[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

CHAPTER V

VAO

I HAD not yet solved the problem of how to get away
from the Segond Channel and find a good field of
labour, when, happily, the French priest from Port
Olry came to stay a few days with his colleague at
the channel, on his way to Vao, and he obligingly
granted me a passage on his cutter. I left most of
my luggage behind, and the schooner of the French
survey party was to bring it to Port Olry later on.
After a passage considerably prolonged by con-
trary winds, we arrived at Vao, a small island
north—east of Malekula. When one has sailed along
the lifeless, greyish-green shores of Malekula, Vao
is like a sunbeam breaking through the mist. This
change of mood comes gradually, as one notices the
warm air of spring, and dry souls, weather—beaten
captains and old pirates may hardly be aware of
anything beyond a better appetite and greater thirst.
And it is not easy to define what lends the little spot
such a charm that the traveller feels revived as if
escaped from some oppression. From a distance
Vao looks like all the other islands and islets of
the archipelago—a green froth floating on the white
line of breakers ; from near by we see, as everywhere

else, the bright beach in front of the thick forest.
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