“What, promote it with all the savages here?” and Tom laughed at the idea.
“Yes, indeed; they would be just the fellows to use in the promotion.”
“What is there here to promote?” asked Ralph.
“What is there here? The finest wood in the world; and besides that the island is full of mineral, or I am much mistaken. But that isn’t all. This soil is as rich as any upon the Nile or the Amazon, and it is well watered. Why, this could be made a paradise.”
“Do you mean to raise things?”
“Why, certainly. Almost everything which grows in the tropics could be cultivated here.”
“But where would the natives come in?”
“To do the work, and in the doing of it, there would be a means to work out their own salvation.”
“What would they want to work for, anyhow?” asked Tom.
John laughed at the question. “I can understand your view-point. As it is, they have absolutely no need of work. They exist, and that is the whole philosophy of life with them.”