504 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
a European town, having a municipal government dis¬ 
tinct from Samoan legislation secured to it by treaty. A 
few miles to the west is the village of Malua, where the 
Training College of the London Missionary Society has 
been established for nearly fifty years. Here are trained 
the native missionaries, who are afterwards sent to every 
part of the Pacific. The college is almost entirely self- 
supporting, a large estate being farmed by the students, 
of whom there are generally not less than 100. 
Tutuila is chiefly noteworthy as the scene of the 
Astrolabe tragedy, and as possessing one of the finest har¬ 
bours in the South Sea Islands, Pango-pango, which by 
a treaty in 1878 was conceded to the United States 
as a naval and coaling station. Manua, and its two 
satellite islands, Ofu and Olosenga, form the easternmost 
limits of the group, but are of no importance. 
The Samoan Islands are very subject to hurricanes, 
which occur generally between December and April. In 
April, 1850, Apia was almost entirely destroyed by one, 
and on the 19th March, 1889, three German and three 
American men-of-war, together with several merchant 
vessels, were wrecked, and many lives lost, in one of 
these cyclones, H.M.S. Calliope being the only ship in 
Apia harbour which escaped. Earthquakes are also fre¬ 
quent, but not at all severe, and they do little damage 
owing to the elasticity and strength of the buildings, 
which are entirely constructed of posts and light rafters 
securely lashed together. Evidences of volcanic activity, 
long past or recent, are abundant. In 1866, a sub¬ 
marine volcano came suddenly into eruption near 
Olosenga Island, vomiting forth rocks and mud to the 
height of 2000 feet, killing the fish and discolouring the 
sea for miles round. 
The fauna, like that of most of these oceanic groups, 
