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 
