been recorded by Lady Martin. It will be remembered that she had
parted from him during the year of waiting and irregular employment:

'We were away from New Zealand nearly three years. We had heard at
Feniton dear Coley's first happy letters telling of his voyages to
the islands in 1856-7, letters all aglow with enthusiasm about these
places and people. One phrase I well remember, his kindly regret
expressed for those whose lot is not cast among the Melanesian
islands. On our return we went to live for some months at St.
John's College, where Mr. Patteson was then settled with a large
party of scholars.

'We soon found that a great change had passed over our dear friend.
His whole mind was absorbed in his work. He was always ready,
indeed, to listen to anything there was to tell about his dear
father; but about our foreign travels, his favourite pictures, the
scenes of which we had heard so much from him, he would listen for a
few minutes, but was sure in a little while to have worked round to
Melanesia in general, or to his boys in particular, or to some
discussion with my husband on the structure of their many languages
and dialects. It was then that Bishop Abraham said that when the two
came to their ninth meaning of a particle, he used to go to sleep.

'There were a very fine intelligent set of young men from the Loyalty
Islands, some sleepy, lazy ones from Mai, some fierce, wild-looking
lads from the Solomon Islands who had long slits in their ears and
bone horns stuck in their frizzly hair. Mr. Patteson could
communicate with all more or less easily, and his readily delicate
hearing enabled him to distinguish accurately sounds which others
could not catch--wonderful mp and piv and mbw which he was trying to