he gave his guests a large quantity of yams, for which he would accept no return except a little tobacco.  When, however, Garnier tied a pretty crimson handkerchief about the head of Onime’s child, who danced for joy at the possession of such a treasure, the old chief was visibly moved, and gave his hand to the stranger.  Two years later this old man, being suspected of complicity in the assassination of a colonist, was arrested, bound in chains and thrown into a dungeon.  Three times he broke his chains and escaped, and each time was recaptured.  He was then transported to Noumea.  M. Garnier happened to be on the same ship.  The condition of the old man was pitiful.  Deep wounds, exposing the bones, were worn into his wrists and ankles in his attempts to free himself from his chains.  Three days later he died, and on a subsequent examination of facts M. Garnier became convinced that Onime was innocent of the crime charged against him.  On the ship he recognized Garnier, and accepted from him a little tobacco.  Tobacco is more coveted by these people than anything else in the world, and the stronger it is the better.  The child almost as soon 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