Sealed Lips — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

26 SHALED LIPS. use. As tomy sugar cane, it was as large as my arm, and gave out juice like a sponge, but the Juice was not sweet, which was a great defect in that species. I might as well have distilled spinach. I still had my indigo remaining, which at first l had reason to be proud of. Ah, yes! Youdo not know about indigo! Itis magnificent in its savage state. It is subject, if one cultivates it, to twenty- seven diseases, all deadly. I was a little vexed, as you may imagine, when I received a premium of encouragement from the colonial government, which paid back what I had spent. It is useless to say that I made only one bound for the treasurer’s box and another tothe steamer that brought me home.” “The colonial administration must have been a little angry at your way of employing its support.” On the contrary, my departure relieved every- body. I was the despair of a whole army of agents. They had me continually on their hands, roads to build, bridges to mend, pirates to hang. The ad- ministrator’s office was no longer secure. They understood it, and encouraged me——” “To leave?” “It was deliverance for them. The colonist is their scourge. The native is always contented pro- vided he is not protected too much.” “Very well. Why did you not write” “Because I had nothing good to tell you, and also so as not to disturb youin the midst of a musical GOmichboo KS (€(@)