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 bim 
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 
asa pond. Ina 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 
