and made off.  They had received fish, biscuit, and taro.  The taro and fish were smelt all over, and carefully examined before eaten.  The biscuit was wrapped up again in the paper.

On Sunday, the 4th, we were beating down through innumerable reefs, and at eight p.m. we anchored about three miles from Hula.  The following morning we went up to the village, the Mayri anchoring close by the houses.  The country about here looks fine and green, a very striking contrast to that around Port Moresby.  The further east we get from Port Moresby, the finer the country looks.  The people are also superior—finer-made men and women, and really pretty boys and girls—more, altogether, like our eastern South Sea Islanders.  The married women

spoil their looks by keeping their heads shaved.  They seem fond of their children: men and women nurse them.  They were busy preparing their large canoes to visit Port Moresby, on the return of the Port Moresby canoes from the west with sago.

About three in the afternoon, an old woman made her appearance at the door of the mission house, bawling out, “Well, what liars these Hula people are; some of them were inland this morning, and the chief asked them if Misi Lao had come, and they said no.”  The chief, who saw the vessel from the hill top where his village is, thought it strange the vessel should be there without Misi Lao, so sent this woman to learn the truth.  She received a present for herself and the chief, and went away quite happy.

Next morning, November 6th, we left Hula with a fair wind, and were anchored close to Kerepunu by nine o’clock.  The Bertha was anchored fully two miles off.  Kerepunu is a magnificent place, and its people are very fine-looking.  It is one large town of seven districts, with fine houses, all arranged in streets, crotons and other plants growing about, and cockatoos perching in front of nearly every house.  One part of the population plant, another fish, and the planters buy the fish with their produce.  Men, women, and children are all workers; they go to their plantations in the morning and return to their homes in the evening, only sick ones remaining at home; thus accounting for the number of scrofulous people we saw going

about when we first landed.  They have a rule, to which they strictly adhere all the year round, of working for two days and resting the third.

The Bertha arrived here on Friday evening.  Mrs. Chalmers was at the forenoon service on the Sunday, and found there a large congregation.  The service was held on the platform of one of the largest houses.  Anedered preached, a number sitting on the platform, others in the house, others on the ground all round, and many at the doors of their own houses, where they could hear all that was said.

Mr. Lawes decided to remain at Kerepunu to revise for the press a small book Anedered has been preparing, and to follow us to Teste Island in the Ellengowan.  We left Kerepunu on the morning of November 8th, the Mayri leaving at the same time, to sail down inside the surf.  We went right out to sea, so as to beat down, had fine weather, and were off Teste Island by the 16th.  After dinner we took the boat, and with the captain went in on the east side of the island through the reef, to sound and find anchorage.

When we reached the lagoon, a catamaran with three natives on it came off to us.  We asked for Koitan, the chief, which at once gave them confidence in us, so that they came alongside, one getting into the boat.  He expressed his friendship to us in the usual way, viz. by touching his nose and stomach, and, being very much excited, seized hold of Mr.

McFarlane and rubbed noses with him, doing the same to me.  He received a present of a piece of hoop-iron and some red braid, which greatly pleased him.  We found the water was deep enough over the reef for the vessel, and good anchorage inside.  We went on to the village, to see about the supply of water.

The people were very friendly, and crowded round us.  We were led up to a platform in front of one of their large houses, and there seated and regaled with cocoanuts.  The natives here are much darker than are those at Kerepunu; most of them suffer from a very offensive-looking skin disease, which causes the skin to peel off in scales.  In their conversation with one another I recognized several Polynesian words.  The water is obtained by digging in the sand, and is very brackish.

We came to anchor next morning, and soon were surrounded with canoes, and our deck swarmed with natives trading their curios, yams, cocoanuts, and fish for beads and hoop-iron.  Many were swearing friendship, and exchanging names with us, in hopes of getting hoop-iron.  There is as great a demand for hoop-iron here as for tobacco at Port Moresby.  They told us they disliked fighting, but delighted in the dance, betel-nut, and sleep.  The majority have jet black teeth, which they consider very beautiful, and all have their noses and ears pierced, with various sorts of nose and ear rings, chiefly made from shell,

inserted.  A crown piece could easily be put through the lobe of their ears.

We went ashore in the afternoon.  There are three villages, all close to one another.  Their houses are built on poles, and are shaped like a canoe turned bottom upwards, others like one in the water.  They ornament their houses on the outside with cocoanuts and shells.  The nabobs of the place had skulls on the posts of their houses, which they said belonged to the enemies they had killed and eaten.  One skull was very much fractured; they told us it was done with a stone axe, and showed us how they used these weapons.

We tried to explain to them that no one was to come to the vessel the next day, as it was a sacred day.  In the early morning, some canoes came off to trade, but we sent them ashore; a few more followed about breakfast-time, which were also sent ashore.  In the afternoon, our old friend of the preceding day came off, with his wife and two sons.  He called out that he did not wish to come on board, but that he had brought some cooked food.  We accepted his present, and he remained with his family in his canoe alongside the vessel for some time, and then went quietly ashore.  We had three services on board, one in the forenoon in Lifuan, in the afternoon in Rarotongan, and in the evening in English.

As Teste Island is about twenty miles from the mainland, with a dead beat to it, I decided to seek

for a position more accessible to New Guinea, and as I had not a teacher to spare for this little island, Mr. McFarlane decided to leave two of the Loyalty Island teachers here.  It is fertile, and appears healthy, is two and a half miles long, and half a mile broad.  A ridge of hills runs right through its centre from east-north-east to west-south-west.  The natives have some fine plantations on the north side, and on the south and east sides they have yam plantations to the very tops of the hills.  There are plantations and fruit-trees all round the island.

On Monday, I accompanied Mr. McFarlane when he went ashore to make arrangements to land his teachers and secure a house for them.  The people seemed pleased that some of our party would remain with them.  Mr. McFarlane at once chose a house on a point of land a good way from our landing-place, and at the end of the most distant village.  The owner was willing to give up the house until the teachers could build one for themselves, so it was at once taken and paid for.  We came along