galley, were well content to laze with our crew under the flapping canvas for hours together, and the big moon was lighting up with a weird beauty the cocoanut palms of the low-lying atoll before my old chum went down the side of the Belle Frances, perhaps to dream ashore of the time when he got me, as well as himself, six books of Virgil as an imposition for carelessly handing me a 'prig' in one of the class-rooms at the well-known Ramsgate school.

In a voyage so diversified in every respect, I have to condense as much as possible. Chapters could perhaps be written where I have used lines. The traditions of some of the islands referred to would alone occupy a goodly volume, and the rapidly disappearing manners and customs another, that is to say if they were stated in detail in regard to each island; but enough is as good as a feast, and if I were to enlarge on these topics, my remarks must of necessity prove but a wearisome iteration of what I have already attempted, with just here and there some local colouring.

The legendary lore of Polynesia is either Sawaiori or Tarapon, and it chiefly belongs to the former race; and I have given specimens of Tongan, Tahitian, and Fijian traditions, and I shall complete by a selection of those of Samoa, which I found in Jackson's tin box.

The same remark applies in great measure to manners and customs. The men and women of the Sawaiori race are nearly all well-clothed civilised Christians; it is true they do not at present appreciate every particular of European civilisation, and are

perhaps hopelessly ignorant of many things-like the Poor Law-which of course are among the glories of our advanced position; but neither they nor their cousins, the Christian Fijians, can be considered as regular 'savages,' except in the sense that just now they do not wear so much clothing as we do.

The Tarapon race, again, occupies a much lower position, and is, at any rate in some localities, but little removed above the naked Papuan (or NegritoPolynesian), who, however, is being rapidly made to understand the force of the progress-wave now approaching the islands of the South Sea.

I am afraid I am not much of an anthropologist, and as I went from island unto island,' the thought that struck me was not so much what their inhabitants were in years gone by, but what with fair and just treatment, and the influx of capital, they could be made to accomplish in the future. If the sneered-at work of missionaries has done so much, what would they not do if taken in hand like the Fijians?

I consider the development of the Polynesian races, and the islands they inhabit, a study well worth the attention of practical men of our time; and I do not think I am too sanguine in anticipating a future for this region which surpasses any dreams of to-day.

These views were also those of my friend, for one cloudless morning while the Belle Frances was lazily drifting towards the Wakaya Channel of the coral reef of Ovalau (there was hardly any wind, and our ensign looked as dejected as if Washington had told a

lie), Jackson took his pipe from his mouth, and pointing to Nasova, remarked:

What those people there have done with Fiji can be done in the islands I will show you. If a man who grows a blade of grass where no grass grew before is a benefactor to his country, what shall we say of the men who are rapidly making the Fijian ex-cannibals law-abiding, industrious agriculturists? Through at last, thank goodness! 'Bout ship!'

It was only a trading cruise we were embarked on, but even I felt within me something of the spirit of a pioneer, and remembered those lines which Mr. J. C. Earle, in his second hundred sonnets, puts into the mouth of Sebastian Cabot:

'A

pure ambition burns within me yet,

The secrets of the Occident to know,

To make the circuit of the world, and get

Back by the gulf-streams of the Orient's glow.'

Jackson's thoughts were, perhaps, on this occasion more intent on the wind and the supply of yams and water for the crew; but there was an edition of Byron

one of the bookshelves of our schooner, and I noticed that the pages which contained the 'Goodnight' preface to 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' were turned down and thumb-marked. Notwithstanding all his Polynesian absurdities and his unvarying bonhomie, the sad spirit of those lines, especially that of the last verse, entered much into the hidden life of my friend.

A few seconds after Jackson's cheery '"'Bout ship,' the ceaseless music of the big ocean waves, as they

roared on the coral reef, was heard on our starboardquarter, and we were again, sea-loving children of a sea-loving race, once more on the broad bosom of the Pacific, outward bound for some islands at the gateways of the day.'

CHAPTER XVII.

'FROM ISLAND UNTO ISLAND AT THE GATEWAYS OF THE DAY.'

THE selection of 'trade' for an all-round cruise requires experience and judgment. It used to be a foolish saying in England, 'Oh, anything will do for the colonies;' but anything won't do for the islands. The owner of the Belle Frances dealt mainly with the beachcombers and the chiefs, but the articles which would suit one group would be unsalable in the next. In some of the archipelagoes even the different islands differed in taste to a remarkable degree. Certain goods can always be safely taken, and a large profit can be relied on, even on Levuka prices, which for many articles of trade' are much higher than London figures. If a suitable vessel were chartered in London, with good passenger accommodation, and loaded with quick-selling cargo, it would be comparatively easy for any persons whom this book may interest to study things Polynesian themselves in a very comfortable fashion, and so carry out poor Jackson's idea of a sort of scientific expedition. In addition to an exceptionally beautiful cruise, with almost certain