VPOLJJ. 63 



and whidi he liacl himself built with the assistance of a 

 single native, as, in hke manner, he had made his principal 

 pieces of furniture out of the most precious woods of the 

 island. It would be hard to fmd a man of more varied 

 resources than Mr. Williams. He has built two ships, one 

 of 25 tons, another of 200 tons. He is skilful as a photo- 

 grapher, and occasionally practises medicine, not shrinking, 

 if needs be, from performing a surgical oi)eration, a proof 

 of which we had in the case of two natives, one of whom 

 had had his arm and the other his finger successfully 

 amputated. He showed us portraits in oil of his father, 

 who was killed in his forty-first year, of his mother, and 

 other relatives. He told us that he had been engaged in 

 the coal trade in Sydney, and lost all he had in it ; after 

 which he came to Samoa, where for the last ten years he 

 has been English consul, with a salary of 400/. a-year. He 

 possesses about 100 acres of land, seventy of them planted 

 with cotton, which yields an excellent staple. He informed 

 us that the cocoanut trees of Upolu are reputed to be the 

 finest of any in the South Seas ; an assertion which I am 

 not at all disposed to qualify, for they are unquestionably 

 very lofty, very bushy, and very vigorous. We learnt 

 from him that all that part of the liay, which is comprised 

 within the two rividets, is reserved exclusively for the use 

 of the consuls and missionaries, a privilege they have 

 obtained through their influence witli the chiefs. The 

 Americans, of whom there are many in this island, had 

 just celebrated the anniversary of their Independence by 



