iSo THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



The freedom of the South Pacific, combined with its glorious 

 climate, seemed to satisfy some undefined craving, and they 

 refused again to abandon their perfect independence for the 

 trammels of civilisation. To slightly alter the well-known 

 lines of Tennyson : 



' They have burst each bond of habit, 



They have wandered far away, 

 From island unto island, 

 At the gateways of the day.' 



Mr. Bath, in spite of his Fijian proclivities, had not for- 

 gotten all his European tastes. He admired the flavour of the 

 Bourbon whisky in my flask, and the ' square gin ' he tendered 

 us was above suspicion. 



Mr. Bath's family seemed healthy, and the children were 

 well-made and shapely, some of them fast becoming men and 

 women ; but my experience of the half-caste race, at any rate 

 in Fiji, has, generally speaking, not impressed me in their 

 favour. Curious love-stories are told of many a wandering 

 beachcomber's hopeless pursuit after some pretty Fiji girl. 

 The Fijians are as a rule chaste, and differ materially in this 

 respect from many of the South Pacific islanders. Some years 

 ago when Mr. Thurston was British consul in the group, 

 a Rewa river settler came to him for a marriage license, as he 

 had fallen in love with and had been accepted by some dusky 

 beauty in his own locality. The papers were granted, and 

 one-legged Tommy (he had lost an understanding in action as 

 a sailor) went his way rejoicing. A few weeks after the 

 Queen's representative had congratulated the maimed mariner, 

 business took Mr. Thurston up the Rewa river, and at the stem 

 of his boat flew the consular flag. On approaching the domain 

 of Tommy with the one leg, the boat was loudly hailed by that 



