The result of the exploring mission of M. Garnier was not a discovery of
gold-mines, as so many had hoped. He is of the opinion that gold
deposits are scarce in the island. His report of the natives is on the
whole favorable, and confirms the testimony of missionaries and others,
that they are superior savages, easily civilized and Christianized, but
from some cause or combination of causes fast dying out before the
advance of civilization. In some respects they are less rude than other
South Sea Islanders, but they treat their women in much the same way. M.
Garnier gives us a photograph of a New Caledonia family on the road, the
head of the family, a big, stolid brute apparently, burdened only with
his club, while his wife staggers along under the combined load of
sugar-canes, yams, dried fishes and other provisions.

A more revolting, but also, happily, a far rarer sight, was that of a
cannibal banquet, of which M. Garnier was a concealed witness. The scene
was a thicket in the wildest portion of the country, and only the chiefs
of the tribe, which had just gained a victory over its enemies, took
part in the feast. A blazing fire threw its bright glare on a dozen
figures seated around huge banana-leaves, on which were spread the
smoking viands of the diabolical repast. A disgusting odor was wafted
toward the spot where our Frenchman and his companions lay perdu,
enchained by a horrible fascination which produced the sensation of
nightmare. Directly in front of them was an old chief with long white
beard and wrinkled skin, who gnawed a head still covered with the singed
hair. Thrusting a pointed stick into the eye-sockets, he contrived to
extract a portion of the brain, afterward placing the skull in the
hottest part of the fire, and thus separating the bones to obtain a
wider aperture. The click of a trigger close to his ear recalled M.
Garnier to his senses, and arresting the arm of his sergeant, who,