Presumably this was on November 19 and or November 20, 1825. Christianization of Niutao began in 1861, with the first introduction by the traders Mr Tom and Mr Jack with the help of Mr Ah Fong and Mr Tong. Mose, from Vaitupu, helped persuade the chiefs and people of Niutao to accept Christianity. The first preachers were a Samoan missionary and a Niuean missionary. Tapumanaia Kitiona was the Samoan missionary on Niutao who arrived in 1865 after graduating from Malua Theological College in Samoa. The Reverend A. W. Murray, of the London Missionary Society, visited in 1866. Murray reported that a blackbirder (a slave ship seeking to kidnap workers to mine the guano deposits on the Chincha Islands in Peru) had called but no islanders were taken by the blackbirders because of the actions of McKenzie, the resident trader. In 1870, Tapu of Samoa and Sione of Niue, two teachers from the Samoa Fono Tele (General Assembly of Samoan Churches) were delivered to Niutao by the Reverend J. Whitmee. Navy ships known to have visited Niutao in the 19th century are: HMS Basilisk, Captain J. Moresby (July 1872); HMS Emerald, Captain Maxwell (1881); and HMS Royalist, Captain Davis (1892). Captain Davis of the Royalist, reported Niutao as exporting about 50 tons of copra each year — in a good season. Palagi copra traders known to have been resident on Niutao are: Charlie Douglas (1850s); Mr Tom, Mr Jack, Mr Ah Fong and Mr Tong (c. 1861); Mr McKenzie (c. 1866); George Winchcombe (c. 1876-1880);Letter of George Lewis Becke quoted by James A. Michener and A. Grove Day, Louis Becke, Adventurer and Writer, Rascals in Paradise, ch 8 (Secker & Warburg (1957)) George Westbrook (1880s); Jack O'Brien (c. 1880s) Jack Buckland (c. 1892); and Fred Whibley (May/June 1898 to c. 1919).S. Aris, Fred Whibley and his family (1966) The Cruise of the Janet Nichol The Janet Nicoll was a trading steamer owned by Henderson and Macfarlane of Auckland, New Zealand, which operated between Sydney, Auckland and into the central Pacific. Robert Louis Stevenson was in Sydney, Australia in April 1890, looking for a ship to travel into the central Pacific; he and his wife Fanny Vandegrift Stevenson, and her son Lloyd Osbourne sailed on the Janet Nicoll. From 29 May to 2 June 1890 the Janet Nicoll anchored off Niutao to take on copra. An account of the voyage was written