96 UPOLU — MANONO — SAVAII. 



there would be any cocoa-nut trees, Nature's first and best gift to 

 them, upon it. Wishing to make the intended punishment as 

 terrible as possible to them, I always replied that there would be 

 none whatever. 



After Tuvai was again on board ship, old Pea paid him a visit, in 

 the course of which the former melted into tears, howled bitterly, 

 and begged that he might be taken on shore to be put to death, in 

 order that his body might be buried in his native soil. It appeared 

 from information that we received, that this was a part of a concerted 

 plan to obtain a farther commutation of his sentence, and that this 

 affecting interview was got up in order to excite our sympathies. 

 Finding it did not produce the desired effect, old Pea went about the 

 ship with a doleful visage, exclaiming, " Eoloisa-ia-tu Tuvai" — have 

 compassion on Tuvai. 



I was in hopes to find the surveys of Upolu nearly, if not quite 

 finished ; but the Flying-Fish, which was to have aided in perform- 

 ing them, had not yet been seen or heard from. This was no small 

 disappointment, as it might compel me to bring the Vincennes into 

 the harbour, and thus incur a serious delay. 



Before I had decided upon this step, I learned that a chief of the 

 name of Opotuno, whose capture had been considered so important 

 by our government that a ship of war had been despatched for the 

 express purpose, had again become troublesome, and was threatening 

 vengeance upon all the whites who might fall in his power. I there- 

 fore determined to make an attempt to obtain possession of his person 

 by stratagem. Lest, however, such an attempt should create dis- 

 turbance in the island, or be productive of injury to the white 

 residents, I determined, before putting my purpose into effect, to 

 have an interview with the Rev. Mr. Williams, the principal mis- 

 sionary in these islands, both to consult as to the best mode of 

 accomplishing this object, and to learn what effect it would be likely 

 to have on the operations of the missionaries.* I accordingly set out 

 for his residence at Fasetootai, about twenty miles to the westward 

 of Apia, in the hopes of seeing him. Mr. Cunningham, H. B. M. 

 Vice-consul, was kind enough to accompany me. 



* Mr. Williams is the author of the well-known Polynesian Missionary Researches, 

 and it will be our melancholy office hereafter, to speak of his falling a martyr in his 

 efforts to propagate the gospel. 



