"Yes; the purchase of her has taken all the money I got for the pearls, and all the skipper's savings to boot. We want more men; we can easily get them at Grimleigh. She must be provisioned, too, and that takes a lot of cash. Then a hundred or so in hand for trading purposes when we reach the South Seas. I can't make bricks without straw."
"What sort of trading will you do?"
"Oh, copra, and blackbirding," replied Finland, carelessly.
"I'm a plain country farmer," said Carwell, smiling, "and I don't understand these terms you bring from your new world. What is copra?"
"The dried kernel of the cocoa-nut. It is used for oil-making, and fetches a good price, especially if the Kanakas don't water it."
"And blackbirding, what is that?"
Jack laughed and looked queerly at the old man. It was not easy for him to answer this question without offending his uncle's prejudices. However, he skirted round it, and got out of danger as best he could.
"Blackbirding," he said cautiously--"well, you see, we sail for the Solomons or the New Hebrides, and pick up natives to work on the plantations on the more civilized islands. They are well looked after and get good pay; so after a few years they go back to their own land set up for life."
"Do the missionaries approve of this system?"
"Oh yes. It brings savages from out-of-the-way islands into the circle of Christianity, and then they can spread the Gospel on their own account."