6th May 1898
At 5am we got up anchor and proceeded to the Florida Islands a distance of 80 miles We arrived in the afternoon and anchored off the island of Gavatua here we was surrounded by canoes trading in the same manner, only some having parrots, some of the natives here would ask for money, but we found out that the missionaries had put them up to ask for it, so that they could make them presents of it instead of there native produce.
The natives seems very friendly some (Florida islands also known as Nggela Islands) speaking a few words of broken English their only covering being a T shaped Loin cloth wearing bone rings in their ears and round their arms & ankles their hair being being very long and Budy? some having it nearly white which is cause by it being plasticised with lime, which takes all the colour out of it for a time, when the lime is dry they brush it out with a rough kind of brush made out of coconut fibre, the men are the only ones that show themselves they keep all their wifes & children in the bush for which the island are very thick indeed a walk in most part being impossible in the thickest of the bush they build their huts living in small numbers, shortly after we arrived we were joined by a missionary Schooner the Southern Cross being then on a visit around the islands she anchored close alongside of us, the trading station on Gavatua is owned by a couple of traders Newman and Alison keeping 3 Schooners and having several Niggers working for them, they came on board and gave us a lot of information about the Solomon Islands in General, on the Island Admiralty has 1000 tons of coal stored under the charge of the traders for the use of the Men of war doing duty around the islands that was mostly our reason for visiting this island.
Source Wikipedia
The Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands, a state in the southwest Pacific Ocean.
Gavutu is a small islet in the Central Province of the Solomon Islands, some 500 metres (550 yards) in length. It is one of the Nggela Islands.
Coordinates: 009°07′00″S 160°11′20″E