the walls
pierced with little windows. A few were perched on piles in the lagoon;
the rest stood at random on a green, through which the roadway made a
ribbon of sand, or along the embankments of a sheet of water like a
shallow dock. One and all were the creatures of a single tree; palm-tree
wood and palm-tree leaf their materials; no nail had been driven, no
hammer sounded, in their building, and they were held together by
lashings of palm-tree sinnet.

In the midst of the thoroughfare, the church stands like an island, a
lofty and dim house with rows of windows; a rich tracery of framing
sustains the roof; and through the door at either end the street shows
in a vista. The proportions of the place, in such surroundings, and
built of such materials, appeared august; and we threaded the nave with
a sentiment befitting visitors in a cathedral. Benches run along either
side. In the midst, on a crazy dais, two chairs stand ready for the king
and queen when they shall choose to worship; over their heads a hoop,
apparently from a hogshead, depends by a strip of red cotton; and the
hoop (which hangs askew) is dressed with streamers of the same material,
red and white.

This was our first advertisement of the royal dignity, and presently we
stood before its seat and centre. The palace is built of imported wood
upon a European plan; the roof of corrugated iron, the yard enclosed
with walls, the gate surmounted by a sort of lych-house. It cannot be
called spacious; a labourer in the States is sometimes more commodiously
lodged; but when we had the chance to see it within, we found it was
enriched (beyond all island expectation) with coloured advertisements
and cuts from the illustrated papers. Even before the gate some of the
treasures of the crown stand public: a bell of a good magnitude, two
pieces of cannon, and a single shell. The bell cannot be rung nor the
guns fired; they are curiosities, proofs of wealth, a part of the parade
of the royalty, and stand to be admired like statues in a square. A
straight gut of water like a canal runs almost to the palace door; the
containing quay-walls excellently built of coral; over against the
mouth, by what seems an effect of landscape art, the martello-like islet
of the gaol breaks the lagoon. Vassal chiefs with tribute, neighbour
monarchs come a-roving, might here sail in, view with surprise these
extensive public works, and be awed by these mouths of silent cannon. It
was impossi