402 HONOLULU. 



Tonga, and some of the women and children were thought by the 

 officers quite faultless in form and feature. 



Lieutenant-Commandant Ringgold received on board the Porpoise 

 three of the shipwrecked crew of the Shylock, two young Americans 

 and an Irishman ; the remaining two of the five preferring to stay on 

 shore. Both of the latter were foreigners, one an Englishman, shipped 

 at New Zealand, and a deserter from a British ship of war, the other 

 a Portuguese, shipped at the Azores. 



After getting chronometer sights and dip observations at the village, 

 they returned on board and prepared for their departure. At 11 p. M. 

 they got under way, and by four o'clock they had passed the heads, 

 and discharged the pilot. They now stood northeast, for the Samoan 

 Group. On the afternoon of the 4th of September, they made Tutuila 

 and Upolu, and at night hove-to, to windward of the harbour of Apia. 



At daylight on the 5th, they made sail along the island of Upolu, 

 and saw a ship at anchor in the harbour of Saluafata. A boat soon 

 after boarded the brig from the American whale-ship Lome ; and one 

 of the Porpoise's boats was despatched to her, in the hopes of obtaining 

 a small supply of provisions ; but without success. At nine o'clock 

 the brig came to anchor at Apia, and a messenger was at once de- 

 spatched for Mr. Williams, our consul, who lives at Fasetootai, 

 twenty miles down the coast to the westward. 



The missionaries were visited, from whom they met a kind recep- 

 tion. There appeared some little improvement in the village; the 

 stone church had been finished, and its white walls were seen through 

 the deep green groves of bread-fruit trees. This building was con- 

 structed by the Rev. Mr. Mills and his flock, and he was constantly 

 seen engaged in the manual labour of its erection, the natives all 

 assisting him cheerfully in the task. He thus not only exhibited a 

 good example, but effectually taught them how to perform all the 

 operations in carpentry and stone-masonry, as well as the use of the 

 tools, in ail of which they had acquired much adroitness. It was 

 contemplated that the church would be finished by the first of the 

 year. An anecdote of the cause which gave rise to the building of 

 the church was related by Mr. Mills. 



When the missionaries first came and settled, they were allowed to 

 hold their service in the fale-tele, or town-house ; but Pea, the chief 

 of the town, contrived to cause objections to be made to this applica- 

 tion of the building, and the natives, finally, after raising many diffi- 



