"The narrative which follows was prepared at the request of Senator Hiram Bingham, of Connecticut, chairman of the American Samoan Commission, by the two newspapermen who accompanied the commission on its trip from Honolulu to Samoa. Its purpose is not so much to record the work of the commission from the standpoint of what may have been accomplished, but to recount all the essential details of what transpired during the visit of the commission to Samoa"--Preface.