specially patronised by the cook, soon declared “that no place could compare with the galley of a Mission vessel, to the truth of which declaration the necessity of enlarging his scanty garments soon bore satisfactory testimony; how at Ysabel the young chief came on board with a white cockatoo instead of a hawk on his wrist, which he presented to me with all the grace in the world, and with an enquiry after his good friend Captain Hume, of H.M.S.  “Cordelia,” who had kindly taken me to this island in the winter of 1861.’

To this may be added some touches from the home letter of August 27, off Vanikoro:—­

’I don’t deny that I am thankful that the Tikopia visit is well over.  The people are so very powerful and so independent and unmanageable, that I always have felt anxious about visiting them.  Once we were there in 1856, and now again.  I hope to keep on visiting them annually.  Sydney traders have been there, but have never landed; they trade at arm’s length from their boat and are well armed.  It is a strange sensation, sitting alone (say) 300 yards from the boat, which of course can’t be trusted in their hands, among 200 or more of people really gigantic.  No men have I ever seen so large—­huge Patagonian limbs, and great heavy hands clutching up my little weak arms and shoulders.  Yet it is not a sensation of fear, but simply of powerlessness; and it makes one think, as I do when among them, of another Power present to protect and defend.

’They perfectly understood my wish to bring away lads.  Full-grown Brobdignag men wished to come, and some got into the boat who were not easily got out of it again.  Boys swam off, wishing to come, but the elder people prevented it, swimming after them and dragging them back.  It was a very rough, blustering day; but even on such a day the lee side of the island is a beautiful sight, one mass of cocoa-nut trees, and the villages so snugly situated among the trees.

’Just been up the rigging to get a good look at this great encircling reef at Vanikoro.  Green water as smooth as glass, inside the reef for a mile, and then pretty villages; but there is no passage through the reef, it is a continuous breakwater.  We are working up towards a part of the reef where I think there may be a passage.  Anyhow I am gaining a good local knowledge of this place, and that saves time another year.

’The ten lads on board talk six languages, not one of which do I know; but as I get words and sentences from them, I see how they will “work in” with the general character of the language of which I have several dialects.  It is therefore not very difficult to get on some little way into all at once; but I must not be disappointed if I find that other occupations take me away too much for my own pleasure from this particular branch of my work.’

A long letter to Sir John T. Coleridge gives another aspect of the voyage:—­

’"Sea Breeze” Schooner:  off Rennell Island.  ’Therm. 89° in shade; lat. 11° 40’, long. 160° 18’ 5”.  ’September 7, 1862.