Journal of Residence in the New Hebrides, S.W. Pacific Ocean — John Shaqi
Journal of Residence in the New Hebrides, S.W. Pacific OceanBice, C. (Charles)
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Journal of Residence in the New Hebrides, S.W. Pacific Ocean
Bice, C. (Charles)
Missions -- Vanuatu
The broad, handsome evergreen taro leaf spreads its verdure right and
left, and all around, amid the friendship of the gay-leaved croton, the
majestic dracæna, and the vari-coloured hibiscus, while here and there,
to vary the prospect, the graceful cocoanut lends the beauty and
elegance of its chastely spreading branches; all this beauty is thrown
into relief by a back ground of the most marvellously beautiful bush,
which shuts it in as with a natural fence, and leaves the only wish and
feeling with the observer just to get for a moment a peep of what lies
beyond. Breaks here and there however, in the background, revealed
distant hills clad to their very summits with a richness and profusion
of vegetation such as always abounds in these lovely islands where
‘every prospect pleases.’ I could select so many subjects for pictures
here as almost to finish up all my dry plates, my only hope is that I
may meet with some measure of success when by and bye I try my hand at
photography. A header into the cool waters and a swim up and down stream
was very refreshing. The boys enlivened the scene by their merriment and
gambolling in the water, and altogether it was an occasion of much
delight, and not the less so to me when I considered that all these
people, almost without exception, had passed before through the healing
waters of Holy Baptism. As possessing so much of the element, it is
perhaps only natural that these people should love the water, and bathe
a great deal more than their appearance would give one reason to
suspect. The boys, and more especially, I think, the girls, are very
fond of the water, and never seem tired of bathing when near the
river-side. ‘Tanrig’ is distant about two miles from the river, and this
distance, although inconvenient for many reasons, is very convenient for
others, and especially because of the mosquitos which abound in the
neighbourhood. Here some times they are bad enough, but by the
water-side they are, I believe, unbearable. I know I find them
troublesome enough there by day, and I don’t care to experience the
worry and misery of them by night. They are called here ‘namu,’ and are
said to be particularly troublesome at a certain period in the growth
and maturity of the yam.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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