[Illustration: Our First Landing in the South Pacific, Hao or Bow
Island.]

As soon as I was seated, the head-woman told one of the men to knock
down some cocoa-nuts from the trees close by, and after cutting off
the ends she offered us a drink of the fresh cool milk, which was all
the sweeter and better for the fact that the nuts were not nearly
ripe. While this was going on, the natives brought piles of
cocoa-nuts, fish, and fowls, and laid them at our feet as a present.
Some of the fish were of a dark brown colour, like bream, others were
long and thin, with a pipe-like nose and four fins, somewhat
resembling the wings of a flying-fish.

Seeing smoke in the distance, rising from under some high palm-trees,
we thought we should like to go and see whence it proceeded, and
accordingly set off to walk through a sort of bush, over sharp coral
that cut one's boots terribly, the sun blazing down upon us fiercely
all the time, until we reached a little settlement, consisting of
several huts, the inhabitants of which were absent. Fine plaited mats
for beds, cocoa-nut shells for cups, mother-of-pearl shells for
plates, and coral, of various kinds and shapes, for dishes and cooking
utensils, formed their only furniture. We saw three women, one very
old, with nothing but a palm-leaf mat as a covering, the others
dressed in the apparently universal costume, consisting of a long
bright-coloured gown, put into a yoke at the shoulders, and flowing
thence loosely to the ground, which completely conceals the wearer's
form, even to the tips of her toes. I think these dresses must come
from England or America, for they are evidently machine-made, and the
cotton-stuft of which they are composed has the most extraordinary
patterns printed on it I ever saw. Cherry and white, dark blue and