lofty and wide-branching arms above and around them. The side walls
of these houses are not more than two feet high, made only of bamboos
lashed by cocoa-nut fibre, or wattled together, and the long sloping
roofs nearly touch ground but within they are tolerably clean and
quite dry. The moon was in the first quarter, and the scene was
striking as I sat out in the open space with some 200 people crowding
round me--men, women and children; fires in front where yams were
roasting; the dark brown forms glancing to and fro in the flickering
light; the moon's rays quivering down through the vast trees, and the
native hollow drum beating at intervals to summon the people to the
monthly feast on the morrow. I slept comfortably on a mat in a
cottage with many other persons in it. Much talk I had with a large
concourse outside, and again in this cottage, on Christianity; and
all were quiet when I knelt down as usual and said my evening
prayers. Up at 5.30 A.M., and walked up a part of the Sugar Loaf
peak, from which the island derives its English name, and found a
small clear stream, flowing, through a rocky bed, back to the
village, where were some 300 people assembled; sat some time with
them, then went to the beach, where the boat soon came for me.

'After this there was a good deal of bad weather; but all the lads
were restored to their islands, including Aroana, the young Malanta
chief, who had begun by a fit of frenzy, but had since behaved well;
and who left his English friends with a promise to do all in his
power to tame his people and cure them of cannibalism.'

Then came some foul winds and hot exhausting weather.

'I have done little more than read Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine,"
and Helps's "Spanish America," two excellent books and most