Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/20

 tions were the private property of the council, for he knew men too well to think they would ever pass laws involving loss to themselves. He tried to say something about compensation, and about other crops being raised on the land where the palm trees now stood; but they would listen to nothing, and ordered him forthwith to leave the island. This order he was obliged to obey, but not before he had attempted to interest the general population in his scheme. His success with the people, however, was not greater than with the chiefs; he tried to put the advantages of sunlight, good tools, ploughs, and scythes, and cheap clothing in as striking a light as possible; he did his best to show the people that they would have all these good things in exchange for their unwholesome oil. But they only saw in his plan the destruction of the most important industry in the island, and they joined heartily with their chiefs in driving him to his ship.

He left the Srimats full of indignation at their folly, and as far as he knows they are still living in a pestilential atmosphere, the