On Wednesday a short service was held, the first ever known in Mota; and then Mr. Ashwell and Mr. Kerr embarked, leaving Mr. Patteson and Mr. Dudley with their twelve pupils in possession.  Mr. Dudley had skill to turn their resources to advantage.  Space was gained below by making a frame, to which knapsacks, bags, &c., could be hung up, and the floor was only occupied by the four boxes, which did the further part of tables, desks, and chairs in turn.  As to beds, was not the whole floor before them? and, observes the Journal:  ’Now I see the advantage of having brought planks from New Zealand to make a floor.  We all had something level to lie on at night, and when you are tired enough, a good smooth plank or a box does just as well as a mattress.’

Fresh water was half a mile off, and had to be fetched in bamboos; but this was a great improvement upon Lifu, where there was none at all; and a store of it was always kept in four twenty-gallon casks, three on the beach, and one close to the house.

The place was regularly purchased:—­

’June 8th.—­I have just bought for the Mission this small clearing of half an acre, and the two acres (say) leading to the sea, with twenty or more bread-fruits on it.  There was a long talk with the people, and some difficulty in finding out the real proprietors, but I think we arranged matters really well at last.  You would have been amused at the solemnity with which I conducted the proceeding:  making a great show of writing down their names, and bringing each one of the owners up in their turn to see his name put down, and making him touch my pen as I put a cross against his name.  Having spent about an hour in enquiring whether any other person had any claim on the land or trees, I then said, “Now this all belongs to me,” and they assented.  I entered it in my books—­“On behalf of the Melanesian Mission,” but they could only understand that the land belonged to the Bishop and me, because we wanted a place where some people might live, who should be placed by the Bishop to teach them.  Of course the proceeding has no real validity, but I think they will observe the contract:  not quite the same thing as the transfer of land in the old country!  Here about 120 men, quite naked, represented the interests of the late owners, and Dudley and I represented the Mission.’

The days were thus laid out—­Morning school in the village, first with the regular scholars, then with any one who liked to come in; and then, when the weather permitted, a visit to some village, sometimes walking all round, a circuit of ten miles, but generally each of the two taking a separate village, talking to the people, teaching them from cards, and encouraging interrogatories.  Mr. Patteson always had such an attraction for them that they would throng round him eagerly wherever he went.