Every house had doors and Venetian windows, painted partly with
lamp-black made from the candle-nut, and partly with red ochre, which
contrasted powerfully with the dazzling coral lime that covered the
walls. On a prominent position stood a handsome church, which was quite
a curiosity in its way. It was a hundred feet long by fifty broad, and
was seated throughout to accommodate upwards of two thousand persons.
It had six large folding doors, and twelve windows with Venetian
blinds; and although a large and substantial edifice, it had been
built, we were told by the teacher, in the space of two months! There
was not a single iron nail in the fabric, and the natives had
constructed it chiefly with their stone and bone axes and other tools,
having only one or two axes or tools of European manufacture.
Everything around this beautiful spot wore an aspect of peace and
plenty; and as we dropped our anchor within a stone's cast of the
substantial coral wharf, I could not avoid contrasting it with the
wretched village of Emo, where I had witnessed so many frightful
scenes. When the teacher afterwards told me that the people of this
tribe had become converts only a year previous to our arrival, and that
they had been living before that in the practice of the most bloody
system of idolatry, I could not refrain from exclaiming, "What a
convincing proof that Christianity is of God!"
On landing from our little boat, we were received with a warm welcome
by the teacher and his wife; the latter being also a native, clothed in
a simple European gown and a straw bonnet.
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