’And then I turn from all this little secluded work to the thoughts of England and France, the Church at home, &c....

’I have now read the “Guardian’s” account of the civil war in France.  There is nothing like it to be read of, except in the Old Testament perhaps.  It is like the taking of Jerusalem.

’It is an awful thing! most awful!  I never read anything like it.  Will they ever learn to be humble?  I don’t suppose that even now they admit their sins to have brought this chastening on them.  It is hard to say this without indulging a Pharisaic spirit, but I don’t mean to palliate our national sins by exaggerating theirs.  Yet I hardly think any mob but a French or Irish mob could have done what these men did.

’And what will be the result?  Will it check the tendency to Republicanism?  Will Governments unite to put down the many-headed monster?  Will they take a lesson from the fate of Paris and France?  Of course Republicanism is not the same thing as Communism.  But where are we to look for the good effects of Republicanism?

’August 22nd.—­The seventh anniversary of dear Fisher’s death.  May God grant us this year a blessing at Santa Cruz!

’Your affectionate

‘J.  C. Patteson.’

The last letter to the beloved sister Fanny opened with the date of her never-forgotten birthday, the 27th of August, though it was carried on during the following weeks; and in the meantime Mr. Atkin, Stephen, Joseph and the rest were called for from Wango, in Bauro, where they had had a fairly peaceable stay, in spite of a visit from a labour traffic vessel, called the ‘Emma Bell,’ with twenty-nine natives under hatches, and, alas! on her way for more.  After picking the Bauro party up, the Bishop wrote to the elder Mr. Atkin:—­

’Wango Bay (at anchor):  August 25, 1871.

’My dear Mr. Atkin,—­You may imagine my joy at finding Joe looking really well when we reached this part of the world on the 23rd.  I thought him looking unwell when he spent an hour or two with me at Mota, about ten weeks since, and I begged him to be careful, to use quinine freely, &c.  He is certainly looking now far better than he was then, and he says that he feels quite well and strong.  There is the more reason to be thankful for this, because the weather has been very rough, and rain has been falling continually.  I had the same weather in the Banks Islands; scarcely a day for weeks without heavy rain.  Here the sandy soil soon becomes dry again, it does not retain the moisture, and so far it has the advantage over the very tenacious clayey soil of Mota.