it's getting daylight;' but on striking my repeater we found to our
regret that this was a mistake. In the moonlight I could see columns
of nasty brown cockroaches ascending the bedposts, crawling along the
top of the curtains, dropping with a thud on to the bed, and then
descending over the side to the ground. At last I could stand it no
longer, and opening the curtains cautiously, I seized my slippers,
knocked half-a-dozen brown beasts out of each, wrapped myself in a
poncho--previously well shaken--gathered my garments around me,
surmounted a barricade I had constructed overnight to keep the pigs
and chickens out of our doorless room, and fled to the garden. All was
still, the only sign of life being a light in a neighbouring hut, and
I sat out in the open air in comparative comfort, until driven indoors
again by torrents of rain, at about half-past two o'clock.

I plunged into bed again, taking several mosquitoes with me, which
hummed and buzzed and devoured us to their hearts' content till dawn.
Then I got up and walked down to the beach to bathe, and returned to
breakfast at six o'clock, refreshed but still disfigured.

It is now the depth of winter and the middle of the rainy season in
Tahiti; but, luckily for us, it is nearly always fine in the daytime.
At night, however, there is often a perfect deluge, which floods the
houses and gardens, turns the streams into torrents, but washes and
refreshes the vegetation, and leaves the landscape brighter and
greener than before.

At half-past seven the horses were put to, and we were just ready for
a start, when down came the rain again, more heavily than before. It
was some little time before it ceased enough to allow us to start,
driving along grassy roads and through forests, but progressing rather