The climate is not unlike that of Madeira, with one wet and one dry season. From April to October the rainfall is copious, and in summer it is limited to passing showers. The southeast trades blow fresh at the beginning and end of the season, and make the climate salubrious and healthful. Our long fatiguing marches, while making the exploration of the island, were not accompanied with inconvenience from exposure to the direct rays of the sun, the constant breezes making the sensible temperature always appear lower than that recorded by the thermometer. Violent exercise induced profuse perspiration, but evaporation was always free and rapid.
Electric storms are unknown.
The Catholic missionaries built at Vaihu, on the south coast, near Cape Koe Koe, a commodious and substantial church, a parsonage containing three rooms, and several outbuildings. The principal native settlement is at Mataveri, on the southwest coast, and about a mile distant, at Hanga Roa, a small neat church has been erected. Here the islanders assemble on Sundays and other occasions to hear the service read by one of their number, who was ordained especially to take charge of this congregation upon the departure of the French missionaries. At the southwest end of the island, and near the base of Rana Kas, is the residence of Mr. Brander. The house is of modern structure, with large and convenient rooms, but is in a state of bad repair, and is more attractive when viewed from a distance, surrounded by the shrubbery and vines that have been planted about it, than it is upon close inspection.