_Thursday, 22nd July._--I left the _Southern Cross_ last night expecting to get away early this morning, which I suppose she did. However I am so far away from the sea, that I have no means of knowing what she did. Naturally too, I was very busy this first day ashore. The first business after Morning Prayer, was to start off Samuel and the Tasmouri contingent who had spent the night here. They had a good many things to receive, but they got away in time to reach home before night. There were numbers of other things to be done also, such as putting the new window in the Church, unpacking the harmonium, making a platform for it, &c. The old mode of life seems to come back wonderfully naturally to me. Breakfast of rice, with sugar and cocoanut milk, and afterwards a cup of delicious Norfolk Island coffee, for which delicacy I am indebted to my kind friends Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher Nobbs. My midday meal is a bit of biscuit or roasted yam, and I reserve myself for the great meal of the day in the evening, not sumptuous but amply sufficient, fried rasher of bacon, fried taro pancake, and most excellent potatoes, for which I am indebted to Mr. Alfred Nobbs at Norfolk Island. After this I have a cup of milkless tea, which I brew in that charming teapot sent me from China by Dr. Codrington. They say ‘enough is as good as a feast,’ and I suppose this is why I am perfectly satisfied with this rough meal. After dinner I have nothing again till next morning. _Friday, 23rd July._--A most superb morning, and the place looks very charming early in the day and in the evening, at midday there is a strong glare and it is almost too dazzling. The church looks most picturesque and pretty, nestling in a perfect forest of bright coloured shrubs, among which are many European representatives, _e.g._ the Poinsettia, the Geranium, Marvel of Peru, and others imported from Norfolk Island. Arthur certainly has expended great pains and taste in the plantation, and it amply rewards him. Outside the stone fence is an orange grove, the dark green of which stands out in bold relief against the bright colours within. The church is still in a good state of preservation and will last for some time yet. It is getting inconveniently small however, and will soon want enlarging. It bears evident signs of being made good use of, and they tell me the congregation morning and evening is never short of 50 or 60. In a very short time I hope this will be a purely Christian village, and that not only in name, but in deed and in truth. I see considerable change here since I left in the number of the new houses, and the care of the town, for such it now has a right to be called. Before long the Church will be the centre of a number of private residences, and the people begin to build better houses. Arthur has constructed his like mine with high walls caned all round, and made it very comfortable.