Much of the lurking heathenism was giving way, and fair progress being made in religious feeling, when, after a stay in Samoa, where Mrs.Williams now chiefly resided, John Williams set out on an exploring voyage in the _Camden_.
Strangely enough, his last text in preaching to the Samoans was, "Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more;" and the people, who always grieved whenever he left them, wept as bitterly at the words as if they had known them to be an omen.

He was bent on an attempt on the heathen isle of Erromango, which his wife viewed with a foreboding terror, that made her in vain try to extract a promise from him not to land there.
But he viewed the New Hebrides as an important link, leading perhaps to reaching the Papuan race in New Guinea.

He hoped to gain a footing there, and make the spot such a centre as Tahiti, Raiatea, Rarotonga, and Samoa had successively been; and, as the _Camden_ glided along the shores of the island, he talked of his schemes, and of a certain sense of fear that they gave him, lest they were too vast to be accomplished by his means and in his lifetime, but with the sanguine buoyancy of a man still in full vigour, and who had met with almost unmixed success.
On the 20th of November, 1839, the vessel entered Dillon's Bay, and a canoe with three men paddled up to her.

A boat was lowered, in which Mr.
Williams, two other missionaries named Harris and Cunningham, Captain Morgan, and four sailors seated themselves.

They tried to converse with the natives, but the language proved to be unlike any in use in Polynesia (it is, in fact, one of the Melanesian dialects), and not a word could be made out.
Pulling into a creek, some beads and a small looking-glass were thrown to the natives, and water asked for by signs.