GEORGE.  “There are more small islands before we go to New Zealand or Australia, and I have an account of one,—­viz., New Caledonia, lying south-west of the New Hebrides.  It is rather a large island, rocky for the most part; and there not being much food for animals, very few are found there.  One, however, must be mentioned.  It is a spider called a ‘nookee,’ which spins a thread so strong, as to offer a sensible resistance before breaking.  This animal (for I have discovered that a spider is not an insect) constitutes part of the people’s food.  The inhabitants are cannibals from taste.  They eat with an air of luxurious pleasure the muscular parts of the human body, and a slice of a child is esteemed a great dainty.  Horrible wretches!  They wear no clothes; the women just have a girdle of fibrous bark, and the men sometimes encircle their heads with a fillet of sewed net-work or leaves, and the hair of the vampire bat.  Their houses are in the form of beehives, and the door-posts are of carved planks.”

DORA.  “New Zealand, almost the antipodes of England, lies in the South Pacific, and consists of two large islands, the extreme points of which are called North and South Cape.  Near North Cape is Norfolk Island, where the English, at one time, had a flourishing colony, now removed to Van Diemen’s Land.  We must all help to work our ship round these larger islands, for no individual can be responsible for the entire management.”

MRS. WILTON.  “I will set the example.  New Zealand was discovered by Tasman in 1642; but its extent and character were ascertained by Cook in his voyage of 1774.  It is now a regularly established colony belonging to the British crown.  There is a bishop, several clergymen of the Church of England, and many other missionaries resident there.  It is a fertile group, but contains several active volcanoes.  In the north island, or New Ulster, are various cavities, which appear to be extinct craters; and in their vicinity numerous hot springs are to be met with; some of them, as they rise to boiling point, the natives use for cooking.”

GRANDY.  “The New Zealanders belong to the Malay family:  they are a fine handsome race, and possess fewer of the vices of the savage than almost any other savage people.  The Missionaries have been eminently successful in the conversion of the natives to Christianity.  The first establishment formed there, was commenced in the Bay of Islands, at a village called Rangiona, in 1814.  The persons were sent out by the Church Missionary Society, and have never relaxed in their endeavors to promote the laudable work of converting the heathen natives from the error of their superstitions, although they have had numerous difficulties to overcome.  They went out, in the strength of the Lord, resolved to do nothing in strife or vain-glory, but all in lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than themselves:  and they succeeded notwithstanding the numerous hindrances; for the work was of God, and He gave them power to do all things without murmuring, in order to attain the salvation of the souls of their fellow-creatures.”