blankets and hardware come to be minus.
Then, forgetting this, which it is easy to do, all the world without is
a world of glorious beauty. How I wish I could shew it to you! These
islands are of very various character, and many of them like the garden
of Eden for natural loveliness; shewing almost every kind of scenery
within a small area. Most of them are girdled more or less entirely by
what is called a _barrier reef_--an outside and independent coral
formation, sometimes narrow, sometimes miles in width, on the outer
edge of which the sea breaks in an endless line of white foam. Within
the reef the lagoon, as it is called, is perfectly still and clear; and
such glories of the animal and vegetable world as lie beneath its
surface I have no time to describe to you now. I have had little time
to examine them; but once or twice I have taken a canoe and a piece of
rest, gliding over this submarine garden, and rejoicing in the Lord who
has made everything so beautiful in its time. My writing hour is over
for to-day. I am going five or six miles to see a man who is said to be
very ill.

"Feb. 16. The man had very little the matter with him. I had my walk
for nothing, so far as my character of doctor or nurse was concerned.

"I will give you a little notion of the beauty of these islands, in the
description of one that I visited a short time ago. It is one of our
out-stations--too small to have a teacher given it; so it is visited
from time to time by Mr. Lefferts and myself. With a fair wind the
distance is hardly a day's journey; but sometimes as in this case it
consumes two days. The voyage was made in a native canoe, manned by
native sailors, some Christian, some heathen. They are good navigators,
for savages; and need to be, for the character of the seas here,
threaded with a network of coral reefs, makes navigation a delicate
matter. Our voyage proceeded very well, until we got to the entrance of
the island. That seems a strange sentence; but the island itself is a
circle, nearly; a band of volcanic rock, not very wide, enclosing a
lake or lagoon within its compass. There is only a rather narrow
channel of entrance. Here we were met by difficulty. The surf breaking
shorewards was tremendously high; and meeting and struggling with it
came a rush of the current from within. Between the two opposing waters
the canoe was tossed and swayed like a reed. It was, for a few moments,
a scene to be remembered, and not a little