_6th._--Off Apemama, our black boys lying in a row under the awning, one reading the Bible (it was Sunday) and another playing hymns on an accordion. The King took breakfast with us, and we bade him good-bye, not so sadly as before, because now we have some hope of seeing him again.
_7th._--Nanouti first thing in the morning. Went on shore after breakfast to "Billy Jones's cousin's" place where British colours were flying. Tin Jack wished to be photographed in his new place in the midst of his new surroundings, so we had the camera with us. Lloyd and I wandered about and were astonished at the number of houses we saw piled up with dried cocoanuts not yet made into copra. We were told that a famine was feared and these nuts were stored as provisions. Speaking of provisions, we were struck by the difference in the condition of our Piru friends since we were fellow passengers with them on the schooner _Equator_. Then they were in the most abject poverty, hardly a mat among them, no food, only a few shells of water and a few old nuts. When we took them off Apemama they came as rich people, with bundles of fine mats, stacks of "sawdust" food and dried pandanus fruit (very good, tasting like dried figs) and quantities, generally, of the best food produced in Apemama. The people all have cotton-print clothing as well as fine _ridis_ and baskets full of tobacco with plenty of pipes.
While Lloyd and I were walking about in Nanouti, Tin Jack went back to the ship quite oblivious of the fact that we were left prisoners on account of the tide, for the entire day. When we arrived we had to take down part of the wall of a fishing ground to land at the house. We left the ship at ten and were tired, hungry, and very cross at being so deserted. Lloyd finally went off to try and find a canoe, hoping to reach the ship in that way and get something for me to eat. I had got very wet in crossing the surf in our own boat and was dressed in a filthy gown and chemise lent me by a native woman. I asked for a dry gown when I arrived and the woman gave me one she had cast off; I did not know what to do, as it was quite transparent, so I had to stay in the inner room. Tin Jack, hearing of this, demanded a chemise for me. The woman removed the one she was wearing, in a dark corner, folded it up, and then pretended to take it out of a trunk which she opened for the purpose. After this piece of either pride or delicacy I felt bound to put it on. As my head ached, I lay down on a mat, with an indescribably filthy pillow under my head, and tried to sleep. The people of the house, some twenty in number, came in every few moments to look at me; if the children made a noise they were smacked, thereupon bawling loudly enough to raise the roof, and occasionally a crowd of outside children would be beaten from the house with howls and yells. I never saw so much "discipline" administered before in any of the islands. Outside my window a child was steadily smacked for crying for at least half an hour. I actually did fall asleep once, but was quickly awakened by a savage dog fight just under where I lay, the house standing high on piles. This house, belonging to the trader, was one of the best I had seen, containing four rooms separated by stockades, with a lofty, airy roof, while along the shady side ran a neat veranda. The whole house was tied together with sennit the sides and ends thatched as well as the roof.