ON THE ISLAND OF VATE 145 
the part he had taken in native wars. He had heard of the 
introduction of Christianity to Samoa and Tonga, and he 
had earnestly begged Captain L—— to do what he could 
to get teachers sent to Vateé. 
To make our course still more clear, Captain L—— had 
a young man on board his vessel, a native of New Zealand, 
who had lived for some time on Vaté, with the Samoans 
and Tongans, and this young man he offered to pass over 
to us. The lad was willing to make the exchange, so we 
were furnished with a guide who could lead us to the very 
spot to which we wished to go. All was soon arranged, and 
we were off to Vaté. We found all there as had been rep- 
resented by our friend, Captain L , and succeeded, under 
circumstances of deep interest, in accomplishing the object 
of our visit. The four teachers whom we had designed 
for Erromango—Mose, Sipi, Taavili, and Setefano—were 
placed, two and two, at Pango Pango, a village near the 
place where we anchored, and at Erakor, where Sualo and 
his friends lived.” 
“The first visit to the islands after the commencement of 
the mission was in 1846; the visitors were the Rev. W. Gill, 
of Rarotonga, and the Rev. H. Nisbet, of Samoa. Their 
report was highly encouraging; the people of the districts 
where the teachers were located, and many others, had aban- 
doned heathenism and embraced Christianity ; objects of idol- 
atrous worship had been burned or otherwise destroyed, and 
the cruel and revolting practices of heathenism to which the 
natives had been addicted, such as burying alive infants and 
old people, cannibalism, and such like, had been abandoned. 
“Two new stations were opened in Havannah Harbor, and 
a third at another part of the island, and the number of 
teachers was increased to nine. We were greatly encour- 
aged, and were high in hopes that the missionaries would 
win an easy triumph on Vaté. Alas for our sanguine hopes! 
Our first impressions of the natives were favorable: we fan- 
cied we had found a milder type of heathenism than that of 
10 
