fowl, baked or rather done by the same process; and in the afternoon
some reading and slate work with the twelve Melanesians, and likewise
some special instruction to a few of the more promising Lifuites. At
6.30, another meal of yams, but this time Patteson had recourse to
his private store of biscuit; and the evening was spent in talk, till
bedtime at 9 or 9.30. It was a thorough sharing the native life; but
after a few more experiments, it was found that English strength
could not be kept up on an exclusive diet of yams, and the Loyalty
Isles are not fertile. They are nothing but rugged coral, in an
early stage of development; great ridges, upheaved, bare and broken,
and here and there with pits that have become filled with soil enough
to grow yams and cocoa-nuts.

The yams--except those for five of the lads, whose maintenance some
of the inhabitants had undertaken--were matter of purchase, and
formed the means of instruction in the rules of lawful exchange. A
fixed weight of yams were to constitute prepayment for a pair of
trousers, a piece of calico, a blanket, tomahawk, or the like, and
all this was agreed to, Cho being a great assistance in explaining
and dealing with his people. But it proved very difficult to keep
them up to bringing a sufficient supply, and as they had a full share
of the universal spirit of haggling, the commissariat was a very
harassing and troublesome business, and as to the boys, it was
evident that the experiment was not successful. Going to New Zealand
was seeing the world. Horses, cows, sheep, a town, soldiers, &c.,
were to be seen there, whereas Lifu offered little that they could
not see at home, and schooling without novelty was tedious. Indeed,
the sight of civilised life, the being taken to church, the kindness
of the friends around the College, were no slight engines in their
education; but the Lifu people were not advanced enough to serve as