I think Savu Savu is about the prettiest place I have yet seen. The harbour is so entirely enclosed by great hills that it is simply a salt lake, dotted with many isles, all richly wooded—too richly, for they are in consequence haunted by a plague of mosquitoes. Dr Mayo, who, you will remember, was one of our party coming out, has such a conviction that the hot springs will become important in course of time, that he has bought one of these pretty islands and built himself a house on it. It is not yet finished, and he is obliged to live at Khandavu as quarantine medical officer, much to his disgust, as his object in coming to Fiji was the hope of gaining large experience of native races. He brought out as his assistant a college servant, who lives by himself on the island and takes great charge of everything. I have just been across to see the unfinished house and tastefully planned shrubberies of foreign plants; but the island is infested by hordes of such vicious mosquitoes that I was fairly driven away. Of course we have made expeditions to all parts of the lovely lake, beginning with the native town of Eroi, to see the fortified hill which was so bravely defended. It is surrounded by very deep ditches, and only accessible by a very narrow path overgrown with dense vines. The thatched roofs of the village are half hidden by tall bananas and scarlet hybiscus, orange and lemon trees: the latter are of the prickly sort, which was planted near many fortifications as a natural defence. Another day we sailed across the bay to visit friends who there own a large plantation. Here we saw something of sugar-growing, sugar-crushing, and rum-distilling; also fields of splendid pine-apples—by far the finest we have seen in the isles. Turtles and pine-apples in abundance sound well, do they not? But I fear they do not compensate for lack of beef and mutton, and many another ordinary comfort. I find that Captain Barrack is just sending a little schooner across to Levuka, so I shall despatch this long journal to catch the mail. I only wish it might give any of you a thousandth part of the amusement which I have derived from the actual trip, notwithstanding all the discomforts.—Your loving sister. CHAPTER XX. NASOVA—THE MOUNTAIN WAR—A YEAR’S PROGRESS—FIJIAN HOMAGE. NASOVA, _August 24, 1876_. DEAREST EISA,—Here I am once more safely back from a long cruise in the wilds, of which I have sent a full account to Jean. Our last halt was at Savu Savu—a lovely bay, which I left with great regret, resisting several cordial invitations to visit kind neighbours there. We started yesterday morning at dawn, but found the sails needed some repairs; so we waited five hours at the mouth of the harbour, and whiled away the time by inspecting the old buildings and machinery of a deserted plantation—the heavy cocoa-nut crushers and other expensive plant, now standing idle and useless—always a pitiful sight.