All this came to the knowledge of the Bishop of New Zealand while he was occupied with the cares of his first seven years in his more immediate diocese, and in 1848, he made a voyage of inspection in H.M.S.  ‘Dido.’  He then perceived that to attempt the conversion of this host of isles of tropical climate through a resident English clergyman in each, would be impossible, besides which he knew that no Church takes root without native clergy, and he therefore intended bringing boys to New Zealand, and there educating them to become teachers to their countrymen.  He had lately established, near Auckland, for the sons of the colonists, St. John’s College, which in 1850 was placed under the Reverend Charles John Abraham, the former Eton master, who had joined the Bishop to act as Archdeacon and assist in the scheme of education; and here it was planned that the young Melanesians should be trained.

The Bishop possessed a little schooner of twenty-two tons, the ‘Undine,’ in which he was accustomed to make his expeditions along the coast; and in August 1849, he set forth in her, with a crew of four, without a weapon of any sort, to ’launch out into the deep, and let down his nets for a draught.’  Captain Erskine of H.M.S.  ‘Havannah’ readily undertook to afford him any assistance practicable, and they were to cruise in company, the ‘Undine’ serving as a pilot boat or tender on coasts where the only guide was ’a few rough sketches collected from small trading vessels.’

They met near Tanna, but not before the Bishop had been in Dillon’s Bay, on the island of Erromango, the scene of Williams’s murder, and had allowed some of the natives to come on board his vessel as a first step towards friendly intercourse.  The plan agreed on by the Bishop and the Captain was to go as far north as Vate, and return by way of the Loyalty Isles, which fringe the east coast of New Caledonia, to touch at that large island, and then visit the Island of Pines, at its extreme south point, and there enquire into a massacre said to have taken place.  This was effected, and in each place the natives showed themselves friendly.  From New Caledonia the Bishop brought away a pupil named Dallup, and at two of the Loyalty Islands, Nengone or Mare, and Lifu, where Samoan teachers had excited a great desire for farther instruction, boys eagerly begged to go with him, and two were taken from each, in especial Siapo, a young Nengone chief eighteen or nineteen years old, of very pleasing aspect, and with those dignified princely manners which rank is almost sure to give.  The first thing done with such lads when they came on board was to make clothes for them, and when they saw the needle employed in their service, they were almost sure to beg to be taught the art, and most of them soon became wonderfully dexterous in it.