Housekeeping in Noumea. 219 
But to return to the ‘‘ Sea Witch” and her passengers. On 
the morning of our arrival an English gentleman boarded us, 
and introduced himself as Her Brittanic Majesty’s vice-consul. 
He was very kind and attentive, and by his advice we took 
possession of a furnished cottage belonging to a friend of his 
at that time in the country. Of course if the hotels had been 
suitable for our party, we should have gone to one of them ; 
but they had no accommodation fit for a lady : so we thank- 
fully entered the cottage, and commenced housekeeping on our 
own account. It was rather a strange experience. After the 
island life among the savages, it was a novel thing to be able 
to go to a shop and get what you wanted, and it was a novel 
thing to pay for it; but the novelty was much increased by our 
being in a strange town, amongst a lot of foreigners. Fortu- 
nately, in most of the shops some of the assistants could 
speak English, otherwise we should have fared badly indeed, 
my French being of the most threadbare description. The 
captain and I used occasionally to sally forth, under cover of 
darkness, and forage for our supplies, returning loaded with 
sundry queer parcels. 
We found housekeeping in Noumea rather expensive on 
the whole, everything being dear, except claret, cigars, and eau 
de Cologne: so, by way of economy, we endeavoured to live 
as much as possible on these luxuries—at least I did. The 
consul was a friend in need, supplying the place of interpreter 
and general entertainer on all occasions, and rendering the 
three weeks spent at Noumea much more pleasant than other- 
wise they would have been. Several times I went out riding 
with him, to get a look at the surroundings of the town. 
There are some beautiful spots near the coast, and fine views 
from the hills ; one of the prettiest is obtained from the rising 
ground at the back of the town, by looking across an islet- 
dotted bay towards Mont D’Or and the ranges lying behind and 
to the left of it. ; 
