THE TROPICAL PACIFIC 367 



in a most stately manner, and after our return from the 

 hill we called to bid him good-bye, and the Captain and 

 I wandered round to the huts and the houses to see 

 what they had. The officers got a lot of Kava bowls — 

 this is a great place for them and for building canoes, 

 the island being full of very large hard-wood trees. One 

 of the women we saw was really quite a type. She must 

 have been, from her frowsy look, the pattern after which 

 the native woman of the Fiji Group was depicted ! She 

 had red hair like a sheep's-wool mat standing out at 

 right angles to her head, an arm big enough to kill an 

 ox if she struck him, and a sort of wild look in her face. 

 The chief's wife came on board with us, and kept watch 

 of the whole crowd, and took the whole party on shore 

 again after they had given us one of their songs on 

 deck. It is really refreshing to get to a village again 

 where nobody can speak English, and where there are 

 no missionaries or traders and the natives run them- 

 selves. A cleaner and more attractive village we had 

 not seen." 



Passing his old anchorage, the crater harbor of To- 

 toya, Agassiz reached Suva on December 11, 1899. 

 " You have no idea how much at home I feel here," he 

 writes. " It 's really like getting halfway to Cambridge 

 when coming back from the mine ! Everybody from the 

 Governor down most attentive and I feel as if I owned 

 the islands. . . ." 



The Albatross remained a few days in Suva to coal 

 and provision, and then started for the Ellice Islands. 

 Here Agassiz writes from the island celebrated as the 

 site of the boring of the Royal Society. 



