136 Letter VIII. 
‘The Marémen have a pretty good idea of the value of 
money, and in many cases prefer it to any other article of ex- 
change. They like to hoard it up, one chief being reputed to 
have over £100 stowed away. They are beginning to trade 
on their own account, too, on a more extensive scale than the 
Western Polynesians usually indulge in, growing cotton and 
selling it to white traders. They do more steady hard work 
than their neighbours on the New Hebrides, although, in 
justice to the latter, it must be said that the climate of the 
Loyalties is very much superior to that of the New Hebrides. 
It is both cooler and more healthy, owing to the want of 
luxuriant vegetation, and so more conducive to hard work. 
Yams, sugarcane, banana, bread-fruit, and cocoanuts grow on 
the Loyalties; but as the soil is not rich, they do not attain 
very great perfection. 
We anchored in Jones’s Bay, on the north side of Maré, 
on the 25th of July ; and several of us went ashore to visit 
Mr. Jones, the missionary stationed there. 
When speaking of Aniwa, it may be recollected that I men- 
tioned that the island rose up in two stages or steps—first a 
shore flat rising from the sea, and then, a little way inland, a 
cliff rising from that. On this island the same thing is observ- 
able ; there is the ground flat, and the upper flat which extends 
as a low table-land across the island. The lower flat on Maré, 
at least on the north side, is open and grassy, here and there 
dotted with palm-trees and tall handsome pines, and presents 
quite a relief to the eye, sated with the unbroken luxuriance of 
the New Hebridean vegetation. Mr. Jones’s establishment is 
on what I have termed the ground-flat, and lies close to the 
foot of the steep white cliff. It is a busy and prosperous- 
looking station. Dwellings, and school-houses, and stores, and 
sheds, are scattered about in great profusion; while natives, 
pigs, fowls, cattle, horses, and even donkeys, give life to 
