Thakombau was in great wrath when we arrived, because a damsel who is his ward had married the chief of Rewa without his sanction. In old days there would have been fierce war in consequence. Now, however, he is gradually subsiding, and is much interested about the Fijian mission to New Britain. He proposes going himself in his yacht to look up the teachers, and take them stores of mats and water-jars; and he invites Mr Langham to accompany him, but of course this will not come off. He told us of his amazement on beholding so vast a city as Sydney. He said it gave him some idea of what heaven must be! We said we wished he could see London and Westminster Abbey. He replied that he could well imagine that the city of which Sydney was but an offshoot must indeed be of surpassing grandeur. Would he come to London? No; he feared to die at sea and be thrown overboard. But we had run that risk to see his isles, and here we were safe. Oh, it was only his age that deterred him; his son might perhaps go. While we were sitting with him, his niece arrived in a canoe, bringing her own mats and several loaves of bread. She sat down silently in a corner; no greeting passed, but her attendant mentioned the object of her visit, and the old couple took no further notice of her. One of the objects of interest in Bau is a very large canoe which Thakombau is building for himself, and which will carry a hundred persons, and much baggage. You can imagine that making such a canoe as this, with such rude tools as these people possessed formerly, was indeed a triumph of shipbuilding. First, there is the keel, made of several pieces of timber strongly joined; then the sides have to be built up without ribs, but they are closely fitted, and caulked with native cloth and a sort of pitch made from the bread-fruit tree; then the pieces are strongly sewed together with sinnet (which is string made of cocoa-nut fibre); a large platform is built over the middle of the canoe, and on this is a deck-house. The whole is balanced by a heavy log of wood attached to one side as an outrigger. Some large canoes are double—two are placed side by side, and the platform connects them. There are holes in the deck through which the sculling-oars are worked, and the helm is a great steer-oar about twenty feet long with a blade about eighteen inches wide. It can be worked from either end of the boat; and the one great sail is also dragged from end to end with infinite labour, so that at every tack bow and stern change parts. Such a canoe flying before the wind, and throwing up a fountain of white foam as it rushes through the water, is a very beautiful object, and one which I am never weary of watching. But there are many canoes which dare not approach Bau in this brave style, but have to lower their sail while yet a great way off, and scull humbly to the shore. If the canoes come from Somosomo (Taviuni) the scullers dare not even stand, but must squat in token of lowliest