wished to keep all the bartering to themselves.  They did not wish the rest to obtain hoop-iron or any other foreign wealth.  They are at feud with one

party on the mainland, and I suppose in their late contests have been victorious, for they told us with great exultation that they had lately killed and eaten ten of their enemies from the mainland.

About nine, we went ashore near the anchorage.  I crossed the island to the village, but did not feel satisfied as to the position.  One of our guides to the village wore, as an armlet, the jawbone of a man from the mainland he had killed and eaten; others strutted about with human bones dangling from their hair, and about their necks.  It is only the village Tepauri on the mainland with which they are unfriendly.  We returned to the boat, and sailed along the coast.  On turning a cape, we came to a pretty village, on a well-wooded point.  The people were friendly, and led us to see the water, of which there is a good supply.  This is the spot for which we have been in search as a station for beginning work.  We can go anywhere from here, and are surrounded by villages.  The mainland is not more than a gunshot across.  God has led us.  We made arrangements for a house for the teachers; then returned to the vessel.

In the afternoon, I landed the teachers, their wives, and part of their goods—the people helping to carry the stuff to the house.  The house in which the teachers are to reside till our own is finished is the largest in the place, but they can only get the use of one end of it—the owner, who considers himself the chief man of the place, requiring the other end for

himself and family.  The partition between the two ends is only two feet high.  Skulls, shells, and cocoanuts are hung all about the house; the skulls are those of the enemies he and his people have eaten.  Inside the house, hung up on the wall, is a very large collection of human bones, bones of animals and of fish.

I selected a spot for our house on the point of land nearest the mainland.  It is a large sand hill, and well wooded at the back.  We have a good piece of land, with bread-fruit and other fruit trees on it, which I hope soon to have cleared and planted with food, for the benefit of the teachers who may be here awaiting their stations, as well as for the teacher for the place.  The frontage is the Straits, with the mainland right opposite.  There is a fine anchorage close to the house for vessels of any size.

Early next morning there was great excitement ashore.  The large war canoe came off, with drums beating and men dancing.  They came alongside the Bertha, and presented us with a small pig and food.  Then the men came on board and danced.  The captain gave them a return present.  Mr. McFarlane and I went ashore immediately after breakfast, and found that the teachers had been kindly treated.  We gave some natives a few axes, who at once set off to cut wood for the house, and before we returned to the vessel in the evening two posts were up.  As the Bertha’s time was up, and the season for the trade winds closing, everything was done to get on with

the house.  Mr. McFarlane worked well.  Two men from the Bertha, and two from the Mayri joined with the four teachers in the work, and by Tuesday the framework was nearly up.  We landed our things that day, and immediately after breakfast on Wednesday, December 5th, we went ashore to reside; and about ten a.m. the Bertha left.  On the Tuesday, Mr. McFarlane and I visited several villages on the mainland: three in a deep bay, which must be very unhealthy, from the many swamps and high mountains around.  The people appeared friendly, and got very excited over the presents we gave them.

We got an old foretopsail from the captain, which we rigged up as a tent, in which the teachers slept, we occupying their quarters.  We enjoyed a good night’s rest.  In early morning the house was surrounded with natives, many of whom were armed.  They must wonder at our staying here: they consider our goods to consist entirely of hoop-iron, axes, knives, and arrowroot.  About eleven a.m. the war canoes were launched on the opposite side of the water.  The excitement here was then great.  I met a lad running with painted skulls to the war canoe of the village.  Soon it was decorated with skulls, shells, cocoanuts, and streamers, and launched.  Those on the opposite side came out into the deep bay; ours remained stationary till the afternoon, when about thirty men got into her, and away towards Farm Bay to trade their hoop-iron for sago.

On Sunday, we met for our usual public services under a large tree, and a number of natives attended, who of course could not make out what was said, as they were conducted in Rarotongan.  At our morning and evening prayers numbers are always about who seem to enjoy the singing.  We see quite a number of strangers every day—some from Brumer Island, Tissot, Teste, China Straits, Catamaran Bay, Farm Bay, and other places.  Those from Vakavaka—a place over by China Straits—are lighter and better-looking than those here.  The women there do not seem to tattoo themselves.  Here they tattoo themselves all over their faces and bodies, and make themselves look very ugly.  I have not seen one large man or woman amongst them all.

We had much difficulty in getting a sufficient supply of plaited cocoanut leaves for the walls and roof of our house.  By the 14th, we had the walls and roof finished, when all our party moved into it.  We had a curtain of unbleached calico put up between the teachers’ end and ours, and curtains for doors and windows, but were glad to get into it in that unfinished state: the weather was breaking, and we felt anxious about the teachers sleeping in the tent when it rained, and we had no privacy at all where we were, and were tired of squatting on the ground, for we could not get a chair in our part of the house; indeed, the flooring was of such a construction that the legs of a chair or table would have

soon gone through it.  On the 13th, we were busy getting the wood we had cut for the flooring of our house into the sea to be rafted along; got ten large pieces into the water by breakfast-time.

After breakfast, Mrs. Chalmers and I were at the new house, with the captain of the Mayri, when we heard a noise like quarrelling.  On looking out, I saw the natives very excited, and many of them running with spears and clubs towards the house where Mrs. Chalmers, about five minutes before, had left the teachers rising from breakfast.  I hastened over, and pushed my way amongst the natives till I got to the front, when, to my horror, I was right in front of a gun aimed by one of the Mayri’s crew (who had been helping us with the house) at a young man brandishing a spear.  The aim was perfect: had the gun been fired—as it would have been had I not arrived in time—the native would have been shot dead.  I pushed the native aside, and ordered the gun to be put down, and turned to the natives, shouting, Besi, besi! (Enough, enough!).  Some of them returned their spears and clubs, but others remained threatening.  I spoke to our party against using firearms, and then I caught the youth who was flourishing his spear, and with difficulty got it from him.  Poor fellow, he cried with rage, yet he did me no harm.  I clapped him, and got him to go away.  All day he sat under a tree, which we had frequently to pass, but he would have nothing to say to us.  It seems a knife