at a spot marked today by a concrete memorial. Melsisi was chosen as the site of a permanent mission due to the presence of a reliable fresh water supply. The original mission buildings were located on the field by the river mouth, although the mission was later moved uphill after suffering floods and tsunamis. The ruins of one of the original mission buildings still stand at the corner of the sports field, and it is said that the outlines of other buildings can be seen when looking down on the field under appropriate lighting conditions. In the large and densely populated but historically inaccessible region inland from Melsisi, native religion survived for quite a long time after the establishment of the mission. Between 1932 and 1941 the Melsisi mission found itself drawn into a spiral of conflicts between Christianised and un-Christianised villagers, culminating with a raid on Vanmwel village in which a chief was killed. Upon hearing of this, the British colonial authorities took several of the perpetrators away to prison in Vila, and had the priest, Père Guillaume, tried in a Nouméa court for inciting the natives to murder. He was acquitted on the grounds that there was no legal code in force on the northern islands of Vanuatu at that time under which killing was a crime. The 'Melsisi Wars' were one of the factors that led to such a code eventually being imposed in 1943. The church house, one of the largest buildings on Pentecost, was originally built in the late 1950s. Around this time the last un-Christianised members of the community converted to Christianity. The church house was badly damaged in the earthquake of 1999, but subsequently repaired. Melsisi was catastrophically damaged by Cyclone Harold on 6 April 2020. This storm struck south-central Pentecost near its peak intensity, flattening almost every structure in Melsisi except for a few concrete buildings. Several people were injured by debris and there was one fatality. The church house, hospital, bank and school were all severely damaged. Recovery from the disaster is still underway. Language The river at Melsisi originally formed the south-western boundary of Apma language, although today Apma is spoken on both sides of the river. A dialect named Asuk or Asa was originally spoken along the coast north of Melsisi but is now extinct. Many of the overseas missionaries who came to work at Melsisi acquired fluency in