The Santa Cruz group was visited again on the 23rd of September.  Nothing remarkable occurred; indeed, Patteson’s journal does not mention these places, but that of the Bishop speaks of a first landing at Nukapu, and an exchange of names with the old chief Acenana; and the next day of going to the main island, where swarms of natives swam out, with cries of Toki, toki, and planks before them to float through the surf.  About 250 assembled at the landing place, as before, chiefly eager for traffic.  The Volcano Isle was also touched at, but the language of the few inhabitants was incomprehensible.  The mountain was smoking, and red-hot cinders falling as before on the steep side.  It was tempting to climb it and investigate what probably no white man had yet seen, but it was decided to be more prudent to abstain.

Some events of the visit to Bauro are related in the following letter to the young cousin whose Confirmation day had been notified to him in time to be thought of in his prayers:—­

’Off San Cristoval:  October 5, 1857.

’My dearest Pena,—­It was in a heathen land, among a heathen people, that I passed the Sunday—­a day most memorable in your life—­on which I trust you received for the first time the blessed Sacrament of our Saviour’s Body and Blood.

’My darling—­,as I knelt in the chiefs house, upon the mat which was also my bed—­the only Christian in that large and beautiful island—­ my prayers were, I hope, offered earnestly that the full blessedness of that heavenly Union with the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him with the Father and the Holy Ghost, might rest upon you for ever.  I had reckoned upon being on board that Sunday, when the Holy Eucharist was administered on board our vessel; but as we reached Mwaata, our well-known village at San Cristoval, on Saturday, we both agreed that I had better go ashore while the vessel went away, to return for me on Monday.  My day was now passed strangely enough, my first Sunday in a land where no Sunday is known.

’It was about 3 P.M. on Saturday when I landed, and it was an effort to have to talk incessantly till dark.  Then the chief Iri went with me to his house.  It is only one oblong room, with a bamboo screen running halfway across it about half-way down the room.  It is only made of bamboo at the sides, and leaves for the roof.  Yams and other vegetables were placed along the sides.  There is no floor, but one or two grass mats are placed on the ground to sleep on.  Iri and his wife, and an orphan girl about fourteen or fifteen, I suppose, slept on the other side of the screen; and two lads, called Grariri and Parenga, slept on my side of it.  I can’t say I slept at all, for the rats were so very many, coming in through the bamboo on every side, and making such a noise I could not sleep, though tired.  They were running all about me.

’Well, at daylight I sent Gariri to fetch some water, and shaved and washed, to the great admiration of Iri and the ladies, and of others also, who crowded together at the hole which serves for door and windows.  I lay down in my clothes, all but my coat, but I took a razor and some soap ashore.