About nine, we went ashore near the anchorage.  I crossed the island to the village, but did not feel satisfied as to the position.  One of our guides to the village wore, as an armlet, the jawbone of a man from the mainland he had killed and eaten; others strutted about with human bones dangling from their hair, and about their necks.  It is only the village Tepauri on the mainland with which they are unfriendly.  We returned to the boat, and sailed along the coast.  On turning a cape, we came to a pretty village, on a well-wooded point.  The people were friendly, and led us to see the water, of which there is a good supply.  This is the spot for which we have been in search as a station for beginning work.  We can go anywhere from here, and are surrounded by villages.  The mainland is not more than a gunshot across.  God has led us.  We made arrangements for a house for the teachers; then returned to the vessel.

In the afternoon, I landed the teachers, their wives, and part of their goods—­the people helping to carry the stuff to the house.  The house in which the teachers are to reside till our own is finished is the largest in the place, but they can only get the use of one end of it—­the owner, who considers himself the chief man of the place, requiring the other end for himself and family.  The partition between the two ends is only two feet high.  Skulls, shells, and cocoanuts are hung all about the house; the skulls are those of the enemies he and his people have eaten.  Inside the house, hung up on the wall, is a very large collection of human bones, bones of animals and of fish.

I selected a spot for our house on the point of land nearest the mainland.  It is a large sand hill, and well wooded at the back.  We have a good piece of land, with bread-fruit and other fruit trees on it, which I hope soon to have cleared and planted with food, for the benefit of the teachers who may be here awaiting their stations, as well as for the teacher for the place.  The frontage is the Straits, with the mainland right opposite.  There is a fine anchorage close to the house for vessels of any size.

Early next morning there was great excitement ashore.  The large war canoe came off, with drums beating and men dancing.  They came alongside the Bertha, and presented us with a small pig and food.  Then the men came on board and danced.  The captain gave them a return present.  Mr. McFarlane and I went ashore immediately after breakfast, and found that the teachers had been kindly treated.  We gave some natives a few axes, who at once set off to cut wood for the house, and before we returned to the vessel in the evening two posts were up.  As the Bertha’s time was up, and the season for the trade winds closing, everything was done to get on with the house.  Mr. McFarlane worked well.  Two men from the Bertha, and two from the Mayri joined with the four teachers in the work, and by Tuesday the framework