194 BEAUTIFUL SCENERY OP UPOLU. [1839 



along the coast ; and there are broad valleys between the 

 ridges, carpeted with the finest tropical flowers, and sprinkled 

 with clumps and groves, of bread-fruit, pandanus, and cocoa- 

 nut. The steep hill-sides are fringed with the white foliage 

 of the candle-nut, with the long waving fronds of arborescent 

 ferns and the graceful plumes of the mountain palm. The 

 clustering hamlets of the natives are scattered here and there ; 

 and the tasteful cottage of the missionary, and the neat 

 chapel, peep out, once in a while, from the deeply-shaded 

 bowers that overhang them. The beautiful and the wild, 

 the pretty and the picturesque, are exhibited in striking 

 contrast. On one side, there is all the dreamy softness of 

 an Italian landscape ; on the other, the sublime grandeur of 

 Alpine scenery. Tiny brooklets, singing ever so many a 

 joyous lullaby, course down the upper slopes, and anon, 

 widening into miniature rivers, leap in cascades of milky 

 foam over precipices seven hundred feet above the level of the 

 ocean. Wild glades and glens there are, within whose 

 sylvan recesses the spirit of romance might forever love to 

 linger, and where 



" Gentle gales, 

 Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense 

 Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole 

 Their balmy spoils." 



Within the sea reef of Upolu, and near its western extrem- 

 ity, is the island of Manono, but four miles in circumference, 

 yet containing eleven hundred inhabitants and a missionary 

 station. Connected with Upolu and Manono by a line of 

 soundings, is Apolima — in former days the olo (citadel), or 

 place of refuge, of the inhabitants of Manono in time of war 

 and danger. This is a small castellated island, the crater of 

 an extinct volcano, surrounded by perpendicular cliffs almost 

 five hundred feet high, which are unbroken and inaccessible 

 save at one point, where there is a slight indentation, forming 

 a bay, with an entrance large enough to admit the passage 

 of one small boat at a time, and therefore quite easy to be 

 defended against a much superior enemy. On the elevated 



