12 A MISSION TO VITI. 



house, a commodious building, thatched with leaves, 

 surrounded by a fence and a broad boarded verandah, 

 the front of the house looking into a nice little flower- 

 garden, the back into the courtyard. The ladies gave 

 us a hearty welcome, no doubt being glad to look once 

 more upon white faces and hear accounts from home. 

 We had brought, besides provisions and stores for the 

 next year, batches of letters and newspapers ; and those 

 who have been in out-of-the-way places, and obtained 

 after long intervals news from home, will be able to 

 enter into the joy that prevailed. After being cramped 

 on board a vessel for so many weeks, and tossed and 

 rocked about night and day, it was a rare pleasure to us 

 to sit down once more in a comfortable house on shore ; 

 and comfortable the house certainly was. Though the 

 thermometer ranged more than 80 Fahrenheit, the thick 

 thatch kept off the scorching rays, and there was a fresh 

 current of trade-wind blowing through the rooms. It 

 was a pleasing sight to see everything so scrupulously 

 neat and clean, the beds and curtains as white as snow, 

 and everywhere the greatest order prevailing. There 

 were all the elements of future civilization, models ready 

 for imitation. The yard was well stocked with ducks 

 and fowls, pigs and goats, the garden replete with flowers, 

 roses in full bloom, but alas ! with little scent, cotton 

 shrubs twelve feet high, and bearing leaves, flowers, and 

 fruit, in all stages of development. These missionary 

 stations are fulfilling all the objects of convents in their 

 best days. When all around was barbarism, strife, and 

 ignorance, they afforded a safe refuge to the weary tra- 

 veller, as they still do in the East, and cultivated 



