31_st_.—­Great crowds of people keep going and coming.  We spent a miserable night.  Our old chief, Oriope, had a conclave round the fire, and it took him all night to recount the doings of the Naos (foreigners), not forgetting the toilet.  At times he waxed eloquent, and the whole gully rung again.  It was useless telling him to be quiet.  All men and lads have the nose and ears pierced.  A number of women and children are about.  Some of the women are fine, tall, muscular, and clear-skinned, as light-coloured as Eastern Polynesians.  The children are lithe, blithe, and hearty—­some very dark and some very light.  The women have brought large quantities of taro for salt.  Oriope is very sleepy, and I have every now and again to wake him up, so that to-night he may sleep soundly, and not prevent our sleeping.

My name here is Oieva—­that of the fine-looking old father of the village.  At present I am all alone the others being out after birds.  The natives are very friendly.  They relish salt and ginger, which I have tried with them, and which they pronounce good.  Ruatoka and Maka have returned; they shot a pig, which the natives who accompanied them cooked and divided, to be carried in.  The excitement is great over the division, and the whole assembly are shouting; those from the hunt recounting the day’s proceedings, acting the shooting of the pig, to the intense delight and amazement of the others.  They eat flesh nearly raw.  A pig is put on the fire until the hair is well singed off; then division is made, then re-divided, and eaten.  They take a piece between the teeth, hold with one hand, and with a bamboo knife cut close to the mouth.  A bird is turned on the fire a few times, then cut up and eaten.

August 1_st_.—­Left this morning to look for a track.  We passed through a fine large village about one mile from here, and were joined by sixty men, all armed with spears and clubs, and faces painted.  They accompanied us for about four miles, and then turned away to the south.  We continued on the ridge for some miles further, until we could see that all round were great inaccessible mountains with bare faces.  It begins with the Astrolabe, extending west until Vetura is reached, and then away east by south until the centre of the range is reached.  In some places it has a perpendicular rock face of many hundred feet; in other places it is broken rock with bush growth, and only at very long distances can tracks be found, and even then it is difficult to get up.  We descended to the river, a large one, flowing west, through great rocks, often lost, sometimes only pools appearing here and there until, some distance down, and when eight hundred feet above sea-level, it comes out a fine and flowing river.  We had a good bath, and, of course, the inevitable kuku, and then skirted the side of the ridge, passing close by and under great rocks and overhanging cliffs, and up a most extraordinary steep path into splendid sugar-cane and taro plantations.  Weary, we sat down and ate sugar-cane under the shade of a great rock.  This West Indian “long breakfast” goes well when thirsty and hungry.  The natives who accompanied us, having caught a large rat and frog, turned them on the fire and ate them.