In the 19th century, the fishing village of Apia grew into a port in which ships of many nations stopped. Prostitution grew in the harbour area to such an extent that in 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote "the white people of Apia lay in the worst squalor of degradation". The town was also known as “little Cairo” and “hell in the Pacific”. Many of the prostitutes were "half-caste". In 1893, the Reverend John William Hill proposed building a hospital for diseased prostitutes.
