4 A MISSION TO VITI. 



so the South-Sea Islanders would say, " Let me behold 

 Sydney, and go home again." 



No one should speak ill of the bridge that carries him 

 over, or look a gift-horse in the mouth ; but I have been 

 so frequently asked about the ' John Wesley,' that I 

 may be exculpated when saying a few words about the 

 vessel as she appeared to me. The ' John Wesley' was 

 launched in 1846, having been built by Messrs. White 

 and Sons, of Cowes, and being paid for by charitable 

 contributions. I have read high eulogiums on her, but 

 anybody who has sailed in her will not be inclined 

 to endorse them. It has never been my misfortune 

 to be on board a vessel behaving worse than she did. 

 She is about thirty feet too short, and never easy, let 

 the wind be ever so favourable and the sea as smooth 

 as a pond. In a slight gale the pitching is awful, and 

 the rolling terrific. We were often watching and* won- 

 dering what would be her next move after all these 

 had been going on for awhile, when perhaps she would 

 shake her rudder so violently that one almost feared it 

 must come out. In consequence of her constant un- 

 easiness, the wear and tear in ropes and spars is con- 

 siderable, and the annual expenditure must be much 

 greater than might be expected from a vessel of her 

 size. Nearly every morning there was something gone, 

 and we used to chaff the captain about the superior be- 

 haviour of his craft; but he, like a true sailor, would 

 defend her through thick and thin. In rough weather 

 she had, besides, the bad quality of leaking ; and, as 

 some of the cocoa-nut oil carried in her on a former 

 occasion had oozed out of the tanks and casks and 



