of this kind of thing is that one seems to be doing nothing.  Simply I am here!  Hardly in one hour out of the twenty-four am I sure to be speaking of religion.  Yet the being here is something, the gaining the confidence and goodwill of the people.  Then comes the thought, who is to carry this on?  And yet I dare not ask men to come, for I am certain they would after all my pains find something different from what they expect.

My death would very likely bring out some better men for the work, with energy and constructive power and executive genius, all of which, guided by Divine Wisdom, seem to be so much wanted!  But just now, I don’t see what would become of a large part of the work if I died.  I am leaving books somewhat more in order; but it is one thing to have a book to help one in acquiring a language, quite another to speak it freely, and to be personally known to the people who speak it.

’11th Sunday after Trinity.—­Off Anudha Island, 4 P.M.  Thermometer 88° in the empty cabin, everyone being on deck.  Well, dear old Joan and Fan, refreshed by—­what do you think?  O feast of Guildhall and Bristol mayors!  Who would dream of turtle soup on board the “Southern Cross” in these unknown seas?  Tell it not to Missionary Societies!  Let no platform orator divulge the great secret of the luxurious self-indulgent life of the Missionary Bishop!  What nuts for the “Pall Mall Gazette”!  How would all subscriptions cease, and denunciations be launched upon my devoted head, because good Mr. Tilly bought, at San Cristoval, for the price of one tenpenny hatchet, a little turtle, a veritable turtle, with green fat and all the rest of it, upon which we have made to-day a most regal feast indeed.

’But seriously.  There has been much to make me hopeful, and something to disappoint me, since I last wrote.’

The two days at Santa Cruz were hopeful—­[Mr. Atkin says that the natives came on board with readiness and stole with equal readiness; but this was all in a friendly way]—­and a small island, named Piteni, was visited, and judged likely to prove a means of reaching the larger isle.

The disappointment is not here mentioned, unless it was the missing some of the Ysabel scholars, and bringing away only three; but this mattered the less, as the Banks Island party, which, as forming a nucleus, was far more important, was now considerable.  Sixty-two scholars were the present freight, including nine little girls, between eight and twelve, mostly betrothed to old pupils.

At Malanta, a new village called Saa was visited.  The ‘harbour’ was a wall of coral, with the surf breaking upon it, but a large canoe showed the only accessible place, and this was exposed to the whole swell of the Pacific.