The real difference was, that their former currency, composed of tickets or certificates given in exchange for a deposit of actual gold, represented an actual accumulation of an equivalent of every thing desirable which labor could produce all the world over; while, on the other hand, the promises to pay which the island authorities issued in ex- change for the commodities loaned them by the people, and subsequently used up in fighting the cannibals, represented an actual destruction of almost every thing useful and desirable in place of accumulation. The people, however, did not see this; and by reason of not seeing it they continued to accept and regard the promises to pay, which represented loss and destruction, as the same thing as money, and naturally also as wealth; and as the creation and issue of this sort of money or wealth increased as destruction increased, they finally, one and all, came to the conclusion that the more and faster they destroyed, the richer they should all be; and that, by a happy series of accidents, they had at last solved that great problem which the world had so long been anxious about--namely, "of how to eat your cake and at the same time keep it." And, as a further illustration of the extent to which this idea acquired a hold upon the public mind, it may be mentioned that some of the most popular books which were published about this time on the island had the following suggestive titles: "A National Debt a National Blessing;" "Don't Pay as you Go, a sure Way to Get Rich;" "Pulling at your Boot-straps the best Way to Rise in the World," and the like.