’Here were coral crags, the masses of forest trees, the creepers literally hundreds of feet long, crawling along and hanging from the cliffs, the cocoa-nut trees and bananas, palms, &c., the dark figures on the edge of the rocks looking down upon us from among the trees, the people assembling on the bright beach—­coral dust as it may be called, for it was worn as fine as white sand—­cottages among the trees, and a pond of fresh water close by, winding away among the cliffs.’

Here a visit was paid to Iri’s boathouse, which contained three exquisite canoes, beautifully inlaid; then to his house, long, low, and open at the ends, like those formerly described, but with low wattled side walls.  Along the ridge-pole were ranged twenty-seven skulls, not yet blackened with smoke, and bones were scattered outside, for a fight had recently taken place near at hand.  ’In this Golgotha,’ the Bishop, using his little book of Bauro words, talked to the people, and plainly told them that the Great God hated wars and cruelty, and such ornaments were horrible in his sight.  Iri took it all in good part, and five boys willingly accepted the invitation to New Zealand.  One little fellow about eight years old had attached himself to Coley, clinging about his waist with his arms, but he was too young to be taken away.  Iri came down to the beach, and waded up to his waist in the water as the boat put off.

In the night Gera, or Guadalcanar, was reached, a fine mountainous island, with a detached reef.  Numerous canoes surrounded the vessel, bringing yarns for barter.  Fish-hooks were of no account; it was small hatchets that were in request, and the Bauro boys could hold some sort of converse with the people, though theirs was quite another dialect.  They were gaily decked out with armlets, frontlets, bracelets, and girdles of shell, and almost all of them wore, not only nose-rings, but plugs of wood or mother-of-pearl in the tip of the nose.  One man in particular had a shell eyelet-hole let into his nose, into which he inserted his unicorn decoration.  The Bishop amused himself and Coley by saying, as he hung a fishhook on this man’s nose-hook, ‘Naso suspendis adunco.’  Others had six or eight pieces of wood sticking out from either side of the nose, like a cat’s whiskers.  Two young men were taken from hence, and more would have gone, but it was not thought well to take married men.

The isle of Mara or Malanta had a very shy population, who seemed to live inland, having probably been molested by the warlike Gera men.  It had been supposed that there was a second islet here, but the ‘Southern Cross’ boat’s crew found that what had been taken for a strait was only the mouth of a large river, where the casks were filled.

The wondrous beauty of the scene, sea and river alike fringed with the richest foliage, birds flying about (I saw a large blue bird, a parrot, I suppose), fish jumping, the perfectly still water, the mysterious smoke of a fire or two, the call of a man heard in the bush, just enough of novelty to quicken me to the full enjoyment of such a lovely bay as no English eyes save ours have ever seen.’