The Bishop meanwhile wrote on:—­

’The New Zealand Bishops have sent me a kind letter, a round robin, urging me to go to England; but they are ignorant of two things:—­ 1st, that I am already much better; 2nd, that I should not derive the benefit generally to my spirits, &c. from a visit to England as they would, and take it for granted that I should do so.

’They use only one other argument, viz., that I must rest after some years’ work.  That is not so.  I don’t feel the pressure of work for a very simple reason, viz., that I don’t attempt to work as I used to do.

’But just now, it is quite clear that I must not go, unless there were a very obvious necessity for it.  For, 1st, Mota needs all the help we can give; 2nd, several Melanesians are coming on rapidly to the state when they ought to be ordained; 3rd, we are about to start (D.V.) new stations at Ambrym, Leper’s Island, and Savo; 4th, the school is so large that we want “all hands” to work it; 5th, I must go to Fiji, and watch both Fiji and Queensland; 6th, after the 1872 voyage, we shall need, as I think, to sell this vessel, and have another new one built in Auckland.  The funds will need careful nursing for this.  But I will really not be foolish.  If I have a return of the bad symptoms, I will go to Dr. Goldsboro’, and if he advises it strongly, will go to England.

’The deportation of natives is going on to a very great extent here, as in the New Hebrides and Banks Islands.  Means of all kinds are employed:  sinking canoes and capturing the natives, enticing men on board, and getting them below, and then securing hatches and imprisoning them.  Natives are retaliating.  Lately, two or three vessels have been taken and all hands killed, besides boats’ crews shot at continually.  A man called on me at Mota the other day, who said that five out of seven in the boat were struck by arrows a few days before.  The arrows were not poisoned, but one man was very ill.  It makes even our work rather hazardous, except where we are thoroughly well known.  I hear that a vessel has gone to Santa Cruz, and I must be very cautious there, for there has been some disturbance almost to a certainty.

’Whatever regulations the Government of Queensland or the Consul of Fiji may make, they can’t restrain the traders from employing unlawful means to get hold of the natives.  And I know that many of these men are utterly unscrupulous.  But I can’t get proofs that are sufficient to obtain a verdict in a court of law.

’Some islands are almost depopulated; and I dread the return of these “labourers,” when they are brought back.  They bring guns and other things, which enable them to carry out with impunity all kinds of rascality.  They learn nothing that can influence them for good.  They are like squatters in the bush, coming into the town to have their fling.  These poor fellows come back to run riot, steal men’s wives, shoot, fight, and use their newly acquired possessions to carry out more vigorously all heathen practices.