[2] They sailed on November 19, 1822, on the ship Thames under Captain Clasby from New Haven, Connecticut, in the second company from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to Hawaii.

[3] On May 28, 1823, he and shipmate Charles Stewart sailed on the Royal Yacht Cleopatra's Barge to Lahaina and on May 31 founded the mission in on Maui inside thatched huts.

In September Queen Mother Keōpūolani became ill and requested Baptism, but the missionaries wanted to make sure she fully understood the ceremony.

English missionary William Ellis had just arrived with Tahitian interpreters, and the language was similar enough that they were used for the baptism just before the Queen Mother's death.

In December 1823, the young King Kamehameha II sailed to England in an attempted state visit, and the government was left in the hands of Queen Regent Kaʻahumanu and Prime Minister Kalanimoku who were both accommodating to the mission.

In October 1825 the crew of the British whaleship Daniel threatened Richards in front of his wife and children unless they relaxed restrictions on the town.

[6] In January 1826, the American schooner USS Dolphin arrived in Honolulu and demanded the release of four women who were accused of prostitution, since there were no written laws.

In 1827 the English whaler John Palmer fired cannon shots over the mission house after its captain Elisha Clarke was arrested for taking four women on board.

[8] When the USS Vincennes arrived in 1829 Richards received a visit from its ship chaplain, his former colleague Charles Stewart who now worked for the Navy.

[10] Richards wrote a long letter to Charles Wilkes, the commander of the expedition describing aspects of the Hawaiian culture that has proven valuable to historians.

[12] The king had asked Richards to send back an American lawyer to help the Kingdom of Hawaii draft a set of formal laws.

Sir George had heard from his cousin Alexander Simpson that Charlton argued that Britain should just annex the islands to counter the American domination of the government.

When Richards mentioned they would renew their status as a British Protectorate, Webster indicated it was President John Tyler's policy to prevent any restrictions of U.S. control in the Pacific, but did not promise anything specific.

[15] Richards and Haʻalilio then went to London and requested a visit with Lord Aberdeen who was British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Confident in their success, Sir George Simpson returned to Canada, thinking Richards and Haʻalilo could wrap up the details through April and May 1843.

[15] Richards got his first hint of trouble reading a Paris newspaper account of how a British frigate HMS Carysfort, under the command of Lord George Paulet, captured the Hawaiian islands after threatening a military attack the previous February.

[15] Using a coffin in the Royal mausoleum as a desk, Judd prepared letters for Richards and Haʻalilio, secretly sending them out with American merchant James F.B.

Marshall spread the news in the American press, and met June 4 with fellow Bostonians such as Daniel Webster and Henry A. Peirce (business partner and future minister to Hawaii).

Meanwhile, Admiral Richard Darton Thomas had already sailed to Honolulu and held a ceremony on July 31 turning the country back to Kamehameha III.

[18] When news of the treaty got back to the islands, November 28 became a holiday known as Lā Kūʻokoʻa o Hawaiʻi Nei ("beloved Hawaii independence day").

[19] On their way back, the new American Secretary of State John C. Calhoun was invited to also sign the agreement, but said he would wait for a treaty that could be ratified by the Senate.

On his return in 1845, Richards was appointed to the king's Privy Council and a two-year term in the House of Nobles; a new law required government workers to officially become citizens of the kingdom.