Occasionally there are as many as four blacks about the place. They come
and go from the mainland, some influenced by the wish for the diet of
oysters for a time. "Me want sit down now; me want eat oyster." At rare
intervals we are entirely alone for months together, and then cultural
operations stand still. Twice, a considerable portion of the plantation
was silently overrun by the scouts of the jungle, and had to be
re-surveyed in order to locate smothered-up orange-trees. Our staff,
domestic and otherwise, usually consists of one boy and his gin, and save
for the housework, affairs are not conducted on a serious or systematic
plan. The spur necessity not being applied, there is no persistent or
sustained effort to make a profit, and, of course, none is earned.

In a few months from the felling of the first strip of jungle and the
burning off of the timber and rubbish, however, we grew produce that went
towards the maintenance of the establishment. That pious old man who
lived to the majestic age of 105, and during the last ninety years
existed wholly upon bread and water, was not the only one who had "a
certain lusting after salad." Until we grew fruit, the papaw, the
quickest and amongst the best, vegetables were more necessary.

Our plantation, all carved out of the jungle, has an area of 4 1/2 acres.
We have orange-trees (two varieties), just coming into bearing, and from
which profits are expected; pineapples (two varieties), papaws, coffee
(ARABICA), custard apples, sour sop, jack fruit, pomegranate, the
litchee, and mangoes in plenty. Sweet potatoes are always in successive
cultivation, also pumpkins and melons, and an occasional crop of maize.
Bananas represent a staple food. We have had fair crops of English
potatoes, and have grown strawberries of fine flavour, though of
deficient size, among the banana plants. Parsley, mint, and all "the
vulgar herbs" grow freely. Readers in less favoured climes may hardly