30 
St. Paul Lekwel, Merelava September 20, 1972 
Paul Brown, Jean Guiart and I are staying at this village where the 
dispensary and school are located, and at which we landed, as I planned 
at 8:30 a.m. this morning. All ten scientists (but none of the crew) had 
landed by 10 a.m. in three trips of the shore boat from the Alpha Helix 
in heavy winds and moderately high seas. The others in our scientific party 
who are not staying on shore tonight have now reimbarked at 4:30 p.m. from the Ian 
just before the rock formation, called Vatotilav, just below St. John Lewetnok. 
Today has been a long and fascinating day of festivities at St. John Lewetnok 
commemorating the arrival of Bishop Paterson in the Islands in 1871. The 
Bishop was later killed on Nukapu in the northern Santa Cruz group. Our 
landing was somewhat delayed after a dramatic early morning awakening 
to find Merelava, looming with its cloud-capped conical peak before us as 
our ship slowly approached the Island. Merig showed up dim and distant on 
our starboard side. I went to the bridge to help the captain decide whether 
we could land and where it should be. We finally located a landing, drew 
cautiously in, but found the fathomometer now working properly, and this 
made things difficult for the captain who had never visited any of the 
Banks islands before. We noticed several canoes laying on the rocky ledges 
far above the shore, and saw an anchor painted on the rock cliffs below 
the village, where a dozen or more people were assembled. While we hesitated 
offshore, a man lowered a canoe from the precipitous rocks and came out into 
the choppy sea to our ship. He told me that we were not off St. Paul Lekwel, but 
rather off Mission Basis, which we later learned was St. Steven Tasmat , the larges 
village on Merelava. The visitor claimed that this was the best landing, and 
that we could easily carry supplies over to Lekwel, but we decided to investigate 
further northward along the coast. We found two landings with canoes above 
them, but only one had people assembled on it and that was nearest to the build- 
ings I took to be the school and rest house about which we had heard. The first 
boat to shore with Walter, Jean, Don and myself made the trip without trouble, 
but we were soaked completely en route by waves. At Lekwel, we were helped 
ashore and promptly met the head teacher, Judah Butu, and his associate, Dimas 
Boy, from Pentecost and Maewo, respectively. The Dresser, Andrew Gon, was also 
there; they told us the school was not in session for it was an island 
holiday with festivities all day at St. John Lewetnok. Thus, we quickly 
changed all plans and decided to visit the festivities and to start our 
physical examinations of the children at the school tomorrow. The hike 
to St. John from St. Paul took a bit over a half hour, loitering along 
the way. At St. John the festivities were already started, but the Priest, 
Thomas Butu, Judah’s brother, led the people in singing to us a greeting 
and cheering our arrival. Then followed speeches about our arrival, 
traditional dancing by the St. John’s men and boys with foot-stamping, 
a rattle dance, and finally, dancing to drums which are percussion boards 
lying on the ground and struck with long bamboo poles. 
In midafternoon the traditional dancing gave way to electric guitar 
playing and desultory dancing, which was never very spirited, but Jean, 
Judy, Raymond, Franqoise, and I took part at one time or another, much 
to the pleasure and amusement of our hosts. 
