CIIAP. III. PICTURESQUE SCENERY AT MOKA. 69 satisfaction with which the kind, faithful, and venerable mi nister to whom they had been listening was welcomed and greeted, as he made his way through the throng to the resi dence of his son. He had been their instructor and their sympathising friend in their dark days of coerced and unre quited toil; and now, in their happier state of freedom, he was deservedly recognised as still their friend, not less entitled to their confidence and love in his efforts for their emancipation from moral and spiritual bondage more oppressive and dis astrous than the most galling personal slavery. During the afternoon I strolled along the banks of the deep clear river which, rising amongst the adjacent mountains, flows through the mission ground. Here I amused myself with gathering ferns, and admiring the picturesque and shady little nooks and corners of rich and varied beauty which the margin of the stream very frequently presented. Down to the water’s edge the ground was covered with large forest trees or thick underwood, amongst which passion flower and other creepers appeared growing in great luxuriance. Some varieties of tree-fern were conspicuous here, especially one very beautiful species, apparently the Gyathea excelsa. The bright pink-leaved dracaena appeared here and there; and the green and red-leaved arum or caladium, so attractive amongst our stove plants in England, was often seen growing in wild and luxuriant beauty along the margin of the water. In this neighbourhood I saw some gorgeous specimens of Hibiscus mutabilis, with large hollyhock-shaped flowers, deep rose colour in the centre, and lighter round the edges; also a number of plants of the Hedychium flavescens, a fragrant yellow-flowering plant, resembling the yucca; but as there had evidently been a house near the place where these were growing, they might probably be regarded as indicating a spot, and by no means the only one I met with in the island, —