FBIEXDLY ISLANDS. £05 



paper, and when I wanted to return, began with these to 

 Eliezar : " Kuo-hua-mai ae tahi " (' ; Tide's coming in ") ; " Ke 

 ta fold a " (" Let us turn back"). He was quite delighted, and 

 asked me to tell him the " Bilitania " (English) for them ; so I 

 repeated, and he got them by heart ; then laughing, and shaking 

 me warmly by the hand, he cried, " Ah, you are my friend !" 

 Afterwards he asked my name : I said William, and while 

 walking up to the house on landing, I was amused by hearing him 

 call " William I" He wanted me to stop, that he might help to 

 carry my things. I found him very good-natured and obliging. 

 He told Mr. West that he was " hilled with the sun, but that 

 William did not mind it ; William was too busy thinking of 

 Limu" (seaweed). 



On the evening of the 8th we went on board the Wesley, 

 having taken an affectionate farewell of Eliezar (who patted me 

 on the back after shaking hands), as also of the crowd of 

 natives of all ages who accompanied us to the beach. Next 

 morning we sailed for Vavau, where I remain till the Wesley 

 returns from the Navigator's Islands. 



To Mrs. T. 



Sydney, December 12th, 1855. 

 I reached Sydney a few days ago, after an absence on my 

 island tour of exactly twenty-five weeks. My last letter was 

 written from Vavau on the 17th of August, and after so long a 

 break in the thread of my narrative I have hardly courage to 

 resume in journal fashion. I remained three weeks at Vavau as 

 the guest of the Rev. Mr. Daniels, by whom I was hospitably 

 entertained, and helped forward in ail I had to do with the 

 natives. The harbour of Vavau is spacious, and the scenery 

 lovely, for, being landlocked, it has the appearance of an inland 

 lake, surrounded with hills and slopes at various distances ; 

 these being clothed with tropical vegetation of the fullest green, 

 on which the changing lights and shadows fall. The cocoa-nut 

 trees, rising with their slender stems over the smaller shrubbery, 

 are very conspicuous, and the garden patches of banana con- 

 trast well with the dense jungle of the uncultivated spots. As I 

 glided along the shores in a small canoe, I was often reminded of 

 those of Killarney, the surface of the hard coralliferous rock being 

 similarly waterworn into a fanciful honeycomb filigree. This rock 



