On the way he had the experience of a tropical thunderstorm, after having been well warned by the sinking of the barometer through the whole of the day, the 27th of April.  ’At 7.30 the breeze came up, and the big drops began, when suddenly a bright forked flash so sustained that it held its place before our eyes like an immense white-hot crooked wire, seemed to fall on the deck, and be splintered there.  But one moment and the tremendous crack of the thunder was alive and around us, making the masts tremble.  For more than an hour the flashes were so continuous that I think every three seconds we had a perfect view of the whole horizon.  I especially remember the firmament between the lurid thunder clouds looking quite blue, so intense was the light.  The thunder rolled on without cessation, but the tremendous claps occurred only at intervals.  We have no lightning conductor, and I felt somewhat anxious; went below and prayed God to preserve us from lightning and fire, read the magnificent chapter at the end of Job.  As the storm went on, I thought that at that very hour you were praying “From lightning and tempest, good Lord, deliver us.”  We had no wind:  furious rain, repeated again from midnight to three this morning.  About eleven the thunder had ceased, but the broad flashes of lightning were still frequent.  The lightning was forked and jagged, and one remarkable thing was the length of time that the line of intense light was kept up, like a gigantic firework, so that the shape of the flash could be drawn with entire accuracy by any one that could handle a pencil.  It was a grand and solemn sight and sound, and I am very thankful we were preserved from danger, for the storm was right upon us, and the danger must have been great.’

A ready welcome awaited the ‘Southern Cross’ at Bauro, in a lovely bay hitherto unvisited, where a perfect flotilla of canoes came off to greet her, and the two chiefs, Iri and Eimaniaka, came on board, and no less than fifty-five men with them.  The chiefs and about a dozen men were invited to spend the night on board.  The former lay on the floor of the inner cabin, talking and listening while their host set before them some of the plain truths of Christianity.  He landed next day, and returned the visit by going to Iri’s hut, where he pointed to the skulls, discoursed on the hatefulness of such decorations, and recommended their burial.  He also had an opportunity of showing a Christian’s horror of unfilial conduct, when Rimaniaka struck his mother for being slow in handing yams; and when a man begged for a passage to Gera in direct opposition to his father’s commands, he was dismissed with the words, ’I will have nothing to do with a man who does not obey his own father.’