504 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAniY AND TRAVEL 



a European town, having a municipal government dis- 

 tinct from Samoan legislation secured to it by treaty. A 

 few ]niles to the west is the village of Malua, where the 

 Training College of the London Missionary Society has 

 been established for nearly fifty years. Here are trained 

 the native missionaries, who are afterwards sent to every 

 part of the Pacific. The college is almost entirely self- 

 supporting, a large estate being farmed by the students, 

 of whom there are generally not less than 100. 



Tutuila is chiefly noteworthy as the scene of the 

 Astroluhc tragedy, and as possessing one of the finest har- 

 bours in the South Sea Islands, Pango-pango, which by 

 a treaty in 1878 was conceded to the United States 

 as a naval and coaling station. Manua, and its two 

 satellite islands, Ofu and Olosenga, form the easternmost 

 limits of the group, but are of no importance. 



The Samoan Islands are very subject to hurricanes, 

 which occur generally between December and April. In 

 April, 1850, Apia was almost entirely destroyed by one, 

 and on the 19th March, 1889, three German and three 

 American men-of-war, together with several merchant 

 vessels, were wrecked, and many lives lost, in one of 

 these cyclones, H.M.S. Calliope being the only ship in 

 Apia liarbour which escaped. Earthquakes are also fre- 

 quent, but not at all severe, and they do little damage 

 owing to the elasticity and strength of the buildings, 

 which are entirely constructed of posts and light rafters 

 securely lashed together. Evidences of volcanic activity, 

 long past or recent, are abundant. In 1866, a sub- 

 marine volcano came suddenly into eruption near 

 Olosenga Island, vomiting forth rocks and mud to the 

 height of 2000 feet, killing the fish and discolouring the 

 sea for miles round. 



The famui, like that of most of these oceanic groups, 



