Nothing special occurred on our return journey. We called at the houses of several white men, and received most cordial welcome, and many cups of tea with milk, which after our long abstinence seemed true nectar. How strange it did seem once more to sit on chairs and at tables! I fear I rather regret giving up mat-life! We spent a pleasant day at Rewa with Mr and Mrs Webb, exchanging the news of the mountains for that of the great outer world, and did not we enjoy a civilised breakfast! Rewa is a large village of the invariable thatched houses, with an unusually fine thatched church, round which have been set up a series of rude stone pillars, some pentagonal,—which are supposed to have been brought from the basaltic cliffs at Khandavu, the outermost isle of the group. I noted a similar pillar among the ruins of the heathen temple at Bau; and here, at Rewa, Mr Webb has happily replaced several which formerly surrounded a large barrow where three chiefs are buried, and which some ruthless hand had overthrown. Mr Webb kindly took me all over the place, and showed me every point of interest. The town of Rewa consists of a cluster of villages, inhabited by various divisions of tribes, all subject to a central power. Each village is embosomed in luxuriant gardens of broad-leaved banana and tall sugar-cane, and we passed from one to another by tidy paths, bordered with ornamental shrubs, denoting unusual care. Here, as in our own land, the fisher town stands quite apart from the homes of the agricultural population, and intermarriage is equally rare. Thither we wended our way, in search of the curious pottery made by the very low caste women of the fisher tribe. We had not the luck to catch the potters at work, but from each little cottage specimens were brought to us, very varied in form, and of a greenish-red earthenware, glazed. Many of the forms are most artistic, the commonest consisting of a cluster of vases resembling a bunch of oranges, sometimes as many as six, all joined together by one handle. I grieve that their extreme fragility should allow so small a chance of many specimens reaching England in safety. However, I have ordered a good many to be made. I had the good fortune to secure several really old pieces in the mountains—finely shaped bowls and water-jars—and these have travelled so far without damage. [Illustration: ISLES OF OVALAU, MOTURIKI, BAU AND VIWA, FROM VITI LEVU. _p. 111._] In the afternoon we continued our voyage down one of the many branches into which the river here divides, entering the sea by many mouths, which are in fact salt-water creeks, winding through the dense mangrove-forest. We called at Navouloa, the training college for native students, now in charge of Mr Waterhouse.