now
retiring to the zone of forests, now descending to the margin of the
sea. It was in one of the latter and rarer moments that I was set on
board a whale boat full of intermingled barrels, passengers, and
oarsmen. The rain fell and blotted the crude and sombre colours of the
scene. The coast rose but a little way; it was then intercepted by the
cloud: and for all that appeared, we might have been landing on an isle
of some two hundred feet of elevation. On the immediate foreshore, under
a low cliff, there stood some score of houses, trellised and
verandahed, set in narrow gardens, and painted gaudily in green and
white; the whole surrounded and shaded by a grove of cocoa-palms and
fruit trees, springing (as by miracle) from the bare lava. In front, the
population of the neighbourhood were gathered for the weekly incident,
the passage of the steamer; sixty to eighty strong, and attended by a
disproportionate allowance of horses, mules, and donkeys; for this land
of rock is, singular to say, a land of breeding. The green trees, the
painted houses, the gay dresses of the women, were everywhere relieved
on the uncompromising blackness of the lava; and the rain, which fell
unheeded by the sightseers, blended and beautified the contrast.

The boat was run in upon a breaker, and we passengers ejected on a flat
rock where the next wave submerged us to the knees. There we continued
to stand, the rain drenching us from above, the sea from below, like
people mesmerised; and as we were all (being travellers) tricked out
with the green garlands of departure, we must have offered somewhat the
same appearance as a shipwrecked picnic.

The purser spied and introduced me to my host, ex-judge Nahinu, who was
then deep in business, despatching and receiving goods. He was dressed
in pearl-grey tweed like any self-respecting Englishman; only the band
of his wide-awake was made of peacock's feather.--"House by and by,"
said he, his English being limited, and carried me to the shelter of a
rather lofty shed. On three sides it was open, on the fourth closed by a
house; it was reached from without by five or six wooden steps; on the
fourth side, a farther flight of ten conducted to the balcony of the
house; a table spread with goods divided it across, so that I knew it
for the village store and (according to the laws that rule in country
life) the village lounging-place. People sat with dangling feet along
the house verandah, they sat on ben