TUTUILA. 59 



what tlie Missionary told me, that this singular usage is now 

 so far inodified that two or three aged women suffice as in- 

 vestigators and witnesses in the case. 



Christianity was first introduced into this island in 1830 

 by Messrs. Barff and Williams. Now-a-days there are no 

 more adherents to the old faith, but they are all Christians 

 in some fashion or other. Mr. Powell puts the number of 

 Eoman Catholics at from 20 to 30/ and that of the Mormons 

 from 70 to 80 ; the rest of the population is Protestant. 

 Among the latter there are 307 church members and 

 284 candidates for church membership. We have already 

 mentioned the very large contribution in support of the 'pro- 

 pagation of the gospel ; ' all which is undoubtedly evidence of 

 a strong religious movement ; but whether it indicates a rich 

 harvest of religious results, is a point which is fairly a matter 

 of mere conjecture. The number of individuals who are 

 said to be able to read amounts to 1,138. 



With respect to vegetable products I may mention Malay 



apples, papau apples, hog-plums, lemons, citrons, a small 



kind, of Cape gooseberry, different sorts of small wild figs, 



several varieties of bananas, and plantains, two or three 



species of nutmegs never used, wild long peppers, ava, wild 



ginger, turmeric, thirty-two varieties of the bread-fruit tree, 



taro, yams, sweet cassava, the cocoanut tree, the banyan 



tree, cotton-plant, fan palm, rattan cane, 130 species of 



ferns, and ninety varieties of mosses. 



' I hear they are rather gaining ground lately, owing partly to the 

 attractive doctrine of remission of sins by confession to the priests, and 

 partly because the converts to Romanism are not expected to pay any- 

 thing. 



