They listened eagerly, and their attachment to the missionary was expressed in a song sung in what they called a "heavenly dance" of the ladies in his honour, when he had remained with them long enough to plant the good seed of a growing church.
"Let us talk of Viriamu, Let cocoa-nuts glow in peace for months; When strong the east winds blow, our hearts forget him not.
Let us greatly love the Christian land of the great white chief.
All victors are we now, for we all have one God.
No food is sacred now.

All kinds of fish we catch and eat, Even the sting-ray.
The birds are crying for Viriamu, His ship has sailed another way.
The birds are crying for Viriamu, Long time is he in coming.
Will he ever come again?
Will he ever come again ?" It was some time before he could come again; for, after eighteen years of unremitting labour in the isles of Raiatea and Rarotonga, and of voyages touching on many other isles, he had made up his mind to visit England.
He came home in 1834, and remained about four years, doing much for his cause by his personal narratives and vivid accounts of the people to whom he had devoted his life.

Curiously enough, his son, now a youth of twenty, was introduced to Earl Fitzwilliam's gardener, who proved to have been one of the mission party who had been captured in the _Duff_ on the second voyage, and who was delighted to hear of the wonderful progress of the cause from which he himself had been turned back.
A subscription was raised for the purchase of a mission ship, exceeding in size and suitability such craft as could be purchased or hired in Australia; and the _Camden_, a vessel admirably fitted for the purpose, was obtained and equipped at a cost of 2,600_l._, the command of her given to Captain Morgan, who was well experienced in the navigation of the Polynesian seas, and had, moreover, such a reputation for piety, that the natives termed his vessel "the praying ship." In this vessel a large reinforcement of missionaries was taken out, including a married pair for Samoa, and likewise young John Williams, who had found himself an English wife; but his little brother was left at home for education.

The intention of Williams was to station the missionaries upon the friendly isles, and himself circulate among them in the _Camden_, breaking fresh ground in yet unvisited isles, and stationing first native and then English teachers, as they were prepared for them.
Among the Samoans he remained a good while.

He estimated the population at 60,000, of whom nearly 50,000 were under instruction.