CHAP. III. 
PICTURESQUE SCENERY AT MOKA. 
69 
satisfaction with which the kind, faithful, and venerable mi¬ 
nister to whom they had been listening was welcomed and 
greeted, as he made his way through the throng to the resi¬ 
dence of his son. He had been their instructor and their 
sympathising friend in their dark days of coerced and unre¬ 
quited toil; and now, in their happier state of freedom, he was 
deservedly recognised as still their friend, not less entitled to 
their confidence and love in his efforts for their emancipation 
from moral and spiritual bondage more oppressive and dis¬ 
astrous than the most galling personal slavery. 
During the afternoon I strolled along the banks of the deep 
clear river which, rising amongst the adjacent mountains, flows 
through the mission ground. Here I amused myself with 
gathering ferns, and admiring the picturesque and shady 
little nooks and corners of rich and varied beauty which the 
margin of the stream very frequently presented. Down to 
the water’s edge the ground was covered with large forest 
trees or thick underwood, amongst which passion flower and 
other creepers appeared growing in great luxuriance. Some 
varieties of tree-fern were conspicuous here, especially one 
very beautiful species, apparently the Cyathea excelsa. The 
bright pink-leaved dracsena appeared here and there; and 
the green and red-leaved arum or caladium, so attractive 
amongst our stove plants in England, was often seen growing 
in wild and luxuriant beauty along the margin of the water. 
In this neighbourhood I saw some gorgeous specimens of 
Hibiscus mutabilis, with large hollyhock-shaped flowers, deep 
rose colour in the centre, and lighter round the edges; also a 
number of plants of the Hedychium flavescens , a fragrant 
yellow-flowering plant, resembling the yucca; but as there 
had evidently been a house near the place where these were 
growing, they might probably be regarded as indicating a 
spot, and by no means the only one I met with in the 
island,— 
