to such objects, could not carry safely so large a party, but we have nothing on board to create, conceal, or accumulate dirt; no hold, no storeroom, no place where a mixed mess of spilt flour, and sugar, and treacle, and old rotten potatoes, and cocoa-nut parings and bits of candle, can all be washed together into a dark foul hold; hence the whole ship, fore and aft, is sweet and clean.  Stores are kept in zinc lockers puttied down, and in cedar boxes lined with zinc.  We of course distribute them ourselves; a hired steward would be fatal, because you can’t get a servant to see the importance of care in such details.’

Mr. Patteson always, in the most careful manner, paid respect both to the chief’s person and his dicta.  He declined more than once to give directions which he said ought to issue from the chief, although on one of these occasions he was asked by the chief himself.  He foresaw clearly the evils that might follow if the people’s respect for recognised authority were weakened, instead of being, as it might be, turned to useful account.  And so he always accorded to John Cho, and to other persons of rank when they were with us in the Mission school, just such respect as they were accustomed to receive at the hands of their own people.  For instance, he would always use to a moderate extent the chief’s language in addressing John Cho or any other of the Loyalty chiefs; and it being a rule of theirs that no one in the presence of the chiefs should ever presume to sit down higher than the chiefs, he would always make a point of attending to it as regarded himself; and once or twice when, on shore in the islands, the chief had chosen to squat down on the ground among the people, he would jocularly leave the seat that had been provided for him, and place himself by the chief’s side on the ground.  All this was keenly appreciated as significant, but alas! the Loyalty Islanders were not long to remain under his charge.

The ensuing letter was written to Sir John Taylor Coleridge, after learning the tidings of his retirement from the Bench in the packet of intelligence brought by the vessel:—­

‘November 10, 1858:  Lat. 31° 29’ S.; Long. 171° 12’ E.

’My dear Uncle John,—­I see by the papers that you have actually resigned, and keep your connection with the judges only as a Privy Councillor.  I am of course on my own account heartily glad that you will be near my dear father for so many months of the year, and you are very little likely to miss your old occupation much, with your study at Heath’s Court, so I shall often think of you in summer sitting out on the lawn, by John’s Pinus excelsis, and in winter in your armchair by the fire, and no doubt you will often find your way over to Feniton.  And then you have a glorious church!....  Oh!  I do long for a venerable building and for the sound of ancient chants and psalms.  At times, the Sunday is specially a day on which my mind will go back to the old country, but never with any wish to return.  I have never experienced that desire, and think nothing but absolute inability to help on a Melanesian or a Maori will ever make a change in that respect.  I feel as certain as I can be of anything that I should not be half as happy in England as I am in New Zealand, or in Lifu, in the Banks or Solomon Islands, &c.  I like the life and the people, everything about it and them....