inally left,
heavy squalls were rushing over the sea; in the darkness a fog came
on, so that we had soon to come to anchor. But next morning we had
passed the Loyalty Islands and were rolling in the heavy swell the
south-east trade raises on the endless surface of the Pacific.

Next day, through the light mist of a summer morning, the forms
of islands appeared, flat, bluish-grey lines, crowned with rounded
hills. Slowly finer points appeared, the ridge of mountains showed
details and we could recognize the tops of the giant banyan trees,
towering above the forest as a cathedral does over the houses of a
city. We saw the surf, breaking in the coral cliffs of flat shores,
found the entrance to the wide bay, noticed the palms with elegantly
curved trunks bending over the beach, and unexpectedly entered the
lagoon, that shone in the bright sun like a glittering sapphire.

We had passed the flat cliffs, covered only with iron-wood trees,
and now the water was bordered by high coral plateaux, from which a
luxuriant forest fell down in heavy cascades, in a thickness almost
alarming, like the eruption of a volcano, when one cloud pushes
the other before it and new ones are ever behind. It seemed as if
each tree were trying to strangle the others in a fight for life,
while the weakest, deprived of their ground, clung frantically to
the shore and would soon be pushed far out over the smooth, shining
sea. There the last dense crowns formed the beautiful fringe of the
green carpet stretched soft and thick over the earth.

Only here and there the shore was free, showing the coral strand as
a line of white that separated the blue of the sea from the green
of the forest and intensified every colour in the landscape. It was
a vision of the most magnificent luxuriance, so different from the
view which the barren shores of eastern New Caledonia offer.

The bay became narrower and we approached the port proper. Small
islands appeared, between which we had glimpses of cool bays
across glassy, deep-green water, and before us lay a broken line of
light-coloured houses along the beach, while on the plateau behind
we could see the big court-house and some villas.

A little distance off-shore we dropped anchor, and were soon surrounded
by boats, from which the inhabitants came on board. A kind planter
brought me and my belongings ashore, and I took up my quarters in
the only hotel in Port Vila, the so-called "blood-house," thus named
beca