However, thank God, all has been quiet since, and the Uta people have the fire coals so heavily heaped on their head, that being first in agression they have been the first to make amends. They came down yesterday in great numbers, all armed, of course, and bringing three pigs with them. Our people were all present too, very fully armed, and also bringing three pigs. The chief man on the Uta side and the attacker stood out in the open with his pig, and the chief among the injured stepped out, and walking around the pig took it from the other, first passing his hand over the pig’s back and head and the rope he was held with, and then delivering the scape pig to the injured. This was done thrice, _i.e._ with each several pig. Then the ceremony was changed to our side and the like performance gone through, and the pigs delivered one by one to the attackers. There was thus a mutual exchange and no one was the loser, indeed so far from it that had the pigs been made for the occasion and cast in the same mould, they could scarcely have been more of a size, shape, and colour. It would seem, according to our ideas, as if the aggressors ought to have paid all the pigs without receiving any in exchange, but no, native custom seems to be different, and a fair exchange must be made. After the pigs had been delivered, there was some speechifying and a good deal of after talkey-talkey, and the quondam enemies became the best of friends. I hope they will continue so, I am sure, and I think they will. I made a little speech, in which I glorified peace and good-will, and denounced fighting and bloodshed. I have never seen such a concourse of people in Maewo, certainly, and the place perfectly bristled with guns and poisoned arrows. The natives, although they seem somewhat careless with these weapons, are really very careful, and an accident seldom or never happens through carelessness. I do not like the poisoned arrows, and keep clear always of them, for the smallest prod from one would most probably prove fatal. Very soon the vast concourse had dispersed, and the pigs, the mediators, were escorted off to their new places of residence, but I do not fancy they felt the weight of the aggressor’s repentance, or the forgiveness of the attacked. A small coal of inward anger would very soon kindle again the blaze of war, for after all I fancy there is not much love lost between the two parties. With one of my Opa boys I came back here to get my towels, and then made a start for Ruosi and Kerepei, being anxious to bathe, and also to see the road the boys have made for Mrs. Selwyn’s feet to tread in. I must say after my observation of it, that if her anticipated visits everywhere have the same effect of causing people to mend their ways, she may well be satisfied with her trip down here. The road was not good before, neither is it perfect now, but the boys have certainly made a most passable track, the question is whether a lady can manage the first steep climb.