ied on and nailed; thereon were laid the reeds,
fringed with sugar-cane leaf, row after row tied firmly to the wood; the
ridge was bound down by cocoanut leaves, dexterously plaited from side
to side and skewered to the ridge-pole with hard wooden pins; and over
all, a fresh storm-roof was laid on yearly for the hurricane months,
composed of folded cocoanut leaves, held down with planks of wood, and
bound to the frame-work below--which, however, had to be removed again
in April to save the sugar-cane leaf from rotting beneath it. There you
were snugly covered in, and your thatching good to last from eight years
to ten; that is, provided you were not caught in the sweep of the
hurricane, before which trees went flying like straws, huts disappeared
like autumn leaves, and your Mission House, if left standing at all, was
probably swept bare alike of roof and thatch at a single stroke! Well
for you at such times if you have a good barometer indicating the
approach of the storm; and better still, a large cellar like ours,
four-and-twenty feet by sixteen, built round with solid coral
blocks,--where goods may be stored, and whereinto also all your
household may creep for safety, while the tornado tosses your dwelling
about, and sets huge trees dancing around you! We had also to invent a
lime-kiln, and this proved one of the hardest nuts of all that had to be
cracked. The kind of coral required could be obtained only at one spot,
about three miles distant. Lying at anchor in my boat, the Natives dived
into the sea, broke off with hammer and crowbar piece after piece, and
brought it up to me, till I had my load. We then carried it ashore, and
spread it out in the sun to be blistered there for two weeks or so.
Having thus secured twenty or thirty boat-loads, and had it duly
conveyed round to the Mission Station, a huge pit was dug in the ground,
dry wood piled in below, and green wood above to the height of several
feet, and on the top of all the coral blocks were orderly laid. When
this pile had burned for seven or ten days, the coral had been reduced
to excellent lime, and the plasterwork made therefrom shone like marble.

On one of these trips the Natives performed an extraordinary feat. The
boat with full load was struck heavily by a wave, and the reef drove a
hole in her side. Quick as thought the crew were all in the sea, and, to
my amazement, bearing up the boat with their shoulder and one hand,
while swimming and guiding u