Company of Heaven: Early Missionaries in the South Seas by Graeme Kent

'They were dedicated people willing to face humiliation, injury, even death. Some were explorers, some were political manipulators, some were martyrs, some succumbed to the temptations of the 'paradise' that was the Pacific. But most of them were brave and sincere and did much to preserve some decency in the lawless South Seas, where European slave traders, sandalwood dealers and escaped convicts were cruelly changing the lives of the islanders. In this book are the stories of the missionaries' struggles in exotic places such as Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii, Pitcairn, the Solomons, New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand'.