23G THE OnUISE OF THE ' GUEAQOA: 



into the interior of tlie island. This model of missionary 

 bishops had apprised me I should find the natives not only 

 inoffensive but kindly disposed, and I feel a sincere pleasure 

 in at once declaring that his anticipations were fully sustained 

 by the facts. At his request three natives served us both as 

 guides and an escort. We had hardly advanced a few 

 steps before we were obliged to cross a small stream, into 

 whose sandy bottom I sank up to my middle. I picked 

 out of the sand a pretty little mussel of a deep green, and 

 a curious thing with back and legs of a crustaceous cha- 

 racter and with a long back terminating in a point, and 

 which might probably be some of the parasites peculiar to 

 fish ; then on the banks of the stream I gathered some 

 insects, two lizaixls, two centipedes, some land shells, and 

 a small species of fresh water mussel. We then walked 

 along the beach for a mile and a half upon a stmdy soil, 

 without the sign of a stone, which extended to a neighbour- 

 ing forest, into which we plunged under high pandanus 

 trees laden with their golden globe-shaped fruit. The soil 

 was here and there thickly covered with a square fruit 

 rising to a point, resembling a priest's cap. We trod, as 

 we walked, upon ferns quite new to me, one species of 

 which had a rounded frond with a fruiting spike in the 

 centre. We saw a tree which bore very nice egg-shaped 

 fruit of a deep purple when ripe, containing a hard stone 

 surrounded by a pulp, and enclosing a kernel three or 

 four times larger than our ordinary almonds, and as plea- 

 sant to the taste as a young filbert. There was a green 



