The brother and sisters knew it, and forebore to harass him with remonstrances, but resigned themselves to the knowledge that nothing would bring him home save absolute disqualification for his mission.

His own last letter from Taurarua dwells upon the enjoyment of his conversations with Sir William Martin and Bishop Cowie; and then goes into details of a vision of obtaining young English boys to whom a good education would be a boon, bringing them up at St. Barnabas, and then, if they turned out fit for the Mission there, they would be prepared—­if not, they would have had the benefit of the schooling.

Meantime the ‘Southern Cross,’ with three of the clergy, had made the voyage according to minute directions from the Bishop.  Mr. Atkin made his yearly visit to Bauro.  He says:—­

’I hardly expected that when we came back we should have found the peace still unbroken between Wango and Hane, but it is.  Though not very good friends, they are still at peace.  In the chief’s house I was presented with a piece of pork, about two pounds, and a dish of tauma (their favourite), a pudding made of yams, nuts, and cocoa-nut milk, and cooked by steaming.  Fortunately, good manners allowed me to take it away.  Before we left the village, it took two women to carry our provisions.  A little boy came back with us, to stay with Taki.  The two boys who ought to have come last year are very anxious to do so still.

’July 12th.—­We anchored the boat on the beach at Tawatana, and I went into the oka (public house) to see the tauma prepared for the feast.  There were thirty-eight dishes.  The largest, about four feet long, stood nearly three feet high.  I tried to lift one from the ground, but could not; it must have been five hundredweight; the smallest daras held eighty or a hundred pounds.  I calculated that there was at least two tons.  When freshly made it is very good, but at these feasts it is always old and sour, and dripping with cocoa-nut oil.  The daras, or wooden bowls, into which it is put, are almost always carved and inlaid with mother-of-pearl shell.

’There was a great crowd at the landing-place at Saa (Malanta) to meet us.  Nobody knew Wate at first, but he was soon recognised.  The boat was pulled up into a little river, and everything stealable taken out.  We then went up to the village, passing some women crying on the way; here, as at Uleawa, crying seems to be the sign of joy, or welcome.  Wate’s father’s new house is the best I have seen in any of these islands.  It has two rooms; the drawing-room is about forty-five feet long by thirty wide, with a roof projecting about six feet outside the wall at the end and four feet at the eaves; the bed-room is about eighteen feet wide, so that the whole roof covers about seventy feet by forty.  Wate’s father lives like a chief of the olden time, with large property, but nothing of his own; all that he has or gets goes as soon as he gets it to his retainers.