choice exotics and graceful ferns, with which to decorate the table.

The dinner itself really deserves a detailed description, if only to
show that one may make the tour of Tahiti without necessarily having
to rough it in the matter of food. We had crayfish and salad as a
preliminary, and next, an excellent soup followed by delicious little
oysters, that cling to the boughs and roots of the guava and mangrove
trees overhanging the sea. Then came a large fish, name unknown, the
inevitable _bouilli_ and cabbage, _côtelettes aux pommes, biftek aux
champignons_, succeeded by crabs and other shellfish, including
_wurrali_, a delicate-flavoured kind of lobster, an _omelette aux
abricots_, and dessert of tropical fruits. We were also supplied with
good wine, both red and white, and bottled beer.

I ought, in truth, to add that the cockroaches were rather lively and
plentiful, but they did not form a serious drawback to our enjoyment.
After dinner, however, when I went to see Mabelle to bed, hundreds of
these creatures, about three inches long, and broad in proportion,
scuttled away as I lighted the candle; and while we were sitting
outside we could see troops of them marching up and down in rows
between the crevices of the walls. Then there were the mosquitoes, who
hummed and buzzed about us, and with whom, alas! we were doomed to
make a closer acquaintance. Our bed was fitted with the very thickest
calico mosquito curtains, impervious to the air, but not to the
venomous little insects, who found their way in through every tiny
opening in spite of all our efforts to exclude them.

_Tuesday, December 5th_.--The heat in the night was suffocating, and
soon after twelve o'clock we both woke up, feeling half-stifled. There
was a dim light shining into the room, and Tom said, 'Thank goodness,