ertainly we should not have
been able to build a new one. So, drawing the two sound boats together,
one on either side of the wreck, we placed the heavy steering oars
across them from side to side. We then lifted the battered fore part
upon the first oar, and with a big effort actually succeeded in lifting
the whole of the boat out of water upon this primitive pontoon. Then,
taking the jib, we "frapped" it round the opening where the bows had
been, lashing it securely in that position. Several hands were told off
to jump into her stern on the word, and all being ready we launched her
again. The weight of the chaps in her stern-sheets cocked her bows
right out of water, and in that position we towed her back to the ship,
arriving safely before dusk.

That evening we held a burial service, at which hundreds of natives
attended with a solemnity of demeanour and expressions of sorrow that
would not have been out of place at the most elaborate funeral in
England or America. It was a memorable scene. The big cressets were
lighted, shedding their wild glare over the dark sea, and outlining
the spars against the moonless sky with startling effect. When we
had finished the beautiful service, the natives, as if swayed by an
irresistible impulse, broke into the splendid tune St. Ann's; and
I afterwards learned that the words they sang were Dr. Watts'
unsurpassable rendering of Moses' pean of praise, "O God, our help in
ages past." No elaborate ceremonial in towering cathedral could begin to
compare with the massive simplicity of poor Abner's funeral honours, the
stately hills for many miles reiterating the sweet sounds, and carrying
them to the furthest confines of the group.

Next day was Sunday, and, in pursuance of a promise given some time
before, I went ashore to my "flem's" to dinner, he being confined to the
house with a hurt leg. It was not by any means a festive gathering, for
he was more than commonly taciturn; his daughter Irene, a buxom lassie
of fourteen, who waited on us, appeared to be dumb; and his wife was "in
the straw." These trifling drawbacks, however, in nowise detracted from
the hospitality offered. The dining-room was a large apartment furnished
with leaves, the uprights of cocoa-nut tree, the walls and roof of
pandanus leaf. Beneath the heaps of leaves, fresh and sweet-scented, was
the earth. The inner apartment, or chamber of state, had a flooring of
highly-polished planks, and contained, I presume, the