Many of them save money, and, when their turn
of service is over, set up stores, or grow vegetables for money.
Each man employed has his horse, and on Saturday the hands form
quite a cavalcade. Great tact, firmness, and knowledge of human
nature are required in the manager of a plantation. The natives are
at times disposed to shirk work without sufficient cause; the native
lunas, or overseers, are not always reasonable, the Chinamen and
natives do not always agree, and quarrels and entanglements arise,
and everything is referred to the decision of the manager, who,
besides all things else, must know the exact amount of work which
ought to be performed, both in the fields and factory, and see that
it is done. Mr. A. is a keen, shrewd man of business, kind without
being weak, and with an eye on every detail of his plantations. The
requirements are endless. It reminds me very much of plantation
life in Georgia in the old days of slavery. I never elsewhere heard
of so many headaches, sore hands, and other trifling ailments. It
is very amusing to see the attempts which the would-be invalids make
to lengthen their brief smiling faces into lugubriousness, and the
sudden relaxation into naturalness when they are allowed a holiday.
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