Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/167

Rh aminations to be soldiers of the Queen, and saw much of their life and heard much of what they thought, but none of them seemed to care for anything save the passing amusement of the moment, and least of all did they know or care anything about the military history of their country or the profession they were going to—what is the word—adorn, is it? What do people care about nowadays? Bridge, golf, motors!

Let us get back to Matupi. With Captain Niedermayer and the two Englishmen from the second class I explored Matupi, we who were new to it being deeply interested. The natives have very small grass houses varying in appearance, surrounded by fenced-in enclosures in which they grow bananas. Even in this small island the people seem to swarm, and there are hordes of merry, mischievous, taking children all happily clad in their own natural beauty and wide smiles. Most of the men here have the lobes of their ears enlarged to an enormous size; a few wear a strip of red cloth, but most are quite nude. All these people suffer much from ringworm and other skin diseases, especially the children. They seem all to speak pidgin-English. There is a school with a native teacher, a mere shed with packing-cases for seats. Many magnificent bread-fruit trees and cocoa-palms are scattered about; but all these islands are tropical jungles filled with palms, ferns, orchids, and all sorts of beautiful plants and trees unknown to me. I feel terribly, shamefully ignorant when I look at them and don't know what they are, but no one seems able to tell me.

At a point of the island we visited a store belonging to a Chinaman, Ah Tam, who is also an excellent boat-builder, and the only one anywhere, so he is a valuable addition to the colonists of this country. He has also a boarding-house