Sunday, December 3rd.—­At a quarter to five this morning some of us landed to see the market, this being the great day when the natives come in from the country and surrounding villages, by sea and by land, in boats, or on horseback, to sell their produce, and buy necessaries for the coming week.  We walked through the shady streets to the two covered market buildings, partitioned across with great bunches of oranges, plantains, and many-coloured vegetables, hung on strings.  The mats, beds, and pillows still lying about suggested the idea that the salesmen and women had passed the night amongst their wares.  The gaily attired, good-looking, flower-decorated crowd, of some seven or eight hundred people, all chatting and laughing, and some staring at us—­but not rudely—­looked much more like a chorus of opera-singers, dressed for their parts in some grand spectacle, than ordinary market-going peasants.  Whichever way one turned, the prospect was an animated and attractive one.  Here, beneath the shade of large, smooth, light-green banana leaves, was a group of earnest bargainers for mysterious-looking fish, luscious fruit, and vegetables; there, sheltered by a drooping mango, whose rich clusters of purple and orange fruit hung in tempting proximity to lips and hands, another little crowd was similarly engaged.  Orange-trees were evidently favourite rendezvous; and a row of flower-sellers had established themselves in front of a hedge of scarlet hibiscus and double Cape jasmine.  Every vendor carried his stock-in-trade, however small the articles composing it might be, on a bamboo pole, across his shoulder, occasionally with rather ludicrous effect, as, for instance, when the thick but light pole supported only a tiny fish six inches long at one end, and two mangoes at the other.  Everybody seemed to have brought to market just what he or she happened to have on hand, however small the quantity.  The women would have one, two, or three new-laid eggs in a leaf basket, one crab or lobster, three or four prawns, or one little trout.  Under these circumstances, marketing for so large a party as ours was a somewhat lengthy operation, and I was much amused in watching our proveedor, as he went about collecting things by ones and twos, until he had piled a little cart quite full, and had had it pushed off to the shady quay.

[Illustration:  Chaetodon Plagmance]

We strolled about until six o’clock, at which hour the purchasers began to disperse, and were just preparing to depart likewise, when an old man, carrying half-a-dozen little fish, and followed by a small boy laden with vegetables and fruit, introduced himself to us as the brother-in-law of Queen Pomare IV. and chief of Papeete, and, after a short talk, invited us to visit him at his house.  We consented, and, following him, presently reached a break in the hedge and ditch that ran along the side of the road, beyond which was a track, bordered by pineapples and dracaenas,