I were
left at Port Resolution, to finish the building of our house there, and
work our way into the good will of the Natives as best we could.

On landing, we found the people to be literally naked and painted
Savages; they were at least as destitute of clothing as Adam and Eve
after the fall, when they sewed fig-leaves for a girdle, and even more
so, for the women wore only a tiny apron of grass, in some cases shaped
like a skirt or girdle, the men an indescribable affair like a pouch or
bag, and the children absolutely nothing whatever.

At first they came in crowds to look at us, and at everything we did or
had. We knew nothing of their language; we could not speak a single word
to them, nor they to us. We looked at them, they at us; we smiled and
nodded, and made signs to each other; this was our first meeting and
parting. One day I observed two men, the one lifting up one of our
articles to the other, and saying, "Nungsi nari enu?"

I concluded that he was asking, "What is this?" Instantly, lifting a
piece of wood, I said, "Nungsi nari enu?"

They smiled and spoke to each other. I understood them to be saying, "He
has got hold of our language now." Then they told me their name for the
thing which I had pointed to. I found that they understood my question,
What is this? or, What is that? and that I could now get from them the
name of every visible or tangible thing around us! We carefully noted
down every name they gave us, spelling all phonetically, and also every
strange sound we heard from them; thereafter, by painstaking comparison
of different circumstances, we tried to ascertain their meanings,
testing our own guess by again cross-questioning the Natives. One day I
saw two men approaching, when one, who was a stranger, pointed to me
with his finger, and said, "Se nangin?"

Concluding that he was asking my name, I pointed! to one of them with my
finger, and looking at the other, inquired, "Se nangin?"

They smiled, and gave me their names. We were now able to get the names
of persons and things, and so our ears got familiarized with the
distinctive sounds of their language; and being always keenly on the
alert, we made extraordinary progress in attempting bits of conversation
and in reducing their speech for the first time to a written form--for
the New Hebrideans had no literature, and not even the rudiments of an
alphabet. I used to hire some of the more intelligent lads and men to
sit and talk with us