Having completed our toilet, we returned to the village, where there was service in a large church, which was crowded with a most devout congregation. Many strangers from surrounding villages were present,—as were also all interested in the teachers, schools and church matters generally,—to meet the superintendent, and decide certain questions; moreover, the chief was anxious that the annual mission meeting should be celebrated with unusual demonstration. So a very large number of persons had assembled, and many turtle had already been captured for the feast. I devoted this morning to sketching the curious little jail, a building of strong cocoa-nut posts, deeply sunken in the earth, which is dug out to make the cell, the earth being heaped up outside, almost to the eaves of the wide-thatched roof. It seemed as if the principal and speedy result of imprisonment must be suffocation; but the idea of having a jail at all is as novel as a black coat, and as foreign to Fijian custom. A canoe is just starting for some point whence letters are forwarded to Levuka, so I must close this. * * * * * NANDURI, VANUA LEVU, _Friday, August 11_. MY DEAR JEAN,—I have already sent Nell a long letter from here, now I will begin one to you, to carry on my story, though I can only write occasional fragments, as there are so many interesting things to see and do. It was a pleasant surprise in this remote district to find a countryman—Mr Fraser from Nairn, and his wife. They invited us to dine in their Fijian house, a simple one-roomed cottage, but made pleasant and home-like by a few decorative touches, and by the presence of the young mother and her little ones. The Langhams being necessarily much absorbed in matters relating to their work, these kind new friends undertook to show me as much as they could of the neighbourhood. So first we climbed up a green valley to a village on the brow of the hill, whence we had a fine view of this “Great Land” as we looked inwards to its mountain-ranges. Here we first found the sago-palm with its clusters of small nuts: and also gathered loads of lilac orchids. On our way back, looking seawards, we saw quite a fleet of picturesque canoes, with great yellow mat-sails, approaching the isle. Loud and discordant blasts on their shell-trumpets announced that they brought a large addition to the turtles required for the feast: five or six have been cooked every day since we arrived, a small item in the feeding of so great a multitude. They are cleaned and then baked in their shells. The chief also gives one thousand yams and three or four pigs daily. The amount of green fat that has been bestowed on us would have rejoiced a true _gourmet_; but his enjoyment would have been alloyed by the fact that the turtle are invariably cooked before presentation, and very badly cooked too, being invariably smoky and insipid.