It was seldom visited by white tourists, as even the post brought by the diligence ended at Taravao, and letters for farther on were carried afoot by the mutoi, or postman-policeman of the adjoining district, who handed on to his contiguous confrère those for more distant confines.

The weary and all forspent twopenny postman sinks beneath a load of delicate embarrassments, not his own.