’Then my French.  If I had really taken any pains with old Tarver in old days—­and it was your special wish that I should do so—­how useful it would be to me now; whereas, though I get on after a sort, I don’t speak at all as I ought to do, and might have learnt to do.  It is sad to look back upon all the neglected opportunities; and it is not only that I have not got nearly (so to speak) a quantity of useful materials for one’s work in the present time, but that I find it very hard to shake off desultory habits.  I suppose all persons have to make reflections of this kind, more or less sad; but, somehow, I feel it very keenly now:  for certainly I did waste time sadly; and it so happens that I have just had “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” lent me, and that I spent some time in reading it on this particular day, and, of course, my Eton life rose up before me.  What a useful book that is!  A real gain for a young person to have such a book.  That is very much the kind of thing that would really help a boy—­manly, true, and plain.

’I hear from Sydney by last mail that the Bishop is really desirous to revive the long dormant Board of Missions.  He means to propose to send a priest and a deacon to every island ready for them, and to provide for them—­if they are forthcoming, and funds.  Of this latter I have not much doubt....

’April 24—­I have to get ready for three English full services to-morrow, besides Melanesian ditto.—­So goodbye, my dearest Father,

’Your loving and dutiful Son,

‘J.  C. Patteson.’

Sir John Patteson might well say, in a letter of this summer, to Bishop Selwyn:—­

’As to my dear boy Coley, I am more and more thankful every day that I agreed to his wishes; and in whatever situation he may be placed, feel confident that his heart will be in his work, and that he will do God service.  He will be contented to work under any one who may be appointed Bishop of Melanesia (or any other title), or to be the Bishop himself.  If I judge truly, he has no ambitious views, and only desires that he may be made as useful as his powers enable him to be, whether in a high or subordinate situation.’

Nothing could be more true than this.  There was a general sense of the probability that Mr. Patteson must be the first Missionary Bishop; but he continued to work on at the immediate business, always keeping the schemes and designs which necessarily rose in his mind ready to be subjected to the control of whomsoever might be set over him.  The cold had set in severely enough to make it needful to carry off his ‘party of coughing, shivering Melanesians’ before Easter, and the ‘Southern Cross’ sailed on the 18th.  Patteson took with him a good store of coffee, sugar, and biscuits, being uncertain whether he should or should not again remain at Lifu.

In the outward voyage he only landed his pupils there, and then went on to the Banks Islands, where Sarawia was returned at Vanua Lava, and after Mr. Patteson had spent a pleasant day among the natives, Mota was visited next after.