CHAPTER VIII.

NEW HEBRIDES.

April 10th, 1875.-Weighed at 4.45 P.M.; made sail outside the heads and slogged along, four knots.

April 12th.-Turned back at 9 A.M. to land a case of fever. April 13th.-Got alongside H.M.S. "Barracouta" in quarantine ground (Sydney) at 7.15 P.M.; turned round after landing the man, and was clear of the heads again by 8.15. Fine breeze at south.

April 19th.-Making good way. Glass falling and squally, a sign of getting to the real trade wind, when the barometer is habitually low.

April 22nd.—Saw the peaks of Aneiteum (New Hebrides) at daylight, about forty-five miles off; nice breeze; wind fell light, but got in at 4 P.M. Landed at once, and saw a Tahitian teacher, who showed me the missionary Mr. Murray's house. The house was built by Dr. Geddie seventeen or eighteen years ago. We walked to bathe, and found a splendid pool with a fine current. Got some ferns. Mr. Murray says there are now 1,500 natives only; in 1865 there were 2,200, according to Brenchley, and in 1845, 3,000 or thereabouts. In Mr. Murray's section of the island there were twenty-nine deaths and only seventeen births in 1874. And this is the island which is, of all others, the most under civilising influences, and which is least visited by labour vessels. On the 20th March they had a bad earthquake and a wave which overwhelmed the sandy island on which they take whales to "try." The wall of the church was badly cracked. Came on board at 6.15 and sailed at 7 P.M. No breeze under the land, afterwards slogged along very comfortably. The name

T

of the island should be Eiteum. Aneiteum meaning in or at Eiteum. The name of the harbour Anelgauhat-in or at the rocks Elgauhat.

April 23rd.-Stood in for the island of Tanna, but did not get there till 9 A.M., when we anchored in Port Resolution. I landed at once, and saw Mr. Neilson, the missionary, and his wife, who came to meet us. A crowd of natives there and on the shore; their hair is frizzed, as in Cook's engravings, and when a young man's hair reaches to his shoulders or nearly, he is given a wife. Up to this time he chews kava, and can handle food, but after this time he must not touch food but with a leaf, and does not chew kava. Mr. Neilson says that they have been fighting a good deal in the last six months, and that a man was killed not long since. Many of the natives have been driven off, and have gone as many as a hundred to Aniwa. He puts the population at about 10,000, but it is difficult to estimate. For one occupied there are two abandoned villages. Although two tribes may be at war, still there are among them friends on each side who have secret meetings and understandings all the time the fighting is going on. There are no fortified towns or posts, and the whole condition of these people is very low indeed; they make no pottery, make bad canoes, and follow really no art to speak of. The women, who are awfully ugly, wear a petticoat of heavy long dracona leaves. Our walk took us to the sea on the south of the promontory, all of which might and should be a rich garden, and will be as soon as ever the question of getting labourers is solved. The rotation of crops is to clear a garden and plant it with yams in the first year, and with bananas and indian corn, which they now eat, and with sugar in the second year. They do not grow annatto; the bread fruit is very fine and very productive. This is called by other islanders "the land of the bread fruit." There is also the Fijian Ndawa and Ivi, an oval fruit, with a sweet kernel. The faces of the men coming on board were all painted with ochre and some blue paint. They wear strips of tortoiseshell as ear-ings; oval beads of whale's teeth are slung

round the neck, as large as a pigeon's egg, and pieces of greenstone. A chief had a shirt, but no one else.

Landed again in P.M. at the head of the bay and walked to a spring on the north side of the beach, thermometer 204°, at another 188° was all we could get; the water smelling strongly of sulphur. The men who had been seining got little fish, but that little very good. Bathed, walked round, and came off.

April 24th.-Up at 5.30 and went off at 6.30 to the Volcano Yazur, in company with Mr. Neilson, a famous walker and good companion. One " Washerwoman," a chief, met us at the head of the bay with a few natives, and I waited till the whole party of 145, viz., 100 seamen, 30 marines, 11 officers, Stanley, Mr. Neilson, and two stewards and cooks had assembled; then told them to keep together and not to lose sight of the next ahead; also not to fancy when they got to the top of the crater that, because they were tired and hungry, it would be dinnertime, but to wait till they got to the lake and had had their swim. We then plunged into the bush, and went steadily for from three and a-half to four miles to an open place under the trees. Up to this the path was gently undulating, and through reedy grass and forest, alternately passing some small and poor patches of cultivation enclosed by reed fences. Occasionally a very fine tree was passed, of the banyan kind, and one was measured, about 90 ft. to 100 ft. in circumference at the apparent base-all this being a mass of limbs, but this thickness was continued a good way up. On this cleared ground we halted, and all hands came up. A native brought two water-melons, which were shared, and a few cocoa nuts were brought. After ten or fifteen minutes on again, up a steep path through fern and lovely vegetation and on a steep ridge, and at last got on to a small table land covered with screw pines. Every leaf and every branch is now coated with volcanic sand, and the vegetation under foot is more and more sparse till one comes abruptly on a broad mass of pink scoria with bits of white crystallised matter bedded in it, just like the rocks round Port Resolution.

As one draws near the foot of the cone, which is but 200 ft. on this side, great squashes of light, brittle scoria are seen, only recently thrown out, and looking as though one had taken a lump of dough of the consistency of hasty pudding, and, after working it, had thrown it down. Here and there were hard bits when we got higher up, but the general character of the scoria was more and more of this sort as we ascended the cone. After getting to the top, we circled round, and sat down on the weather side, all hands well up. The eruptions were moderate, but the sight was fine, and the men thoroughly rose to it, and enjoyed it, I think, with considerable pluck and zest. They abstained very generally from eating, according to my recommendation, but a few had a lunch of sardines, with which they were well primed. The canteen proved itself to-day of very great assistance to every one, and an immense quantity of food was taken thence to-day. Eruptions seemed to take place chiefly from the second and third craters from the south, and steam to issue from the first. Probably the depth of these craters, the visible depth to which we could see, was 300 feet. At a good eruption we could feel an indraught of air, and a slight shock to our lungs. The pieces, of which the largest were not more than a couple of tons weight, went up 600 feet and fell back; some of the smaller pieces, and up to perhaps half a ton, went with a side wind over a saddle, or lip of crater to S.S.W., and very close to some of the men who went along that way. The pieces assumed shapes like a tadpole going up, and reversed coming down. One man brought me a very hard bit of greenish stuff which he found sticking into a piece of lava scoria and broke off, and I brought away some pieces of scoria, &c. We sat about forty minutes; the appearance of the craters gave me the idea that the centre of eruption is working very slowly to the south-west.

From the top we went down to a large lake, a mile in length, which either is evaporated, or loses itself in sand. The barometer had made it 800 feet from the summit to the lake, and the summit 1000 feet from the sea. This is, I think, correct beyond

a question. The slope of the cone was considerable, and I daresay 40° to the horizon. Nearly all is fine dust, but here and there a lump of scoria has leaped over the edge and rolled down. Indeed, we saw some doing so as we came along and after. Once down, all hands were soon in the water, bathing and enjoying themselves very heartily. Certainly a hundred and twenty people must have been in the water at once. After that we had a muster and found all present, and then all dined together, it being pretty nearly 11.30 A.M. We had started at 7 A.M. from the landing place at the head of the bay, reached the first halt at 8.15, and the summit at 9.20. Left the summit at 10.10, dined at 11.30, and left the lake at 1.10 P.M. Reached the hot lake at 2.50, left at 3.10, and reached the beach at 4 P.M.

While we were bathing a part of a hostile tribe came down and threw out in a skirmishing order along the beach. Our fellows (natives under Washerwoman) had been in a stew from the time we left the first halting place, and had said, "You white men you go first." To which Mr. Neilson replied, "We are close; do you show us the way." Every one of these fellows has a musket, and even little boys carry arms capped, and with the hammer on the nipple.

After dinner, I went over to these fellows with Mr. Neilson, and though at first they were afraid and would not come, yet they afterwards came up to speak. Before I went, our own fellows said, "No give him 'bacco!" wishing, I suppose, to keep it all for themselves. Mr. Neilson asked, "What do you come for? Why are you always fighting?" "Oh! they said, it is not our fault, it is theirs. Why are they always killing our people." "No," said Mr. Neilson, "you are always killing them." They said, "They killed our chief's son!" "How?" "They bewitched him, and are always bewitching our young men."

One superstition in this witchcraft might be turned to account. They believe that if fragments of food or bones are left uncovered, the enemy will find them and use them for witchcraft. They, therefore, invariably bury them carefully. Is it possible that this