_Monday, September 6th._--Captain Martin had kindly offered to tow me and my boat’s crew across to Opa if I could manage to be ready. He would come down and anchor at Kerepei, and fire a gun as a signal for me. The gun went, but I was not ready, and after breakfast I went down to tell him so. Being a French ship they kept French hours, and I found a second breakfast awaiting me on board. Twelve people had recruited at Tanrowo, and all had been bought with snider rifles, and plenty of ammunition. French and English recruiting laws are very different. Vessels from Queensland and Fiji are not allowed to give guns or ammunition to the natives, but the French do just as they like. While I was on board, another silly female was recruited. In one of her humours she had run away from her husband, and had come a distance of twelve or fifteen miles, to be engaged for three years as the slave and tool of some depraved Frenchman on one of the island stations. I could say nothing, although I knew the result of the embarkation. However, the Captain promised me that he would call again at the place, and see the woman’s friends, and if they consented to her going, he would keep her and pay for her, but if not, she should be put on shore again. How far or how truly he will carry out his promise I do not know, but he is a tender hearted and, I think, an upright man in his dealings with the natives. As soon as I was ashore, he lifted his anchor and went up the coast, but I have not yet heard what he did. He was very kind to our boys, and gave them several tins of meat and biscuits. We made a fire at Ruosi, and there they cooked their dinner, while after a bathe I came home. In the evening it rained very hard, and just before the bell went for Prayers, our congregation was therefore not so large as usual, and our numbers thinner at school. I was very tired, and went early to bed. _Wednesday, September 7th._--Very heavy rain during the night succeeded this morning by a northerly wind, and a hot, close, oppressive day. I have not felt it so warm since I have been here, and I was glad that my duties kept me at home, and mostly in doors all the day. Nothing here seems possible to be done without a feast and a dance, and all work was postponed to-day to do my new fence the honour of having a supper prepared for it. Any excuse for eating and dancing. The women were kept busy at the ovens cooking, and the men away at the seaside endeavouring to get a meal of fish, seemingly the choicest compliment possible to be paid to the exterior decoration of my house. The fence making certainly was a most laborious business, and the result, if not strikingly beautiful, has the advantage of being strong and durable, and hitherto pig-proof.