[2][3] Thomas Powell was born in Cookham Dean, Berkshire and attended Hackney Theological Academy from 1839.

[4] He was ordained 29 May 1844 and left London 6 June 1844 with his wife on the inaugural voyage of the missionary barque John Williams.

They arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on 24 August; Hobart, Van Dieman's Land on 10 October; Sydney, New South Wales, on 27 October; and Tutuila, Samoa, on 31 January 1845 and Apia, Upolu, Samoa, on 3 February 1845, en route to their posting at Savai'i.

[11] Other papers forwarded to the Linnean Society by Powell included details of the poisons used by Samoan islanders to tip arrows and spears.

[15] In 1886, he published a book called A Manual of Zoology Embracing the Animals of the Scripture, in the Samoan dialect.

Due to failing eyesight Pratt was unable to make use of the works but a colleague, John Fraser, translated the manuscripts of Samoan myths and folks songs and published them in 1896.

[18] His interests extended to ornithology and he corresponded with Philip Sclater, secretary of the Zoological Society of London, sending specimens for identification.

[19] Bully Hayes was a notorious recruiter of native labour in the South Seas using trickery or kidnap.

How is it that with such a mass of evidence as was collected on his detention here, which is in British blue books proving his kidnapping of the people of Manahiki, that he is allowed to go at large?He had previously written: It will be a lamentable inconsistency on the parts of the British and French governments if this iniquitous traffic be allowed under their flags after their intervention, only a few years ago to put a stop to Peruvian proceedings of the same character.