The first knowledge of Christianity came to Samoa from Tonga, it is believed through Tongan preachers of the Wesleyan Mission there, about the year 1828, but the commencement of all missionary "enterprise” in the Samoan group really dates from August 1830 when John Williams of the London Missionary Society, and Charles Barff of the same, having sailed from Tahiti, landed at Sapapalii on Savaii and were there welcomed by the then Malictoa. This Society requires more than a passing notice, for its operations have profoundly affected the lives of the Samoans and therefore Samoan history. It was formed at London in 1795 by men of several Protestant denominations, under the name of “The Missionary Society,” with a short written constitution which states the sole object of the Society to be “to spread the knowledge of Christ among heathen and other unenlightened nations.” Certainly that object has been achieved, for the field of the Society has been world-wide, and the result of its work the institution in many wild places of peace and civilisation. Its first missionaries went out in 1796, bound for the South Seas, and missions were quickly established at Tahiti, Tonga and the Marquesas. Troubles followed, and the Tongan mission had to be abandoned in 1800. But the Tahitian mission later succeeded, greatly through the conversion of King Pomare in 1812. In 1816 the personnel of the mission was much increased from London and among those who then came to Tahiti were William Ellis, the author of "Polynesian Researches," and the famous John Williams. Williams in 1827 went to Rarotonga in the Cook group, and there he built a vessel of from seventy to eighty tons for island work which he called Messnger of Peace, and which, being built almost entirely of local products, was a remarkable effort of ingenuity. In this vessel, after some cruising largely to test its capabilities, he sailed to Samoa, landing as has been said on Savaii. Here by the willing aid of a Samoan chief named Fauea whom with his wife they had given a passage from Tongatabu a good first impression was made with the natives; the white envoys were treated with attention and respect, and two missions, each of four Tahitian teachers, were established, one with Malietoa the other with his brother Taimalelagi. Williams then left the group, but about two years later he revisited it from the Manu'a end, some two hundred miles from Savaii, and was greatly, if agreeably, astonished to find the natives claiming the new religion and clamouring for a teacher. The extraordinary conversions, on Tutuila, Upolu and Savaii were merely a corollary. Williams, after visiting much of the group sailed away with the principal idol of heathendom stowed in his ship, whence he later presented it to the Society's museum in London. Samoa had found its natural doctrine of love.

Williams again visited the group in 1838, by which time British missionaries were settled and the entire population under instruction. He built a house for his wife, intending to make Samoa his headquarters. However, in November 1839, while voyaging towards New Caledonia, he was murdered by natives as he landed on the beach at Erromanga, of the New Hebrides. His remains, and those of the young missionary Harris who was killed at the same time, were later partly recovered and now lie buried beneath the Native Church of the mission at Apia - a fitting monument. His family were long settled in Samoa, his son John C. Williams becoming British Consul there in 1858 and holding the office for many years succeeding.

The London Missionary Society, known to the Samoans now as the Congregational Church claims some 32,000 members throughout the whole group. There are two other missions that have played an important part in the spread of Christianity in Samoa. The Wesleyan Mission (the Methodist Missionary Society of Australasia) today numbers nearly 9,000 members, and the Roman Catholic Mission, 20,000 members. The Wesleyan Mission, early established in Tonga, was the first to gain converts in Samoa. As a mission they commenced work in 1835 and in 1839 they claimed some 13,000 adherents. The withdrawal in that year, however, of the agents of the Society lost its church many members and much local advantage denominationally. In 1857 the was resumed. No record of the work of this mission is complete which fails to make mention of Dr. George Brown, late president of the Methodist Church of Australasia, who was appointed to Samoa in 1860 and spent fourteen years there in mission work, and who ended in 1917 a life of long activity in southern seas. The Catholic Mission commenced its Work in Samoa about the year 1845, and is today firmly established throughout the whole group. One of its most famous adherents was the great Mataafa. In 1905, the construction of a beautiful cathedral in Apia, which had occupied over twenty years, was finished. The building is a landmark of white purity, and the sweetness of its bells will be remembered by all who have lived in Apia. The mission now controls numerous schools in Apia and elsewhere and an institution for instruction in tropical agriculture at Moamoa, three miles or so inland of the little capital. Two further missions came later. The Mormon Mission (the Church of Latter-Day Saints) established itself in 1885 and has experienced significant growth. The Church of Seventh-Day Adventists came to the group in 1890. "At present,” says John Williams, writing in 1837, “the Samoan islanders have nothing to dispose of but a little cinet, and small quantities of tortoise-shell. In a few years, however, should our labours be successful, they will be taught to prepare hundreds of tons of cocoanut oil, and large quantities of arrow-root. annually; to manufacture sugar; to cultivate their land; and to supply our shipping with provisions. Thus, wherever the Missionary goes, new channels are cut for the streams of commerce; and to me it is most surprising that any individual at all interested in the commercial prosperity of his country can be otherwise than a warm friend to the Missionary cause." The outlook of Williams has been justified. The missionaries were the pioneers in all native matters. In later days their influence with the natives has been enormous. They first reduced the spoken Samoan language to writing, and arranged its syntax they taught the Samoans how to read and write their own language and gave to them a basis of literature in the translated English Bible.