man who speaks English) are confined for drunkenness; and this,' he added, pointing to the smallest and dirtiest, will be monsieur's quarters till I receive word from my government how to deal with him.'

6

Here was a scrape! It seems I had broken through regulations published in the Sydney newspapers forbidding the trading of any vessels to the Loyalty Islands. A month before A month before my arrival another Queensland vessel had run into the same island, and the master, who had a few returning natives on board, was fined so much per head, and the natives themselves marched up to the station, and their goods quietly distributed amongst those who had remained behind, while the returning prodigals did penance for the sin of having left their native islands three years before, in a few days' handcuffs, or, as they pithily called it, were made fast.' This is a short-sighted policy on the part of the possessors of the island, as Queensland is the only place where the natives have a chance of raising themselves a little in the scale of civilisation. My new acquaint

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DISCUSSING THE MATTER.

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ance read me four pages of closely written foolscap, which meant, to put it concisely, Keep the first vessel you can catch.' 'Monsieur,' I replied in the best French I could muster, 'since I am to be a guest of your great nation, allow me to send down to the ship to fetch some of the rum of Queensland which I happen to have, and which you have probably never tasted, and over this we will discuss the matter.'

How we discussed the matter and the rum; how at last, on hearing I had been in Paris, the lieutenant, overcome by his feelings, burst into a flood of maudlin tears, and swore I was his brother; how at the announcement I wept in his arms, and how in about half an hour I crept out, leaving my friend to give orders, as he said, about my bed being got ready, and, finding the fat pony still tied up in the sun, made use of my early lessons in Australian bush-riding to get that animal along over the rough path, may be left to my reader's imagination. I need scarcely say that I did not sleep that night in French quarters, and that I carried nothing away with me but the French leave I took.

Now that I think seriously over the whole matter, it seems to me that I had rather a narrow escape. The orders were strict, there were two war steamers

close by to enforce obedience, and we had unwittingly run our heads into about the nastiest trap it has ever been my bad fortune to encounter. At all events, the respect I have for France and her representatives has prevented my showing myself in that port again.

After landing another native at one of these islands, we were only too glad to find ourselves bowling along towards Tanna with a stiff north-west breeze, probably before the Commandant had awakened to the consciousness of the fact that light claret is scarcely good training for new Queensland rum.

Not having been in New Caledonia, or seen the working of the system of French colonization at Noumea, the head-quarters of all the troops stationed in the Loyalty Islands, I have scarcely a right to speak of it, and anything I know of their method of government is from the mouths of the natives themselves, and is, therefore, perhaps hardly an unprejudiced account.

The old story in history of two nations squabbling among themselves and calling in a foreign power to help and gradually disarm both sides seems to be frequently repeated in these islands. On Maré, the partially civilised tribe was attacked by the Wonifeelyahs (outer barbarians), who inhabited the