68 CRUISE OF THE ' CUBAQOA. 



and, after another liymn, concluded the service by a short 

 prayer. The congregation, the men of wliieli sat on one 

 side and the women on the other, exhibited throughout a 

 devout attention. When the chapter from the Bil>le or 

 tlie liynm was being read, all present took up their books 

 and followed the reader. The preacher expressed himself 

 very distinctly ; so much so that, with my knowledge of 

 Hawaiian, I had no great difficulty in understanding much 

 that he said. The singing was not exactly what it ought 

 to be ; an organ would have been useful in keeping the 

 voices in unison. The chapel, though spacious enough, 

 has by no means an ecclesiastical aspect. It stands where 

 it is partly shaded by a fine bush tree, and is thatched with 

 suaar-cane leaves. In the inside there is a marble slab 

 on wliich tliere is the following inscription : ' To the 

 memory of the late Rev. John Williams, founder of the 

 Samoan and other missions in the South Seas, who was 

 barbarously murdered on tlie 20th of November 1839, in 

 the 41st year of his age, on the Island of Eramanga, while 

 attempting to plant the gospel of peace among its cruel 

 inliabitauts. " Father, forgive them for they know not what 

 they do " (Luke xxiv. 34).' At the side of the chapel is 

 a small cemetery, surrounded by a wall ; in it are five or 

 six graves of white men, one of which contains bones 

 brought from Eramanga, supposed to be the remains of John 

 WilUams, but his son doubts the fact of their being such. 



During my stay at Apia I visited several foreigners, 

 among others the Eoman Catholic Bishoj), a very fine man, 



