interesting and picturesque details: more I can't
promise for it. Of course the fifty newspaper letters will be simply
patches chosen from the travel volume (or volumes) as it gets written,
But you see I have in hand:--

Say half done. 1. _The Wrecker_.

Lloyd's copy half done, mine 2. _The Pearl Fisher_ (a novel promised
not touched. to the Ledger, and which will form,
when it comes in book form, No. 2
of our _South Sea Yarns_).

Not begun, but all material 3. The War volume.
ready.

Ditto. 4. The Big Travel Book, which includes
the letters.

You know how they stand. 5. The _Ballads_.

_Excusez du peu!_ And you see what madness it would be to make any fresh
engagements. At the same time, you have _The Wrecker_ and the War
volume, if you like either--or both--to keep my name in the Magazine.

It begins to look as if I should not be able to get any more ballads
done this somewhile. I know the book would sell better if it were all
ballads; and yet I am growing half tempted to fill up with some other
verses. A good few are connected with my voyage, such as the "Home of
Tembinoka" sent herewith, and would have a sort of slight affinity to
the _South Sea Ballads_. You might tell me how that strikes a stranger.

In all this, my real interest is with the travel volume, which ought to
be of a really extraordinary interest.

I am sending you "Tembinoka" as he stands; but there are parts of him
that I hope to better, particularly in stanzas III. and II. I scarce
feel intelligent enough to try just now; and I thought at any rate you
had better see it, set it up if you think well, and let me have a proof;
so, at least, we shall get the bulk of it straight. I have spared you
Tenkoruti, Tembaitake, Tembinatake, and other barbarous names, because I
thought the dentists in the States had work enough without my
assistance; but my chief's name is TEMBINOKA, pronounced, according to
the present quite modern habit in the Gilberts, Tembinok'. Compare in
the margin Tengkorootch; a singular new trick, setting at defiance all
South Sea analogy, for nowhere else do they show even the ability, far
less the will, to end a word upon a consonant. Loia is Lloyd's name,
ship becomes shipe, teapot tipote, etc. Our admirable friend Herman
Melvil