One more word about the South Seas, in answer to a question I
observe I have forgotten to answer. The Tahiti part has
never turned up, because it has never been written. As for
telling you where I went or when, or anything about Honolulu,
I would rather die; that is fair and plain. How can anybody
care when or how I left Honolulu? A man of upwards of forty
cannot waste his time in communicating matter of that
indifference. The letters, it appears, are tedious; they
would be more tedious still if I wasted my time upon such
infantile and sucking-bottle details. If ever I put in any
such detail, it is because it leads into something or serves
as a transition. To tell it for its own sake, never! The
mistake is all through that I have told too much; I had not
sufficient confidence in the reader, and have overfed him;
and here are you anxious to learn how I - O Colvin! Suppose
it had made a book, all such information is given to one
glance of an eye by a map with a little dotted line upon it.
But let us forget this unfortunate affair.


WEDNESDAY.


Yesterday I went down to consult Clarke, who took the view of
delay. Has he changed his mind already? I wonder: here at
least is the news. Some little while back some men of Manono
- what is Manono? - a Samoan rotten borough, a small isle of
huge political importance, heaven knows why, where a handful
of chiefs make half the trouble in the country. Some men of
Manono (which is strong Mataafa) burned down the houses and