BOW DITCH ISLAND. 
21 
Mr. Williams assured me that the halos and parhelia were usually 
followed by bad weather. 
At Apia, among their old acquaintances, they encountered Pea, the 
ruling chief of the place, whose begging propensities still existed in 
all their force. His form was equally rotund, and his desire of being 
of service quite as great. Report spoke of him as having become 
very religious of late, but his covetousness had not diminished in con¬ 
sequence, at least in the opinion of our officers. He was generally 
full of business, among his friends and relatives, all of whom he con¬ 
siders more or less as his dependants. He was very anxious to be in¬ 
formed what had become of his relative, Tuvai, the murderer, whom 
we had carried away from these islands on our former visit. 
The missionaries were as attentive as formerly to the officers, and 
gave them every facility that lay in their power of spending their time 
usefully. They have been making progress in their efforts to civilize 
these natives, by establishing schools, and stimulating them to improve 
their condition. Almost every village now has its substantial white¬ 
washed church, which also serves for a school-house; and, from the 
reports, both continue to be well attended. Some improvements were 
seen to have taken place in the dwellings, the arrangement of the 
interior having a more civilized look, not only from the numerous 
articles of European manufacture, but in an improved state of ventila¬ 
tion. The cattle and horses were on the increase, and there are few 
natives but have supplies of pigs, poultry, and the vegetables of the 
island. 
Purser Speiden, who was the officer charged with procuring sup¬ 
plies, and superintending the trade with the natives, having found 
much difficulty in obtaining them alongside the ship, received per¬ 
mission to make arrangements for a suitable place on shore. For this 
purpose he procured a place to erect a pen for the pigs, &c. To 
show the exorbitant demands of the natives, and their desire to prac¬ 
tise imposition, I will state the difficulties he encountered. In the 
first place, he had to pay for the site on which to build a pen; 
secondly, for the logs and poles to build it with; thirdly, for going 
after the timbers; fourthly, for building the pen; fifthly, for trans¬ 
ferring the live-stock to it; sixthly, for services to a native to watch 
the pigs during the day and see that they did not escape; seventhly, 
to pay a man to collect cocoa-nuts for food; eighthly, to pay a woman 
to feed them ; and ninthly, to pay a man to watch the pigs, taro, &c., 
during the night. Besides this, there was a charge made for trading 
under the large tree ! This traffic seldom failed to afford much 
amusement to the lookers-on. In the centre, near the trunk of the 
