[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

CHAPTER VI

PORT OLRY AND A “SING-SING”

THE event just described reduced my chance of
finding servants in Vao to a minimum, as all the
able-bodied young men had been taken away. I there-
fore sailed with the missionary for his station at Port
Olry. Our route lay along the east coast of Santo.
Grey rain—clouds hung on the high mountains in the
interior, the sun shone faintly through the misty
atmosphere, the greyish-blue sea and the greyish-
green shore, with the brown boulders on the beach,
formed a study in grey, whose hypnotic effect was
increased by a warm, weary wind. Whoever was
not on DUTY at the tiller lay down on deck, and
as in a dream we floated slowly along the coast past
lonely islands and bays; whenever we looked up we
saw the same picture, only the outlines seemed to
' have shifted a little. We anchored near a lonely
isle, to find out whether its only inhabitant, an old
Frenchman, was still alive. He had arrived there a
year ago, full of the most brilliant hopes, which, how-
ever, had not materialized. He had no boat, hardly
ever saw a human being, and lived on wild fruits.
Hardly anyone knows him or Visits him, but he had
not lost courage, and asked for nothing but a little

salt, which we gave him, and then sailed on.
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