diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 536-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 149775 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 536-h/536-h.htm | 5804 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 536.txt | 5811 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 536.zip | bin | 0 -> 147895 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/fnhst10.txt | 6241 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/fnhst10.zip | bin | 0 -> 147453 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/fnhst10h.htm | 6022 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/fnhst10h.zip | bin | 0 -> 148790 bytes |
11 files changed, 23894 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/536-h.zip b/536-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a45b35e --- /dev/null +++ b/536-h.zip diff --git a/536-h/536-h.htm b/536-h/536-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e189d02 --- /dev/null +++ b/536-h/536-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5804 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>A Footnote to History</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">A Footnote to History, by Robert Louis Stevenson</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Footnote to History, by Robert Louis +Stevenson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Footnote to History + Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa + + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Release Date: April 26, 2005 [eBook #536] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1912 Swanston edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<h1>A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY<br /> +EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA<br /> +by Robert Louis Stevenson</h1> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> +<p>An affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines in +any general history has been here expanded to the size of a volume or +large pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularity +of the manners and events and many of the characters, considered, it +is hoped that, in spite of its outlandish subject, the sketch may find +readers. It has been a task of difficulty. Speed was essential, +or it might come too late to be of any service to a distracted country. +Truth, in the midst of conflicting rumours and in the dearth of printed +material, was often hard to ascertain, and since most of those engaged +were of my personal acquaintance, it was often more than delicate to +express. I must certainly have erred often and much; it is not +for want of trouble taken nor of an impartial temper. And if my +plain speaking shall cost me any of the friends that I still count, +I shall be sorry, but I need not be ashamed.</p> +<p>In one particular the spelling of Samoan words has been altered; +and the characteristic nasal <i>n</i> of the language written throughout +<i>ng</i> instead of <i>g</i>. Thus I put Pango-Pango, instead +of Pago-Pago; the sound being that of soft <i>ng</i> in English, as +in <i>singer</i>, not as in <i>finger</i>.</p> +<p>R. L. S.<br /> +VAILIMA,<br /> +UPOLU,<br /> +SAMOA.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER I—THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE</h2> +<p>The story I have to tell is still going on as I write; the characters +are alive and active; it is a piece of contemporary history in the most +exact sense. And yet, for all its actuality and the part played +in it by mails and telegraphs and iron war-ships, the ideas and the +manners of the native actors date back before the Roman Empire. +They are Christians, church-goers, singers of hymns at family worship, +hardy cricketers; their books are printed in London by Spottiswoode, +Trübner, or the Tract Society; but in most other points they are +the contemporaries of our tattooed ancestors who drove their chariots +on the wrong side of the Roman wall. We have passed the feudal +system; they are not yet clear of the patriarchal. We are in the +thick of the age of finance; they are in a period of communism. +And this makes them hard to understand.</p> +<p>To us, with our feudal ideas, Samoa has the first appearance of a +land of despotism. An elaborate courtliness marks the race alone +among Polynesians; terms of ceremony fly thick as oaths on board a ship; +commoners my-lord each other when they meet—and urchins as they +play marbles. And for the real noble a whole private dialect is +set apart. The common names for an axe, for blood, for bamboo, +a bamboo knife, a pig, food, entrails, and an oven are taboo in his +presence, as the common names for a bug and for many offices and members +of the body are taboo in the drawing-rooms of English ladies. +Special words are set apart for his leg, his face, his hair, his belly, +his eyelids, his son, his daughter, his wife, his wife’s pregnancy, +his wife’s adultery, adultery with his wife, his dwelling, his +spear, his comb, his sleep, his dreams, his anger, the mutual anger +of several chiefs, his food, his pleasure in eating, the food and eating +of his pigeons, his ulcers, his cough, his sickness, his recovery, his +death, his being carried on a bier, the exhumation of his bones, and +his skull after death. To address these demigods is quite a branch +of knowledge, and he who goes to visit a high chief does well to make +sure of the competence of his interpreter. To complete the picture, +the same word signifies the watching of a virgin and the warding of +a chief; and the same word means to cherish a chief and to fondle a +favourite child.</p> +<p>Men like us, full of memories of feudalism, hear of a man so addressed, +so flattered, and we leap at once to the conclusion that he is hereditary +and absolute. Hereditary he is; born of a great family, he must +always be a man of mark; but yet his office is elective and (in a weak +sense) is held on good behaviour. Compare the case of a Highland +chief: born one of the great ones of his clan, he was sometimes appointed +its chief officer and conventional father; was loved, and respected, +and served, and fed, and died for implicitly, if he gave loyalty a chance; +and yet if he sufficiently outraged clan sentiment, was liable to deposition. +As to authority, the parallel is not so close. Doubtless the Samoan +chief, if he be popular, wields a great influence; but it is limited. +Important matters are debated in a fono, or native parliament, with +its feasting and parade, its endless speeches and polite genealogical +allusions. Debated, I say—not decided; for even a small +minority will often strike a clan or a province impotent. In the +midst of these ineffective councils the chief sits usually silent: a +kind of a gagged audience for village orators. And the deliverance +of the fono seems (for the moment) to be final. The absolute chiefs +of Tahiti and Hawaii were addressed as plain John and Thomas; the chiefs +of Samoa are surfeited with lip-honour, but the seat and extent of their +actual authority is hard to find.</p> +<p>It is so in the members of the state, and worse in the belly. +The idea of a sovereign pervades the air; the name we have; the thing +we are not so sure of. And the process of election to the chief +power is a mystery. Certain provinces have in their gift certain +high titles, or <i>names</i>, as they are called. These can only +be attributed to the descendants of particular lines. Once granted, +each name conveys at once the principality (whatever that be worth) +of the province which bestows it, and counts as one suffrage towards +the general sovereignty of Samoa. To be indubitable king, they +say, or some of them say,—I find few in perfect harmony,—a +man should resume five of these names in his own person. But the +case is purely hypothetical; local jealousy forbids its occurrence. +There are rival provinces, far more concerned in the prosecution of +their rivalry than in the choice of a right man for king. If one +of these shall have bestowed its name on competitor A, it will be the +signal and the sufficient reason for the other to bestow its name on +competitor B or C. The majority of Savaii and that of Aana are +thus in perennial opposition. Nor is this all. In 1881, +Laupepa, the present king, held the three names of Malietoa, Natoaitele, +and Tamasoalii; Tamasese held that of Tuiaana; and Mataafa that of Tuiatua. +Laupepa had thus a majority of suffrages; he held perhaps as high a +proportion as can be hoped in these distracted islands; and he counted +among the number the preponderant name of Malietoa. Here, if ever, +was an election. Here, if a king were at all possible, was the +king. And yet the natives were not satisfied. Laupepa was +crowned, March 19th; and next month, the provinces of Aana and Atua +met in joint parliament, and elected their own two princes, Tamasese +and Mataafa, to an alternate monarchy, Tamasese taking the first trick +of two years. War was imminent, when the consuls interfered, and +any war were preferable to the terms of the peace which they procured. +By the Lackawanna treaty, Laupepa was confirmed king, and Tamasese set +by his side in the nondescript office of vice-king. The compromise +was not, I am told, without precedent; but it lacked all appearance +of success. To the constitution of Samoa, which was already all +wheels and no horses, the consuls had added a fifth wheel. In +addition to the old conundrum, “Who is the king?” they had +supplied a new one, “What is the vice-king?”</p> +<p>Two royal lines; some cloudy idea of alternation between the two; +an electorate in which the vote of each province is immediately effectual, +as regards itself, so that every candidate who attains one name becomes +a perpetual and dangerous competitor for the other four: such are a +few of the more trenchant absurdities. Many argue that the whole +idea of sovereignty is modern and imported; but it seems impossible +that anything so foolish should have been suddenly devised, and the +constitution bears on its front the marks of dotage.</p> +<p>But the king, once elected and nominated, what does he become? +It may be said he remains precisely as he was. Election to one +of the five names is significant; it brings not only dignity but power, +and the holder is secure, from that moment, of a certain following in +war. But I cannot find that the further step of election to the +kingship implies anything worth mention. The successful candidate +is now the <i>Tupu o Samoa</i>—much good may it do him! +He can so sign himself on proclamations, which it does not follow that +any one will heed. He can summon parliaments; it does not follow +they will assemble. If he be too flagrantly disobeyed, he can +go to war. But so he could before, when he was only the chief +of certain provinces. His own provinces will support him, the +provinces of his rivals will take the field upon the other part; just +as before. In so far as he is the holder of any of the five <i>names</i>, +in short, he is a man to be reckoned with; in so far as he is king of +Samoa, I cannot find but what the president of a college debating society +is a far more formidable officer. And unfortunately, although +the credit side of the account proves thus imaginary, the debit side +is actual and heavy. For he is now set up to be the mark of consuls; +he will be badgered to raise taxes, to make roads, to punish crime, +to quell rebellion: and how he is to do it is not asked.</p> +<p>If I am in the least right in my presentation of this obscure matter, +no one need be surprised to hear that the land is full of war and rumours +of war. Scarce a year goes by but what some province is in arms, +or sits sulky and menacing, holding parliaments, disregarding the king’s +proclamations and planting food in the bush, the first step of military +preparation. The religious sentiment of the people is indeed for +peace at any price; no pastor can bear arms; and even the layman who +does so is denied the sacraments. In the last war the college +of Mãlua, where the picked youth are prepared for the ministry, +lost but a single student; the rest, in the bosom of a bleeding country, +and deaf to the voices of vanity and honour, peacefully pursued their +studies. But if the church looks askance on war, the warrior in +no extremity of need or passion forgets his consideration for the church. +The houses and gardens of her ministers stand safe in the midst of armies; +a way is reserved for themselves along the beach, where they may be +seen in their white kilts and jackets openly passing the lines, while +not a hundred yards behind the skirmishers will be exchanging the useless +volleys of barbaric warfare. Women are also respected; they are +not fired upon; and they are suffered to pass between the hostile camps, +exchanging gossip, spreading rumour, and divulging to either army the +secret councils of the other. This is plainly no savage war; it +has all the punctilio of the barbarian, and all his parade; feasts precede +battles, fine dresses and songs decorate and enliven the field; and +the young soldier comes to camp burning (on the one hand) to distinguish +himself by acts of valour, and (on the other) to display his acquaintance +with field etiquette. Thus after Mataafa became involved in hostilities +against the Germans, and had another code to observe beside his own, +he was always asking his white advisers if “things were done correctly.” +Let us try to be as wise as Mataafa, and to conceive that etiquette +and morals differ in one country and another. We shall be the +less surprised to find Samoan war defaced with some unpalatable customs. +The childish destruction of fruit-trees in an enemy’s country +cripples the resources of Samoa; and the habit of head-hunting not only +revolts foreigners, but has begun to exercise the minds of the natives +themselves. Soon after the German heads were taken, Mr. Carne, +Wesleyan missionary, had occasion to visit Mataafa’s camp, and +spoke of the practice with abhorrence. “Misi Kãne,” +said one chief, “we have just been puzzling ourselves to guess +where that custom came from. But, Misi, is it not so that when +David killed Goliath, he cut off his head and carried it before the +king?”</p> +<p>With the civil life of the inhabitants we have far less to do; and +yet even here a word of preparation is inevitable. They are easy, +merry, and pleasure-loving; the gayest, though by far from either the +most capable or the most beautiful of Polynesians. Fine dress +is a passion, and makes a Samoan festival a thing of beauty. Song +is almost ceaseless. The boatman sings at the oar, the family +at evening worship, the girls at night in the guest-house, sometimes +the workman at his toil. No occasion is too small for the poets +and musicians; a death, a visit, the day’s news, the day’s +pleasantry, will be set to rhyme and harmony. Even half-grown +girls, the occasion arising, fashion words and train choruses of children +for its celebration. Song, as with all Pacific islanders, goes +hand in hand with the dance, and both shade into the drama. Some +of the performances are indecent and ugly, some only dull; others are +pretty, funny, and attractive. Games are popular. Cricket-matches, +where a hundred played upon a side, endured at times for weeks, and +ate up the country like the presence of an army. Fishing, the +daily bath, flirtation; courtship, which is gone upon by proxy; conversation, +which is largely political; and the delights of public oratory, fill +in the long hours.</p> +<p>But the special delight of the Samoan is the <i>malanga</i>. +When people form a party and go from village to village, junketing and +gossiping, they are said to go on a <i>malanga</i>. Their songs +have announced their approach ere they arrive; the guest-house is prepared +for their reception; the virgins of the village attend to prepare the +kava bowl and entertain them with the dance; time flies in the enjoyment +of every pleasure which an islander conceives; and when the <i>malanga</i> +sets forth, the same welcome and the same joys expect them beyond the +next cape, where the nearest village nestles in its grove of palms. +To the visitors it is all golden; for the hosts, it has another side. +In one or two words of the language the fact peeps slyly out. +The same word (<i>afemoeina</i>) expresses “a long call” +and “to come as a calamity”; the same word (<i>lesolosolou</i>) +signifies “to have no intermission of pain” and “to +have no cessation, as in the arrival of visitors”; and <i>soua</i>, +used of epidemics, bears the sense of being overcome as with “fire, +flood, or visitors.” But the gem of the dictionary is the +verb <i>alovao</i>, which illustrates its pages like a humorous woodcut. +It is used in the sense of “to avoid visitors,” but it means +literally “hide in the wood.” So, by the sure hand +of popular speech, we have the picture of the house deserted, the <i>malanga</i> +disappointed, and the host that should have been quaking in the bush.</p> +<p>We are thus brought to the beginning of a series of traits of manners, +highly curious in themselves, and essential to an understanding of the +war. In Samoa authority sits on the one hand entranced; on the +other, property stands bound in the midst of chartered marauders. +What property exists is vested in the family, not in the individual; +and of the loose communism in which a family dwells, the dictionary +may yet again help us to some idea. I find a string of verbs with +the following senses: to deal leniently with, as in helping oneself +from a family plantation; to give away without consulting other members +of the family; to go to strangers for help instead of to relatives; +to take from relatives without permission; to steal from relatives; +to have plantations robbed by relatives. The ideal of conduct +in the family, and some of its depravations, appear here very plainly. +The man who (in a native word of praise) is <i>mata-ainga</i>, a race-regarder, +has his hand always open to his kindred; the man who is not (in a native +term of contempt) <i>noa</i>, knows always where to turn in any pinch +of want or extremity of laziness. Beggary within the family—and +by the less self-respecting, without it—has thus grown into a +custom and a scourge, and the dictionary teems with evidence of its +abuse. Special words signify the begging of food, of uncooked +food, of fish, of pigs, of pigs for travellers, of pigs for stock, of +taro, of taro-tops, of taro-tops for planting, of tools, of flyhooks, +of implements for netting pigeons, and of mats. It is true the +beggar was supposed in time to make a return, somewhat as by the Roman +contract of <i>mutuum</i>. But the obligation was only moral; +it could not be, or was not, enforced; as a matter of fact, it was disregarded. +The language had recently to borrow from the Tahitians a word for debt; +while by a significant excidence, it possessed a native expression for +the failure to pay—“to omit to make a return for property +begged.” Conceive now the position of the householder besieged +by harpies, and all defence denied him by the laws of honour. +The sacramental gesture of refusal, his last and single resource, was +supposed to signify “my house is destitute.” Until +that point was reached, in other words, the conduct prescribed for a +Samoan was to give and to continue giving. But it does not appear +he was at all expected to give with a good grace. The dictionary +is well stocked with expressions standing ready, like missiles, to be +discharged upon the locusts—“troop of shamefaced ones,” +“you draw in your head like a tern,” “you make your +voice small like a whistle-pipe,” “you beg like one delirious”; +and the verb <i>pongitai</i>, “to look cross,” is equipped +with the pregnant rider, “as at the sight of beggars.”</p> +<p>This insolence of beggars and the weakness of proprietors can only +be illustrated by examples. We have a girl in our service to whom +we had given some finery, that she might wait at table, and (at her +own request) some warm clothing against the cold mornings of the bush. +She went on a visit to her family, and returned in an old tablecloth, +her whole wardrobe having been divided out among relatives in the course +of twenty-four hours. A pastor in the province of Atua, being +a handy, busy man, bought a boat for a hundred dollars, fifty of which +he paid down. Presently after, relatives came to him upon a visit +and took a fancy to his new possession. “We have long been +wanting a boat,” said they. “Give us this one.” +So, when the visit was done, they departed in the boat. The pastor, +meanwhile, travelled into Savaii the best way he could, sold a parcel +of land, and begged mats among his other relatives, to pay the remainder +of the price of the boat which was no longer his. You might think +this was enough; but some months later, the harpies, having broken a +thwart, brought back the boat to be repaired and repainted by the original +owner.</p> +<p>Such customs, it might be argued, being double-edged, will ultimately +right themselves. But it is otherwise in practice. Such +folk as the pastor’s harpy relatives will generally have a boat, +and will never have paid for it; such men as the pastor may have sometimes +paid for a boat, but they will never have one. It is there as +it is with us at home: the measure of the abuse of either system is +the blackness of the individual heart. The same man, who would +drive his poor relatives from his own door in England, would besiege +in Samoa the doors of the rich; and the essence of the dishonesty in +either case is to pursue one’s own advantage and to be indifferent +to the losses of one’s neighbour. But the particular drawback +of the Polynesian system is to depress and stagger industry. To +work more is there only to be more pillaged; to save is impossible. +The family has then made a good day of it when all are filled and nothing +remains over for the crew of free-booters; and the injustice of the +system begins to be recognised even in Samoa. One native is said +to have amassed a certain fortune; two clever lads have individually +expressed to us their discontent with a system which taxes industry +to pamper idleness; and I hear that in one village of Savaii a law has +been passed forbidding gifts under the penalty of a sharp fine.</p> +<p>Under this economic regimen, the unpopularity of taxes, which strike +all at the same time, which expose the industrious to a perfect siege +of mendicancy, and the lazy to be actually condemned to a day’s +labour, may be imagined without words. It is more important to +note the concurrent relaxation of all sense of property. From +applying for help to kinsmen who are scarce permitted to refuse, it +is but a step to taking from them (in the dictionary phrase) “without +permission”; from that to theft at large is but a hair’s-breadth.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II—THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: FOREIGN</h2> +<p>The huge majority of Samoans, like other God-fearing folk in other +countries, are perfectly content with their own manners. And upon +one condition, it is plain they might enjoy themselves far beyond the +average of man. Seated in islands very rich in food, the idleness +of the many idle would scarce matter; and the provinces might continue +to bestow their names among rival pretenders, and fall into war and +enjoy that a while, and drop into peace and enjoy that, in a manner +highly to be envied. But the condition—that they should +be let alone—is now no longer possible. More than a hundred +years ago, and following closely on the heels of Cook, an irregular +invasion of adventurers began to swarm about the isles of the Pacific. +The seven sleepers of Polynesia stand, still but half aroused, in the +midst of the century of competition. And the island races, comparable +to a shopful of crockery launched upon the stream of time, now fall +to make their desperate voyage among pots of brass and adamant.</p> +<p>Apia, the port and mart, is the seat of the political sickness of +Samoa. At the foot of a peaked, woody mountain, the coast makes +a deep indent, roughly semicircular. In front the barrier reef +is broken by the fresh water of the streams; if the swell be from the +north, it enters almost without diminution; and the war-ships roll dizzily +at their moorings, and along the fringing coral which follows the configuration +of the beach, the surf breaks with a continuous uproar. In wild +weather, as the world knows, the roads are untenable. Along the +whole shore, which is everywhere green and level and overlooked by inland +mountain-tops, the town lies drawn out in strings and clusters. +The western horn is Mulinuu, the eastern, Matautu; and from one to the +other of these extremes, I ask the reader to walk. He will find +more of the history of Samoa spread before his eyes in that excursion, +than has yet been collected in the blue-books or the white-books of +the world. Mulinuu (where the walk is to begin) is a flat, wind-swept +promontory, planted with palms, backed against a swamp of mangroves, +and occupied by a rather miserable village. The reader is informed +that this is the proper residence of the Samoan kings; he will be the +more surprised to observe a board set up, and to read that this historic +village is the property of the German firm. But these boards, +which are among the commonest features of the landscape, may be rather +taken to imply that the claim has been disputed. A little farther +east he skirts the stores, offices, and barracks of the firm itself. +Thence he will pass through Matafele, the one really town-like portion +of this long string of villages, by German bars and stores and the German +consulate; and reach the Catholic mission and cathedral standing by +the mouth of a small river. The bridge which crosses here (bridge +of Mulivai) is a frontier; behind is Matafele; beyond, Apia proper; +behind, Germans are supreme; beyond, with but few exceptions, all is +Anglo-Saxon. Here the reader will go forward past the stores of +Mr. Moors (American) and Messrs. MacArthur (English); past the English +mission, the office of the English newspaper, the English church, and +the old American consulate, till he reaches the mouth of a larger river, +the Vaisingano. Beyond, in Matautu, his way takes him in the shade +of many trees and by scattered dwellings, and presently brings him beside +a great range of offices, the place and the monument of a German who +fought the German firm during his life. His house (now he is dead) +remains pointed like a discharged cannon at the citadel of his old enemies. +Fitly enough, it is at present leased and occupied by Englishmen. +A little farther, and the reader gains the eastern flanking angle of +the bay, where stands the pilot-house and signal-post, and whence he +can see, on the line of the main coast of the island, the British and +the new American consulates.</p> +<p>The course of his walk will have been enlivened by a considerable +to and fro of pleasure and business. He will have encountered +many varieties of whites,—sailors, merchants, clerks, priests, +Protestant missionaries in their pith helmets, and the nondescript hangers-on +of any island beach. And the sailors are sometimes in considerable +force; but not the residents. He will think at times there are +more signboards than men to own them. It may chance it is a full +day in the harbour; he will then have seen all manner of ships, from +men-of-war and deep-sea packets to the labour vessels of the German +firm and the cockboat island schooner; and if he be of an arithmetical +turn, he may calculate that there are more whites afloat in Apia bay +than whites ashore in the whole Archipelago. On the other hand, +he will have encountered all ranks of natives, chiefs and pastors in +their scrupulous white clothes; perhaps the king himself, attended by +guards in uniform; smiling policemen with their pewter stars; girls, +women, crowds of cheerful children. And he will have asked himself +with some surprise where these reside. Here and there, in the +back yards of European establishments, he may have had a glimpse of +a native house elbowed in a corner; but since he left Mulinuu, none +on the beach where islanders prefer to live, scarce one on the line +of street. The handful of whites have everything; the natives +walk in a foreign town. A year ago, on a knoll behind a bar-room, +he might have observed a native house guarded by sentries and flown +over by the standard of Samoa. He would then have been told it +was the seat of government, driven (as I have to relate) over the Mulivai +and from beyond the German town into the Anglo-Saxon. To-day, +he will learn it has been carted back again to its old quarters. +And he will think it significant that the king of the islands should +be thus shuttled to and fro in his chief city at the nod of aliens. +And then he will observe a feature more significant still: a house with +some concourse of affairs, policemen and idlers hanging by, a man at +a bank-counter overhauling manifests, perhaps a trial proceeding in +the front verandah, or perhaps the council breaking up in knots after +a stormy sitting. And he will remember that he is in the <i>Eleele +Sa</i>, the “Forbidden Soil,” or Neutral Territory of the +treaties; that the magistrate whom he has just seen trying native criminals +is no officer of the native king’s; and that this, the only port +and place of business in the kingdom, collects and administers its own +revenue for its own behoof by the hands of white councillors and under +the supervision of white consuls. Let him go further afield. +He will find the roads almost everywhere to cease or to be made impassable +by native pig-fences, bridges to be quite unknown, and houses of the +whites to become at once a rare exception. Set aside the German +plantations, and the frontier is sharp. At the boundary of the +<i>Eleele Sa</i>, Europe ends, Samoa begins. Here, then, is a +singular state of affairs: all the money, luxury, and business of the +kingdom centred in one place; that place excepted from the native government +and administered by whites for whites; and the whites themselves holding +it not in common but in hostile camps, so that it lies between them +like a bone between two dogs, each growling, each clutching his own +end.</p> +<p>Should Apia ever choose a coat of arms, I have a motto ready: “Enter +Rumour painted full of tongues.” The majority of the natives +do extremely little; the majority of the whites are merchants with some +four mails in the month, shopkeepers with some ten or twenty customers +a day, and gossip is the common resource of all. The town hums +to the day’s news, and the bars are crowded with amateur politicians. +Some are office-seekers, and earwig king and consul, and compass the +fall of officials, with an eye to salary. Some are humorists, +delighted with the pleasure of faction for itself. “I +never saw so good a place as this Apia,” said one of these; “you +can be in a new conspiracy every day!” Many, on the other +hand, are sincerely concerned for the future of the country. The +quarters are so close and the scale is so small, that perhaps not any +one can be trusted always to preserve his temper. Every one tells +everything he knows; that is our country sickness. Nearly every +one has been betrayed at times, and told a trifle more; the way our +sickness takes the predisposed. And the news flies, and the tongues +wag, and fists are shaken. Pot boil and caldron bubble!</p> +<p>Within the memory of man, the white people of Apia lay in the worst +squalor of degradation. They are now unspeakably improved, both +men and women. To-day they must be called a more than fairly respectable +population, and a much more than fairly intelligent. The whole +would probably not fill the ranks of even an English half-battalion, +yet there are a surprising number above the average in sense, knowledge, +and manners. The trouble (for Samoa) is that they are all here +after a livelihood. Some are sharp practitioners, some are famous +(justly or not) for foul play in business. Tales fly. One +merchant warns you against his neighbour; the neighbour on the first +occasion is found to return the compliment: each with a good circumstantial +story to the proof. There is so much copra in the islands, and +no more; a man’s share of it is his share of bread; and commerce, +like politics, is here narrowed to a focus, shows its ugly side, and +becomes as personal as fisticuffs. Close at their elbows, in all +this contention, stands the native looking on. Like a child, his +true analogue, he observes, apprehends, misapprehends, and is usually +silent. As in a child, a considerable intemperance of speech is +accompanied by some power of secrecy. News he publishes; his thoughts +have often to be dug for. He looks on at the rude career of the +dollar-hunt, and wonders. He sees these men rolling in a luxury +beyond the ambition of native kings; he hears them accused by each other +of the meanest trickery; he knows some of them to be guilty; and what +is he to think? He is strongly conscious of his own position as +the common milk-cow; and what is he to do? “Surely these +white men on the beach are not great chiefs?” is a common question, +perhaps asked with some design of flattering the person questioned. +And one, stung by the last incident into an unusual flow of English, +remarked to me: “I begin to be weary of white men on the beach.”</p> +<p>But the true centre of trouble, the head of the boil of which Samoa +languishes, is the German firm. From the conditions of business, +a great island house must ever be an inheritance of care; and it chances +that the greatest still afoot has its chief seat in Apia bay, and has +sunk the main part of its capital in the island of Upolu. When +its founder, John Cæsar Godeffroy, went bankrupt over Russian +paper and Westphalian iron, his most considerable asset was found to +be the South Sea business. This passed (I understand) through +the hands of Baring Brothers in London, and is now run by a company +rejoicing in the Gargantuan name of the <i>Deutsche Handels und Plantagen +Gesellschaft für Süd-See Inseln zu Hamburg</i>. This +piece of literature is (in practice) shortened to the D. H. and P. G., +the Old Firm, the German Firm, the Firm, and (among humorists) the Long +Handle Firm. Even from the deck of an approaching ship, the island +is seen to bear its signature—zones of cultivation showing in +a more vivid tint of green on the dark vest of forest. The total +area in use is near ten thousand acres. Hedges of fragrant lime +enclose, broad avenues intersect them. You shall walk for hours +in parks of palm-tree alleys, regular, like soldiers on parade; in the +recesses of the hills you may stumble on a mill-house, toiling and trembling +there, fathoms deep in superincumbent forest. On the carpet of +clean sward, troops of horses and herds of handsome cattle may be seen +to browse; and to one accustomed to the rough luxuriance of the tropics, +the appearance is of fairyland. The managers, many of them German +sea-captains, are enthusiastic in their new employment. Experiment +is continually afoot: coffee and cacao, both of excellent quality, are +among the more recent outputs; and from one plantation quantities of +pineapples are sent at a particular season to the Sydney markets. +A hundred and fifty thousand pounds of English money, perhaps two hundred +thousand, lie sunk in these magnificent estates. In estimating +the expense of maintenance quite a fleet of ships must be remembered, +and a strong staff of captains, supercargoes, overseers, and clerks. +These last mess together at a liberal board; the wages are high, and +the staff is inspired with a strong and pleasing sentiment of loyalty +to their employers.</p> +<p>Seven or eight hundred imported men and women toil for the company +on contracts of three or of five years, and at a hypothetical wage of +a few dollars in the month. I am now on a burning question: the +labour traffic; and I shall ask permission in this place only to touch +it with the tongs. Suffice it to say that in Queensland, Fiji, +New Caledonia, and Hawaii it has been either suppressed or placed under +close public supervision. In Samoa, where it still flourishes, +there is no regulation of which the public receives any evidence; and +the dirty linen of the firm, if there be any dirty, and if it be ever +washed at all, is washed in private. This is unfortunate, if Germans +would believe it. But they have no idea of publicity, keep their +business to themselves, rather affect to “move in a mysterious +way,” and are naturally incensed by criticisms, which they consider +hypocritical, from men who would import “labour” for themselves, +if they could afford it, and would probably maltreat them if they dared. +It is said the whip is very busy on some of the plantations; it is said +that punitive extra-labour, by which the thrall’s term of service +is extended, has grown to be an abuse; and it is complained that, even +where that term is out, much irregularity occurs in the repatriation +of the discharged. To all this I can say nothing, good or bad. +A certain number of the thralls, many of them wild negritos from the +west, have taken to the bush, harbour there in a state partly bestial, +or creep into the back quarters of the town to do a day’s stealthy +labour under the nose of their proprietors. Twelve were arrested +one morning in my own boys’ kitchen. Farther in the bush, +huts, small patches of cultivation, and smoking ovens, have been found +by hunters. There are still three runaways in the woods of Tutuila, +whither they escaped upon a raft. And the Samoans regard these +dark-skinned rangers with extreme alarm; the fourth refugee in Tutuila +was shot down (as I was told in that island) while carrying off the +virgin of a village; and tales of cannibalism run round the country, +and the natives shudder about the evening fire. For the Samoans +are not cannibals, do not seem to remember when they were, and regard +the practice with a disfavour equal to our own.</p> +<p>The firm is Gulliver among the Lilliputs; and it must not be forgotten, +that while the small, independent traders are fighting for their own +hand, and inflamed with the usual jealousy against corporations, the +Germans are inspired with a sense of the greatness of their affairs +and interests. The thought of the money sunk, the sight of these +costly and beautiful plantations, menaced yearly by the returning forest, +and the responsibility of administering with one hand so many conjunct +fortunes, might well nerve the manager of such a company for desperate +and questionable deeds. Upon this scale, commercial sharpness +has an air of patriotism; and I can imagine the man, so far from haggling +over the scourge for a few Solomon islanders, prepared to oppress rival +firms, overthrow inconvenient monarchs, and let loose the dogs of war. +Whatever he may decide, he will not want for backing. Every clerk +will be eager to be up and strike a blow; and most Germans in the group, +whatever they may babble of the firm over the walnuts and the wine, +will rally round the national concern at the approach of difficulty. +They are so few—I am ashamed to give their number, it were to +challenge contradiction—they are so few, and the amount of national +capital buried at their feet is so vast, that we must not wonder if +they seem oppressed with greatness and the sense of empire. Other +whites take part in our brabbles, while temper holds out, with a certain +schoolboy entertainment. In the Germans alone, no trace of humour +is to be observed, and their solemnity is accompanied by a touchiness +often beyond belief. Patriotism flies in arms about a hen; and +if you comment upon the colour of a Dutch umbrella, you have cast a +stone against the German Emperor. I give one instance, typical +although extreme. One who had returned from Tutuila on the mail +cutter complained of the vermin with which she is infested. He +was suddenly and sharply brought to a stand. The ship of which +he spoke, he was reminded, was a German ship.</p> +<p>John Cæsar Godeffroy himself had never visited the islands; +his sons and nephews came, indeed, but scarcely to reap laurels; and +the mainspring and headpiece of this great concern, until death took +him, was a certain remarkable man of the name of Theodor Weber. +He was of an artful and commanding character; in the smallest thing +or the greatest, without fear or scruple; equally able to affect, equally +ready to adopt, the most engaging politeness or the most imperious airs +of domination. It was he who did most damage to rival traders; +it was he who most harried the Samoans; and yet I never met any one, +white or native, who did not respect his memory. All felt it was +a gallant battle, and the man a great fighter; and now when he is dead, +and the war seems to have gone against him, many can scarce remember, +without a kind of regret, how much devotion and audacity have been spent +in vain. His name still lives in the songs of Samoa. One, +that I have heard, tells of <i>Misi Ueba</i> and a biscuit-box—the +suggesting incident being long since forgotten. Another sings +plaintively how all things, land and food and property, pass progressively, +as by a law of nature, into the hands of <i>Misi Ueba</i>, and soon +nothing will be left for Samoans. This is an epitaph the man would +have enjoyed.</p> +<p>At one period of his career, Weber combined the offices of director +of the firm and consul for the City of Hamburg. No question but +he then drove very hard. Germans admit that the combination was +unfortunate; and it was a German who procured its overthrow. Captain +Zembsch superseded him with an imperial appointment, one still remembered +in Samoa as “the gentleman who acted justly.” There +was no house to be found, and the new consul must take up his quarters +at first under the same roof with Weber. On several questions, +in which the firm was vitally interested, Zembsch embraced the contrary +opinion. Riding one day with an Englishman in Vailele plantation, +he was startled by a burst of screaming, leaped from the saddle, ran +round a house, and found an overseer beating one of the thralls. +He punished the overseer, and, being a kindly and perhaps not a very +diplomatic man, talked high of what he felt and what he might consider +it his duty to forbid or to enforce. The firm began to look askance +at such a consul; and worse was behind. A number of deeds being +brought to the consulate for registration, Zembsch detected certain +transfers of land in which the date, the boundaries, the measure, and +the consideration were all blank. He refused them with an indignation +which he does not seem to have been able to keep to himself; and, whether +or not by his fault, some of these unfortunate documents became public. +It was plain that the relations between the two flanks of the German +invasion, the diplomatic and the commercial, were strained to bursting. +But Weber was a man ill to conquer. Zembsch was recalled; and +from that time forth, whether through influence at home, or by the solicitations +of Weber on the spot, the German consulate has shown itself very apt +to play the game of the German firm. That game, we may say, was +twofold,—the first part even praiseworthy, the second at least +natural. On the one part, they desired an efficient native administration, +to open up the country and punish crime; they wished, on the other, +to extend their own provinces and to curtail the dealings of their rivals. +In the first, they had the jealous and diffident sympathy of all whites; +in the second, they had all whites banded together against them for +their lives and livelihoods. It was thus a game of <i>Beggar my +Neighbour</i> between a large merchant and some small ones. Had +it so remained, it would still have been a cut-throat quarrel. +But when the consulate appeared to be concerned, when the war-ships +of the German Empire were thought to fetch and carry for the firm, the +rage of the independent traders broke beyond restraint. And, largely +from the national touchiness and the intemperate speech of German clerks, +this scramble among dollar-hunters assumed the appearance of an inter-racial +war.</p> +<p>The firm, with the indomitable Weber at its head and the consulate +at its back—there has been the chief enemy at Samoa. No +English reader can fail to be reminded of John Company; and if the Germans +appear to have been not so successful, we can only wonder that our own +blunders and brutalities were less severely punished. Even on +the field of Samoa, though German faults and aggressors make up the +burthen of my story, they have been nowise alone. Three nations +were engaged in this infinitesimal affray, and not one appears with +credit. They figure but as the three ruffians of the elder play-wrights. +The United States have the cleanest hands, and even theirs are not immaculate. +It was an ambiguous business when a private American adventurer was +landed with his pieces of artillery from an American war-ship, and became +prime minister to the king. It is true (even if he were ever really +supported) that he was soon dropped and had soon sold himself for money +to the German firm. I will leave it to the reader whether this +trait dignifies or not the wretched story. And the end of it spattered +the credit alike of England and the States, when this man (the premier +of a friendly sovereign) was kidnapped and deported, on the requisition +of an American consul, by the captain of an English war-ship. +I shall have to tell, as I proceed, of villages shelled on very trifling +grounds by Germans; the like has been done of late years, though in +a better quarrel, by ourselves of England. I shall have to tell +how the Germans landed and shed blood at Fangalii; it was only in 1876 +that we British had our own misconceived little massacre at Mulinuu. +I shall have to tell how the Germans bludgeoned Malietoa with a sudden +call for money; it was something of the suddenest that Sir Arthur Gordon +himself, smarting under a sensible public affront, made and enforced +a somewhat similar demand.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III—THE SORROWS OF LAUPEPA, 1883 TO 1887</h2> +<p>You ride in a German plantation and see no bush, no soul stirring; +only acres of empty sward, miles of cocoa-nut alley: a desert of food. +In the eyes of the Samoan the place has the attraction of a park for +the holiday schoolboy, of a granary for mice. We must add the +yet more lively allurement of a haunted house, for over these empty +and silent miles there broods the fear of the negrito cannibal. +For the Samoan besides, there is something barbaric, unhandsome, and +absurd in the idea of thus growing food only to send it from the land +and sell it. A man at home who should turn all Yorkshire into +one wheatfield, and annually burn his harvest on the altar of Mumbo-Jumbo, +might impress ourselves not much otherwise. And the firm which +does these things is quite extraneous, a wen that might be excised to-morrow +without loss but to itself; few natives drawing from it so much as day’s +wages; and the rest beholding in it only the occupier of their acres. +The nearest villages have suffered most; they see over the hedge the +lands of their ancestors waving with useless cocoa-palms; and the sales +were often questionable, and must still more often appear so to regretful +natives, spinning and improving yarns about the evening lamp. +At the worst, then, to help oneself from the plantation will seem to +a Samoan very like orchard-breaking to the British schoolboy; at the +best, it will be thought a gallant Robin-Hoodish readjustment of a public +wrong.</p> +<p>And there is more behind. Not only is theft from the plantations +regarded rather as a lark and peccadillo, the idea of theft in itself +is not very clearly present to these communists; and as to the punishment +of crime in general, a great gulf of opinion divides the natives from +ourselves. Indigenous punishments were short and sharp. +Death, deportation by the primitive method of setting the criminal to +sea in a canoe, fines, and in Samoa itself the penalty of publicly biting +a hot, ill-smelling root, comparable to a rough forfeit in a children’s +game—these are approved. The offender is killed, or punished +and forgiven. We, on the other hand, harbour malice for a period +of years: continuous shame attaches to the criminal; even when he is +doing his best—even when he is submitting to the worst form of +torture, regular work—he is to stand aside from life and from +his family in dreadful isolation. These ideas most Polynesians +have accepted in appearance, as they accept other ideas of the whites; +in practice, they reduce it to a farce. I have heard the French +resident in the Marquesas in talk with the French gaoler of Tai-o-hae: +“<i>Eh bien, où sont vos prisonnières</i>?—<i>Je +crois, mon commandant, qu’elles sont allées quelque part +faire une visite</i>.” And the ladies would be welcome. +This is to take the most savage of Polynesians; take some of the most +civilised. In Honolulu, convicts labour on the highways in piebald +clothing, gruesome and ridiculous; and it is a common sight to see the +family of such an one troop out, about the dinner hour, wreathed with +flowers and in their holiday best, to picnic with their kinsman on the +public wayside. The application of these outlandish penalties, +in fact, transfers the sympathy to the offender. Remember, besides, +that the clan system, and that imperfect idea of justice which is its +worst feature, are still lively in Samoa; that it is held the duty of +a judge to favour kinsmen, of a king to protect his vassals; and the +difficulty of getting a plantation thief first caught, then convicted, +and last of all punished, will appear.</p> +<p>During the early ’eighties, the Germans looked upon this system +with growing irritation. They might see their convict thrust in +gaol by the front door; they could never tell how soon he was enfranchised +by the back; and they need not be the least surprised if they met him, +a few days after, enjoying the delights of a <i>malanga</i>. It +was a banded conspiracy, from the king and the vice-king downward, to +evade the law and deprive the Germans of their profits. In 1883, +accordingly, the consul, Dr. Stuebel, extorted a convention on the subject, +in terms of which Samoans convicted of offences against German subjects +were to be confined in a private gaol belonging to the German firm. +To Dr. Stuebel it seemed simple enough: the offenders were to be effectually +punished, the sufferers partially indemnified. To the Samoans, +the thing appeared no less simple, but quite different: “Malietoa +was selling Samoans to Misi Ueba.” What else could be expected? +Here was a private corporation engaged in making money; to it was delegated, +upon a question of profit and loss, one of the functions of the Samoan +crown; and those who make anomalies must look for comments. Public +feeling ran unanimous and high. Prisoners who escaped from the +private gaol were not recaptured or not returned and Malietoa hastened +to build a new prison of his own, whither he conveyed, or pretended +to convey, the fugitives. In October 1885 a trenchant state paper +issued from the German consulate. Twenty prisoners, the consul +wrote, had now been at large for eight months from Weber’s prison. +It was pretended they had since then completed their term of punishment +elsewhere. Dr. Stuebel did not seek to conceal his incredulity; +but he took ground beyond; he declared the point irrelevant. The +law was to be enforced. The men were condemned to a certain period +in Weber’s prison; they had run away; they must now be brought +back and (whatever had become of them in the interval) work out the +sentence. Doubtless Dr. Stuebel’s demands were substantially +just; but doubtless also they bore from the outside a great appearance +of harshness; and when the king submitted, the murmurs of the people +increased.</p> +<p>But Weber was not yet content. The law had to be enforced; +property, or at least the property of the firm, must be respected. +And during an absence of the consul’s, he seems to have drawn +up with his own hand, and certainly first showed to the king, in his +own house, a new convention. Weber here and Weber there. +As an able man, he was perhaps in the right to prepare and propose conventions. +As the head of a trading company, he seems far out of his part to be +communicating state papers to a sovereign. The administration +of justice was the colour, and I am willing to believe the purpose, +of the new paper; but its effect was to depose the existing government. +A council of two Germans and two Samoans were to be invested with the +right to make laws and impose taxes as might be “desirable for +the common interest of the Samoan government and the German residents.” +The provisions of this council the king and vice-king were to sign blindfold. +And by a last hardship, the Germans, who received all the benefit, reserved +a right to recede from the agreement on six months’ notice; the +Samoans, who suffered all the loss, were bound by it in perpetuity. +I can never believe that my friend Dr. Stuebel had a hand in drafting +these proposals; I am only surprised he should have been a party to +enforcing them, perhaps the chief error in these islands of a man who +has made few. And they were enforced with a rigour that seems +injudicious. The Samoans (according to their own account) were +denied a copy of the document; they were certainly rated and threatened; +their deliberation was treated as contumacy; two German war-ships lay +in port, and it was hinted that these would shortly intervene.</p> +<p>Succeed in frightening a child, and he takes refuge in duplicity. +“Malietoa,” one of the chiefs had written, “we know +well we are in bondage to the great governments.” It was +now thought one tyrant might be better than three, and any one preferable +to Germany. On the 5th November 1885, accordingly, Laupepa, Tamasese, +and forty-eight high chiefs met in secret, and the supremacy of Samoa +was secretly offered to Great Britain for the second time in history. +Laupepa and Tamasese still figured as king and vice-king in the eyes +of Dr. Stuebel; in their own, they had secretly abdicated, were become +private persons, and might do what they pleased without binding or dishonouring +their country. On the morrow, accordingly, they did public humiliation +in the dust before the consulate, and five days later signed the convention. +The last was done, it is claimed, upon an impulse. The humiliation, +which it appeared to the Samoans so great a thing to offer, to the practical +mind of Dr. Stuebel seemed a trifle to receive; and the pressure was +continued and increased. Laupepa and Tamasese were both heavy, +well-meaning, inconclusive men. Laupepa, educated for the ministry, +still bears some marks of it in character and appearance; Tamasese was +in private of an amorous and sentimental turn, but no one would have +guessed it from his solemn and dull countenance. Impossible to +conceive two less dashing champions for a threatened race; and there +is no doubt they were reduced to the extremity of muddlement and childish +fear. It was drawing towards night on the 10th, when this luckless +pair and a chief of the name of Tuiatafu, set out for the German consulate, +still minded to temporise. As they went, they discussed their +case with agitation. They could see the lights of the German war-ships +as they walked—an eloquent reminder. And it was then that +Tamasese proposed to sign the convention. “It will give +us peace for the day,” said Laupepa, “and afterwards Great +Britain must decide.”—“Better fight Germany than that!” +cried Tuiatafu, speaking words of wisdom, and departed in anger. +But the two others proceeded on their fatal errand; signed the convention, +writing themselves king and vice-king, as they now believed themselves +to be no longer; and with childish perfidy took part in a scene of “reconciliation” +at the German consulate.</p> +<p>Malietoa supposed himself betrayed by Tamasese. Consul Churchward +states with precision that the document was sold by a scribe for thirty-six +dollars. Twelve days later at least, November 22nd, the text of +the address to Great Britain came into the hands of Dr. Stuebel. +The Germans may have been wrong before; they were now in the right to +be angry. They had been publicly, solemnly, and elaborately fooled; +the treaty and the reconciliation were both fraudulent, with the broad, +farcical fraudulency of children and barbarians. This history +is much from the outside; it is the digested report of eye-witnesses; +it can be rarely corrected from state papers; and as to what consuls +felt and thought, or what instructions they acted under, I must still +be silent or proceed by guess. It is my guess that Stuebel now +decided Malietoa Laupepa to be a man impossible to trust and unworthy +to be dealt with. And it is certain that the business of his deposition +was put in hand at once. The position of Weber, with his knowledge +of things native, his prestige, and his enterprising intellect, must +have always made him influential with the consul: at this juncture he +was indispensable. Here was the deed to be done; here the man +of action. “Mr. Weber rested not,” says Laupepa. +It was “like the old days of his own consulate,” writes +Churchward. His messengers filled the isle; his house was thronged +with chiefs and orators; he sat close over his loom, delightedly weaving +the future. There was one thing requisite to the intrigue,—a +native pretender; and the very man, you would have said, stood waiting: +Mataafa, titular of Atua, descended from both the royal lines, late +joint king with Tamasese, fobbed off with nothing in the time of the +Lackawanna treaty, probably mortified by the circumstance, a chief with +a strong following, and in character and capacity high above the native +average. Yet when Weber’s spiriting was done, and the curtain +rose on the set scene of the coronation, Mataafa was absent, and Tamasese +stood in his place. Malietoa was to be deposed for a piece of +solemn and offensive trickery, and the man selected to replace him was +his sole partner and accomplice in the act. For so strange a choice, +good ground must have existed; but it remains conjectural: some supposing +Mataafa scratched as too independent; others that Tamasese had indeed +betrayed Laupepa, and his new advancement was the price of his treachery.</p> +<p>So these two chiefs began to change places like the scales of a balance, +one down, the other up. Tamasese raised his flag (Jan. 28th, 1886) +in Leulumoenga, chief place of his own province of Aana, usurped the +style of king, and began to collect and arm a force. Weber, by +the admission of Stuebel, was in the market supplying him with weapons; +so were the Americans; so, but for our salutary British law, would have +been the British; for wherever there is a sound of battle, there will +the traders be gathered together selling arms. A little longer, +and we find Tamasese visited and addressed as king and majesty by a +German commodore. Meanwhile, for the unhappy Malietoa, the road +led downward. He was refused a bodyguard. He was turned +out of Mulinuu, the seat of his royalty, on a land claim of Weber’s, +fled across the Mulivai, and “had the coolness” (German +expression) to hoist his flag in Apia. He was asked “in +the most polite manner,” says the same account—“in +the most delicate manner in the world,” a reader of Marryat might +be tempted to amend the phrase,—to strike his flag in his own +capital; and on his “refusal to accede to this request,” +Dr. Stuebel appeared himself with ten men and an officer from the cruiser +<i>Albatross</i>; a sailor climbed into the tree and brought down the +flag of Samoa, which was carefully folded, and sent, “in the most +polite manner,” to its owner. The consuls of England and +the States were there (the excellent gentlemen!) to protest. Last, +and yet more explicit, the German commodore who visited the be-titled +Tamasese, addressed the king—we may surely say the late king—as +“the High Chief Malietoa.”</p> +<p>Had he no party, then? At that time, it is probable, he might +have called some five-sevenths of Samoa to his standard. And yet +he sat there, helpless monarch, like a fowl trussed for roasting. +The blame lies with himself, because he was a helpless creature; it +lies also with England and the States. Their agents on the spot +preached peace (where there was no peace, and no pretence of it) with +eloquence and iteration. Secretary Bayard seems to have felt a +call to join personally in the solemn farce, and was at the expense +of a telegram in which he assured the sinking monarch it was “for +the higher interests of Samoa” he should do nothing. There +was no man better at doing that; the advice came straight home, and +was devoutly followed. And to be just to the great Powers, something +was done in Europe; a conference was called, it was agreed to send commissioners +to Samoa, and the decks had to be hastily cleared against their visit. +Dr. Stuebel had attached the municipality of Apia and hoisted the German +war-flag over Mulinuu; the American consul (in a sudden access of good +service) had flown the stars and stripes over Samoan colours; on either +side these steps were solemnly retracted. The Germans expressly +disowned Tamasese; and the islands fell into a period of suspense, of +some twelve months’ duration, during which the seat of the history +was transferred to other countries and escapes my purview. Here +on the spot, I select three incidents: the arrival on the scene of a +new actor, the visit of the Hawaiian embassy, and the riot on the Emperor’s +birthday. The rest shall be silence; only it must be borne in +view that Tamasese all the while continued to strengthen himself in +Leulumoenga, and Laupepa sat inactive listening to the song of consuls.</p> +<p><i>Captain Brandeis</i>. The new actor was Brandeis, a Bavarian +captain of artillery, of a romantic and adventurous character. +He had served with credit in war; but soon wearied of garrison life, +resigned his battery, came to the States, found employment as a civil +engineer, visited Cuba, took a sub-contract on the Panama canal, caught +the fever, and came (for the sake of the sea voyage) to Australia. +He had that natural love for the tropics which lies so often latent +in persons of a northern birth; difficulty and danger attracted him; +and when he was picked out for secret duty, to be the hand of Germany +in Samoa, there is no doubt but he accepted the post with exhilaration. +It is doubtful if a better choice could have been made. He had +courage, integrity, ideas of his own, and loved the employment, the +people, and the place. Yet there was a fly in the ointment. +The double error of unnecessary stealth and of the immixture of a trading +company in political affairs, has vitiated, and in the end defeated, +much German policy. And Brandeis was introduced to the islands +as a clerk, and sent down to Leulumoenga (where he was soon drilling +the troops and fortifying the position of the rebel king) as an agent +of the German firm. What this mystification cost in the end I +shall tell in another place; and even in the beginning, it deceived +no one. Brandeis is a man of notable personal appearance; he looks +the part allotted him; and the military clerk was soon the centre of +observation and rumour. Malietoa wrote and complained of his presence +to Becker, who had succeeded Dr. Stuebel in the consulate. Becker +replied, “I have nothing to do with the gentleman Brandeis. +Be it well known that the gentleman Brandeis has no appointment in a +military character, but resides peaceably assisting the government of +Leulumoenga in their work, for Brandeis is a quiet, sensible gentleman.” +And then he promised to send the vice-consul to “get information +of the captain’s doings”: surely supererogation of deceit.</p> +<p><i>The Hawaiian Embassy</i>. The prime minister of the Hawaiian +kingdom was, at this period, an adventurer of the name of Gibson. +He claimed, on the strength of a romantic story, to be the heir of a +great English house. He had played a part in a revolt in Java, +had languished in Dutch fetters, and had risen to be a trusted agent +of Brigham Young, the Utah president. It was in this character +of a Mormon emissary that he first came to the islands of Hawaii, where +he collected a large sum of money for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. +At a given moment, he dropped his saintship and appeared as a Christian +and the owner of a part of the island of Lanai. The steps of the +transformation are obscure; they seem, at least, to have been ill-received +at Salt Lake; and there is evidence to the effect that he was followed +to the islands by Mormon assassins. His first attempt on politics +was made under the auspices of what is called the missionary party, +and the canvass conducted largely (it is said with tears) on the platform +at prayer-meetings. It resulted in defeat. Without any decency +of delay he changed his colours, abjured the errors of reform, and, +with the support of the Catholics, rose to the chief power. In +a very brief interval he had thus run through the gamut of religions +in the South Seas. It does not appear that he was any more particular +in politics, but he was careful to consult the character and prejudices +of the late king, Kalakaua. That amiable, far from unaccomplished, +but too convivial sovereign, had a continued use for money: Gibson was +observant to keep him well supplied. Kalakaua (one of the most +theoretical of men) was filled with visionary schemes for the protection +and development of the Polynesian race: Gibson fell in step with him; +it is even thought he may have shared in his illusions. The king +and minister at least conceived between them a scheme of island confederation—the +most obvious fault of which was that it came too late—and armed +and fitted out the cruiser <i>Kaimiloa</i>, nest-egg of the future navy +of Hawaii. Samoa, the most important group still independent, +and one immediately threatened with aggression, was chosen for the scene +of action. The Hon. John E. Bush, a half-caste Hawaiian, sailed +(December 1887) for Apia as minister-plenipotentiary, accompanied by +a secretary of legation, Henry F. Poor; and as soon as she was ready +for sea, the war-ship followed in support. The expedition was +futile in its course, almost tragic in result. The <i>Kaimiloa</i> +was from the first a scene of disaster and dilapidation: the stores +were sold; the crew revolted; for a great part of a night she was in +the hands of mutineers, and the secretary lay bound upon the deck. +The mission, installing itself at first with extravagance in Matautu, +was helped at last out of the island by the advances of a private citizen. +And they returned from dreams of Polynesian independence to find their +own city in the hands of a clique of white shopkeepers, and the great +Gibson once again in gaol. Yet the farce had not been quite without +effect. It had encouraged the natives for the moment, and it seems +to have ruffled permanently the temper of the Germans. So might +a fly irritate Cæsar.</p> +<p>The arrival of a mission from Hawaii would scarce affect the composure +of the courts of Europe. But in the eyes of Polynesians the little +kingdom occupies a place apart. It is there alone that men of +their race enjoy most of the advantages and all the pomp of independence; +news of Hawaii and descriptions of Honolulu are grateful topics in all +parts of the South Seas; and there is no better introduction than a +photograph in which the bearer shall be represented in company with +Kalakaua. Laupepa was, besides, sunk to the point at which an +unfortunate begins to clutch at straws, and he received the mission +with delight. Letters were exchanged between him and Kalakaua; +a deed of confederation was signed, 17th February 1887, and the signature +celebrated in the new house of the Hawaiian embassy with some original +ceremonies. Malietoa Laupepa came, attended by his ministry, several +hundred chiefs, two guards, and six policemen. Always decent, +he withdrew at an early hour; by those that remained, all decency appears +to have been forgotten; high chiefs were seen to dance; and day found +the house carpeted with slumbering grandees, who must be roused, doctored +with coffee, and sent home. As a first chapter in the history +of Polynesian Confederation, it was hardly cheering, and Laupepa remarked +to one of the embassy, with equal dignity and sense: “If you have +come here to teach my people to drink, I wish you had stayed away.”</p> +<p>The Germans looked on from the first with natural irritation that +a power of the powerlessness of Hawaii should thus profit by its undeniable +footing in the family of nations, and send embassies, and make believe +to have a navy, and bark and snap at the heels of the great German Empire. +But Becker could not prevent the hunted Laupepa from taking refuge in +any hole that offered, and he could afford to smile at the fantastic +orgie in the embassy. It was another matter when the Hawaiians +approached the intractable Mataafa, sitting still in his Atua government +like Achilles in his tent, helping neither side, and (as the Germans +suspected) keeping the eggs warm for himself. When the <i>Kaimiloa</i> +steamed out of Apia on this visit, the German war-ship <i>Adler</i> +followed at her heels; and Mataafa was no sooner set down with the embassy +than he was summoned and ordered on board by two German officers. +The step is one of those triumphs of temper which can only be admired. +Mataafa is entertaining the plenipotentiary of a sovereign power in +treaty with his own king, and the captain of a German corvette orders +him to quit his guests.</p> +<p>But there was worse to come. I gather that Tamasese was at +the time in the sulks. He had doubtless been promised prompt aid +and a prompt success; he had seen himself surreptitiously helped, privately +ordered about, and publicly disowned; and he was still the king of nothing +more than his own province, and already the second in command of Captain +Brandeis. With the adhesion of some part of his native cabinet, +and behind the back of his white minister, he found means to communicate +with the Hawaiians. A passage on the <i>Kaimiloa</i>, a pension, +and a home in Honolulu were the bribes proposed; and he seems to have +been tempted. A day was set for a secret interview. Poor, +the Hawaiian secretary, and J. D. Strong, an American painter attached +to the embassy in the surprising quality of “Government Artist,” +landed with a Samoan boat’s-crew in Aana; and while the secretary +hid himself, according to agreement, in the outlying home of an English +settler, the artist (ostensibly bent on photography) entered the headquarters +of the rebel king. It was a great day in Leulumoenga; three hundred +recruits had come in, a feast was cooking; and the photographer, in +view of the native love of being photographed, was made entirely welcome. +But beneath the friendly surface all were on the alert. The secret +had leaked out: Weber beheld his plans threatened in the root; Brandeis +trembled for the possession of his slave and sovereign; and the German +vice-consul, Mr. Sonnenschein, had been sent or summoned to the scene +of danger.</p> +<p>It was after dark, prayers had been said and the hymns sung through +all the village, and Strong and the German sat together on the mats +in the house of Tamasese, when the events began. Strong speaks +German freely, a fact which he had not disclosed, and he was scarce +more amused than embarrassed to be able to follow all the evening the +dissension and the changing counsels of his neighbours. First +the king himself was missing, and there was a false alarm that he had +escaped and was already closeted with Poor. Next came certain +intelligence that some of the ministry had run the blockade, and were +on their way to the house of the English settler. Thereupon, in +spite of some protests from Tamasese, who tried to defend the independence +of his cabinet, Brandeis gathered a posse of warriors, marched out of +the village, brought back the fugitives, and clapped them in the corrugated +iron shanty which served as gaol. Along with these he seems to +have seized Billy Coe, interpreter to the Hawaiians; and Poor, seeing +his conspiracy public, burst with his boat’s-crew into the town, +made his way to the house of the native prime minister, and demanded +Coe’s release. Brandeis hastened to the spot, with Strong +at his heels; and the two principals being both incensed, and Strong +seriously alarmed for his friend’s safety, there began among them +a scene of great intemperance. At one point, when Strong suddenly +disclosed his acquaintance with German, it attained a high style of +comedy; at another, when a pistol was most foolishly drawn, it bordered +on drama; and it may be said to have ended in a mixed genus, when Poor +was finally packed into the corrugated iron gaol along with the forfeited +ministers. Meanwhile the captain of his boat, Siteoni, of whom +I shall have to tell again, had cleverly withdrawn the boat’s-crew +at an early stage of the quarrel. Among the population beyond +Tamasese’s marches, he collected a body of armed men, returned +before dawn to Leulumoenga, demolished the corrugated iron gaol, and +liberated the Hawaiian secretary and the rump of the rebel cabinet. +No opposition was shown; and doubtless the rescue was connived at by +Brandeis, who had gained his point. Poor had the face to complain +the next day to Becker; but to compete with Becker in effrontery was +labour lost. “You have been repeatedly warned, Mr. Poor, +not to expose yourself among these savages,” said he.</p> +<p>Not long after, the presence of the <i>Kaimiloa</i> was made <i>a +casus belli</i> by the Germans; and the rough-and-tumble embassy withdrew, +on borrowed money, to find their own government in hot water to the +neck.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p><i>The Emperor’s Birthday</i>. It is possible, and it +is alleged, that the Germans entered into the conference with hope. +But it is certain they were resolved to remain prepared for either fate. +And I take the liberty of believing that Laupepa was not forgiven his +duplicity; that, during this interval, he stood marked like a tree for +felling; and that his conduct was daily scrutinised for further pretexts +of offence. On the evening of the Emperor’s birthday, March +22nd, 1887, certain Germans were congregated in a public bar. +The season and the place considered, it is scarce cynical to assume +they had been drinking; nor, so much being granted, can it be thought +exorbitant to suppose them possibly in fault for the squabble that took +place. A squabble, I say; but I am willing to call it a riot. +And this was the new fault of Laupepa; this it is that was described +by a German commodore as “the trampling upon by Malietoa of the +German Emperor.” I pass the rhetoric by to examine the point +of liability. Four natives were brought to trial for this horrid +fact: not before a native judge, but before the German magistrate of +the tripartite municipality of Apia. One was acquitted, one condemned +for theft, and two for assault. On appeal, not to Malietoa, but +to the three consuls, the case was by a majority of two to one returned +to the magistrate and (as far as I can learn) was then allowed to drop. +Consul Becker himself laid the chief blame on one of the policemen of +the municipality, a half-white of the name of Scanlon. Him he +sought to have discharged, but was again baffled by his brother consuls. +Where, in all this, are we to find a corner of responsibility for the +king of Samoa? Scanlon, the alleged author of the outrage, was +a half-white; as Becker was to learn to his cost, he claimed to be an +American subject; and he was not even in the king’s employment. +Apia, the scene of the outrage, was outside the king’s jurisdiction +by treaty; by the choice of Germany, he was not so much as allowed to +fly his flag there. And the denial of justice (if justice were +denied) rested with the consuls of Britain and the States.</p> +<p>But when a dog is to be beaten, any stick will serve. In the +meanwhile, on the proposition of Mr. Bayard, the Washington conference +on Samoan affairs was adjourned till autumn, so that “the ministers +of Germany and Great Britain might submit the protocols to their respective +Governments.” “You propose that the conference is +to adjourn and not to be broken up?” asked Sir Lionel West. +“To adjourn for the reasons stated,” replied Bayard. +This was on July 26th; and, twenty-nine days later, by Wednesday the +24th of August, Germany had practically seized Samoa. For this +flagrant breach of faith one excuse is openly alleged; another whispered. +It is openly alleged that Bayard had shown himself impracticable; it +is whispered that the Hawaiian embassy was an expression of American +intrigue, and that the Germans only did as they were done by. +The sufficiency of these excuses may be left to the discretion of the +reader. But, however excused, the breach of faith was public and +express; it must have been deliberately predetermined and it was resented +in the States as a deliberate insult.</p> +<p>By the middle of August 1887 there were five sail of German war-ships +in Apia bay: the <i>Bismarck</i>, of 3000 tons displacement; the <i>Carola</i>, +the <i>Sophie</i>, and the <i>Olga</i>, all considerable ships; and +the beautiful <i>Adler</i>, which lies there to this day, kanted on +her beam, dismantled, scarlet with rust, the day showing through her +ribs. They waited inactive, as a burglar waits till the patrol +goes by. And on the 23rd, when the mail had left for Sydney, when +the eyes of the world were withdrawn, and Samoa plunged again for a +period of weeks into her original island-obscurity, Becker opened his +guns. The policy was too cunning to seem dignified; it gave to +conduct which would otherwise have seemed bold and even brutally straightforward, +the appearance of a timid ambuscade; and helped to shake men’s +reliance on the word of Germany. On the day named, an ultimatum +reached Malietoa at Afenga, whither he had retired months before to +avoid friction. A fine of one thousand dollars and an <i>ifo</i>, +or public humiliation, were demanded for the affair of the Emperor’s +birthday. Twelve thousand dollars were to be “paid quickly” +for thefts from German plantations in the course of the last four years. +“It is my opinion that there is nothing just or correct in Samoa +while you are at the head of the government,” concluded Becker. +“I shall be at Afenga in the morning of to-morrow, Wednesday, +at 11 A.M.” The blow fell on Laupepa (in his own expression) +“out of the bush”; the dilatory fellow had seen things hang +over so long, he had perhaps begun to suppose they might hang over for +ever; and here was ruin at the door. He rode at once to Apia, +and summoned his chiefs. The council lasted all night long. +Many voices were for defiance. But Laupepa had grown inured to +a policy of procrastination; and the answer ultimately drawn only begged +for delay till Saturday, the 27th. So soon as it was signed, the +king took horse and fled in the early morning to Afenga; the council +hastily dispersed; and only three chiefs, Selu, Seumanu, and Le Mãmea, +remained by the government building, tremulously expectant of the result.</p> +<p>By seven the letter was received. By 7.30 Becker arrived in +person, inquired for Laupepa, was evasively answered, and declared war +on the spot. Before eight, the Germans (seven hundred men and +six guns) came ashore and seized and hoisted German colours on the government +building. The three chiefs had made good haste to escape; but +a considerable booty was made of government papers, fire-arms, and some +seventeen thousand cartridges. Then followed a scene which long +rankled in the minds of the white inhabitants, when the German marines +raided the town in search of Malietoa, burst into private houses, and +were accused (I am willing to believe on slender grounds) of violence +to private persons.</p> +<p>On the morrow, the 25th, one of the German war-ships, which had been +despatched to Leulumoenga over night re-entered the bay, flying the +Tamasese colours at the fore. The new king was given a royal salute +of twenty-one guns, marched through the town by the commodore and a +German guard of honour, and established on Mulinuu with two or three +hundred warriors. Becker announced his recognition to the other +consuls. These replied by proclaiming Malietoa, and in the usual +mealy-mouthed manner advised Samoans to do nothing. On the 27th +martial law was declared; and on the 1st September the German squadron +dispersed about the group, bearing along with them the proclamations +of the new king. Tamasese was now a great man, to have five iron +war-ships for his post-runners. But the moment was critical. +The revolution had to be explained, the chiefs persuaded to assemble +at a fono summoned for the 15th; and the ships carried not only a store +of printed documents, but a squad of Tamasese orators upon their round.</p> +<p>Such was the German <i>coup d’état</i>. They had +declared war with a squadron of five ships upon a single man; that man, +late king of the group, was in hiding on the mountains; and their own +nominee, backed by German guns and bayonets, sat in his stead in Mulinuu.</p> +<p>One of the first acts of Malietoa, on fleeing to the bush, was to +send for Mataafa twice: “I am alone in the bush; if you do not +come quickly you will find me bound.” It is to be understood +the men were near kinsmen, and had (if they had nothing else) a common +jealousy. At the urgent cry, Mataafa set forth from Falefá, +and came to Mulinuu to Tamasese. “What is this that you +and the German commodore have decided on doing?” he inquired. +“I am going to obey the German consul,” replied Tamasese, +“whose wish it is that I should be the king and that all Samoa +should assemble here.” “Do not pursue in wrath against +Malietoa,” said Mataafa “but try to bring about a compromise, +and form a united government.” “Very well,” +said Tamasese, “leave it to me, and I will try.” From +Mulinuu, Mataafa went on board the <i>Bismarck</i>, and was graciously +received. “Probably,” said the commodore, “we +shall bring about a reconciliation of all Samoa through you”; +and then asked his visitor if he bore any affection to Malietoa. +“Yes,” said Mataafa. “And to Tamasese?” +“To him also; and if you desire the weal of Samoa, you will allow +either him or me to bring about a reconciliation.” “If +it were my will,” said the commodore, “I would do as you +say. But I have no will in the matter. I have instructions +from the Kaiser, and I cannot go back again from what I have been sent +to do.” “I thought you would be commanded,” +said Mataafa, “if you brought about the weal of Samoa.” +“I will tell you,” said the commodore. “All +shall go quietly. But there is one thing that must be done: Malietoa +must be deposed. I will do nothing to him beyond; he will only +be kept on board for a couple of months and be well treated, just as +we Germans did to the French chief [Napoleon III.] some time ago, whom +we kept a while and cared for well.” Becker was no less +explicit: war, he told Sewall, should not cease till the Germans had +custody of Malietoa and Tamasese should be recognised.</p> +<p>Meantime, in the Malietoa provinces, a profound impression was received. +People trooped to their fugitive sovereign in the bush. Many natives +in Apia brought their treasures, and stored them in the houses of white +friends. The Tamasese orators were sometimes ill received. +Over in Savaii, they found the village of Satupaitea deserted, save +for a few lads at cricket. These they harangued, and were rewarded +with ironical applause; and the proclamation, as soon as they had departed, +was torn down. For this offence the village was ultimately burned +by German sailors, in a very decent and orderly style, on the 3rd September. +This was the dinner-bell of the fono on the 15th. The threat conveyed +in the terms of the summons—“If any government district +does not quickly obey this direction, I will make war on that government +district”—was thus commented on and reinforced. And +the meeting was in consequence well attended by chiefs of all parties. +They found themselves unarmed among the armed warriors of Tamasese and +the marines of the German squadron, and under the guns of five strong +ships. Brandeis rose; it was his first open appearance, the German +firm signing its revolutionary work. His words were few and uncompromising: +“Great are my thanks that the chiefs and heads of families of +the whole of Samoa are assembled here this day. It is strictly +forbidden that any discussion should take place as to whether it is +good or not that Tamasese is king of Samoa, whether at this fono or +at any future fono. I place for your signature the following: +‘<i>We inform all the people of Samoa of what follows: (1) The +government of Samoa has been assumed by King Tuiaana Tamasese. +(2) By order of the king, it was directed that a fono should take place +to-day, composed of the chiefs and heads of families, and we have obeyed +the summons. We have signed our names under this, 15th September</i> +1887.” Needs must under all these guns; and the paper was +signed, but not without open sullenness. The bearing of Mataafa +in particular was long remembered against him by the Germans. +“Do you not see the king?” said the commodore reprovingly. +“His father was no king,” was the bold answer. A bolder +still has been printed, but this is Mataafa’s own recollection +of the passage. On the next day, the chiefs were all ordered back +to shake hands with Tamasese. Again they obeyed; but again their +attitude was menacing, and some, it is said, audibly murmured as they +gave their hands.</p> +<p>It is time to follow the poor Sheet of Paper (literal meaning of +<i>Laupepa</i>), who was now to be blown so broadly over the face of +earth. As soon as news reached him of the declaration of war, +he fled from Afenga to Tanungamanono, a hamlet in the bush, about a +mile and a half behind Apia, where he lurked some days. On the +24th, Selu, his secretary, despatched to the American consul an anxious +appeal, his majesty’s “cry and prayer” in behalf of +“this weak people.” By August 30th, the Germans had +word of his lurking-place, surrounded the hamlet under cloud of night, +and in the early morning burst with a force of sailors on the houses. +The people fled on all sides, and were fired upon. One boy was +shot in the hand, the first blood of the war. But the king was +nowhere to be found; he had wandered farther, over the woody mountains, +the backbone of the land, towards Siumu and Safata. Here, in a +safe place, he built himself a town in the forest, where he received +a continual stream of visitors and messengers. Day after day the +German blue-jackets were employed in the hopeless enterprise of beating +the forests for the fugitive; day after day they were suffered to pass +unhurt under the guns of ambushed Samoans; day after day they returned, +exhausted and disappointed, to Apia. Seumanu Tafa, high chief +of Apia, was known to be in the forest with the king; his wife, Fatuila, +was seized, imprisoned in the German hospital, and when it was thought +her spirit was sufficiently reduced, brought up for cross-examination. +The wise lady confined herself in answer to a single word. “Is +your husband near Apia?” “Yes.” “Is +he far from Apia?” “Yes.” “Is he with +the king?” “Yes.” “Are he and the +king in different places?” “Yes.” Whereupon +the witness was discharged. About the 10th of September, Laupepa +was secretly in Apia at the American consulate with two companions. +The German pickets were close set and visited by a strong patrol; and +on his return, his party was observed and hailed and fired on by a sentry. +They ran away on all fours in the dark, and so doing plumped upon another +sentry, whom Laupepa grappled and flung in a ditch; for the Sheet of +Paper, although infirm of character, is, like most Samoans, of an able +body. The second sentry (like the first) fired after his assailants +at random in the dark; and the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia. +On the afternoon of the 16th, the day of the hand-shakings, Suatele, +a high chief, despatched two boys across the island with a letter. +They were most of the night upon the road; it was near three in the +morning before the sentries in the camp of Malietoa beheld their lantern +drawing near out of the wood; but the king was at once awakened. +The news was decisive and the letter peremptory; if Malietoa did not +give himself up before ten on the morrow, he was told that great sorrows +must befall his country. I have not been able to draw Laupepa +as a hero; but he is a man of certain virtues, which the Germans had +now given him an occasion to display. Without hesitation he sacrificed +himself, penned his touching farewell to Samoa, and making more expedition +than the messengers, passed early behind Apia to the banks of the Vaisingano. +As he passed, he detached a messenger to Mataafa at the Catholic mission. +Mataafa followed by the same road, and the pair met at the river-side +and went and sat together in a house. All present were in tears. +“Do not let us weep,” said the talking man, Lauati. +“We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, +but to the invincible strangers.” The departing king bequeathed +the care of his country to Mataafa; and when the latter sought to console +him with the commodore’s promises, he shook his head, and declared +his assurance that he was going to a life of exile, and perhaps to death. +About two o’clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa returned to the +Catholic mission by the back of the town; and Malietoa proceeded by +the beach road to the German naval hospital, where he was received (as +he owns, with perfect civility) by Brandeis. About three, Becker +brought him forth again. As they went to the wharf, the people +wept and clung to their departing monarch. A boat carried him +on board the <i>Bismarck</i>, and he vanished from his countrymen. +Yet it was long rumoured that he still lay in the harbour; and so late +as October 7th, a boy, who had been paddling round the <i>Carola</i>, +professed to have seen and spoken with him. Here again the needless +mystery affected by the Germans bitterly disserved them. The uncertainty +which thus hung over Laupepa’s fate, kept his name continually +in men’s mouths. The words of his farewell rang in their +ears: “To all Samoa: On account of my great love to my country +and my great affection to all Samoa, this is the reason that I deliver +up my body to the German government. That government may do as +they wish to me. The reason of this is, because I do not desire +that the blood of Samoa shall be spilt for me again. But I do +not know what is my offence which has caused their anger to me and to +my country.” And then, apostrophising the different provinces: +“Tuamasanga, farewell! Manono and family, farewell! +So, also, Salafai, Tutuila, Aana, and Atua, farewell! If we do +not again see one another in this world, pray that we may be again together +above.” So the sheep departed with the halo of a saint, +and men thought of him as of some King Arthur snatched into Avilion.</p> +<p>On board the <i>Bismarck</i>, the commodore shook hands with him, +told him he was to be “taken away from all the chiefs with whom +he had been accustomed,” and had him taken to the wardroom under +guard. The next day he was sent to sea in the <i>Adler</i>. +There went with him his brother Moli, one Meisake, and one Alualu, half-caste +German, to interpret. He was respectfully used; he dined in the +stern with the officers, but the boys dined “near where the fire +was.” They come to a “newly-formed place” in +Australia, where the <i>Albatross</i> was lying, and a British ship, +which he knew to be a man-of-war “because the officers were nicely +dressed and wore epaulettes.” Here he was transhipped, “in +a boat with a screen,” which he supposed was to conceal him from +the British ship; and on board the <i>Albatross</i> was sent below and +told he must stay there till they had sailed. Later, however, +he was allowed to come on deck, where he found they had rigged a screen +(perhaps an awning) under which he walked, looking at “the newly-formed +settlement,” and admiring a big house “where he was sure +the governor lived.” From Australia, they sailed some time, +and reached an anchorage where a consul-general came on board, and where +Laupepa was only allowed on deck at night. He could then see the +lights of a town with wharves; he supposes Cape Town. Off the +Cameroons they anchored or lay-to, far at sea, and sent a boat ashore +to see (he supposes) that there was no British man-of-war. It +was the next morning before the boat returned, when the <i>Albatross</i> +stood in and came to anchor near another German ship. Here Alualu +came to him on deck and told him this was the place. “That +is an astonishing thing,” said he. “I thought I was +to go to Germany, I do not know what this means; I do not know what +will be the end of it; my heart is troubled.” Whereupon +Alualu burst into tears. A little after, Laupepa was called below +to the captain and the governor. The last addressed him: “This +is my own place, a good place, a warm place. My house is not yet +finished, but when it is, you shall live in one of my rooms until I +can make a house for you.” Then he was taken ashore and +brought to a tall, iron house. “This house is regulated,” +said the governor; “there is no fire allowed to burn in it.” +In one part of this house, weapons of the government were hung up; there +was a passage, and on the other side of the passage, fifty criminals +were chained together, two and two, by the ankles. The windows +were out of reach; and there was only one door, which was opened at +six in the morning and shut again at six at night. All day he +had his liberty, went to the Baptist Mission, and walked about viewing +the negroes, who were “like the sand on the seashore” for +number. At six they were called into the house and shut in for +the night without beds or lights. “Although they gave me +no light,” said he, with a smile, “I could see I was in +a prison.” Good food was given him: biscuits, “tea +made with warm water,” beef, etc.; all excellent. Once, +in their walks, they spied a breadfruit tree bearing in the garden of +an English merchant, ran back to the prison to get a shilling, and came +and offered to purchase. “I am not going to sell breadfruit +to you people,” said the merchant; “come and take what you +like.” Here Malietoa interrupted himself to say it was the +only tree bearing in the Cameroons. “The governor had none, +or he would have given it to me.” On the passage from the +Cameroons to Germany, he had great delight to see the cliffs of England. +He saw “the rocks shining in the sun, and three hours later was +surprised to find them sunk in the heavens.” He saw also +wharves and immense buildings; perhaps Dover and its castle. In +Hamburg, after breakfast, Mr. Weber, who had now finally “ceased +from troubling” Samoa, came on board, and carried him ashore “suitably” +in a steam launch to “a large house of the government,” +where he stayed till noon. At noon Weber told him he was going +to “the place where ships are anchored that go to Samoa,” +and led him to “a very magnificent house, with carriages inside +and a wonderful roof of glass”; to wit, the railway station. +They were benighted on the train, and then went in “something +with a house, drawn by horses, which had windows and many decks”; +plainly an omnibus. Here (at Bremen or Bremerhaven, I believe) +they stayed some while in “a house of five hundred rooms”; +then were got on board the <i>Nürnberg</i> (as they understood) +for Samoa, anchored in England on a Sunday, were joined <i>en route</i> +by the famous Dr. Knappe, passed through “a narrow passage where +they went very slow and which was just like a river,” and beheld +with exhilarated curiosity that Red Sea of which they had learned so +much in their Bibles. At last, “at the hour when the fires +burn red,” they came to a place where was a German man-of-war. +Laupepa was called, with one of the boys, on deck, when he found a German +officer awaiting him, and a steam launch alongside, and was told he +must now leave his brother and go elsewhere. “I cannot go +like this,” he cried. “You must let me see my brother +and the other old men”—a term of courtesy. Knappe, +who seems always to have been good-natured, revised his orders, and +consented not only to an interview, but to allow Moli to continue to +accompany the king. So these two were carried to the man-of-war, +and sailed many a day, still supposing themselves bound for Samoa; and +lo! she came to a country the like of which they had never dreamed of, +and cast anchor in the great lagoon of Jaluit; and upon that narrow +land the exiles were set on shore. This was the part of his captivity +on which he looked back with the most bitterness. It was the last, +for one thing, and he was worn down with the long suspense, and terror, +and deception. He could not bear the brackish water; and though +“the Germans were still good to him, and gave him beef and biscuit +and tea,” he suffered from the lack of vegetable food.</p> +<p>Such is the narrative of this simple exile. I have not sought +to correct it by extraneous testimony. It is not so much the facts +that are historical, as the man’s attitude. No one could +hear this tale as he originally told it in my hearing—I think +none can read it as here condensed and unadorned—without admiring +the fairness and simplicity of the Samoan; and wondering at the want +of heart—or want of humour—in so many successive civilised +Germans, that they should have continued to surround this infant with +the secrecy of state.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV—BRANDEIS</h2> +<p><i>September ’87 to August ’88</i></p> +<p>So Tamasese was on the throne, and Brandeis behind it; and I have +now to deal with their brief and luckless reign. That it was the +reign of Brandeis needs not to be argued: the policy is throughout that +of an able, over-hasty white, with eyes and ideas. But it should +be borne in mind that he had a double task, and must first lead his +sovereign, before he could begin to drive their common subjects. +Meanwhile, he himself was exposed (if all tales be true) to much dictation +and interference, and to some “cumbrous aid,” from the consulate +and the firm. And to one of these aids, the suppression of the +municipality, I am inclined to attribute his ultimate failure.</p> +<p>The white enemies of the new regimen were of two classes. In +the first stood Moors and the employés of MacArthur, the two +chief rivals of the firm, who saw with jealousy a clerk (or a so-called +clerk) of their competitors advanced to the chief power. The second +class, that of the officials, numbered at first exactly one. Wilson, +the English acting consul, is understood to have held strict orders +to help Germany. Commander Leary, of the <i>Adams</i>, the American +captain, when he arrived, on the 16th October, and for some time after, +seemed devoted to the German interest, and spent his days with a German +officer, Captain Von Widersheim, who was deservedly beloved by all who +knew him. There remains the American consul-general, Harold Marsh +Sewall, a young man of high spirit and a generous disposition. +He had obeyed the orders of his government with a grudge; and looked +back on his past action with regret almost to be called repentance. +From the moment of the declaration of war against Laupepa, we find him +standing forth in bold, consistent, and sometimes rather captious opposition, +stirring up his government at home with clear and forcible despatches, +and on the spot grasping at every opportunity to thrust a stick into +the German wheels. For some while, he and Moors fought their difficult +battle in conjunction; in the course of which, first one, and then the +other, paid a visit home to reason with the authorities at Washington; +and during the consul’s absence, there was found an American clerk +in Apia, William Blacklock, to perform the duties of the office with +remarkable ability and courage. The three names just brought together, +Sewall, Moors, and Blacklock, make the head and front of the opposition; +if Tamasese fell, if Brandeis was driven forth, if the treaty of Berlin +was signed, theirs is the blame or the credit.</p> +<p>To understand the feelings of self-reproach and bitterness with which +Sewall took the field, the reader must see Laupepa’s letter of +farewell to the consuls of England and America. It is singular +that this far from brilliant or dignified monarch, writing in the forest, +in heaviness of spirit and under pressure for time, should have left +behind him not only one, but two remarkable and most effective documents. +The farewell to his people was touching; the farewell to the consuls, +for a man of the character of Sewall, must have cut like a whip. +“When the chief Tamasese and others first moved the present troubles,” +he wrote, “it was my wish to punish them and put an end to the +rebellion; but I yielded to the advice of the British and American consuls. +Assistance and protection was repeatedly promised to me and my government, +if I abstained from bringing war upon my country. Relying upon +these promises, I did not put down the rebellion. Now I find that +war has been made upon me by the Emperor of Germany, and Tamasese has +been proclaimed king of Samoa. I desire to remind you of the promises +so frequently made by your government, and trust that you will so far +redeem them as to cause the lives and liberties of my chiefs and people +to be respected.”</p> +<p>Sewall’s immediate adversary was, of course, Becker. +I have formed an opinion of this gentleman, largely from his printed +despatches, which I am at a loss to put in words. Astute, ingenious, +capable, at moments almost witty with a kind of glacial wit in action, +he displayed in the course of this affair every description of capacity +but that which is alone useful and which springs from a knowledge of +men’s natures. It chanced that one of Sewall’s early +moves played into his hands, and he was swift to seize and to improve +the advantage. The neutral territory and the tripartite municipality +of Apia were eyesores to the German consulate and Brandeis. By +landing Tamasese’s two or three hundred warriors at Mulinuu, as +Becker himself owns, they had infringed the treaties, and Sewall entered +protest twice. There were two ways of escaping this dilemma: one +was to withdraw the warriors; the other, by some hocus-pocus, to abrogate +the neutrality. And the second had subsidiary advantages: it would +restore the taxes of the richest district in the islands to the Samoan +king; and it would enable them to substitute over the royal seat the +flag of Germany for the new flag of Tamasese. It is true (and +it was the subject of much remark) that these two could hardly be distinguished +by the naked eye; but their effects were different. To seat the +puppet king on German land and under German colours, so that any rebellion +was constructive war on Germany, was a trick apparently invented by +Becker, and which we shall find was repeated and persevered in till +the end.</p> +<p>Otto Martin was at this time magistrate in the municipality. +The post was held in turn by the three nationalities; Martin had served +far beyond his term, and should have been succeeded months before by +an American. To make the change it was necessary to hold a meeting +of the municipal board, consisting of the three consuls, each backed +by an assessor. And for some time these meetings had been evaded +or refused by the German consul. As long as it was agreed to continue +Martin, Becker had attended regularly; as soon as Sewall indicated a +wish for his removal, Becker tacitly suspended the municipality by refusing +to appear. This policy was now the more necessary; for if the +whole existence of the municipality were a check on the freedom of the +new government, it was plainly less so when the power to enforce and +punish lay in German hands. For some while back the Malietoa flag +had been flown on the municipal building: Becker denies this; I am sorry; +my information obliges me to suppose he is in error. Sewall, with +post-mortem loyalty to the past, insisted that this flag should be continued. +And Becker immediately made his point. He declared, justly enough, +that the proposal was hostile, and argued that it was impossible he +should attend a meeting under a flag with which his sovereign was at +war. Upon one occasion of urgency, he was invited to meet the +two other consuls at the British consulate; even this he refused; and +for four months the municipality slumbered, Martin still in office. +In the month of October, in consequence, the British and American ratepayers +announced they would refuse to pay. Becker doubtless rubbed his +hands. On Saturday, the 10th, the chief Tamaseu, a Malietoa man +of substance and good character, was arrested on a charge of theft believed +to be vexatious, and cast by Martin into the municipal prison. +He sent to Moors, who was his tenant and owed him money at the time, +for bail. Moors applied to Sewall, ranking consul. After +some search, Martin was found and refused to consider bail before the +Monday morning. Whereupon Sewall demanded the keys from the gaoler, +accepted Moors’s verbal recognisances, and set Tamaseu free.</p> +<p>Things were now at a deadlock; and Becker astonished every one by +agreeing to a meeting on the 14th. It seems he knew what to expect. +Writing on the 13th at least, he prophesies that the meeting will be +held in vain, that the municipality must lapse, and the government of +Tamasese step in. On the 14th, Sewall left his consulate in time, +and walked some part of the way to the place of meeting in company with +Wilson, the English pro-consul. But he had forgotten a paper, +and in an evil hour returned for it alone. Wilson arrived without +him, and Becker broke up the meeting for want of a quorum. There +was some unedifying disputation as to whether he had waited ten or twenty +minutes, whether he had been officially or unofficially informed by +Wilson that Sewall was on the way, whether the statement had been made +to himself or to Weber <a name="citation1"></a><a href="#footnote1">{1}</a> +in answer to a question, and whether he had heard Wilson’s answer +or only Weber’s question: all otiose; if he heard the question, +he was bound to have waited for the answer; if he heard it not, he should +have put it himself; and it was the manifest truth that he rejoiced +in his occasion. “Sir,” he wrote to Sewall, “I +have the honour to inform you that, to my regret, I am obliged to consider +the municipal government to be provisionally in abeyance since you have +withdrawn your consent to the continuation of Mr. Martin in his position +as magistrate, and since you have refused to take part in the meeting +of the municipal board agreed to for the purpose of electing a magistrate. +The government of the town and district of the municipality rests, as +long as the municipality is in abeyance, with the Samoan government. +The Samoan government has taken over the administration, and has applied +to the commander of the imperial German squadron for assistance in the +preservation of good order.” This letter was not delivered +until 4 P.M. By three, sailors had been landed. Already +German colours flew over Tamasese’s headquarters at Mulinuu, and +German guards had occupied the hospital, the German consulate, and the +municipal gaol and court-house, where they stood to arms under the flag +of Tamasese. The same day Sewall wrote to protest. Receiving +no reply, he issued on the morrow a proclamation bidding all Americans +look to himself alone. On the 26th, he wrote again to Becker, +and on the 27th received this genial reply: “Sir, your high favour +of the 26th of this month, I give myself the honour of acknowledging. +At the same time I acknowledge the receipt of your high favour of the +14th October in reply to my communication of the same date, which contained +the information of the suspension of the arrangements for the municipal +government.” There the correspondence ceased. And +on the 18th January came the last step of this irritating intrigue when +Tamasese appointed a judge—and the judge proved to be Martin.</p> +<p>Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir Becker +the chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, all passed +into the hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was secured upon the bench; +and the German flag might wave over her puppet unquestioned. But +there is a law of human nature which diplomatists should be taught at +school, and it seems they are not; that men can tolerate bare injustice, +but not the combination of injustice and subterfuge. Hence the +chequered career of the thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been +seized by open force, there might have been complaint, it would not +have aroused the same lasting grudge.</p> +<p>This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble +enough in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported +by the guns of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien’s +work, highly needful for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all Samoans. +The law to be enforced, causes of dispute between white and brown to +be eliminated, taxes to be raised, a central power created, the country +opened up, the native race taught industry: all these were detestable +to the natives, and to all of these he must set his hand. The +more I learn of his brief term of rule, the more I learn to admire him, +and to wish we had his like.</p> +<p>In the face of bitter native opposition, he got some roads accomplished. +He set up beacons. The taxes he enforced with necessary vigour. +By the 6th of January, Aua and Fangatonga, districts in Tutuila, having +made a difficulty, Brandeis is down at the island in a schooner, with +the <i>Adler</i> at his heels, seizes the chief Maunga, fines the recalcitrant +districts in three hundred dollars for expenses, and orders all to be +in by April 20th, which if it is not, “not one thing will be done,” +he proclaimed, “but war declared against you, and the principal +chiefs taken to a distant island.” He forbade mortgages +of copra, a frequent source of trickery and quarrel; and to clear off +those already contracted, passed a severe but salutary law. Each +individual or family was first to pay off its own obligation; that settled, +the free man was to pay for the indebted village, the free village for +the indebted province, and one island for another. Samoa, he declared, +should be free of debt within a year. Had he given it three years, +and gone more gently, I believe it might have been accomplished. +To make it the more possible, he sought to interdict the natives from +buying cotton stuffs and to oblige them to dress (at least for the time) +in their own tapa. He laid the beginnings of a royal territorial +army. The first draft was in his hands drilling. But it +was not so much on drill that he depended; it was his hope to kindle +in these men an <i>esprit de corps</i>, which should weaken the old +local jealousies and bonds, and found a central or national party in +the islands. Looking far before, and with a wisdom beyond that +of many merchants, he had condemned the single dependence placed on +copra for the national livelihood. His recruits, even as they +drilled, were taught to plant cacao. Each, his term of active +service finished, should return to his own land and plant and cultivate +a stipulated area. Thus, as the young men continued to pass through +the army, habits of discipline and industry, a central sentiment, the +principles of the new culture, and actual gardens of cacao, should be +concurrently spread over the face of the islands.</p> +<p>Tamasese received, including his household expenses, 1960 dollars +a year; Brandeis, 2400. All such disproportions are regrettable, +but this is not extreme: we have seen horses of a different colour since +then. And the Tamaseseites, with true Samoan ostentation, offered +to increase the salary of their white premier: an offer he had the wisdom +and good feeling to refuse. A European chief of police received +twelve hundred. There were eight head judges, one to each province, +and appeal lay from the district judge to the provincial, thence to +Mulinuu. From all salaries (I gather) a small monthly guarantee +was withheld. The army was to cost from three to four thousand, +Apia (many whites refusing to pay taxes since the suppression of the +municipality) might cost three thousand more: Sir Becker’s high +feat of arms coming expensive (it will be noticed) even in money. +The whole outlay was estimated at twenty-seven thousand; and the revenue +forty thousand: a sum Samoa is well able to pay.</p> +<p>Such were the arrangements and some of the ideas of this strong, +ardent, and sanguine man. Of criticisms upon his conduct, beyond +the general consent that he was rather harsh and in too great a hurry, +few are articulate. The native paper of complaints was particularly +childish. Out of twenty-three counts, the first two refer to the +private character of Brandeis and Tamasese. Three complain that +Samoan officials were kept in the dark as to the finances; one, of the +tapa law; one, of the direct appointment of chiefs by Tamasese-Brandeis, +the sort of mistake into which Europeans in the South Seas fall so readily; +one, of the enforced labour of chiefs; one, of the taxes; and one, of +the roads. This I may give in full from the very lame translation +in the American white book. “The roads that were made were +called the Government Roads; they were six fathoms wide. Their +making caused much damage to Samoa’s lands and what was planted +on it. The Samoans cried on account of their lands, which were +taken high-handedly and abused. They again cried on account of +the loss of what they had planted, which was now thrown away in a high-handed +way, without any regard being shown or question asked of the owner of +the land, or any compensation offered for the damage done. This +was different with foreigners’ land; in their case permission +was first asked to make the roads; the foreigners were paid for any +destruction made.” The sting of this count was, I fancy, +in the last clause. No less than six articles complain of the +administration of the law; and I believe that was never satisfactory. +Brandeis told me himself he was never yet satisfied with any native +judge. And men say (and it seems to fit in well with his hasty +and eager character) that he would legislate by word of mouth; sometimes +forget what he had said; and, on the same question arising in another +province, decide it perhaps otherwise. I gather, on the whole, +our artillery captain was not great in law. Two articles refer +to a matter I must deal with more at length, and rather from the point +of view of the white residents.</p> +<p>The common charge against Brandeis was that of favouring the German +firm. Coming as he did, this was inevitable. Weber had bought +Steinberger with hard cash; that was matter of history. The present +government he did not even require to buy, having founded it by his +intrigues, and introduced the premier to Samoa through the doors of +his own office. And the effect of the initial blunder was kept +alive by the chatter of the clerks in bar-rooms, boasting themselves +of the new government and prophesying annihilation to all rivals. +The time of raising a tax is the harvest of the merchants; it is the +time when copra will be made, and must be sold; and the intention of +the German firm, first in the time of Steinberger, and again in April +and May, 1888, with Brandeis, was to seize and handle the whole operation. +Their chief rivals were the Messrs. MacArthur; and it seems beyond question +that provincial governors more than once issued orders forbidding Samoans +to take money from “the New Zealand firm.” These, +when they were brought to his notice, Brandeis disowned, and he is entitled +to be heard. No man can live long in Samoa and not have his honesty +impugned. But the accusations against Brandeis’s veracity +are both few and obscure. I believe he was as straight as his +sword. The governors doubtless issued these orders, but there +were plenty besides Brandeis to suggest them. Every wandering +clerk from the firm’s office, every plantation manager, would +be dinning the same story in the native ear. And here again the +initial blunder hung about the neck of Brandeis, a ton’s weight. +The natives, as well as the whites, had seen their premier masquerading +on a stool in the office; in the eyes of the natives, as well as in +those of the whites, he must always have retained the mark of servitude +from that ill-judged passage; and they would be inclined to look behind +and above him, to the great house of <i>Misi Ueba</i>. The government +was like a vista of puppets. People did not trouble with Tamasese, +if they got speech with Brandeis; in the same way, they might not always +trouble to ask Brandeis, if they had a hint direct from <i>Misi Ueba</i>. +In only one case, though it seems to have had many developments, do +I find the premier personally committed. The MacArthurs claimed +the copra of Fasitotai on a district mortgage of three hundred dollars. +The German firm accepted a mortgage of the whole province of Aana, claimed +the copra of Fasitotai as that of a part of Aana, and were supported +by the government. Here Brandeis was false to his own principle, +that personal and village debts should come before provincial. +But the case occurred before the promulgation of the law, and was, as +a matter of fact, the cause of it; so the most we can say is that he +changed his mind, and changed it for the better. If the history +of his government be considered—how it originated in an intrigue +between the firm and the consulate, and was (for the firm’s sake +alone) supported by the consulate with foreign bayonets—the existence +of the least doubt on the man’s action must seem marvellous. +We should have looked to find him playing openly and wholly into their +hands; that he did not, implies great independence and much secret friction; +and I believe (if the truth were known) the firm would be found to have +been disgusted with the stubbornness of its intended tool, and Brandeis +often impatient of the demands of his creators.</p> +<p>But I may seem to exaggerate the degree of white opposition. +And it is true that before fate overtook the Brandeis government, it +appeared to enjoy the fruits of victory in Apia; and one dissident, +the unconquerable Moors, stood out alone to refuse his taxes. +But the victory was in appearance only; the opposition was latent; it +found vent in talk, and thus reacted on the natives; upon the least +excuse, it was ready to flame forth again. And this is the more +singular because some were far from out of sympathy with the native +policy pursued. When I met Captain Brandeis, he was amazed at +my attitude. “Whom did you find in Apia to tell you so much +good of me?” he asked. I named one of my informants. +“He?” he cried. “If he thought all that, why +did he not help me?” I told him as well as I was able. +The man was a merchant. He beheld in the government of Brandeis +a government created by and for the firm who were his rivals. +If Brandeis were minded to deal fairly, where was the probability that +he would be allowed? If Brandeis insisted and were strong enough +to prevail, what guarantee that, as soon as the government were fairly +accepted, Brandeis might not be removed? Here was the attitude +of the hour; and I am glad to find it clearly set forth in a despatch +of Sewall’s, June 18th, 1888, when he commends the law against +mortgages, and goes on: “Whether the author of this law will carry +out the good intentions which he professes—whether he will be +allowed to do so, if he desires, against the opposition of those who +placed him in power and protect him in the possession of it—may +well be doubted.” Brandeis had come to Apia in the firm’s +livery. Even while he promised neutrality in commerce, the clerks +were prating a different story in the bar-rooms; and the late high feat +of the knight-errant, Becker, had killed all confidence in Germans at +the root. By these three impolicies, the German adventure in Samoa +was defeated.</p> +<p>I imply that the handful of whites were the true obstacle, not the +thousands of malcontent Samoans; for had the whites frankly accepted +Brandeis, the path of Germany was clear, and the end of their policy, +however troublesome might be its course, was obvious. But this +is not to say that the natives were content. In a sense, indeed, +their opposition was continuous. There will always be opposition +in Samoa when taxes are imposed; and the deportation of Malietoa stuck +in men’s throats. Tuiatua Mataafa refused to act under the +new government from the beginning, and Tamasese usurped his place and +title. As early as February, I find him signing himself “Tuiaana +<i>Tuiatua</i> Tamasese,” the first step on a dangerous path. +Asi, like Mataafa, disclaimed his chiefship and declared himself a private +person; but he was more rudely dealt with. German sailors surrounded +his house in the night, burst in, and dragged the women out of the mosquito +nets—an offence against Samoan manners. No Asi was to be +found; but at last they were shown his fishing-lights on the reef, rowed +out, took him as he was, and carried him on board a man-of-war, where +he was detained some while between-decks. At last, January 16th, +after a farewell interview over the ship’s side with his wife, +he was discharged into a ketch, and along with two other chiefs, Maunga +and Tuiletu-funga, deported to the Marshalls. The blow struck +fear upon all sides. Le Mãmea (a very able chief) was secretly +among the malcontents. His family and followers murmured at his +weakness; but he continued, throughout the duration of the government, +to serve Brandeis with trembling. A circus coming to Apia, he +seized at the pretext for escape, and asked leave to accept an engagement +in the company. “I will not allow you to make a monkey of +yourself,” said Brandeis; and the phrase had a success throughout +the islands, pungent expressions being so much admired by the natives +that they cannot refrain from repeating them, even when they have been +levelled at themselves. The assumption of the Atua <i>name</i> +spread discontent in that province; many chiefs from thence were convicted +of disaffection, and condemned to labour with their hands upon the roads—a +great shock to the Samoan sense of the becoming, which was rendered +the more sensible by the death of one of the number at his task. +Mataafa was involved in the same trouble. His disaffected speech +at a meeting of Atua chiefs was betrayed by the girls that made the +kava, and the man of the future was called to Apia on safe-conduct, +but, after an interview, suffered to return to his lair. The peculiarly +tender treatment of Mataafa must be explained by his relationship to +Tamasese. Laupepa was of Malietoa blood. The hereditary +retainers of the Tupua would see him exiled even with some complacency. +But Mataafa was Tupua himself; and Tupua men would probably have murmured, +and would perhaps have mutinied, had he been harshly dealt with.</p> +<p>The native opposition, I say, was in a sense continuous. And +it kept continuously growing. The sphere of Brandeis was limited +to Mulinuu and the north central quarters of Upolu—practically +what is shown upon the map opposite. There the taxes were expanded; +in the out-districts, men paid their money and saw no return. +Here the eye and hand of the dictator were ready to correct the scales +of justice; in the out-districts, all things lay at the mercy of the +native magistrates, and their oppressions increased with the course +of time and the experience of impunity. In the spring of the year, +a very intelligent observer had occasion to visit many places in the +island of Savaii. “Our lives are not worth living,” +was the burthen of the popular complaint. “We are groaning +under the oppression of these men. We would rather die than continue +to endure it.” On his return to Apia, he made haste to communicate +his impressions to Brandeis. Brandeis replied in an epigram: “Where +there has been anarchy in a country, there must be oppression for a +time.” But unfortunately the terms of the epigram may be +reversed; and personal supervision would have been more in season than +wit. The same observer who conveyed to him this warning thinks +that, if Brandeis had himself visited the districts and inquired into +complaints, the blow might yet have been averted and the government +saved. At last, upon a certain unconstitutional act of Tamasese, +the discontent took life and fire. The act was of his own conception; +the dull dog was ambitious. Brandeis declares he would not be +dissuaded; perhaps his adviser did not seriously try, perhaps did not +dream that in that welter of contradictions, the Samoan constitution, +any one point would be considered sacred. I have told how Tamasese +assumed the title of Tuiatua. In August 1888 a year after his +installation, he took a more formidable step and assumed that of Malietoa. +This name, as I have said, is of peculiar honour; it had been given +to, it had never been taken from, the exiled Laupepa; those in whose +grant it lay, stood punctilious upon their rights; and Tamasese, as +the representative of their natural opponents, the Tupua line, was the +last who should have had it. And there was yet more, though I +almost despair to make it thinkable by Europeans. Certain old +mats are handed down, and set huge store by; they may be compared to +coats of arms or heirlooms among ourselves; and to the horror of more +than one-half of Samoa, Tamasese, the head of the Tupua, began collecting +Malietoa mats. It was felt that the cup was full, and men began +to prepare secretly for rebellion. The history of the month of +August is unknown to whites; it passed altogether in the covert of the +woods or in the stealthy councils of Samoans. One ominous sign +was to be noted; arms and ammunition began to be purchased or inquired +about; and the more wary traders ordered fresh consignments of material +of war. But the rest was silence; the government slept in security; +and Brandeis was summoned at last from a public dinner, to find rebellion +organised, the woods behind Apia full of insurgents, and a plan prepared, +and in the very article of execution, to surprise and seize Mulinuu. +The timely discovery averted all; and the leaders hastily withdrew towards +the south side of the island, leaving in the bush a rear-guard under +a young man of the name of Saifaleupolu. According to some accounts, +it scarce numbered forty; the leader was no great chief, but a handsome, +industrious lad who seems to have been much beloved. And upon +this obstacle Brandeis fell. It is the man’s fault to be +too impatient of results; his public intention to free Samoa of all +debt within the year, depicts him; and instead of continuing to temporise +and let his enemies weary and disperse, he judged it politic to strike +a blow. He struck it, with what seemed to be success, and the +sound of it roused Samoa to rebellion.</p> +<p>About two in the morning of August 31st, Apia was wakened by men +marching. Day came, and Brandeis and his war-party were already +long disappeared in the woods. All morning belated Tamaseseites +were still to be seen running with their guns. All morning shots +were listened for in vain; but over the top of the forest, far up the +mountain, smoke was for some time observed to hang. About ten +a dead man was carried in, lashed under a pole like a dead pig, his +rosary (for he was a Catholic) hanging nearly to the ground. Next +came a young fellow wounded, sitting in a rope swung from a pole; two +fellows bearing him, two running behind for a relief. At last +about eleven, three or four heavy volleys and a great shouting were +heard from the bush town Tanungamanono; the affair was over, the victorious +force, on the march back, was there celebrating its victory by the way. +Presently after, it marched through Apia, five or six hundred strong, +in tolerable order and strutting with the ludicrous assumption of the +triumphant islander. Women who had been buying bread ran and gave +them loaves. At the tail end came Brandeis himself, smoking a +cigar, deadly pale, and with perhaps an increase of his usual nervous +manner. One spoke to him by the way. He expressed his sorrow +the action had been forced on him. “Poor people, it’s +all the worse for them!” he said. “It’ll have +to be done another way now.” And it was supposed by his +hearer that he referred to intervention from the German war-ships. +He meant, he said, to put a stop to head-hunting; his men had taken +two that day, he added, but he had not suffered them to bring them in, +and they had been left in Tanungamanono. Thither my informant +rode, was attracted by the sound of wailing, and saw in a house the +two heads washed and combed, and the sister of one of the dead lamenting +in the island fashion and kissing the cold face. Soon after, a +small grave was dug, the heads were buried in a beef box, and the pastor +read the service. The body of Saifaleupolu himself was recovered +unmutilated, brought down from the forest, and buried behind Apia.</p> +<p>The same afternoon, the men of Vaimaunga were ordered to report in +Mulinuu, where Tamasese’s flag was half-masted for the death of +a chief in the skirmish. Vaimaunga is that district of Taumasanga +which includes the bay and the foothills behind Apia; and both province +and district are strong Malietoa. Not one man, it is said, obeyed +the summons. Night came, and the town lay in unusual silence; +no one abroad; the blinds down around the native houses, the men within +sleeping on their arms; the old women keeping watch in pairs. +And in the course of the two following days all Vaimaunga was gone into +the bush, the very gaoler setting free his prisoners and joining them +in their escape. Hear the words of the chiefs in the 23rd article +of their complaint: “Some of the chiefs fled to the bush from +fear of being reported, fear of German men-of-war, constantly being +accused, etc., and Brandeis commanded that they were to be shot on sight. +This act was carried out by Brandeis on the 31st day of August, 1888. +After this we evaded these laws; we could not stand them; our patience +was worn out with the constant wickedness of Tamasese and Brandeis. +We were tired out and could stand no longer the acts of these two men.”</p> +<p>So through an ill-timed skirmish, two severed heads, and a dead body, +the rule of Brandeis came to a sudden end. We shall see him a +while longer fighting for existence in a losing battle; but his government—take +it for all in all, the most promising that has ever been in these unlucky +islands—was from that hour a piece of history.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER V—THE BATTLE OF MATAUTU</h2> +<p><i>September 1888</i></p> +<p>The revolution had all the character of a popular movement. +Many of the high chiefs were detained in Mulinuu; the commons trooped +to the bush under inferior leaders. A camp was chosen near Faleula, +threatening Mulinuu, well placed for the arrival of recruits and close +to a German plantation from which the force could be subsisted. +Manono came, all Tuamasanga, much of Savaii, and part of Aana, Tamasese’s +own government and titular seat. Both sides were arming. +It was a brave day for the trader, though not so brave as some that +followed, when a single cartridge is said to have been sold for twelve +cents currency—between nine and ten cents gold. Yet even +among the traders a strong party feeling reigned, and it was the common +practice to ask a purchaser upon which side he meant to fight.</p> +<p>On September 5th, Brandeis published a letter: “To the chiefs +of Tuamasanga, Manono, and Faasaleleanga in the Bush: Chiefs, by authority +of his majesty Tamasese, the king of Samoa, I make known to you all +that the German man-of-war is about to go together with a Samoan fleet +for the purpose of burning Manono. After this island is all burnt, +’tis good if the people return to Manono and live quiet. +To the people of Faasaleleanga I say, return to your houses and stop +there. The same to those belonging to Tuamasanga. If you +obey this instruction, then you will all be forgiven; if you do not +obey, then all your villages will be burnt like Manono. These +instructions are made in truth in the sight of God in the Heaven.” +The same morning, accordingly, the <i>Adler</i> steamed out of the bay +with a force of Tamasese warriors and some native boats in tow, the +Samoan fleet in question. Manono was shelled; the Tamasese warriors, +under the conduct of a Manono traitor, who paid before many days the +forfeit of his blood, landed and did some damage, but were driven away +by the sight of a force returning from the mainland; no one was hurt, +for the women and children, who alone remained on the island, found +a refuge in the bush; and the <i>Adler</i> and her acolytes returned +the same evening. The letter had been energetic; the performance +fell below the programme. The demonstration annoyed and yet re-assured +the insurgents, and it fully disclosed to the Germans a new enemy.</p> +<p>Captain Yon Widersheim had been relieved. His successor, Captain +Fritze, was an officer of a different stamp. I have nothing to +say of him but good; he seems to have obeyed the consul’s requisitions +with secret distaste; his despatches were of admirable candour; but +his habits were retired, he spoke little English, and was far indeed +from inheriting von Widersheim’s close relations with Commander +Leary. It is believed by Germans that the American officer resented +what he took to be neglect. I mention this, not because I believe +it to depict Commander Leary, but because it is typical of a prevailing +infirmity among Germans in Samoa. Touchy themselves, they read +all history in the light of personal affronts and tiffs; and I find +this weakness indicated by the big thumb of Bismarck, when he places +“sensitiveness to small disrespects—<i>Empfindlichkeit ueber +Mangel an Respect</i>,” among the causes of the wild career of +Knappe. Whatever the cause, at least, the natives had no sooner +taken arms than Leary appeared with violence upon that side. As +early as the 3rd, he had sent an obscure but menacing despatch to Brandeis. +On the 6th, he fell on Fritze in the matter of the Manono bombardment. +“The revolutionists,” he wrote, “had an armed force +in the field within a few miles of this harbour, when the vessels under +your command transported the Tamasese troops to a neighbouring island +with the avowed intention of making war on the isolated homes of the +women and children of the enemy. Being the only other representative +of a naval power now present in this harbour, for the sake of humanity +I hereby respectfully and solemnly protest in the name of the United +States of America and of the civilised world in general against the +use of a national war-vessel for such services as were yesterday rendered +by the German corvette <i>Adler</i>.” Fritze’s reply, +to the effect that he is under the orders of the consul and has no right +of choice, reads even humble; perhaps he was not himself vain of the +exploit, perhaps not prepared to see it thus described in words. +From that moment Leary was in the front of the row. His name is +diagnostic, but it was not required; on every step of his subsequent +action in Samoa Irishman is writ large; over all his doings a malign +spirit of humour presided. No malice was too small for him, if +it were only funny. When night signals were made from Mulinuu, +he would sit on his own poop and confound them with gratuitous rockets. +He was at the pains to write a letter and address it to “the High +Chief Tamasese”—a device as old at least as the wars of +Robert Bruce—in order to bother the officials of the German post-office, +in whose hands he persisted in leaving it, although the address was +death to them and the distribution of letters in Samoa formed no part +of their profession. His great masterwork of pleasantry, the Scanlon +affair, must be narrated in its place. And he was no less bold +than comical. The <i>Adams</i> was not supposed to be a match +for the <i>Adler</i>; there was no glory to be gained in beating her; +and yet I have heard naval officers maintain she might have proved a +dangerous antagonist in narrow waters and at short range. Doubtless +Leary thought so. He was continually daring Fritze to come on; +and already, in a despatch of the 9th, I find Becker complaining of +his language in the hearing of German officials, and how he had declared +that, on the <i>Adler</i> again interfering, he would interfere himself, +“if he went to the bottom for it—<i>und wenn sein Schiff +dabei zu Grunde ginge</i>.” Here is the style of opposition +which has the merit of being frank, not that of being agreeable. +Becker was annoying, Leary infuriating; there is no doubt that the tempers +in the German consulate were highly ulcerated; and if war between the +two countries did not follow, we must set down the praise to the forbearance +of the German navy. This is not the last time that I shall have +to salute the merits of that service.</p> +<p>The defeat and death of Saifaleupolu and the burning of Manono had +thus passed off without the least advantage to Tamasese. But he +still held the significant position of Mulinuu, and Brandeis was strenuous +to make it good. The whole peninsula was surrounded with a breastwork; +across the isthmus it was six feet high and strengthened with a ditch; +and the beach was staked against landing. Weber’s land claim—the +same that now broods over the village in the form of a signboard—then +appeared in a more military guise; the German flag was hoisted, and +German sailors manned the breastwork at the isthmus—“to +protect German property” and its trifling parenthesis, the king +of Samoa. Much vigilance reigned and, in the island fashion, much +wild firing. And in spite of all, desertion was for a long time +daily. The detained high chiefs would go to the beach on the pretext +of a natural occasion, plunge in the sea, and swimming across a broad, +shallow bay of the lagoon, join the rebels on the Faleula side. +Whole bodies of warriors, sometimes hundreds strong, departed with their +arms and ammunition. On the 7th of September, for instance, the +day after Leary’s letter, Too and Mataia left with their contingents, +and the whole Aana people returned home in a body to hold a parliament. +Ten days later, it is true, a part of them returned to their duty; but +another part branched off by the way and carried their services, and +Tamasese’s dear-bought guns, to Faleula.</p> +<p>On the 8th, there was a defection of a different kind, but yet sensible. +The High Chief Seumanu had been still detained in Mulinuu under anxious +observation. His people murmured at his absence, threatened to +“take away his name,” and had already attempted a rescue. +The adventure was now taken in hand by his wife Faatulia, a woman of +much sense and spirit and a strong partisan; and by her contrivance, +Seumanu gave his guardians the slip and rejoined his clan at Faleula. +This process of winnowing was of course counterbalanced by another of +recruitment. But the harshness of European and military rule had +made Brandeis detested and Tamasese unpopular with many; and the force +on Mulinuu is thought to have done little more than hold its own. +Mataafa sympathisers set it down at about two or three thousand. +I have no estimate from the other side; but Becker admits they were +not strong enough to keep the field in the open.</p> +<p>The political significance of Mulinuu was great, but in a military +sense the position had defects. If it was difficult to carry, +it was easy to blockade: and to be hemmed in on that narrow finger of +land were an inglorious posture for the monarch of Samoa. The +peninsula, besides, was scant of food and destitute of water. +Pressed by these considerations, Brandeis extended his lines till he +had occupied the whole foreshore of Apia bay and the opposite point, +Matautu. His men were thus drawn out along some three nautical +miles of irregular beach, everywhere with their backs to the sea, and +without means of communication or mutual support except by water. +The extension led to fresh sorrows. The Tamasese men quartered +themselves in the houses of the absent men of the Vaimaunga. Disputes +arose with English and Americans. Leary interposed in a loud voice +of menace. It was said the firm profited by the confusion to buttress +up imperfect land claims; I am sure the other whites would not be far +behind the firm. Properties were fenced in, fences and houses +were torn down, scuffles ensued. The German example at Mulinuu +was followed with laughable unanimity; wherever an Englishman or an +American conceived himself to have a claim, he set up the emblem of +his country; and the beach twinkled with the flags of nations.</p> +<p>All this, it will be observed, was going forward in that neutral +territory, sanctified by treaty against the presence of armed Samoans. +The insurgents themselves looked on in wonder: on the 4th, trembling +to transgress against the great Powers, they had written for a delimitation +of the <i>Eleele Sa</i>; and Becker, in conversation with the British +consul, replied that he recognised none. So long as Tamasese held +the ground, this was expedient. But suppose Tamasese worsted, +it might prove awkward for the stores, mills, and offices of a great +German firm, thus bared of shelter by the act of their own consul.</p> +<p>On the morning of the 9th September, just ten days after the death +of Saifaleupolu, Mataafa, under the name of Malietoa To’oa Mataafa, +was crowned king at Faleula. On the 11th he wrote to the British +and American consuls: “Gentlemen, I write this letter to you two +very humbly and entreatingly, on account of this difficulty that has +come before me. I desire to know from you two gentlemen the truth +where the boundaries of the neutral territory are. You will observe +that I am now at Vaimoso [a step nearer the enemy], and I have stopped +here until I knew what you say regarding the neutral territory. +I wish to know where I can go, and where the forbidden ground is, for +I do not wish to go on any neutral territory, or on any foreigner’s +property. I do not want to offend any of the great Powers. +Another thing I would like. Would it be possible for you three +consuls to make Tamasese remove from German property? for I am in awe +of going on German land.” He must have received a reply +embodying Becker’s renunciation of the principle, at once; for +he broke camp the same day, and marched eastward through the bush behind +Apia.</p> +<p>Brandeis, expecting attack, sought to improve his indefensible position. +He reformed his centre by the simple expedient of suppressing it. +Apia was evacuated. The two flanks, Mulinuu and Matautu, were +still held and fortified, Mulinuu (as I have said) to the isthmus, Matautu +on a line from the bayside to the little river Fuisá. The +centre was represented by the trajectory of a boat across the bay from +one flank to another, and was held (we may say) by the German war-ship. +Mataafa decided (I am assured) to make a feint on Matautu, induce Brandeis +to deplete Mulinuu in support, and then fall upon and carry that. +And there is no doubt in my mind that such a plan was bruited abroad, +for nothing but a belief in it could explain the behaviour of Brandeis +on the 12th. That it was seriously entertained by Mataafa I stoutly +disbelieve; the German flag and sailors forbidding the enterprise in +Mulinuu. So that we may call this false intelligence the beginning +and the end of Mataafa’s strategy.</p> +<p>The whites who sympathised with the revolt were uneasy and impatient. +They will still tell you, though the dates are there to show them wrong, +that Mataafa, even after his coronation, delayed extremely: a proof +of how long two days may seem to last when men anticipate events. +On the evening of the 11th, while the new king was already on the march, +one of these walked into Matautu. The moon was bright. By +the way he observed the native houses dark and silent; the men had been +about a fortnight in the bush, but now the women and children were gone +also; at which he wondered. On the sea-beach, in the camp of the +Tamaseses, the solitude was near as great; he saw three or four men +smoking before the British consulate, perhaps a dozen in all; the rest +were behind in the bush upon their line of forts. About the midst +he sat down, and here a woman drew near to him. The moon shone +in her face, and he knew her for a householder near by, and a partisan +of Mataafa’s. She looked about her as she came, and asked +him, trembling, what he did in the camp of Tamasese. He was there +after news, he told her. She took him by the hand. “You +must not stay here, you will get killed,” she said. “The +bush is full of our people, the others are watching them, fighting may +begin at any moment, and we are both here too long.” So +they set off together; and she told him by the way that she had came +to the hostile camp with a present of bananas, so that the Tamasese +men might spare her house. By the Vaisingano they met an old man, +a woman, and a child; and these also she warned and turned back. +Such is the strange part played by women among the scenes of Samoan +warfare, such were the liberties then permitted to the whites, that +these two could pass the lines, talk together in Tamasese’s camp +on the eve of an engagement, and pass forth again bearing intelligence, +like privileged spies. And before a few hours the white man was +in direct communication with the opposing general. The next morning +he was accosted “about breakfast-time” by two natives who +stood leaning against the pickets of a public-house, where the Siumu +road strikes in at right angles to the main street of Apia. They +told him battle was imminent, and begged him to pass a little way inland +and speak with Mataafa. The road is at this point broad and fairly +good, running between thick groves of cocoa-palm and breadfruit. +A few hundred yards along this the white man passed a picket of four +armed warriors, with red handkerchiefs and their faces blackened in +the form of a full beard, the Mataafa rallying signs for the day; a +little farther on, some fifty; farther still, a hundred; and at last +a quarter of a mile of them sitting by the wayside armed and blacked.</p> +<p>Near by, in the verandah of a house on a knoll, he found Mataafa +seated in white clothes, a Winchester across his knees. His men, +he said, were still arriving from behind, and there was a turning movement +in operation beyond the Fuisá, so that the Tamaseses should be +assailed at the same moment from the south and east. And this +is another indication that the attack on Matautu was the true attack; +had any design on Mulinuu been in the wind, not even a Samoan general +would have detached these troops upon the other side. While they +still spoke, five Tamasese women were brought in with their hands bound; +they had been stealing “our” bananas.</p> +<p>All morning the town was strangely deserted, the very children gone. +A sense of expectation reigned, and sympathy for the attack was expressed +publicly. Some men with unblacked faces came to Moors’s +store for biscuit. A native woman, who was there marketing, inquired +after the news, and, hearing that the battle was now near at hand, “Give +them two more tins,” said she; “and don’t put them +down to my husband—he would growl; put them down to me.” +Between twelve and one, two white men walked toward Matautu, finding +as they went no sign of war until they had passed the Vaisingano and +come to the corner of a by-path leading to the bush. Here were +four blackened warriors on guard,—the extreme left wing of the +Mataafa force, where it touched the waters of the bay. Thence +the line (which the white men followed) stretched inland among bush +and marsh, facing the forts of the Tamaseses. The warriors lay +as yet inactive behind trees; but all the young boys and harlots of +Apia toiled in the front upon a trench, digging with knives and cocoa-shells; +and a continuous stream of children brought them water. The young +sappers worked crouching; from the outside only an occasional head, +or a hand emptying a shell of earth, was visible; and their enemies +looked on inert from the line of the opposing forts. The lists +were not yet prepared, the tournament was not yet open; and the attacking +force was suffered to throw up works under the silent guns of the defence. +But there is an end even to the delay of islanders. As the white +men stood and looked, the Tamasese line thundered into a volley; it +was answered; the crowd of silent workers broke forth in laughter and +cheers; and the battle had begun.</p> +<p>Thenceforward, all day and most of the next night, volley followed +volley; and pounds of lead and pounds sterling of money continued to +be blown into the air without cessation and almost without result. +Colonel de Coetlogon, an old soldier, described the noise as deafening. +The harbour was all struck with shots; a man was knocked over on the +German war-ship; half Apia was under fire; and a house was pierced beyond +the Mulivai. All along the two lines of breastwork, the entrenched +enemies exchanged this hail of balls; and away on the east of the battle +the fusillade was maintained, with equal spirit, across the narrow barrier +of the Fuisá. The whole rear of the Tamaseses was enfiladed +by this flank fire; and I have seen a house there, by the river brink, +that was riddled with bullets like a piece of worm-eaten wreck-wood. +At this point of the field befell a trait of Samoan warfare worth recording. +Taiese (brother to Siteoni already mentioned) shot a Tamasese man. +He saw him fall, and, inflamed with the lust of glory, passed the river +single-handed in that storm of missiles to secure the head. On +the farther bank, as was but natural, he fell himself; he who had gone +to take a trophy remained to afford one; and the Mataafas, who had looked +on exulting in the prospect of a triumph, saw themselves exposed instead +to a disgrace. Then rose one Vingi, passed the deadly water, swung +the body of Taiese on his back, and returned unscathed to his own side, +the head saved, the corpse filled with useless bullets.</p> +<p>At this rate of practice, the ammunition soon began to run low, and +from an early hour of the afternoon, the Malietoa stores were visited +by customers in search of more. An elderly man came leaping and +cheering, his gun in one hand, a basket of three heads in the other. +A fellow came shot through the forearm. “It doesn’t +hurt now,” he said, as he bought his cartridges; “but it +will hurt to-morrow, and I want to fight while I can.” A +third followed, a mere boy, with the end of his nose shot off: “Have +you any painkiller? give it me quick, so that I can get back to fight.” +On either side, there was the same delight in sound and smoke and schoolboy +cheering, the same unsophisticated ardour of battle; and the misdirected +skirmish proceeded with a din, and was illustrated with traits of bravery +that would have fitted a Waterloo or a Sedan.</p> +<p>I have said how little I regard the alleged plan of battle. +At least it was now all gone to water. The whole forces of Mataafa +had leaked out, man by man, village by village, on the so-called false +attack. They were all pounding for their lives on the front and +the left flank of Matautu. About half-past three they enveloped +the right flank also. The defenders were driven back along the +beach road as far as the pilot station at the turn of the land. +From this also they were dislodged, stubbornly fighting. One, +it is told, retreated to his middle in the lagoon; stood there, loading +and firing, till he fell; and his body was found on the morrow pierced +with four mortal wounds. The Tamasese force was now enveloped +on three sides; it was besides almost cut off from the sea; and across +its whole rear and only way of retreat a fire of hostile bullets crossed +from east and west, in the midst of which men were surprised to observe +the birds continuing to sing, and a cow grazed all afternoon unhurt. +Doubtless here was the defence in a poor way; but then the attack was +in irons. For the Mataafas about the pilot house could scarcely +advance beyond without coming under the fire of their own men from the +other side of the Fuisá; and there was not enough organisation, +perhaps not enough authority, to divert or to arrest that fire.</p> +<p>The progress of the fight along the beach road was visible from Mulinuu, +and Brandeis despatched ten boats of reinforcements. They crossed +the harbour, paused for a while beside the <i>Adler</i>—it is +supposed for ammunition—and drew near the Matautu shore. +The Mataafa men lay close among the shore-side bushes, expecting their +arrival; when a silly lad, in mere lightness of heart, fired a shot +in the air. My native friend, Mrs. Mary Hamilton, ran out of her +house and gave the culprit a good shaking: an episode in the midst of +battle as incongruous as the grazing cow. But his sillier comrades +followed his example; a harmless volley warned the boats what they might +expect; and they drew back and passed outside the reef for the passage +of the Fuisá. Here they came under the fire of the right +wing of the Mataafas on the river-bank. The beach, raked east +and west, appeared to them no place to land on. And they hung +off in the deep water of the lagoon inside the barrier reef, feebly +fusillading the pilot house.</p> +<p>Between four and five, the Fabeata regiment (or folk of that village) +on the Mataafa left, which had been under arms all day, fell to be withdrawn +for rest and food; the Siumu regiment, which should have relieved it, +was not ready or not notified in time; and the Tamaseses, gallantly +profiting by the mismanagement, recovered the most of the ground in +their proper right. It was not for long. They lost it again, +yard by yard and from house to house, till the pilot station was once +more in the hands of the Mataafas. This is the last definite incident +in the battle. The vicissitudes along the line of the entrenchments +remain concealed from us under the cover of the forest. Some part +of the Tamasese position there appears to have been carried, but what +part, or at what hour, or whether the advantage was maintained, I have +never learned. Night and rain, but not silence, closed upon the +field. The trenches were deep in mud; but the younger folk wrecked +the houses in the neighbourhood, carried the roofs to the front, and +lay under them, men and women together, through a long night of furious +squalls and furious and useless volleys. Meanwhile the older folk +trailed back into Apia in the rain; they talked as they went of who +had fallen and what heads had been taken upon either side—they +seemed to know by name the losses upon both; and drenched with wet and +broken with excitement and fatigue, they crawled into the verandahs +of the town to eat and sleep. The morrow broke grey and drizzly, +but as so often happens in the islands, cleared up into a glorious day. +During the night, the majority of the defenders had taken advantage +of the rain and darkness and stolen from their forts unobserved. +The rallying sign of the Tamaseses had been a white handkerchief. +With the dawn, the de Coetlogons from the English consulate beheld the +ground strewn with these badges discarded; and close by the house, a +belated turncoat was still changing white for red. Matautu was +lost; Tamasese was confined to Mulinuu; and by nine o’clock two +Mataafa villages paraded the streets of Apia, taking possession. +The cost of this respectable success in ammunition must have been enormous; +in life it was but small. Some compute forty killed on either +side, others forty on both, three or four being women and one a white +man, master of a schooner from Fiji. Nor was the number even of +the wounded at all proportionate to the surprising din and fury of the +affair while it lasted.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI—LAST EXPLOITS OF BECKER</h2> +<p><i>September-November</i> 1888</p> +<p>Brandeis had held all day by Mulinuu, expecting the reported real +attack. He woke on the 13th to find himself cut off on that unwatered +promontory, and the Mataafa villagers parading Apia. The same +day Fritze received a letter from Mataafa summoning him to withdraw +his party from the isthmus; and Fritze, as if in answer, drew in his +ship into the small harbour close to Mulinuu, and trained his port battery +to assist in the defence. From a step so decisive, it might be +thought the German plans were unaffected by the disastrous issue of +the battle. I conceive nothing would be further from the truth. +Here was Tamasese penned on Mulinuu with his troops; Apia, from which +alone these could be subsisted, in the hands of the enemy; a battle +imminent, in which the German vessel must apparently take part with +men and battery, and the buildings of the German firm were apparently +destined to be the first target of fire. Unless Becker re-established +that which he had so lately and so artfully thrown down—the neutral +territory—the firm would have to suffer. If he re-established +it, Tamasese must retire from Mulinuu. If Becker saved his goose, +he lost his cabbage. Nothing so well depicts the man’s effrontery +as that he should have conceived the design of saving both,—of +re-establishing only so much of the neutral territory as should hamper +Mataafa, and leaving in abeyance all that could incommode Tamasese. +By drawing the boundary where he now proposed, across the isthmus, he +protected the firm, drove back the Mataafas out of almost all that they +had conquered, and, so far from disturbing Tamasese, actually fortified +him in his old position.</p> +<p>The real story of the negotiations that followed we shall perhaps +never learn. But so much is plain: that while Becker was thus +outwardly straining decency in the interest of Tamasese, he was privately +intriguing, or pretending to intrigue, with Mataafa. In his despatch +of the 11th, he had given an extended criticism of that chieftain, whom +he depicts as very dark and artful; and while admitting that his assumption +of the name of Malietoa might raise him up followers, predicted that +he could not make an orderly government or support himself long in sole +power “without very energetic foreign help.” Of what +help was the consul thinking? There was no helper in the field +but Germany. On the 15th he had an interview with the victor; +told him that Tamasese’s was the only government recognised by +Germany, and that he must continue to recognise it till he received +“other instructions from his government, whom he was now advising +of the late events”; refused, accordingly, to withdraw the guard +from the isthmus; and desired Mataafa, “until the arrival of these +fresh instructions,” to refrain from an attack on Mulinuu. +One thing of two: either this language is extremely perfidious, or Becker +was preparing to change sides. The same detachment appears in +his despatch of October 7th. He computes the losses of the German +firm with an easy cheerfulness. If Tamasese get up again (<i>gelingt +die Wiederherstellung der Regierung Tamasese’s</i>), Tamasese +will have to pay. If not, then Mataafa. This is not the +language of a partisan. The tone of indifference, the easy implication +that the case of Tamasese was already desperate, the hopes held secretly +forth to Mataafa and secretly reported to his government at home, trenchantly +contrast with his external conduct. At this very time he was feeding +Tamasese; he had German sailors mounting guard on Tamasese’s battlements; +the German war-ship lay close in, whether to help or to destroy. +If he meant to drop the cause of Tamasese, he had him in a corner, helpless, +and could stifle him without a sob. If he meant to rat, it was +to be with every condition of safety and every circumstance of infamy.</p> +<p>Was it conceivable, then, that he meant it? Speaking with a +gentleman who was in the confidence of Dr. Knappe: “Was it not +a pity,” I asked, “that Knappe did not stick to Becker’s +policy of supporting Mataafa?” “You are quite wrong +there; that was not Knappe’s doing,” was the reply. +“Becker had changed his mind before Knappe came.” +Why, then, had he changed it? This excellent, if ignominious, +idea once entertained, why was it let drop? It is to be remembered +there was another German in the field, Brandeis, who had a respect, +or rather, perhaps, an affection, for Tamasese, and who thought his +own honour and that of his country engaged in the support of that government +which they had provoked and founded. Becker described the captain +to Laupepa as “a quiet, sensible gentleman.” If any +word came to his ears of the intended manoeuvre, Brandeis would certainly +show himself very sensible of the affront; but Becker might have been +tempted to withdraw his former epithet of quiet. Some such passage, +some such threatened change of front at the consulate, opposed with +outcry, would explain what seems otherwise inexplicable, the bitter, +indignant, almost hostile tone of a subsequent letter from Brandeis +to Knappe—“Brandeis’s inflammatory letter,” +Bismarck calls it—the proximate cause of the German landing and +reverse at Fangalii.</p> +<p>But whether the advances of Becker were sincere or not—whether +he meditated treachery against the old king or was practising treachery +upon the new, and the choice is between one or other—no doubt +but he contrived to gain his points with Mataafa, prevailing on him +to change his camp for the better protection of the German plantations, +and persuading him (long before he could persuade his brother consuls) +to accept that miraculous new neutral territory of his, with a piece +cut out for the immediate needs of Tamasese.</p> +<p>During the rest of September, Tamasese continued to decline. +On the 19th one village and half of another deserted him; on the 22nd +two more. On the 21st the Mataafas burned his town of Leulumoenga, +his own splendid house flaming with the rest; and there are few things +of which a native thinks more, or has more reason to think well, than +of a fine Samoan house. Tamasese women and children were marched +up the same day from Atua, and handed over with their sleeping-mats +to Mulinuu: a most unwelcome addition to a party already suffering from +want. By the 20th, they were being watered from the <i>Adler</i>. +On the 24th the Manono fleet of sixteen large boats, fortified and rendered +unmanageable with tons of firewood, passed to windward to intercept +supplies from Atua. By the 27th the hungry garrison flocked in +great numbers to draw rations at the German firm. On the 28th +the same business was repeated with a different issue. Mataafas +crowded to look on; words were exchanged, blows followed; sticks, stones, +and bottles were caught up; the detested Brandeis, at great risk, threw +himself between the lines and expostulated with the Mataafas—his +only personal appearance in the wars, if this could be called war. +The same afternoon, the Tamasese boats got in with provisions, having +passed to seaward of the lumbering Manono fleet; and from that day on, +whether from a high degree of enterprise on the one side or a great +lack of capacity on the other, supplies were maintained from the sea +with regularity. Thus the spectacle of battle, or at least of +riot, at the doors of the German firm was not repeated. But the +memory must have hung heavy on the hearts, not of the Germans only, +but of all Apia. The Samoans are a gentle race, gentler than any +in Europe; we are often enough reminded of the circumstance, not always +by their friends. But a mob is a mob, and a drunken mob is a drunken +mob, and a drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a drunken mob with +weapons in its hands, all the world over: elementary propositions, which +some of us upon these islands might do worse than get by rote, but which +must have been evident enough to Becker. And I am amazed by the +man’s constancy, that, even while blows were going at the door +of that German firm which he was in Samoa to protect, he should have +stuck to his demands. Ten days before, Blacklock had offered to +recognise the old territory, including Mulinuu, and Becker had refused, +and still in the midst of these “alarums and excursions,” +he continued to refuse it.</p> +<p>On October 2nd, anchored in Apia bay H.B.M.S. <i>Calliope</i>, Captain +Kane, carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Fairfax, and the gunboat <i>Lizard</i>, +Lieutenant-Commander Pelly. It was rumoured the admiral had come +to recognise the government of Tamasese, I believe in error. And +at least the day for that was quite gone by; and he arrived not to salute +the king’s accession, but to arbitrate on his remains. A +conference of the consuls and commanders met on board the <i>Calliope</i>, +October 4th, Fritze alone being absent, although twice invited: the +affair touched politics, his consul was to be there; and even if he +came to the meeting (so he explained to Fairfax) he would have no voice +in its deliberations. The parties were plainly marked out: Blacklock +and Leary maintaining their offer of the old neutral territory, and +probably willing to expand or to contract it to any conceivable extent, +so long as Mulinuu was still included; Knappe offered (if the others +liked) to include “the whole eastern end of the island,” +but quite fixed upon the one point that Mulinuu should be left out; +the English willing to meet either view, and singly desirous that Apia +should be neutralised. The conclusion was foregone. Becker +held a trump card in the consent of Mataafa; Blacklock and Leary stood +alone, spoke with all ill grace, and could not long hold out. +Becker had his way; and the neutral boundary was chosen just where he +desired: across the isthmus, the firm within, Mulinuu without. +He did not long enjoy the fruits of victory.</p> +<p>On the 7th, three days after the meeting, one of the Scanlons (well-known +and intelligent half-castes) came to Blacklock with a complaint. +The Scanlon house stood on the hither side of the Tamasese breastwork, +just inside the newly accepted territory, and within easy range of the +firm. Armed men, to the number of a hundred, had issued from Mulinuu, +had “taken charge” of the house, had pointed a gun at Scanlon’s +head, and had twice “threatened to kill” his pigs. +I hear elsewhere of some effects (<i>Gegenstände</i>) removed. +At the best a very pale atrocity, though we shall find the word employed. +Germans declare besides that Scanlon was no American subject; they declare +the point had been decided by court-martial in 1875; that Blacklock +had the decision in the consular archives; and that this was his reason +for handing the affair to Leary. It is not necessary to suppose +so. It is plain he thought little of the business; thought indeed +nothing of it; except in so far as armed men had entered the neutral +territory from Mulinuu; and it was on this ground alone, and the implied +breach of Becker’s engagement at the conference, that he invited +Leary’s attention to the tale. The impish ingenuity of the +commander perceived in it huge possibilities of mischief. He took +up the Scanlon outrage, the atrocity of the threatened pigs; and with +that poor instrument—I am sure, to his own wonder—drove +Tamasese out of Mulinuu. It was “an intrigue,” Becker +complains. To be sure it was; but who was Becker to be complaining +of intrigue?</p> +<p>On the 7th Leary laid before Fritze the following conundrum: “As +the natives of Mulinuu appear to be under the protection of the Imperial +German naval guard belonging to the vessel under your command, I have +the honour to request you to inform me whether or not they are under +such protection? Amicable relations,” pursued the humorist, +“amicable relations exist between the government of the United +States and His Imperial German Majesty’s government, but we do +not recognise Tamasese’s government, and I am desirous of locating +the responsibility for violations of American rights.” Becker +and Fritze lost no time in explanation or denial, but went straight +to the root of the matter and sought to buy off Scanlon. Becker +declares that every reparation was offered. Scanlon takes a pride +to recapitulate the leases and the situations he refused, and the long +interviews in which he was tempted and plied with drink by Becker or +Beckmann of the firm. No doubt, in short, that he was offered +reparation in reason and out of reason, and, being thoroughly primed, +refused it all. Meantime some answer must be made to Leary; and +Fritze repeated on the 8th his oft-repeated assurances that he was not +authorised to deal with politics. The same day Leary retorted: +“The question is not one of diplomacy nor of politics. It +is strictly one of military jurisdiction and responsibility. Under +the shadow of the German fort at Mulinuu,” continued the hyperbolical +commander, “atrocities have been committed. . . . And I again +have the honour respectfully to request to be informed whether or not +the armed natives at Mulinuu are under the protection of the Imperial +German naval guard belonging to the vessel under your command.” +To this no answer was vouchsafed till the 11th, and then in the old +terms; and meanwhile, on the 10th, Leary got into his gaiters—the +sure sign, as was both said and sung aboard his vessel, of some desperate +or some amusing service—and was set ashore at the Scanlons’ +house. Of this he took possession at the head of an old woman +and a mop, and was seen from the Tamasese breastwork directing operations +and plainly preparing to install himself there in a military posture. +So much he meant to be understood; so much he meant to carry out, and +an armed party from the <i>Adams</i> was to have garrisoned on the morrow +the scene of the atrocity. But there is no doubt he managed to +convey more. No doubt he was a master in the art of loose speaking, +and could always manage to be overheard when he wanted; and by this, +or some other equally unofficial means, he spread the rumour that on +the morrow he was to bombard.</p> +<p>The proposed post, from its position, and from Leary’s well-established +character as an artist in mischief, must have been regarded by the Germans +with uneasiness. In the bombardment we can scarce suppose them +to have believed. But Tamasese must have both believed and trembled. +The prestige of the European Powers was still unbroken. No native +would then have dreamed of defying these colossal ships, worked by mysterious +powers, and laden with outlandish instruments of death. None would +have dreamed of resisting those strange but quite unrealised Great Powers, +understood (with difficulty) to be larger than Tonga and Samoa put together, +and known to be prolific of prints, knives, hard biscuit, picture-books, +and other luxuries, as well as of overbearing men and inconsistent orders. +Laupepa had fallen in ill-blood with one of them; his only idea of defence +had been to throw himself in the arms of another; his name, his rank, +and his great following had not been able to preserve him; and he had +vanished from the eyes of men—as the Samoan thinks of it, beyond +the sky. Asi, Maunga, Tuiletu-funga, had followed him in that +new path of doom. We have seen how carefully Mataafa still walked, +how he dared not set foot on the neutral territory till assured it was +no longer sacred, how he withdrew from it again as soon as its sacredness +had been restored, and at the bare word of a consul (however gilded +with ambiguous promises) paused in his course of victory and left his +rival unassailed in Mulinuu. And now it was the rival’s +turn. Hitherto happy in the continued support of one of the white +Powers, he now found himself—or thought himself—threatened +with war by no less than two others.</p> +<p>Tamasese boats as they passed Matautu were in the habit of firing +on the shore, as like as not without particular aim, and more in high +spirits than hostility. One of these shots pierced the house of +a British subject near the consulate; the consul reported to Admiral +Fairfax; and, on the morning of the 10th, the admiral despatched Captain +Kane of the <i>Calliope</i> to Mulinuu. Brandeis met the messenger +with voluble excuses and engagements for the future. He was told +his explanations were satisfactory so far as they went, but that the +admiral’s message was to Tamasese, the <i>de facto</i> king. +Brandeis, not very well assured of his puppet’s courage, attempted +in vain to excuse him from appearing. No <i>de facto</i> king, +no message, he was told: produce your <i>de facto</i> king. And +Tamasese had at last to be produced. To him Kane delivered his +errand: that the <i>Lizard</i> was to remain for the protection of British +subjects; that a signalman was to be stationed at the consulate; that, +on any further firing from boats, the signalman was to notify the <i>Lizard</i> +and she to fire one gun, on which all boats must lower sail and come +alongside for examination and the detection of the guilty; and that, +“in the event of the boats not obeying the gun, the admiral would +not be responsible for the consequences.” It was listened +to by Brandeis and Tamasese “with the greatest attention.” +Brandeis, when it was done, desired his thanks to the admiral for the +moderate terms of his message, and, as Kane went to his boat, repeated +the expression of his gratitude as though he meant it, declaring his +own hands would be thus strengthened for the maintenance of discipline. +But I have yet to learn of any gratitude on the part of Tamasese. +Consider the case of the poor owlish man hearing for the first time +our diplomatic commonplaces. The admiral would not be answerable +for the consequences. Think of it! A devil of a position +for a <i>de facto</i> king. And here, the same afternoon, was +Leary in the Scanlon house, mopping it out for unknown designs by the +hands of an old woman, and proffering strange threats of bloodshed. +Scanlon and his pigs, the admiral and his gun, Leary and his bombardment,—what +a kettle of fish!</p> +<p>I dwell on the effect on Tamasese. Whatever the faults of Becker, +he was not timid; he had already braved so much for Mulinuu that I cannot +but think he might have continued to hold up his head even after the +outrage of the pigs, and that the weakness now shown originated with +the king. Late in the night, Blacklock was wakened to receive +a despatch addressed to Leary. “You have asked that I and +my government go away from Mulinuu, because you pretend a man who lives +near Mulinuu and who is under your protection, has been threatened by +my soldiers. As your Excellency has forbidden the man to accept +any satisfaction, and as I do not wish to make war against the United +States, I shall remove my government from Mulinuu to another place.” +It was signed by Tamasese, but I think more heads than his had wagged +over the direct and able letter. On the morning of the 11th, accordingly, +Mulinuu the much defended lay desert. Tamasese and Brandeis had +slipped to sea in a schooner; their troops had followed them in boats; +the German sailors and their war-flag had returned on board the <i>Adler</i>; +and only the German merchant flag blew there for Weber’s land-claim. +Mulinuu, for which Becker had intrigued so long and so often, for which +he had overthrown the municipality, for which he had abrogated and refused +and invented successive schemes of neutral territory, was now no more +to the Germans than a very unattractive, barren peninsula and a very +much disputed land-claim of Mr. Weber’s. It will scarcely +be believed that the tale of the Scanlon outrages was not yet finished. +Leary had gained his point, but Scanlon had lost his compensation. +And it was months later, and this time in the shape of a threat of bombardment +in black and white, that Tamasese heard the last of the absurd affair. +Scanlon had both his fun and his money, and Leary’s practical +joke was brought to an artistic end.</p> +<p>Becker sought and missed an instant revenge. Mataafa, a devout +Catholic, was in the habit of walking every morning to mass from his +camp at Vaiala beyond Matautu to the mission at the Mulivai. He +was sometimes escorted by as many as six guards in uniform, who displayed +their proficiency in drill by perpetually shifting arms as they marched. +Himself, meanwhile, paced in front, bareheaded and barefoot, a staff +in his hand, in the customary chief’s dress of white kilt, shirt, +and jacket, and with a conspicuous rosary about his neck. Tall +but not heavy, with eager eyes and a marked appearance of courage and +capacity, Mataafa makes an admirable figure in the eyes of Europeans; +to those of his countrymen, he may seem not always to preserve that +quiescence of manner which is thought becoming in the great. On +the morning of October 16th he reached the mission before day with two +attendants, heard mass, had coffee with the fathers, and left again +in safety. The smallness of his following we may suppose to have +been reported. He was scarce gone, at least, before Becker had +armed men at the mission gate and came in person seeking him.</p> +<p>The failure of this attempt doubtless still further exasperated the +consul, and he began to deal as in an enemy’s country. He +had marines from the <i>Adler</i> to stand sentry over the consulate +and parade the streets by threes and fours. The bridge of the +Vaisingano, which cuts in half the English and American quarters, he +closed by proclamation and advertised for tenders to demolish it. +On the 17th Leary and Pelly landed carpenters and repaired it in his +teeth. Leary, besides, had marines under arms, ready to land them +if it should be necessary to protect the work. But Becker looked +on without interference, perhaps glad enough to have the bridge repaired; +for even Becker may not always have offended intentionally. Such +was now the distracted posture of the little town: all government extinct, +the German consul patrolling it with armed men and issuing proclamations +like a ruler, the two other Powers defying his commands, and at least +one of them prepared to use force in the defiance. Close on its +skirts sat the warriors of Mataafa, perhaps four thousand strong, highly +incensed against the Germans, having all to gain in the seizure of the +town and firm, and, like an army in a fairy tale, restrained by the +air-drawn boundary of the neutral ground.</p> +<p>I have had occasion to refer to the strange appearance in these islands +of an American adventurer with a battery of cannon. The adventurer +was long since gone, but his guns remained, and one of them was now +to make fresh history. It had been cast overboard by Brandeis +on the outer reef in the course of this retreat; and word of it coming +to the ears of the Mataafas, they thought it natural that they should +serve themselves the heirs of Tamasese. On the 23rd a Manono boat +of the kind called <i>taumualua</i> dropped down the coast from Mataafa’s +camp, called in broad day at the German quarter of the town for guides, +and proceeded to the reef. Here, diving with a rope, they got +the gun aboard; and the night being then come, returned by the same +route in the shallow water along shore, singing a boat-song. It +will be seen with what childlike reliance they had accepted the neutrality +of Apia bay; they came for the gun without concealment, laboriously +dived for it in broad day under the eyes of the town and shipping, and +returned with it, singing as they went. On Grevsmühl’s +wharf, a light showed them a crowd of German blue-jackets clustered, +and a hail was heard. “Stop the singing so that we may hear +what is said,” said one of the chiefs in the <i>taumualua</i>. +The song ceased; the hail was heard again, “<i>Au mai le fana</i>—bring +the gun”; and the natives report themselves to have replied in +the affirmative, and declare that they had begun to back the boat. +It is perhaps not needful to believe them. A volley at least was +fired from the wharf, at about fifty yards’ range and with a very +ill direction, one bullet whistling over Pelly’s head on board +the <i>Lizard</i>. The natives jumped overboard; and swimming +under the lee of the <i>taumualua</i> (where they escaped a second volley) +dragged her towards the east. As soon as they were out of range +and past the Mulivai, the German border, they got on board and (again +singing—though perhaps a different song) continued their return +along the English and American shore. Off Matautu they were hailed +from the seaward by one of the <i>Adler’s</i> boats, which had +been suddenly despatched on the sound of the firing or had stood ready +all evening to secure the gun. The hail was in German; the Samoans +knew not what it meant, but took the precaution to jump overboard and +swim for land. Two volleys and some dropping shot were poured +upon them in the water; but they dived, scattered, and came to land +unhurt in different quarters of Matautu. The volleys, fired inshore, +raked the highway, a British house was again pierced by numerous bullets, +and these sudden sounds of war scattered consternation through the town.</p> +<p>Two British subjects, Hetherington-Carruthers, a solicitor, and Maben, +a land-surveyor—the first being in particular a man well versed +in the native mind and language—hastened at once to their consul; +assured him the Mataafas would be roused to fury by this onslaught in +the neutral zone, that the German quarter would be certainly attacked, +and the rest of the town and white inhabitants exposed to a peril very +difficult of estimation; and prevailed upon him to intrust them with +a mission to the king. By the time they reached headquarters, +the warriors were already taking post round Matafele, and the agitation +of Mataafa himself was betrayed in the fact that he spoke with the deputation +standing and gun in hand: a breach of high-chief dignity perhaps unparalleled. +The usual result, however, followed: the whites persuaded the Samoan; +and the attack was countermanded, to the benefit of all concerned, and +not least of Mataafa. To the benefit of all, I say; for I do not +think the Germans were that evening in a posture to resist; the liquor-cellars +of the firm must have fallen into the power of the insurgents; and I +will repeat my formula that a mob is a mob, a drunken mob is a drunken +mob, and a drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a drunken mob with +weapons in its hands, all the world over.</p> +<p>In the opinion of some, then, the town had narrowly escaped destruction, +or at least the miseries of a drunken sack. To the knowledge of +all, the air of the neutral territory had once more whistled with bullets. +And it was clear the incident must have diplomatic consequences. +Leary and Pelly both protested to Fritze. Leary announced he should +report the affair to his government “as a gross violation of the +principles of international law, and as a breach of the neutrality.” +“I positively decline the protest,” replied Fritze, “and +cannot fail to express my astonishment at the tone of your last letter.” +This was trenchant. It may be said, however, that Leary was already +out of court; that, after the night signals and the Scanlon incident, +and so many other acts of practical if humorous hostility, his position +as a neutral was no better than a doubtful jest. The case with +Pelly was entirely different; and with Pelly, Fritze was less well inspired. +In his first note, he was on the old guard; announced that he had acted +on the requisition of his consul, who was alone responsible on “the +legal side”; and declined accordingly to discuss “whether +the lives of British subjects were in danger, and to what extent armed +intervention was necessary.” Pelly replied judiciously that +he had nothing to do with political matters, being only responsible +for the safety of Her Majesty’s ships under his command and for +the lives and property of British subjects; that he had considered his +protest a purely naval one; and as the matter stood could only report +the case to the admiral on the station. “I have the honour,” +replied Fritze, “to refuse to entertain the protest concerning +the safety of Her Britannic Majesty’s ship <i>Lizard</i> as being +a naval matter. The safety of Her Majesty’s ship <i>Lizard</i> +was never in the least endangered. This was guaranteed by the +disciplined fire of a few shots under the direction of two officers.” +This offensive note, in view of Fritze’s careful and honest bearing +among so many other complications, may be attributed to some misunderstanding. +His small knowledge of English perhaps failed him. But I cannot +pass it by without remarking how far too much it is the custom of German +officials to fall into this style. It may be witty, I am sure +it is not wise. It may be sometimes necessary to offend for a +definite object, it can never be diplomatic to offend gratuitously.</p> +<p>Becker was more explicit, although scarce less curt. And his +defence may be divided into two statements: first, that the <i>taumualua</i> +was proceeding to land with a hostile purpose on Mulinuu; second, that +the shots complained of were fired by the Samoans. The second +may be dismissed with a laugh. Human nature has laws. And +no men hitherto discovered, on being suddenly challenged from the sea, +would have turned their backs upon the challenger and poured volleys +on the friendly shore. The first is not extremely credible, but +merits examination. The story of the recovered gun seems straightforward; +it is supported by much testimony, the diving operations on the reef +seem to have been watched from shore with curiosity; it is hard to suppose +that it does not roughly represent the fact. And yet if any part +of it be true, the whole of Becker’s explanation falls to the +ground. A boat which had skirted the whole eastern coast of Mulinuu, +and was already opposite a wharf in Matafele, and still going west, +might have been guilty on a thousand points—there was one on which +she was necessarily innocent; she was necessarily innocent of proceeding +on Mulinuu. Or suppose the diving operations, and the native testimony, +and Pelly’s chart of the boat’s course, and the boat itself, +to be all stages of some epidemic hallucination or steps in a conspiracy—suppose +even a second <i>taumualua</i> to have entered Apia bay after nightfall, +and to have been fired upon from Grevsmühl’s wharf in the +full career of hostilities against Mulinuu—suppose all this, and +Becker is not helped. At the time of the first fire, the boat +was off Grevsmühl’s wharf. At the time of the second +(and that is the one complained of) she was off Carruthers’s wharf +in Matautu. Was she still proceeding on Mulinuu? I trow +not. The danger to German property was no longer imminent, the +shots had been fired upon a very trifling provocation, the spirit implied +was that of designed disregard to the neutrality. Such was the +impression here on the spot; such in plain terms the statement of Count +Hatzfeldt to Lord Salisbury at home: that the neutrality of Apia was +only “to prevent the natives from fighting,” not the Germans; +and that whatever Becker might have promised at the conference, he could +not “restrict German war-vessels in their freedom of action.”</p> +<p>There was nothing to surprise in this discovery; and had events been +guided at the same time with a steady and discreet hand, it might have +passed with less observation. But the policy of Becker was felt +to be not only reckless, it was felt to be absurd also. Sudden +nocturnal onfalls upon native boats could lead, it was felt, to no good +end whether of peace or war; they could but exasperate; they might prove, +in a moment, and when least expected, ruinous. To those who knew +how nearly it had come to fighting, and who considered the probable +result, the future looked ominous. And fear was mingled with annoyance +in the minds of the Anglo-Saxon colony. On the 24th, a public +meeting appealed to the British and American consuls. At half-past +seven in the evening guards were landed at the consulates. On +the morrow they were each fortified with sand-bags; and the subjects +informed by proclamation that these asylums stood open to them on any +alarm, and at any hour of the day or night. The social bond in +Apia was dissolved. The consuls, like barons of old, dwelt each +in his armed citadel. The rank and file of the white nationalities +dared each other, and sometimes fell to on the street like rival clansmen. +And the little town, not by any fault of the inhabitants, rather by +the act of Becker, had fallen back in civilisation about a thousand +years.</p> +<p>There falls one more incident to be narrated, and then I can close +with this ungracious chapter. I have mentioned the name of the +new English consul. It is already familiar to English readers; +for the gentleman who was fated to undergo some strange experiences +in Apia was the same de Coetlogon who covered Hicks’s flank at +the time of the disaster in the desert, and bade farewell to Gordon +in Khartoum before the investment. The colonel was abrupt and +testy; Mrs. de Coetlogon was too exclusive for society like that of +Apia; but whatever their superficial disabilities, it is strange they +should have left, in such an odour of unpopularity, a place where they +set so shining an example of the sterling virtues. The colonel +was perhaps no diplomatist; he was certainly no lawyer; but he discharged +the duties of his office with the constancy and courage of an old soldier, +and these were found sufficient. He and his wife had no ambition +to be the leaders of society; the consulate was in their time no house +of feasting; but they made of it that house of mourning to which the +preacher tells us it is better we should go. At an early date +after the battle of Matautu, it was opened as a hospital for the wounded. +The English and Americans subscribed what was required for its support. +Pelly of the <i>Lizard</i> strained every nerve to help, and set up +tents on the lawn to be a shelter for the patients. The doctors +of the English and American ships, and in particular Dr. Oakley of the +<i>Lizard</i>, showed themselves indefatigable. But it was on +the de Coetlogons that the distress fell. For nearly half a year, +their lawn, their verandah, sometimes their rooms, were cumbered with +the sick and dying, their ears were filled with the complaints of suffering +humanity, their time was too short for the multiplicity of pitiful duties. +In Mrs. de Coetlogon, and her helper, Miss Taylor, the merit of this +endurance was perhaps to be looked for; in a man of the colonel’s +temper, himself painfully suffering, it was viewed with more surprise, +if with no more admiration. Doubtless all had their reward in +a sense of duty done; doubtless, also, as the days passed, in the spectacle +of many traits of gratitude and patience, and in the success that waited +on their efforts. Out of a hundred cases treated, only five died. +They were all well-behaved, though full of childish wiles. One +old gentleman, a high chief, was seized with alarming symptoms of belly-ache +whenever Mrs. de Coetlogon went her rounds at night: he was after brandy. +Others were insatiable for morphine or opium. A chief woman had +her foot amputated under chloroform. “Let me see my foot! +Why does it not hurt?” she cried. “It hurt so badly +before I went to sleep.” Siteoni, whose name has been already +mentioned, had his shoulder-blade excised, lay the longest of any, perhaps +behaved the worst, and was on all these grounds the favourite. +At times he was furiously irritable, and would rail upon his family +and rise in bed until he swooned with pain. Once on the balcony +he was thought to be dying, his family keeping round his mat, his father +exhorting him to be prepared, when Mrs. de Coetlogon brought him round +again with brandy and smelling-salts. After discharge, he returned +upon a visit of gratitude; and it was observed, that instead of coming +straight to the door, he went and stood long under his umbrella on that +spot of ground where his mat had been stretched and he had endured pain +so many months. Similar visits were the rule, I believe without +exception; and the grateful patients loaded Mrs. de Coetlogon with gifts +which (had that been possible in Polynesia) she would willingly have +declined, for they were often of value to the givers.</p> +<p>The tissue of my story is one of rapacity, intrigue, and the triumphs +of temper; the hospital at the consulate stands out almost alone as +an episode of human beauty, and I dwell on it with satisfaction. +But it was not regarded at the time with universal favour; and even +to-day its institution is thought by many to have been impolitic. +It was opened, it stood open, for the wounded of either party. +As a matter of fact it was never used but by the Mataafas, and the Tamaseses +were cared for exclusively by German doctors. In the progressive +decivilisation of the town, these duties of humanity became thus a ground +of quarrel. When the Mataafa hurt were first brought together +after the battle of Matautu, and some more or less amateur surgeons +were dressing wounds on a green by the wayside, one from the German +consulate went by in the road. “Why don’t you let +the dogs die?” he asked. “Go to hell,” was the +rejoinder. Such were the amenities of Apia. But Becker reserved +for himself the extreme expression of this spirit. On November +7th hostilities began again between the Samoan armies, and an inconclusive +skirmish sent a fresh crop of wounded to the de Coetlogons. Next +door to the consulate, some native houses and a chapel (now ruinous) +stood on a green. Chapel and houses were certainly Samoan, but +the ground was under a land-claim of the German firm; and de Coetlogon +wrote to Becker requesting permission (in case it should prove necessary) +to use these structures for his wounded. Before an answer came, +the hospital was startled by the appearance of a case of gangrene, and +the patient was hastily removed into the chapel. A rebel laid +on German ground—here was an atrocity! The day before his +own relief, November 11th, Becker ordered the man’s instant removal. +By his aggressive carriage and singular mixture of violence and cunning, +he had already largely brought about the fall of Brandeis, and forced +into an attitude of hostility the whole non-German population of the +islands. Now, in his last hour of office, by this wanton buffet +to his English colleague, he prepared a continuance of evil days for +his successor. If the object of diplomacy be the organisation +of failure in the midst of hate, he was a great diplomatist. And +amongst a certain party on the beach he is still named as the ideal +consul.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII—THE SAMOAN CAMPS</h2> +<p><i>November</i> 1888</p> +<p>When Brandeis and Tamasese fled by night from Mulinuu, they carried +their wandering government some six miles to windward, to a position +above Lotoanuu. For some three miles to the eastward of Apia, +the shores of Upolu are low and the ground rises with a gentle acclivity, +much of which waves with German plantations. A barrier reef encloses +a lagoon passable for boats: and the traveller skims there, on smooth, +many-tinted shallows, between the wall of the breakers on the one hand, +and on the other a succession of palm-tree capes and cheerful beach-side +villages. Beyond the great plantation of Vailele, the character +of the coast is changed. The barrier reef abruptly ceases, the +surf beats direct upon the shore; and the mountains and untenanted forest +of the interior descend sheer into the sea. The first mountain +promontory is Letongo. The bay beyond is called Laulii, and became +the headquarters of Mataafa. And on the next projection, on steep, +intricate ground, veiled in forest and cut up by gorges and defiles, +Tamasese fortified his lines. This greenwood citadel, which proved +impregnable by Samoan arms, may be regarded as his front; the sea covered +his right; and his rear extended along the coast as far as Saluafata, +and thus commanded and drew upon a rich country, including the plain +of Falefá.</p> +<p>He was left in peace from 11th October till November 6th. But +his adversary is not wholly to be blamed for this delay, which depended +upon island etiquette. His Savaii contingent had not yet come +in, and to have moved again without waiting for them would have been +surely to offend, perhaps to lose them. With the month of November +they began to arrive: on the 2nd twenty boats, on the 3rd twenty-nine, +on the 5th seventeen. On the 6th the position Mataafa had so long +occupied on the skirts of Apia was deserted; all that day and night +his force kept streaming eastward to Laulii; and on the 7th the siege +of Lotoanuu was opened with a brisk skirmish.</p> +<p>Each side built forts, facing across the gorge of a brook. +An endless fusillade and shouting maintained the spirit of the warriors; +and at night, even if the firing slackened, the pickets continued to +exchange from either side volleys of songs and pungent pleasantries. +Nearer hostilities were rendered difficult by the nature of the ground, +where men must thread dense bush and clamber on the face of precipices. +Apia was near enough; a man, if he had a dollar or two, could walk in +before a battle and array himself in silk or velvet. Casualties +were not common; there was nothing to cast gloom upon the camps, and +no more danger than was required to give a spice to the perpetual firing. +For the young warriors it was a period of admirable enjoyment. +But the anxiety of Mataafa must have been great and growing. His +force was now considerable. It was scarce likely he should ever +have more. That he should be long able to supply them with ammunition +seemed incredible; at the rates then or soon after current, hundreds +of pounds sterling might be easily blown into the air by the skirmishers +in the course of a few days. And in the meanwhile, on the mountain +opposite, his outnumbered adversary held his ground unshaken.</p> +<p>By this time the partisanship of the whites was unconcealed. +Americans supplied Mataafa with ammunition; English and Americans openly +subscribed together and sent boat-loads of provisions to his camp. +One such boat started from Apia on a day of rain; it was pulled by six +oars, three being paid by Moors, three by the MacArthurs; Moors himself +and a clerk of the MacArthurs’ were in charge; and the load included +not only beef and biscuit, but three or four thousand rounds of ammunition. +They came ashore in Laulii, and carried the gift to Mataafa. While +they were yet in his house a bullet passed overhead; and out of his +door they could see the Tamasese pickets on the opposite hill. +Thence they made their way to the left flank of the Mataafa position +next the sea. A Tamasese barricade was visible across the stream. +It rained, but the warriors crowded in their shanties, squatted in the +mud, and maintained an excited conversation. Balls flew; either +faction, both happy as lords, spotting for the other in chance shots, +and missing. One point is characteristic of that war; experts +in native feeling doubt if it will characterise the next. The +two white visitors passed without and between the lines to a rocky point +upon the beach. The person of Moors was well known; the purpose +of their coming to Laulii must have been already bruited abroad; yet +they were not fired upon. From the point they spied a crow’s +nest, or hanging fortification, higher up; and, judging it was a good +position for a general view, obtained a guide. He led them up +a steep side of the mountain, where they must climb by roots and tufts +of grass; and coming to an open hill-top with some scattered trees, +bade them wait, let him draw the fire, and then be swift to follow. +Perhaps a dozen balls whistled about him ere he had crossed the dangerous +passage and dropped on the farther side into the crow’s-nest; +the white men, briskly following, escaped unhurt. The crow’s-nest +was built like a bartizan on the precipitous front of the position. +Across the ravine, perhaps at five hundred yards, heads were to be seen +popping up and down in a fort of Tamesese’s. On both sides +the same enthusiasm without council, the same senseless vigilance, reigned. +Some took aim; some blazed before them at a venture. Now—when +a head showed on the other side—one would take a crack at it, +remarking that it would never do to “miss a chance.” +Now they would all fire a volley and bob down; a return volley rang +across the ravine, and was punctually answered: harmless as lawn-tennis. +The whites expostulated in vain. The warriors, drunken with noise, +made answer by a fresh general discharge and bade their visitors run +while it was time. Upon their return to headquarters, men were +covering the front with sheets of coral limestone, two balls having +passed through the house in the interval. Mataafa sat within, +over his kava bowl, unmoved. The picture is of a piece throughout: +excellent courage, super-excellent folly, a war of school-children; +expensive guns and cartridges used like squibs or catherine-wheels on +Guy Fawkes’s Day.</p> +<p>On the 20th Mataafa changed his attack. Tamasese’s front +was seemingly impregnable. Something must be tried upon his rear. +There was his bread-basket; a small success in that direction would +immediately curtail his resources; and it might be possible with energy +to roll up his line along the beach and take the citadel in reverse. +The scheme was carried out as might be expected from these childish +soldiers. Mataafa, always uneasy about Apia, clung with a portion +of his force to Laulii; and thus, had the foe been enterprising, exposed +himself to disaster. The expedition fell successfully enough on +Saluafata and drove out the Tamaseses with a loss of four heads; but +so far from improving the advantage, yielded immediately to the weakness +of the Samoan warrior, and ranged farther east through unarmed populations, +bursting with shouts and blackened faces into villages terrified or +admiring, making spoil of pigs, burning houses, and destroying gardens. +The Tamasese had at first evacuated several beach towns in succession, +and were still in retreat on Lotoanuu; finding themselves unpursued, +they reoccupied them one after another, and re-established their lines +to the very borders of Saluafata. Night fell; Mataafa had taken +Saluafata, Tamasese had lost it; and that was all. But the day +came near to have a different and very singular issue. The village +was not long in the hands of the Mataafas, when a schooner, flying German +colours, put into the bay and was immediately surrounded by their boats. +It chanced that Brandeis was on board. Word of it had gone abroad, +and the boats as they approached demanded him with threats. The +late premier, alone, entirely unarmed, and a prey to natural and painful +feelings, concealed himself below. The captain of the schooner +remained on deck, pointed to the German colours, and defied approaching +boats. Again the prestige of a great Power triumphed; the Samoans +fell back before the bunting; the schooner worked out of the bay; Brandeis +escaped. He himself apprehended the worst if he fell into Samoan +hands; it is my diffident impression that his life would have been safe.</p> +<p>On the 22nd, a new German war-ship, the <i>Eber</i>, of tragic memory, +came to Apia from the Gilberts, where she had been disarming turbulent +islands. The rest of that day and all night she loaded stores +from the firm, and on the morrow reached Saluafata bay. Thanks +to the misconduct of the Mataafas, the most of the foreshore was still +in the hands of the Tamaseses; and they were thus able to receive from +the <i>Eber</i> both the stores and weapons. The weapons had been +sold long since to Tarawa, Apaiang, and Pleasant Island; places unheard +of by the general reader, where obscure inhabitants paid for these instruments +of death in money or in labour, misused them as it was known they would +be misused, and had been disarmed by force. The <i>Eber</i> had +brought back the guns to a German counter, whence many must have been +originally sold; and was here engaged, like a shopboy, in their distribution +to fresh purchasers. Such is the vicious circle of the traffic +in weapons of war. Another aid of a more metaphysical nature was +ministered by the <i>Eber</i> to Tamasese, in the shape of uncountable +German flags. The full history of this epidemic of bunting falls +to be told in the next chapter. But the fact has to be chronicled +here, for I believe it was to these flags that we owe the visit of the +<i>Adams</i>, and my next and best authentic glance into a native camp. +The <i>Adams</i> arrived in Saluafata on the 26th. On the morrow +Leary and Moors landed at the village. It was still occupied by +Mataafas, mostly from Manono and Savaii, few in number, high in spirit. +The Tamasese pickets were meanwhile within musket range; there was maintained +a steady sputtering of shots; and yet a party of Tamasese women were +here on a visit to the women of Manono, with whom they sat talking and +smoking, under the fire of their own relatives. It was reported +that Leary took part in a council of war, and promised to join with +his broadside in the next attack. It is certain he did nothing +of the sort: equally certain that, in Tamasese circles, he was firmly +credited with having done so. And this heightens the extraordinary +character of what I have now to tell. Prudence and delicacy alike +ought to have forbid the camp of Tamasese to the feet of either Leary +or Moors. Moors was the original—there was a time when he +had been the only—opponent of the puppet king. Leary had +driven him from the seat of government; it was but a week or two since +he had threatened to bombard him in his present refuge. Both were +in close and daily council with his adversary, and it was no secret +that Moors was supplying the latter with food. They were partisans; +it lacked but a hair that they should be called belligerents; it were +idle to try to deny they were the most dangerous of spies. And +yet these two now sailed across the bay and landed inside the Tamasese +lines at Salelesi. On the very beach they had another glimpse +of the artlessness of Samoan war. Hitherto the Tamasese fleet, +being hardy and unencumbered, had made a fool of the huge floating forts +upon the other side; and here they were toiling, not to produce another +boat on their own pattern in which they had always enjoyed the advantage, +but to make a new one the type of their enemies’, of which they +had now proved the uselessness for months. It came on to rain +as the Americans landed; and though none offered to oppose their coming +ashore, none invited them to take shelter. They were nowise abashed, +entered a house unbidden, and were made welcome with obvious reserve. +The rain clearing off, they set forth westward, deeper into the heart +of the enemies’ position. Three or four young men ran some +way before them, doubtless to give warning; and Leary, with his indomitable +taste for mischief, kept inquiring as he went after “the high +chief” Tamasese. The line of the beach was one continuous +breastwork; some thirty odd iron cannon of all sizes and patterns stood +mounted in embrasures; plenty grape and canister lay ready; and at every +hundred yards or so the German flag was flying. The numbers of +the guns and flags I give as I received them, though they test my faith. +At the house of Brandeis—a little, weatherboard house, crammed +at the time with natives, men, women, and squalling children—Leary +and Moors again asked for “the high chief,” and, were again +assured that he was farther on. A little beyond, the road ran +in one place somewhat inland, the two Americans had gone down to the +line of the beach to continue their inspection of the breastwork, when +Brandeis himself, in his shirt-sleeves and accompanied by several German +officers, passed them by the line of the road. The two parties +saluted in silence. Beyond Eva Point there was an observable change +for the worse in the reception of the Americans; some whom they met +began to mutter at Moors; and the adventurers, with tardy but commendable +prudence, desisted from their search after the high chief, and began +to retrace their steps. On the return, Suatele and some chiefs +were drinking kava in a “big house,” and called them in +to join—their only invitation. But the night was closing, +the rain had begun again: they stayed but for civility, and returned +on board the <i>Adams</i>, wet and hungry, and I believe delighted with +their expedition. It was perhaps the last as it was certainly +one of the most extreme examples of that divinity which once hedged +the white in Samoa. The feeling was already different in the camp +of Mataafa, where the safety of a German loiterer had been a matter +of extreme concern. Ten days later, three commissioners, an Englishman, +an American, and a German, approached a post of Mataafas, were challenged +by an old man with a gun, and mentioned in answer what they were. +“<i>Ifea Siamani</i>? Which is the German?” cried +the old gentleman, dancing, and with his finger on the trigger; and +the commissioners stood somewhile in a very anxious posture, till they +were released by the opportune arrival of a chief. It was November +the 27th when Leary and Moors completed their absurd excursion; in about +three weeks an event was to befall which changed at once, and probably +for ever, the relations of the natives and the whites.</p> +<p>By the 28th Tamasese had collected seventeen hundred men in the trenches +before Saluafata, thinking to attack next day. But the Mataafas +evacuated the place in the night. At half-past five on the morning +of the 29th a signal-gun was fired in the trenches at Laulii, and the +Tamasese citadel was assaulted and defended with a fury new among Samoans. +When the battle ended on the following day, one or more outworks remained +in the possession of Mataafa. Another had been taken and lost +as many as four times. Carried originally by a mixed force from +Savaii and Tuamasanga, the victors, instead of completing fresh defences +or pursuing their advantage, fell to eat and smoke and celebrate their +victory with impromptu songs. In this humour a rally of the Tamaseses +smote them, drove them out pell-mell, and tumbled them into the ravine, +where many broke their heads and legs. Again the work was taken, +again lost. Ammunition failed the belligerents; and they fought +hand to hand in the contested fort with axes, clubs, and clubbed rifles. +The sustained ardour of the engagement surprised even those who were +engaged; and the butcher’s bill was counted extraordinary by Samoans. +On December 1st the women of either side collected the headless bodies +of the dead, each easily identified by the name tattooed on his forearm. +Mataafa is thought to have lost sixty killed; and the de Coetlogons’ +hospital received three women and forty men. The casualties on +the Tamasese side cannot be accepted, but they were presumably much +less.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII—AFFAIRS OF LAULII AND FANGALII</h2> +<p><i>November-December</i> 1888</p> +<p>For Becker I have not been able to conceal my distaste, for he seems +to me both false and foolish. But of his successor, the unfortunately +famous Dr. Knappe, we may think as of a good enough fellow driven distraught. +Fond of Samoa and the Samoans, he thought to bring peace and enjoy popularity +among the islanders; of a genial, amiable, and sanguine temper, he made +no doubt but he could repair the breach with the English consul. +Hope told a flattering tale. He awoke to find himself exchanging +defiances with de Coetlogon, beaten in the field by Mataafa, surrounded +on the spot by general exasperation, and disowned from home by his own +government. The history of his administration leaves on the mind +of the student a sentiment of pity scarcely mingled.</p> +<p>On Blacklock he did not call, and, in view of Leary’s attitude, +may be excused. But the English consul was in a different category. +England, weary of the name of Samoa, and desirous only to see peace +established, was prepared to wink hard during the process and to welcome +the result of any German settlement. It was an unpardonable fault +in Becker to have kicked and buffeted his ready-made allies into a state +of jealousy, anger, and suspicion. Knappe set himself at once +to efface these impressions, and the English officials rejoiced for +the moment in the change. Between Knappe and de Coetlogon there +seems to have been mutual sympathy; and, in considering the steps by +which they were led at last into an attitude of mutual defiance, it +must be remembered that both the men were sick,—Knappe from time +to time prostrated with that formidable complaint, New Guinea fever, +and de Coetlogon throughout his whole stay in the islands continually +ailing.</p> +<p>Tamasese was still to be recognised, and, if possible, supported: +such was the German policy. Two days after his arrival, accordingly, +Knappe addressed to Mataafa a threatening despatch. The German +plantation was suffering from the proximity of his “war-party.” +He must withdraw from Laulii at once, and, whithersoever he went, he +must approach no German property nor so much as any village where there +was a German trader. By five o’clock on the morrow, if he +were not gone, Knappe would turn upon him “the attention of the +man-of-war” and inflict a fine. The same evening, November +14th, Knappe went on board the <i>Adler</i>, which began to get up steam.</p> +<p>Three months before, such direct intervention on the part of Germany +would have passed almost without protest; but the hour was now gone +by. Becker’s conduct, equally timid and rash, equally inconclusive +and offensive, had forced the other nations into a strong feeling of +common interest with Mataafa. Even had the German demands been +moderate, de Coetlogon could not have forgotten the night of the <i>taumualua</i>, +nor how Mataafa had relinquished, at his request, the attack upon the +German quarter. Blacklock, with his driver of a captain at his +elbow, was not likely to lag behind. And Mataafa having communicated +Knappe’s letter, the example of the Germans was on all hands exactly +followed; the consuls hastened on board their respective war-ships, +and these began to get up steam. About midnight, in a pouring +rain, Pelly communicated to Fritze his intention to follow him and protect +British interests; and Knappe replied that he would come on board the +<i>Lizard</i> and see de Coetlogon personally. It was deep in +the small hours, and de Coetlogon had been long asleep, when he was +wakened to receive his colleague; but he started up with an old soldier’s +readiness. The conference was long. De Coetlogon protested, +as he did afterwards in writing, against Knappe’s claim: the Samoans +were in a state of war; they had territorial rights; it was monstrous +to prevent them from entering one of their own villages because a German +trader kept the store; and in case property suffered, a claim for compensation +was the proper remedy. Knappe argued that this was a question +between Germans and Samoans, in which de Coetlogon had nothing to see; +and that he must protect German property according to his instructions. +To which de Coetlogon replied that he was himself in the same attitude +to the property of the British; that he understood Knappe to be intending +hostilities against Laulii; that Laulii was mortgaged to the MacArthurs; +that its crops were accordingly British property; and that, while he +was ever willing to recognise the territorial rights of the Samoans, +he must prevent that property from being molested “by any other +nation.” “But if a German man-of-war does it?” +asked Knappe.—“We shall prevent it to the best of our ability,” +replied the colonel. It is to the credit of both men that this +trying interview should have been conducted and concluded without heat; +but Knappe must have returned to the <i>Adler</i> with darker anticipations.</p> +<p>At sunrise on the morning of the 15th, the three ships, each loaded +with its consul, put to sea. It is hard to exaggerate the peril +of the forenoon that followed, as they lay off Laulii. Nobody +desired a collision, save perhaps the reckless Leary; but peace and +war trembled in the balance; and when the <i>Adler</i>, at one period, +lowered her gun ports, war appeared to preponderate. It proved, +however, to be a last—and therefore surely an unwise—extremity. +Knappe contented himself with visiting the rival kings, and the three +ships returned to Apia before noon. Beyond a doubt, coming after +Knappe’s decisive letter of the day before, this impotent conclusion +shook the credit of Germany among the natives of both sides; the Tamaseses +fearing they were deserted, the Mataafas (with secret delight) hoping +they were feared. And it gave an impetus to that ridiculous business +which might have earned for the whole episode the name of the war of +flags. British and American flags had been planted the night before, +and were seen that morning flying over what they claimed about Laulii. +British and American passengers, on the way up and down, pointed out +from the decks of the war-ships, with generous vagueness, the boundaries +of problematical estates. Ten days later, the beach of Saluafata +bay fluttered (as I have told in the last chapter) with the flag of +Germany. The Americans riposted with a claim to Tamasese’s +camp, some small part of which (says Knappe) did really belong to “an +American nigger.” The disease spread, the flags were multiplied, +the operations of war became an egg-dance among miniature neutral territories; +and though all men took a hand in these proceedings, all men in turn +were struck with their absurdity. Mullan, Leary’s successor, +warned Knappe, in an emphatic despatch, not to squander and discredit +the solemnity of that emblem which was all he had to be a defence to +his own consulate. And Knappe himself, in his despatch of March +21st, 1889, castigates the practice with much sense. But this +was after the tragicomic culmination had been reached, and the burnt +rags of one of these too-frequently mendacious signals gone on a progress +to Washington, like Cæsar’s body, arousing indignation where +it came. To such results are nations conducted by the patent artifices +of a Becker.</p> +<p>The discussion of the morning, the silent menace and defiance of +the voyage to Laulii, might have set the best-natured by the ears. +But Knappe and de Coetlogon took their difference in excellent part. +On the morrow, November 16th, they sat down together with Blacklock +in conference. The English consul introduced his colleagues, who +shook hands. If Knappe were dead-weighted with the inheritance +of Becker, Blacklock was handicapped by reminiscences of Leary; it is +the more to the credit of this inexperienced man that he should have +maintained in the future so excellent an attitude of firmness and moderation, +and that when the crash came, Knappe and de Coetlogon, not Knappe and +Blacklock, were found to be the protagonists of the drama. The +conference was futile. The English and American consuls admitted +but one cure of the evils of the time: that the farce of the Tamasese +monarchy should cease. It was one which the German refused to +consider. And the agents separated without reaching any result, +save that diplomatic relations had been restored between the States +and Germany, and that all three were convinced of their fundamental +differences.</p> +<p>Knappe and de Coetlogon were still friends; they had disputed and +differed and come within a finger’s breadth of war, and they were +still friends. But an event was at hand which was to separate +them for ever. On December 4th came the <i>Royalist</i>, Captain +Hand, to relieve the <i>Lizard</i>. Pelly of course had to take +his canvas from the consulate hospital; but he had in charge certain +awnings belonging to the <i>Royalist</i>, and with these they made shift +to cover the wounded, at that time (after the fight at Laulii) more +than usually numerous. A lieutenant came to the consulate, and +delivered (as I have received it) the following message: “Captain +Hand’s compliments, and he says you must get rid of these niggers +at once, and he will help you to do it.” Doubtless the reply +was no more civil than the message. The promised “help,” +at least, followed promptly. A boat’s crew landed and the +awnings were stripped from the wounded, Hand himself standing on the +colonel’s verandah to direct operations. It were fruitless +to discuss this passage from the humanitarian point of view, or from +that of formal courtesy. The mind of the new captain was plainly +not directed to these objects. But it is understood that he considered +the existence of a hospital a source of irritation to Germans and a +fault in policy. His own rude act proved in the result far more +impolitic. The hospital had now been open some two months, and +de Coetlogon was still on friendly terms with Knappe, and he and his +wife were engaged to dine with him that day. By the morrow that +was practically ended. For the rape of the awnings had two results: +one, which was the fault of de Coetlogon, not at all of Hand, who could +not have foreseen it; the other which it was his duty to have seen and +prevented. The first was this: the de Coetlogons found themselves +left with their wounded exposed to the inclemencies of the season; they +must all be transported into the house and verandah; in the distress +and pressure of this task, the dinner engagement was too long forgotten; +and a note of excuse did not reach the German consulate before the table +was set, and Knappe dressed to receive his visitors. The second +consequence was inevitable. Captain Hand was scarce landed ere +it became public (was “<i>sofort bekannt</i>,” writes Knappe) +that he and the consul were in opposition. All that had been gained +by the demonstration at Laulii was thus immediately cast away; de Coetlogon’s +prestige was lessened; and it must be said plainly that Hand did less +than nothing to restore it. Twice indeed he interfered, both times +with success; and once, when his own person had been endangered, with +vehemence; but during all the strange doings I have to narrate, he remained +in close intimacy with the German consulate, and on one occasion may +be said to have acted as its marshal. After the worst is over, +after Bismarck has told Knappe that “the protests of his English +colleague were grounded,” that his own conduct “has not +been good,” and that in any dispute which may arise he “will +find himself in the wrong,” Knappe can still plead in his defence +that Captain Hand “has always maintained friendly intercourse +with the German authorities.” Singular epitaph for an English +sailor. In this complicity on the part of Hand we may find the +reason—and I had almost said, the excuse—of much that was +excessive in the bearing of the unfortunate Knappe.</p> +<p>On the 11th December, Mataafa received twenty-eight thousand cartridges, +brought into the country in salt-beef kegs by the British ship <i>Richmond</i>. +This not only sharpened the animosity between whites; following so closely +on the German fizzle at Laulii, it raised a convulsion in the camp of +Tamasese. On the 13th Brandeis addressed to Knappe his famous +and fatal letter. I may not describe it as a letter of burning +words, but it is plainly dictated by a burning heart. Tamasese +and his chiefs, he announces, are now sick of the business, and ready +to make peace with Mataafa. They began the war relying upon German +help; they now see and say that “<i>e faaalo Siamani i Peritania +ma America</i>, that Germany is subservient to England and the States.” +It is grimly given to be understood that the despatch is an ultimatum, +and a last chance is being offered for the recreant ally to fulfil her +pledge. To make it more plain, the document goes on with a kind +of bilious irony: “The two German war-ships now in Samoa are here +for the protection of German property alone; and when the <i>Olga</i> +shall have arrived” [she arrived on the morrow] “the German +war-ships will continue to do against the insurgents precisely as little +as they have done heretofore.” Plant flags, in fact.</p> +<p>Here was Knappe’s opportunity, could he have stooped to seize +it. I find it difficult to blame him that he could not. +Far from being so inglorious as the treachery once contemplated by Becker, +the acceptance of this ultimatum would have been still in the nature +of a disgrace. Brandeis’s letter, written by a German, was +hard to swallow. It would have been hard to accept that solution +which Knappe had so recently and so peremptorily refused to his brother +consuls. And he was tempted, on the other hand, by recent changes. +There was no Pelly to support de Coetlogon, who might now be disregarded. +Mullan, Leary’s successor, even if he were not precisely a Hand, +was at least no Leary; and even if Mullan should show fight, Knappe +had now three ships and could defy or sink him without danger. +Many small circumstances moved him in the same direction. The +looting of German plantations continued; the whole force of Mataafa +was to a large extent subsisted from the crops of Vailele; and armed +men were to be seen openly plundering bananas, breadfruit, and cocoa-nuts +under the walls of the plantation building. On the night of the +13th the consulate stable had been broken into and a horse removed. +On the 16th there was a riot in Apia between half-castes and sailors +from the new ship <i>Olga</i>, each side claiming that the other was +the worse of drink, both (for a wager) justly. The multiplication +of flags and little neutral territories had, besides, begun to irritate +the Samoans. The protests of German settlers had been received +uncivilly. On the 16th the Mataafas had again sought to land in +Saluafata bay, with the manifest intention to attack the Tamaseses, +or (in other words) “to trespass on German lands, covered, as +your Excellency knows, with flags.” I quote from his requisition +to Fritze, December 17th. Upon all these considerations, he goes +on, it is necessary to bring the fighting to an end. Both parties +are to be disarmed and returned to their villages—Mataafa first. +And in case of any attempt upon Apia, the roads thither are to be held +by a strong landing-party. Mataafa was to be disarmed first, perhaps +rightly enough in his character of the last insurgent. Then was +to have come the turn of Tamasese; but it does not appear the disarming +would have had the same import or have been gone about in the same way. +Germany was bound to Tamasese. No honest man would dream of blaming +Knappe because he sought to redeem his country’s word. The +path he chose was doubtless that of honour, so far as honour was still +left. But it proved to be the road to ruin.</p> +<p>Fritze, ranking German officer, is understood to have opposed the +measure. His attitude earned him at the time unpopularity among +his country-people on the spot, and should now redound to his credit. +It is to be hoped he extended his opposition to some of the details. +If it were possible to disarm Mataafa at all, it must be done rather +by prestige than force. A party of blue-jackets landed in Samoan +bush, and expected to hold against Samoans a multiplicity of forest +paths, had their work cut out for them. And it was plain they +should be landed in the light of day, with a discouraging openness, +and even with parade. To sneak ashore by night was to increase +the danger of resistance and to minimise the authority of the attack. +The thing was a bluff, and it is impossible to bluff with stealth. +Yet this was what was tried. A landing-party was to leave the +<i>Olga</i> in Apia bay at two in the morning; the landing was to be +at four on two parts of the foreshore of Vailele. At eight they +were to be joined by a second landing-party from the <i>Eber</i>. +By nine the Olgas were to be on the crest of Letongo Mountain, and the +Ebers to be moving round the promontory by the seaward paths, “with +measures of precaution,” disarming all whom they encountered. +There was to be no firing unless fired upon. At the appointed +hour (or perhaps later) on the morning of the 19th, this unpromising +business was put in hand, and there moved off from the <i>Olga</i> two +boats with some fifty blue-jackets between them, and a <i>praam</i> +or punt containing ninety,—the boats and the whole expedition +under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Jaeckel, the praam under Lieutenant +Spengler. The men had each forty rounds, one day’s provisions, +and their flasks filled.</p> +<p>In the meanwhile, Mataafa sympathisers about Apia were on the alert. +Knappe had informed the consuls that the ships were to put to sea next +day for the protection of German property; but the Tamaseses had been +less discreet. “To-morrow at the hour of seven,” they +had cried to their adversaries, “you will know of a difficulty, +and our guns shall be made good in broken bones.” An accident +had pointed expectation towards Apia. The wife of Le Mãmea +washed for the German ships—a perquisite, I suppose, for her husband’s +unwilling fidelity. She sent a man with linen on board the <i>Adler</i>, +where he was surprised to see Le Mãmea in person, and to be himself +ordered instantly on shore. The news spread. If Mãmea +were brought down from Lotoanuu, others might have come at the same +time. Tamasese himself and half his army might perhaps lie concealed +on board the German ships. And a watch was accordingly set and +warriors collected along the line of the shore. One detachment +lay in some rifle-pits by the mouth of the Fuisá. They +were commanded by Seumanu; and with his party, probably as the most +contiguous to Apia, was the war-correspondent, John Klein. Of +English birth, but naturalised American, this gentleman had been for +some time representing the <i>New York World</i> in a very effective +manner, always in the front, living in the field with the Samoans, and +in all vicissitudes of weather, toiling to and fro with his despatches. +His wisdom was perhaps not equal to his energy. He made himself +conspicuous, going about armed to the teeth in a boat under the stars +and stripes; and on one occasion, when he supposed himself fired upon +by the Tamaseses, had the petulance to empty his revolver in the direction +of their camp. By the light of the moon, which was then nearly +down, this party observed the <i>Olga’s</i> two boats and the +praam, which they described as “almost sinking with men,” +the boats keeping well out towards the reef, the praam at the moment +apparently heading for the shore. An extreme agitation seems to +have reigned in the rifle-pits. What were the newcomers? +What was their errand? Were they Germans or Tamaseses? Had +they a mind to attack? The praam was hailed in Samoan and did +not answer. It was proposed to fire upon her ere she drew near. +And at last, whether on his own suggestion or that of Seumanu, Klein +hailed her in English, and in terms of unnecessary melodrama. +“Do not try to land here,” he cried. “If you +do, your blood will be upon your head.” Spengler, who had +never the least intention to touch at the Fuisá, put up the head +of the praam to her true course and continued to move up the lagoon +with an offing of some seventy or eighty yards. Along all the +irregularities and obstructions of the beach, across the mouth of the +Vaivasa, and through the startled village of Matafangatele, Seumanu, +Klein, and seven or eight others raced to keep up, spreading the alarm +and rousing reinforcements as they went. Presently a man on horse-back +made his appearance on the opposite beach of Fangalii. Klein and +the natives distinctly saw him signal with a lantern; which is the more +strange, as the horseman (Captain Hufnagel, plantation manager of Vailele) +had never a lantern to signal with. The praam kept in. Many +men in white were seen to stand up, step overboard, and wade to shore. +At the same time the eye of panic descried a breastwork of “foreign +stone” (brick) upon the beach. Samoans are prepared to-day +to swear to its existence, I believe conscientiously, although no such +thing was ever made or ever intended in that place. The hour is +doubtful. “It was the hour when the streak of dawn is seen, +the hour known in the warfare of heathen times as the hour of the night +attack,” says the Mataafa official account. A native whom +I met on the field declared it was at cock-crow. Captain Hufnagel, +on the other hand, is sure it was long before the day. It was +dark at least, and the moon down. Darkness made the Samoans bold; +uncertainty as to the composition and purpose of the landing-party made +them desperate. Fire was opened on the Germans, one of whom was +here killed. The Germans returned it, and effected a lodgment +on the beach; and the skirmish died again to silence. It was at +this time, if not earlier, that Klein returned to Apia.</p> +<p>Here, then, were Spengler and the ninety men of the praam, landed +on the beach in no very enviable posture, the woods in front filled +with unnumbered enemies, but for the time successful. Meanwhile, +Jaeckel and the boats had gone outside the reef, and were to land on +the other side of the Vailele promontory, at Sunga, by the buildings +of the plantation. It was Hufnagel’s part to go and meet +them. His way led straight into the woods and through the midst +of the Samoans, who had but now ceased firing. He went in the +saddle and at a foot’s pace, feeling speed and concealment to +be equally helpless, and that if he were to fall at all, he had best +fall with dignity. Not a shot was fired at him; no effort made +to arrest him on his errand. As he went, he spoke and even jested +with the Samoans, and they answered in good part. One fellow was +leaping, yelling, and tossing his axe in the air, after the way of an +excited islander. “<i>Faimalosi</i>! go it!” said +Hufnagel, and the fellow laughed and redoubled his exertions. +As soon as the boats entered the lagoon, fire was again opened from +the woods. The fifty blue-jackets jumped overboard, hove down +the boats to be a shield, and dragged them towards the landing-place. +In this way, their rations, and (what was more unfortunate) some of +their miserable provision of forty rounds got wetted; but the men came +to shore and garrisoned the plantation house without a casualty. +Meanwhile the sound of the firing from Sunga immediately renewed the +hostilities at Fangalii. The civilians on shore decided that Spengler +must be at once guided to the house, and Haideln, the surveyor, accepted +the dangerous errand. Like Hufnagel, he was suffered to pass without +question through the midst of these platonic enemies. He found +Spengler some way inland on a knoll, disastrously engaged, the woods +around him filled with Samoans, who were continuously reinforced. +In three successive charges, cheering as they ran, the blue-jackets +burst through their scattered opponents, and made good their junction +with Jaeckel. Four men only remained upon the field, the other +wounded being helped by their comrades or dragging themselves painfully +along.</p> +<p>The force was now concentrated in the house and its immediate patch +of garden. Their rear, to the seaward, was unmolested; but on +three sides they were beleaguered. On the left, the Samoans occupied +and fired from some of the plantation offices. In front, a long +rising crest of land in the horse-pasture commanded the house, and was +lined with the assailants. And on the right, the hedge of the +same paddock afforded them a dangerous cover. It was in this place +that a Samoan sharpshooter was knocked over by Jaeckel with his own +hand. The fire was maintained by the Samoans in the usual wasteful +style. The roof was made a sieve; the balls passed clean through +the house; Lieutenant Sieger, as he lay, already dying, on Hufnagel’s +bed, was despatched with a fresh wound. The Samoans showed themselves +extremely enterprising: pushed their lines forward, ventured beyond +cover, and continually threatened to envelop the garden. Thrice, +at least, it was necessary to repel them by a sally. The men were +brought into the house from the rear, the front doors were thrown suddenly +open, and the gallant blue-jackets issued cheering: necessary, successful, +but extremely costly sorties. Neither could these be pushed far. +The foes were undaunted; so soon as the sailors advanced at all deep +in the horse-pasture, the Samoans began to close in upon both flanks; +and the sally had to be recalled. To add to the dangers of the +German situation, ammunition began to run low; and the cartridge-boxes +of the wounded and the dead had been already brought into use before, +at about eight o’clock, the <i>Eber</i> steamed into the bay. +Her commander, Wallis, threw some shells into Letongo, one of which +killed five men about their cooking-pot. The Samoans began immediately +to withdraw; their movements were hastened by a sortie, and the remains +of the landing-party brought on board. This was an unfortunate +movement; it gave an irremediable air of defeat to what might have been +else claimed for a moderate success. The blue-jackets numbered +a hundred and forty all told; they were engaged separately and fought +under the worst conditions, in the dark and among woods; their position +in the house was scarce tenable; they lost in killed and wounded fifty-six,—forty +per cent.; and their spirit to the end was above question. Whether +we think of the poor sailor lads, always so pleasantly behaved in times +of peace, or whether we call to mind the behaviour of the two civilians, +Haideln and Hufnagel, we can only regret that brave men should stand +to be exposed upon so poor a quarrel, or lives cast away upon an enterprise +so hopeless.</p> +<p>News of the affair reached Apia early, and Moors, always curious +of these spectacles of war, was immediately in the saddle. Near +Matafangatele he met a Manono chief, whom he asked if there were any +German dead. “I think there are about thirty of them knocked +over,” said he. “Have you taken their heads?” +asked Moors. “Yes,” said the chief. “Some +foolish people did it, but I have stopped them. We ought not to +cut off their heads when they do not cut off ours.” He was +asked what had been done with the heads. “Two have gone +to Mataafa,” he replied, “and one is buried right under +where your horse is standing, in a basket wrapped in tapa.” +This was afterwards dug up, and I am told on native authority that, +besides the three heads, two ears were taken. Moors next asked +the Manono man how he came to be going away. “The man-of-war +is throwing shells,” said he. “When they stopped firing +out of the house, we stopped firing also; so it was as well to scatter +when the shells began. We could have killed all the white men. +I wish they had been Tamaseses.” This is an <i>ex parte</i> +statement, and I give it for such; but the course of the affair, and +in particular the adventures of Haideln and Hufnagel, testify to a surprising +lack of animosity against the Germans. About the same time or +but a little earlier than this conversation, the same spirit was being +displayed. Hufnagel, with a party of labour, had gone out to bring +in the German dead, when he was surprised to be suddenly fired on from +the wood. The boys he had with him were not negritos, but Polynesians +from the Gilbert Islands; and he suddenly remembered that these might +be easily mistaken for a detachment of Tamaseses. Bidding his +boys conceal themselves in a thicket, this brave man walked into the +open. So soon as he was recognised, the firing ceased, and the +labourers followed him in safety. This is chivalrous war; but +there was a side to it less chivalrous. As Moors drew nearer to +Vailele, he began to meet Samoans with hats, guns, and even shirts, +taken from the German sailors. With one of these who had a hat +and a gun he stopped and spoke. The hat was handed up for him +to look at; it had the late owner’s name on the inside. +“Where is he?” asked Moors. “He is dead; I cut +his head off.” “You shot him?” “No, +somebody else shot him in the hip. When I came, he put up his +hands, and cried: ‘Don’t kill me; I am a Malietoa man.’ +I did not believe him, and I cut his head off...... Have you any ammunition +to fit that gun?” “I do not know.” “What +has become of the cartridge-belt?” “Another fellow +grabbed that and the cartridges, and he won’t give them to me.” +A dreadful and silly picture of barbaric war. The words of the +German sailor must be regarded as imaginary: how was the poor lad to +speak native, or the Samoan to understand German? When Moors came +as far as Sunga, the <i>Eber</i> was yet in the bay, the smoke of battle +still lingered among the trees, which were themselves marked with a +thousand bullet-wounds. But the affair was over, the combatants, +German and Samoan, were all gone, and only a couple of negrito labour +boys lurked on the scene. The village of Letongo beyond was equally +silent; part of it was wrecked by the shells of the <i>Eber</i>, and +still smoked; the inhabitants had fled. On the beach were the +native boats, perhaps five thousand dollars’ worth, deserted by +the Mataafas and overlooked by the Germans, in their common hurry to +escape. Still Moors held eastward by the sea-paths. It was +his hope to get a view from the other side of the promontory, towards +Laulii. In the way he found a house hidden in the wood and among +rocks, where an aged and sick woman was being tended by her elderly +daughter. Last lingerers in that deserted piece of coast, they +seemed indifferent to the events which had thus left them solitary, +and, as the daughter said, did not know where Mataafa was, nor where +Tamasese.</p> +<p>It is the official Samoan pretension that the Germans fired first +at Fangalii. In view of all German and some native testimony, +the text of Fritze’s orders, and the probabilities of the case, +no honest mind will believe it for a moment. Certainly the Samoans +fired first. As certainly they were betrayed into the engagement +in the agitation of the moment, and it was not till afterwards that +they understood what they had done. Then, indeed, all Samoa drew +a breath of wonder and delight. The invincible had fallen; the +men of the vaunted war-ships had been met in the field by the braves +of Mataafa: a superstition was no more. Conceive this people steadily +as schoolboys; and conceive the elation in any school if the head boy +should suddenly arise and drive the rector from the schoolhouse. +I have received one instance of the feeling instantly aroused. +There lay at the time in the consular hospital an old chief who was +a pet of the colonel’s. News reached him of the glorious +event; he was sick, he thought himself sinking, sent for the colonel, +and gave him his gun. “Don’t let the Germans get it,” +said the old gentleman, and having received a promise, was at peace.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX—“FUROR CONSULARIS”</h2> +<p><i>December</i> 1888 <i>to March</i> 1889</p> +<p>Knappe, in the <i>Adler</i>, with a flag of truce at the fore, was +entering Laulii Bay when the <i>Eber</i> brought him the news of the +night’s reverse. His heart was doubtless wrung for his young +countrymen who had been butchered and mutilated in the dark woods, or +now lay suffering, and some of them dying, on the ship. And he +must have been startled as he recognised his own position. He +had gone too far; he had stumbled into war, and, what was worse, into +defeat; he had thrown away German lives for less than nothing, and now +saw himself condemned either to accept defeat, or to kick and pummel +his failure into something like success; either to accept defeat, or +take frenzy for a counsellor. Yesterday, in cold blood, he had +judged it necessary to have the woods to the westward guarded lest the +evacuation of Laulii should prove only the peril of Apia. To-day, +in the irritation and alarm of failure, he forgot or despised his previous +reasoning, and, though his detachment was beat back to the ships, proceeded +with the remainder of his maimed design. The only change he made +was to haul down the flag of truce. He had now no wish to meet +with Mataafa. Words were out of season, shells must speak.</p> +<p>At this moment an incident befell him which must have been trying +to his self-command. The new American ship <i>Nipsic</i> entered +Laulii Bay; her commander, Mullan, boarded the <i>Adler</i> to protest, +succeeded in wresting from Knappe a period of delay in order that the +women might be spared, and sent a lieutenant to Mataafa with a warning. +The camp was already excited by the news and the trophies of Fangalii. +Already Tamasese and Lotoanuu seemed secondary objectives to the Germans +and Apia. Mullan’s message put an end to hesitation. +Laulii was evacuated. The troops streamed westward by the mountain +side, and took up the same day a strong position about Tanungamanono +and Mangiangi, some two miles behind Apia, which they threatened with +the one hand, while with the other they continued to draw their supplies +from the devoted plantations of the German firm. Laulii, when +it was shelled, was empty. The British flags were, of course, +fired upon; and I hear that one of them was struck down, but I think +every one must be privately of the mind that it was fired upon and fell, +in a place where it had little business to be shown.</p> +<p>Such was the military epilogue to the ill-judged adventure of Fangalii; +it was difficult for failure to be more complete. But the other +consequences were of a darker colour and brought the whites immediately +face to face in a spirit of ill-favoured animosity. Knappe was +mourning the defeat and death of his country-folk, he was standing aghast +over the ruin of his own career, when Mullan boarded him. The +successor of Leary served himself, in that bitter moment, heir to Leary’s +part. And in Mullan, Knappe saw more even than the successor of +Leary,—he saw in him the representative of Klein. Klein +had hailed the praam from the rifle-pits; he had there uttered ill-chosen +words, unhappily prophetic; it is even likely that he was present at +the time of the first fire. To accuse him of the design and conduct +of the whole attack was but a step forward; his own vapouring served +to corroborate the accusation; and it was not long before the German +consulate was in possession of sworn native testimony in support. +The worth of native testimony is small, the worth of white testimony +not overwhelming; and I am in the painful position of not being able +to subscribe either to Klein’s own account of the affair or to +that of his accusers. Klein was extremely flurried; his interest +as a reporter must have tempted him at first to make the most of his +share in the exploit, the immediate peril in which he soon found himself +to stand must have at least suggested to him the idea of minimising +it; one way and another, he is not a good witness. As for the +natives, they were no doubt cross-examined in that hall of terror, the +German consulate, where they might be trusted to lie like schoolboys, +or (if the reader prefer it) like Samoans. By outside white testimony, +it remains established for me that Klein returned to Apia either before +or immediately after the first shots. That he ever sought or was +ever allowed a share in the command may be denied peremptorily; but +it is more than likely that he expressed himself in an excited manner +and with a highly inflammatory effect upon his hearers. He was, +at least, severely punished. The Germans, enraged by his provocative +behaviour and what they thought to be his German birth, demanded him +to be tried before court-martial; he had to skulk inside the sentries +of the American consulate, to be smuggled on board a war-ship, and to +be carried almost by stealth out of the island; and what with the agitations +of his mind, and the results of a marsh fever contracted in the lines +of Mataafa, reached Honolulu a very proper object of commiseration. +Nor was Klein the only accused: de Coetlogon was himself involved. +As the boats passed Matautu, Knappe declares a signal was made from +the British consulate. Perhaps we should rather read “from +its neighbourhood”; since, in the general warding of the coast, +the point of Matautu could scarce have been neglected. On the +other hand, there is no doubt that the Samoans, in the anxiety of that +night of watching and fighting, crowded to the friendly consul for advice. +Late in the night, the wounded Siteoni, lying on the colonel’s +verandah, one corner of which had been blinded down that he might sleep, +heard the coming and going of bare feet and the voices of eager consultation. +And long after, a man who had been discharged from the colonel’s +employment took upon himself to swear an affidavit as to the nature +of the advice then given, and to carry the document to the German consul. +It was an act of private revenge; it fell long out of date in the good +days of Dr. Stuebel, and had no result but to discredit the gentleman +who volunteered it. Colonel de Coetlogon had his faults, but they +did not touch his honour; his bare word would always outweigh a waggon-load +of such denunciations; and he declares his behaviour on that night to +have been blameless. The question was besides inquired into on +the spot by Sir John Thurston, and the colonel honourably acquitted. +But during the weeks that were now to follow, Knappe believed the contrary; +he believed not only that Moors and others had supplied ammunition and +Klein commanded in the field, but that de Coetlogon had made the signal +of attack; that though his blue-jackets had bled and fallen against +the arms of Samoans, these were supplied, inspired, and marshalled by +Americans and English.</p> +<p>The legend was the more easily believed because it embraced and was +founded upon so much truth. Germans lay dead, the German wounded +groaned in their cots; and the cartridges by which they fell had been +sold by an American and brought into the country in a British bottom. +Had the transaction been entirely mercenary, it would already have been +hard to swallow; but it was notoriously not so. British and Americans +were notoriously the partisans of Mataafa. They rejoiced in the +result of Fangalii, and so far from seeking to conceal their rejoicing, +paraded and displayed it. Calumny ran high. Before the dead +were buried, while the wounded yet lay in pain and fever, cowardly accusations +of cowardice were levelled at the German blue-jackets. It was +said they had broken and run before their enemies, and that they had +huddled helpless like sheep in the plantation house. Small wonder +if they had; small wonder had they been utterly destroyed. But +the fact was heroically otherwise; and these dastard calumnies cut to +the blood. They are not forgotten; perhaps they will never be +forgiven.</p> +<p>In the meanwhile, events were pressing towards a still more trenchant +opposition. On the 20th, the three consuls met and parted without +agreement, Knappe announcing that he had lost men and must take the +matter in his own hands to avenge their death. On the 21st the +<i>Olga</i> came before Matafangatele, ordered the delivery of all arms +within the hour, and at the end of that period, none being brought, +shelled and burned the village. The shells fell for the most part +innocuous; an eyewitness saw children at play beside the flaming houses; +not a soul was injured; and the one noteworthy event was the mutilation +of Captain Hamilton’s American flag. In one sense an incident +too small to be chronicled, in another this was of historic interest +and import. These rags of tattered bunting occasioned the display +of a new sentiment in the United States; and the republic of the West, +hitherto so apathetic and unwieldy, but already stung by German nonchalance, +leaped to its feet for the first time at the news of this fresh insult. +As though to make the inefficiency of the war-ships more apparent, three +shells were thrown inland at Mangiangi; they flew high over the Mataafa +camp, where the natives could “hear them singing” as they +flew, and fell behind in the deep romantic valley of the Vaisingano. +Mataafa had been already summoned on board the <i>Adler</i>; his life +promised if he came, declared “in danger” if he came not; +and he had declined in silence the unattractive invitation. These +fresh hostile acts showed him that the worst had come. He was +in strength, his force posted along the whole front of the mountain +behind Apia, Matautu occupied, the Siumu road lined up to the houses +of the town with warriors passionate for war. The occasion was +unique, and there is no doubt that he designed to seize it. The +same day of this bombardment, he sent word bidding all English and Americans +wear a black band upon their arm, so that his men should recognise and +spare them. The hint was taken, and the band worn for a continuance +of days. To have refused would have been insane; but to consent +was unhappily to feed the resentment of the Germans by a fresh sign +of intelligence with their enemies, and to widen the breach between +the races by a fresh and a scarce pardonable mark of their division. +The same day again the Germans repeated one of their earlier offences +by firing on a boat within the harbour. Times were changed; they +were now at war and in peril, the rigour of military advantage might +well be seized by them and pardoned by others; but it so chanced that +the bullets flew about the ears of Captain Hand, and that commander +is said to have been insatiable of apologies. The affair, besides, +had a deplorable effect on the inhabitants. A black band (they +saw) might protect them from the Mataafas, not from undiscriminating +shots. Panic ensued. The war-ships were open to receive +the fugitives, and the gentlemen who had made merry over Fangalii were +seen to thrust each other from the wharves in their eagerness to flee +Apia. I willingly drop the curtain on the shameful picture.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, on the German side of the bay, a more manly spirit was +exhibited in circumstances of alarming weakness. The plantation +managers and overseers had all retreated to Matafele, only one (I understand) +remaining at his post. The whole German colony was thus collected +in one spot, and could count and wonder at its scanty numbers. +Knappe declares (to my surprise) that the war-ships could not spare +him more than fifty men a day. The great extension of the German +quarter, he goes on, did not “allow a full occupation of the outer +line”; hence they had shrunk into the western end by the firm +buildings, and the inhabitants were warned to fall back on this position, +in the case of an alert. So that he who had set forth, a day or +so before, to disarm the Mataafas in the open field, now found his resources +scarce adequate to garrison the buildings of the firm. But Knappe +seemed unteachable by fate. It is probable he thought he had</p> +<blockquote><p>“Already waded in so deep,<br /> +Returning were as tedious as go o’er”;</p> +</blockquote> +<p>it is certain that he continued, on the scene of his defeat and in +the midst of his weakness, to bluster and menace like a conqueror. +Active war, which he lacked the means of attempting, was continually +threatened. On the 22nd he sought the aid of his brother consuls +to maintain the neutral territory against Mataafa; and at the same time, +as though meditating instant deeds of prowess, refused to be bound by +it himself. This singular proposition was of course refused: Blacklock +remarking that he had no fear of the natives, if these were let alone; +de Coetlogon refusing in the circumstances to recognise any neutral +territory at all. In vain Knappe amended and baited his proposal +with the offer of forty-eight or ninety-six hours’ notice, according +as his objective should be near or within the boundary of the <i>Eleele +Sa</i>. It was rejected; and he learned that he must accept war +with all its consequences—and not that which he desired—war +with the immunities of peace.</p> +<p>This monstrous exigence illustrates the man’s frame of mind. +It has been still further illuminated in the German white-book by printing +alongside of his despatches those of the unimpassioned Fritze. +On January 8th the consulate was destroyed by fire. Knappe says +it was the work of incendiaries, “without doubt”; Fritze +admits that “everything seems to show” it was an accident. +“Tamasese’s people fit to bear arms,” writes Knappe, +“are certainly for the moment equal to Mataafa’s,” +though restrained from battle by the lack of ammunition. “As +for Tamasese,” says Fritze of the same date, “he is now +but a phantom—<i>dient er nur als Gespenst</i>. His party, +for practical purposes, is no longer large. They pretend ammunition +to be lacking, but what they lack most is good-will. Captain Brandeis, +whose influence is now small, declares they can no longer sustain a +serious engagement, and is himself in the intention of leaving Samoa +by the <i>Lübeck</i> of the 5th February.” And Knappe, +in the same despatch, confutes himself and confirms the testimony of +his naval colleague, by the admission that “the re-establishment +of Tamasese’s government is, under present circumstances, not +to be thought of.” Plainly, then, he was not so much seeking +to deceive others, as he was himself possessed; and we must regard the +whole series of his acts and despatches as the agitations of a fever.</p> +<p>The British steamer <i>Richmond</i> returned to Apia, January 15th. +On the last voyage she had brought the ammunition already so frequently +referred to; as a matter of fact, she was again bringing contraband +of war. It is necessary to be explicit upon this, which served +as spark to so great a flame of scandal. Knappe was justified +in interfering; he would have been worthy of all condemnation if he +had neglected, in his posture of semi-investment, a precaution so elementary; +and the manner in which he set about attempting it was conciliatory +and almost timid. He applied to Captain Hand, and begged him to +accept himself the duty of “controlling” the discharge of +the <i>Richmond’s</i> cargo. Hand was unable to move without +his consul; and at night an armed boat from the Germans boarded, searched, +and kept possession of, the suspected ship. The next day, as by +an after-thought, war and martial law were proclaimed for the Samoan +Islands, the introduction of contraband of war forbidden, and ships +and boats declared liable to search. “All support of the +rebels will be punished by martial law,” continued the proclamation, +“no matter to what nationality the person [<i>Thäter</i>] +may belong.”</p> +<p>Hand, it has been seen, declined to act in the matter of the <i>Richmond</i> +without the concurrence of his consul; but I have found no evidence +that either Hand or Knappe communicated with de Coetlogon, with whom +they were both at daggers drawn. First the seizure and next the +proclamation seem to have burst on the English consul from a clear sky; +and he wrote on the same day, throwing doubt on Knappe’s authority +to declare war. Knappe replied on the 20th that the Imperial German +Government had been at war as a matter of fact since December 19th, +and that it was only for the convenience of the subjects of other states +that he had been empowered to make a formal declaration. “From +that moment,” he added, “martial law prevails in Samoa.” +De Coetlogon instantly retorted, declining martial law for British subjects, +and announcing a proclamation in that sense. Instantly, again, +came that astonishing document, Knappe’s rejoinder, without pause, +without reflection—the pens screeching on the paper, the messengers +(you would think) running from consulate to consulate: “I have +had the honour to receive your Excellency’s [<i>Hochwohlgeboren</i>] +agreeable communication of to-day. Since, on the ground of received +instructions, martial law has been declared in Samoa, British subjects +as well as others fall under its application. I warn you therefore +to abstain from such a proclamation as you announce in your letter. +It will be such a piece of business as shall make yourself answerable +under martial law. Besides, your proclamation will be disregarded.” +De Coetlogon of course issued his proclamation at once, Knappe retorted +with another, and night closed on the first stage of this insane collision. +I hear the German consul was on this day prostrated with fever; charity +at least must suppose him hardly answerable for his language.</p> +<p>Early on the 21st, Mr. Mansfield Gallien, a passing traveller, was +seized in his berth on board the <i>Richmond</i>, and carried, half-dressed, +on board a German war-ship. His offence was, in the circumstances +and after the proclamation, substantial. He had gone the day before, +in the spirit of a tourist to Mataafa’s camp, had spoken with +the king, and had even recommended him an appeal to Sir George Grey. +Fritze, I gather, had been long uneasy; this arrest on board a British +ship fitted the measure. Doubtless, as he had written long before, +the consul alone was responsible “on the legal side”; but +the captain began to ask himself, “What next?”—telegraphed +direct home for instructions, “Is arrest of foreigners on foreign +vessels legal?”—and was ready, at a word from Captain Hand, +to discharge his dangerous prisoner. The word in question (so +the story goes) was not without a kind of wit. “I wish you +would set that man ashore,” Hand is reported to have said, indicating +Gallien; “I wish you would set that man ashore, to save me the +trouble.” The same day de Coetlogon published a proclamation +requesting captains to submit to search for contraband of war.</p> +<p>On the 22nd the <i>Samoa Times and South Sea Advertiser</i> was suppressed +by order of Fritze. I have hitherto refrained from mentioning +the single paper of our islands, that I might deal with it once for +all. It is of course a tiny sheet; but I have often had occasion +to wonder at the ability of its articles, and almost always at the decency +of its tone. Officials may at times be a little roughly, and at +times a little captiously, criticised; private persons are habitually +respected; and there are many papers in England, and still more in the +States, even of leading organs in chief cities, that might envy, and +would do well to imitate, the courtesy and discretion of the <i>Samoa +Times</i>. Yet the editor, Cusack, is only an amateur in journalism, +and a carpenter by trade. His chief fault is one perhaps inevitable +in so small a place—that he seems a little in the leading of a +clique; but his interest in the public weal is genuine and generous. +One man’s meat is another man’s poison: Anglo-Saxons and +Germans have been differently brought up. To our galled experience the +paper appears moderate; to their untried sensations it seems violent. +We think a public man fair game; we think it a part of his duty, and +I am told he finds it a part of his reward, to be continually canvassed +by the press. For the Germans, on the other hand, an official +wears a certain sacredness; when he is called over the coals, they are +shocked, and (if the official be a German) feel that Germany itself +has been insulted. The <i>Samoa Times</i> had been long a mountain +of offence. Brandeis had imported from the colonies another printer +of the name of Jones, to deprive Cusack of the government printing. +German sailors had come ashore one day, wild with offended patriotism, +to punish the editor with stripes, and the result was delightfully amusing. +The champions asked for the English printer. They were shown the +wrong man, and the blows intended for Cusack had hailed on the shoulders +of his rival Jones. On the 12th, Cusack had reprinted an article +from a San Francisco paper; the Germans had complained; and de Coetlogon, +in a moment of weakness, had fined the editor twenty pounds. The +judgment was afterwards reversed in Fiji; but even at the time it had +not satisfied the Germans. And so now, on the third day of martial +law, the paper was suppressed. Here we have another of these international +obscurities. To Fritze the step seemed natural and obvious; for +Anglo-Saxons it was a hand laid upon the altar; and the month was scarce +out before the voice of Senator Frye announced to his colleagues that +free speech had been suppressed in Samoa.</p> +<p>Perhaps we must seek some similar explanation for Fritze’s +short-lived code, published and withdrawn the next day, the 23rd. +Fritze himself was in no humour for extremities. He was much in +the position of a lieutenant who should perceive his captain urging +the ship upon the rocks. It is plain he had lost all confidence +in his commanding officer “upon the legal side”; and we +find him writing home with anxious candour. He had understood +that martial law implied military possession; he was in military possession +of nothing but his ship, and shrewdly suspected that his martial jurisdiction +should be confined within the same limits. “As a matter +of fact,” he writes, “we do not occupy the territory, and +cannot give foreigners the necessary protection, because Mataafa and +his people can at any moment forcibly interrupt me in my jurisdiction.” +Yet in the eyes of Anglo-Saxons the severity of his code appeared burlesque. +I give but three of its provisions. The crime of inciting German +troops “by any means, as, for instance, informing them of proclamations +by the enemy,” was punishable with death; that of “publishing +or secretly distributing anything, whether printed or written, bearing +on the war,” with prison or deportation; and that of calling or +attending a public meeting, unless permitted, with the same. Such +were the tender mercies of Knappe, lurking in the western end of the +German quarter, where Mataafa could “at any moment” interrupt +his jurisdiction.</p> +<p>On the 22nd (day of the suppression of the <i>Times</i>) de Coetlogon +wrote to inquire if hostilities were intended against Great Britain, +which Knappe on the same day denied. On the 23rd de Coetlogon +sent a complaint of hostile acts, such as the armed and forcible entry +of the <i>Richmond</i> before the declaration and arrest of Gallien. +In his reply, dated the 24th, Knappe took occasion to repeat, although +now with more self-command, his former threat against de Coetlogon. +“I am still of the opinion,” he writes, “that even +foreign consuls are liable to the application of martial law, if they +are guilty of offences against the belligerent state.” The +same day (24th) de Coetlogon complained that Fletcher, manager for Messrs. +MacArthur, had been summoned by Fritze. In answer, Knappe had +“the honour to inform your Excellency that since the declaration +of the state of war, British subjects are liable to martial law, and +Mr. Fletcher will be arrested if he does not appear.” Here, +then, was the gauntlet thrown down, and de Coetlogon was burning to +accept it. Fletcher’s offence was this. Upon the 22nd +a steamer had come in from Wellington, specially chartered to bring +German despatches to Apia. The rumour came along with her from +New Zealand that in these despatches Knappe would find himself rebuked, +and Fletcher was accused of having “interested himself in the +spreading of this rumour.” His arrest was actually ordered, +when Hand succeeded in persuading him to surrender. At the German +court, the case was dismissed “<i>wegen Nichtigkeit</i>”; +and the acute stage of these distempers may be said to have ended. +Blessed are the peacemakers. Hand had perhaps averted a collision. +What is more certain, he had offered to the world a perfectly original +reading of the part of British seaman.</p> +<p>Hand may have averted a collision, I say; but I am tempted to believe +otherwise. I am tempted to believe the threat to arrest Fletcher +was the last mutter of the declining tempest and a mere sop to Knappe’s +self-respect. I am tempted to believe the rumour in question was +substantially correct, and the steamer from Wellington had really brought +the German consul grounds for hesitation, if not orders to retreat. +I believe the unhappy man to have awakened from a dream, and to have +read ominous writing on the wall. An enthusiastic popularity surrounded +him among the Germans. It was natural. Consul and colony +had passed through an hour of serious peril, and the consul had set +the example of undaunted courage. He was entertained at dinner. +Fritze, who was known to have secretly opposed him, was scorned and +avoided. But the clerks of the German firm were one thing, Prince +Bismarck was another; and on a cold review of these events, it is not +improbable that Knappe may have envied the position of his naval colleague. +It is certain, at least, that he set himself to shuffle and capitulate; +and when the blow fell, he was able to reply that the martial law business +had in the meanwhile come right; that the English and American consular +courts stood open for ordinary cases and that in different conversations +with Captain Hand, “who has always maintained friendly intercourse +with the German authorities,” it had been repeatedly explained +that only the supply of weapons and ammunition, or similar aid and support, +was to come under German martial law. Was it weapons or ammunition +that Fletcher had supplied? But it is unfair to criticise these +wrigglings of an unfortunate in a false position.</p> +<p>In a despatch of the 23rd, which has not been printed, Knappe had +told his story: how he had declared war, subjected foreigners to martial +law, and been received with a counter-proclamation by the English consul; +and how (in an interview with Mataafa chiefs at the plantation house +of Motuotua, of which I cannot find the date) he had demanded the cession +of arms and of ringleaders for punishment, and proposed to assume the +government of the islands. On February 12th he received Bismarck’s +answer: “You had no right to take foreigners from the jurisdiction +of their consuls. The protest of your English colleague is grounded. +In disputes which may arise from this cause you will find yourself in +the wrong. The demand formulated by you, as to the assumption +of the government of Samoa by Germany, lay outside of your instructions +and of our design. Take it immediately back. If your telegram +is here rightly understood, I cannot call your conduct good.” +It must be a hard heart that does not sympathise with Knappe in the +hour when he received this document. Yet it may be said that his +troubles were still in the beginning. Men had contended against +him, and he had not prevailed; he was now to be at war with the elements, +and find his name identified with an immense disaster.</p> +<p>One more date, however, must be given first. It was on February +27th that Fritze formally announced martial law to be suspended, and +himself to have relinquished the control of the police.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER X—THE HURRICANE</h2> +<p><i>March</i> 1889</p> +<p>The so-called harbour of Apia is formed in part by a recess of the +coast-line at Matautu, in part by the slim peninsula of Mulinuu, and +in part by the fresh waters of the Mulivai and Vaisingano. The +barrier reef—that singular breakwater that makes so much of the +circuit of Pacific islands—is carried far to sea at Matautu and +Mulinuu; inside of these two horns it runs sharply landward, and between +them it is burst or dissolved by the fresh water. The shape of +the enclosed anchorage may be compared to a high-shouldered jar or bottle +with a funnel mouth. Its sides are almost everywhere of coral; +for the reef not only bounds it to seaward and forms the neck and mouth, +but skirting about the beach, it forms the bottom also. As in +the bottle of commerce, the bottom is re-entrant, and the shore-reef +runs prominently forth into the basin and makes a dangerous cape opposite +the fairway of the entrance. Danger is, therefore, on all hands. +The entrance gapes three cables wide at the narrowest, and the formidable +surf of the Pacific thunders both outside and in. There are days +when speech is difficult in the chambers of shore-side houses; days +when no boat can land, and when men are broken by stroke of sea against +the wharves. As I write these words, three miles in the mountains, +and with the land-breeze still blowing from the island summit, the sound +of that vexed harbour hums in my ears. Such a creek in my native +coast of Scotland would scarce be dignified with the mark of an anchor +in the chart; but in the favoured climate of Samoa, and with the mechanical +regularity of the winds in the Pacific, it forms, for ten or eleven +months out of the twelve, a safe if hardly a commodious port. +The ill-found island traders ride there with their insufficient moorings +the year through, and discharge, and are loaded, without apprehension. +Of danger, when it comes, the glass gives timely warning; and that any +modern war-ship, furnished with the power of steam, should have been +lost in Apia, belongs not so much to nautical as to political history.</p> +<p>The weather throughout all that winter (the turbulent summer of the +islands) was unusually fine, and the circumstance had been commented +on as providential, when so many Samoans were lying on their weapons +in the bush. By February it began to break in occasional gales. +On February 10th a German brigantine was driven ashore. On the +14th the same misfortune befell an American brigantine and a schooner. +On both these days, and again on the 7th March, the men-of-war must +steam to their anchors. And it was in this last month, the most +dangerous of the twelve, that man’s animosities crowded that indentation +of the reef with costly, populous, and vulnerable ships.</p> +<p>I have shown, perhaps already at too great a length, how violently +passion ran upon the spot; how high this series of blunders and mishaps +had heated the resentment of the Germans against all other nationalities +and of all other nationalities against the Germans. But there +was one country beyond the borders of Samoa where the question had aroused +a scarce less angry sentiment. The breach of the Washington Congress, +the evidence of Sewall before a sub-committee on foreign relations, +the proposal to try Klein before a military court, and the rags of Captain +Hamilton’s flag, had combined to stir the people of the States +to an unwonted fervour. Germany was for the time the abhorred +of nations. Germans in America publicly disowned the country of +their birth. In Honolulu, so near the scene of action, German +and American young men fell to blows in the street. In the same +city, from no traceable source, and upon no possible authority, there +arose a rumour of tragic news to arrive by the next occasion, that the +<i>Nipsic</i> had opened fire on the <i>Adler</i>, and the <i>Adler</i> +had sunk her on the first reply. Punctually on the day appointed, +the news came; and the two nations, instead of being plunged into war, +could only mingle tears over the loss of heroes.</p> +<p>By the second week in March three American ships were in Apia bay,—the +<i>Nipsic</i>, the <i>Vandalia</i>, and the <i>Trenton</i>, carrying +the flag of Rear-Admiral Kimberley; three German,—the <i>Adler</i>, +the <i>Eber</i>, and the <i>Olga</i>; and one British,—the <i>Calliope</i>, +Captain Kane. Six merchant-men, ranging from twenty-five up to +five hundred tons, and a number of small craft, further encumbered the +anchorage. Its capacity is estimated by Captain Kane at four large +ships; and the latest arrivals, the <i>Vandalia</i> and <i>Trenton</i>, +were in consequence excluded, and lay without in the passage. +Of the seven war-ships, the seaworthiness of two was questionable: the +<i>Trenton’s</i>, from an original defect in her construction, +often reported, never remedied—her hawse-pipes leading in on the +berth-deck; the <i>Eber’s</i>, from an injury to her screw in +the blow of February 14th. In this overcrowding of ships in an +open entry of the reef, even the eye of the landsman could spy danger; +and Captain-Lieutenant Wallis of the <i>Eber</i> openly blamed and lamented, +not many hours before the catastrophe, their helpless posture. +Temper once more triumphed. The army of Mataafa still hung imminent +behind the town; the German quarter was still daily garrisoned with +fifty sailors from the squadron; what was yet more influential, Germany +and the States, at least in Apia bay, were on the brink of war, viewed +each other with looks of hatred, and scarce observed the letter of civility. +On the day of the admiral’s arrival, Knappe failed to call on +him, and on the morrow called on him while he was on shore. The +slight was remarked and resented, and the two squadrons clung more obstinately +to their dangerous station.</p> +<p>On the 15th the barometer fell to 29.11 in. by 2 P.M. This +was the moment when every sail in port should have escaped. Kimberley, +who flew the only broad pennant, should certainly have led the way: +he clung, instead, to his moorings, and the Germans doggedly followed +his example: semi-belligerents, daring each other and the violence of +heaven. Kane, less immediately involved, was led in error by the +report of residents and a fallacious rise in the glass; he stayed with +the others, a misjudgment that was like to cost him dear. All +were moored, as is the custom in Apia, with two anchors practically +east and west, clear hawse to the north, and a kedge astern. Topmasts +were struck, and the ships made snug. The night closed black, +with sheets of rain. By midnight it blew a gale; and by the morning +watch, a tempest. Through what remained of darkness, the captains +impatiently expected day, doubtful if they were dragging, steaming gingerly +to their moorings, and afraid to steam too much.</p> +<p>Day came about six, and presented to those on shore a seizing and +terrific spectacle. In the pressure of the squalls the bay was +obscured as if by midnight, but between them a great part of it was +clearly if darkly visible amid driving mist and rain. The wind +blew into the harbour mouth. Naval authorities describe it as +of hurricane force. It had, however, few or none of the effects +on shore suggested by that ominous word, and was successfully withstood +by trees and buildings. The agitation of the sea, on the other +hand, surpassed experience and description. Seas that might have +awakened surprise and terror in the midst of the Atlantic ranged bodily +and (it seemed to observers) almost without diminution into the belly +of that flask-shaped harbour; and the war-ships were alternately buried +from view in the trough, or seen standing on end against the breast +of billows.</p> +<p>The <i>Trenton</i> at daylight still maintained her position in the +neck of the bottle. But five of the remaining ships tossed, already +close to the bottom, in a perilous and helpless crowd; threatening ruin +to each other as they tossed; threatened with a common and imminent +destruction on the reefs. Three had been already in collision: +the <i>Olga</i> was injured in the quarter, the <i>Adler</i> had lost +her bowsprit; the <i>Nipsic</i> had lost her smoke-stack, and was making +steam with difficulty, maintaining her fire with barrels of pork, and +the smoke and sparks pouring along the level of the deck. For +the seventh war-ship the day had come too late; the <i>Eber</i> had +finished her last cruise; she was to be seen no more save by the eyes +of divers. A coral reef is not only an instrument of destruction, +but a place of sepulchre; the submarine cliff is profoundly undercut, +and presents the mouth of a huge antre in which the bodies of men and +the hulls of ships are alike hurled down and buried. The <i>Eber</i> +had dragged anchors with the rest; her injured screw disabled her from +steaming vigorously up; and a little before day she had struck the front +of the coral, come off, struck again, and gone down stern foremost, +oversetting as she went, into the gaping hollow of the reef. Of +her whole complement of nearly eighty, four souls were cast alive on +the beach; and the bodies of the remainder were, by the voluminous outpouring +of the flooded streams, scoured at last from the harbour, and strewed +naked on the seaboard of the island.</p> +<p>Five ships were immediately menaced with the same destruction. +The <i>Eber</i> vanished—the four poor survivors on shore—read +a dreadful commentary on their danger; which was swelled out of all +proportion by the violence of their own movements as they leaped and +fell among the billows. By seven the <i>Nipsic</i> was so fortunate +as to avoid the reef and beach upon a space of sand; where she was immediately +deserted by her crew, with the assistance of Samoans, not without loss +of life. By about eight it was the turn of the <i>Adler</i>. +She was close down upon the reef; doomed herself, it might yet be possible +to save a portion of her crew; and for this end Captain Fritze placed +his reliance on the very hugeness of the seas that threatened him. +The moment was watched for with the anxiety of despair, but the coolness +of disciplined courage. As she rose on the fatal wave, her moorings +were simultaneously slipped; she broached to in rising; and the sea +heaved her bodily upward and cast her down with a concussion on the +summit of the reef, where she lay on her beam-ends, her back broken, +buried in breaching seas, but safe. Conceive a table: the <i>Eber</i> +in the darkness had been smashed against the rim and flung below; the +<i>Adler</i>, cast free in the nick of opportunity, had been thrown +upon the top. Many were injured in the concussion; many tossed +into the water; twenty perished. The survivors crept again on +board their ship, as it now lay, and as it still remains, keel to the +waves, a monument of the sea’s potency. In still weather, +under a cloudless sky, in those seasons when that ill-named ocean, the +Pacific, suffers its vexed shores to rest, she lies high and dry, the +spray scarce touching her—the hugest structure of man’s +hands within a circuit of a thousand miles—tossed up there like +a schoolboy’s cap upon a shelf; broken like an egg; a thing to +dream of.</p> +<p>The unfriendly consuls of Germany and Britain were both that morning +in Matautu, and both displayed their nobler qualities. De Coetlogon, +the grim old soldier, collected his family and kneeled with them in +an agony of prayer for those exposed. Knappe, more fortunate in +that he was called to a more active service, must, upon the striking +of the <i>Adler</i>, pass to his own consulate. From this he was +divided by the Vaisingano, now a raging torrent, impetuously charioting +the trunks of trees. A kelpie might have dreaded to attempt the +passage; we may conceive this brave but unfortunate and now ruined man +to have found a natural joy in the exposure of his life; and twice that +day, coming and going, he braved the fury of the river. It was +possible, in spite of the darkness of the hurricane and the continual +breaching of the seas, to remark human movements on the <i>Adler</i>; +and by the help of Samoans, always nobly forward in the work, whether +for friend or enemy, Knappe sought long to get a line conveyed from +shore, and was for long defeated. The shore guard of fifty men +stood to their arms the while upon the beach, useless themselves, and +a great deterrent of Samoan usefulness. It was perhaps impossible +that this mistake should be avoided. What more natural, to the +mind of a European, than that the Mataafas should fall upon the Germans +in this hour of their disadvantage? But they had no other thought +than to assist; and those who now rallied beside Knappe braved (as they +supposed) in doing so a double danger, from the fury of the sea and +the weapons of their enemies. About nine, a quarter-master swam +ashore, and reported all the officers and some sixty men alive but in +pitiable case; some with broken limbs, others insensible from the drenching +of the breakers. Later in the forenoon, certain valorous Samoans +succeeded in reaching the wreck and returning with a line; but it was +speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts proved unavailing, the +strongest adventurers being cast back again by the bursting seas. +Thenceforth, all through that day and night, the deafened survivors +must continue to endure their martyrdom; and one officer died, it was +supposed from agony of mind, in his inverted cabin.</p> +<p>Three ships still hung on the next margin of destruction, steaming +desperately to their moorings, dashed helplessly together. The +<i>Calliope</i> was the nearest in; she had the <i>Vandalia</i> close +on her port side and a little ahead, the <i>Olga</i> close a-starboard, +the reef under her heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the +unhappy ship fenced with her three dangers. About a quarter to +nine she carried away the <i>Vandalia’s</i> quarter gallery with +her jib-boom; a moment later, the <i>Olga</i> had near rammed her from +the other side. By nine the <i>Vandalia</i> dropped down on her +too fast to be avoided, and clapped her stern under the bowsprit of +the English ship, the fastenings of which were burst asunder as she +rose. To avoid cutting her down, it was necessary for the <i>Calliope</i> +to stop and even to reverse her engines; and her rudder was at the moment—or +it seemed so to the eyes of those on board—within ten feet of +the reef. “Between the <i>Vandalia</i> and the reef” +(writes Kane, in his excellent report) “it was destruction.” +To repeat Fritze’s manoeuvre with the <i>Adler</i> was impossible; +the <i>Calliope</i> was too heavy. The one possibility of escape +was to go out. If the engines should stand, if they should have +power to drive the ship against wind and sea, if she should answer the +helm, if the wheel, rudder, and gear should hold out, and if they were +favoured with a clear blink of weather in which to see and avoid the +outer reef—there, and there only, were safety. Upon this +catalogue of “ifs” Kane staked his all. He signalled +to the engineer for every pound of steam—and at that moment (I +am told) much of the machinery was already red-hot. The ship was +sheered well to starboard of the <i>Vandalia</i>, the last remaining +cable slipped. For a time—and there was no onlooker so cold-blooded +as to offer a guess at its duration—the <i>Calliope</i> lay stationary; +then gradually drew ahead. The highest speed claimed for her that +day is of one sea-mile an hour. The question of times and seasons, +throughout all this roaring business, is obscured by a dozen contradictions; +I have but chosen what appeared to be the most consistent; but if I +am to pay any attention to the time named by Admiral Kimberley, the +<i>Calliope</i>, in this first stage of her escape, must have taken +more than two hours to cover less than four cables. As she thus +crept seaward, she buried bow and stem alternately under the billows.</p> +<p>In the fairway of the entrance the flagship <i>Trenton</i> still +held on. Her rudder was broken, her wheel carried away; within +she was flooded with water from the peccant hawse-pipes; she had just +made the signal “fires extinguished,” and lay helpless, +awaiting the inevitable end. Between this melancholy hulk and +the external reef Kane must find a path. Steering within fifty +yards of the reef (for which she was actually headed) and her foreyard +passing on the other hand over the <i>Trenton’s</i> quarter as +she rolled, the <i>Calliope</i> sheered between the rival dangers, came +to the wind triumphantly, and was once more pointed for the sea and +safety. Not often in naval history was there a moment of more +sickening peril, and it was dignified by one of those incidents that +reconcile the chronicler with his otherwise abhorrent task. From +the doomed flagship the Americans hailed the success of the English +with a cheer. It was led by the old admiral in person, rang out +over the storm with holiday vigour, and was answered by the Calliopes +with an emotion easily conceived. This ship of their kinsfolk +was almost the last external object seen from the <i>Calliope</i> for +hours; immediately after, the mists closed about her till the morrow. +She was safe at sea again—<i>una de multis</i>—with a damaged +foreyard, and a loss of all the ornamental work about her bow and stern, +three anchors, one kedge-anchor, fourteen lengths of chain, four boats, +the jib-boom, bobstay, and bands and fastenings of the bowsprit.</p> +<p>Shortly after Kane had slipped his cable, Captain Schoonmaker, despairing +of the <i>Vandalia</i>, succeeded in passing astern of the <i>Olga</i>, +in the hope to beach his ship beside the <i>Nipsic</i>. At a quarter +to eleven her stern took the reef, her hand swung to starboard, and +she began to fill and settle. Many lives of brave men were sacrificed +in the attempt to get a line ashore; the captain, exhausted by his exertions, +was swept from deck by a sea; and the rail being soon awash, the survivors +took refuge in the tops.</p> +<p>Out of thirteen that had lain there the day before, there were now +but two ships afloat in Apia harbour, and one of these was doomed to +be the bane of the other. About 3 P.M. the <i>Trenton</i> parted +one cable, and shortly after a second. It was sought to keep her +head to wind with storm-sails and by the ingenious expedient of filling +the rigging with seamen; but in the fury of the gale, and in that sea, +perturbed alike by the gigantic billows and the volleying discharges +of the rivers, the rudderless ship drove down stern foremost into the +inner basin; ranging, plunging, and striking like a frightened horse; +drifting on destruction for herself and bringing it to others. +Twice the <i>Olga</i> (still well under command) avoided her impact +by the skilful use of helm and engines. But about four the vigilance +of the Germans was deceived, and the ships collided; the <i>Olga</i> +cutting into the <i>Trenton’s</i> quarters, first from one side, +then from the other, and losing at the same time two of her own cables. +Captain von Ehrhardt instantly slipped the remainder of his moorings, +and setting fore and aft canvas, and going full steam ahead, succeeded +in beaching his ship in Matautu; whither Knappe, recalled by this new +disaster, had returned. The berth was perhaps the best in the +harbour, and von Ehrhardt signalled that ship and crew were in security.</p> +<p>The <i>Trenton</i>, guided apparently by an under-tow or eddy from +the discharge of the Vaisingano, followed in the course of the <i>Nipsic</i> +and <i>Vandalia</i>, and skirted south-eastward along the front of the +shore reef, which her keel was at times almost touching. Hitherto +she had brought disaster to her foes; now she was bringing it to friends. +She had already proved the ruin of the <i>Olga</i>, the one ship that +had rid out the hurricane in safety; now she beheld across her course +the submerged <i>Vandalia</i>, the tops filled with exhausted seamen. +Happily the approach of the <i>Trenton</i> was gradual, and the time +employed to advantage. Rockets and lines were thrown into the +tops of the friendly wreck; the approach of danger was transformed into +a means of safety; and before the ships struck, the men from the <i>Vandalia’s</i> +main and mizzen masts, which went immediately by the board in the collision, +were already mustered on the <i>Trenton’s</i> decks. Those +from the foremast were next rescued; and the flagship settled gradually +into a position alongside her neighbour, against which she beat all +night with violence. Out of the crew of the <i>Vandalia</i> forty-three +had perished; of the four hundred and fifty on board the <i>Trenton</i>, +only one.</p> +<p>The night of the 16th was still notable for a howling tempest and +extraordinary floods of rain. It was feared the wreck could scarce +continue to endure the breaching of the seas; among the Germans, the +fate of those on board the <i>Adler</i> awoke keen anxiety; and Knappe, +on the beach of Matautu, and the other officers of his consulate on +that of Matafele, watched all night. The morning of the 17th displayed +a scene of devastation rarely equalled: the <i>Adler</i> high and dry, +the <i>Olga</i> and <i>Nipsic</i> beached, the <i>Trenton</i> partly +piled on the <i>Vandalia</i> and herself sunk to the gun-deck; no sail +afloat; and the beach heaped high with the <i>débris</i> of ships +and the wreck of mountain forests. Already, before the day, Seumanu, +the chief of Apia, had gallantly ventured forth by boat through the +subsiding fury of the seas, and had succeeded in communicating with +the admiral; already, or as soon after as the dawn permitted, rescue +lines were rigged, and the survivors were with difficulty and danger +begun to be brought to shore. And soon the cheerful spirit of +the admiral added a new feature to the scene. Surrounded as he +was by the crews of two wrecked ships, he paraded the band of the <i>Trenton</i>, +and the bay was suddenly enlivened with the strains of “Hail Columbia.”</p> +<p>During a great part of the day the work of rescue was continued, +with many instances of courage and devotion; and for a long time succeeding, +the almost inexhaustible harvest of the beach was to be reaped. +In the first employment, the Samoans earned the gratitude of friend +and foe; in the second, they surprised all by an unexpected virtue, +that of honesty. The greatness of the disaster, and the magnitude +of the treasure now rolling at their feet, may perhaps have roused in +their bosoms an emotion too serious for the rule of greed, or perhaps +that greed was for the moment satiated. Sails that twelve strong +Samoans could scarce drag from the water, great guns (one of which was +rolled by the sea on the body of a man, the only native slain in all +the hurricane), an infinite wealth of rope and wood, of tools and weapons, +tossed upon the beach. Yet I have never heard that much was stolen; +and beyond question, much was very honestly returned. On both +accounts, for the saving of life and the restoration of property, the +government of the United States showed themselves generous in reward. +A fine boat was fitly presented to Seumanu; and rings, watches, and +money were lavished on all who had assisted. The Germans also +gave money at the rate (as I receive the tale) of three dollars a head +for every German saved. The obligation was in this instance incommensurably +deep, those with whom they were at war had saved the German blue-jackets +at the venture of their lives; Knappe was, besides, far from ungenerous; +and I can only explain the niggard figure by supposing it was paid from +his own pocket. In one case, at least, it was refused. “I +have saved three Germans,” said the rescuer; “I will make +you a present of the three.”</p> +<p>The crews of the American and German squadrons were now cast, still +in a bellicose temper, together on the beach. The discipline of +the Americans was notoriously loose; the crew of the <i>Nipsic</i> had +earned a character for lawlessness in other ports; and recourse was +had to stringent and indeed extraordinary measures. The town was +divided in two camps, to which the different nationalities were confined. +Kimberley had his quarter sentinelled and patrolled. Any seaman +disregarding a challenge was to be shot dead; any tavern-keeper who +sold spirits to an American sailor was to have his tavern broken and +his stock destroyed. Many of the publicans were German; and Knappe, +having narrated these rigorous but necessary dispositions, wonders (grinning +to himself over his despatch) how far these Americans will go in their +assumption of jurisdiction over Germans. Such as they were, the +measures were successful. The incongruous mass of castaways was +kept in peace, and at last shipped in peace out of the islands.</p> +<p>Kane returned to Apia on the 19th, to find the <i>Calliope</i> the +sole survivor of thirteen sail. He thanked his men, and in particular +the engineers, in a speech of unusual feeling and beauty, of which one +who was present remarked to another, as they left the ship, “This +has been a means of grace.” Nor did he forget to thank and +compliment the admiral; and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of transcribing +from Kimberley’s reply some generous and engaging words. +“My dear captain,” he wrote, “your kind note received. +You went out splendidly, and we all felt from our hearts for you, and +our cheers came with sincerity and admiration for the able manner in +which you handled your ship. We could not have been gladder if +it had been one of our ships, for in a time like that I can truly say +with old Admiral Josiah Latnall, ‘that blood is thicker than water.’” +One more trait will serve to build up the image of this typical sea-officer. +A tiny schooner, the <i>Equator</i>, Captain Edwin Reid, dear to myself +from the memories of a six months’ cruise, lived out upon the +high seas the fury of that tempest which had piled with wrecks the harbour +of Apia, found a refuge in Pango-Pango, and arrived at last in the desolated +port with a welcome and lucrative cargo of pigs. The admiral was +glad to have the pigs; but what most delighted the man’s noble +and childish soul, was to see once more afloat the colours of his country.</p> +<p>Thus, in what seemed the very article of war, and within the duration +of a single day, the sword-arm of each of the two angry Powers was broken; +their formidable ships reduced to junk; their disciplined hundreds to +a horde of castaways, fed with difficulty, and the fear of whose misconduct +marred the sleep of their commanders. Both paused aghast; both +had time to recognise that not the whole Samoan Archipelago was worth +the loss in men and costly ships already suffered. The so-called +hurricane of March 16th made thus a marking epoch in world-history; +directly, and at once, it brought about the congress and treaty of Berlin; +indirectly, and by a process still continuing, it founded the modern +navy of the States. Coming years and other historians will declare +the influence of that.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI—LAUPEPA AND MATAAFA</h2> +<p>1889-1892</p> +<p>With the hurricane, the broken war-ships, and the stranded sailors, +I am at an end of violence, and my tale flows henceforth among carpet +incidents. The blue-jackets on Apia beach were still jealously +held apart by sentries, when the powers at home were already seeking +a peaceable solution. It was agreed, so far as might be, to obliterate +two years of blundering; and to resume in 1889, and at Berlin, those +negotiations which had been so unhappily broken off at Washington in +1887. The example thus offered by Germany is rare in history; +in the career of Prince Bismarck, so far as I am instructed, it should +stand unique. On a review of these two years of blundering, bullying, +and failure in a little isle of the Pacific, he seems magnanimously +to have owned his policy was in the wrong. He left Fangalii unexpiated; +suffered that house of cards, the Tamasese government, to fall by its +own frailty and without remark or lamentation; left the Samoan question +openly and fairly to the conference: and in the meanwhile, to allay +the local heats engendered by Becker and Knappe, he sent to Apia that +invaluable public servant, Dr. Stuebel. I should be a dishonest +man if I did not bear testimony to the loyalty since shown by Germans +in Samoa. Their position was painful; they had talked big in the +old days, now they had to sing small. Even Stuebel returned to +the islands under the prejudice of an unfortunate record. To the +minds of the Samoans his name represented the beginning of their sorrows; +and in his first term of office he had unquestionably driven hard. +The greater his merit in the surprising success of the second. +So long as he stayed, the current of affairs moved smoothly; he left +behind him on his departure all men at peace; and whether by fortune, +or for the want of that wise hand of guidance, he was scarce gone before +the clouds began to gather once more on our horizon.</p> +<p>Before the first convention, Germany and the States hauled down their +flags. It was so done again before the second; and Germany, by +a still more emphatic step of retrogression, returned the exile Laupepa +to his native shores. For two years the unfortunate man had trembled +and suffered in the Cameroons, in Germany, in the rainy Marshalls. +When he left (September 1887) Tamasese was king, served by five iron +war-ships; his right to rule (like a dogma of the Church) was placed +outside dispute; the Germans were still, as they were called at that +last tearful interview in the house by the river, “the invincible +strangers”; the thought of resistance, far less the hope of success, +had not yet dawned on the Samoan mind. He returned (November 1889) +to a changed world. The Tupua party was reduced to sue for peace, +Brandeis was withdrawn, Tamasese was dying obscurely of a broken heart; +the German flag no longer waved over the capital; and over all the islands +one figure stood supreme. During Laupepa’s absence this +man had succeeded him in all his honours and titles, in tenfold more +than all his power and popularity. He was the idol of the whole +nation but the rump of the Tamaseses, and of these he was already the +secret admiration. In his position there was but one weak point,—that +he had even been tacitly excluded by the Germans. Becker, indeed, +once coquetted with the thought of patronising him; but the project +had no sequel, and it stands alone. In every other juncture of +history the German attitude has been the same. Choose whom you +will to be king; when he has failed, choose whom you please to succeed +him; when the second fails also, replace the first: upon the one condition, +that Mataafa be excluded. “<i>Pourvu qu’il sache signer</i>!”—an +official is said to have thus summed up the qualifications necessary +in a Samoan king. And it was perhaps feared that Mataafa could +do no more and might not always do so much. But this original +diffidence was heightened by late events to something verging upon animosity. +Fangalii was unavenged: the arms of Mataafa were</p> +<blockquote><p><i>Nondum inexpiatis uncta cruoribus</i>,<br /> +Still soiled with the unexpiated blood</p> +</blockquote> +<p>of German sailors; and though the chief was not present in the field, +nor could have heard of the affair till it was over, he had reaped from +it credit with his countrymen and dislike from the Germans.</p> +<p>I may not say that trouble was hoped. I must say—if it +were not feared, the practice of diplomacy must teach a very hopeful +view of human nature. Mataafa and Laupepa, by the sudden repatriation +of the last, found themselves face to face in conditions of exasperating +rivalry. The one returned from the dead of exile to find himself +replaced and excelled. The other, at the end of a long, anxious, +and successful struggle, beheld his only possible competitor resuscitated +from the grave. The qualities of both, in this difficult moment, +shone out nobly. I feel I seem always less than partial to the +lovable Laupepa; his virtues are perhaps not those which chiefly please +me, and are certainly not royal; but he found on his return an opportunity +to display the admirable sweetness of his nature. The two entered +into a competition of generosity, for which I can recall no parallel +in history, each waiving the throne for himself, each pressing it upon +his rival; and they embraced at last a compromise the terms of which +seem to have been always obscure and are now disputed. Laupepa +at least resumed his style of King of Samoa; Mataafa retained much of +the conduct of affairs, and continued to receive much of the attendance +and respect befitting royalty; and the two Malietoas, with so many causes +of disunion, dwelt and met together in the same town like kinsmen. +It was so, that I first saw them; so, in a house set about with sentries—for +there was still a haunting fear of Germany,—that I heard them +relate their various experience in the past; heard Laupepa tell with +touching candour of the sorrows of his exile, and Mataafa with mirthful +simplicity of his resources and anxieties in the war. The relation +was perhaps too beautiful to last; it was perhaps impossible but the +titular king should grow at last uneasily conscious of the <i>maire +de palais</i> at his side, or the king-maker be at last offended by +some shadow of distrust or assumption in his creature. I repeat +the words king-maker and creature; it is so that Mataafa himself conceives +of their relation: surely not without justice; for, had he not contended +and prevailed, and been helped by the folly of consuls and the fury +of the storm, Laupepa must have died in exile.</p> +<p>Foreigners in these islands know little of the course of native intrigue. +Partly the Samoans cannot explain, partly they will not tell. +Ask how much a master can follow of the puerile politics in any school; +so much and no more we may understand of the events which surround and +menace us with their results. The missions may perhaps have been +to blame. Missionaries are perhaps apt to meddle overmuch outside +their discipline; it is a fault which should be judged with mercy; the +problem is sometimes so insidiously presented that even a moderate and +able man is betrayed beyond his own intention; and the missionary in +such a land as Samoa is something else besides a minister of mere religion; +he represents civilisation, he is condemned to be an organ of reform, +he could scarce evade (even if he desired) a certain influence in political +affairs. And it is believed, besides, by those who fancy they +know, that the effective force of division between Mataafa and Laupepa +came from the natives rather than from whites. Before the end +of 1890, at least, it began to be rumoured that there was dispeace between +the two Malietoas; and doubtless this had an unsettling influence throughout +the islands. But there was another ingredient of anxiety. +The Berlin convention had long closed its sittings; the text of the +Act had been long in our hands; commissioners were announced to right +the wrongs of the land question, and two high officials, a chief justice +and a president, to guide policy and administer law in Samoa. +Their coming was expected with an impatience, with a childishness of +trust, that can hardly be exaggerated. Months passed, these angel-deliverers +still delayed to arrive, and the impatience of the natives became changed +to an ominous irritation. They have had much experience of being +deceived, and they began to think they were deceived again. A +sudden crop of superstitious stories buzzed about the islands. +Rivers had come down red; unknown fishes had been taken on the reef +and found to be marked with menacing runes; a headless lizard crawled +among chiefs in council; the gods of Upolu and Savaii made war by night, +they swam the straits to battle, and, defaced by dreadful wounds, they +had besieged the house of a medical missionary. Readers will remember +the portents in mediæval chronicles, or those in <i>Julius Cæsar</i> +when</p> +<blockquote><p>“Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds<br /> +In ranks and squadrons.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>And doubtless such fabrications are, in simple societies, a natural +expression of discontent; and those who forge, and even those who spread +them, work towards a conscious purpose.</p> +<p>Early in January 1891 this period of expectancy was brought to an +end by the arrival of Conrad Cedarcrantz, chief justice of Samoa. +The event was hailed with acclamation, and there was much about the +new official to increase the hopes already entertained. He was +seen to be a man of culture and ability; in public, of an excellent +presence—in private, of a most engaging cordiality. But +there was one point, I scarce know whether to say of his character or +policy, which immediately and disastrously affected public feeling in +the islands. He had an aversion, part judicial, part perhaps constitutional, +to haste; and he announced that, until he should have well satisfied +his own mind, he should do nothing; that he would rather delay all than +do aught amiss. It was impossible to hear this without academical +approval; impossible to hear it without practical alarm. The natives +desired to see activity; they desired to see many fair speeches taken +on a body of deeds and works of benefit. Fired by the event of +the war, filled with impossible hopes, they might have welcomed in that +hour a ruler of the stamp of Brandeis, breathing hurry, perhaps dealing +blows. And the chief justice, unconscious of the fleeting opportunity, +ripened his opinions deliberately in Mulinuu; and had been already the +better part of half a year in the islands before he went through the +form of opening his court. The curtain had risen; there was no +play. A reaction, a chill sense of disappointment, passed about +the island; and intrigue, one moment suspended, was resumed.</p> +<p>In the Berlin Act, the three Powers recognise, on the threshold, +“the independence of the Samoan government, and the free right +of the natives to elect their chief or king and choose their form of +government.” True, the text continues that, “in view +of the difficulties that surround an election in the present disordered +condition of the government,” Malietoa Laupepa shall be recognised +as king, “unless the three Powers shall by common accord otherwise +declare.” But perhaps few natives have followed it so far, +and even those who have, were possibly all cast abroad again by the +next clause: “and his successor shall be duly elected according +to the laws and customs of Samoa.” The right to elect, freely +given in one sentence, was suspended in the next, and a line or so further +on appeared to be reconveyed by a side-wind. The reason offered +for suspension was ludicrously false; in May 1889, when Sir Edward Malet +moved the matter in the conference, the election of Mataafa was not +only certain to have been peaceful, it could not have been opposed; +and behind the English puppet it was easy to suspect the hand of Germany. +No one is more swift to smell trickery than a Samoan; and the thought, +that, under the long, bland, benevolent sentences of the Berlin Act, +some trickery lay lurking, filled him with the breath of opposition. +Laupepa seems never to have been a popular king. Mataafa, on the +other hand, holds an unrivalled position in the eyes of his fellow-countrymen; +he was the hero of the war, he had lain with them in the bush, he had +borne the heat and burthen of the day; they began to claim that he should +enjoy more largely the fruits of victory; his exclusion was believed +to be a stroke of German vengeance, his elevation to the kingship was +looked for as the fitting crown and copestone of the Samoan triumph; +and but a little after the coming of the chief justice, an ominous cry +for Mataafa began to arise in the islands. It is difficult to +see what that official could have done but what he did. He was +loyal, as in duty bound, to the treaty and to Laupepa; and when the +orators of the important and unruly islet of Manono demanded to his +face a change of kings, he had no choice but to refuse them, and (his +reproof being unheeded) to suspend the meeting. Whether by any +neglect of his own or the mere force of circumstance, he failed, however, +to secure the sympathy, failed even to gain the confidence, of Mataafa. +The latter is not without a sense of his own abilities or of the great +service he has rendered to his native land. He felt himself neglected; +at the very moment when the cry for his elevation rang throughout the +group he thought himself made little of on Mulinuu; and he began to +weary of his part. In this humour, he was exposed to a temptation +which I must try to explain, as best I may be able, to Europeans.</p> +<p>The bestowal of the great name, Malietoa, is in the power of the +district of Malie, some seven miles to the westward of Apia. The +most noisy and conspicuous supporters of that party are the inhabitants +of Manono. Hence in the elaborate, allusive oratory of Samoa, +Malie is always referred to by the name of <i>Pule</i> (authority) as +having the power of the name, and Manono by that of <i>Ainga</i> (clan, +sept, or household) as forming the immediate family of the chief. +But these, though so important, are only small communities; and perhaps +the chief numerical force of the Malietoas inhabits the island of Savaii. +Savaii has no royal name to bestow, all the five being in the gift of +different districts of Upolu; but she has the weight of numbers, and +in these latter days has acquired a certain force by the preponderance +in her councils of a single man, the orator Lauati. The reader +will now understand the peculiar significance of a deputation which +should embrace Lauati and the orators of both Malie and Manono, how +it would represent all that is most effective on the Malietoa side, +and all that is most considerable in Samoan politics, except the opposite +feudal party of the Tupua. And in the temptation brought to bear +on Mataafa, even the Tupua was conjoined. Tamasese was dead. +His followers had conceived a not unnatural aversion to all Germans, +from which only the loyal Brandeis is excepted; and a not unnatural +admiration for their late successful adversary. Men of his own +blood and clan, men whom he had fought in the field, whom he had driven +from Matautu, who had smitten him back time and again from before the +rustic bulwarks of Lotoanuu, they approached him hand in hand with their +ancestral enemies and concurred in the same prayer. The treaty +(they argued) was not carried out. The right to elect their king +had been granted them; or if that were denied or suspended, then the +right to elect “his successor.” They were dissatisfied +with Laupepa, and claimed, “according to the laws and customs +of Samoa,” duly to appoint another. The orators of Malie +declared with irritation that their second appointment was alone valid +and Mataafa the sole Malietoa; the whole body of malcontents named him +as their choice for king; and they requested him in consequence to leave +Apia and take up his dwelling in Malie, the name-place of Malietoa; +a step which may be described, to European ears, as placing before the +country his candidacy for the crown.</p> +<p>I do not know when the proposal was first made. Doubtless the +disaffection grew slowly, every trifle adding to its force; doubtless +there lingered for long a willingness to give the new government a trial. +The chief justice at least had been nearly five months in the country, +and the president, Baron Senfft von Pilsach, rather more than a month +before the mine was sprung. On May 31, 1891, the house of Mataafa +was found empty, he and his chiefs had vanished from Apia, and, what +was worse, three prisoners, liberated from the gaol, had accompanied +them in their secession; two being political offenders, and the third +(accused of murder) having been perhaps set free by accident. +Although the step had been discussed in certain quarters, it took all +men by surprise. The inhabitants at large expected instant war. +The officials awakened from a dream to recognise the value of that which +they had lost. Mataafa at Vaiala, where he was the pledge of peace, +had perhaps not always been deemed worthy of particular attention; Mataafa +at Malie was seen, twelve hours too late, to be an altogether different +quantity. With excess of zeal on the other side, the officials +trooped to their boats and proceeded almost in a body to Malie, where +they seem to have employed every artifice of flattery and every resource +of eloquence upon the fugitive high chief. These courtesies, perhaps +excessive in themselves, had the unpardonable fault of being offered +when too late. Mataafa showed himself facile on small issues, +inflexible on the main; he restored the prisoners, he returned with +the consuls to Apia on a flying visit; he gave his word that peace should +be preserved—a pledge in which perhaps no one believed at the +moment, but which he has since nobly redeemed. On the rest he +was immovable; he had cast the die, he had declared his candidacy, he +had gone to Malie. Thither, after his visit to Apia, he returned +again; there he has practically since resided.</p> +<p>Thus was created in the islands a situation, strange in the beginning, +and which, as its inner significance is developed, becomes daily stranger +to observe. On the one hand, Mataafa sits in Malie, assumes a +regal state, receives deputations, heads his letters “Government +of Samoa,” tacitly treats the king as a co-ordinate; and yet declares +himself, and in many ways conducts himself, as a law-abiding citizen. +On the other, the white officials in Mulinuu stand contemplating the +phenomenon with eyes of growing stupefaction; now with symptoms of collapse, +now with accesses of violence. For long, even those well versed +in island manners and the island character daily expected war, and heard +imaginary drums beat in the forest. But for now close upon a year, +and against every stress of persuasion and temptation, Mataafa has been +the bulwark of our peace. Apia lay open to be seized, he had the +power in his hand, his followers cried to be led on, his enemies marshalled +him the same way by impotent examples; and he has never faltered. +Early in the day, a white man was sent from the government of Mulinuu +to examine and report upon his actions: I saw the spy on his return; +“It was only our rebel that saved us,” he said, with a laugh. +There is now no honest man in the islands but is well aware of it; none +but knows that, if we have enjoyed during the past eleven months the +conveniences of peace, it is due to the forbearance of “our rebel.” +Nor does this part of his conduct stand alone. He calls his party +at Malie the government,—“our government,”—but +he pays his taxes to the government at Mulinuu. He takes ground +like a king; he has steadily and blandly refused to obey all orders +as to his own movements or behaviour; but upon requisition he sends +offenders to be tried under the chief justice.</p> +<p>We have here a problem of conduct, and what seems an image of inconsistency, +very hard at the first sight to be solved by any European. Plainly +Mataafa does not act at random. Plainly, in the depths of his +Samoan mind, he regards his attitude as regular and constitutional. +It may be unexpected, it may be inauspicious, it may be undesirable; +but he thinks it—and perhaps it is—in full accordance with +those “laws and customs of Samoa” ignorantly invoked by +the draughtsmen of the Berlin Act. The point is worth an effort +of comprehension; a man’s life may yet depend upon it. Let +us conceive, in the first place, that there are five separate kingships +in Samoa, though not always five different kings; and that though one +man, by holding the five royal names, might become king in <i>all parts</i> +of Samoa, there is perhaps no such matter as a kingship of all Samoa. +He who holds one royal name would be, upon this view, as much a sovereign +person as he who should chance to hold the other four; he would have +less territory and fewer subjects, but the like independence and an +equal royalty. Now Mataafa, even if all debatable points were +decided against him, is still Tuiatua, and as such, on this hypothesis, +a sovereign prince. In the second place, the draughtsmen of the +Act, waxing exceeding bold, employed the word “election,” +and implicitly justified all precedented steps towards the kingship +according with the “customs of Samoa.” I am not asking +what was intended by the gentlemen who sat and debated very benignly +and, on the whole, wisely in Berlin; I am asking what will be understood +by a Samoan studying their literary work, the Berlin Act; I am asking +what is the result of taking a word out of one state of society, and +applying it to another, of which the writers know less than nothing, +and no European knows much. Several interpreters and several days +were employed last September in the fruitless attempt to convey to the +mind of Laupepa the sense of the word “resignation.” +What can a Samoan gather from the words, <i>election</i>? <i>election +of a king</i>? <i>election of a king according to the laws and customs +of Samoa</i>? What are the electoral measures, what is the method +of canvassing, likely to be employed by two, three, four, or five, more +or less absolute princelings, eager to evince each other? And +who is to distinguish such a process from the state of war? In +such international—or, I should say, interparochial—differences, +the nearest we can come towards understanding is to appreciate the cloud +of ambiguity in which all parties grope—</p> +<blockquote><p>“Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,<br /> +Half flying.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Now, in one part of Mataafa’s behaviour his purpose is beyond +mistake. Towards the provisions of the Berlin Act, his desire +to be formally obedient is manifest. The Act imposed the tax. +He has paid his taxes, although he thus contributes to the ways and +means of his immediate rival. The Act decreed the supreme court, +and he sends his partisans to be tried at Mulinuu, although he thus +places them (as I shall have occasion to show) in a position far from +wholly safe. From this literal conformity, in matters regulated, +to the terms of the Berlin plenipotentiaries, we may plausibly infer, +in regard to the rest, a no less exact observance of the famous and +obscure “laws and customs of Samoa.”</p> +<p>But though it may be possible to attain, in the study, to some such +adumbration of an understanding, it were plainly unfair to expect it +of officials in the hurry of events. Our two white officers have +accordingly been no more perspicacious than was to be looked for, and +I think they have sometimes been less wise. It was not wise in +the president to proclaim Mataafa and his followers rebels and their +estates confiscated. Such words are not respectable till they +repose on force; on the lips of an angry white man, standing alone on +a small promontory, they were both dangerous and absurd; they might +have provoked ruin; thanks to the character of Mataafa, they only raised +a smile and damaged the authority of government. And again it +is not wise in the government of Mulinuu to have twice attempted to +precipitate hostilities, once in Savaii, once here in the Tuamasanga. +The fate of the Savaii attempt I never heard; it seems to have been +stillborn. The other passed under my eyes. A war-party was +armed in Apia, and despatched across the island against Mataafa villages, +where it was to seize the women and children. It was absent for +some days, engaged in feasting with those whom it went out to fight; +and returned at last, innocuous and replete. In this fortunate +though undignified ending we may read the fact that the natives on Laupepa’s +side are sometimes more wise than their advisers. Indeed, for +our last twelve months of miraculous peace under what seem to be two +rival kings, the credit is due first of all to Mataafa, and second to +the half-heartedness, or the forbearance, or both, of the natives in +the other camp. The voice of the two whites has ever been for +war. They have published at least one incendiary proclamation; +they have armed and sent into the field at least one Samoan war-party; +they have continually besieged captains of war-ships to attack Malie, +and the captains of the war-ships have religiously refused. Thus +in the last twelve months our European rulers have drawn a picture of +themselves, as bearded like the pard, full of strange oaths, and gesticulating +like semaphores; while over against them Mataafa reposes smilingly obstinate, +and their own retainers surround them, frowningly inert. Into +the question of motive I refuse to enter; but if we come to war in these +islands, and with no fresh occasion, it will be a manufactured war, +and one that has been manufactured, against the grain of opinion, by +two foreigners.</p> +<p>For the last and worst of the mistakes on the Laupepa side it would +be unfair to blame any but the king himself. Capable both of virtuous +resolutions and of fits of apathetic obstinacy, His Majesty is usually +the whip-top of competitive advisers; and his conduct is so unstable +as to wear at times an appearance of treachery which would surprise +himself if he could see it. Take, for example, the experience +of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, late chief of police, and (so to speak) commander +of the forces. His men were under orders for a certain hour; he +found himself almost alone at the place of muster, and learned the king +had sent the soldiery on errands. He sought an audience, explained +that he was here to implant discipline, that (with this purpose in view) +his men could only receive orders through himself, and if that condition +were not agreed to and faithfully observed, he must send in his papers. +The king was as usual easily persuaded, the interview passed and ended +to the satisfaction of all parties engaged—and the bargain was +kept for one day. On the day after, the troops were again dispersed +as post-runners, and their commander resigned. With such a sovereign, +I repeat, it would be unfair to blame any individual minister for any +specific fault. And yet the policy of our two whites against Mataafa +has appeared uniformly so excessive and implacable, that the blame of +the last scandal is laid generally at their doors. It is yet fresh. +Lauati, towards the end of last year, became deeply concerned about +the situation; and by great personal exertions and the charms of oratory +brought Savaii and Manono into agreement upon certain terms of compromise: +Laupepa still to be king, Mataafa to accept a high executive office +comparable to that of our own prime minister, and the two governments +to coalesce. Intractable Manono was a party. Malie was said +to view the proposal with resignation, if not relief. Peace was +thought secure. The night before the king was to receive Lauati, +I met one of his company,—the family chief, Iina,—and we +shook hands over the unexpected issue of our troubles. What no +one dreamed was that Laupepa would refuse. And he did. He +refused undisputed royalty for himself and peace for these unhappy islands; +and the two whites on Mulinuu rightly or wrongly got the blame of it.</p> +<p>But their policy has another and a more awkward side. About +the time of the secession to Malie, many ugly things were said; I will +not repeat that which I hope and believe the speakers did not wholly +mean; let it suffice that, if rumour carried to Mataafa the language +I have heard used in my own house and before my own native servants, +he would be highly justified in keeping clear of Apia and the whites. +One gentleman whose opinion I respect, and am so bold as to hope I may +in some points modify, will understand the allusion and appreciate my +reserve. About the same time there occurred an incident, upon +which I must be more particular. <i>A</i> was a gentleman who +had long been an intimate of Mataafa’s, and had recently (upon +account, indeed, of the secession to Malie) more or less wholly broken +off relations. To him came one whom I shall call <i>B</i> with +a dastardly proposition. It may have been <i>B</i>’s own, +in which case he were the more unpardonable; but from the closeness +of his intercourse with the chief justice, as well as from the terms +used in the interview, men judged otherwise. It was proposed that +<i>A</i> should simulate a renewal of the friendship, decoy Mataafa +to a suitable place, and have him there arrested. What should +follow in those days of violent speech was at the least disputable; +and the proposal was of course refused. “You do not understand,” +was the base rejoinder. “<i>You</i> will have no discredit. +The Germans are to take the blame of the arrest.” Of course, +upon the testimony of a gentleman so depraved, it were unfair to hang +a dog; and both the Germans and the chief justice must be held innocent. +But the chief justice has shown that he can himself be led, by his animosity +against Mataafa, into questionable acts. Certain natives of Malie +were accused of stealing pigs; the chief justice summoned them through +Mataafa; several were sent, and along with them a written promise that, +if others were required, these also should be forthcoming upon requisition. +Such as came were duly tried and acquitted; and Mataafa’s offer +was communicated to the chief justice, who made a formal answer, and +the same day (in pursuance of his constant design to have Malie attacked +by war-ships) reported to one of the consuls that his warrant would +not run in the country and that certain of the accused had been withheld. +At least, this is not fair dealing; and the next instance I have to +give is possibly worse. For one blunder the chief justice is only +so far responsible, in that he was not present where it seems he should +have been, when it was made. He had nothing to do with the silly +proscription of the Mataafas; he has always disliked the measure; and +it occurred to him at last that he might get rid of this dangerous absurdity +and at the same time reap a further advantage. Let Mataafa leave +Malie for any other district in Samoa; it should be construed as an +act of submission and the confiscation and proscription instantly recalled. +This was certainly well devised; the government escaped from their own +false position, and by the same stroke lowered the prestige of their +adversaries. But unhappily the chief justice did not put all his +eggs in one basket. Concurrently with these negotiations he began +again to move the captain of one of the war-ships to shell the rebel +village; the captain, conceiving the extremity wholly unjustified, not +only refused these instances, but more or less publicly complained of +their being made; the matter came to the knowledge of the white resident +who was at that time playing the part of intermediary with Malie; and +he, in natural anger and disgust, withdrew from the negotiation. +These duplicities, always deplorable when discovered, are never more +fatal than with men imperfectly civilised. Almost incapable of +truth themselves, they cherish a particular score of the same fault +in whites. And Mataafa is besides an exceptional native. +I would scarce dare say of any Samoan that he is truthful, though I +seem to have encountered the phenomenon; but I must say of Mataafa that +he seems distinctly and consistently averse to lying.</p> +<p>For the affair of the Manono prisoners, the chief justice is only +again in so far answerable as he was at the moment absent from the seat +of his duties; and the blame falls on Baron Senfft von Pilsach, president +of the municipal council. There were in Manono certain dissidents, +loyal to Laupepa. Being Manono people, I daresay they were very +annoying to their neighbours; the majority, as they belonged to the +same island, were the more impatient; and one fine day fell upon and +destroyed the houses and harvests of the dissidents “according +to the laws and customs of Samoa.” The president went down +to the unruly island in a war-ship and was landed alone upon the beach. +To one so much a stranger to the mansuetude of Polynesians, this must +have seemed an act of desperation; and the baron’s gallantry met +with a deserved success. The six ringleaders, acting in Mataafa’s +interest, had been guilty of a delict; with Mataafa’s approval, +they delivered themselves over to be tried. On Friday, September +4, 1891, they were convicted before a native magistrate and sentenced +to six months’ imprisonment; or, I should rather say, detention; +for it was expressly directed that they were to be used as gentlemen +and not as prisoners, that the door was to stand open, and that all +their wishes should be gratified. This extraordinary sentence +fell upon the accused like a thunderbolt. There is no need to +suppose perfidy, where a careless interpreter suffices to explain all; +but the six chiefs claim to have understood their coming to Apia as +an act of submission merely formal, that they came in fact under an +implied indemnity, and that the president stood pledged to see them +scatheless. Already, on their way from the court-house, they were +tumultuously surrounded by friends and clansmen, who pressed and cried +upon them to escape; Lieutenant Ulfsparre must order his men to load; +and with that the momentary effervescence died away. Next day, +Saturday, 5th, the chief justice took his departure from the islands—a +step never yet explained and (in view of the doings of the day before +and the remonstrances of other officials) hard to justify. The +president, an amiable and brave young man of singular inexperience, +was thus left to face the growing difficulty by himself. The clansmen +of the prisoners, to the number of near upon a hundred, lay in Vaiusu, +a village half way between Apia and Malie; there they talked big, thence +sent menacing messages; the gaol should be broken in the night, they +said, and the six martyrs rescued. Allowance is to be made for +the character of the people of Manono, turbulent fellows, boastful of +tongue, but of late days not thought to be answerably bold in person. +Yet the moment was anxious. The government of Mulinuu had gained +an important moral victory by the surrender and condemnation of the +chiefs; and it was needful the victory should be maintained. The +guard upon the gaol was accordingly strengthened; a war-party was sent +to watch the Vaiusu road under Asi; and the chiefs of the Vaimaunga +were notified to arm and assemble their men. It must be supposed +the president was doubtful of the loyalty of these assistants. +He turned at least to the war-ships, where it seems he was rebuffed; +thence he fled into the arms of the wrecker gang, where he was unhappily +more successful. The government of Washington had presented to +the Samoan king the wrecks of the <i>Trenton</i> and the <i>Vandalia</i>; +an American syndicate had been formed to break them up; an experienced +gang was in consequence settled in Apia and the report of submarine +explosions had long grown familiar in the ears of residents. From +these artificers the president obtained a supply of dynamite, the needful +mechanism, and the loan of a mechanic; the gaol was mined, and the Manono +people in Vaiusu were advertised of the fact in a letter signed by Laupepa. +Partly by the indiscretion of the mechanic, who had sought to embolden +himself (like Lady Macbeth) with liquor for his somewhat dreadful task, +the story leaked immediately out and raised a very general, or I might +say almost universal, reprobation. Some blamed the proposed deed +because it was barbarous and a foul example to set before a race half +barbarous itself; others because it was illegal; others again because, +in the face of so weak an enemy, it appeared pitifully pusillanimous; +almost all because it tended to precipitate and embitter war. +In the midst of the turmoil he had raised, and under the immediate pressure +of certain indignant white residents, the baron fell back upon a new +expedient, certainly less barbarous, perhaps no more legal; and on Monday +afternoon, September 7th, packed his six prisoners on board the cutter +<i>Lancashire Lass</i>, and deported them to the neighbouring low-island +group of the Tokelaus. We watched her put to sea with mingled +feelings. Anything were better than dynamite, but this was not +good. The men had been summoned in the name of law; they had surrendered; +the law had uttered its voice; they were under one sentence duly delivered; +and now the president, by no right with which we were acquainted, had +exchanged it for another. It was perhaps no less fortunate, though +it was more pardonable in a stranger, that he had increased the punishment +to that which, in the eyes of Samoans, ranks next to death,—exile +from their native land and friends. And the <i>Lancashire Lass</i> +appeared to carry away with her into the uttermost parts of the sea +the honour of the administration and the prestige of the supreme court.</p> +<p>The policy of the government towards Mataafa has thus been of a piece +throughout; always would-be violent, it has been almost always defaced +with some appearance of perfidy or unfairness. The policy of Mataafa +(though extremely bewildering to any white) appears everywhere consistent +with itself, and the man’s bearing has always been calm. +But to represent the fulness of the contrast, it is necessary that I +should give some description of the two capitals, or the two camps, +and the ways and means of the regular and irregular government.</p> +<p><i>Mulinuu</i>. Mulinuu, the reader may remember, is a narrow +finger of land planted in cocoa-palms, which runs forth into the lagoon +perhaps three quarters of a mile. To the east is the bay of Apia. +To the west, there is, first of all, a mangrove swamp, the mangroves +excellently green, the mud ink-black, and its face crawled upon by countless +insects and black and scarlet crabs. Beyond the swamp is a wide +and shallow bay of the lagoon, bounded to the west by Faleula Point. +Faleula is the next village to Malie; so that from the top of some tall +palm in Malie it should be possible to descry against the eastern heavens +the palms of Mulinuu. The trade wind sweeps over the low peninsula +and cleanses it from the contagion of the swamp. Samoans have +a quaint phrase in their language; when out of health, they seek exposed +places on the shore “to eat the wind,” say they; and there +can be few better places for such a diet than the point of Mulinuu.</p> +<p>Two European houses stand conspicuous on the harbour side; in Europe +they would seem poor enough, but they are fine houses for Samoa. +One is new; it was built the other day under the apologetic title of +a Government House, to be the residence of Baron Senfft. The other +is historical; it was built by Brandeis on a mortgage, and is now occupied +by the chief justice on conditions never understood, the rumour going +uncontradicted that he sits rent free. I do not say it is true, +I say it goes uncontradicted; and there is one peculiarity of our officials +in a nutshell,—their remarkable indifference to their own character. +From the one house to the other extends a scattering village for the +Faipule or native parliament men. In the days of Tamasese this +was a brave place, both his own house and those of the Faipule good, +and the whole excellently ordered and approached by a sanded way. +It is now like a neglected bush-town, and speaks of apathy in all concerned. +But the chief scandal of Mulinuu is elsewhere. The house of the +president stands just to seaward of the isthmus, where the watch is +set nightly, and armed men guard the uneasy slumbers of the government. +On the landward side there stands a monument to the poor German lads +who fell at Fangalii, just beyond which the passer-by may chance to +observe a little house standing back-ward from the road. It is +such a house as a commoner might use in a bush village; none could dream +that it gave shelter even to a family chief; yet this is the palace +of Malietoa-Natoaitele-Tamasoalii Laupepa, king of Samoa. As you +sit in his company under this humble shelter, you shall see, between +the posts, the new house of the president. His Majesty himself +beholds it daily, and the tenor of his thoughts may be divined. +The fine house of a Samoan chief is his appropriate attribute; yet, +after seventeen months, the government (well housed themselves) have +not yet found—have not yet sought—a roof-tree for their +sovereign. And the lodging is typical. I take up the president’s +financial statement of September 8, 1891. I find the king’s +allowance to figure at seventy-five dollars a month; and I find that +he is further (though somewhat obscurely) debited with the salaries +of either two or three clerks. Take the outside figure, and the +sum expended on or for His Majesty amounts to ninety-five dollars in +the month. Lieutenant Ulfsparre and Dr. Hagberg (the chief justice’s +Swedish friends) drew in the same period one hundred and forty and one +hundred dollars respectively on account of salary alone. And it +should be observed that Dr. Hagberg was employed, or at least paid, +from government funds, in the face of His Majesty’s express and +reiterated protest. In another column of the statement, one hundred +and seventy-five dollars and seventy-five cents are debited for the +chief justice’s travelling expenses. I am of the opinion +that if His Majesty desired (or dared) to take an outing, he would be +asked to bear the charge from his allowance. But although I think +the chief justice had done more nobly to pay for himself, I am far from +denying that his excursions were well meant; he should indeed be praised +for having made them; and I leave the charge out of consideration in +the following statement.</p> +<blockquote><p>ON THE ONE HAND</p> +<p>Salary of Chief Justice Cedarkrantz $500<br /> +Salary of President Baron Senfft von Pilsach (about) 415<br /> +Salary of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, Chief of Police 140<br /> +Salary of Dr. Hagberg, Private Secretary to the Chief Justice 100</p> +<p>Total monthly salary to four whites, one of them paid against His +Majesty’s protest $1155</p> +<p>ON THE OTHER HAND</p> +<p>Total monthly payments to and for His Majesty the King, including +allowance and hire of three clerks, one of these placed under the rubric +of extraordinary expenses $95</p> +</blockquote> +<p>This looks strange enough and mean enough already. But we have +ground of comparison in the practice of Brandeis.</p> +<blockquote><p>Brandeis, white prime minister $200<br /> +Tamasese (about) 160<br /> +White Chief of Police 100</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Under Brandeis, in other words, the king received the second highest +allowance on the sheet; and it was a good second, and the third was +a bad third. And it must be borne in mind that Tamasese himself +was pointed and laughed at among natives. Judge, then, what is +muttered of Laupepa, housed in his shanty before the president’s +doors like Lazarus before the doors of Dives; receiving not so much +of his own taxes as the private secretary of the law officer; and (in +actual salary) little more than half as much as his own chief of police. +It is known besides that he has protested in vain against the charge +for Dr. Hagberg; it is known that he has himself applied for an advance +and been refused. Money is certainly a grave subject on Mulinuu; +but respect costs nothing, and thrifty officials might have judged it +wise to make up in extra politeness for what they curtailed of pomp +or comfort. One instance may suffice. Laupepa appeared last +summer on a public occasion; the president was there and not even the +president rose to greet the entrance of the sovereign. Since about +the same period, besides, the monarch must be described as in a state +of sequestration. A white man, an Irishman, the true type of all +that is most gallant, humorous, and reckless in his country, chose to +visit His Majesty and give him some excellent advice (to make up his +difference with Mataafa) couched unhappily in vivid and figurative language. +The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific, but the evil that he chanced +to do lives after him. His Majesty was greatly (and I must say +justly) offended by the freedom of the expressions used; he appealed +to his white advisers; and these, whether from want of thought or by +design, issued an ignominious proclamation. Intending visitors +to the palace must appear before their consuls and justify their business. +The majesty of buried Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a +private collection) under special permit; and was thus at once cut off +from the company and opinions of the self respecting. To retain +any dignity in such an abject state would require a man of very different +virtues from those claimed by the not unvirtuous Laupepa. He is +not designed to ride the whirlwind or direct the storm, rather to be +the ornament of private life. He is kind, gentle, patient as Job, +conspicuously well-intentioned, of charming manners; and when he pleases, +he has one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone—I +mean that he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language.</p> +<p>The government of Brandeis accomplished a good deal and was continually +and heroically attempting more. The government of our two whites +has confined itself almost wholly to paying and receiving salaries. +They have built, indeed, a house for the president; they are believed +(if that be a merit) to have bought the local newspaper with government +funds; and their rule has been enlivened by a number of scandals, into +which I feel with relief that it is unnecessary I should enter. +Even if the three Powers do not remove these gentlemen, their absurd +and disastrous government must perish by itself of inanition. +Native taxes (except perhaps from Mataafa, true to his own private policy) +have long been beyond hope. And only the other day (May 6th, 1892), +on the expressed ground that there was no guarantee as to how the funds +would be expended, and that the president consistently refused to allow +the verification of his cash balances, the municipal council has negatived +the proposal to call up further taxes from the whites. All is +well that ends even ill, so that it end; and we believe that with the +last dollar we shall see the last of the last functionary. Now +when it is so nearly over, we can afford to smile at this extraordinary +passage, though we must still sigh over the occasion lost.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p><i>Malie</i>. The way to Malie lies round the shores of Faleula +bay and through a succession of pleasant groves and villages. +The road, one of the works of Brandeis, is now cut up by pig fences. +Eight times you must leap a barrier of cocoa posts; the take-off and +the landing both in a patch of mire planted with big stones, and the +stones sometimes reddened with the blood of horses that have gone before. +To make these obstacles more annoying, you have sometimes to wait while +a black boar clambers sedately over the so-called pig fence. Nothing +can more thoroughly depict the worst side of the Samoan character than +these useless barriers which deface their only road. It was one +of the first orders issued by the government of Mulinuu after the coming +of the chief justice, to have the passage cleared. It is the disgrace +of Mataafa that the thing is not yet done.</p> +<p>The village of Malie is the scene of prosperity and peace. +In a very good account of a visit there, published in the <i>Australasian</i>, +the writer describes it to be fortified; she must have been deceived +by the appearance of some pig walls on the shore. There is no +fortification, no parade of war. I understand that from one to +five hundred fighting men are always within reach; but I have never +seen more than five together under arms, and these were the king’s +guard of honour. A Sabbath quiet broods over the well-weeded green, +the picketed horses, the troops of pigs, the round or oval native dwellings. +Of these there are a surprising number, very fine of their sort: yet +more are in the building; and in the midst a tall house of assembly, +by far the greatest Samoan structure now in these islands, stands about +half finished and already makes a figure in the landscape. No +bustle is to be observed, but the work accomplished testifies to a still +activity.</p> +<p>The centre-piece of all is the high chief himself, Malietoa-Tuiatua-Tuiaana +Mataafa, king—or not king—or king-claimant—of Samoa. +All goes to him, all comes from him. Native deputations bring +him gifts and are feasted in return. White travellers, to their +indescribable irritation, are (on his approach) waved from his path +by his armed guards. He summons his dancers by the note of a bugle. +He sits nightly at home before a semicircle of talking-men from many +quarters of the islands, delivering and hearing those ornate and elegant +orations in which the Samoan heart delights. About himself and +all his surroundings there breathes a striking sense of order, tranquillity, +and native plenty. He is of a tall and powerful person, sixty +years of age, white-haired and with a white moustache; his eyes bright +and quiet; his jaw perceptibly underhung, which gives him something +of the expression of a benevolent mastiff; his manners dignified and +a thought insinuating, with an air of a Catholic prelate. He was +never married, and a natural daughter attends upon his guests. +Long since he made a vow of chastity,—“to live as our Lord +lived on this earth” and Polynesians report with bated breath +that he has kept it. On all such points, true to his Catholic +training, he is inclined to be even rigid. Lauati, the pivot of +Savaii, has recently repudiated his wife and taken a fairer; and when +I was last in Malie, Mataafa (with a strange superiority to his own +interests) had but just despatched a reprimand. In his immediate +circle, in spite of the smoothness of his ways, he is said to be more +respected than beloved; and his influence is the child rather of authority +than popularity. No Samoan grandee now living need have attempted +that which he has accomplished during the last twelve months with unimpaired +prestige, not only to withhold his followers from war, but to send them +to be judged in the camp of their enemies on Mulinuu. And it is +a matter of debate whether such a triumph of authority were ever possible +before. Speaking for myself, I have visited and dwelt in almost +every seat of the Polynesian race, and have met but one man who gave +me a stronger impression of character and parts.</p> +<p>About the situation, Mataafa expresses himself with unshaken peace. +To the chief justice he refers with some bitterness; to Laupepa, with +a smile, as “my poor brother.” For himself, he stands +upon the treaty, and expects sooner or later an election in which he +shall be raised to the chief power. In the meanwhile, or for an +alternative, he would willingly embrace a compromise with Laupepa; to +which he would probably add one condition, that the joint government +should remain seated at Malie, a sensible but not inconvenient distance +from white intrigues and white officials. One circumstance in +my last interview particularly pleased me. The king’s chief +scribe, Esela, is an old employé under Tamasese, and the talk +ran some while upon the character of Brandeis. Loyalty in this +world is after all not thrown away; Brandeis was guilty, in Samoan eyes, +of many irritating errors, but he stood true to Tamasese; in the course +of time a sense of this virtue and of his general uprightness has obliterated +the memory of his mistakes; and it would have done his heart good if +he could have heard his old scribe and his old adversary join in praising +him. “Yes,” concluded Mataafa, “I wish we had +Planteisa back again.” <i>A quelque chose malheur est bon</i>. +So strong is the impression produced by the defects of Cedarcrantz and +Baron Senfft, that I believe Mataafa far from singular in this opinion, +and that the return of the upright Brandeis might be even welcome to +many.</p> +<p>I must add a last touch to the picture of Malie and the pretender’s +life. About four in the morning, the visitor in his house will +be awakened by the note of a pipe, blown without, very softly and to +a soothing melody. This is Mataafa’s private luxury to lead +on pleasant dreams. We have a bird here in Samoa that about the +same hour of darkness sings in the bush. The father of Mataafa, +while he lived, was a great friend and protector to all living creatures, +and passed under the by-name of <i>the King of Birds</i>. It may +be it was among the woodland clients of the sire that the son acquired +his fancy for this morning music.</p> +<p>* * * * *</p> +<p>I have now sought to render without extenuation the impressions received: +of dignity, plenty, and peace at Malie, of bankruptcy and distraction +at Mulinuu. And I wish I might here bring to an end ungrateful +labours. But I am sensible that there remain two points on which +it would be improper to be silent. I should be blamed if I did +not indicate a practical conclusion; and I should blame myself if I +did not do a little justice to that tried company of the Land Commissioners.</p> +<p>The Land Commission has been in many senses unfortunate. The +original German member, a gentleman of the name of Eggert, fell early +into precarious health; his work was from the first interrupted, he +was at last (to the regret of all that knew him) invalided home; and +his successor had but just arrived. In like manner, the first +American commissioner, Henry C. Ide, a man of character and intelligence, +was recalled (I believe by private affairs) when he was but just settling +into the spirit of the work; and though his place was promptly filled +by ex-Governor Ormsbee, a worthy successor, distinguished by strong +and vivacious common sense, the break was again sensible. The +English commissioner, my friend Bazett Michael Haggard, is thus the +only one who has continued at his post since the beginning. And +yet, in spite of these unusual changes, the Commission has a record +perhaps unrivalled among international commissions. It has been +unanimous practically from the first until the last; and out of some +four hundred cases disposed of, there is but one on which the members +were divided. It was the more unfortunate they should have early +fallen in a difficulty with the chief justice. The original ground +of this is supposed to be a difference of opinion as to the import of +the Berlin Act, on which, as a layman, it would be unbecoming if I were +to offer an opinion. But it must always seem as if the chief justice +had suffered himself to be irritated beyond the bounds of discretion. +It must always seem as if his original attempt to deprive the commissioners +of the services of a secretary and the use of a safe were even senseless; +and his step in printing and posting a proclamation denying their jurisdiction +were equally impolitic and undignified. The dispute had a secondary +result worse than itself. The gentleman appointed to be Natives’ +Advocate shared the chief justice’s opinion, was his close intimate, +advised with him almost daily, and drifted at last into an attitude +of opposition to his colleagues. He suffered himself besides (being +a layman in law) to embrace the interest of his clients with something +of the warmth of a partisan. Disagreeable scenes occurred in court; +the advocate was more than once reproved, he was warned that his consultations +with the judge of appeal tended to damage his own character and to lower +the credit of the appellate court. Having lost some cases on which +he set importance, it should seem that he spoke unwisely among natives. +A sudden cry of colour prejudice went up; and Samoans were heard to +assure each other that it was useless to appear before the Land Commission, +which was sworn to support the whites.</p> +<p>This deplorable state of affairs was brought to an end by the departure +from Samoa of the Natives’ Advocate. He was succeeded <i>pro +tempore</i> by a young New Zealander, E. W. Gurr, not much more versed +in law than himself, and very much less so in Samoan. Whether +by more skill or better fortune, Gurr has been able in the course of +a few weeks to recover for the natives several important tracts of land; +and the prejudice against the Commission seems to be abating as fast +as it arose. I should not omit to say that, in the eagerness of +the original advocate, there was much that was amiable; nor must I fail +to point out how much there was of blindness. Fired by the ardour +of pursuit, he seems to have regarded his immediate clients as the only +natives extant and the epitome and emblem of the Samoan race. +Thus, in the case that was the most exclaimed against as “an injustice +to natives,” his client, Puaauli, was certainly nonsuited. +But in that intricate affair who lost the money? The German firm. +And who got the land? Other natives. To twist such a decision +into evidence, either of a prejudice against Samoans or a partiality +to whites, is to keep one eye shut and have the other bandaged.</p> +<p>And lastly, one word as to the future. Laupepa and Mataafa +stand over against each other, rivals with no third competitor. +They may be said to hold the great name of Malietoa in commission; each +has borne the style, each exercised the authority, of a Samoan king; +one is secure of the small but compact and fervent following of the +Catholics, the other has the sympathies of a large part of the Protestant +majority, and upon any sign of Catholic aggression would have more. +With men so nearly balanced, it may be asked whether a prolonged successful +exercise of power be possible for either. In the case of the feeble +Laupepa, it is certainly not; we have the proof before us. Nor +do I think we should judge, from what we see to-day, that it would be +possible, or would continue to be possible, even for the kingly Mataafa. +It is always the easier game to be in opposition. The tale of +David and Saul would infallibly be re-enacted; once more we shall have +two kings in the land,—the latent and the patent; and the house +of the first will become once more the resort of “every one that +is in distress, and every one that is in debt, and every one that is +discontented.” Against such odds it is my fear that Mataafa +might contend in vain; it is beyond the bounds of my imagination that +Laupepa should contend at all. Foreign ships and bayonets is the +cure proposed in Mulinuu. And certainly, if people at home desire +that money should be thrown away and blood shed in Samoa, an effect +of a kind, and for the time, may be produced. Its nature and prospective +durability I will ask readers of this volume to forecast for themselves. +There is one way to peace and unity: that Laupepa and Mataafa should +be again conjoined on the best terms procurable. There may be +other ways, although I cannot see them; but not even malevolence, not +even stupidity, can deny that this is one. It seems, indeed, so +obvious, and sure, and easy, that men look about with amazement and +suspicion, seeking some hidden motive why it should not be adopted.</p> +<p>To Laupepa’s opposition, as shown in the case of the Lauati +scheme, no dweller in Samoa will give weight, for they know him to be +as putty in the hands of his advisers. It may be right, it may +be wrong, but we are many of us driven to the conclusion that the stumbling-block +is Fangalii, and that the memorial of that affair shadows appropriately +the house of a king who reigns in right of it. If this be all, +it should not trouble us long. Germany has shown she can be generous; +it now remains for her only to forget a natural but certainly ill-grounded +prejudice, and allow to him, who was sole king before the plenipotentiaries +assembled, and who would be sole king to-morrow if the Berlin Act could +be rescinded, a fitting share of rule. The future of Samoa should +lie thus in the hands of a single man, on whom the eyes of Europe are +already fixed. Great concerns press on his attention; the Samoan +group, in his view, is but as a grain of dust; and the country where +he reigns has bled on too many august scenes of victory to remember +for ever a blundering skirmish in the plantation of Vailele. It +is to him—to the sovereign of the wise Stuebel and the loyal Brandeis,—that +I make my appeal.</p> +<p><i>May</i> 25, 1892.</p> +<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> +<p><a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1">{1}</a> Brother and +successor of Theodor.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 536-h.htm or 536-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/3/536 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +</pre></body> +</html> @@ -0,0 +1,5811 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Footnote to History, by Robert Louis +Stevenson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Footnote to History + Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa + + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Release Date: April 26, 2005 [eBook #536] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1912 Swanston edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY +EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA +by Robert Louis Stevenson + + + + +PREFACE + + +An affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines in any +general history has been here expanded to the size of a volume or large +pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularity of the manners +and events and many of the characters, considered, it is hoped that, in +spite of its outlandish subject, the sketch may find readers. It has +been a task of difficulty. Speed was essential, or it might come too +late to be of any service to a distracted country. Truth, in the midst +of conflicting rumours and in the dearth of printed material, was often +hard to ascertain, and since most of those engaged were of my personal +acquaintance, it was often more than delicate to express. I must +certainly have erred often and much; it is not for want of trouble taken +nor of an impartial temper. And if my plain speaking shall cost me any +of the friends that I still count, I shall be sorry, but I need not be +ashamed. + +In one particular the spelling of Samoan words has been altered; and the +characteristic nasal _n_ of the language written throughout _ng_ instead +of _g_. Thus I put Pango-Pango, instead of Pago-Pago; the sound being +that of soft _ng_ in English, as in _singer_, not as in _finger_. + +R. L. S. +VAILIMA, +UPOLU, +SAMOA. + + + + +CHAPTER I--THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE + + +The story I have to tell is still going on as I write; the characters are +alive and active; it is a piece of contemporary history in the most exact +sense. And yet, for all its actuality and the part played in it by mails +and telegraphs and iron war-ships, the ideas and the manners of the +native actors date back before the Roman Empire. They are Christians, +church-goers, singers of hymns at family worship, hardy cricketers; their +books are printed in London by Spottiswoode, Trubner, or the Tract +Society; but in most other points they are the contemporaries of our +tattooed ancestors who drove their chariots on the wrong side of the +Roman wall. We have passed the feudal system; they are not yet clear of +the patriarchal. We are in the thick of the age of finance; they are in +a period of communism. And this makes them hard to understand. + +To us, with our feudal ideas, Samoa has the first appearance of a land of +despotism. An elaborate courtliness marks the race alone among +Polynesians; terms of ceremony fly thick as oaths on board a ship; +commoners my-lord each other when they meet--and urchins as they play +marbles. And for the real noble a whole private dialect is set apart. +The common names for an axe, for blood, for bamboo, a bamboo knife, a +pig, food, entrails, and an oven are taboo in his presence, as the common +names for a bug and for many offices and members of the body are taboo in +the drawing-rooms of English ladies. Special words are set apart for his +leg, his face, his hair, his belly, his eyelids, his son, his daughter, +his wife, his wife's pregnancy, his wife's adultery, adultery with his +wife, his dwelling, his spear, his comb, his sleep, his dreams, his +anger, the mutual anger of several chiefs, his food, his pleasure in +eating, the food and eating of his pigeons, his ulcers, his cough, his +sickness, his recovery, his death, his being carried on a bier, the +exhumation of his bones, and his skull after death. To address these +demigods is quite a branch of knowledge, and he who goes to visit a high +chief does well to make sure of the competence of his interpreter. To +complete the picture, the same word signifies the watching of a virgin +and the warding of a chief; and the same word means to cherish a chief +and to fondle a favourite child. + +Men like us, full of memories of feudalism, hear of a man so addressed, +so flattered, and we leap at once to the conclusion that he is hereditary +and absolute. Hereditary he is; born of a great family, he must always +be a man of mark; but yet his office is elective and (in a weak sense) is +held on good behaviour. Compare the case of a Highland chief: born one +of the great ones of his clan, he was sometimes appointed its chief +officer and conventional father; was loved, and respected, and served, +and fed, and died for implicitly, if he gave loyalty a chance; and yet if +he sufficiently outraged clan sentiment, was liable to deposition. As to +authority, the parallel is not so close. Doubtless the Samoan chief, if +he be popular, wields a great influence; but it is limited. Important +matters are debated in a fono, or native parliament, with its feasting +and parade, its endless speeches and polite genealogical allusions. +Debated, I say--not decided; for even a small minority will often strike +a clan or a province impotent. In the midst of these ineffective +councils the chief sits usually silent: a kind of a gagged audience for +village orators. And the deliverance of the fono seems (for the moment) +to be final. The absolute chiefs of Tahiti and Hawaii were addressed as +plain John and Thomas; the chiefs of Samoa are surfeited with lip-honour, +but the seat and extent of their actual authority is hard to find. + +It is so in the members of the state, and worse in the belly. The idea +of a sovereign pervades the air; the name we have; the thing we are not +so sure of. And the process of election to the chief power is a mystery. +Certain provinces have in their gift certain high titles, or _names_, as +they are called. These can only be attributed to the descendants of +particular lines. Once granted, each name conveys at once the +principality (whatever that be worth) of the province which bestows it, +and counts as one suffrage towards the general sovereignty of Samoa. To +be indubitable king, they say, or some of them say,--I find few in +perfect harmony,--a man should resume five of these names in his own +person. But the case is purely hypothetical; local jealousy forbids its +occurrence. There are rival provinces, far more concerned in the +prosecution of their rivalry than in the choice of a right man for king. +If one of these shall have bestowed its name on competitor A, it will be +the signal and the sufficient reason for the other to bestow its name on +competitor B or C. The majority of Savaii and that of Aana are thus in +perennial opposition. Nor is this all. In 1881, Laupepa, the present +king, held the three names of Malietoa, Natoaitele, and Tamasoalii; +Tamasese held that of Tuiaana; and Mataafa that of Tuiatua. Laupepa had +thus a majority of suffrages; he held perhaps as high a proportion as can +be hoped in these distracted islands; and he counted among the number the +preponderant name of Malietoa. Here, if ever, was an election. Here, if +a king were at all possible, was the king. And yet the natives were not +satisfied. Laupepa was crowned, March 19th; and next month, the +provinces of Aana and Atua met in joint parliament, and elected their own +two princes, Tamasese and Mataafa, to an alternate monarchy, Tamasese +taking the first trick of two years. War was imminent, when the consuls +interfered, and any war were preferable to the terms of the peace which +they procured. By the Lackawanna treaty, Laupepa was confirmed king, and +Tamasese set by his side in the nondescript office of vice-king. The +compromise was not, I am told, without precedent; but it lacked all +appearance of success. To the constitution of Samoa, which was already +all wheels and no horses, the consuls had added a fifth wheel. In +addition to the old conundrum, "Who is the king?" they had supplied a new +one, "What is the vice-king?" + +Two royal lines; some cloudy idea of alternation between the two; an +electorate in which the vote of each province is immediately effectual, +as regards itself, so that every candidate who attains one name becomes a +perpetual and dangerous competitor for the other four: such are a few of +the more trenchant absurdities. Many argue that the whole idea of +sovereignty is modern and imported; but it seems impossible that anything +so foolish should have been suddenly devised, and the constitution bears +on its front the marks of dotage. + +But the king, once elected and nominated, what does he become? It may be +said he remains precisely as he was. Election to one of the five names +is significant; it brings not only dignity but power, and the holder is +secure, from that moment, of a certain following in war. But I cannot +find that the further step of election to the kingship implies anything +worth mention. The successful candidate is now the _Tupu o Samoa_--much +good may it do him! He can so sign himself on proclamations, which it +does not follow that any one will heed. He can summon parliaments; it +does not follow they will assemble. If he be too flagrantly disobeyed, +he can go to war. But so he could before, when he was only the chief of +certain provinces. His own provinces will support him, the provinces of +his rivals will take the field upon the other part; just as before. In +so far as he is the holder of any of the five _names_, in short, he is a +man to be reckoned with; in so far as he is king of Samoa, I cannot find +but what the president of a college debating society is a far more +formidable officer. And unfortunately, although the credit side of the +account proves thus imaginary, the debit side is actual and heavy. For +he is now set up to be the mark of consuls; he will be badgered to raise +taxes, to make roads, to punish crime, to quell rebellion: and how he is +to do it is not asked. + +If I am in the least right in my presentation of this obscure matter, no +one need be surprised to hear that the land is full of war and rumours of +war. Scarce a year goes by but what some province is in arms, or sits +sulky and menacing, holding parliaments, disregarding the king's +proclamations and planting food in the bush, the first step of military +preparation. The religious sentiment of the people is indeed for peace +at any price; no pastor can bear arms; and even the layman who does so is +denied the sacraments. In the last war the college of Malua, where the +picked youth are prepared for the ministry, lost but a single student; +the rest, in the bosom of a bleeding country, and deaf to the voices of +vanity and honour, peacefully pursued their studies. But if the church +looks askance on war, the warrior in no extremity of need or passion +forgets his consideration for the church. The houses and gardens of her +ministers stand safe in the midst of armies; a way is reserved for +themselves along the beach, where they may be seen in their white kilts +and jackets openly passing the lines, while not a hundred yards behind +the skirmishers will be exchanging the useless volleys of barbaric +warfare. Women are also respected; they are not fired upon; and they are +suffered to pass between the hostile camps, exchanging gossip, spreading +rumour, and divulging to either army the secret councils of the other. +This is plainly no savage war; it has all the punctilio of the barbarian, +and all his parade; feasts precede battles, fine dresses and songs +decorate and enliven the field; and the young soldier comes to camp +burning (on the one hand) to distinguish himself by acts of valour, and +(on the other) to display his acquaintance with field etiquette. Thus +after Mataafa became involved in hostilities against the Germans, and had +another code to observe beside his own, he was always asking his white +advisers if "things were done correctly." Let us try to be as wise as +Mataafa, and to conceive that etiquette and morals differ in one country +and another. We shall be the less surprised to find Samoan war defaced +with some unpalatable customs. The childish destruction of fruit-trees +in an enemy's country cripples the resources of Samoa; and the habit of +head-hunting not only revolts foreigners, but has begun to exercise the +minds of the natives themselves. Soon after the German heads were taken, +Mr. Carne, Wesleyan missionary, had occasion to visit Mataafa's camp, and +spoke of the practice with abhorrence. "Misi Kane," said one chief, "we +have just been puzzling ourselves to guess where that custom came from. +But, Misi, is it not so that when David killed Goliath, he cut off his +head and carried it before the king?" + +With the civil life of the inhabitants we have far less to do; and yet +even here a word of preparation is inevitable. They are easy, merry, and +pleasure-loving; the gayest, though by far from either the most capable +or the most beautiful of Polynesians. Fine dress is a passion, and makes +a Samoan festival a thing of beauty. Song is almost ceaseless. The +boatman sings at the oar, the family at evening worship, the girls at +night in the guest-house, sometimes the workman at his toil. No occasion +is too small for the poets and musicians; a death, a visit, the day's +news, the day's pleasantry, will be set to rhyme and harmony. Even half- +grown girls, the occasion arising, fashion words and train choruses of +children for its celebration. Song, as with all Pacific islanders, goes +hand in hand with the dance, and both shade into the drama. Some of the +performances are indecent and ugly, some only dull; others are pretty, +funny, and attractive. Games are popular. Cricket-matches, where a +hundred played upon a side, endured at times for weeks, and ate up the +country like the presence of an army. Fishing, the daily bath, +flirtation; courtship, which is gone upon by proxy; conversation, which +is largely political; and the delights of public oratory, fill in the +long hours. + +But the special delight of the Samoan is the _malanga_. When people form +a party and go from village to village, junketing and gossiping, they are +said to go on a _malanga_. Their songs have announced their approach ere +they arrive; the guest-house is prepared for their reception; the virgins +of the village attend to prepare the kava bowl and entertain them with +the dance; time flies in the enjoyment of every pleasure which an +islander conceives; and when the _malanga_ sets forth, the same welcome +and the same joys expect them beyond the next cape, where the nearest +village nestles in its grove of palms. To the visitors it is all golden; +for the hosts, it has another side. In one or two words of the language +the fact peeps slyly out. The same word (_afemoeina_) expresses "a long +call" and "to come as a calamity"; the same word (_lesolosolou_) +signifies "to have no intermission of pain" and "to have no cessation, as +in the arrival of visitors"; and _soua_, used of epidemics, bears the +sense of being overcome as with "fire, flood, or visitors." But the gem +of the dictionary is the verb _alovao_, which illustrates its pages like +a humorous woodcut. It is used in the sense of "to avoid visitors," but +it means literally "hide in the wood." So, by the sure hand of popular +speech, we have the picture of the house deserted, the _malanga_ +disappointed, and the host that should have been quaking in the bush. + +We are thus brought to the beginning of a series of traits of manners, +highly curious in themselves, and essential to an understanding of the +war. In Samoa authority sits on the one hand entranced; on the other, +property stands bound in the midst of chartered marauders. What property +exists is vested in the family, not in the individual; and of the loose +communism in which a family dwells, the dictionary may yet again help us +to some idea. I find a string of verbs with the following senses: to +deal leniently with, as in helping oneself from a family plantation; to +give away without consulting other members of the family; to go to +strangers for help instead of to relatives; to take from relatives +without permission; to steal from relatives; to have plantations robbed +by relatives. The ideal of conduct in the family, and some of its +depravations, appear here very plainly. The man who (in a native word of +praise) is _mata-ainga_, a race-regarder, has his hand always open to his +kindred; the man who is not (in a native term of contempt) _noa_, knows +always where to turn in any pinch of want or extremity of laziness. +Beggary within the family--and by the less self-respecting, without +it--has thus grown into a custom and a scourge, and the dictionary teems +with evidence of its abuse. Special words signify the begging of food, +of uncooked food, of fish, of pigs, of pigs for travellers, of pigs for +stock, of taro, of taro-tops, of taro-tops for planting, of tools, of +flyhooks, of implements for netting pigeons, and of mats. It is true the +beggar was supposed in time to make a return, somewhat as by the Roman +contract of _mutuum_. But the obligation was only moral; it could not +be, or was not, enforced; as a matter of fact, it was disregarded. The +language had recently to borrow from the Tahitians a word for debt; while +by a significant excidence, it possessed a native expression for the +failure to pay--"to omit to make a return for property begged." Conceive +now the position of the householder besieged by harpies, and all defence +denied him by the laws of honour. The sacramental gesture of refusal, +his last and single resource, was supposed to signify "my house is +destitute." Until that point was reached, in other words, the conduct +prescribed for a Samoan was to give and to continue giving. But it does +not appear he was at all expected to give with a good grace. The +dictionary is well stocked with expressions standing ready, like +missiles, to be discharged upon the locusts--"troop of shamefaced ones," +"you draw in your head like a tern," "you make your voice small like a +whistle-pipe," "you beg like one delirious"; and the verb _pongitai_, "to +look cross," is equipped with the pregnant rider, "as at the sight of +beggars." + +This insolence of beggars and the weakness of proprietors can only be +illustrated by examples. We have a girl in our service to whom we had +given some finery, that she might wait at table, and (at her own request) +some warm clothing against the cold mornings of the bush. She went on a +visit to her family, and returned in an old tablecloth, her whole +wardrobe having been divided out among relatives in the course of twenty- +four hours. A pastor in the province of Atua, being a handy, busy man, +bought a boat for a hundred dollars, fifty of which he paid down. +Presently after, relatives came to him upon a visit and took a fancy to +his new possession. "We have long been wanting a boat," said they. "Give +us this one." So, when the visit was done, they departed in the boat. +The pastor, meanwhile, travelled into Savaii the best way he could, sold +a parcel of land, and begged mats among his other relatives, to pay the +remainder of the price of the boat which was no longer his. You might +think this was enough; but some months later, the harpies, having broken +a thwart, brought back the boat to be repaired and repainted by the +original owner. + +Such customs, it might be argued, being double-edged, will ultimately +right themselves. But it is otherwise in practice. Such folk as the +pastor's harpy relatives will generally have a boat, and will never have +paid for it; such men as the pastor may have sometimes paid for a boat, +but they will never have one. It is there as it is with us at home: the +measure of the abuse of either system is the blackness of the individual +heart. The same man, who would drive his poor relatives from his own +door in England, would besiege in Samoa the doors of the rich; and the +essence of the dishonesty in either case is to pursue one's own advantage +and to be indifferent to the losses of one's neighbour. But the +particular drawback of the Polynesian system is to depress and stagger +industry. To work more is there only to be more pillaged; to save is +impossible. The family has then made a good day of it when all are +filled and nothing remains over for the crew of free-booters; and the +injustice of the system begins to be recognised even in Samoa. One +native is said to have amassed a certain fortune; two clever lads have +individually expressed to us their discontent with a system which taxes +industry to pamper idleness; and I hear that in one village of Savaii a +law has been passed forbidding gifts under the penalty of a sharp fine. + +Under this economic regimen, the unpopularity of taxes, which strike all +at the same time, which expose the industrious to a perfect siege of +mendicancy, and the lazy to be actually condemned to a day's labour, may +be imagined without words. It is more important to note the concurrent +relaxation of all sense of property. From applying for help to kinsmen +who are scarce permitted to refuse, it is but a step to taking from them +(in the dictionary phrase) "without permission"; from that to theft at +large is but a hair's-breadth. + + + + +CHAPTER II--THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: FOREIGN + + +The huge majority of Samoans, like other God-fearing folk in other +countries, are perfectly content with their own manners. And upon one +condition, it is plain they might enjoy themselves far beyond the average +of man. Seated in islands very rich in food, the idleness of the many +idle would scarce matter; and the provinces might continue to bestow +their names among rival pretenders, and fall into war and enjoy that a +while, and drop into peace and enjoy that, in a manner highly to be +envied. But the condition--that they should be let alone--is now no +longer possible. More than a hundred years ago, and following closely on +the heels of Cook, an irregular invasion of adventurers began to swarm +about the isles of the Pacific. The seven sleepers of Polynesia stand, +still but half aroused, in the midst of the century of competition. And +the island races, comparable to a shopful of crockery launched upon the +stream of time, now fall to make their desperate voyage among pots of +brass and adamant. + +Apia, the port and mart, is the seat of the political sickness of Samoa. +At the foot of a peaked, woody mountain, the coast makes a deep indent, +roughly semicircular. In front the barrier reef is broken by the fresh +water of the streams; if the swell be from the north, it enters almost +without diminution; and the war-ships roll dizzily at their moorings, and +along the fringing coral which follows the configuration of the beach, +the surf breaks with a continuous uproar. In wild weather, as the world +knows, the roads are untenable. Along the whole shore, which is +everywhere green and level and overlooked by inland mountain-tops, the +town lies drawn out in strings and clusters. The western horn is +Mulinuu, the eastern, Matautu; and from one to the other of these +extremes, I ask the reader to walk. He will find more of the history of +Samoa spread before his eyes in that excursion, than has yet been +collected in the blue-books or the white-books of the world. Mulinuu +(where the walk is to begin) is a flat, wind-swept promontory, planted +with palms, backed against a swamp of mangroves, and occupied by a rather +miserable village. The reader is informed that this is the proper +residence of the Samoan kings; he will be the more surprised to observe a +board set up, and to read that this historic village is the property of +the German firm. But these boards, which are among the commonest +features of the landscape, may be rather taken to imply that the claim +has been disputed. A little farther east he skirts the stores, offices, +and barracks of the firm itself. Thence he will pass through Matafele, +the one really town-like portion of this long string of villages, by +German bars and stores and the German consulate; and reach the Catholic +mission and cathedral standing by the mouth of a small river. The bridge +which crosses here (bridge of Mulivai) is a frontier; behind is Matafele; +beyond, Apia proper; behind, Germans are supreme; beyond, with but few +exceptions, all is Anglo-Saxon. Here the reader will go forward past the +stores of Mr. Moors (American) and Messrs. MacArthur (English); past the +English mission, the office of the English newspaper, the English church, +and the old American consulate, till he reaches the mouth of a larger +river, the Vaisingano. Beyond, in Matautu, his way takes him in the +shade of many trees and by scattered dwellings, and presently brings him +beside a great range of offices, the place and the monument of a German +who fought the German firm during his life. His house (now he is dead) +remains pointed like a discharged cannon at the citadel of his old +enemies. Fitly enough, it is at present leased and occupied by +Englishmen. A little farther, and the reader gains the eastern flanking +angle of the bay, where stands the pilot-house and signal-post, and +whence he can see, on the line of the main coast of the island, the +British and the new American consulates. + +The course of his walk will have been enlivened by a considerable to and +fro of pleasure and business. He will have encountered many varieties of +whites,--sailors, merchants, clerks, priests, Protestant missionaries in +their pith helmets, and the nondescript hangers-on of any island beach. +And the sailors are sometimes in considerable force; but not the +residents. He will think at times there are more signboards than men to +own them. It may chance it is a full day in the harbour; he will then +have seen all manner of ships, from men-of-war and deep-sea packets to +the labour vessels of the German firm and the cockboat island schooner; +and if he be of an arithmetical turn, he may calculate that there are +more whites afloat in Apia bay than whites ashore in the whole +Archipelago. On the other hand, he will have encountered all ranks of +natives, chiefs and pastors in their scrupulous white clothes; perhaps +the king himself, attended by guards in uniform; smiling policemen with +their pewter stars; girls, women, crowds of cheerful children. And he +will have asked himself with some surprise where these reside. Here and +there, in the back yards of European establishments, he may have had a +glimpse of a native house elbowed in a corner; but since he left Mulinuu, +none on the beach where islanders prefer to live, scarce one on the line +of street. The handful of whites have everything; the natives walk in a +foreign town. A year ago, on a knoll behind a bar-room, he might have +observed a native house guarded by sentries and flown over by the +standard of Samoa. He would then have been told it was the seat of +government, driven (as I have to relate) over the Mulivai and from beyond +the German town into the Anglo-Saxon. To-day, he will learn it has been +carted back again to its old quarters. And he will think it significant +that the king of the islands should be thus shuttled to and fro in his +chief city at the nod of aliens. And then he will observe a feature more +significant still: a house with some concourse of affairs, policemen and +idlers hanging by, a man at a bank-counter overhauling manifests, perhaps +a trial proceeding in the front verandah, or perhaps the council breaking +up in knots after a stormy sitting. And he will remember that he is in +the _Eleele Sa_, the "Forbidden Soil," or Neutral Territory of the +treaties; that the magistrate whom he has just seen trying native +criminals is no officer of the native king's; and that this, the only +port and place of business in the kingdom, collects and administers its +own revenue for its own behoof by the hands of white councillors and +under the supervision of white consuls. Let him go further afield. He +will find the roads almost everywhere to cease or to be made impassable +by native pig-fences, bridges to be quite unknown, and houses of the +whites to become at once a rare exception. Set aside the German +plantations, and the frontier is sharp. At the boundary of the _Eleele +Sa_, Europe ends, Samoa begins. Here, then, is a singular state of +affairs: all the money, luxury, and business of the kingdom centred in +one place; that place excepted from the native government and +administered by whites for whites; and the whites themselves holding it +not in common but in hostile camps, so that it lies between them like a +bone between two dogs, each growling, each clutching his own end. + +Should Apia ever choose a coat of arms, I have a motto ready: "Enter +Rumour painted full of tongues." The majority of the natives do +extremely little; the majority of the whites are merchants with some four +mails in the month, shopkeepers with some ten or twenty customers a day, +and gossip is the common resource of all. The town hums to the day's +news, and the bars are crowded with amateur politicians. Some are office- +seekers, and earwig king and consul, and compass the fall of officials, +with an eye to salary. Some are humorists, delighted with the pleasure +of faction for itself. "I never saw so good a place as this Apia," said +one of these; "you can be in a new conspiracy every day!" Many, on the +other hand, are sincerely concerned for the future of the country. The +quarters are so close and the scale is so small, that perhaps not any one +can be trusted always to preserve his temper. Every one tells everything +he knows; that is our country sickness. Nearly every one has been +betrayed at times, and told a trifle more; the way our sickness takes the +predisposed. And the news flies, and the tongues wag, and fists are +shaken. Pot boil and caldron bubble! + +Within the memory of man, the white people of Apia lay in the worst +squalor of degradation. They are now unspeakably improved, both men and +women. To-day they must be called a more than fairly respectable +population, and a much more than fairly intelligent. The whole would +probably not fill the ranks of even an English half-battalion, yet there +are a surprising number above the average in sense, knowledge, and +manners. The trouble (for Samoa) is that they are all here after a +livelihood. Some are sharp practitioners, some are famous (justly or +not) for foul play in business. Tales fly. One merchant warns you +against his neighbour; the neighbour on the first occasion is found to +return the compliment: each with a good circumstantial story to the +proof. There is so much copra in the islands, and no more; a man's share +of it is his share of bread; and commerce, like politics, is here +narrowed to a focus, shows its ugly side, and becomes as personal as +fisticuffs. Close at their elbows, in all this contention, stands the +native looking on. Like a child, his true analogue, he observes, +apprehends, misapprehends, and is usually silent. As in a child, a +considerable intemperance of speech is accompanied by some power of +secrecy. News he publishes; his thoughts have often to be dug for. He +looks on at the rude career of the dollar-hunt, and wonders. He sees +these men rolling in a luxury beyond the ambition of native kings; he +hears them accused by each other of the meanest trickery; he knows some +of them to be guilty; and what is he to think? He is strongly conscious +of his own position as the common milk-cow; and what is he to do? "Surely +these white men on the beach are not great chiefs?" is a common question, +perhaps asked with some design of flattering the person questioned. And +one, stung by the last incident into an unusual flow of English, remarked +to me: "I begin to be weary of white men on the beach." + +But the true centre of trouble, the head of the boil of which Samoa +languishes, is the German firm. From the conditions of business, a great +island house must ever be an inheritance of care; and it chances that the +greatest still afoot has its chief seat in Apia bay, and has sunk the +main part of its capital in the island of Upolu. When its founder, John +Caesar Godeffroy, went bankrupt over Russian paper and Westphalian iron, +his most considerable asset was found to be the South Sea business. This +passed (I understand) through the hands of Baring Brothers in London, and +is now run by a company rejoicing in the Gargantuan name of the _Deutsche +Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft fur Sud-See Inseln zu Hamburg_. This +piece of literature is (in practice) shortened to the D. H. and P. G., +the Old Firm, the German Firm, the Firm, and (among humorists) the Long +Handle Firm. Even from the deck of an approaching ship, the island is +seen to bear its signature--zones of cultivation showing in a more vivid +tint of green on the dark vest of forest. The total area in use is near +ten thousand acres. Hedges of fragrant lime enclose, broad avenues +intersect them. You shall walk for hours in parks of palm-tree alleys, +regular, like soldiers on parade; in the recesses of the hills you may +stumble on a mill-house, toiling and trembling there, fathoms deep in +superincumbent forest. On the carpet of clean sward, troops of horses +and herds of handsome cattle may be seen to browse; and to one accustomed +to the rough luxuriance of the tropics, the appearance is of fairyland. +The managers, many of them German sea-captains, are enthusiastic in their +new employment. Experiment is continually afoot: coffee and cacao, both +of excellent quality, are among the more recent outputs; and from one +plantation quantities of pineapples are sent at a particular season to +the Sydney markets. A hundred and fifty thousand pounds of English +money, perhaps two hundred thousand, lie sunk in these magnificent +estates. In estimating the expense of maintenance quite a fleet of ships +must be remembered, and a strong staff of captains, supercargoes, +overseers, and clerks. These last mess together at a liberal board; the +wages are high, and the staff is inspired with a strong and pleasing +sentiment of loyalty to their employers. + +Seven or eight hundred imported men and women toil for the company on +contracts of three or of five years, and at a hypothetical wage of a few +dollars in the month. I am now on a burning question: the labour +traffic; and I shall ask permission in this place only to touch it with +the tongs. Suffice it to say that in Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, +and Hawaii it has been either suppressed or placed under close public +supervision. In Samoa, where it still flourishes, there is no regulation +of which the public receives any evidence; and the dirty linen of the +firm, if there be any dirty, and if it be ever washed at all, is washed +in private. This is unfortunate, if Germans would believe it. But they +have no idea of publicity, keep their business to themselves, rather +affect to "move in a mysterious way," and are naturally incensed by +criticisms, which they consider hypocritical, from men who would import +"labour" for themselves, if they could afford it, and would probably +maltreat them if they dared. It is said the whip is very busy on some of +the plantations; it is said that punitive extra-labour, by which the +thrall's term of service is extended, has grown to be an abuse; and it is +complained that, even where that term is out, much irregularity occurs in +the repatriation of the discharged. To all this I can say nothing, good +or bad. A certain number of the thralls, many of them wild negritos from +the west, have taken to the bush, harbour there in a state partly +bestial, or creep into the back quarters of the town to do a day's +stealthy labour under the nose of their proprietors. Twelve were +arrested one morning in my own boys' kitchen. Farther in the bush, huts, +small patches of cultivation, and smoking ovens, have been found by +hunters. There are still three runaways in the woods of Tutuila, whither +they escaped upon a raft. And the Samoans regard these dark-skinned +rangers with extreme alarm; the fourth refugee in Tutuila was shot down +(as I was told in that island) while carrying off the virgin of a +village; and tales of cannibalism run round the country, and the natives +shudder about the evening fire. For the Samoans are not cannibals, do +not seem to remember when they were, and regard the practice with a +disfavour equal to our own. + +The firm is Gulliver among the Lilliputs; and it must not be forgotten, +that while the small, independent traders are fighting for their own +hand, and inflamed with the usual jealousy against corporations, the +Germans are inspired with a sense of the greatness of their affairs and +interests. The thought of the money sunk, the sight of these costly and +beautiful plantations, menaced yearly by the returning forest, and the +responsibility of administering with one hand so many conjunct fortunes, +might well nerve the manager of such a company for desperate and +questionable deeds. Upon this scale, commercial sharpness has an air of +patriotism; and I can imagine the man, so far from haggling over the +scourge for a few Solomon islanders, prepared to oppress rival firms, +overthrow inconvenient monarchs, and let loose the dogs of war. Whatever +he may decide, he will not want for backing. Every clerk will be eager +to be up and strike a blow; and most Germans in the group, whatever they +may babble of the firm over the walnuts and the wine, will rally round +the national concern at the approach of difficulty. They are so few--I +am ashamed to give their number, it were to challenge contradiction--they +are so few, and the amount of national capital buried at their feet is so +vast, that we must not wonder if they seem oppressed with greatness and +the sense of empire. Other whites take part in our brabbles, while +temper holds out, with a certain schoolboy entertainment. In the Germans +alone, no trace of humour is to be observed, and their solemnity is +accompanied by a touchiness often beyond belief. Patriotism flies in +arms about a hen; and if you comment upon the colour of a Dutch umbrella, +you have cast a stone against the German Emperor. I give one instance, +typical although extreme. One who had returned from Tutuila on the mail +cutter complained of the vermin with which she is infested. He was +suddenly and sharply brought to a stand. The ship of which he spoke, he +was reminded, was a German ship. + +John Caesar Godeffroy himself had never visited the islands; his sons and +nephews came, indeed, but scarcely to reap laurels; and the mainspring +and headpiece of this great concern, until death took him, was a certain +remarkable man of the name of Theodor Weber. He was of an artful and +commanding character; in the smallest thing or the greatest, without fear +or scruple; equally able to affect, equally ready to adopt, the most +engaging politeness or the most imperious airs of domination. It was he +who did most damage to rival traders; it was he who most harried the +Samoans; and yet I never met any one, white or native, who did not +respect his memory. All felt it was a gallant battle, and the man a +great fighter; and now when he is dead, and the war seems to have gone +against him, many can scarce remember, without a kind of regret, how much +devotion and audacity have been spent in vain. His name still lives in +the songs of Samoa. One, that I have heard, tells of _Misi Ueba_ and a +biscuit-box--the suggesting incident being long since forgotten. Another +sings plaintively how all things, land and food and property, pass +progressively, as by a law of nature, into the hands of _Misi Ueba_, and +soon nothing will be left for Samoans. This is an epitaph the man would +have enjoyed. + +At one period of his career, Weber combined the offices of director of +the firm and consul for the City of Hamburg. No question but he then +drove very hard. Germans admit that the combination was unfortunate; and +it was a German who procured its overthrow. Captain Zembsch superseded +him with an imperial appointment, one still remembered in Samoa as "the +gentleman who acted justly." There was no house to be found, and the new +consul must take up his quarters at first under the same roof with Weber. +On several questions, in which the firm was vitally interested, Zembsch +embraced the contrary opinion. Riding one day with an Englishman in +Vailele plantation, he was startled by a burst of screaming, leaped from +the saddle, ran round a house, and found an overseer beating one of the +thralls. He punished the overseer, and, being a kindly and perhaps not a +very diplomatic man, talked high of what he felt and what he might +consider it his duty to forbid or to enforce. The firm began to look +askance at such a consul; and worse was behind. A number of deeds being +brought to the consulate for registration, Zembsch detected certain +transfers of land in which the date, the boundaries, the measure, and the +consideration were all blank. He refused them with an indignation which +he does not seem to have been able to keep to himself; and, whether or +not by his fault, some of these unfortunate documents became public. It +was plain that the relations between the two flanks of the German +invasion, the diplomatic and the commercial, were strained to bursting. +But Weber was a man ill to conquer. Zembsch was recalled; and from that +time forth, whether through influence at home, or by the solicitations of +Weber on the spot, the German consulate has shown itself very apt to play +the game of the German firm. That game, we may say, was twofold,--the +first part even praiseworthy, the second at least natural. On the one +part, they desired an efficient native administration, to open up the +country and punish crime; they wished, on the other, to extend their own +provinces and to curtail the dealings of their rivals. In the first, +they had the jealous and diffident sympathy of all whites; in the second, +they had all whites banded together against them for their lives and +livelihoods. It was thus a game of _Beggar my Neighbour_ between a large +merchant and some small ones. Had it so remained, it would still have +been a cut-throat quarrel. But when the consulate appeared to be +concerned, when the war-ships of the German Empire were thought to fetch +and carry for the firm, the rage of the independent traders broke beyond +restraint. And, largely from the national touchiness and the intemperate +speech of German clerks, this scramble among dollar-hunters assumed the +appearance of an inter-racial war. + +The firm, with the indomitable Weber at its head and the consulate at its +back--there has been the chief enemy at Samoa. No English reader can +fail to be reminded of John Company; and if the Germans appear to have +been not so successful, we can only wonder that our own blunders and +brutalities were less severely punished. Even on the field of Samoa, +though German faults and aggressors make up the burthen of my story, they +have been nowise alone. Three nations were engaged in this infinitesimal +affray, and not one appears with credit. They figure but as the three +ruffians of the elder play-wrights. The United States have the cleanest +hands, and even theirs are not immaculate. It was an ambiguous business +when a private American adventurer was landed with his pieces of +artillery from an American war-ship, and became prime minister to the +king. It is true (even if he were ever really supported) that he was +soon dropped and had soon sold himself for money to the German firm. I +will leave it to the reader whether this trait dignifies or not the +wretched story. And the end of it spattered the credit alike of England +and the States, when this man (the premier of a friendly sovereign) was +kidnapped and deported, on the requisition of an American consul, by the +captain of an English war-ship. I shall have to tell, as I proceed, of +villages shelled on very trifling grounds by Germans; the like has been +done of late years, though in a better quarrel, by ourselves of England. +I shall have to tell how the Germans landed and shed blood at Fangalii; +it was only in 1876 that we British had our own misconceived little +massacre at Mulinuu. I shall have to tell how the Germans bludgeoned +Malietoa with a sudden call for money; it was something of the suddenest +that Sir Arthur Gordon himself, smarting under a sensible public affront, +made and enforced a somewhat similar demand. + + + + +CHAPTER III--THE SORROWS OF LAUPEPA, 1883 TO 1887 + + +You ride in a German plantation and see no bush, no soul stirring; only +acres of empty sward, miles of cocoa-nut alley: a desert of food. In the +eyes of the Samoan the place has the attraction of a park for the holiday +schoolboy, of a granary for mice. We must add the yet more lively +allurement of a haunted house, for over these empty and silent miles +there broods the fear of the negrito cannibal. For the Samoan besides, +there is something barbaric, unhandsome, and absurd in the idea of thus +growing food only to send it from the land and sell it. A man at home +who should turn all Yorkshire into one wheatfield, and annually burn his +harvest on the altar of Mumbo-Jumbo, might impress ourselves not much +otherwise. And the firm which does these things is quite extraneous, a +wen that might be excised to-morrow without loss but to itself; few +natives drawing from it so much as day's wages; and the rest beholding in +it only the occupier of their acres. The nearest villages have suffered +most; they see over the hedge the lands of their ancestors waving with +useless cocoa-palms; and the sales were often questionable, and must +still more often appear so to regretful natives, spinning and improving +yarns about the evening lamp. At the worst, then, to help oneself from +the plantation will seem to a Samoan very like orchard-breaking to the +British schoolboy; at the best, it will be thought a gallant +Robin-Hoodish readjustment of a public wrong. + +And there is more behind. Not only is theft from the plantations +regarded rather as a lark and peccadillo, the idea of theft in itself is +not very clearly present to these communists; and as to the punishment of +crime in general, a great gulf of opinion divides the natives from +ourselves. Indigenous punishments were short and sharp. Death, +deportation by the primitive method of setting the criminal to sea in a +canoe, fines, and in Samoa itself the penalty of publicly biting a hot, +ill-smelling root, comparable to a rough forfeit in a children's +game--these are approved. The offender is killed, or punished and +forgiven. We, on the other hand, harbour malice for a period of years: +continuous shame attaches to the criminal; even when he is doing his +best--even when he is submitting to the worst form of torture, regular +work--he is to stand aside from life and from his family in dreadful +isolation. These ideas most Polynesians have accepted in appearance, as +they accept other ideas of the whites; in practice, they reduce it to a +farce. I have heard the French resident in the Marquesas in talk with +the French gaoler of Tai-o-hae: "_Eh bien, ou sont vos prisonnieres_?--_Je +crois, mon commandant, qu'elles sont allees quelque part faire une +visite_." And the ladies would be welcome. This is to take the most +savage of Polynesians; take some of the most civilised. In Honolulu, +convicts labour on the highways in piebald clothing, gruesome and +ridiculous; and it is a common sight to see the family of such an one +troop out, about the dinner hour, wreathed with flowers and in their +holiday best, to picnic with their kinsman on the public wayside. The +application of these outlandish penalties, in fact, transfers the +sympathy to the offender. Remember, besides, that the clan system, and +that imperfect idea of justice which is its worst feature, are still +lively in Samoa; that it is held the duty of a judge to favour kinsmen, +of a king to protect his vassals; and the difficulty of getting a +plantation thief first caught, then convicted, and last of all punished, +will appear. + +During the early 'eighties, the Germans looked upon this system with +growing irritation. They might see their convict thrust in gaol by the +front door; they could never tell how soon he was enfranchised by the +back; and they need not be the least surprised if they met him, a few +days after, enjoying the delights of a _malanga_. It was a banded +conspiracy, from the king and the vice-king downward, to evade the law +and deprive the Germans of their profits. In 1883, accordingly, the +consul, Dr. Stuebel, extorted a convention on the subject, in terms of +which Samoans convicted of offences against German subjects were to be +confined in a private gaol belonging to the German firm. To Dr. Stuebel +it seemed simple enough: the offenders were to be effectually punished, +the sufferers partially indemnified. To the Samoans, the thing appeared +no less simple, but quite different: "Malietoa was selling Samoans to +Misi Ueba." What else could be expected? Here was a private corporation +engaged in making money; to it was delegated, upon a question of profit +and loss, one of the functions of the Samoan crown; and those who make +anomalies must look for comments. Public feeling ran unanimous and high. +Prisoners who escaped from the private gaol were not recaptured or not +returned and Malietoa hastened to build a new prison of his own, whither +he conveyed, or pretended to convey, the fugitives. In October 1885 a +trenchant state paper issued from the German consulate. Twenty +prisoners, the consul wrote, had now been at large for eight months from +Weber's prison. It was pretended they had since then completed their +term of punishment elsewhere. Dr. Stuebel did not seek to conceal his +incredulity; but he took ground beyond; he declared the point irrelevant. +The law was to be enforced. The men were condemned to a certain period +in Weber's prison; they had run away; they must now be brought back and +(whatever had become of them in the interval) work out the sentence. +Doubtless Dr. Stuebel's demands were substantially just; but doubtless +also they bore from the outside a great appearance of harshness; and when +the king submitted, the murmurs of the people increased. + +But Weber was not yet content. The law had to be enforced; property, or +at least the property of the firm, must be respected. And during an +absence of the consul's, he seems to have drawn up with his own hand, and +certainly first showed to the king, in his own house, a new convention. +Weber here and Weber there. As an able man, he was perhaps in the right +to prepare and propose conventions. As the head of a trading company, he +seems far out of his part to be communicating state papers to a +sovereign. The administration of justice was the colour, and I am +willing to believe the purpose, of the new paper; but its effect was to +depose the existing government. A council of two Germans and two Samoans +were to be invested with the right to make laws and impose taxes as might +be "desirable for the common interest of the Samoan government and the +German residents." The provisions of this council the king and vice-king +were to sign blindfold. And by a last hardship, the Germans, who +received all the benefit, reserved a right to recede from the agreement +on six months' notice; the Samoans, who suffered all the loss, were bound +by it in perpetuity. I can never believe that my friend Dr. Stuebel had +a hand in drafting these proposals; I am only surprised he should have +been a party to enforcing them, perhaps the chief error in these islands +of a man who has made few. And they were enforced with a rigour that +seems injudicious. The Samoans (according to their own account) were +denied a copy of the document; they were certainly rated and threatened; +their deliberation was treated as contumacy; two German war-ships lay in +port, and it was hinted that these would shortly intervene. + +Succeed in frightening a child, and he takes refuge in duplicity. +"Malietoa," one of the chiefs had written, "we know well we are in +bondage to the great governments." It was now thought one tyrant might +be better than three, and any one preferable to Germany. On the 5th +November 1885, accordingly, Laupepa, Tamasese, and forty-eight high +chiefs met in secret, and the supremacy of Samoa was secretly offered to +Great Britain for the second time in history. Laupepa and Tamasese still +figured as king and vice-king in the eyes of Dr. Stuebel; in their own, +they had secretly abdicated, were become private persons, and might do +what they pleased without binding or dishonouring their country. On the +morrow, accordingly, they did public humiliation in the dust before the +consulate, and five days later signed the convention. The last was done, +it is claimed, upon an impulse. The humiliation, which it appeared to +the Samoans so great a thing to offer, to the practical mind of Dr. +Stuebel seemed a trifle to receive; and the pressure was continued and +increased. Laupepa and Tamasese were both heavy, well-meaning, +inconclusive men. Laupepa, educated for the ministry, still bears some +marks of it in character and appearance; Tamasese was in private of an +amorous and sentimental turn, but no one would have guessed it from his +solemn and dull countenance. Impossible to conceive two less dashing +champions for a threatened race; and there is no doubt they were reduced +to the extremity of muddlement and childish fear. It was drawing towards +night on the 10th, when this luckless pair and a chief of the name of +Tuiatafu, set out for the German consulate, still minded to temporise. As +they went, they discussed their case with agitation. They could see the +lights of the German war-ships as they walked--an eloquent reminder. And +it was then that Tamasese proposed to sign the convention. "It will give +us peace for the day," said Laupepa, "and afterwards Great Britain must +decide."--"Better fight Germany than that!" cried Tuiatafu, speaking +words of wisdom, and departed in anger. But the two others proceeded on +their fatal errand; signed the convention, writing themselves king and +vice-king, as they now believed themselves to be no longer; and with +childish perfidy took part in a scene of "reconciliation" at the German +consulate. + +Malietoa supposed himself betrayed by Tamasese. Consul Churchward states +with precision that the document was sold by a scribe for thirty-six +dollars. Twelve days later at least, November 22nd, the text of the +address to Great Britain came into the hands of Dr. Stuebel. The Germans +may have been wrong before; they were now in the right to be angry. They +had been publicly, solemnly, and elaborately fooled; the treaty and the +reconciliation were both fraudulent, with the broad, farcical fraudulency +of children and barbarians. This history is much from the outside; it is +the digested report of eye-witnesses; it can be rarely corrected from +state papers; and as to what consuls felt and thought, or what +instructions they acted under, I must still be silent or proceed by +guess. It is my guess that Stuebel now decided Malietoa Laupepa to be a +man impossible to trust and unworthy to be dealt with. And it is certain +that the business of his deposition was put in hand at once. The +position of Weber, with his knowledge of things native, his prestige, and +his enterprising intellect, must have always made him influential with +the consul: at this juncture he was indispensable. Here was the deed to +be done; here the man of action. "Mr. Weber rested not," says Laupepa. +It was "like the old days of his own consulate," writes Churchward. His +messengers filled the isle; his house was thronged with chiefs and +orators; he sat close over his loom, delightedly weaving the future. +There was one thing requisite to the intrigue,--a native pretender; and +the very man, you would have said, stood waiting: Mataafa, titular of +Atua, descended from both the royal lines, late joint king with Tamasese, +fobbed off with nothing in the time of the Lackawanna treaty, probably +mortified by the circumstance, a chief with a strong following, and in +character and capacity high above the native average. Yet when Weber's +spiriting was done, and the curtain rose on the set scene of the +coronation, Mataafa was absent, and Tamasese stood in his place. Malietoa +was to be deposed for a piece of solemn and offensive trickery, and the +man selected to replace him was his sole partner and accomplice in the +act. For so strange a choice, good ground must have existed; but it +remains conjectural: some supposing Mataafa scratched as too independent; +others that Tamasese had indeed betrayed Laupepa, and his new advancement +was the price of his treachery. + +So these two chiefs began to change places like the scales of a balance, +one down, the other up. Tamasese raised his flag (Jan. 28th, 1886) in +Leulumoenga, chief place of his own province of Aana, usurped the style +of king, and began to collect and arm a force. Weber, by the admission +of Stuebel, was in the market supplying him with weapons; so were the +Americans; so, but for our salutary British law, would have been the +British; for wherever there is a sound of battle, there will the traders +be gathered together selling arms. A little longer, and we find Tamasese +visited and addressed as king and majesty by a German commodore. +Meanwhile, for the unhappy Malietoa, the road led downward. He was +refused a bodyguard. He was turned out of Mulinuu, the seat of his +royalty, on a land claim of Weber's, fled across the Mulivai, and "had +the coolness" (German expression) to hoist his flag in Apia. He was +asked "in the most polite manner," says the same account--"in the most +delicate manner in the world," a reader of Marryat might be tempted to +amend the phrase,--to strike his flag in his own capital; and on his +"refusal to accede to this request," Dr. Stuebel appeared himself with +ten men and an officer from the cruiser _Albatross_; a sailor climbed +into the tree and brought down the flag of Samoa, which was carefully +folded, and sent, "in the most polite manner," to its owner. The consuls +of England and the States were there (the excellent gentlemen!) to +protest. Last, and yet more explicit, the German commodore who visited +the be-titled Tamasese, addressed the king--we may surely say the late +king--as "the High Chief Malietoa." + +Had he no party, then? At that time, it is probable, he might have +called some five-sevenths of Samoa to his standard. And yet he sat +there, helpless monarch, like a fowl trussed for roasting. The blame +lies with himself, because he was a helpless creature; it lies also with +England and the States. Their agents on the spot preached peace (where +there was no peace, and no pretence of it) with eloquence and iteration. +Secretary Bayard seems to have felt a call to join personally in the +solemn farce, and was at the expense of a telegram in which he assured +the sinking monarch it was "for the higher interests of Samoa" he should +do nothing. There was no man better at doing that; the advice came +straight home, and was devoutly followed. And to be just to the great +Powers, something was done in Europe; a conference was called, it was +agreed to send commissioners to Samoa, and the decks had to be hastily +cleared against their visit. Dr. Stuebel had attached the municipality +of Apia and hoisted the German war-flag over Mulinuu; the American consul +(in a sudden access of good service) had flown the stars and stripes over +Samoan colours; on either side these steps were solemnly retracted. The +Germans expressly disowned Tamasese; and the islands fell into a period +of suspense, of some twelve months' duration, during which the seat of +the history was transferred to other countries and escapes my purview. +Here on the spot, I select three incidents: the arrival on the scene of a +new actor, the visit of the Hawaiian embassy, and the riot on the +Emperor's birthday. The rest shall be silence; only it must be borne in +view that Tamasese all the while continued to strengthen himself in +Leulumoenga, and Laupepa sat inactive listening to the song of consuls. + +_Captain Brandeis_. The new actor was Brandeis, a Bavarian captain of +artillery, of a romantic and adventurous character. He had served with +credit in war; but soon wearied of garrison life, resigned his battery, +came to the States, found employment as a civil engineer, visited Cuba, +took a sub-contract on the Panama canal, caught the fever, and came (for +the sake of the sea voyage) to Australia. He had that natural love for +the tropics which lies so often latent in persons of a northern birth; +difficulty and danger attracted him; and when he was picked out for +secret duty, to be the hand of Germany in Samoa, there is no doubt but he +accepted the post with exhilaration. It is doubtful if a better choice +could have been made. He had courage, integrity, ideas of his own, and +loved the employment, the people, and the place. Yet there was a fly in +the ointment. The double error of unnecessary stealth and of the +immixture of a trading company in political affairs, has vitiated, and in +the end defeated, much German policy. And Brandeis was introduced to the +islands as a clerk, and sent down to Leulumoenga (where he was soon +drilling the troops and fortifying the position of the rebel king) as an +agent of the German firm. What this mystification cost in the end I +shall tell in another place; and even in the beginning, it deceived no +one. Brandeis is a man of notable personal appearance; he looks the part +allotted him; and the military clerk was soon the centre of observation +and rumour. Malietoa wrote and complained of his presence to Becker, who +had succeeded Dr. Stuebel in the consulate. Becker replied, "I have +nothing to do with the gentleman Brandeis. Be it well known that the +gentleman Brandeis has no appointment in a military character, but +resides peaceably assisting the government of Leulumoenga in their work, +for Brandeis is a quiet, sensible gentleman." And then he promised to +send the vice-consul to "get information of the captain's doings": surely +supererogation of deceit. + +_The Hawaiian Embassy_. The prime minister of the Hawaiian kingdom was, +at this period, an adventurer of the name of Gibson. He claimed, on the +strength of a romantic story, to be the heir of a great English house. He +had played a part in a revolt in Java, had languished in Dutch fetters, +and had risen to be a trusted agent of Brigham Young, the Utah president. +It was in this character of a Mormon emissary that he first came to the +islands of Hawaii, where he collected a large sum of money for the Church +of the Latter Day Saints. At a given moment, he dropped his saintship +and appeared as a Christian and the owner of a part of the island of +Lanai. The steps of the transformation are obscure; they seem, at least, +to have been ill-received at Salt Lake; and there is evidence to the +effect that he was followed to the islands by Mormon assassins. His +first attempt on politics was made under the auspices of what is called +the missionary party, and the canvass conducted largely (it is said with +tears) on the platform at prayer-meetings. It resulted in defeat. +Without any decency of delay he changed his colours, abjured the errors +of reform, and, with the support of the Catholics, rose to the chief +power. In a very brief interval he had thus run through the gamut of +religions in the South Seas. It does not appear that he was any more +particular in politics, but he was careful to consult the character and +prejudices of the late king, Kalakaua. That amiable, far from +unaccomplished, but too convivial sovereign, had a continued use for +money: Gibson was observant to keep him well supplied. Kalakaua (one of +the most theoretical of men) was filled with visionary schemes for the +protection and development of the Polynesian race: Gibson fell in step +with him; it is even thought he may have shared in his illusions. The +king and minister at least conceived between them a scheme of island +confederation--the most obvious fault of which was that it came too +late--and armed and fitted out the cruiser _Kaimiloa_, nest-egg of the +future navy of Hawaii. Samoa, the most important group still +independent, and one immediately threatened with aggression, was chosen +for the scene of action. The Hon. John E. Bush, a half-caste Hawaiian, +sailed (December 1887) for Apia as minister-plenipotentiary, accompanied +by a secretary of legation, Henry F. Poor; and as soon as she was ready +for sea, the war-ship followed in support. The expedition was futile in +its course, almost tragic in result. The _Kaimiloa_ was from the first a +scene of disaster and dilapidation: the stores were sold; the crew +revolted; for a great part of a night she was in the hands of mutineers, +and the secretary lay bound upon the deck. The mission, installing +itself at first with extravagance in Matautu, was helped at last out of +the island by the advances of a private citizen. And they returned from +dreams of Polynesian independence to find their own city in the hands of +a clique of white shopkeepers, and the great Gibson once again in gaol. +Yet the farce had not been quite without effect. It had encouraged the +natives for the moment, and it seems to have ruffled permanently the +temper of the Germans. So might a fly irritate Caesar. + +The arrival of a mission from Hawaii would scarce affect the composure of +the courts of Europe. But in the eyes of Polynesians the little kingdom +occupies a place apart. It is there alone that men of their race enjoy +most of the advantages and all the pomp of independence; news of Hawaii +and descriptions of Honolulu are grateful topics in all parts of the +South Seas; and there is no better introduction than a photograph in +which the bearer shall be represented in company with Kalakaua. Laupepa +was, besides, sunk to the point at which an unfortunate begins to clutch +at straws, and he received the mission with delight. Letters were +exchanged between him and Kalakaua; a deed of confederation was signed, +17th February 1887, and the signature celebrated in the new house of the +Hawaiian embassy with some original ceremonies. Malietoa Laupepa came, +attended by his ministry, several hundred chiefs, two guards, and six +policemen. Always decent, he withdrew at an early hour; by those that +remained, all decency appears to have been forgotten; high chiefs were +seen to dance; and day found the house carpeted with slumbering grandees, +who must be roused, doctored with coffee, and sent home. As a first +chapter in the history of Polynesian Confederation, it was hardly +cheering, and Laupepa remarked to one of the embassy, with equal dignity +and sense: "If you have come here to teach my people to drink, I wish you +had stayed away." + +The Germans looked on from the first with natural irritation that a power +of the powerlessness of Hawaii should thus profit by its undeniable +footing in the family of nations, and send embassies, and make believe to +have a navy, and bark and snap at the heels of the great German Empire. +But Becker could not prevent the hunted Laupepa from taking refuge in any +hole that offered, and he could afford to smile at the fantastic orgie in +the embassy. It was another matter when the Hawaiians approached the +intractable Mataafa, sitting still in his Atua government like Achilles +in his tent, helping neither side, and (as the Germans suspected) keeping +the eggs warm for himself. When the _Kaimiloa_ steamed out of Apia on +this visit, the German war-ship _Adler_ followed at her heels; and +Mataafa was no sooner set down with the embassy than he was summoned and +ordered on board by two German officers. The step is one of those +triumphs of temper which can only be admired. Mataafa is entertaining +the plenipotentiary of a sovereign power in treaty with his own king, and +the captain of a German corvette orders him to quit his guests. + +But there was worse to come. I gather that Tamasese was at the time in +the sulks. He had doubtless been promised prompt aid and a prompt +success; he had seen himself surreptitiously helped, privately ordered +about, and publicly disowned; and he was still the king of nothing more +than his own province, and already the second in command of Captain +Brandeis. With the adhesion of some part of his native cabinet, and +behind the back of his white minister, he found means to communicate with +the Hawaiians. A passage on the _Kaimiloa_, a pension, and a home in +Honolulu were the bribes proposed; and he seems to have been tempted. A +day was set for a secret interview. Poor, the Hawaiian secretary, and J. +D. Strong, an American painter attached to the embassy in the surprising +quality of "Government Artist," landed with a Samoan boat's-crew in Aana; +and while the secretary hid himself, according to agreement, in the +outlying home of an English settler, the artist (ostensibly bent on +photography) entered the headquarters of the rebel king. It was a great +day in Leulumoenga; three hundred recruits had come in, a feast was +cooking; and the photographer, in view of the native love of being +photographed, was made entirely welcome. But beneath the friendly +surface all were on the alert. The secret had leaked out: Weber beheld +his plans threatened in the root; Brandeis trembled for the possession of +his slave and sovereign; and the German vice-consul, Mr. Sonnenschein, +had been sent or summoned to the scene of danger. + +It was after dark, prayers had been said and the hymns sung through all +the village, and Strong and the German sat together on the mats in the +house of Tamasese, when the events began. Strong speaks German freely, a +fact which he had not disclosed, and he was scarce more amused than +embarrassed to be able to follow all the evening the dissension and the +changing counsels of his neighbours. First the king himself was missing, +and there was a false alarm that he had escaped and was already closeted +with Poor. Next came certain intelligence that some of the ministry had +run the blockade, and were on their way to the house of the English +settler. Thereupon, in spite of some protests from Tamasese, who tried +to defend the independence of his cabinet, Brandeis gathered a posse of +warriors, marched out of the village, brought back the fugitives, and +clapped them in the corrugated iron shanty which served as gaol. Along +with these he seems to have seized Billy Coe, interpreter to the +Hawaiians; and Poor, seeing his conspiracy public, burst with his boat's- +crew into the town, made his way to the house of the native prime +minister, and demanded Coe's release. Brandeis hastened to the spot, +with Strong at his heels; and the two principals being both incensed, and +Strong seriously alarmed for his friend's safety, there began among them +a scene of great intemperance. At one point, when Strong suddenly +disclosed his acquaintance with German, it attained a high style of +comedy; at another, when a pistol was most foolishly drawn, it bordered +on drama; and it may be said to have ended in a mixed genus, when Poor +was finally packed into the corrugated iron gaol along with the forfeited +ministers. Meanwhile the captain of his boat, Siteoni, of whom I shall +have to tell again, had cleverly withdrawn the boat's-crew at an early +stage of the quarrel. Among the population beyond Tamasese's marches, he +collected a body of armed men, returned before dawn to Leulumoenga, +demolished the corrugated iron gaol, and liberated the Hawaiian secretary +and the rump of the rebel cabinet. No opposition was shown; and +doubtless the rescue was connived at by Brandeis, who had gained his +point. Poor had the face to complain the next day to Becker; but to +compete with Becker in effrontery was labour lost. "You have been +repeatedly warned, Mr. Poor, not to expose yourself among these savages," +said he. + +Not long after, the presence of the _Kaimiloa_ was made _a casus belli_ +by the Germans; and the rough-and-tumble embassy withdrew, on borrowed +money, to find their own government in hot water to the neck. + +* * * * * + +_The Emperor's Birthday_. It is possible, and it is alleged, that the +Germans entered into the conference with hope. But it is certain they +were resolved to remain prepared for either fate. And I take the liberty +of believing that Laupepa was not forgiven his duplicity; that, during +this interval, he stood marked like a tree for felling; and that his +conduct was daily scrutinised for further pretexts of offence. On the +evening of the Emperor's birthday, March 22nd, 1887, certain Germans were +congregated in a public bar. The season and the place considered, it is +scarce cynical to assume they had been drinking; nor, so much being +granted, can it be thought exorbitant to suppose them possibly in fault +for the squabble that took place. A squabble, I say; but I am willing to +call it a riot. And this was the new fault of Laupepa; this it is that +was described by a German commodore as "the trampling upon by Malietoa of +the German Emperor." I pass the rhetoric by to examine the point of +liability. Four natives were brought to trial for this horrid fact: not +before a native judge, but before the German magistrate of the tripartite +municipality of Apia. One was acquitted, one condemned for theft, and +two for assault. On appeal, not to Malietoa, but to the three consuls, +the case was by a majority of two to one returned to the magistrate and +(as far as I can learn) was then allowed to drop. Consul Becker himself +laid the chief blame on one of the policemen of the municipality, a half- +white of the name of Scanlon. Him he sought to have discharged, but was +again baffled by his brother consuls. Where, in all this, are we to find +a corner of responsibility for the king of Samoa? Scanlon, the alleged +author of the outrage, was a half-white; as Becker was to learn to his +cost, he claimed to be an American subject; and he was not even in the +king's employment. Apia, the scene of the outrage, was outside the +king's jurisdiction by treaty; by the choice of Germany, he was not so +much as allowed to fly his flag there. And the denial of justice (if +justice were denied) rested with the consuls of Britain and the States. + +But when a dog is to be beaten, any stick will serve. In the meanwhile, +on the proposition of Mr. Bayard, the Washington conference on Samoan +affairs was adjourned till autumn, so that "the ministers of Germany and +Great Britain might submit the protocols to their respective +Governments." "You propose that the conference is to adjourn and not to +be broken up?" asked Sir Lionel West. "To adjourn for the reasons +stated," replied Bayard. This was on July 26th; and, twenty-nine days +later, by Wednesday the 24th of August, Germany had practically seized +Samoa. For this flagrant breach of faith one excuse is openly alleged; +another whispered. It is openly alleged that Bayard had shown himself +impracticable; it is whispered that the Hawaiian embassy was an +expression of American intrigue, and that the Germans only did as they +were done by. The sufficiency of these excuses may be left to the +discretion of the reader. But, however excused, the breach of faith was +public and express; it must have been deliberately predetermined and it +was resented in the States as a deliberate insult. + +By the middle of August 1887 there were five sail of German war-ships in +Apia bay: the _Bismarck_, of 3000 tons displacement; the _Carola_, the +_Sophie_, and the _Olga_, all considerable ships; and the beautiful +_Adler_, which lies there to this day, kanted on her beam, dismantled, +scarlet with rust, the day showing through her ribs. They waited +inactive, as a burglar waits till the patrol goes by. And on the 23rd, +when the mail had left for Sydney, when the eyes of the world were +withdrawn, and Samoa plunged again for a period of weeks into her +original island-obscurity, Becker opened his guns. The policy was too +cunning to seem dignified; it gave to conduct which would otherwise have +seemed bold and even brutally straightforward, the appearance of a timid +ambuscade; and helped to shake men's reliance on the word of Germany. On +the day named, an ultimatum reached Malietoa at Afenga, whither he had +retired months before to avoid friction. A fine of one thousand dollars +and an _ifo_, or public humiliation, were demanded for the affair of the +Emperor's birthday. Twelve thousand dollars were to be "paid quickly" +for thefts from German plantations in the course of the last four years. +"It is my opinion that there is nothing just or correct in Samoa while +you are at the head of the government," concluded Becker. "I shall be at +Afenga in the morning of to-morrow, Wednesday, at 11 A.M." The blow fell +on Laupepa (in his own expression) "out of the bush"; the dilatory fellow +had seen things hang over so long, he had perhaps begun to suppose they +might hang over for ever; and here was ruin at the door. He rode at once +to Apia, and summoned his chiefs. The council lasted all night long. +Many voices were for defiance. But Laupepa had grown inured to a policy +of procrastination; and the answer ultimately drawn only begged for delay +till Saturday, the 27th. So soon as it was signed, the king took horse +and fled in the early morning to Afenga; the council hastily dispersed; +and only three chiefs, Selu, Seumanu, and Le Mamea, remained by the +government building, tremulously expectant of the result. + +By seven the letter was received. By 7.30 Becker arrived in person, +inquired for Laupepa, was evasively answered, and declared war on the +spot. Before eight, the Germans (seven hundred men and six guns) came +ashore and seized and hoisted German colours on the government building. +The three chiefs had made good haste to escape; but a considerable booty +was made of government papers, fire-arms, and some seventeen thousand +cartridges. Then followed a scene which long rankled in the minds of the +white inhabitants, when the German marines raided the town in search of +Malietoa, burst into private houses, and were accused (I am willing to +believe on slender grounds) of violence to private persons. + +On the morrow, the 25th, one of the German war-ships, which had been +despatched to Leulumoenga over night re-entered the bay, flying the +Tamasese colours at the fore. The new king was given a royal salute of +twenty-one guns, marched through the town by the commodore and a German +guard of honour, and established on Mulinuu with two or three hundred +warriors. Becker announced his recognition to the other consuls. These +replied by proclaiming Malietoa, and in the usual mealy-mouthed manner +advised Samoans to do nothing. On the 27th martial law was declared; and +on the 1st September the German squadron dispersed about the group, +bearing along with them the proclamations of the new king. Tamasese was +now a great man, to have five iron war-ships for his post-runners. But +the moment was critical. The revolution had to be explained, the chiefs +persuaded to assemble at a fono summoned for the 15th; and the ships +carried not only a store of printed documents, but a squad of Tamasese +orators upon their round. + +Such was the German _coup d'etat_. They had declared war with a squadron +of five ships upon a single man; that man, late king of the group, was in +hiding on the mountains; and their own nominee, backed by German guns and +bayonets, sat in his stead in Mulinuu. + +One of the first acts of Malietoa, on fleeing to the bush, was to send +for Mataafa twice: "I am alone in the bush; if you do not come quickly +you will find me bound." It is to be understood the men were near +kinsmen, and had (if they had nothing else) a common jealousy. At the +urgent cry, Mataafa set forth from Falefa, and came to Mulinuu to +Tamasese. "What is this that you and the German commodore have decided +on doing?" he inquired. "I am going to obey the German consul," replied +Tamasese, "whose wish it is that I should be the king and that all Samoa +should assemble here." "Do not pursue in wrath against Malietoa," said +Mataafa "but try to bring about a compromise, and form a united +government." "Very well," said Tamasese, "leave it to me, and I will +try." From Mulinuu, Mataafa went on board the _Bismarck_, and was +graciously received. "Probably," said the commodore, "we shall bring +about a reconciliation of all Samoa through you"; and then asked his +visitor if he bore any affection to Malietoa. "Yes," said Mataafa. "And +to Tamasese?" "To him also; and if you desire the weal of Samoa, you +will allow either him or me to bring about a reconciliation." "If it +were my will," said the commodore, "I would do as you say. But I have no +will in the matter. I have instructions from the Kaiser, and I cannot go +back again from what I have been sent to do." "I thought you would be +commanded," said Mataafa, "if you brought about the weal of Samoa." "I +will tell you," said the commodore. "All shall go quietly. But there is +one thing that must be done: Malietoa must be deposed. I will do nothing +to him beyond; he will only be kept on board for a couple of months and +be well treated, just as we Germans did to the French chief [Napoleon +III.] some time ago, whom we kept a while and cared for well." Becker +was no less explicit: war, he told Sewall, should not cease till the +Germans had custody of Malietoa and Tamasese should be recognised. + +Meantime, in the Malietoa provinces, a profound impression was received. +People trooped to their fugitive sovereign in the bush. Many natives in +Apia brought their treasures, and stored them in the houses of white +friends. The Tamasese orators were sometimes ill received. Over in +Savaii, they found the village of Satupaitea deserted, save for a few +lads at cricket. These they harangued, and were rewarded with ironical +applause; and the proclamation, as soon as they had departed, was torn +down. For this offence the village was ultimately burned by German +sailors, in a very decent and orderly style, on the 3rd September. This +was the dinner-bell of the fono on the 15th. The threat conveyed in the +terms of the summons--"If any government district does not quickly obey +this direction, I will make war on that government district"--was thus +commented on and reinforced. And the meeting was in consequence well +attended by chiefs of all parties. They found themselves unarmed among +the armed warriors of Tamasese and the marines of the German squadron, +and under the guns of five strong ships. Brandeis rose; it was his first +open appearance, the German firm signing its revolutionary work. His +words were few and uncompromising: "Great are my thanks that the chiefs +and heads of families of the whole of Samoa are assembled here this day. +It is strictly forbidden that any discussion should take place as to +whether it is good or not that Tamasese is king of Samoa, whether at this +fono or at any future fono. I place for your signature the following: +'_We inform all the people of Samoa of what follows: (1) The government +of Samoa has been assumed by King Tuiaana Tamasese. (2) By order of the +king, it was directed that a fono should take place to-day, composed of +the chiefs and heads of families, and we have obeyed the summons. We +have signed our names under this, 15th September_ 1887." Needs must +under all these guns; and the paper was signed, but not without open +sullenness. The bearing of Mataafa in particular was long remembered +against him by the Germans. "Do you not see the king?" said the +commodore reprovingly. "His father was no king," was the bold answer. A +bolder still has been printed, but this is Mataafa's own recollection of +the passage. On the next day, the chiefs were all ordered back to shake +hands with Tamasese. Again they obeyed; but again their attitude was +menacing, and some, it is said, audibly murmured as they gave their +hands. + +It is time to follow the poor Sheet of Paper (literal meaning of +_Laupepa_), who was now to be blown so broadly over the face of earth. As +soon as news reached him of the declaration of war, he fled from Afenga +to Tanungamanono, a hamlet in the bush, about a mile and a half behind +Apia, where he lurked some days. On the 24th, Selu, his secretary, +despatched to the American consul an anxious appeal, his majesty's "cry +and prayer" in behalf of "this weak people." By August 30th, the Germans +had word of his lurking-place, surrounded the hamlet under cloud of +night, and in the early morning burst with a force of sailors on the +houses. The people fled on all sides, and were fired upon. One boy was +shot in the hand, the first blood of the war. But the king was nowhere +to be found; he had wandered farther, over the woody mountains, the +backbone of the land, towards Siumu and Safata. Here, in a safe place, +he built himself a town in the forest, where he received a continual +stream of visitors and messengers. Day after day the German blue-jackets +were employed in the hopeless enterprise of beating the forests for the +fugitive; day after day they were suffered to pass unhurt under the guns +of ambushed Samoans; day after day they returned, exhausted and +disappointed, to Apia. Seumanu Tafa, high chief of Apia, was known to be +in the forest with the king; his wife, Fatuila, was seized, imprisoned in +the German hospital, and when it was thought her spirit was sufficiently +reduced, brought up for cross-examination. The wise lady confined +herself in answer to a single word. "Is your husband near Apia?" "Yes." +"Is he far from Apia?" "Yes." "Is he with the king?" "Yes." "Are he +and the king in different places?" "Yes." Whereupon the witness was +discharged. About the 10th of September, Laupepa was secretly in Apia at +the American consulate with two companions. The German pickets were +close set and visited by a strong patrol; and on his return, his party +was observed and hailed and fired on by a sentry. They ran away on all +fours in the dark, and so doing plumped upon another sentry, whom Laupepa +grappled and flung in a ditch; for the Sheet of Paper, although infirm of +character, is, like most Samoans, of an able body. The second sentry +(like the first) fired after his assailants at random in the dark; and +the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia. On the afternoon of the 16th, +the day of the hand-shakings, Suatele, a high chief, despatched two boys +across the island with a letter. They were most of the night upon the +road; it was near three in the morning before the sentries in the camp of +Malietoa beheld their lantern drawing near out of the wood; but the king +was at once awakened. The news was decisive and the letter peremptory; +if Malietoa did not give himself up before ten on the morrow, he was told +that great sorrows must befall his country. I have not been able to draw +Laupepa as a hero; but he is a man of certain virtues, which the Germans +had now given him an occasion to display. Without hesitation he +sacrificed himself, penned his touching farewell to Samoa, and making +more expedition than the messengers, passed early behind Apia to the +banks of the Vaisingano. As he passed, he detached a messenger to +Mataafa at the Catholic mission. Mataafa followed by the same road, and +the pair met at the river-side and went and sat together in a house. All +present were in tears. "Do not let us weep," said the talking man, +Lauati. "We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but +to the invincible strangers." The departing king bequeathed the care of +his country to Mataafa; and when the latter sought to console him with +the commodore's promises, he shook his head, and declared his assurance +that he was going to a life of exile, and perhaps to death. About two +o'clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa returned to the Catholic mission by +the back of the town; and Malietoa proceeded by the beach road to the +German naval hospital, where he was received (as he owns, with perfect +civility) by Brandeis. About three, Becker brought him forth again. As +they went to the wharf, the people wept and clung to their departing +monarch. A boat carried him on board the _Bismarck_, and he vanished +from his countrymen. Yet it was long rumoured that he still lay in the +harbour; and so late as October 7th, a boy, who had been paddling round +the _Carola_, professed to have seen and spoken with him. Here again the +needless mystery affected by the Germans bitterly disserved them. The +uncertainty which thus hung over Laupepa's fate, kept his name +continually in men's mouths. The words of his farewell rang in their +ears: "To all Samoa: On account of my great love to my country and my +great affection to all Samoa, this is the reason that I deliver up my +body to the German government. That government may do as they wish to +me. The reason of this is, because I do not desire that the blood of +Samoa shall be spilt for me again. But I do not know what is my offence +which has caused their anger to me and to my country." And then, +apostrophising the different provinces: "Tuamasanga, farewell! Manono +and family, farewell! So, also, Salafai, Tutuila, Aana, and Atua, +farewell! If we do not again see one another in this world, pray that we +may be again together above." So the sheep departed with the halo of a +saint, and men thought of him as of some King Arthur snatched into +Avilion. + +On board the _Bismarck_, the commodore shook hands with him, told him he +was to be "taken away from all the chiefs with whom he had been +accustomed," and had him taken to the wardroom under guard. The next day +he was sent to sea in the _Adler_. There went with him his brother Moli, +one Meisake, and one Alualu, half-caste German, to interpret. He was +respectfully used; he dined in the stern with the officers, but the boys +dined "near where the fire was." They come to a "newly-formed place" in +Australia, where the _Albatross_ was lying, and a British ship, which he +knew to be a man-of-war "because the officers were nicely dressed and +wore epaulettes." Here he was transhipped, "in a boat with a screen," +which he supposed was to conceal him from the British ship; and on board +the _Albatross_ was sent below and told he must stay there till they had +sailed. Later, however, he was allowed to come on deck, where he found +they had rigged a screen (perhaps an awning) under which he walked, +looking at "the newly-formed settlement," and admiring a big house "where +he was sure the governor lived." From Australia, they sailed some time, +and reached an anchorage where a consul-general came on board, and where +Laupepa was only allowed on deck at night. He could then see the lights +of a town with wharves; he supposes Cape Town. Off the Cameroons they +anchored or lay-to, far at sea, and sent a boat ashore to see (he +supposes) that there was no British man-of-war. It was the next morning +before the boat returned, when the _Albatross_ stood in and came to +anchor near another German ship. Here Alualu came to him on deck and +told him this was the place. "That is an astonishing thing," said he. "I +thought I was to go to Germany, I do not know what this means; I do not +know what will be the end of it; my heart is troubled." Whereupon Alualu +burst into tears. A little after, Laupepa was called below to the +captain and the governor. The last addressed him: "This is my own place, +a good place, a warm place. My house is not yet finished, but when it +is, you shall live in one of my rooms until I can make a house for you." +Then he was taken ashore and brought to a tall, iron house. "This house +is regulated," said the governor; "there is no fire allowed to burn in +it." In one part of this house, weapons of the government were hung up; +there was a passage, and on the other side of the passage, fifty +criminals were chained together, two and two, by the ankles. The windows +were out of reach; and there was only one door, which was opened at six +in the morning and shut again at six at night. All day he had his +liberty, went to the Baptist Mission, and walked about viewing the +negroes, who were "like the sand on the seashore" for number. At six +they were called into the house and shut in for the night without beds or +lights. "Although they gave me no light," said he, with a smile, "I +could see I was in a prison." Good food was given him: biscuits, "tea +made with warm water," beef, etc.; all excellent. Once, in their walks, +they spied a breadfruit tree bearing in the garden of an English +merchant, ran back to the prison to get a shilling, and came and offered +to purchase. "I am not going to sell breadfruit to you people," said the +merchant; "come and take what you like." Here Malietoa interrupted +himself to say it was the only tree bearing in the Cameroons. "The +governor had none, or he would have given it to me." On the passage from +the Cameroons to Germany, he had great delight to see the cliffs of +England. He saw "the rocks shining in the sun, and three hours later was +surprised to find them sunk in the heavens." He saw also wharves and +immense buildings; perhaps Dover and its castle. In Hamburg, after +breakfast, Mr. Weber, who had now finally "ceased from troubling" Samoa, +came on board, and carried him ashore "suitably" in a steam launch to "a +large house of the government," where he stayed till noon. At noon Weber +told him he was going to "the place where ships are anchored that go to +Samoa," and led him to "a very magnificent house, with carriages inside +and a wonderful roof of glass"; to wit, the railway station. They were +benighted on the train, and then went in "something with a house, drawn +by horses, which had windows and many decks"; plainly an omnibus. Here +(at Bremen or Bremerhaven, I believe) they stayed some while in "a house +of five hundred rooms"; then were got on board the _Nurnberg_ (as they +understood) for Samoa, anchored in England on a Sunday, were joined _en +route_ by the famous Dr. Knappe, passed through "a narrow passage where +they went very slow and which was just like a river," and beheld with +exhilarated curiosity that Red Sea of which they had learned so much in +their Bibles. At last, "at the hour when the fires burn red," they came +to a place where was a German man-of-war. Laupepa was called, with one +of the boys, on deck, when he found a German officer awaiting him, and a +steam launch alongside, and was told he must now leave his brother and go +elsewhere. "I cannot go like this," he cried. "You must let me see my +brother and the other old men"--a term of courtesy. Knappe, who seems +always to have been good-natured, revised his orders, and consented not +only to an interview, but to allow Moli to continue to accompany the +king. So these two were carried to the man-of-war, and sailed many a +day, still supposing themselves bound for Samoa; and lo! she came to a +country the like of which they had never dreamed of, and cast anchor in +the great lagoon of Jaluit; and upon that narrow land the exiles were set +on shore. This was the part of his captivity on which he looked back +with the most bitterness. It was the last, for one thing, and he was +worn down with the long suspense, and terror, and deception. He could +not bear the brackish water; and though "the Germans were still good to +him, and gave him beef and biscuit and tea," he suffered from the lack of +vegetable food. + +Such is the narrative of this simple exile. I have not sought to correct +it by extraneous testimony. It is not so much the facts that are +historical, as the man's attitude. No one could hear this tale as he +originally told it in my hearing--I think none can read it as here +condensed and unadorned--without admiring the fairness and simplicity of +the Samoan; and wondering at the want of heart--or want of humour--in so +many successive civilised Germans, that they should have continued to +surround this infant with the secrecy of state. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--BRANDEIS + + +_September '87 to August '88_ + +So Tamasese was on the throne, and Brandeis behind it; and I have now to +deal with their brief and luckless reign. That it was the reign of +Brandeis needs not to be argued: the policy is throughout that of an +able, over-hasty white, with eyes and ideas. But it should be borne in +mind that he had a double task, and must first lead his sovereign, before +he could begin to drive their common subjects. Meanwhile, he himself was +exposed (if all tales be true) to much dictation and interference, and to +some "cumbrous aid," from the consulate and the firm. And to one of +these aids, the suppression of the municipality, I am inclined to +attribute his ultimate failure. + +The white enemies of the new regimen were of two classes. In the first +stood Moors and the employes of MacArthur, the two chief rivals of the +firm, who saw with jealousy a clerk (or a so-called clerk) of their +competitors advanced to the chief power. The second class, that of the +officials, numbered at first exactly one. Wilson, the English acting +consul, is understood to have held strict orders to help Germany. +Commander Leary, of the _Adams_, the American captain, when he arrived, +on the 16th October, and for some time after, seemed devoted to the +German interest, and spent his days with a German officer, Captain Von +Widersheim, who was deservedly beloved by all who knew him. There +remains the American consul-general, Harold Marsh Sewall, a young man of +high spirit and a generous disposition. He had obeyed the orders of his +government with a grudge; and looked back on his past action with regret +almost to be called repentance. From the moment of the declaration of +war against Laupepa, we find him standing forth in bold, consistent, and +sometimes rather captious opposition, stirring up his government at home +with clear and forcible despatches, and on the spot grasping at every +opportunity to thrust a stick into the German wheels. For some while, he +and Moors fought their difficult battle in conjunction; in the course of +which, first one, and then the other, paid a visit home to reason with +the authorities at Washington; and during the consul's absence, there was +found an American clerk in Apia, William Blacklock, to perform the duties +of the office with remarkable ability and courage. The three names just +brought together, Sewall, Moors, and Blacklock, make the head and front +of the opposition; if Tamasese fell, if Brandeis was driven forth, if the +treaty of Berlin was signed, theirs is the blame or the credit. + +To understand the feelings of self-reproach and bitterness with which +Sewall took the field, the reader must see Laupepa's letter of farewell +to the consuls of England and America. It is singular that this far from +brilliant or dignified monarch, writing in the forest, in heaviness of +spirit and under pressure for time, should have left behind him not only +one, but two remarkable and most effective documents. The farewell to +his people was touching; the farewell to the consuls, for a man of the +character of Sewall, must have cut like a whip. "When the chief Tamasese +and others first moved the present troubles," he wrote, "it was my wish +to punish them and put an end to the rebellion; but I yielded to the +advice of the British and American consuls. Assistance and protection +was repeatedly promised to me and my government, if I abstained from +bringing war upon my country. Relying upon these promises, I did not put +down the rebellion. Now I find that war has been made upon me by the +Emperor of Germany, and Tamasese has been proclaimed king of Samoa. I +desire to remind you of the promises so frequently made by your +government, and trust that you will so far redeem them as to cause the +lives and liberties of my chiefs and people to be respected." + +Sewall's immediate adversary was, of course, Becker. I have formed an +opinion of this gentleman, largely from his printed despatches, which I +am at a loss to put in words. Astute, ingenious, capable, at moments +almost witty with a kind of glacial wit in action, he displayed in the +course of this affair every description of capacity but that which is +alone useful and which springs from a knowledge of men's natures. It +chanced that one of Sewall's early moves played into his hands, and he +was swift to seize and to improve the advantage. The neutral territory +and the tripartite municipality of Apia were eyesores to the German +consulate and Brandeis. By landing Tamasese's two or three hundred +warriors at Mulinuu, as Becker himself owns, they had infringed the +treaties, and Sewall entered protest twice. There were two ways of +escaping this dilemma: one was to withdraw the warriors; the other, by +some hocus-pocus, to abrogate the neutrality. And the second had +subsidiary advantages: it would restore the taxes of the richest district +in the islands to the Samoan king; and it would enable them to substitute +over the royal seat the flag of Germany for the new flag of Tamasese. It +is true (and it was the subject of much remark) that these two could +hardly be distinguished by the naked eye; but their effects were +different. To seat the puppet king on German land and under German +colours, so that any rebellion was constructive war on Germany, was a +trick apparently invented by Becker, and which we shall find was repeated +and persevered in till the end. + +Otto Martin was at this time magistrate in the municipality. The post +was held in turn by the three nationalities; Martin had served far beyond +his term, and should have been succeeded months before by an American. To +make the change it was necessary to hold a meeting of the municipal +board, consisting of the three consuls, each backed by an assessor. And +for some time these meetings had been evaded or refused by the German +consul. As long as it was agreed to continue Martin, Becker had attended +regularly; as soon as Sewall indicated a wish for his removal, Becker +tacitly suspended the municipality by refusing to appear. This policy +was now the more necessary; for if the whole existence of the +municipality were a check on the freedom of the new government, it was +plainly less so when the power to enforce and punish lay in German hands. +For some while back the Malietoa flag had been flown on the municipal +building: Becker denies this; I am sorry; my information obliges me to +suppose he is in error. Sewall, with post-mortem loyalty to the past, +insisted that this flag should be continued. And Becker immediately made +his point. He declared, justly enough, that the proposal was hostile, +and argued that it was impossible he should attend a meeting under a flag +with which his sovereign was at war. Upon one occasion of urgency, he +was invited to meet the two other consuls at the British consulate; even +this he refused; and for four months the municipality slumbered, Martin +still in office. In the month of October, in consequence, the British +and American ratepayers announced they would refuse to pay. Becker +doubtless rubbed his hands. On Saturday, the 10th, the chief Tamaseu, a +Malietoa man of substance and good character, was arrested on a charge of +theft believed to be vexatious, and cast by Martin into the municipal +prison. He sent to Moors, who was his tenant and owed him money at the +time, for bail. Moors applied to Sewall, ranking consul. After some +search, Martin was found and refused to consider bail before the Monday +morning. Whereupon Sewall demanded the keys from the gaoler, accepted +Moors's verbal recognisances, and set Tamaseu free. + +Things were now at a deadlock; and Becker astonished every one by +agreeing to a meeting on the 14th. It seems he knew what to expect. +Writing on the 13th at least, he prophesies that the meeting will be held +in vain, that the municipality must lapse, and the government of Tamasese +step in. On the 14th, Sewall left his consulate in time, and walked some +part of the way to the place of meeting in company with Wilson, the +English pro-consul. But he had forgotten a paper, and in an evil hour +returned for it alone. Wilson arrived without him, and Becker broke up +the meeting for want of a quorum. There was some unedifying disputation +as to whether he had waited ten or twenty minutes, whether he had been +officially or unofficially informed by Wilson that Sewall was on the way, +whether the statement had been made to himself or to Weber {1} in answer +to a question, and whether he had heard Wilson's answer or only Weber's +question: all otiose; if he heard the question, he was bound to have +waited for the answer; if he heard it not, he should have put it himself; +and it was the manifest truth that he rejoiced in his occasion. "Sir," +he wrote to Sewall, "I have the honour to inform you that, to my regret, +I am obliged to consider the municipal government to be provisionally in +abeyance since you have withdrawn your consent to the continuation of Mr. +Martin in his position as magistrate, and since you have refused to take +part in the meeting of the municipal board agreed to for the purpose of +electing a magistrate. The government of the town and district of the +municipality rests, as long as the municipality is in abeyance, with the +Samoan government. The Samoan government has taken over the +administration, and has applied to the commander of the imperial German +squadron for assistance in the preservation of good order." This letter +was not delivered until 4 P.M. By three, sailors had been landed. +Already German colours flew over Tamasese's headquarters at Mulinuu, and +German guards had occupied the hospital, the German consulate, and the +municipal gaol and court-house, where they stood to arms under the flag +of Tamasese. The same day Sewall wrote to protest. Receiving no reply, +he issued on the morrow a proclamation bidding all Americans look to +himself alone. On the 26th, he wrote again to Becker, and on the 27th +received this genial reply: "Sir, your high favour of the 26th of this +month, I give myself the honour of acknowledging. At the same time I +acknowledge the receipt of your high favour of the 14th October in reply +to my communication of the same date, which contained the information of +the suspension of the arrangements for the municipal government." There +the correspondence ceased. And on the 18th January came the last step of +this irritating intrigue when Tamasese appointed a judge--and the judge +proved to be Martin. + +Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir Becker the +chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, all passed into the +hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was secured upon the bench; and the +German flag might wave over her puppet unquestioned. But there is a law +of human nature which diplomatists should be taught at school, and it +seems they are not; that men can tolerate bare injustice, but not the +combination of injustice and subterfuge. Hence the chequered career of +the thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been seized by open force, +there might have been complaint, it would not have aroused the same +lasting grudge. + +This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble enough +in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported by the guns +of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien's work, highly needful +for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all Samoans. The law to be +enforced, causes of dispute between white and brown to be eliminated, +taxes to be raised, a central power created, the country opened up, the +native race taught industry: all these were detestable to the natives, +and to all of these he must set his hand. The more I learn of his brief +term of rule, the more I learn to admire him, and to wish we had his +like. + +In the face of bitter native opposition, he got some roads accomplished. +He set up beacons. The taxes he enforced with necessary vigour. By the +6th of January, Aua and Fangatonga, districts in Tutuila, having made a +difficulty, Brandeis is down at the island in a schooner, with the +_Adler_ at his heels, seizes the chief Maunga, fines the recalcitrant +districts in three hundred dollars for expenses, and orders all to be in +by April 20th, which if it is not, "not one thing will be done," he +proclaimed, "but war declared against you, and the principal chiefs taken +to a distant island." He forbade mortgages of copra, a frequent source +of trickery and quarrel; and to clear off those already contracted, +passed a severe but salutary law. Each individual or family was first to +pay off its own obligation; that settled, the free man was to pay for the +indebted village, the free village for the indebted province, and one +island for another. Samoa, he declared, should be free of debt within a +year. Had he given it three years, and gone more gently, I believe it +might have been accomplished. To make it the more possible, he sought to +interdict the natives from buying cotton stuffs and to oblige them to +dress (at least for the time) in their own tapa. He laid the beginnings +of a royal territorial army. The first draft was in his hands drilling. +But it was not so much on drill that he depended; it was his hope to +kindle in these men an _esprit de corps_, which should weaken the old +local jealousies and bonds, and found a central or national party in the +islands. Looking far before, and with a wisdom beyond that of many +merchants, he had condemned the single dependence placed on copra for the +national livelihood. His recruits, even as they drilled, were taught to +plant cacao. Each, his term of active service finished, should return to +his own land and plant and cultivate a stipulated area. Thus, as the +young men continued to pass through the army, habits of discipline and +industry, a central sentiment, the principles of the new culture, and +actual gardens of cacao, should be concurrently spread over the face of +the islands. + +Tamasese received, including his household expenses, 1960 dollars a year; +Brandeis, 2400. All such disproportions are regrettable, but this is not +extreme: we have seen horses of a different colour since then. And the +Tamaseseites, with true Samoan ostentation, offered to increase the +salary of their white premier: an offer he had the wisdom and good +feeling to refuse. A European chief of police received twelve hundred. +There were eight head judges, one to each province, and appeal lay from +the district judge to the provincial, thence to Mulinuu. From all +salaries (I gather) a small monthly guarantee was withheld. The army was +to cost from three to four thousand, Apia (many whites refusing to pay +taxes since the suppression of the municipality) might cost three +thousand more: Sir Becker's high feat of arms coming expensive (it will +be noticed) even in money. The whole outlay was estimated at +twenty-seven thousand; and the revenue forty thousand: a sum Samoa is +well able to pay. + +Such were the arrangements and some of the ideas of this strong, ardent, +and sanguine man. Of criticisms upon his conduct, beyond the general +consent that he was rather harsh and in too great a hurry, few are +articulate. The native paper of complaints was particularly childish. +Out of twenty-three counts, the first two refer to the private character +of Brandeis and Tamasese. Three complain that Samoan officials were kept +in the dark as to the finances; one, of the tapa law; one, of the direct +appointment of chiefs by Tamasese-Brandeis, the sort of mistake into +which Europeans in the South Seas fall so readily; one, of the enforced +labour of chiefs; one, of the taxes; and one, of the roads. This I may +give in full from the very lame translation in the American white book. +"The roads that were made were called the Government Roads; they were six +fathoms wide. Their making caused much damage to Samoa's lands and what +was planted on it. The Samoans cried on account of their lands, which +were taken high-handedly and abused. They again cried on account of the +loss of what they had planted, which was now thrown away in a high-handed +way, without any regard being shown or question asked of the owner of the +land, or any compensation offered for the damage done. This was +different with foreigners' land; in their case permission was first asked +to make the roads; the foreigners were paid for any destruction made." +The sting of this count was, I fancy, in the last clause. No less than +six articles complain of the administration of the law; and I believe +that was never satisfactory. Brandeis told me himself he was never yet +satisfied with any native judge. And men say (and it seems to fit in +well with his hasty and eager character) that he would legislate by word +of mouth; sometimes forget what he had said; and, on the same question +arising in another province, decide it perhaps otherwise. I gather, on +the whole, our artillery captain was not great in law. Two articles +refer to a matter I must deal with more at length, and rather from the +point of view of the white residents. + +The common charge against Brandeis was that of favouring the German firm. +Coming as he did, this was inevitable. Weber had bought Steinberger with +hard cash; that was matter of history. The present government he did not +even require to buy, having founded it by his intrigues, and introduced +the premier to Samoa through the doors of his own office. And the effect +of the initial blunder was kept alive by the chatter of the clerks in bar- +rooms, boasting themselves of the new government and prophesying +annihilation to all rivals. The time of raising a tax is the harvest of +the merchants; it is the time when copra will be made, and must be sold; +and the intention of the German firm, first in the time of Steinberger, +and again in April and May, 1888, with Brandeis, was to seize and handle +the whole operation. Their chief rivals were the Messrs. MacArthur; and +it seems beyond question that provincial governors more than once issued +orders forbidding Samoans to take money from "the New Zealand firm." +These, when they were brought to his notice, Brandeis disowned, and he is +entitled to be heard. No man can live long in Samoa and not have his +honesty impugned. But the accusations against Brandeis's veracity are +both few and obscure. I believe he was as straight as his sword. The +governors doubtless issued these orders, but there were plenty besides +Brandeis to suggest them. Every wandering clerk from the firm's office, +every plantation manager, would be dinning the same story in the native +ear. And here again the initial blunder hung about the neck of Brandeis, +a ton's weight. The natives, as well as the whites, had seen their +premier masquerading on a stool in the office; in the eyes of the +natives, as well as in those of the whites, he must always have retained +the mark of servitude from that ill-judged passage; and they would be +inclined to look behind and above him, to the great house of _Misi Ueba_. +The government was like a vista of puppets. People did not trouble with +Tamasese, if they got speech with Brandeis; in the same way, they might +not always trouble to ask Brandeis, if they had a hint direct from _Misi +Ueba_. In only one case, though it seems to have had many developments, +do I find the premier personally committed. The MacArthurs claimed the +copra of Fasitotai on a district mortgage of three hundred dollars. The +German firm accepted a mortgage of the whole province of Aana, claimed +the copra of Fasitotai as that of a part of Aana, and were supported by +the government. Here Brandeis was false to his own principle, that +personal and village debts should come before provincial. But the case +occurred before the promulgation of the law, and was, as a matter of +fact, the cause of it; so the most we can say is that he changed his +mind, and changed it for the better. If the history of his government be +considered--how it originated in an intrigue between the firm and the +consulate, and was (for the firm's sake alone) supported by the consulate +with foreign bayonets--the existence of the least doubt on the man's +action must seem marvellous. We should have looked to find him playing +openly and wholly into their hands; that he did not, implies great +independence and much secret friction; and I believe (if the truth were +known) the firm would be found to have been disgusted with the +stubbornness of its intended tool, and Brandeis often impatient of the +demands of his creators. + +But I may seem to exaggerate the degree of white opposition. And it is +true that before fate overtook the Brandeis government, it appeared to +enjoy the fruits of victory in Apia; and one dissident, the unconquerable +Moors, stood out alone to refuse his taxes. But the victory was in +appearance only; the opposition was latent; it found vent in talk, and +thus reacted on the natives; upon the least excuse, it was ready to flame +forth again. And this is the more singular because some were far from +out of sympathy with the native policy pursued. When I met Captain +Brandeis, he was amazed at my attitude. "Whom did you find in Apia to +tell you so much good of me?" he asked. I named one of my informants. +"He?" he cried. "If he thought all that, why did he not help me?" I +told him as well as I was able. The man was a merchant. He beheld in +the government of Brandeis a government created by and for the firm who +were his rivals. If Brandeis were minded to deal fairly, where was the +probability that he would be allowed? If Brandeis insisted and were +strong enough to prevail, what guarantee that, as soon as the government +were fairly accepted, Brandeis might not be removed? Here was the +attitude of the hour; and I am glad to find it clearly set forth in a +despatch of Sewall's, June 18th, 1888, when he commends the law against +mortgages, and goes on: "Whether the author of this law will carry out +the good intentions which he professes--whether he will be allowed to do +so, if he desires, against the opposition of those who placed him in +power and protect him in the possession of it--may well be doubted." +Brandeis had come to Apia in the firm's livery. Even while he promised +neutrality in commerce, the clerks were prating a different story in the +bar-rooms; and the late high feat of the knight-errant, Becker, had +killed all confidence in Germans at the root. By these three impolicies, +the German adventure in Samoa was defeated. + +I imply that the handful of whites were the true obstacle, not the +thousands of malcontent Samoans; for had the whites frankly accepted +Brandeis, the path of Germany was clear, and the end of their policy, +however troublesome might be its course, was obvious. But this is not to +say that the natives were content. In a sense, indeed, their opposition +was continuous. There will always be opposition in Samoa when taxes are +imposed; and the deportation of Malietoa stuck in men's throats. Tuiatua +Mataafa refused to act under the new government from the beginning, and +Tamasese usurped his place and title. As early as February, I find him +signing himself "Tuiaana _Tuiatua_ Tamasese," the first step on a +dangerous path. Asi, like Mataafa, disclaimed his chiefship and declared +himself a private person; but he was more rudely dealt with. German +sailors surrounded his house in the night, burst in, and dragged the +women out of the mosquito nets--an offence against Samoan manners. No +Asi was to be found; but at last they were shown his fishing-lights on +the reef, rowed out, took him as he was, and carried him on board a man- +of-war, where he was detained some while between-decks. At last, January +16th, after a farewell interview over the ship's side with his wife, he +was discharged into a ketch, and along with two other chiefs, Maunga and +Tuiletu-funga, deported to the Marshalls. The blow struck fear upon all +sides. Le Mamea (a very able chief) was secretly among the malcontents. +His family and followers murmured at his weakness; but he continued, +throughout the duration of the government, to serve Brandeis with +trembling. A circus coming to Apia, he seized at the pretext for escape, +and asked leave to accept an engagement in the company. "I will not +allow you to make a monkey of yourself," said Brandeis; and the phrase +had a success throughout the islands, pungent expressions being so much +admired by the natives that they cannot refrain from repeating them, even +when they have been levelled at themselves. The assumption of the Atua +_name_ spread discontent in that province; many chiefs from thence were +convicted of disaffection, and condemned to labour with their hands upon +the roads--a great shock to the Samoan sense of the becoming, which was +rendered the more sensible by the death of one of the number at his task. +Mataafa was involved in the same trouble. His disaffected speech at a +meeting of Atua chiefs was betrayed by the girls that made the kava, and +the man of the future was called to Apia on safe-conduct, but, after an +interview, suffered to return to his lair. The peculiarly tender +treatment of Mataafa must be explained by his relationship to Tamasese. +Laupepa was of Malietoa blood. The hereditary retainers of the Tupua +would see him exiled even with some complacency. But Mataafa was Tupua +himself; and Tupua men would probably have murmured, and would perhaps +have mutinied, had he been harshly dealt with. + +The native opposition, I say, was in a sense continuous. And it kept +continuously growing. The sphere of Brandeis was limited to Mulinuu and +the north central quarters of Upolu--practically what is shown upon the +map opposite. There the taxes were expanded; in the out-districts, men +paid their money and saw no return. Here the eye and hand of the +dictator were ready to correct the scales of justice; in the +out-districts, all things lay at the mercy of the native magistrates, and +their oppressions increased with the course of time and the experience of +impunity. In the spring of the year, a very intelligent observer had +occasion to visit many places in the island of Savaii. "Our lives are +not worth living," was the burthen of the popular complaint. "We are +groaning under the oppression of these men. We would rather die than +continue to endure it." On his return to Apia, he made haste to +communicate his impressions to Brandeis. Brandeis replied in an epigram: +"Where there has been anarchy in a country, there must be oppression for +a time." But unfortunately the terms of the epigram may be reversed; and +personal supervision would have been more in season than wit. The same +observer who conveyed to him this warning thinks that, if Brandeis had +himself visited the districts and inquired into complaints, the blow +might yet have been averted and the government saved. At last, upon a +certain unconstitutional act of Tamasese, the discontent took life and +fire. The act was of his own conception; the dull dog was ambitious. +Brandeis declares he would not be dissuaded; perhaps his adviser did not +seriously try, perhaps did not dream that in that welter of +contradictions, the Samoan constitution, any one point would be +considered sacred. I have told how Tamasese assumed the title of +Tuiatua. In August 1888 a year after his installation, he took a more +formidable step and assumed that of Malietoa. This name, as I have said, +is of peculiar honour; it had been given to, it had never been taken +from, the exiled Laupepa; those in whose grant it lay, stood punctilious +upon their rights; and Tamasese, as the representative of their natural +opponents, the Tupua line, was the last who should have had it. And +there was yet more, though I almost despair to make it thinkable by +Europeans. Certain old mats are handed down, and set huge store by; they +may be compared to coats of arms or heirlooms among ourselves; and to the +horror of more than one-half of Samoa, Tamasese, the head of the Tupua, +began collecting Malietoa mats. It was felt that the cup was full, and +men began to prepare secretly for rebellion. The history of the month of +August is unknown to whites; it passed altogether in the covert of the +woods or in the stealthy councils of Samoans. One ominous sign was to be +noted; arms and ammunition began to be purchased or inquired about; and +the more wary traders ordered fresh consignments of material of war. But +the rest was silence; the government slept in security; and Brandeis was +summoned at last from a public dinner, to find rebellion organised, the +woods behind Apia full of insurgents, and a plan prepared, and in the +very article of execution, to surprise and seize Mulinuu. The timely +discovery averted all; and the leaders hastily withdrew towards the south +side of the island, leaving in the bush a rear-guard under a young man of +the name of Saifaleupolu. According to some accounts, it scarce numbered +forty; the leader was no great chief, but a handsome, industrious lad who +seems to have been much beloved. And upon this obstacle Brandeis fell. +It is the man's fault to be too impatient of results; his public +intention to free Samoa of all debt within the year, depicts him; and +instead of continuing to temporise and let his enemies weary and +disperse, he judged it politic to strike a blow. He struck it, with what +seemed to be success, and the sound of it roused Samoa to rebellion. + +About two in the morning of August 31st, Apia was wakened by men +marching. Day came, and Brandeis and his war-party were already long +disappeared in the woods. All morning belated Tamaseseites were still to +be seen running with their guns. All morning shots were listened for in +vain; but over the top of the forest, far up the mountain, smoke was for +some time observed to hang. About ten a dead man was carried in, lashed +under a pole like a dead pig, his rosary (for he was a Catholic) hanging +nearly to the ground. Next came a young fellow wounded, sitting in a +rope swung from a pole; two fellows bearing him, two running behind for a +relief. At last about eleven, three or four heavy volleys and a great +shouting were heard from the bush town Tanungamanono; the affair was +over, the victorious force, on the march back, was there celebrating its +victory by the way. Presently after, it marched through Apia, five or +six hundred strong, in tolerable order and strutting with the ludicrous +assumption of the triumphant islander. Women who had been buying bread +ran and gave them loaves. At the tail end came Brandeis himself, smoking +a cigar, deadly pale, and with perhaps an increase of his usual nervous +manner. One spoke to him by the way. He expressed his sorrow the action +had been forced on him. "Poor people, it's all the worse for them!" he +said. "It'll have to be done another way now." And it was supposed by +his hearer that he referred to intervention from the German war-ships. He +meant, he said, to put a stop to head-hunting; his men had taken two that +day, he added, but he had not suffered them to bring them in, and they +had been left in Tanungamanono. Thither my informant rode, was attracted +by the sound of wailing, and saw in a house the two heads washed and +combed, and the sister of one of the dead lamenting in the island fashion +and kissing the cold face. Soon after, a small grave was dug, the heads +were buried in a beef box, and the pastor read the service. The body of +Saifaleupolu himself was recovered unmutilated, brought down from the +forest, and buried behind Apia. + +The same afternoon, the men of Vaimaunga were ordered to report in +Mulinuu, where Tamasese's flag was half-masted for the death of a chief +in the skirmish. Vaimaunga is that district of Taumasanga which includes +the bay and the foothills behind Apia; and both province and district are +strong Malietoa. Not one man, it is said, obeyed the summons. Night +came, and the town lay in unusual silence; no one abroad; the blinds down +around the native houses, the men within sleeping on their arms; the old +women keeping watch in pairs. And in the course of the two following +days all Vaimaunga was gone into the bush, the very gaoler setting free +his prisoners and joining them in their escape. Hear the words of the +chiefs in the 23rd article of their complaint: "Some of the chiefs fled +to the bush from fear of being reported, fear of German men-of-war, +constantly being accused, etc., and Brandeis commanded that they were to +be shot on sight. This act was carried out by Brandeis on the 31st day +of August, 1888. After this we evaded these laws; we could not stand +them; our patience was worn out with the constant wickedness of Tamasese +and Brandeis. We were tired out and could stand no longer the acts of +these two men." + +So through an ill-timed skirmish, two severed heads, and a dead body, the +rule of Brandeis came to a sudden end. We shall see him a while longer +fighting for existence in a losing battle; but his government--take it +for all in all, the most promising that has ever been in these unlucky +islands--was from that hour a piece of history. + + + + +CHAPTER V--THE BATTLE OF MATAUTU + + +_September 1888_ + +The revolution had all the character of a popular movement. Many of the +high chiefs were detained in Mulinuu; the commons trooped to the bush +under inferior leaders. A camp was chosen near Faleula, threatening +Mulinuu, well placed for the arrival of recruits and close to a German +plantation from which the force could be subsisted. Manono came, all +Tuamasanga, much of Savaii, and part of Aana, Tamasese's own government +and titular seat. Both sides were arming. It was a brave day for the +trader, though not so brave as some that followed, when a single +cartridge is said to have been sold for twelve cents currency--between +nine and ten cents gold. Yet even among the traders a strong party +feeling reigned, and it was the common practice to ask a purchaser upon +which side he meant to fight. + +On September 5th, Brandeis published a letter: "To the chiefs of +Tuamasanga, Manono, and Faasaleleanga in the Bush: Chiefs, by authority +of his majesty Tamasese, the king of Samoa, I make known to you all that +the German man-of-war is about to go together with a Samoan fleet for the +purpose of burning Manono. After this island is all burnt, 'tis good if +the people return to Manono and live quiet. To the people of +Faasaleleanga I say, return to your houses and stop there. The same to +those belonging to Tuamasanga. If you obey this instruction, then you +will all be forgiven; if you do not obey, then all your villages will be +burnt like Manono. These instructions are made in truth in the sight of +God in the Heaven." The same morning, accordingly, the _Adler_ steamed +out of the bay with a force of Tamasese warriors and some native boats in +tow, the Samoan fleet in question. Manono was shelled; the Tamasese +warriors, under the conduct of a Manono traitor, who paid before many +days the forfeit of his blood, landed and did some damage, but were +driven away by the sight of a force returning from the mainland; no one +was hurt, for the women and children, who alone remained on the island, +found a refuge in the bush; and the _Adler_ and her acolytes returned the +same evening. The letter had been energetic; the performance fell below +the programme. The demonstration annoyed and yet re-assured the +insurgents, and it fully disclosed to the Germans a new enemy. + +Captain Yon Widersheim had been relieved. His successor, Captain Fritze, +was an officer of a different stamp. I have nothing to say of him but +good; he seems to have obeyed the consul's requisitions with secret +distaste; his despatches were of admirable candour; but his habits were +retired, he spoke little English, and was far indeed from inheriting von +Widersheim's close relations with Commander Leary. It is believed by +Germans that the American officer resented what he took to be neglect. I +mention this, not because I believe it to depict Commander Leary, but +because it is typical of a prevailing infirmity among Germans in Samoa. +Touchy themselves, they read all history in the light of personal +affronts and tiffs; and I find this weakness indicated by the big thumb +of Bismarck, when he places "sensitiveness to small +disrespects--_Empfindlichkeit ueber Mangel an Respect_," among the causes +of the wild career of Knappe. Whatever the cause, at least, the natives +had no sooner taken arms than Leary appeared with violence upon that +side. As early as the 3rd, he had sent an obscure but menacing despatch +to Brandeis. On the 6th, he fell on Fritze in the matter of the Manono +bombardment. "The revolutionists," he wrote, "had an armed force in the +field within a few miles of this harbour, when the vessels under your +command transported the Tamasese troops to a neighbouring island with the +avowed intention of making war on the isolated homes of the women and +children of the enemy. Being the only other representative of a naval +power now present in this harbour, for the sake of humanity I hereby +respectfully and solemnly protest in the name of the United States of +America and of the civilised world in general against the use of a +national war-vessel for such services as were yesterday rendered by the +German corvette _Adler_." Fritze's reply, to the effect that he is under +the orders of the consul and has no right of choice, reads even humble; +perhaps he was not himself vain of the exploit, perhaps not prepared to +see it thus described in words. From that moment Leary was in the front +of the row. His name is diagnostic, but it was not required; on every +step of his subsequent action in Samoa Irishman is writ large; over all +his doings a malign spirit of humour presided. No malice was too small +for him, if it were only funny. When night signals were made from +Mulinuu, he would sit on his own poop and confound them with gratuitous +rockets. He was at the pains to write a letter and address it to "the +High Chief Tamasese"--a device as old at least as the wars of Robert +Bruce--in order to bother the officials of the German post-office, in +whose hands he persisted in leaving it, although the address was death to +them and the distribution of letters in Samoa formed no part of their +profession. His great masterwork of pleasantry, the Scanlon affair, must +be narrated in its place. And he was no less bold than comical. The +_Adams_ was not supposed to be a match for the _Adler_; there was no +glory to be gained in beating her; and yet I have heard naval officers +maintain she might have proved a dangerous antagonist in narrow waters +and at short range. Doubtless Leary thought so. He was continually +daring Fritze to come on; and already, in a despatch of the 9th, I find +Becker complaining of his language in the hearing of German officials, +and how he had declared that, on the _Adler_ again interfering, he would +interfere himself, "if he went to the bottom for it--_und wenn sein +Schiff dabei zu Grunde ginge_." Here is the style of opposition which +has the merit of being frank, not that of being agreeable. Becker was +annoying, Leary infuriating; there is no doubt that the tempers in the +German consulate were highly ulcerated; and if war between the two +countries did not follow, we must set down the praise to the forbearance +of the German navy. This is not the last time that I shall have to +salute the merits of that service. + +The defeat and death of Saifaleupolu and the burning of Manono had thus +passed off without the least advantage to Tamasese. But he still held +the significant position of Mulinuu, and Brandeis was strenuous to make +it good. The whole peninsula was surrounded with a breastwork; across +the isthmus it was six feet high and strengthened with a ditch; and the +beach was staked against landing. Weber's land claim--the same that now +broods over the village in the form of a signboard--then appeared in a +more military guise; the German flag was hoisted, and German sailors +manned the breastwork at the isthmus--"to protect German property" and +its trifling parenthesis, the king of Samoa. Much vigilance reigned and, +in the island fashion, much wild firing. And in spite of all, desertion +was for a long time daily. The detained high chiefs would go to the +beach on the pretext of a natural occasion, plunge in the sea, and +swimming across a broad, shallow bay of the lagoon, join the rebels on +the Faleula side. Whole bodies of warriors, sometimes hundreds strong, +departed with their arms and ammunition. On the 7th of September, for +instance, the day after Leary's letter, Too and Mataia left with their +contingents, and the whole Aana people returned home in a body to hold a +parliament. Ten days later, it is true, a part of them returned to their +duty; but another part branched off by the way and carried their +services, and Tamasese's dear-bought guns, to Faleula. + +On the 8th, there was a defection of a different kind, but yet sensible. +The High Chief Seumanu had been still detained in Mulinuu under anxious +observation. His people murmured at his absence, threatened to "take +away his name," and had already attempted a rescue. The adventure was +now taken in hand by his wife Faatulia, a woman of much sense and spirit +and a strong partisan; and by her contrivance, Seumanu gave his guardians +the slip and rejoined his clan at Faleula. This process of winnowing was +of course counterbalanced by another of recruitment. But the harshness +of European and military rule had made Brandeis detested and Tamasese +unpopular with many; and the force on Mulinuu is thought to have done +little more than hold its own. Mataafa sympathisers set it down at about +two or three thousand. I have no estimate from the other side; but +Becker admits they were not strong enough to keep the field in the open. + +The political significance of Mulinuu was great, but in a military sense +the position had defects. If it was difficult to carry, it was easy to +blockade: and to be hemmed in on that narrow finger of land were an +inglorious posture for the monarch of Samoa. The peninsula, besides, was +scant of food and destitute of water. Pressed by these considerations, +Brandeis extended his lines till he had occupied the whole foreshore of +Apia bay and the opposite point, Matautu. His men were thus drawn out +along some three nautical miles of irregular beach, everywhere with their +backs to the sea, and without means of communication or mutual support +except by water. The extension led to fresh sorrows. The Tamasese men +quartered themselves in the houses of the absent men of the Vaimaunga. +Disputes arose with English and Americans. Leary interposed in a loud +voice of menace. It was said the firm profited by the confusion to +buttress up imperfect land claims; I am sure the other whites would not +be far behind the firm. Properties were fenced in, fences and houses +were torn down, scuffles ensued. The German example at Mulinuu was +followed with laughable unanimity; wherever an Englishman or an American +conceived himself to have a claim, he set up the emblem of his country; +and the beach twinkled with the flags of nations. + +All this, it will be observed, was going forward in that neutral +territory, sanctified by treaty against the presence of armed Samoans. +The insurgents themselves looked on in wonder: on the 4th, trembling to +transgress against the great Powers, they had written for a delimitation +of the _Eleele Sa_; and Becker, in conversation with the British consul, +replied that he recognised none. So long as Tamasese held the ground, +this was expedient. But suppose Tamasese worsted, it might prove awkward +for the stores, mills, and offices of a great German firm, thus bared of +shelter by the act of their own consul. + +On the morning of the 9th September, just ten days after the death of +Saifaleupolu, Mataafa, under the name of Malietoa To'oa Mataafa, was +crowned king at Faleula. On the 11th he wrote to the British and +American consuls: "Gentlemen, I write this letter to you two very humbly +and entreatingly, on account of this difficulty that has come before me. +I desire to know from you two gentlemen the truth where the boundaries of +the neutral territory are. You will observe that I am now at Vaimoso [a +step nearer the enemy], and I have stopped here until I knew what you say +regarding the neutral territory. I wish to know where I can go, and +where the forbidden ground is, for I do not wish to go on any neutral +territory, or on any foreigner's property. I do not want to offend any +of the great Powers. Another thing I would like. Would it be possible +for you three consuls to make Tamasese remove from German property? for I +am in awe of going on German land." He must have received a reply +embodying Becker's renunciation of the principle, at once; for he broke +camp the same day, and marched eastward through the bush behind Apia. + +Brandeis, expecting attack, sought to improve his indefensible position. +He reformed his centre by the simple expedient of suppressing it. Apia +was evacuated. The two flanks, Mulinuu and Matautu, were still held and +fortified, Mulinuu (as I have said) to the isthmus, Matautu on a line +from the bayside to the little river Fuisa. The centre was represented +by the trajectory of a boat across the bay from one flank to another, and +was held (we may say) by the German war-ship. Mataafa decided (I am +assured) to make a feint on Matautu, induce Brandeis to deplete Mulinuu +in support, and then fall upon and carry that. And there is no doubt in +my mind that such a plan was bruited abroad, for nothing but a belief in +it could explain the behaviour of Brandeis on the 12th. That it was +seriously entertained by Mataafa I stoutly disbelieve; the German flag +and sailors forbidding the enterprise in Mulinuu. So that we may call +this false intelligence the beginning and the end of Mataafa's strategy. + +The whites who sympathised with the revolt were uneasy and impatient. +They will still tell you, though the dates are there to show them wrong, +that Mataafa, even after his coronation, delayed extremely: a proof of +how long two days may seem to last when men anticipate events. On the +evening of the 11th, while the new king was already on the march, one of +these walked into Matautu. The moon was bright. By the way he observed +the native houses dark and silent; the men had been about a fortnight in +the bush, but now the women and children were gone also; at which he +wondered. On the sea-beach, in the camp of the Tamaseses, the solitude +was near as great; he saw three or four men smoking before the British +consulate, perhaps a dozen in all; the rest were behind in the bush upon +their line of forts. About the midst he sat down, and here a woman drew +near to him. The moon shone in her face, and he knew her for a +householder near by, and a partisan of Mataafa's. She looked about her +as she came, and asked him, trembling, what he did in the camp of +Tamasese. He was there after news, he told her. She took him by the +hand. "You must not stay here, you will get killed," she said. "The +bush is full of our people, the others are watching them, fighting may +begin at any moment, and we are both here too long." So they set off +together; and she told him by the way that she had came to the hostile +camp with a present of bananas, so that the Tamasese men might spare her +house. By the Vaisingano they met an old man, a woman, and a child; and +these also she warned and turned back. Such is the strange part played +by women among the scenes of Samoan warfare, such were the liberties then +permitted to the whites, that these two could pass the lines, talk +together in Tamasese's camp on the eve of an engagement, and pass forth +again bearing intelligence, like privileged spies. And before a few +hours the white man was in direct communication with the opposing +general. The next morning he was accosted "about breakfast-time" by two +natives who stood leaning against the pickets of a public-house, where +the Siumu road strikes in at right angles to the main street of Apia. +They told him battle was imminent, and begged him to pass a little way +inland and speak with Mataafa. The road is at this point broad and +fairly good, running between thick groves of cocoa-palm and breadfruit. A +few hundred yards along this the white man passed a picket of four armed +warriors, with red handkerchiefs and their faces blackened in the form of +a full beard, the Mataafa rallying signs for the day; a little farther +on, some fifty; farther still, a hundred; and at last a quarter of a mile +of them sitting by the wayside armed and blacked. + +Near by, in the verandah of a house on a knoll, he found Mataafa seated +in white clothes, a Winchester across his knees. His men, he said, were +still arriving from behind, and there was a turning movement in operation +beyond the Fuisa, so that the Tamaseses should be assailed at the same +moment from the south and east. And this is another indication that the +attack on Matautu was the true attack; had any design on Mulinuu been in +the wind, not even a Samoan general would have detached these troops upon +the other side. While they still spoke, five Tamasese women were brought +in with their hands bound; they had been stealing "our" bananas. + +All morning the town was strangely deserted, the very children gone. A +sense of expectation reigned, and sympathy for the attack was expressed +publicly. Some men with unblacked faces came to Moors's store for +biscuit. A native woman, who was there marketing, inquired after the +news, and, hearing that the battle was now near at hand, "Give them two +more tins," said she; "and don't put them down to my husband--he would +growl; put them down to me." Between twelve and one, two white men +walked toward Matautu, finding as they went no sign of war until they had +passed the Vaisingano and come to the corner of a by-path leading to the +bush. Here were four blackened warriors on guard,--the extreme left wing +of the Mataafa force, where it touched the waters of the bay. Thence the +line (which the white men followed) stretched inland among bush and +marsh, facing the forts of the Tamaseses. The warriors lay as yet +inactive behind trees; but all the young boys and harlots of Apia toiled +in the front upon a trench, digging with knives and cocoa-shells; and a +continuous stream of children brought them water. The young sappers +worked crouching; from the outside only an occasional head, or a hand +emptying a shell of earth, was visible; and their enemies looked on inert +from the line of the opposing forts. The lists were not yet prepared, +the tournament was not yet open; and the attacking force was suffered to +throw up works under the silent guns of the defence. But there is an end +even to the delay of islanders. As the white men stood and looked, the +Tamasese line thundered into a volley; it was answered; the crowd of +silent workers broke forth in laughter and cheers; and the battle had +begun. + +Thenceforward, all day and most of the next night, volley followed +volley; and pounds of lead and pounds sterling of money continued to be +blown into the air without cessation and almost without result. Colonel +de Coetlogon, an old soldier, described the noise as deafening. The +harbour was all struck with shots; a man was knocked over on the German +war-ship; half Apia was under fire; and a house was pierced beyond the +Mulivai. All along the two lines of breastwork, the entrenched enemies +exchanged this hail of balls; and away on the east of the battle the +fusillade was maintained, with equal spirit, across the narrow barrier of +the Fuisa. The whole rear of the Tamaseses was enfiladed by this flank +fire; and I have seen a house there, by the river brink, that was riddled +with bullets like a piece of worm-eaten wreck-wood. At this point of the +field befell a trait of Samoan warfare worth recording. Taiese (brother +to Siteoni already mentioned) shot a Tamasese man. He saw him fall, and, +inflamed with the lust of glory, passed the river single-handed in that +storm of missiles to secure the head. On the farther bank, as was but +natural, he fell himself; he who had gone to take a trophy remained to +afford one; and the Mataafas, who had looked on exulting in the prospect +of a triumph, saw themselves exposed instead to a disgrace. Then rose +one Vingi, passed the deadly water, swung the body of Taiese on his back, +and returned unscathed to his own side, the head saved, the corpse filled +with useless bullets. + +At this rate of practice, the ammunition soon began to run low, and from +an early hour of the afternoon, the Malietoa stores were visited by +customers in search of more. An elderly man came leaping and cheering, +his gun in one hand, a basket of three heads in the other. A fellow came +shot through the forearm. "It doesn't hurt now," he said, as he bought +his cartridges; "but it will hurt to-morrow, and I want to fight while I +can." A third followed, a mere boy, with the end of his nose shot off: +"Have you any painkiller? give it me quick, so that I can get back to +fight." On either side, there was the same delight in sound and smoke +and schoolboy cheering, the same unsophisticated ardour of battle; and +the misdirected skirmish proceeded with a din, and was illustrated with +traits of bravery that would have fitted a Waterloo or a Sedan. + +I have said how little I regard the alleged plan of battle. At least it +was now all gone to water. The whole forces of Mataafa had leaked out, +man by man, village by village, on the so-called false attack. They were +all pounding for their lives on the front and the left flank of Matautu. +About half-past three they enveloped the right flank also. The defenders +were driven back along the beach road as far as the pilot station at the +turn of the land. From this also they were dislodged, stubbornly +fighting. One, it is told, retreated to his middle in the lagoon; stood +there, loading and firing, till he fell; and his body was found on the +morrow pierced with four mortal wounds. The Tamasese force was now +enveloped on three sides; it was besides almost cut off from the sea; and +across its whole rear and only way of retreat a fire of hostile bullets +crossed from east and west, in the midst of which men were surprised to +observe the birds continuing to sing, and a cow grazed all afternoon +unhurt. Doubtless here was the defence in a poor way; but then the +attack was in irons. For the Mataafas about the pilot house could +scarcely advance beyond without coming under the fire of their own men +from the other side of the Fuisa; and there was not enough organisation, +perhaps not enough authority, to divert or to arrest that fire. + +The progress of the fight along the beach road was visible from Mulinuu, +and Brandeis despatched ten boats of reinforcements. They crossed the +harbour, paused for a while beside the _Adler_--it is supposed for +ammunition--and drew near the Matautu shore. The Mataafa men lay close +among the shore-side bushes, expecting their arrival; when a silly lad, +in mere lightness of heart, fired a shot in the air. My native friend, +Mrs. Mary Hamilton, ran out of her house and gave the culprit a good +shaking: an episode in the midst of battle as incongruous as the grazing +cow. But his sillier comrades followed his example; a harmless volley +warned the boats what they might expect; and they drew back and passed +outside the reef for the passage of the Fuisa. Here they came under the +fire of the right wing of the Mataafas on the river-bank. The beach, +raked east and west, appeared to them no place to land on. And they hung +off in the deep water of the lagoon inside the barrier reef, feebly +fusillading the pilot house. + +Between four and five, the Fabeata regiment (or folk of that village) on +the Mataafa left, which had been under arms all day, fell to be withdrawn +for rest and food; the Siumu regiment, which should have relieved it, was +not ready or not notified in time; and the Tamaseses, gallantly profiting +by the mismanagement, recovered the most of the ground in their proper +right. It was not for long. They lost it again, yard by yard and from +house to house, till the pilot station was once more in the hands of the +Mataafas. This is the last definite incident in the battle. The +vicissitudes along the line of the entrenchments remain concealed from us +under the cover of the forest. Some part of the Tamasese position there +appears to have been carried, but what part, or at what hour, or whether +the advantage was maintained, I have never learned. Night and rain, but +not silence, closed upon the field. The trenches were deep in mud; but +the younger folk wrecked the houses in the neighbourhood, carried the +roofs to the front, and lay under them, men and women together, through a +long night of furious squalls and furious and useless volleys. Meanwhile +the older folk trailed back into Apia in the rain; they talked as they +went of who had fallen and what heads had been taken upon either +side--they seemed to know by name the losses upon both; and drenched with +wet and broken with excitement and fatigue, they crawled into the +verandahs of the town to eat and sleep. The morrow broke grey and +drizzly, but as so often happens in the islands, cleared up into a +glorious day. During the night, the majority of the defenders had taken +advantage of the rain and darkness and stolen from their forts +unobserved. The rallying sign of the Tamaseses had been a white +handkerchief. With the dawn, the de Coetlogons from the English +consulate beheld the ground strewn with these badges discarded; and close +by the house, a belated turncoat was still changing white for red. +Matautu was lost; Tamasese was confined to Mulinuu; and by nine o'clock +two Mataafa villages paraded the streets of Apia, taking possession. The +cost of this respectable success in ammunition must have been enormous; +in life it was but small. Some compute forty killed on either side, +others forty on both, three or four being women and one a white man, +master of a schooner from Fiji. Nor was the number even of the wounded +at all proportionate to the surprising din and fury of the affair while +it lasted. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--LAST EXPLOITS OF BECKER + + +_September-November_ 1888 + +Brandeis had held all day by Mulinuu, expecting the reported real attack. +He woke on the 13th to find himself cut off on that unwatered promontory, +and the Mataafa villagers parading Apia. The same day Fritze received a +letter from Mataafa summoning him to withdraw his party from the isthmus; +and Fritze, as if in answer, drew in his ship into the small harbour +close to Mulinuu, and trained his port battery to assist in the defence. +From a step so decisive, it might be thought the German plans were +unaffected by the disastrous issue of the battle. I conceive nothing +would be further from the truth. Here was Tamasese penned on Mulinuu +with his troops; Apia, from which alone these could be subsisted, in the +hands of the enemy; a battle imminent, in which the German vessel must +apparently take part with men and battery, and the buildings of the +German firm were apparently destined to be the first target of fire. +Unless Becker re-established that which he had so lately and so artfully +thrown down--the neutral territory--the firm would have to suffer. If he +re-established it, Tamasese must retire from Mulinuu. If Becker saved +his goose, he lost his cabbage. Nothing so well depicts the man's +effrontery as that he should have conceived the design of saving both,--of +re-establishing only so much of the neutral territory as should hamper +Mataafa, and leaving in abeyance all that could incommode Tamasese. By +drawing the boundary where he now proposed, across the isthmus, he +protected the firm, drove back the Mataafas out of almost all that they +had conquered, and, so far from disturbing Tamasese, actually fortified +him in his old position. + +The real story of the negotiations that followed we shall perhaps never +learn. But so much is plain: that while Becker was thus outwardly +straining decency in the interest of Tamasese, he was privately +intriguing, or pretending to intrigue, with Mataafa. In his despatch of +the 11th, he had given an extended criticism of that chieftain, whom he +depicts as very dark and artful; and while admitting that his assumption +of the name of Malietoa might raise him up followers, predicted that he +could not make an orderly government or support himself long in sole +power "without very energetic foreign help." Of what help was the consul +thinking? There was no helper in the field but Germany. On the 15th he +had an interview with the victor; told him that Tamasese's was the only +government recognised by Germany, and that he must continue to recognise +it till he received "other instructions from his government, whom he was +now advising of the late events"; refused, accordingly, to withdraw the +guard from the isthmus; and desired Mataafa, "until the arrival of these +fresh instructions," to refrain from an attack on Mulinuu. One thing of +two: either this language is extremely perfidious, or Becker was +preparing to change sides. The same detachment appears in his despatch +of October 7th. He computes the losses of the German firm with an easy +cheerfulness. If Tamasese get up again (_gelingt die Wiederherstellung +der Regierung Tamasese's_), Tamasese will have to pay. If not, then +Mataafa. This is not the language of a partisan. The tone of +indifference, the easy implication that the case of Tamasese was already +desperate, the hopes held secretly forth to Mataafa and secretly reported +to his government at home, trenchantly contrast with his external +conduct. At this very time he was feeding Tamasese; he had German +sailors mounting guard on Tamasese's battlements; the German war-ship lay +close in, whether to help or to destroy. If he meant to drop the cause +of Tamasese, he had him in a corner, helpless, and could stifle him +without a sob. If he meant to rat, it was to be with every condition of +safety and every circumstance of infamy. + +Was it conceivable, then, that he meant it? Speaking with a gentleman +who was in the confidence of Dr. Knappe: "Was it not a pity," I asked, +"that Knappe did not stick to Becker's policy of supporting Mataafa?" +"You are quite wrong there; that was not Knappe's doing," was the reply. +"Becker had changed his mind before Knappe came." Why, then, had he +changed it? This excellent, if ignominious, idea once entertained, why +was it let drop? It is to be remembered there was another German in the +field, Brandeis, who had a respect, or rather, perhaps, an affection, for +Tamasese, and who thought his own honour and that of his country engaged +in the support of that government which they had provoked and founded. +Becker described the captain to Laupepa as "a quiet, sensible gentleman." +If any word came to his ears of the intended manoeuvre, Brandeis would +certainly show himself very sensible of the affront; but Becker might +have been tempted to withdraw his former epithet of quiet. Some such +passage, some such threatened change of front at the consulate, opposed +with outcry, would explain what seems otherwise inexplicable, the bitter, +indignant, almost hostile tone of a subsequent letter from Brandeis to +Knappe--"Brandeis's inflammatory letter," Bismarck calls it--the +proximate cause of the German landing and reverse at Fangalii. + +But whether the advances of Becker were sincere or not--whether he +meditated treachery against the old king or was practising treachery upon +the new, and the choice is between one or other--no doubt but he +contrived to gain his points with Mataafa, prevailing on him to change +his camp for the better protection of the German plantations, and +persuading him (long before he could persuade his brother consuls) to +accept that miraculous new neutral territory of his, with a piece cut out +for the immediate needs of Tamasese. + +During the rest of September, Tamasese continued to decline. On the 19th +one village and half of another deserted him; on the 22nd two more. On +the 21st the Mataafas burned his town of Leulumoenga, his own splendid +house flaming with the rest; and there are few things of which a native +thinks more, or has more reason to think well, than of a fine Samoan +house. Tamasese women and children were marched up the same day from +Atua, and handed over with their sleeping-mats to Mulinuu: a most +unwelcome addition to a party already suffering from want. By the 20th, +they were being watered from the _Adler_. On the 24th the Manono fleet +of sixteen large boats, fortified and rendered unmanageable with tons of +firewood, passed to windward to intercept supplies from Atua. By the +27th the hungry garrison flocked in great numbers to draw rations at the +German firm. On the 28th the same business was repeated with a different +issue. Mataafas crowded to look on; words were exchanged, blows +followed; sticks, stones, and bottles were caught up; the detested +Brandeis, at great risk, threw himself between the lines and expostulated +with the Mataafas--his only personal appearance in the wars, if this +could be called war. The same afternoon, the Tamasese boats got in with +provisions, having passed to seaward of the lumbering Manono fleet; and +from that day on, whether from a high degree of enterprise on the one +side or a great lack of capacity on the other, supplies were maintained +from the sea with regularity. Thus the spectacle of battle, or at least +of riot, at the doors of the German firm was not repeated. But the +memory must have hung heavy on the hearts, not of the Germans only, but +of all Apia. The Samoans are a gentle race, gentler than any in Europe; +we are often enough reminded of the circumstance, not always by their +friends. But a mob is a mob, and a drunken mob is a drunken mob, and a +drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a drunken mob with weapons in +its hands, all the world over: elementary propositions, which some of us +upon these islands might do worse than get by rote, but which must have +been evident enough to Becker. And I am amazed by the man's constancy, +that, even while blows were going at the door of that German firm which +he was in Samoa to protect, he should have stuck to his demands. Ten +days before, Blacklock had offered to recognise the old territory, +including Mulinuu, and Becker had refused, and still in the midst of +these "alarums and excursions," he continued to refuse it. + +On October 2nd, anchored in Apia bay H.B.M.S. _Calliope_, Captain Kane, +carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Fairfax, and the gunboat _Lizard_, +Lieutenant-Commander Pelly. It was rumoured the admiral had come to +recognise the government of Tamasese, I believe in error. And at least +the day for that was quite gone by; and he arrived not to salute the +king's accession, but to arbitrate on his remains. A conference of the +consuls and commanders met on board the _Calliope_, October 4th, Fritze +alone being absent, although twice invited: the affair touched politics, +his consul was to be there; and even if he came to the meeting (so he +explained to Fairfax) he would have no voice in its deliberations. The +parties were plainly marked out: Blacklock and Leary maintaining their +offer of the old neutral territory, and probably willing to expand or to +contract it to any conceivable extent, so long as Mulinuu was still +included; Knappe offered (if the others liked) to include "the whole +eastern end of the island," but quite fixed upon the one point that +Mulinuu should be left out; the English willing to meet either view, and +singly desirous that Apia should be neutralised. The conclusion was +foregone. Becker held a trump card in the consent of Mataafa; Blacklock +and Leary stood alone, spoke with all ill grace, and could not long hold +out. Becker had his way; and the neutral boundary was chosen just where +he desired: across the isthmus, the firm within, Mulinuu without. He did +not long enjoy the fruits of victory. + +On the 7th, three days after the meeting, one of the Scanlons (well-known +and intelligent half-castes) came to Blacklock with a complaint. The +Scanlon house stood on the hither side of the Tamasese breastwork, just +inside the newly accepted territory, and within easy range of the firm. +Armed men, to the number of a hundred, had issued from Mulinuu, had +"taken charge" of the house, had pointed a gun at Scanlon's head, and had +twice "threatened to kill" his pigs. I hear elsewhere of some effects +(_Gegenstande_) removed. At the best a very pale atrocity, though we +shall find the word employed. Germans declare besides that Scanlon was +no American subject; they declare the point had been decided by court- +martial in 1875; that Blacklock had the decision in the consular +archives; and that this was his reason for handing the affair to Leary. +It is not necessary to suppose so. It is plain he thought little of the +business; thought indeed nothing of it; except in so far as armed men had +entered the neutral territory from Mulinuu; and it was on this ground +alone, and the implied breach of Becker's engagement at the conference, +that he invited Leary's attention to the tale. The impish ingenuity of +the commander perceived in it huge possibilities of mischief. He took up +the Scanlon outrage, the atrocity of the threatened pigs; and with that +poor instrument--I am sure, to his own wonder--drove Tamasese out of +Mulinuu. It was "an intrigue," Becker complains. To be sure it was; but +who was Becker to be complaining of intrigue? + +On the 7th Leary laid before Fritze the following conundrum: "As the +natives of Mulinuu appear to be under the protection of the Imperial +German naval guard belonging to the vessel under your command, I have the +honour to request you to inform me whether or not they are under such +protection? Amicable relations," pursued the humorist, "amicable +relations exist between the government of the United States and His +Imperial German Majesty's government, but we do not recognise Tamasese's +government, and I am desirous of locating the responsibility for +violations of American rights." Becker and Fritze lost no time in +explanation or denial, but went straight to the root of the matter and +sought to buy off Scanlon. Becker declares that every reparation was +offered. Scanlon takes a pride to recapitulate the leases and the +situations he refused, and the long interviews in which he was tempted +and plied with drink by Becker or Beckmann of the firm. No doubt, in +short, that he was offered reparation in reason and out of reason, and, +being thoroughly primed, refused it all. Meantime some answer must be +made to Leary; and Fritze repeated on the 8th his oft-repeated assurances +that he was not authorised to deal with politics. The same day Leary +retorted: "The question is not one of diplomacy nor of politics. It is +strictly one of military jurisdiction and responsibility. Under the +shadow of the German fort at Mulinuu," continued the hyperbolical +commander, "atrocities have been committed. . . . And I again have the +honour respectfully to request to be informed whether or not the armed +natives at Mulinuu are under the protection of the Imperial German naval +guard belonging to the vessel under your command." To this no answer was +vouchsafed till the 11th, and then in the old terms; and meanwhile, on +the 10th, Leary got into his gaiters--the sure sign, as was both said and +sung aboard his vessel, of some desperate or some amusing service--and +was set ashore at the Scanlons' house. Of this he took possession at the +head of an old woman and a mop, and was seen from the Tamasese breastwork +directing operations and plainly preparing to install himself there in a +military posture. So much he meant to be understood; so much he meant to +carry out, and an armed party from the _Adams_ was to have garrisoned on +the morrow the scene of the atrocity. But there is no doubt he managed +to convey more. No doubt he was a master in the art of loose speaking, +and could always manage to be overheard when he wanted; and by this, or +some other equally unofficial means, he spread the rumour that on the +morrow he was to bombard. + +The proposed post, from its position, and from Leary's well-established +character as an artist in mischief, must have been regarded by the +Germans with uneasiness. In the bombardment we can scarce suppose them +to have believed. But Tamasese must have both believed and trembled. The +prestige of the European Powers was still unbroken. No native would then +have dreamed of defying these colossal ships, worked by mysterious +powers, and laden with outlandish instruments of death. None would have +dreamed of resisting those strange but quite unrealised Great Powers, +understood (with difficulty) to be larger than Tonga and Samoa put +together, and known to be prolific of prints, knives, hard biscuit, +picture-books, and other luxuries, as well as of overbearing men and +inconsistent orders. Laupepa had fallen in ill-blood with one of them; +his only idea of defence had been to throw himself in the arms of +another; his name, his rank, and his great following had not been able to +preserve him; and he had vanished from the eyes of men--as the Samoan +thinks of it, beyond the sky. Asi, Maunga, Tuiletu-funga, had followed +him in that new path of doom. We have seen how carefully Mataafa still +walked, how he dared not set foot on the neutral territory till assured +it was no longer sacred, how he withdrew from it again as soon as its +sacredness had been restored, and at the bare word of a consul (however +gilded with ambiguous promises) paused in his course of victory and left +his rival unassailed in Mulinuu. And now it was the rival's turn. +Hitherto happy in the continued support of one of the white Powers, he +now found himself--or thought himself--threatened with war by no less +than two others. + +Tamasese boats as they passed Matautu were in the habit of firing on the +shore, as like as not without particular aim, and more in high spirits +than hostility. One of these shots pierced the house of a British +subject near the consulate; the consul reported to Admiral Fairfax; and, +on the morning of the 10th, the admiral despatched Captain Kane of the +_Calliope_ to Mulinuu. Brandeis met the messenger with voluble excuses +and engagements for the future. He was told his explanations were +satisfactory so far as they went, but that the admiral's message was to +Tamasese, the _de facto_ king. Brandeis, not very well assured of his +puppet's courage, attempted in vain to excuse him from appearing. No _de +facto_ king, no message, he was told: produce your _de facto_ king. And +Tamasese had at last to be produced. To him Kane delivered his errand: +that the _Lizard_ was to remain for the protection of British subjects; +that a signalman was to be stationed at the consulate; that, on any +further firing from boats, the signalman was to notify the _Lizard_ and +she to fire one gun, on which all boats must lower sail and come +alongside for examination and the detection of the guilty; and that, "in +the event of the boats not obeying the gun, the admiral would not be +responsible for the consequences." It was listened to by Brandeis and +Tamasese "with the greatest attention." Brandeis, when it was done, +desired his thanks to the admiral for the moderate terms of his message, +and, as Kane went to his boat, repeated the expression of his gratitude +as though he meant it, declaring his own hands would be thus strengthened +for the maintenance of discipline. But I have yet to learn of any +gratitude on the part of Tamasese. Consider the case of the poor owlish +man hearing for the first time our diplomatic commonplaces. The admiral +would not be answerable for the consequences. Think of it! A devil of a +position for a _de facto_ king. And here, the same afternoon, was Leary +in the Scanlon house, mopping it out for unknown designs by the hands of +an old woman, and proffering strange threats of bloodshed. Scanlon and +his pigs, the admiral and his gun, Leary and his bombardment,--what a +kettle of fish! + +I dwell on the effect on Tamasese. Whatever the faults of Becker, he was +not timid; he had already braved so much for Mulinuu that I cannot but +think he might have continued to hold up his head even after the outrage +of the pigs, and that the weakness now shown originated with the king. +Late in the night, Blacklock was wakened to receive a despatch addressed +to Leary. "You have asked that I and my government go away from Mulinuu, +because you pretend a man who lives near Mulinuu and who is under your +protection, has been threatened by my soldiers. As your Excellency has +forbidden the man to accept any satisfaction, and as I do not wish to +make war against the United States, I shall remove my government from +Mulinuu to another place." It was signed by Tamasese, but I think more +heads than his had wagged over the direct and able letter. On the +morning of the 11th, accordingly, Mulinuu the much defended lay desert. +Tamasese and Brandeis had slipped to sea in a schooner; their troops had +followed them in boats; the German sailors and their war-flag had +returned on board the _Adler_; and only the German merchant flag blew +there for Weber's land-claim. Mulinuu, for which Becker had intrigued so +long and so often, for which he had overthrown the municipality, for +which he had abrogated and refused and invented successive schemes of +neutral territory, was now no more to the Germans than a very +unattractive, barren peninsula and a very much disputed land-claim of Mr. +Weber's. It will scarcely be believed that the tale of the Scanlon +outrages was not yet finished. Leary had gained his point, but Scanlon +had lost his compensation. And it was months later, and this time in the +shape of a threat of bombardment in black and white, that Tamasese heard +the last of the absurd affair. Scanlon had both his fun and his money, +and Leary's practical joke was brought to an artistic end. + +Becker sought and missed an instant revenge. Mataafa, a devout Catholic, +was in the habit of walking every morning to mass from his camp at Vaiala +beyond Matautu to the mission at the Mulivai. He was sometimes escorted +by as many as six guards in uniform, who displayed their proficiency in +drill by perpetually shifting arms as they marched. Himself, meanwhile, +paced in front, bareheaded and barefoot, a staff in his hand, in the +customary chief's dress of white kilt, shirt, and jacket, and with a +conspicuous rosary about his neck. Tall but not heavy, with eager eyes +and a marked appearance of courage and capacity, Mataafa makes an +admirable figure in the eyes of Europeans; to those of his countrymen, he +may seem not always to preserve that quiescence of manner which is +thought becoming in the great. On the morning of October 16th he reached +the mission before day with two attendants, heard mass, had coffee with +the fathers, and left again in safety. The smallness of his following we +may suppose to have been reported. He was scarce gone, at least, before +Becker had armed men at the mission gate and came in person seeking him. + +The failure of this attempt doubtless still further exasperated the +consul, and he began to deal as in an enemy's country. He had marines +from the _Adler_ to stand sentry over the consulate and parade the +streets by threes and fours. The bridge of the Vaisingano, which cuts in +half the English and American quarters, he closed by proclamation and +advertised for tenders to demolish it. On the 17th Leary and Pelly +landed carpenters and repaired it in his teeth. Leary, besides, had +marines under arms, ready to land them if it should be necessary to +protect the work. But Becker looked on without interference, perhaps +glad enough to have the bridge repaired; for even Becker may not always +have offended intentionally. Such was now the distracted posture of the +little town: all government extinct, the German consul patrolling it with +armed men and issuing proclamations like a ruler, the two other Powers +defying his commands, and at least one of them prepared to use force in +the defiance. Close on its skirts sat the warriors of Mataafa, perhaps +four thousand strong, highly incensed against the Germans, having all to +gain in the seizure of the town and firm, and, like an army in a fairy +tale, restrained by the air-drawn boundary of the neutral ground. + +I have had occasion to refer to the strange appearance in these islands +of an American adventurer with a battery of cannon. The adventurer was +long since gone, but his guns remained, and one of them was now to make +fresh history. It had been cast overboard by Brandeis on the outer reef +in the course of this retreat; and word of it coming to the ears of the +Mataafas, they thought it natural that they should serve themselves the +heirs of Tamasese. On the 23rd a Manono boat of the kind called +_taumualua_ dropped down the coast from Mataafa's camp, called in broad +day at the German quarter of the town for guides, and proceeded to the +reef. Here, diving with a rope, they got the gun aboard; and the night +being then come, returned by the same route in the shallow water along +shore, singing a boat-song. It will be seen with what childlike reliance +they had accepted the neutrality of Apia bay; they came for the gun +without concealment, laboriously dived for it in broad day under the eyes +of the town and shipping, and returned with it, singing as they went. On +Grevsmuhl's wharf, a light showed them a crowd of German blue-jackets +clustered, and a hail was heard. "Stop the singing so that we may hear +what is said," said one of the chiefs in the _taumualua_. The song +ceased; the hail was heard again, "_Au mai le fana_--bring the gun"; and +the natives report themselves to have replied in the affirmative, and +declare that they had begun to back the boat. It is perhaps not needful +to believe them. A volley at least was fired from the wharf, at about +fifty yards' range and with a very ill direction, one bullet whistling +over Pelly's head on board the _Lizard_. The natives jumped overboard; +and swimming under the lee of the _taumualua_ (where they escaped a +second volley) dragged her towards the east. As soon as they were out of +range and past the Mulivai, the German border, they got on board and +(again singing--though perhaps a different song) continued their return +along the English and American shore. Off Matautu they were hailed from +the seaward by one of the _Adler's_ boats, which had been suddenly +despatched on the sound of the firing or had stood ready all evening to +secure the gun. The hail was in German; the Samoans knew not what it +meant, but took the precaution to jump overboard and swim for land. Two +volleys and some dropping shot were poured upon them in the water; but +they dived, scattered, and came to land unhurt in different quarters of +Matautu. The volleys, fired inshore, raked the highway, a British house +was again pierced by numerous bullets, and these sudden sounds of war +scattered consternation through the town. + +Two British subjects, Hetherington-Carruthers, a solicitor, and Maben, a +land-surveyor--the first being in particular a man well versed in the +native mind and language--hastened at once to their consul; assured him +the Mataafas would be roused to fury by this onslaught in the neutral +zone, that the German quarter would be certainly attacked, and the rest +of the town and white inhabitants exposed to a peril very difficult of +estimation; and prevailed upon him to intrust them with a mission to the +king. By the time they reached headquarters, the warriors were already +taking post round Matafele, and the agitation of Mataafa himself was +betrayed in the fact that he spoke with the deputation standing and gun +in hand: a breach of high-chief dignity perhaps unparalleled. The usual +result, however, followed: the whites persuaded the Samoan; and the +attack was countermanded, to the benefit of all concerned, and not least +of Mataafa. To the benefit of all, I say; for I do not think the Germans +were that evening in a posture to resist; the liquor-cellars of the firm +must have fallen into the power of the insurgents; and I will repeat my +formula that a mob is a mob, a drunken mob is a drunken mob, and a +drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a drunken mob with weapons in +its hands, all the world over. + +In the opinion of some, then, the town had narrowly escaped destruction, +or at least the miseries of a drunken sack. To the knowledge of all, the +air of the neutral territory had once more whistled with bullets. And it +was clear the incident must have diplomatic consequences. Leary and +Pelly both protested to Fritze. Leary announced he should report the +affair to his government "as a gross violation of the principles of +international law, and as a breach of the neutrality." "I positively +decline the protest," replied Fritze, "and cannot fail to express my +astonishment at the tone of your last letter." This was trenchant. It +may be said, however, that Leary was already out of court; that, after +the night signals and the Scanlon incident, and so many other acts of +practical if humorous hostility, his position as a neutral was no better +than a doubtful jest. The case with Pelly was entirely different; and +with Pelly, Fritze was less well inspired. In his first note, he was on +the old guard; announced that he had acted on the requisition of his +consul, who was alone responsible on "the legal side"; and declined +accordingly to discuss "whether the lives of British subjects were in +danger, and to what extent armed intervention was necessary." Pelly +replied judiciously that he had nothing to do with political matters, +being only responsible for the safety of Her Majesty's ships under his +command and for the lives and property of British subjects; that he had +considered his protest a purely naval one; and as the matter stood could +only report the case to the admiral on the station. "I have the honour," +replied Fritze, "to refuse to entertain the protest concerning the safety +of Her Britannic Majesty's ship _Lizard_ as being a naval matter. The +safety of Her Majesty's ship _Lizard_ was never in the least endangered. +This was guaranteed by the disciplined fire of a few shots under the +direction of two officers." This offensive note, in view of Fritze's +careful and honest bearing among so many other complications, may be +attributed to some misunderstanding. His small knowledge of English +perhaps failed him. But I cannot pass it by without remarking how far +too much it is the custom of German officials to fall into this style. It +may be witty, I am sure it is not wise. It may be sometimes necessary to +offend for a definite object, it can never be diplomatic to offend +gratuitously. + +Becker was more explicit, although scarce less curt. And his defence may +be divided into two statements: first, that the _taumualua_ was +proceeding to land with a hostile purpose on Mulinuu; second, that the +shots complained of were fired by the Samoans. The second may be +dismissed with a laugh. Human nature has laws. And no men hitherto +discovered, on being suddenly challenged from the sea, would have turned +their backs upon the challenger and poured volleys on the friendly shore. +The first is not extremely credible, but merits examination. The story +of the recovered gun seems straightforward; it is supported by much +testimony, the diving operations on the reef seem to have been watched +from shore with curiosity; it is hard to suppose that it does not roughly +represent the fact. And yet if any part of it be true, the whole of +Becker's explanation falls to the ground. A boat which had skirted the +whole eastern coast of Mulinuu, and was already opposite a wharf in +Matafele, and still going west, might have been guilty on a thousand +points--there was one on which she was necessarily innocent; she was +necessarily innocent of proceeding on Mulinuu. Or suppose the diving +operations, and the native testimony, and Pelly's chart of the boat's +course, and the boat itself, to be all stages of some epidemic +hallucination or steps in a conspiracy--suppose even a second _taumualua_ +to have entered Apia bay after nightfall, and to have been fired upon +from Grevsmuhl's wharf in the full career of hostilities against +Mulinuu--suppose all this, and Becker is not helped. At the time of the +first fire, the boat was off Grevsmuhl's wharf. At the time of the +second (and that is the one complained of) she was off Carruthers's wharf +in Matautu. Was she still proceeding on Mulinuu? I trow not. The +danger to German property was no longer imminent, the shots had been +fired upon a very trifling provocation, the spirit implied was that of +designed disregard to the neutrality. Such was the impression here on +the spot; such in plain terms the statement of Count Hatzfeldt to Lord +Salisbury at home: that the neutrality of Apia was only "to prevent the +natives from fighting," not the Germans; and that whatever Becker might +have promised at the conference, he could not "restrict German +war-vessels in their freedom of action." + +There was nothing to surprise in this discovery; and had events been +guided at the same time with a steady and discreet hand, it might have +passed with less observation. But the policy of Becker was felt to be +not only reckless, it was felt to be absurd also. Sudden nocturnal +onfalls upon native boats could lead, it was felt, to no good end whether +of peace or war; they could but exasperate; they might prove, in a +moment, and when least expected, ruinous. To those who knew how nearly +it had come to fighting, and who considered the probable result, the +future looked ominous. And fear was mingled with annoyance in the minds +of the Anglo-Saxon colony. On the 24th, a public meeting appealed to the +British and American consuls. At half-past seven in the evening guards +were landed at the consulates. On the morrow they were each fortified +with sand-bags; and the subjects informed by proclamation that these +asylums stood open to them on any alarm, and at any hour of the day or +night. The social bond in Apia was dissolved. The consuls, like barons +of old, dwelt each in his armed citadel. The rank and file of the white +nationalities dared each other, and sometimes fell to on the street like +rival clansmen. And the little town, not by any fault of the +inhabitants, rather by the act of Becker, had fallen back in civilisation +about a thousand years. + +There falls one more incident to be narrated, and then I can close with +this ungracious chapter. I have mentioned the name of the new English +consul. It is already familiar to English readers; for the gentleman who +was fated to undergo some strange experiences in Apia was the same de +Coetlogon who covered Hicks's flank at the time of the disaster in the +desert, and bade farewell to Gordon in Khartoum before the investment. +The colonel was abrupt and testy; Mrs. de Coetlogon was too exclusive for +society like that of Apia; but whatever their superficial disabilities, +it is strange they should have left, in such an odour of unpopularity, a +place where they set so shining an example of the sterling virtues. The +colonel was perhaps no diplomatist; he was certainly no lawyer; but he +discharged the duties of his office with the constancy and courage of an +old soldier, and these were found sufficient. He and his wife had no +ambition to be the leaders of society; the consulate was in their time no +house of feasting; but they made of it that house of mourning to which +the preacher tells us it is better we should go. At an early date after +the battle of Matautu, it was opened as a hospital for the wounded. The +English and Americans subscribed what was required for its support. Pelly +of the _Lizard_ strained every nerve to help, and set up tents on the +lawn to be a shelter for the patients. The doctors of the English and +American ships, and in particular Dr. Oakley of the _Lizard_, showed +themselves indefatigable. But it was on the de Coetlogons that the +distress fell. For nearly half a year, their lawn, their verandah, +sometimes their rooms, were cumbered with the sick and dying, their ears +were filled with the complaints of suffering humanity, their time was too +short for the multiplicity of pitiful duties. In Mrs. de Coetlogon, and +her helper, Miss Taylor, the merit of this endurance was perhaps to be +looked for; in a man of the colonel's temper, himself painfully +suffering, it was viewed with more surprise, if with no more admiration. +Doubtless all had their reward in a sense of duty done; doubtless, also, +as the days passed, in the spectacle of many traits of gratitude and +patience, and in the success that waited on their efforts. Out of a +hundred cases treated, only five died. They were all well-behaved, +though full of childish wiles. One old gentleman, a high chief, was +seized with alarming symptoms of belly-ache whenever Mrs. de Coetlogon +went her rounds at night: he was after brandy. Others were insatiable +for morphine or opium. A chief woman had her foot amputated under +chloroform. "Let me see my foot! Why does it not hurt?" she cried. "It +hurt so badly before I went to sleep." Siteoni, whose name has been +already mentioned, had his shoulder-blade excised, lay the longest of +any, perhaps behaved the worst, and was on all these grounds the +favourite. At times he was furiously irritable, and would rail upon his +family and rise in bed until he swooned with pain. Once on the balcony +he was thought to be dying, his family keeping round his mat, his father +exhorting him to be prepared, when Mrs. de Coetlogon brought him round +again with brandy and smelling-salts. After discharge, he returned upon +a visit of gratitude; and it was observed, that instead of coming +straight to the door, he went and stood long under his umbrella on that +spot of ground where his mat had been stretched and he had endured pain +so many months. Similar visits were the rule, I believe without +exception; and the grateful patients loaded Mrs. de Coetlogon with gifts +which (had that been possible in Polynesia) she would willingly have +declined, for they were often of value to the givers. + +The tissue of my story is one of rapacity, intrigue, and the triumphs of +temper; the hospital at the consulate stands out almost alone as an +episode of human beauty, and I dwell on it with satisfaction. But it was +not regarded at the time with universal favour; and even to-day its +institution is thought by many to have been impolitic. It was opened, it +stood open, for the wounded of either party. As a matter of fact it was +never used but by the Mataafas, and the Tamaseses were cared for +exclusively by German doctors. In the progressive decivilisation of the +town, these duties of humanity became thus a ground of quarrel. When the +Mataafa hurt were first brought together after the battle of Matautu, and +some more or less amateur surgeons were dressing wounds on a green by the +wayside, one from the German consulate went by in the road. "Why don't +you let the dogs die?" he asked. "Go to hell," was the rejoinder. Such +were the amenities of Apia. But Becker reserved for himself the extreme +expression of this spirit. On November 7th hostilities began again +between the Samoan armies, and an inconclusive skirmish sent a fresh crop +of wounded to the de Coetlogons. Next door to the consulate, some native +houses and a chapel (now ruinous) stood on a green. Chapel and houses +were certainly Samoan, but the ground was under a land-claim of the +German firm; and de Coetlogon wrote to Becker requesting permission (in +case it should prove necessary) to use these structures for his wounded. +Before an answer came, the hospital was startled by the appearance of a +case of gangrene, and the patient was hastily removed into the chapel. A +rebel laid on German ground--here was an atrocity! The day before his +own relief, November 11th, Becker ordered the man's instant removal. By +his aggressive carriage and singular mixture of violence and cunning, he +had already largely brought about the fall of Brandeis, and forced into +an attitude of hostility the whole non-German population of the islands. +Now, in his last hour of office, by this wanton buffet to his English +colleague, he prepared a continuance of evil days for his successor. If +the object of diplomacy be the organisation of failure in the midst of +hate, he was a great diplomatist. And amongst a certain party on the +beach he is still named as the ideal consul. + + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE SAMOAN CAMPS + + +_November_ 1888 + +When Brandeis and Tamasese fled by night from Mulinuu, they carried their +wandering government some six miles to windward, to a position above +Lotoanuu. For some three miles to the eastward of Apia, the shores of +Upolu are low and the ground rises with a gentle acclivity, much of which +waves with German plantations. A barrier reef encloses a lagoon passable +for boats: and the traveller skims there, on smooth, many-tinted +shallows, between the wall of the breakers on the one hand, and on the +other a succession of palm-tree capes and cheerful beach-side villages. +Beyond the great plantation of Vailele, the character of the coast is +changed. The barrier reef abruptly ceases, the surf beats direct upon +the shore; and the mountains and untenanted forest of the interior +descend sheer into the sea. The first mountain promontory is Letongo. +The bay beyond is called Laulii, and became the headquarters of Mataafa. +And on the next projection, on steep, intricate ground, veiled in forest +and cut up by gorges and defiles, Tamasese fortified his lines. This +greenwood citadel, which proved impregnable by Samoan arms, may be +regarded as his front; the sea covered his right; and his rear extended +along the coast as far as Saluafata, and thus commanded and drew upon a +rich country, including the plain of Falefa. + +He was left in peace from 11th October till November 6th. But his +adversary is not wholly to be blamed for this delay, which depended upon +island etiquette. His Savaii contingent had not yet come in, and to have +moved again without waiting for them would have been surely to offend, +perhaps to lose them. With the month of November they began to arrive: +on the 2nd twenty boats, on the 3rd twenty-nine, on the 5th seventeen. On +the 6th the position Mataafa had so long occupied on the skirts of Apia +was deserted; all that day and night his force kept streaming eastward to +Laulii; and on the 7th the siege of Lotoanuu was opened with a brisk +skirmish. + +Each side built forts, facing across the gorge of a brook. An endless +fusillade and shouting maintained the spirit of the warriors; and at +night, even if the firing slackened, the pickets continued to exchange +from either side volleys of songs and pungent pleasantries. Nearer +hostilities were rendered difficult by the nature of the ground, where +men must thread dense bush and clamber on the face of precipices. Apia +was near enough; a man, if he had a dollar or two, could walk in before a +battle and array himself in silk or velvet. Casualties were not common; +there was nothing to cast gloom upon the camps, and no more danger than +was required to give a spice to the perpetual firing. For the young +warriors it was a period of admirable enjoyment. But the anxiety of +Mataafa must have been great and growing. His force was now +considerable. It was scarce likely he should ever have more. That he +should be long able to supply them with ammunition seemed incredible; at +the rates then or soon after current, hundreds of pounds sterling might +be easily blown into the air by the skirmishers in the course of a few +days. And in the meanwhile, on the mountain opposite, his outnumbered +adversary held his ground unshaken. + +By this time the partisanship of the whites was unconcealed. Americans +supplied Mataafa with ammunition; English and Americans openly subscribed +together and sent boat-loads of provisions to his camp. One such boat +started from Apia on a day of rain; it was pulled by six oars, three +being paid by Moors, three by the MacArthurs; Moors himself and a clerk +of the MacArthurs' were in charge; and the load included not only beef +and biscuit, but three or four thousand rounds of ammunition. They came +ashore in Laulii, and carried the gift to Mataafa. While they were yet +in his house a bullet passed overhead; and out of his door they could see +the Tamasese pickets on the opposite hill. Thence they made their way to +the left flank of the Mataafa position next the sea. A Tamasese +barricade was visible across the stream. It rained, but the warriors +crowded in their shanties, squatted in the mud, and maintained an excited +conversation. Balls flew; either faction, both happy as lords, spotting +for the other in chance shots, and missing. One point is characteristic +of that war; experts in native feeling doubt if it will characterise the +next. The two white visitors passed without and between the lines to a +rocky point upon the beach. The person of Moors was well known; the +purpose of their coming to Laulii must have been already bruited abroad; +yet they were not fired upon. From the point they spied a crow's nest, +or hanging fortification, higher up; and, judging it was a good position +for a general view, obtained a guide. He led them up a steep side of the +mountain, where they must climb by roots and tufts of grass; and coming +to an open hill-top with some scattered trees, bade them wait, let him +draw the fire, and then be swift to follow. Perhaps a dozen balls +whistled about him ere he had crossed the dangerous passage and dropped +on the farther side into the crow's-nest; the white men, briskly +following, escaped unhurt. The crow's-nest was built like a bartizan on +the precipitous front of the position. Across the ravine, perhaps at +five hundred yards, heads were to be seen popping up and down in a fort +of Tamesese's. On both sides the same enthusiasm without council, the +same senseless vigilance, reigned. Some took aim; some blazed before +them at a venture. Now--when a head showed on the other side--one would +take a crack at it, remarking that it would never do to "miss a chance." +Now they would all fire a volley and bob down; a return volley rang +across the ravine, and was punctually answered: harmless as lawn-tennis. +The whites expostulated in vain. The warriors, drunken with noise, made +answer by a fresh general discharge and bade their visitors run while it +was time. Upon their return to headquarters, men were covering the front +with sheets of coral limestone, two balls having passed through the house +in the interval. Mataafa sat within, over his kava bowl, unmoved. The +picture is of a piece throughout: excellent courage, super-excellent +folly, a war of school-children; expensive guns and cartridges used like +squibs or catherine-wheels on Guy Fawkes's Day. + +On the 20th Mataafa changed his attack. Tamasese's front was seemingly +impregnable. Something must be tried upon his rear. There was his bread- +basket; a small success in that direction would immediately curtail his +resources; and it might be possible with energy to roll up his line along +the beach and take the citadel in reverse. The scheme was carried out as +might be expected from these childish soldiers. Mataafa, always uneasy +about Apia, clung with a portion of his force to Laulii; and thus, had +the foe been enterprising, exposed himself to disaster. The expedition +fell successfully enough on Saluafata and drove out the Tamaseses with a +loss of four heads; but so far from improving the advantage, yielded +immediately to the weakness of the Samoan warrior, and ranged farther +east through unarmed populations, bursting with shouts and blackened +faces into villages terrified or admiring, making spoil of pigs, burning +houses, and destroying gardens. The Tamasese had at first evacuated +several beach towns in succession, and were still in retreat on Lotoanuu; +finding themselves unpursued, they reoccupied them one after another, and +re-established their lines to the very borders of Saluafata. Night fell; +Mataafa had taken Saluafata, Tamasese had lost it; and that was all. But +the day came near to have a different and very singular issue. The +village was not long in the hands of the Mataafas, when a schooner, +flying German colours, put into the bay and was immediately surrounded by +their boats. It chanced that Brandeis was on board. Word of it had gone +abroad, and the boats as they approached demanded him with threats. The +late premier, alone, entirely unarmed, and a prey to natural and painful +feelings, concealed himself below. The captain of the schooner remained +on deck, pointed to the German colours, and defied approaching boats. +Again the prestige of a great Power triumphed; the Samoans fell back +before the bunting; the schooner worked out of the bay; Brandeis escaped. +He himself apprehended the worst if he fell into Samoan hands; it is my +diffident impression that his life would have been safe. + +On the 22nd, a new German war-ship, the _Eber_, of tragic memory, came to +Apia from the Gilberts, where she had been disarming turbulent islands. +The rest of that day and all night she loaded stores from the firm, and +on the morrow reached Saluafata bay. Thanks to the misconduct of the +Mataafas, the most of the foreshore was still in the hands of the +Tamaseses; and they were thus able to receive from the _Eber_ both the +stores and weapons. The weapons had been sold long since to Tarawa, +Apaiang, and Pleasant Island; places unheard of by the general reader, +where obscure inhabitants paid for these instruments of death in money or +in labour, misused them as it was known they would be misused, and had +been disarmed by force. The _Eber_ had brought back the guns to a German +counter, whence many must have been originally sold; and was here +engaged, like a shopboy, in their distribution to fresh purchasers. Such +is the vicious circle of the traffic in weapons of war. Another aid of a +more metaphysical nature was ministered by the _Eber_ to Tamasese, in the +shape of uncountable German flags. The full history of this epidemic of +bunting falls to be told in the next chapter. But the fact has to be +chronicled here, for I believe it was to these flags that we owe the +visit of the _Adams_, and my next and best authentic glance into a native +camp. The _Adams_ arrived in Saluafata on the 26th. On the morrow Leary +and Moors landed at the village. It was still occupied by Mataafas, +mostly from Manono and Savaii, few in number, high in spirit. The +Tamasese pickets were meanwhile within musket range; there was maintained +a steady sputtering of shots; and yet a party of Tamasese women were here +on a visit to the women of Manono, with whom they sat talking and +smoking, under the fire of their own relatives. It was reported that +Leary took part in a council of war, and promised to join with his +broadside in the next attack. It is certain he did nothing of the sort: +equally certain that, in Tamasese circles, he was firmly credited with +having done so. And this heightens the extraordinary character of what I +have now to tell. Prudence and delicacy alike ought to have forbid the +camp of Tamasese to the feet of either Leary or Moors. Moors was the +original--there was a time when he had been the only--opponent of the +puppet king. Leary had driven him from the seat of government; it was +but a week or two since he had threatened to bombard him in his present +refuge. Both were in close and daily council with his adversary, and it +was no secret that Moors was supplying the latter with food. They were +partisans; it lacked but a hair that they should be called belligerents; +it were idle to try to deny they were the most dangerous of spies. And +yet these two now sailed across the bay and landed inside the Tamasese +lines at Salelesi. On the very beach they had another glimpse of the +artlessness of Samoan war. Hitherto the Tamasese fleet, being hardy and +unencumbered, had made a fool of the huge floating forts upon the other +side; and here they were toiling, not to produce another boat on their +own pattern in which they had always enjoyed the advantage, but to make a +new one the type of their enemies', of which they had now proved the +uselessness for months. It came on to rain as the Americans landed; and +though none offered to oppose their coming ashore, none invited them to +take shelter. They were nowise abashed, entered a house unbidden, and +were made welcome with obvious reserve. The rain clearing off, they set +forth westward, deeper into the heart of the enemies' position. Three or +four young men ran some way before them, doubtless to give warning; and +Leary, with his indomitable taste for mischief, kept inquiring as he went +after "the high chief" Tamasese. The line of the beach was one +continuous breastwork; some thirty odd iron cannon of all sizes and +patterns stood mounted in embrasures; plenty grape and canister lay +ready; and at every hundred yards or so the German flag was flying. The +numbers of the guns and flags I give as I received them, though they test +my faith. At the house of Brandeis--a little, weatherboard house, +crammed at the time with natives, men, women, and squalling +children--Leary and Moors again asked for "the high chief," and, were +again assured that he was farther on. A little beyond, the road ran in +one place somewhat inland, the two Americans had gone down to the line of +the beach to continue their inspection of the breastwork, when Brandeis +himself, in his shirt-sleeves and accompanied by several German officers, +passed them by the line of the road. The two parties saluted in silence. +Beyond Eva Point there was an observable change for the worse in the +reception of the Americans; some whom they met began to mutter at Moors; +and the adventurers, with tardy but commendable prudence, desisted from +their search after the high chief, and began to retrace their steps. On +the return, Suatele and some chiefs were drinking kava in a "big house," +and called them in to join--their only invitation. But the night was +closing, the rain had begun again: they stayed but for civility, and +returned on board the _Adams_, wet and hungry, and I believe delighted +with their expedition. It was perhaps the last as it was certainly one +of the most extreme examples of that divinity which once hedged the white +in Samoa. The feeling was already different in the camp of Mataafa, +where the safety of a German loiterer had been a matter of extreme +concern. Ten days later, three commissioners, an Englishman, an +American, and a German, approached a post of Mataafas, were challenged by +an old man with a gun, and mentioned in answer what they were. "_Ifea +Siamani_? Which is the German?" cried the old gentleman, dancing, and +with his finger on the trigger; and the commissioners stood somewhile in +a very anxious posture, till they were released by the opportune arrival +of a chief. It was November the 27th when Leary and Moors completed +their absurd excursion; in about three weeks an event was to befall which +changed at once, and probably for ever, the relations of the natives and +the whites. + +By the 28th Tamasese had collected seventeen hundred men in the trenches +before Saluafata, thinking to attack next day. But the Mataafas +evacuated the place in the night. At half-past five on the morning of +the 29th a signal-gun was fired in the trenches at Laulii, and the +Tamasese citadel was assaulted and defended with a fury new among +Samoans. When the battle ended on the following day, one or more +outworks remained in the possession of Mataafa. Another had been taken +and lost as many as four times. Carried originally by a mixed force from +Savaii and Tuamasanga, the victors, instead of completing fresh defences +or pursuing their advantage, fell to eat and smoke and celebrate their +victory with impromptu songs. In this humour a rally of the Tamaseses +smote them, drove them out pell-mell, and tumbled them into the ravine, +where many broke their heads and legs. Again the work was taken, again +lost. Ammunition failed the belligerents; and they fought hand to hand +in the contested fort with axes, clubs, and clubbed rifles. The +sustained ardour of the engagement surprised even those who were engaged; +and the butcher's bill was counted extraordinary by Samoans. On December +1st the women of either side collected the headless bodies of the dead, +each easily identified by the name tattooed on his forearm. Mataafa is +thought to have lost sixty killed; and the de Coetlogons' hospital +received three women and forty men. The casualties on the Tamasese side +cannot be accepted, but they were presumably much less. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--AFFAIRS OF LAULII AND FANGALII + + +_November-December_ 1888 + +For Becker I have not been able to conceal my distaste, for he seems to +me both false and foolish. But of his successor, the unfortunately +famous Dr. Knappe, we may think as of a good enough fellow driven +distraught. Fond of Samoa and the Samoans, he thought to bring peace and +enjoy popularity among the islanders; of a genial, amiable, and sanguine +temper, he made no doubt but he could repair the breach with the English +consul. Hope told a flattering tale. He awoke to find himself +exchanging defiances with de Coetlogon, beaten in the field by Mataafa, +surrounded on the spot by general exasperation, and disowned from home by +his own government. The history of his administration leaves on the mind +of the student a sentiment of pity scarcely mingled. + +On Blacklock he did not call, and, in view of Leary's attitude, may be +excused. But the English consul was in a different category. England, +weary of the name of Samoa, and desirous only to see peace established, +was prepared to wink hard during the process and to welcome the result of +any German settlement. It was an unpardonable fault in Becker to have +kicked and buffeted his ready-made allies into a state of jealousy, +anger, and suspicion. Knappe set himself at once to efface these +impressions, and the English officials rejoiced for the moment in the +change. Between Knappe and de Coetlogon there seems to have been mutual +sympathy; and, in considering the steps by which they were led at last +into an attitude of mutual defiance, it must be remembered that both the +men were sick,--Knappe from time to time prostrated with that formidable +complaint, New Guinea fever, and de Coetlogon throughout his whole stay +in the islands continually ailing. + +Tamasese was still to be recognised, and, if possible, supported: such +was the German policy. Two days after his arrival, accordingly, Knappe +addressed to Mataafa a threatening despatch. The German plantation was +suffering from the proximity of his "war-party." He must withdraw from +Laulii at once, and, whithersoever he went, he must approach no German +property nor so much as any village where there was a German trader. By +five o'clock on the morrow, if he were not gone, Knappe would turn upon +him "the attention of the man-of-war" and inflict a fine. The same +evening, November 14th, Knappe went on board the _Adler_, which began to +get up steam. + +Three months before, such direct intervention on the part of Germany +would have passed almost without protest; but the hour was now gone by. +Becker's conduct, equally timid and rash, equally inconclusive and +offensive, had forced the other nations into a strong feeling of common +interest with Mataafa. Even had the German demands been moderate, de +Coetlogon could not have forgotten the night of the _taumualua_, nor how +Mataafa had relinquished, at his request, the attack upon the German +quarter. Blacklock, with his driver of a captain at his elbow, was not +likely to lag behind. And Mataafa having communicated Knappe's letter, +the example of the Germans was on all hands exactly followed; the consuls +hastened on board their respective war-ships, and these began to get up +steam. About midnight, in a pouring rain, Pelly communicated to Fritze +his intention to follow him and protect British interests; and Knappe +replied that he would come on board the _Lizard_ and see de Coetlogon +personally. It was deep in the small hours, and de Coetlogon had been +long asleep, when he was wakened to receive his colleague; but he started +up with an old soldier's readiness. The conference was long. De +Coetlogon protested, as he did afterwards in writing, against Knappe's +claim: the Samoans were in a state of war; they had territorial rights; +it was monstrous to prevent them from entering one of their own villages +because a German trader kept the store; and in case property suffered, a +claim for compensation was the proper remedy. Knappe argued that this +was a question between Germans and Samoans, in which de Coetlogon had +nothing to see; and that he must protect German property according to his +instructions. To which de Coetlogon replied that he was himself in the +same attitude to the property of the British; that he understood Knappe +to be intending hostilities against Laulii; that Laulii was mortgaged to +the MacArthurs; that its crops were accordingly British property; and +that, while he was ever willing to recognise the territorial rights of +the Samoans, he must prevent that property from being molested "by any +other nation." "But if a German man-of-war does it?" asked Knappe.--"We +shall prevent it to the best of our ability," replied the colonel. It is +to the credit of both men that this trying interview should have been +conducted and concluded without heat; but Knappe must have returned to +the _Adler_ with darker anticipations. + +At sunrise on the morning of the 15th, the three ships, each loaded with +its consul, put to sea. It is hard to exaggerate the peril of the +forenoon that followed, as they lay off Laulii. Nobody desired a +collision, save perhaps the reckless Leary; but peace and war trembled in +the balance; and when the _Adler_, at one period, lowered her gun ports, +war appeared to preponderate. It proved, however, to be a last--and +therefore surely an unwise--extremity. Knappe contented himself with +visiting the rival kings, and the three ships returned to Apia before +noon. Beyond a doubt, coming after Knappe's decisive letter of the day +before, this impotent conclusion shook the credit of Germany among the +natives of both sides; the Tamaseses fearing they were deserted, the +Mataafas (with secret delight) hoping they were feared. And it gave an +impetus to that ridiculous business which might have earned for the whole +episode the name of the war of flags. British and American flags had +been planted the night before, and were seen that morning flying over +what they claimed about Laulii. British and American passengers, on the +way up and down, pointed out from the decks of the war-ships, with +generous vagueness, the boundaries of problematical estates. Ten days +later, the beach of Saluafata bay fluttered (as I have told in the last +chapter) with the flag of Germany. The Americans riposted with a claim +to Tamasese's camp, some small part of which (says Knappe) did really +belong to "an American nigger." The disease spread, the flags were +multiplied, the operations of war became an egg-dance among miniature +neutral territories; and though all men took a hand in these proceedings, +all men in turn were struck with their absurdity. Mullan, Leary's +successor, warned Knappe, in an emphatic despatch, not to squander and +discredit the solemnity of that emblem which was all he had to be a +defence to his own consulate. And Knappe himself, in his despatch of +March 21st, 1889, castigates the practice with much sense. But this was +after the tragicomic culmination had been reached, and the burnt rags of +one of these too-frequently mendacious signals gone on a progress to +Washington, like Caesar's body, arousing indignation where it came. To +such results are nations conducted by the patent artifices of a Becker. + +The discussion of the morning, the silent menace and defiance of the +voyage to Laulii, might have set the best-natured by the ears. But +Knappe and de Coetlogon took their difference in excellent part. On the +morrow, November 16th, they sat down together with Blacklock in +conference. The English consul introduced his colleagues, who shook +hands. If Knappe were dead-weighted with the inheritance of Becker, +Blacklock was handicapped by reminiscences of Leary; it is the more to +the credit of this inexperienced man that he should have maintained in +the future so excellent an attitude of firmness and moderation, and that +when the crash came, Knappe and de Coetlogon, not Knappe and Blacklock, +were found to be the protagonists of the drama. The conference was +futile. The English and American consuls admitted but one cure of the +evils of the time: that the farce of the Tamasese monarchy should cease. +It was one which the German refused to consider. And the agents +separated without reaching any result, save that diplomatic relations had +been restored between the States and Germany, and that all three were +convinced of their fundamental differences. + +Knappe and de Coetlogon were still friends; they had disputed and +differed and come within a finger's breadth of war, and they were still +friends. But an event was at hand which was to separate them for ever. +On December 4th came the _Royalist_, Captain Hand, to relieve the +_Lizard_. Pelly of course had to take his canvas from the consulate +hospital; but he had in charge certain awnings belonging to the +_Royalist_, and with these they made shift to cover the wounded, at that +time (after the fight at Laulii) more than usually numerous. A +lieutenant came to the consulate, and delivered (as I have received it) +the following message: "Captain Hand's compliments, and he says you must +get rid of these niggers at once, and he will help you to do it." +Doubtless the reply was no more civil than the message. The promised +"help," at least, followed promptly. A boat's crew landed and the +awnings were stripped from the wounded, Hand himself standing on the +colonel's verandah to direct operations. It were fruitless to discuss +this passage from the humanitarian point of view, or from that of formal +courtesy. The mind of the new captain was plainly not directed to these +objects. But it is understood that he considered the existence of a +hospital a source of irritation to Germans and a fault in policy. His +own rude act proved in the result far more impolitic. The hospital had +now been open some two months, and de Coetlogon was still on friendly +terms with Knappe, and he and his wife were engaged to dine with him that +day. By the morrow that was practically ended. For the rape of the +awnings had two results: one, which was the fault of de Coetlogon, not at +all of Hand, who could not have foreseen it; the other which it was his +duty to have seen and prevented. The first was this: the de Coetlogons +found themselves left with their wounded exposed to the inclemencies of +the season; they must all be transported into the house and verandah; in +the distress and pressure of this task, the dinner engagement was too +long forgotten; and a note of excuse did not reach the German consulate +before the table was set, and Knappe dressed to receive his visitors. The +second consequence was inevitable. Captain Hand was scarce landed ere it +became public (was "_sofort bekannt_," writes Knappe) that he and the +consul were in opposition. All that had been gained by the demonstration +at Laulii was thus immediately cast away; de Coetlogon's prestige was +lessened; and it must be said plainly that Hand did less than nothing to +restore it. Twice indeed he interfered, both times with success; and +once, when his own person had been endangered, with vehemence; but during +all the strange doings I have to narrate, he remained in close intimacy +with the German consulate, and on one occasion may be said to have acted +as its marshal. After the worst is over, after Bismarck has told Knappe +that "the protests of his English colleague were grounded," that his own +conduct "has not been good," and that in any dispute which may arise he +"will find himself in the wrong," Knappe can still plead in his defence +that Captain Hand "has always maintained friendly intercourse with the +German authorities." Singular epitaph for an English sailor. In this +complicity on the part of Hand we may find the reason--and I had almost +said, the excuse--of much that was excessive in the bearing of the +unfortunate Knappe. + +On the 11th December, Mataafa received twenty-eight thousand cartridges, +brought into the country in salt-beef kegs by the British ship +_Richmond_. This not only sharpened the animosity between whites; +following so closely on the German fizzle at Laulii, it raised a +convulsion in the camp of Tamasese. On the 13th Brandeis addressed to +Knappe his famous and fatal letter. I may not describe it as a letter of +burning words, but it is plainly dictated by a burning heart. Tamasese +and his chiefs, he announces, are now sick of the business, and ready to +make peace with Mataafa. They began the war relying upon German help; +they now see and say that "_e faaalo Siamani i Peritania ma America_, +that Germany is subservient to England and the States." It is grimly +given to be understood that the despatch is an ultimatum, and a last +chance is being offered for the recreant ally to fulfil her pledge. To +make it more plain, the document goes on with a kind of bilious irony: +"The two German war-ships now in Samoa are here for the protection of +German property alone; and when the _Olga_ shall have arrived" [she +arrived on the morrow] "the German war-ships will continue to do against +the insurgents precisely as little as they have done heretofore." Plant +flags, in fact. + +Here was Knappe's opportunity, could he have stooped to seize it. I find +it difficult to blame him that he could not. Far from being so +inglorious as the treachery once contemplated by Becker, the acceptance +of this ultimatum would have been still in the nature of a disgrace. +Brandeis's letter, written by a German, was hard to swallow. It would +have been hard to accept that solution which Knappe had so recently and +so peremptorily refused to his brother consuls. And he was tempted, on +the other hand, by recent changes. There was no Pelly to support de +Coetlogon, who might now be disregarded. Mullan, Leary's successor, even +if he were not precisely a Hand, was at least no Leary; and even if +Mullan should show fight, Knappe had now three ships and could defy or +sink him without danger. Many small circumstances moved him in the same +direction. The looting of German plantations continued; the whole force +of Mataafa was to a large extent subsisted from the crops of Vailele; and +armed men were to be seen openly plundering bananas, breadfruit, and +cocoa-nuts under the walls of the plantation building. On the night of +the 13th the consulate stable had been broken into and a horse removed. +On the 16th there was a riot in Apia between half-castes and sailors from +the new ship _Olga_, each side claiming that the other was the worse of +drink, both (for a wager) justly. The multiplication of flags and little +neutral territories had, besides, begun to irritate the Samoans. The +protests of German settlers had been received uncivilly. On the 16th the +Mataafas had again sought to land in Saluafata bay, with the manifest +intention to attack the Tamaseses, or (in other words) "to trespass on +German lands, covered, as your Excellency knows, with flags." I quote +from his requisition to Fritze, December 17th. Upon all these +considerations, he goes on, it is necessary to bring the fighting to an +end. Both parties are to be disarmed and returned to their +villages--Mataafa first. And in case of any attempt upon Apia, the roads +thither are to be held by a strong landing-party. Mataafa was to be +disarmed first, perhaps rightly enough in his character of the last +insurgent. Then was to have come the turn of Tamasese; but it does not +appear the disarming would have had the same import or have been gone +about in the same way. Germany was bound to Tamasese. No honest man +would dream of blaming Knappe because he sought to redeem his country's +word. The path he chose was doubtless that of honour, so far as honour +was still left. But it proved to be the road to ruin. + +Fritze, ranking German officer, is understood to have opposed the +measure. His attitude earned him at the time unpopularity among his +country-people on the spot, and should now redound to his credit. It is +to be hoped he extended his opposition to some of the details. If it +were possible to disarm Mataafa at all, it must be done rather by +prestige than force. A party of blue-jackets landed in Samoan bush, and +expected to hold against Samoans a multiplicity of forest paths, had +their work cut out for them. And it was plain they should be landed in +the light of day, with a discouraging openness, and even with parade. To +sneak ashore by night was to increase the danger of resistance and to +minimise the authority of the attack. The thing was a bluff, and it is +impossible to bluff with stealth. Yet this was what was tried. A +landing-party was to leave the _Olga_ in Apia bay at two in the morning; +the landing was to be at four on two parts of the foreshore of Vailele. +At eight they were to be joined by a second landing-party from the +_Eber_. By nine the Olgas were to be on the crest of Letongo Mountain, +and the Ebers to be moving round the promontory by the seaward paths, +"with measures of precaution," disarming all whom they encountered. There +was to be no firing unless fired upon. At the appointed hour (or perhaps +later) on the morning of the 19th, this unpromising business was put in +hand, and there moved off from the _Olga_ two boats with some fifty blue- +jackets between them, and a _praam_ or punt containing ninety,--the boats +and the whole expedition under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Jaeckel, +the praam under Lieutenant Spengler. The men had each forty rounds, one +day's provisions, and their flasks filled. + +In the meanwhile, Mataafa sympathisers about Apia were on the alert. +Knappe had informed the consuls that the ships were to put to sea next +day for the protection of German property; but the Tamaseses had been +less discreet. "To-morrow at the hour of seven," they had cried to their +adversaries, "you will know of a difficulty, and our guns shall be made +good in broken bones." An accident had pointed expectation towards Apia. +The wife of Le Mamea washed for the German ships--a perquisite, I +suppose, for her husband's unwilling fidelity. She sent a man with linen +on board the _Adler_, where he was surprised to see Le Mamea in person, +and to be himself ordered instantly on shore. The news spread. If Mamea +were brought down from Lotoanuu, others might have come at the same time. +Tamasese himself and half his army might perhaps lie concealed on board +the German ships. And a watch was accordingly set and warriors collected +along the line of the shore. One detachment lay in some rifle-pits by +the mouth of the Fuisa. They were commanded by Seumanu; and with his +party, probably as the most contiguous to Apia, was the +war-correspondent, John Klein. Of English birth, but naturalised +American, this gentleman had been for some time representing the _New +York World_ in a very effective manner, always in the front, living in +the field with the Samoans, and in all vicissitudes of weather, toiling +to and fro with his despatches. His wisdom was perhaps not equal to his +energy. He made himself conspicuous, going about armed to the teeth in a +boat under the stars and stripes; and on one occasion, when he supposed +himself fired upon by the Tamaseses, had the petulance to empty his +revolver in the direction of their camp. By the light of the moon, which +was then nearly down, this party observed the _Olga's_ two boats and the +praam, which they described as "almost sinking with men," the boats +keeping well out towards the reef, the praam at the moment apparently +heading for the shore. An extreme agitation seems to have reigned in the +rifle-pits. What were the newcomers? What was their errand? Were they +Germans or Tamaseses? Had they a mind to attack? The praam was hailed +in Samoan and did not answer. It was proposed to fire upon her ere she +drew near. And at last, whether on his own suggestion or that of +Seumanu, Klein hailed her in English, and in terms of unnecessary +melodrama. "Do not try to land here," he cried. "If you do, your blood +will be upon your head." Spengler, who had never the least intention to +touch at the Fuisa, put up the head of the praam to her true course and +continued to move up the lagoon with an offing of some seventy or eighty +yards. Along all the irregularities and obstructions of the beach, +across the mouth of the Vaivasa, and through the startled village of +Matafangatele, Seumanu, Klein, and seven or eight others raced to keep +up, spreading the alarm and rousing reinforcements as they went. +Presently a man on horse-back made his appearance on the opposite beach +of Fangalii. Klein and the natives distinctly saw him signal with a +lantern; which is the more strange, as the horseman (Captain Hufnagel, +plantation manager of Vailele) had never a lantern to signal with. The +praam kept in. Many men in white were seen to stand up, step overboard, +and wade to shore. At the same time the eye of panic descried a +breastwork of "foreign stone" (brick) upon the beach. Samoans are +prepared to-day to swear to its existence, I believe conscientiously, +although no such thing was ever made or ever intended in that place. The +hour is doubtful. "It was the hour when the streak of dawn is seen, the +hour known in the warfare of heathen times as the hour of the night +attack," says the Mataafa official account. A native whom I met on the +field declared it was at cock-crow. Captain Hufnagel, on the other hand, +is sure it was long before the day. It was dark at least, and the moon +down. Darkness made the Samoans bold; uncertainty as to the composition +and purpose of the landing-party made them desperate. Fire was opened on +the Germans, one of whom was here killed. The Germans returned it, and +effected a lodgment on the beach; and the skirmish died again to silence. +It was at this time, if not earlier, that Klein returned to Apia. + +Here, then, were Spengler and the ninety men of the praam, landed on the +beach in no very enviable posture, the woods in front filled with +unnumbered enemies, but for the time successful. Meanwhile, Jaeckel and +the boats had gone outside the reef, and were to land on the other side +of the Vailele promontory, at Sunga, by the buildings of the plantation. +It was Hufnagel's part to go and meet them. His way led straight into +the woods and through the midst of the Samoans, who had but now ceased +firing. He went in the saddle and at a foot's pace, feeling speed and +concealment to be equally helpless, and that if he were to fall at all, +he had best fall with dignity. Not a shot was fired at him; no effort +made to arrest him on his errand. As he went, he spoke and even jested +with the Samoans, and they answered in good part. One fellow was +leaping, yelling, and tossing his axe in the air, after the way of an +excited islander. "_Faimalosi_! go it!" said Hufnagel, and the fellow +laughed and redoubled his exertions. As soon as the boats entered the +lagoon, fire was again opened from the woods. The fifty blue-jackets +jumped overboard, hove down the boats to be a shield, and dragged them +towards the landing-place. In this way, their rations, and (what was +more unfortunate) some of their miserable provision of forty rounds got +wetted; but the men came to shore and garrisoned the plantation house +without a casualty. Meanwhile the sound of the firing from Sunga +immediately renewed the hostilities at Fangalii. The civilians on shore +decided that Spengler must be at once guided to the house, and Haideln, +the surveyor, accepted the dangerous errand. Like Hufnagel, he was +suffered to pass without question through the midst of these platonic +enemies. He found Spengler some way inland on a knoll, disastrously +engaged, the woods around him filled with Samoans, who were continuously +reinforced. In three successive charges, cheering as they ran, the blue- +jackets burst through their scattered opponents, and made good their +junction with Jaeckel. Four men only remained upon the field, the other +wounded being helped by their comrades or dragging themselves painfully +along. + +The force was now concentrated in the house and its immediate patch of +garden. Their rear, to the seaward, was unmolested; but on three sides +they were beleaguered. On the left, the Samoans occupied and fired from +some of the plantation offices. In front, a long rising crest of land in +the horse-pasture commanded the house, and was lined with the assailants. +And on the right, the hedge of the same paddock afforded them a dangerous +cover. It was in this place that a Samoan sharpshooter was knocked over +by Jaeckel with his own hand. The fire was maintained by the Samoans in +the usual wasteful style. The roof was made a sieve; the balls passed +clean through the house; Lieutenant Sieger, as he lay, already dying, on +Hufnagel's bed, was despatched with a fresh wound. The Samoans showed +themselves extremely enterprising: pushed their lines forward, ventured +beyond cover, and continually threatened to envelop the garden. Thrice, +at least, it was necessary to repel them by a sally. The men were +brought into the house from the rear, the front doors were thrown +suddenly open, and the gallant blue-jackets issued cheering: necessary, +successful, but extremely costly sorties. Neither could these be pushed +far. The foes were undaunted; so soon as the sailors advanced at all +deep in the horse-pasture, the Samoans began to close in upon both +flanks; and the sally had to be recalled. To add to the dangers of the +German situation, ammunition began to run low; and the cartridge-boxes of +the wounded and the dead had been already brought into use before, at +about eight o'clock, the _Eber_ steamed into the bay. Her commander, +Wallis, threw some shells into Letongo, one of which killed five men +about their cooking-pot. The Samoans began immediately to withdraw; +their movements were hastened by a sortie, and the remains of the landing- +party brought on board. This was an unfortunate movement; it gave an +irremediable air of defeat to what might have been else claimed for a +moderate success. The blue-jackets numbered a hundred and forty all +told; they were engaged separately and fought under the worst conditions, +in the dark and among woods; their position in the house was scarce +tenable; they lost in killed and wounded fifty-six,--forty per cent.; and +their spirit to the end was above question. Whether we think of the poor +sailor lads, always so pleasantly behaved in times of peace, or whether +we call to mind the behaviour of the two civilians, Haideln and Hufnagel, +we can only regret that brave men should stand to be exposed upon so poor +a quarrel, or lives cast away upon an enterprise so hopeless. + +News of the affair reached Apia early, and Moors, always curious of these +spectacles of war, was immediately in the saddle. Near Matafangatele he +met a Manono chief, whom he asked if there were any German dead. "I +think there are about thirty of them knocked over," said he. "Have you +taken their heads?" asked Moors. "Yes," said the chief. "Some foolish +people did it, but I have stopped them. We ought not to cut off their +heads when they do not cut off ours." He was asked what had been done +with the heads. "Two have gone to Mataafa," he replied, "and one is +buried right under where your horse is standing, in a basket wrapped in +tapa." This was afterwards dug up, and I am told on native authority +that, besides the three heads, two ears were taken. Moors next asked the +Manono man how he came to be going away. "The man-of-war is throwing +shells," said he. "When they stopped firing out of the house, we stopped +firing also; so it was as well to scatter when the shells began. We +could have killed all the white men. I wish they had been Tamaseses." +This is an _ex parte_ statement, and I give it for such; but the course +of the affair, and in particular the adventures of Haideln and Hufnagel, +testify to a surprising lack of animosity against the Germans. About the +same time or but a little earlier than this conversation, the same spirit +was being displayed. Hufnagel, with a party of labour, had gone out to +bring in the German dead, when he was surprised to be suddenly fired on +from the wood. The boys he had with him were not negritos, but +Polynesians from the Gilbert Islands; and he suddenly remembered that +these might be easily mistaken for a detachment of Tamaseses. Bidding +his boys conceal themselves in a thicket, this brave man walked into the +open. So soon as he was recognised, the firing ceased, and the labourers +followed him in safety. This is chivalrous war; but there was a side to +it less chivalrous. As Moors drew nearer to Vailele, he began to meet +Samoans with hats, guns, and even shirts, taken from the German sailors. +With one of these who had a hat and a gun he stopped and spoke. The hat +was handed up for him to look at; it had the late owner's name on the +inside. "Where is he?" asked Moors. "He is dead; I cut his head off." +"You shot him?" "No, somebody else shot him in the hip. When I came, he +put up his hands, and cried: 'Don't kill me; I am a Malietoa man.' I did +not believe him, and I cut his head off...... Have you any ammunition to +fit that gun?" "I do not know." "What has become of the +cartridge-belt?" "Another fellow grabbed that and the cartridges, and he +won't give them to me." A dreadful and silly picture of barbaric war. +The words of the German sailor must be regarded as imaginary: how was the +poor lad to speak native, or the Samoan to understand German? When Moors +came as far as Sunga, the _Eber_ was yet in the bay, the smoke of battle +still lingered among the trees, which were themselves marked with a +thousand bullet-wounds. But the affair was over, the combatants, German +and Samoan, were all gone, and only a couple of negrito labour boys +lurked on the scene. The village of Letongo beyond was equally silent; +part of it was wrecked by the shells of the _Eber_, and still smoked; the +inhabitants had fled. On the beach were the native boats, perhaps five +thousand dollars' worth, deserted by the Mataafas and overlooked by the +Germans, in their common hurry to escape. Still Moors held eastward by +the sea-paths. It was his hope to get a view from the other side of the +promontory, towards Laulii. In the way he found a house hidden in the +wood and among rocks, where an aged and sick woman was being tended by +her elderly daughter. Last lingerers in that deserted piece of coast, +they seemed indifferent to the events which had thus left them solitary, +and, as the daughter said, did not know where Mataafa was, nor where +Tamasese. + +It is the official Samoan pretension that the Germans fired first at +Fangalii. In view of all German and some native testimony, the text of +Fritze's orders, and the probabilities of the case, no honest mind will +believe it for a moment. Certainly the Samoans fired first. As +certainly they were betrayed into the engagement in the agitation of the +moment, and it was not till afterwards that they understood what they had +done. Then, indeed, all Samoa drew a breath of wonder and delight. The +invincible had fallen; the men of the vaunted war-ships had been met in +the field by the braves of Mataafa: a superstition was no more. Conceive +this people steadily as schoolboys; and conceive the elation in any +school if the head boy should suddenly arise and drive the rector from +the schoolhouse. I have received one instance of the feeling instantly +aroused. There lay at the time in the consular hospital an old chief who +was a pet of the colonel's. News reached him of the glorious event; he +was sick, he thought himself sinking, sent for the colonel, and gave him +his gun. "Don't let the Germans get it," said the old gentleman, and +having received a promise, was at peace. + + + + +CHAPTER IX--"FUROR CONSULARIS" + + +_December_ 1888 _to March_ 1889 + +Knappe, in the _Adler_, with a flag of truce at the fore, was entering +Laulii Bay when the _Eber_ brought him the news of the night's reverse. +His heart was doubtless wrung for his young countrymen who had been +butchered and mutilated in the dark woods, or now lay suffering, and some +of them dying, on the ship. And he must have been startled as he +recognised his own position. He had gone too far; he had stumbled into +war, and, what was worse, into defeat; he had thrown away German lives +for less than nothing, and now saw himself condemned either to accept +defeat, or to kick and pummel his failure into something like success; +either to accept defeat, or take frenzy for a counsellor. Yesterday, in +cold blood, he had judged it necessary to have the woods to the westward +guarded lest the evacuation of Laulii should prove only the peril of +Apia. To-day, in the irritation and alarm of failure, he forgot or +despised his previous reasoning, and, though his detachment was beat back +to the ships, proceeded with the remainder of his maimed design. The +only change he made was to haul down the flag of truce. He had now no +wish to meet with Mataafa. Words were out of season, shells must speak. + +At this moment an incident befell him which must have been trying to his +self-command. The new American ship _Nipsic_ entered Laulii Bay; her +commander, Mullan, boarded the _Adler_ to protest, succeeded in wresting +from Knappe a period of delay in order that the women might be spared, +and sent a lieutenant to Mataafa with a warning. The camp was already +excited by the news and the trophies of Fangalii. Already Tamasese and +Lotoanuu seemed secondary objectives to the Germans and Apia. Mullan's +message put an end to hesitation. Laulii was evacuated. The troops +streamed westward by the mountain side, and took up the same day a strong +position about Tanungamanono and Mangiangi, some two miles behind Apia, +which they threatened with the one hand, while with the other they +continued to draw their supplies from the devoted plantations of the +German firm. Laulii, when it was shelled, was empty. The British flags +were, of course, fired upon; and I hear that one of them was struck down, +but I think every one must be privately of the mind that it was fired +upon and fell, in a place where it had little business to be shown. + +Such was the military epilogue to the ill-judged adventure of Fangalii; +it was difficult for failure to be more complete. But the other +consequences were of a darker colour and brought the whites immediately +face to face in a spirit of ill-favoured animosity. Knappe was mourning +the defeat and death of his country-folk, he was standing aghast over the +ruin of his own career, when Mullan boarded him. The successor of Leary +served himself, in that bitter moment, heir to Leary's part. And in +Mullan, Knappe saw more even than the successor of Leary,--he saw in him +the representative of Klein. Klein had hailed the praam from the rifle- +pits; he had there uttered ill-chosen words, unhappily prophetic; it is +even likely that he was present at the time of the first fire. To accuse +him of the design and conduct of the whole attack was but a step forward; +his own vapouring served to corroborate the accusation; and it was not +long before the German consulate was in possession of sworn native +testimony in support. The worth of native testimony is small, the worth +of white testimony not overwhelming; and I am in the painful position of +not being able to subscribe either to Klein's own account of the affair +or to that of his accusers. Klein was extremely flurried; his interest +as a reporter must have tempted him at first to make the most of his +share in the exploit, the immediate peril in which he soon found himself +to stand must have at least suggested to him the idea of minimising it; +one way and another, he is not a good witness. As for the natives, they +were no doubt cross-examined in that hall of terror, the German +consulate, where they might be trusted to lie like schoolboys, or (if the +reader prefer it) like Samoans. By outside white testimony, it remains +established for me that Klein returned to Apia either before or +immediately after the first shots. That he ever sought or was ever +allowed a share in the command may be denied peremptorily; but it is more +than likely that he expressed himself in an excited manner and with a +highly inflammatory effect upon his hearers. He was, at least, severely +punished. The Germans, enraged by his provocative behaviour and what +they thought to be his German birth, demanded him to be tried before +court-martial; he had to skulk inside the sentries of the American +consulate, to be smuggled on board a war-ship, and to be carried almost +by stealth out of the island; and what with the agitations of his mind, +and the results of a marsh fever contracted in the lines of Mataafa, +reached Honolulu a very proper object of commiseration. Nor was Klein +the only accused: de Coetlogon was himself involved. As the boats passed +Matautu, Knappe declares a signal was made from the British consulate. +Perhaps we should rather read "from its neighbourhood"; since, in the +general warding of the coast, the point of Matautu could scarce have been +neglected. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the Samoans, in the +anxiety of that night of watching and fighting, crowded to the friendly +consul for advice. Late in the night, the wounded Siteoni, lying on the +colonel's verandah, one corner of which had been blinded down that he +might sleep, heard the coming and going of bare feet and the voices of +eager consultation. And long after, a man who had been discharged from +the colonel's employment took upon himself to swear an affidavit as to +the nature of the advice then given, and to carry the document to the +German consul. It was an act of private revenge; it fell long out of +date in the good days of Dr. Stuebel, and had no result but to discredit +the gentleman who volunteered it. Colonel de Coetlogon had his faults, +but they did not touch his honour; his bare word would always outweigh a +waggon-load of such denunciations; and he declares his behaviour on that +night to have been blameless. The question was besides inquired into on +the spot by Sir John Thurston, and the colonel honourably acquitted. But +during the weeks that were now to follow, Knappe believed the contrary; +he believed not only that Moors and others had supplied ammunition and +Klein commanded in the field, but that de Coetlogon had made the signal +of attack; that though his blue-jackets had bled and fallen against the +arms of Samoans, these were supplied, inspired, and marshalled by +Americans and English. + +The legend was the more easily believed because it embraced and was +founded upon so much truth. Germans lay dead, the German wounded groaned +in their cots; and the cartridges by which they fell had been sold by an +American and brought into the country in a British bottom. Had the +transaction been entirely mercenary, it would already have been hard to +swallow; but it was notoriously not so. British and Americans were +notoriously the partisans of Mataafa. They rejoiced in the result of +Fangalii, and so far from seeking to conceal their rejoicing, paraded and +displayed it. Calumny ran high. Before the dead were buried, while the +wounded yet lay in pain and fever, cowardly accusations of cowardice were +levelled at the German blue-jackets. It was said they had broken and run +before their enemies, and that they had huddled helpless like sheep in +the plantation house. Small wonder if they had; small wonder had they +been utterly destroyed. But the fact was heroically otherwise; and these +dastard calumnies cut to the blood. They are not forgotten; perhaps they +will never be forgiven. + +In the meanwhile, events were pressing towards a still more trenchant +opposition. On the 20th, the three consuls met and parted without +agreement, Knappe announcing that he had lost men and must take the +matter in his own hands to avenge their death. On the 21st the _Olga_ +came before Matafangatele, ordered the delivery of all arms within the +hour, and at the end of that period, none being brought, shelled and +burned the village. The shells fell for the most part innocuous; an +eyewitness saw children at play beside the flaming houses; not a soul was +injured; and the one noteworthy event was the mutilation of Captain +Hamilton's American flag. In one sense an incident too small to be +chronicled, in another this was of historic interest and import. These +rags of tattered bunting occasioned the display of a new sentiment in the +United States; and the republic of the West, hitherto so apathetic and +unwieldy, but already stung by German nonchalance, leaped to its feet for +the first time at the news of this fresh insult. As though to make the +inefficiency of the war-ships more apparent, three shells were thrown +inland at Mangiangi; they flew high over the Mataafa camp, where the +natives could "hear them singing" as they flew, and fell behind in the +deep romantic valley of the Vaisingano. Mataafa had been already +summoned on board the _Adler_; his life promised if he came, declared "in +danger" if he came not; and he had declined in silence the unattractive +invitation. These fresh hostile acts showed him that the worst had come. +He was in strength, his force posted along the whole front of the +mountain behind Apia, Matautu occupied, the Siumu road lined up to the +houses of the town with warriors passionate for war. The occasion was +unique, and there is no doubt that he designed to seize it. The same day +of this bombardment, he sent word bidding all English and Americans wear +a black band upon their arm, so that his men should recognise and spare +them. The hint was taken, and the band worn for a continuance of days. +To have refused would have been insane; but to consent was unhappily to +feed the resentment of the Germans by a fresh sign of intelligence with +their enemies, and to widen the breach between the races by a fresh and a +scarce pardonable mark of their division. The same day again the Germans +repeated one of their earlier offences by firing on a boat within the +harbour. Times were changed; they were now at war and in peril, the +rigour of military advantage might well be seized by them and pardoned by +others; but it so chanced that the bullets flew about the ears of Captain +Hand, and that commander is said to have been insatiable of apologies. +The affair, besides, had a deplorable effect on the inhabitants. A black +band (they saw) might protect them from the Mataafas, not from +undiscriminating shots. Panic ensued. The war-ships were open to +receive the fugitives, and the gentlemen who had made merry over Fangalii +were seen to thrust each other from the wharves in their eagerness to +flee Apia. I willingly drop the curtain on the shameful picture. + +Meanwhile, on the German side of the bay, a more manly spirit was +exhibited in circumstances of alarming weakness. The plantation managers +and overseers had all retreated to Matafele, only one (I understand) +remaining at his post. The whole German colony was thus collected in one +spot, and could count and wonder at its scanty numbers. Knappe declares +(to my surprise) that the war-ships could not spare him more than fifty +men a day. The great extension of the German quarter, he goes on, did +not "allow a full occupation of the outer line"; hence they had shrunk +into the western end by the firm buildings, and the inhabitants were +warned to fall back on this position, in the case of an alert. So that +he who had set forth, a day or so before, to disarm the Mataafas in the +open field, now found his resources scarce adequate to garrison the +buildings of the firm. But Knappe seemed unteachable by fate. It is +probable he thought he had + + "Already waded in so deep, + Returning were as tedious as go o'er"; + +it is certain that he continued, on the scene of his defeat and in the +midst of his weakness, to bluster and menace like a conqueror. Active +war, which he lacked the means of attempting, was continually threatened. +On the 22nd he sought the aid of his brother consuls to maintain the +neutral territory against Mataafa; and at the same time, as though +meditating instant deeds of prowess, refused to be bound by it himself. +This singular proposition was of course refused: Blacklock remarking that +he had no fear of the natives, if these were let alone; de Coetlogon +refusing in the circumstances to recognise any neutral territory at all. +In vain Knappe amended and baited his proposal with the offer of forty- +eight or ninety-six hours' notice, according as his objective should be +near or within the boundary of the _Eleele Sa_. It was rejected; and he +learned that he must accept war with all its consequences--and not that +which he desired--war with the immunities of peace. + +This monstrous exigence illustrates the man's frame of mind. It has been +still further illuminated in the German white-book by printing alongside +of his despatches those of the unimpassioned Fritze. On January 8th the +consulate was destroyed by fire. Knappe says it was the work of +incendiaries, "without doubt"; Fritze admits that "everything seems to +show" it was an accident. "Tamasese's people fit to bear arms," writes +Knappe, "are certainly for the moment equal to Mataafa's," though +restrained from battle by the lack of ammunition. "As for Tamasese," +says Fritze of the same date, "he is now but a phantom--_dient er nur als +Gespenst_. His party, for practical purposes, is no longer large. They +pretend ammunition to be lacking, but what they lack most is good-will. +Captain Brandeis, whose influence is now small, declares they can no +longer sustain a serious engagement, and is himself in the intention of +leaving Samoa by the _Lubeck_ of the 5th February." And Knappe, in the +same despatch, confutes himself and confirms the testimony of his naval +colleague, by the admission that "the re-establishment of Tamasese's +government is, under present circumstances, not to be thought of." +Plainly, then, he was not so much seeking to deceive others, as he was +himself possessed; and we must regard the whole series of his acts and +despatches as the agitations of a fever. + +The British steamer _Richmond_ returned to Apia, January 15th. On the +last voyage she had brought the ammunition already so frequently referred +to; as a matter of fact, she was again bringing contraband of war. It is +necessary to be explicit upon this, which served as spark to so great a +flame of scandal. Knappe was justified in interfering; he would have +been worthy of all condemnation if he had neglected, in his posture of +semi-investment, a precaution so elementary; and the manner in which he +set about attempting it was conciliatory and almost timid. He applied to +Captain Hand, and begged him to accept himself the duty of "controlling" +the discharge of the _Richmond's_ cargo. Hand was unable to move without +his consul; and at night an armed boat from the Germans boarded, +searched, and kept possession of, the suspected ship. The next day, as +by an after-thought, war and martial law were proclaimed for the Samoan +Islands, the introduction of contraband of war forbidden, and ships and +boats declared liable to search. "All support of the rebels will be +punished by martial law," continued the proclamation, "no matter to what +nationality the person [_Thater_] may belong." + +Hand, it has been seen, declined to act in the matter of the _Richmond_ +without the concurrence of his consul; but I have found no evidence that +either Hand or Knappe communicated with de Coetlogon, with whom they were +both at daggers drawn. First the seizure and next the proclamation seem +to have burst on the English consul from a clear sky; and he wrote on the +same day, throwing doubt on Knappe's authority to declare war. Knappe +replied on the 20th that the Imperial German Government had been at war +as a matter of fact since December 19th, and that it was only for the +convenience of the subjects of other states that he had been empowered to +make a formal declaration. "From that moment," he added, "martial law +prevails in Samoa." De Coetlogon instantly retorted, declining martial +law for British subjects, and announcing a proclamation in that sense. +Instantly, again, came that astonishing document, Knappe's rejoinder, +without pause, without reflection--the pens screeching on the paper, the +messengers (you would think) running from consulate to consulate: "I have +had the honour to receive your Excellency's [_Hochwohlgeboren_] agreeable +communication of to-day. Since, on the ground of received instructions, +martial law has been declared in Samoa, British subjects as well as +others fall under its application. I warn you therefore to abstain from +such a proclamation as you announce in your letter. It will be such a +piece of business as shall make yourself answerable under martial law. +Besides, your proclamation will be disregarded." De Coetlogon of course +issued his proclamation at once, Knappe retorted with another, and night +closed on the first stage of this insane collision. I hear the German +consul was on this day prostrated with fever; charity at least must +suppose him hardly answerable for his language. + +Early on the 21st, Mr. Mansfield Gallien, a passing traveller, was seized +in his berth on board the _Richmond_, and carried, half-dressed, on board +a German war-ship. His offence was, in the circumstances and after the +proclamation, substantial. He had gone the day before, in the spirit of +a tourist to Mataafa's camp, had spoken with the king, and had even +recommended him an appeal to Sir George Grey. Fritze, I gather, had been +long uneasy; this arrest on board a British ship fitted the measure. +Doubtless, as he had written long before, the consul alone was +responsible "on the legal side"; but the captain began to ask himself, +"What next?"--telegraphed direct home for instructions, "Is arrest of +foreigners on foreign vessels legal?"--and was ready, at a word from +Captain Hand, to discharge his dangerous prisoner. The word in question +(so the story goes) was not without a kind of wit. "I wish you would set +that man ashore," Hand is reported to have said, indicating Gallien; "I +wish you would set that man ashore, to save me the trouble." The same +day de Coetlogon published a proclamation requesting captains to submit +to search for contraband of war. + +On the 22nd the _Samoa Times and South Sea Advertiser_ was suppressed by +order of Fritze. I have hitherto refrained from mentioning the single +paper of our islands, that I might deal with it once for all. It is of +course a tiny sheet; but I have often had occasion to wonder at the +ability of its articles, and almost always at the decency of its tone. +Officials may at times be a little roughly, and at times a little +captiously, criticised; private persons are habitually respected; and +there are many papers in England, and still more in the States, even of +leading organs in chief cities, that might envy, and would do well to +imitate, the courtesy and discretion of the _Samoa Times_. Yet the +editor, Cusack, is only an amateur in journalism, and a carpenter by +trade. His chief fault is one perhaps inevitable in so small a +place--that he seems a little in the leading of a clique; but his +interest in the public weal is genuine and generous. One man's meat is +another man's poison: Anglo-Saxons and Germans have been differently +brought up. To our galled experience the paper appears moderate; to their +untried sensations it seems violent. We think a public man fair game; we +think it a part of his duty, and I am told he finds it a part of his +reward, to be continually canvassed by the press. For the Germans, on +the other hand, an official wears a certain sacredness; when he is called +over the coals, they are shocked, and (if the official be a German) feel +that Germany itself has been insulted. The _Samoa Times_ had been long a +mountain of offence. Brandeis had imported from the colonies another +printer of the name of Jones, to deprive Cusack of the government +printing. German sailors had come ashore one day, wild with offended +patriotism, to punish the editor with stripes, and the result was +delightfully amusing. The champions asked for the English printer. They +were shown the wrong man, and the blows intended for Cusack had hailed on +the shoulders of his rival Jones. On the 12th, Cusack had reprinted an +article from a San Francisco paper; the Germans had complained; and de +Coetlogon, in a moment of weakness, had fined the editor twenty pounds. +The judgment was afterwards reversed in Fiji; but even at the time it had +not satisfied the Germans. And so now, on the third day of martial law, +the paper was suppressed. Here we have another of these international +obscurities. To Fritze the step seemed natural and obvious; for Anglo- +Saxons it was a hand laid upon the altar; and the month was scarce out +before the voice of Senator Frye announced to his colleagues that free +speech had been suppressed in Samoa. + +Perhaps we must seek some similar explanation for Fritze's short-lived +code, published and withdrawn the next day, the 23rd. Fritze himself was +in no humour for extremities. He was much in the position of a +lieutenant who should perceive his captain urging the ship upon the +rocks. It is plain he had lost all confidence in his commanding officer +"upon the legal side"; and we find him writing home with anxious candour. +He had understood that martial law implied military possession; he was in +military possession of nothing but his ship, and shrewdly suspected that +his martial jurisdiction should be confined within the same limits. "As +a matter of fact," he writes, "we do not occupy the territory, and cannot +give foreigners the necessary protection, because Mataafa and his people +can at any moment forcibly interrupt me in my jurisdiction." Yet in the +eyes of Anglo-Saxons the severity of his code appeared burlesque. I give +but three of its provisions. The crime of inciting German troops "by any +means, as, for instance, informing them of proclamations by the enemy," +was punishable with death; that of "publishing or secretly distributing +anything, whether printed or written, bearing on the war," with prison or +deportation; and that of calling or attending a public meeting, unless +permitted, with the same. Such were the tender mercies of Knappe, +lurking in the western end of the German quarter, where Mataafa could "at +any moment" interrupt his jurisdiction. + +On the 22nd (day of the suppression of the _Times_) de Coetlogon wrote to +inquire if hostilities were intended against Great Britain, which Knappe +on the same day denied. On the 23rd de Coetlogon sent a complaint of +hostile acts, such as the armed and forcible entry of the _Richmond_ +before the declaration and arrest of Gallien. In his reply, dated the +24th, Knappe took occasion to repeat, although now with more +self-command, his former threat against de Coetlogon. "I am still of the +opinion," he writes, "that even foreign consuls are liable to the +application of martial law, if they are guilty of offences against the +belligerent state." The same day (24th) de Coetlogon complained that +Fletcher, manager for Messrs. MacArthur, had been summoned by Fritze. In +answer, Knappe had "the honour to inform your Excellency that since the +declaration of the state of war, British subjects are liable to martial +law, and Mr. Fletcher will be arrested if he does not appear." Here, +then, was the gauntlet thrown down, and de Coetlogon was burning to +accept it. Fletcher's offence was this. Upon the 22nd a steamer had +come in from Wellington, specially chartered to bring German despatches +to Apia. The rumour came along with her from New Zealand that in these +despatches Knappe would find himself rebuked, and Fletcher was accused of +having "interested himself in the spreading of this rumour." His arrest +was actually ordered, when Hand succeeded in persuading him to surrender. +At the German court, the case was dismissed "_wegen Nichtigkeit_"; and +the acute stage of these distempers may be said to have ended. Blessed +are the peacemakers. Hand had perhaps averted a collision. What is more +certain, he had offered to the world a perfectly original reading of the +part of British seaman. + +Hand may have averted a collision, I say; but I am tempted to believe +otherwise. I am tempted to believe the threat to arrest Fletcher was the +last mutter of the declining tempest and a mere sop to Knappe's +self-respect. I am tempted to believe the rumour in question was +substantially correct, and the steamer from Wellington had really brought +the German consul grounds for hesitation, if not orders to retreat. I +believe the unhappy man to have awakened from a dream, and to have read +ominous writing on the wall. An enthusiastic popularity surrounded him +among the Germans. It was natural. Consul and colony had passed through +an hour of serious peril, and the consul had set the example of undaunted +courage. He was entertained at dinner. Fritze, who was known to have +secretly opposed him, was scorned and avoided. But the clerks of the +German firm were one thing, Prince Bismarck was another; and on a cold +review of these events, it is not improbable that Knappe may have envied +the position of his naval colleague. It is certain, at least, that he +set himself to shuffle and capitulate; and when the blow fell, he was +able to reply that the martial law business had in the meanwhile come +right; that the English and American consular courts stood open for +ordinary cases and that in different conversations with Captain Hand, +"who has always maintained friendly intercourse with the German +authorities," it had been repeatedly explained that only the supply of +weapons and ammunition, or similar aid and support, was to come under +German martial law. Was it weapons or ammunition that Fletcher had +supplied? But it is unfair to criticise these wrigglings of an +unfortunate in a false position. + +In a despatch of the 23rd, which has not been printed, Knappe had told +his story: how he had declared war, subjected foreigners to martial law, +and been received with a counter-proclamation by the English consul; and +how (in an interview with Mataafa chiefs at the plantation house of +Motuotua, of which I cannot find the date) he had demanded the cession of +arms and of ringleaders for punishment, and proposed to assume the +government of the islands. On February 12th he received Bismarck's +answer: "You had no right to take foreigners from the jurisdiction of +their consuls. The protest of your English colleague is grounded. In +disputes which may arise from this cause you will find yourself in the +wrong. The demand formulated by you, as to the assumption of the +government of Samoa by Germany, lay outside of your instructions and of +our design. Take it immediately back. If your telegram is here rightly +understood, I cannot call your conduct good." It must be a hard heart +that does not sympathise with Knappe in the hour when he received this +document. Yet it may be said that his troubles were still in the +beginning. Men had contended against him, and he had not prevailed; he +was now to be at war with the elements, and find his name identified with +an immense disaster. + +One more date, however, must be given first. It was on February 27th +that Fritze formally announced martial law to be suspended, and himself +to have relinquished the control of the police. + + + + +CHAPTER X--THE HURRICANE + + +_March_ 1889 + +The so-called harbour of Apia is formed in part by a recess of the coast- +line at Matautu, in part by the slim peninsula of Mulinuu, and in part by +the fresh waters of the Mulivai and Vaisingano. The barrier reef--that +singular breakwater that makes so much of the circuit of Pacific +islands--is carried far to sea at Matautu and Mulinuu; inside of these +two horns it runs sharply landward, and between them it is burst or +dissolved by the fresh water. The shape of the enclosed anchorage may be +compared to a high-shouldered jar or bottle with a funnel mouth. Its +sides are almost everywhere of coral; for the reef not only bounds it to +seaward and forms the neck and mouth, but skirting about the beach, it +forms the bottom also. As in the bottle of commerce, the bottom is re- +entrant, and the shore-reef runs prominently forth into the basin and +makes a dangerous cape opposite the fairway of the entrance. Danger is, +therefore, on all hands. The entrance gapes three cables wide at the +narrowest, and the formidable surf of the Pacific thunders both outside +and in. There are days when speech is difficult in the chambers of shore- +side houses; days when no boat can land, and when men are broken by +stroke of sea against the wharves. As I write these words, three miles +in the mountains, and with the land-breeze still blowing from the island +summit, the sound of that vexed harbour hums in my ears. Such a creek in +my native coast of Scotland would scarce be dignified with the mark of an +anchor in the chart; but in the favoured climate of Samoa, and with the +mechanical regularity of the winds in the Pacific, it forms, for ten or +eleven months out of the twelve, a safe if hardly a commodious port. The +ill-found island traders ride there with their insufficient moorings the +year through, and discharge, and are loaded, without apprehension. Of +danger, when it comes, the glass gives timely warning; and that any +modern war-ship, furnished with the power of steam, should have been lost +in Apia, belongs not so much to nautical as to political history. + +The weather throughout all that winter (the turbulent summer of the +islands) was unusually fine, and the circumstance had been commented on +as providential, when so many Samoans were lying on their weapons in the +bush. By February it began to break in occasional gales. On February +10th a German brigantine was driven ashore. On the 14th the same +misfortune befell an American brigantine and a schooner. On both these +days, and again on the 7th March, the men-of-war must steam to their +anchors. And it was in this last month, the most dangerous of the +twelve, that man's animosities crowded that indentation of the reef with +costly, populous, and vulnerable ships. + +I have shown, perhaps already at too great a length, how violently +passion ran upon the spot; how high this series of blunders and mishaps +had heated the resentment of the Germans against all other nationalities +and of all other nationalities against the Germans. But there was one +country beyond the borders of Samoa where the question had aroused a +scarce less angry sentiment. The breach of the Washington Congress, the +evidence of Sewall before a sub-committee on foreign relations, the +proposal to try Klein before a military court, and the rags of Captain +Hamilton's flag, had combined to stir the people of the States to an +unwonted fervour. Germany was for the time the abhorred of nations. +Germans in America publicly disowned the country of their birth. In +Honolulu, so near the scene of action, German and American young men fell +to blows in the street. In the same city, from no traceable source, and +upon no possible authority, there arose a rumour of tragic news to arrive +by the next occasion, that the _Nipsic_ had opened fire on the _Adler_, +and the _Adler_ had sunk her on the first reply. Punctually on the day +appointed, the news came; and the two nations, instead of being plunged +into war, could only mingle tears over the loss of heroes. + +By the second week in March three American ships were in Apia bay,--the +_Nipsic_, the _Vandalia_, and the _Trenton_, carrying the flag of Rear- +Admiral Kimberley; three German,--the _Adler_, the _Eber_, and the +_Olga_; and one British,--the _Calliope_, Captain Kane. Six merchant- +men, ranging from twenty-five up to five hundred tons, and a number of +small craft, further encumbered the anchorage. Its capacity is estimated +by Captain Kane at four large ships; and the latest arrivals, the +_Vandalia_ and _Trenton_, were in consequence excluded, and lay without +in the passage. Of the seven war-ships, the seaworthiness of two was +questionable: the _Trenton's_, from an original defect in her +construction, often reported, never remedied--her hawse-pipes leading in +on the berth-deck; the _Eber's_, from an injury to her screw in the blow +of February 14th. In this overcrowding of ships in an open entry of the +reef, even the eye of the landsman could spy danger; and +Captain-Lieutenant Wallis of the _Eber_ openly blamed and lamented, not +many hours before the catastrophe, their helpless posture. Temper once +more triumphed. The army of Mataafa still hung imminent behind the town; +the German quarter was still daily garrisoned with fifty sailors from the +squadron; what was yet more influential, Germany and the States, at least +in Apia bay, were on the brink of war, viewed each other with looks of +hatred, and scarce observed the letter of civility. On the day of the +admiral's arrival, Knappe failed to call on him, and on the morrow called +on him while he was on shore. The slight was remarked and resented, and +the two squadrons clung more obstinately to their dangerous station. + +On the 15th the barometer fell to 29.11 in. by 2 P.M. This was the +moment when every sail in port should have escaped. Kimberley, who flew +the only broad pennant, should certainly have led the way: he clung, +instead, to his moorings, and the Germans doggedly followed his example: +semi-belligerents, daring each other and the violence of heaven. Kane, +less immediately involved, was led in error by the report of residents +and a fallacious rise in the glass; he stayed with the others, a +misjudgment that was like to cost him dear. All were moored, as is the +custom in Apia, with two anchors practically east and west, clear hawse +to the north, and a kedge astern. Topmasts were struck, and the ships +made snug. The night closed black, with sheets of rain. By midnight it +blew a gale; and by the morning watch, a tempest. Through what remained +of darkness, the captains impatiently expected day, doubtful if they were +dragging, steaming gingerly to their moorings, and afraid to steam too +much. + +Day came about six, and presented to those on shore a seizing and +terrific spectacle. In the pressure of the squalls the bay was obscured +as if by midnight, but between them a great part of it was clearly if +darkly visible amid driving mist and rain. The wind blew into the +harbour mouth. Naval authorities describe it as of hurricane force. It +had, however, few or none of the effects on shore suggested by that +ominous word, and was successfully withstood by trees and buildings. The +agitation of the sea, on the other hand, surpassed experience and +description. Seas that might have awakened surprise and terror in the +midst of the Atlantic ranged bodily and (it seemed to observers) almost +without diminution into the belly of that flask-shaped harbour; and the +war-ships were alternately buried from view in the trough, or seen +standing on end against the breast of billows. + +The _Trenton_ at daylight still maintained her position in the neck of +the bottle. But five of the remaining ships tossed, already close to the +bottom, in a perilous and helpless crowd; threatening ruin to each other +as they tossed; threatened with a common and imminent destruction on the +reefs. Three had been already in collision: the _Olga_ was injured in +the quarter, the _Adler_ had lost her bowsprit; the _Nipsic_ had lost her +smoke-stack, and was making steam with difficulty, maintaining her fire +with barrels of pork, and the smoke and sparks pouring along the level of +the deck. For the seventh war-ship the day had come too late; the _Eber_ +had finished her last cruise; she was to be seen no more save by the eyes +of divers. A coral reef is not only an instrument of destruction, but a +place of sepulchre; the submarine cliff is profoundly undercut, and +presents the mouth of a huge antre in which the bodies of men and the +hulls of ships are alike hurled down and buried. The _Eber_ had dragged +anchors with the rest; her injured screw disabled her from steaming +vigorously up; and a little before day she had struck the front of the +coral, come off, struck again, and gone down stern foremost, oversetting +as she went, into the gaping hollow of the reef. Of her whole complement +of nearly eighty, four souls were cast alive on the beach; and the bodies +of the remainder were, by the voluminous outpouring of the flooded +streams, scoured at last from the harbour, and strewed naked on the +seaboard of the island. + +Five ships were immediately menaced with the same destruction. The +_Eber_ vanished--the four poor survivors on shore--read a dreadful +commentary on their danger; which was swelled out of all proportion by +the violence of their own movements as they leaped and fell among the +billows. By seven the _Nipsic_ was so fortunate as to avoid the reef and +beach upon a space of sand; where she was immediately deserted by her +crew, with the assistance of Samoans, not without loss of life. By about +eight it was the turn of the _Adler_. She was close down upon the reef; +doomed herself, it might yet be possible to save a portion of her crew; +and for this end Captain Fritze placed his reliance on the very hugeness +of the seas that threatened him. The moment was watched for with the +anxiety of despair, but the coolness of disciplined courage. As she rose +on the fatal wave, her moorings were simultaneously slipped; she broached +to in rising; and the sea heaved her bodily upward and cast her down with +a concussion on the summit of the reef, where she lay on her beam-ends, +her back broken, buried in breaching seas, but safe. Conceive a table: +the _Eber_ in the darkness had been smashed against the rim and flung +below; the _Adler_, cast free in the nick of opportunity, had been thrown +upon the top. Many were injured in the concussion; many tossed into the +water; twenty perished. The survivors crept again on board their ship, +as it now lay, and as it still remains, keel to the waves, a monument of +the sea's potency. In still weather, under a cloudless sky, in those +seasons when that ill-named ocean, the Pacific, suffers its vexed shores +to rest, she lies high and dry, the spray scarce touching her--the hugest +structure of man's hands within a circuit of a thousand miles--tossed up +there like a schoolboy's cap upon a shelf; broken like an egg; a thing to +dream of. + +The unfriendly consuls of Germany and Britain were both that morning in +Matautu, and both displayed their nobler qualities. De Coetlogon, the +grim old soldier, collected his family and kneeled with them in an agony +of prayer for those exposed. Knappe, more fortunate in that he was +called to a more active service, must, upon the striking of the _Adler_, +pass to his own consulate. From this he was divided by the Vaisingano, +now a raging torrent, impetuously charioting the trunks of trees. A +kelpie might have dreaded to attempt the passage; we may conceive this +brave but unfortunate and now ruined man to have found a natural joy in +the exposure of his life; and twice that day, coming and going, he braved +the fury of the river. It was possible, in spite of the darkness of the +hurricane and the continual breaching of the seas, to remark human +movements on the _Adler_; and by the help of Samoans, always nobly +forward in the work, whether for friend or enemy, Knappe sought long to +get a line conveyed from shore, and was for long defeated. The shore +guard of fifty men stood to their arms the while upon the beach, useless +themselves, and a great deterrent of Samoan usefulness. It was perhaps +impossible that this mistake should be avoided. What more natural, to +the mind of a European, than that the Mataafas should fall upon the +Germans in this hour of their disadvantage? But they had no other +thought than to assist; and those who now rallied beside Knappe braved +(as they supposed) in doing so a double danger, from the fury of the sea +and the weapons of their enemies. About nine, a quarter-master swam +ashore, and reported all the officers and some sixty men alive but in +pitiable case; some with broken limbs, others insensible from the +drenching of the breakers. Later in the forenoon, certain valorous +Samoans succeeded in reaching the wreck and returning with a line; but it +was speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts proved unavailing, the +strongest adventurers being cast back again by the bursting seas. +Thenceforth, all through that day and night, the deafened survivors must +continue to endure their martyrdom; and one officer died, it was supposed +from agony of mind, in his inverted cabin. + +Three ships still hung on the next margin of destruction, steaming +desperately to their moorings, dashed helplessly together. The +_Calliope_ was the nearest in; she had the _Vandalia_ close on her port +side and a little ahead, the _Olga_ close a-starboard, the reef under her +heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the unhappy ship fenced +with her three dangers. About a quarter to nine she carried away the +_Vandalia's_ quarter gallery with her jib-boom; a moment later, the +_Olga_ had near rammed her from the other side. By nine the _Vandalia_ +dropped down on her too fast to be avoided, and clapped her stern under +the bowsprit of the English ship, the fastenings of which were burst +asunder as she rose. To avoid cutting her down, it was necessary for the +_Calliope_ to stop and even to reverse her engines; and her rudder was at +the moment--or it seemed so to the eyes of those on board--within ten +feet of the reef. "Between the _Vandalia_ and the reef" (writes Kane, in +his excellent report) "it was destruction." To repeat Fritze's manoeuvre +with the _Adler_ was impossible; the _Calliope_ was too heavy. The one +possibility of escape was to go out. If the engines should stand, if +they should have power to drive the ship against wind and sea, if she +should answer the helm, if the wheel, rudder, and gear should hold out, +and if they were favoured with a clear blink of weather in which to see +and avoid the outer reef--there, and there only, were safety. Upon this +catalogue of "ifs" Kane staked his all. He signalled to the engineer for +every pound of steam--and at that moment (I am told) much of the +machinery was already red-hot. The ship was sheered well to starboard of +the _Vandalia_, the last remaining cable slipped. For a time--and there +was no onlooker so cold-blooded as to offer a guess at its duration--the +_Calliope_ lay stationary; then gradually drew ahead. The highest speed +claimed for her that day is of one sea-mile an hour. The question of +times and seasons, throughout all this roaring business, is obscured by a +dozen contradictions; I have but chosen what appeared to be the most +consistent; but if I am to pay any attention to the time named by Admiral +Kimberley, the _Calliope_, in this first stage of her escape, must have +taken more than two hours to cover less than four cables. As she thus +crept seaward, she buried bow and stem alternately under the billows. + +In the fairway of the entrance the flagship _Trenton_ still held on. Her +rudder was broken, her wheel carried away; within she was flooded with +water from the peccant hawse-pipes; she had just made the signal "fires +extinguished," and lay helpless, awaiting the inevitable end. Between +this melancholy hulk and the external reef Kane must find a path. +Steering within fifty yards of the reef (for which she was actually +headed) and her foreyard passing on the other hand over the _Trenton's_ +quarter as she rolled, the _Calliope_ sheered between the rival dangers, +came to the wind triumphantly, and was once more pointed for the sea and +safety. Not often in naval history was there a moment of more sickening +peril, and it was dignified by one of those incidents that reconcile the +chronicler with his otherwise abhorrent task. From the doomed flagship +the Americans hailed the success of the English with a cheer. It was led +by the old admiral in person, rang out over the storm with holiday +vigour, and was answered by the Calliopes with an emotion easily +conceived. This ship of their kinsfolk was almost the last external +object seen from the _Calliope_ for hours; immediately after, the mists +closed about her till the morrow. She was safe at sea again--_una de +multis_--with a damaged foreyard, and a loss of all the ornamental work +about her bow and stern, three anchors, one kedge-anchor, fourteen +lengths of chain, four boats, the jib-boom, bobstay, and bands and +fastenings of the bowsprit. + +Shortly after Kane had slipped his cable, Captain Schoonmaker, despairing +of the _Vandalia_, succeeded in passing astern of the _Olga_, in the hope +to beach his ship beside the _Nipsic_. At a quarter to eleven her stern +took the reef, her hand swung to starboard, and she began to fill and +settle. Many lives of brave men were sacrificed in the attempt to get a +line ashore; the captain, exhausted by his exertions, was swept from deck +by a sea; and the rail being soon awash, the survivors took refuge in the +tops. + +Out of thirteen that had lain there the day before, there were now but +two ships afloat in Apia harbour, and one of these was doomed to be the +bane of the other. About 3 P.M. the _Trenton_ parted one cable, and +shortly after a second. It was sought to keep her head to wind with +storm-sails and by the ingenious expedient of filling the rigging with +seamen; but in the fury of the gale, and in that sea, perturbed alike by +the gigantic billows and the volleying discharges of the rivers, the +rudderless ship drove down stern foremost into the inner basin; ranging, +plunging, and striking like a frightened horse; drifting on destruction +for herself and bringing it to others. Twice the _Olga_ (still well +under command) avoided her impact by the skilful use of helm and engines. +But about four the vigilance of the Germans was deceived, and the ships +collided; the _Olga_ cutting into the _Trenton's_ quarters, first from +one side, then from the other, and losing at the same time two of her own +cables. Captain von Ehrhardt instantly slipped the remainder of his +moorings, and setting fore and aft canvas, and going full steam ahead, +succeeded in beaching his ship in Matautu; whither Knappe, recalled by +this new disaster, had returned. The berth was perhaps the best in the +harbour, and von Ehrhardt signalled that ship and crew were in security. + +The _Trenton_, guided apparently by an under-tow or eddy from the +discharge of the Vaisingano, followed in the course of the _Nipsic_ and +_Vandalia_, and skirted south-eastward along the front of the shore reef, +which her keel was at times almost touching. Hitherto she had brought +disaster to her foes; now she was bringing it to friends. She had +already proved the ruin of the _Olga_, the one ship that had rid out the +hurricane in safety; now she beheld across her course the submerged +_Vandalia_, the tops filled with exhausted seamen. Happily the approach +of the _Trenton_ was gradual, and the time employed to advantage. Rockets +and lines were thrown into the tops of the friendly wreck; the approach +of danger was transformed into a means of safety; and before the ships +struck, the men from the _Vandalia's_ main and mizzen masts, which went +immediately by the board in the collision, were already mustered on the +_Trenton's_ decks. Those from the foremast were next rescued; and the +flagship settled gradually into a position alongside her neighbour, +against which she beat all night with violence. Out of the crew of the +_Vandalia_ forty-three had perished; of the four hundred and fifty on +board the _Trenton_, only one. + +The night of the 16th was still notable for a howling tempest and +extraordinary floods of rain. It was feared the wreck could scarce +continue to endure the breaching of the seas; among the Germans, the fate +of those on board the _Adler_ awoke keen anxiety; and Knappe, on the +beach of Matautu, and the other officers of his consulate on that of +Matafele, watched all night. The morning of the 17th displayed a scene +of devastation rarely equalled: the _Adler_ high and dry, the _Olga_ and +_Nipsic_ beached, the _Trenton_ partly piled on the _Vandalia_ and +herself sunk to the gun-deck; no sail afloat; and the beach heaped high +with the _debris_ of ships and the wreck of mountain forests. Already, +before the day, Seumanu, the chief of Apia, had gallantly ventured forth +by boat through the subsiding fury of the seas, and had succeeded in +communicating with the admiral; already, or as soon after as the dawn +permitted, rescue lines were rigged, and the survivors were with +difficulty and danger begun to be brought to shore. And soon the +cheerful spirit of the admiral added a new feature to the scene. +Surrounded as he was by the crews of two wrecked ships, he paraded the +band of the _Trenton_, and the bay was suddenly enlivened with the +strains of "Hail Columbia." + +During a great part of the day the work of rescue was continued, with +many instances of courage and devotion; and for a long time succeeding, +the almost inexhaustible harvest of the beach was to be reaped. In the +first employment, the Samoans earned the gratitude of friend and foe; in +the second, they surprised all by an unexpected virtue, that of honesty. +The greatness of the disaster, and the magnitude of the treasure now +rolling at their feet, may perhaps have roused in their bosoms an emotion +too serious for the rule of greed, or perhaps that greed was for the +moment satiated. Sails that twelve strong Samoans could scarce drag from +the water, great guns (one of which was rolled by the sea on the body of +a man, the only native slain in all the hurricane), an infinite wealth of +rope and wood, of tools and weapons, tossed upon the beach. Yet I have +never heard that much was stolen; and beyond question, much was very +honestly returned. On both accounts, for the saving of life and the +restoration of property, the government of the United States showed +themselves generous in reward. A fine boat was fitly presented to +Seumanu; and rings, watches, and money were lavished on all who had +assisted. The Germans also gave money at the rate (as I receive the +tale) of three dollars a head for every German saved. The obligation was +in this instance incommensurably deep, those with whom they were at war +had saved the German blue-jackets at the venture of their lives; Knappe +was, besides, far from ungenerous; and I can only explain the niggard +figure by supposing it was paid from his own pocket. In one case, at +least, it was refused. "I have saved three Germans," said the rescuer; +"I will make you a present of the three." + +The crews of the American and German squadrons were now cast, still in a +bellicose temper, together on the beach. The discipline of the Americans +was notoriously loose; the crew of the _Nipsic_ had earned a character +for lawlessness in other ports; and recourse was had to stringent and +indeed extraordinary measures. The town was divided in two camps, to +which the different nationalities were confined. Kimberley had his +quarter sentinelled and patrolled. Any seaman disregarding a challenge +was to be shot dead; any tavern-keeper who sold spirits to an American +sailor was to have his tavern broken and his stock destroyed. Many of +the publicans were German; and Knappe, having narrated these rigorous but +necessary dispositions, wonders (grinning to himself over his despatch) +how far these Americans will go in their assumption of jurisdiction over +Germans. Such as they were, the measures were successful. The +incongruous mass of castaways was kept in peace, and at last shipped in +peace out of the islands. + +Kane returned to Apia on the 19th, to find the _Calliope_ the sole +survivor of thirteen sail. He thanked his men, and in particular the +engineers, in a speech of unusual feeling and beauty, of which one who +was present remarked to another, as they left the ship, "This has been a +means of grace." Nor did he forget to thank and compliment the admiral; +and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of transcribing from Kimberley's +reply some generous and engaging words. "My dear captain," he wrote, +"your kind note received. You went out splendidly, and we all felt from +our hearts for you, and our cheers came with sincerity and admiration for +the able manner in which you handled your ship. We could not have been +gladder if it had been one of our ships, for in a time like that I can +truly say with old Admiral Josiah Latnall, 'that blood is thicker than +water.'" One more trait will serve to build up the image of this typical +sea-officer. A tiny schooner, the _Equator_, Captain Edwin Reid, dear to +myself from the memories of a six months' cruise, lived out upon the high +seas the fury of that tempest which had piled with wrecks the harbour of +Apia, found a refuge in Pango-Pango, and arrived at last in the desolated +port with a welcome and lucrative cargo of pigs. The admiral was glad to +have the pigs; but what most delighted the man's noble and childish soul, +was to see once more afloat the colours of his country. + +Thus, in what seemed the very article of war, and within the duration of +a single day, the sword-arm of each of the two angry Powers was broken; +their formidable ships reduced to junk; their disciplined hundreds to a +horde of castaways, fed with difficulty, and the fear of whose misconduct +marred the sleep of their commanders. Both paused aghast; both had time +to recognise that not the whole Samoan Archipelago was worth the loss in +men and costly ships already suffered. The so-called hurricane of March +16th made thus a marking epoch in world-history; directly, and at once, +it brought about the congress and treaty of Berlin; indirectly, and by a +process still continuing, it founded the modern navy of the States. +Coming years and other historians will declare the influence of that. + + + + +CHAPTER XI--LAUPEPA AND MATAAFA + + +1889-1892 + +With the hurricane, the broken war-ships, and the stranded sailors, I am +at an end of violence, and my tale flows henceforth among carpet +incidents. The blue-jackets on Apia beach were still jealously held +apart by sentries, when the powers at home were already seeking a +peaceable solution. It was agreed, so far as might be, to obliterate two +years of blundering; and to resume in 1889, and at Berlin, those +negotiations which had been so unhappily broken off at Washington in +1887. The example thus offered by Germany is rare in history; in the +career of Prince Bismarck, so far as I am instructed, it should stand +unique. On a review of these two years of blundering, bullying, and +failure in a little isle of the Pacific, he seems magnanimously to have +owned his policy was in the wrong. He left Fangalii unexpiated; suffered +that house of cards, the Tamasese government, to fall by its own frailty +and without remark or lamentation; left the Samoan question openly and +fairly to the conference: and in the meanwhile, to allay the local heats +engendered by Becker and Knappe, he sent to Apia that invaluable public +servant, Dr. Stuebel. I should be a dishonest man if I did not bear +testimony to the loyalty since shown by Germans in Samoa. Their position +was painful; they had talked big in the old days, now they had to sing +small. Even Stuebel returned to the islands under the prejudice of an +unfortunate record. To the minds of the Samoans his name represented the +beginning of their sorrows; and in his first term of office he had +unquestionably driven hard. The greater his merit in the surprising +success of the second. So long as he stayed, the current of affairs +moved smoothly; he left behind him on his departure all men at peace; and +whether by fortune, or for the want of that wise hand of guidance, he was +scarce gone before the clouds began to gather once more on our horizon. + +Before the first convention, Germany and the States hauled down their +flags. It was so done again before the second; and Germany, by a still +more emphatic step of retrogression, returned the exile Laupepa to his +native shores. For two years the unfortunate man had trembled and +suffered in the Cameroons, in Germany, in the rainy Marshalls. When he +left (September 1887) Tamasese was king, served by five iron war-ships; +his right to rule (like a dogma of the Church) was placed outside +dispute; the Germans were still, as they were called at that last tearful +interview in the house by the river, "the invincible strangers"; the +thought of resistance, far less the hope of success, had not yet dawned +on the Samoan mind. He returned (November 1889) to a changed world. The +Tupua party was reduced to sue for peace, Brandeis was withdrawn, +Tamasese was dying obscurely of a broken heart; the German flag no longer +waved over the capital; and over all the islands one figure stood +supreme. During Laupepa's absence this man had succeeded him in all his +honours and titles, in tenfold more than all his power and popularity. He +was the idol of the whole nation but the rump of the Tamaseses, and of +these he was already the secret admiration. In his position there was +but one weak point,--that he had even been tacitly excluded by the +Germans. Becker, indeed, once coquetted with the thought of patronising +him; but the project had no sequel, and it stands alone. In every other +juncture of history the German attitude has been the same. Choose whom +you will to be king; when he has failed, choose whom you please to +succeed him; when the second fails also, replace the first: upon the one +condition, that Mataafa be excluded. "_Pourvu qu'il sache signer_!"--an +official is said to have thus summed up the qualifications necessary in a +Samoan king. And it was perhaps feared that Mataafa could do no more and +might not always do so much. But this original diffidence was heightened +by late events to something verging upon animosity. Fangalii was +unavenged: the arms of Mataafa were + + _Nondum inexpiatis uncta cruoribus_, + Still soiled with the unexpiated blood + +of German sailors; and though the chief was not present in the field, nor +could have heard of the affair till it was over, he had reaped from it +credit with his countrymen and dislike from the Germans. + +I may not say that trouble was hoped. I must say--if it were not feared, +the practice of diplomacy must teach a very hopeful view of human nature. +Mataafa and Laupepa, by the sudden repatriation of the last, found +themselves face to face in conditions of exasperating rivalry. The one +returned from the dead of exile to find himself replaced and excelled. +The other, at the end of a long, anxious, and successful struggle, beheld +his only possible competitor resuscitated from the grave. The qualities +of both, in this difficult moment, shone out nobly. I feel I seem always +less than partial to the lovable Laupepa; his virtues are perhaps not +those which chiefly please me, and are certainly not royal; but he found +on his return an opportunity to display the admirable sweetness of his +nature. The two entered into a competition of generosity, for which I +can recall no parallel in history, each waiving the throne for himself, +each pressing it upon his rival; and they embraced at last a compromise +the terms of which seem to have been always obscure and are now disputed. +Laupepa at least resumed his style of King of Samoa; Mataafa retained +much of the conduct of affairs, and continued to receive much of the +attendance and respect befitting royalty; and the two Malietoas, with so +many causes of disunion, dwelt and met together in the same town like +kinsmen. It was so, that I first saw them; so, in a house set about with +sentries--for there was still a haunting fear of Germany,--that I heard +them relate their various experience in the past; heard Laupepa tell with +touching candour of the sorrows of his exile, and Mataafa with mirthful +simplicity of his resources and anxieties in the war. The relation was +perhaps too beautiful to last; it was perhaps impossible but the titular +king should grow at last uneasily conscious of the _maire de palais_ at +his side, or the king-maker be at last offended by some shadow of +distrust or assumption in his creature. I repeat the words king-maker +and creature; it is so that Mataafa himself conceives of their relation: +surely not without justice; for, had he not contended and prevailed, and +been helped by the folly of consuls and the fury of the storm, Laupepa +must have died in exile. + +Foreigners in these islands know little of the course of native intrigue. +Partly the Samoans cannot explain, partly they will not tell. Ask how +much a master can follow of the puerile politics in any school; so much +and no more we may understand of the events which surround and menace us +with their results. The missions may perhaps have been to blame. +Missionaries are perhaps apt to meddle overmuch outside their discipline; +it is a fault which should be judged with mercy; the problem is sometimes +so insidiously presented that even a moderate and able man is betrayed +beyond his own intention; and the missionary in such a land as Samoa is +something else besides a minister of mere religion; he represents +civilisation, he is condemned to be an organ of reform, he could scarce +evade (even if he desired) a certain influence in political affairs. And +it is believed, besides, by those who fancy they know, that the effective +force of division between Mataafa and Laupepa came from the natives +rather than from whites. Before the end of 1890, at least, it began to +be rumoured that there was dispeace between the two Malietoas; and +doubtless this had an unsettling influence throughout the islands. But +there was another ingredient of anxiety. The Berlin convention had long +closed its sittings; the text of the Act had been long in our hands; +commissioners were announced to right the wrongs of the land question, +and two high officials, a chief justice and a president, to guide policy +and administer law in Samoa. Their coming was expected with an +impatience, with a childishness of trust, that can hardly be exaggerated. +Months passed, these angel-deliverers still delayed to arrive, and the +impatience of the natives became changed to an ominous irritation. They +have had much experience of being deceived, and they began to think they +were deceived again. A sudden crop of superstitious stories buzzed about +the islands. Rivers had come down red; unknown fishes had been taken on +the reef and found to be marked with menacing runes; a headless lizard +crawled among chiefs in council; the gods of Upolu and Savaii made war by +night, they swam the straits to battle, and, defaced by dreadful wounds, +they had besieged the house of a medical missionary. Readers will +remember the portents in mediaeval chronicles, or those in _Julius Caesar_ +when + + "Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds + In ranks and squadrons." + +And doubtless such fabrications are, in simple societies, a natural +expression of discontent; and those who forge, and even those who spread +them, work towards a conscious purpose. + +Early in January 1891 this period of expectancy was brought to an end by +the arrival of Conrad Cedarcrantz, chief justice of Samoa. The event was +hailed with acclamation, and there was much about the new official to +increase the hopes already entertained. He was seen to be a man of +culture and ability; in public, of an excellent presence--in private, of +a most engaging cordiality. But there was one point, I scarce know +whether to say of his character or policy, which immediately and +disastrously affected public feeling in the islands. He had an aversion, +part judicial, part perhaps constitutional, to haste; and he announced +that, until he should have well satisfied his own mind, he should do +nothing; that he would rather delay all than do aught amiss. It was +impossible to hear this without academical approval; impossible to hear +it without practical alarm. The natives desired to see activity; they +desired to see many fair speeches taken on a body of deeds and works of +benefit. Fired by the event of the war, filled with impossible hopes, +they might have welcomed in that hour a ruler of the stamp of Brandeis, +breathing hurry, perhaps dealing blows. And the chief justice, +unconscious of the fleeting opportunity, ripened his opinions +deliberately in Mulinuu; and had been already the better part of half a +year in the islands before he went through the form of opening his court. +The curtain had risen; there was no play. A reaction, a chill sense of +disappointment, passed about the island; and intrigue, one moment +suspended, was resumed. + +In the Berlin Act, the three Powers recognise, on the threshold, "the +independence of the Samoan government, and the free right of the natives +to elect their chief or king and choose their form of government." True, +the text continues that, "in view of the difficulties that surround an +election in the present disordered condition of the government," Malietoa +Laupepa shall be recognised as king, "unless the three Powers shall by +common accord otherwise declare." But perhaps few natives have followed +it so far, and even those who have, were possibly all cast abroad again +by the next clause: "and his successor shall be duly elected according to +the laws and customs of Samoa." The right to elect, freely given in one +sentence, was suspended in the next, and a line or so further on appeared +to be reconveyed by a side-wind. The reason offered for suspension was +ludicrously false; in May 1889, when Sir Edward Malet moved the matter in +the conference, the election of Mataafa was not only certain to have been +peaceful, it could not have been opposed; and behind the English puppet +it was easy to suspect the hand of Germany. No one is more swift to +smell trickery than a Samoan; and the thought, that, under the long, +bland, benevolent sentences of the Berlin Act, some trickery lay lurking, +filled him with the breath of opposition. Laupepa seems never to have +been a popular king. Mataafa, on the other hand, holds an unrivalled +position in the eyes of his fellow-countrymen; he was the hero of the +war, he had lain with them in the bush, he had borne the heat and burthen +of the day; they began to claim that he should enjoy more largely the +fruits of victory; his exclusion was believed to be a stroke of German +vengeance, his elevation to the kingship was looked for as the fitting +crown and copestone of the Samoan triumph; and but a little after the +coming of the chief justice, an ominous cry for Mataafa began to arise in +the islands. It is difficult to see what that official could have done +but what he did. He was loyal, as in duty bound, to the treaty and to +Laupepa; and when the orators of the important and unruly islet of Manono +demanded to his face a change of kings, he had no choice but to refuse +them, and (his reproof being unheeded) to suspend the meeting. Whether +by any neglect of his own or the mere force of circumstance, he failed, +however, to secure the sympathy, failed even to gain the confidence, of +Mataafa. The latter is not without a sense of his own abilities or of +the great service he has rendered to his native land. He felt himself +neglected; at the very moment when the cry for his elevation rang +throughout the group he thought himself made little of on Mulinuu; and he +began to weary of his part. In this humour, he was exposed to a +temptation which I must try to explain, as best I may be able, to +Europeans. + +The bestowal of the great name, Malietoa, is in the power of the district +of Malie, some seven miles to the westward of Apia. The most noisy and +conspicuous supporters of that party are the inhabitants of Manono. Hence +in the elaborate, allusive oratory of Samoa, Malie is always referred to +by the name of _Pule_ (authority) as having the power of the name, and +Manono by that of _Ainga_ (clan, sept, or household) as forming the +immediate family of the chief. But these, though so important, are only +small communities; and perhaps the chief numerical force of the Malietoas +inhabits the island of Savaii. Savaii has no royal name to bestow, all +the five being in the gift of different districts of Upolu; but she has +the weight of numbers, and in these latter days has acquired a certain +force by the preponderance in her councils of a single man, the orator +Lauati. The reader will now understand the peculiar significance of a +deputation which should embrace Lauati and the orators of both Malie and +Manono, how it would represent all that is most effective on the Malietoa +side, and all that is most considerable in Samoan politics, except the +opposite feudal party of the Tupua. And in the temptation brought to +bear on Mataafa, even the Tupua was conjoined. Tamasese was dead. His +followers had conceived a not unnatural aversion to all Germans, from +which only the loyal Brandeis is excepted; and a not unnatural admiration +for their late successful adversary. Men of his own blood and clan, men +whom he had fought in the field, whom he had driven from Matautu, who had +smitten him back time and again from before the rustic bulwarks of +Lotoanuu, they approached him hand in hand with their ancestral enemies +and concurred in the same prayer. The treaty (they argued) was not +carried out. The right to elect their king had been granted them; or if +that were denied or suspended, then the right to elect "his successor." +They were dissatisfied with Laupepa, and claimed, "according to the laws +and customs of Samoa," duly to appoint another. The orators of Malie +declared with irritation that their second appointment was alone valid +and Mataafa the sole Malietoa; the whole body of malcontents named him as +their choice for king; and they requested him in consequence to leave +Apia and take up his dwelling in Malie, the name-place of Malietoa; a +step which may be described, to European ears, as placing before the +country his candidacy for the crown. + +I do not know when the proposal was first made. Doubtless the +disaffection grew slowly, every trifle adding to its force; doubtless +there lingered for long a willingness to give the new government a trial. +The chief justice at least had been nearly five months in the country, +and the president, Baron Senfft von Pilsach, rather more than a month +before the mine was sprung. On May 31, 1891, the house of Mataafa was +found empty, he and his chiefs had vanished from Apia, and, what was +worse, three prisoners, liberated from the gaol, had accompanied them in +their secession; two being political offenders, and the third (accused of +murder) having been perhaps set free by accident. Although the step had +been discussed in certain quarters, it took all men by surprise. The +inhabitants at large expected instant war. The officials awakened from a +dream to recognise the value of that which they had lost. Mataafa at +Vaiala, where he was the pledge of peace, had perhaps not always been +deemed worthy of particular attention; Mataafa at Malie was seen, twelve +hours too late, to be an altogether different quantity. With excess of +zeal on the other side, the officials trooped to their boats and +proceeded almost in a body to Malie, where they seem to have employed +every artifice of flattery and every resource of eloquence upon the +fugitive high chief. These courtesies, perhaps excessive in themselves, +had the unpardonable fault of being offered when too late. Mataafa +showed himself facile on small issues, inflexible on the main; he +restored the prisoners, he returned with the consuls to Apia on a flying +visit; he gave his word that peace should be preserved--a pledge in which +perhaps no one believed at the moment, but which he has since nobly +redeemed. On the rest he was immovable; he had cast the die, he had +declared his candidacy, he had gone to Malie. Thither, after his visit +to Apia, he returned again; there he has practically since resided. + +Thus was created in the islands a situation, strange in the beginning, +and which, as its inner significance is developed, becomes daily stranger +to observe. On the one hand, Mataafa sits in Malie, assumes a regal +state, receives deputations, heads his letters "Government of Samoa," +tacitly treats the king as a co-ordinate; and yet declares himself, and +in many ways conducts himself, as a law-abiding citizen. On the other, +the white officials in Mulinuu stand contemplating the phenomenon with +eyes of growing stupefaction; now with symptoms of collapse, now with +accesses of violence. For long, even those well versed in island manners +and the island character daily expected war, and heard imaginary drums +beat in the forest. But for now close upon a year, and against every +stress of persuasion and temptation, Mataafa has been the bulwark of our +peace. Apia lay open to be seized, he had the power in his hand, his +followers cried to be led on, his enemies marshalled him the same way by +impotent examples; and he has never faltered. Early in the day, a white +man was sent from the government of Mulinuu to examine and report upon +his actions: I saw the spy on his return; "It was only our rebel that +saved us," he said, with a laugh. There is now no honest man in the +islands but is well aware of it; none but knows that, if we have enjoyed +during the past eleven months the conveniences of peace, it is due to the +forbearance of "our rebel." Nor does this part of his conduct stand +alone. He calls his party at Malie the government,--"our +government,"--but he pays his taxes to the government at Mulinuu. He +takes ground like a king; he has steadily and blandly refused to obey all +orders as to his own movements or behaviour; but upon requisition he +sends offenders to be tried under the chief justice. + +We have here a problem of conduct, and what seems an image of +inconsistency, very hard at the first sight to be solved by any European. +Plainly Mataafa does not act at random. Plainly, in the depths of his +Samoan mind, he regards his attitude as regular and constitutional. It +may be unexpected, it may be inauspicious, it may be undesirable; but he +thinks it--and perhaps it is--in full accordance with those "laws and +customs of Samoa" ignorantly invoked by the draughtsmen of the Berlin +Act. The point is worth an effort of comprehension; a man's life may yet +depend upon it. Let us conceive, in the first place, that there are five +separate kingships in Samoa, though not always five different kings; and +that though one man, by holding the five royal names, might become king +in _all parts_ of Samoa, there is perhaps no such matter as a kingship of +all Samoa. He who holds one royal name would be, upon this view, as much +a sovereign person as he who should chance to hold the other four; he +would have less territory and fewer subjects, but the like independence +and an equal royalty. Now Mataafa, even if all debatable points were +decided against him, is still Tuiatua, and as such, on this hypothesis, a +sovereign prince. In the second place, the draughtsmen of the Act, +waxing exceeding bold, employed the word "election," and implicitly +justified all precedented steps towards the kingship according with the +"customs of Samoa." I am not asking what was intended by the gentlemen +who sat and debated very benignly and, on the whole, wisely in Berlin; I +am asking what will be understood by a Samoan studying their literary +work, the Berlin Act; I am asking what is the result of taking a word out +of one state of society, and applying it to another, of which the writers +know less than nothing, and no European knows much. Several interpreters +and several days were employed last September in the fruitless attempt to +convey to the mind of Laupepa the sense of the word "resignation." What +can a Samoan gather from the words, _election_? _election of a king_? +_election of a king according to the laws and customs of Samoa_? What +are the electoral measures, what is the method of canvassing, likely to +be employed by two, three, four, or five, more or less absolute +princelings, eager to evince each other? And who is to distinguish such +a process from the state of war? In such international--or, I should +say, interparochial--differences, the nearest we can come towards +understanding is to appreciate the cloud of ambiguity in which all +parties grope-- + + "Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, + Half flying." + +Now, in one part of Mataafa's behaviour his purpose is beyond mistake. +Towards the provisions of the Berlin Act, his desire to be formally +obedient is manifest. The Act imposed the tax. He has paid his taxes, +although he thus contributes to the ways and means of his immediate +rival. The Act decreed the supreme court, and he sends his partisans to +be tried at Mulinuu, although he thus places them (as I shall have +occasion to show) in a position far from wholly safe. From this literal +conformity, in matters regulated, to the terms of the Berlin +plenipotentiaries, we may plausibly infer, in regard to the rest, a no +less exact observance of the famous and obscure "laws and customs of +Samoa." + +But though it may be possible to attain, in the study, to some such +adumbration of an understanding, it were plainly unfair to expect it of +officials in the hurry of events. Our two white officers have +accordingly been no more perspicacious than was to be looked for, and I +think they have sometimes been less wise. It was not wise in the +president to proclaim Mataafa and his followers rebels and their estates +confiscated. Such words are not respectable till they repose on force; +on the lips of an angry white man, standing alone on a small promontory, +they were both dangerous and absurd; they might have provoked ruin; +thanks to the character of Mataafa, they only raised a smile and damaged +the authority of government. And again it is not wise in the government +of Mulinuu to have twice attempted to precipitate hostilities, once in +Savaii, once here in the Tuamasanga. The fate of the Savaii attempt I +never heard; it seems to have been stillborn. The other passed under my +eyes. A war-party was armed in Apia, and despatched across the island +against Mataafa villages, where it was to seize the women and children. +It was absent for some days, engaged in feasting with those whom it went +out to fight; and returned at last, innocuous and replete. In this +fortunate though undignified ending we may read the fact that the natives +on Laupepa's side are sometimes more wise than their advisers. Indeed, +for our last twelve months of miraculous peace under what seem to be two +rival kings, the credit is due first of all to Mataafa, and second to the +half-heartedness, or the forbearance, or both, of the natives in the +other camp. The voice of the two whites has ever been for war. They +have published at least one incendiary proclamation; they have armed and +sent into the field at least one Samoan war-party; they have continually +besieged captains of war-ships to attack Malie, and the captains of the +war-ships have religiously refused. Thus in the last twelve months our +European rulers have drawn a picture of themselves, as bearded like the +pard, full of strange oaths, and gesticulating like semaphores; while +over against them Mataafa reposes smilingly obstinate, and their own +retainers surround them, frowningly inert. Into the question of motive I +refuse to enter; but if we come to war in these islands, and with no +fresh occasion, it will be a manufactured war, and one that has been +manufactured, against the grain of opinion, by two foreigners. + +For the last and worst of the mistakes on the Laupepa side it would be +unfair to blame any but the king himself. Capable both of virtuous +resolutions and of fits of apathetic obstinacy, His Majesty is usually +the whip-top of competitive advisers; and his conduct is so unstable as +to wear at times an appearance of treachery which would surprise himself +if he could see it. Take, for example, the experience of Lieutenant +Ulfsparre, late chief of police, and (so to speak) commander of the +forces. His men were under orders for a certain hour; he found himself +almost alone at the place of muster, and learned the king had sent the +soldiery on errands. He sought an audience, explained that he was here +to implant discipline, that (with this purpose in view) his men could +only receive orders through himself, and if that condition were not +agreed to and faithfully observed, he must send in his papers. The king +was as usual easily persuaded, the interview passed and ended to the +satisfaction of all parties engaged--and the bargain was kept for one +day. On the day after, the troops were again dispersed as post-runners, +and their commander resigned. With such a sovereign, I repeat, it would +be unfair to blame any individual minister for any specific fault. And +yet the policy of our two whites against Mataafa has appeared uniformly +so excessive and implacable, that the blame of the last scandal is laid +generally at their doors. It is yet fresh. Lauati, towards the end of +last year, became deeply concerned about the situation; and by great +personal exertions and the charms of oratory brought Savaii and Manono +into agreement upon certain terms of compromise: Laupepa still to be +king, Mataafa to accept a high executive office comparable to that of our +own prime minister, and the two governments to coalesce. Intractable +Manono was a party. Malie was said to view the proposal with +resignation, if not relief. Peace was thought secure. The night before +the king was to receive Lauati, I met one of his company,--the family +chief, Iina,--and we shook hands over the unexpected issue of our +troubles. What no one dreamed was that Laupepa would refuse. And he +did. He refused undisputed royalty for himself and peace for these +unhappy islands; and the two whites on Mulinuu rightly or wrongly got the +blame of it. + +But their policy has another and a more awkward side. About the time of +the secession to Malie, many ugly things were said; I will not repeat +that which I hope and believe the speakers did not wholly mean; let it +suffice that, if rumour carried to Mataafa the language I have heard used +in my own house and before my own native servants, he would be highly +justified in keeping clear of Apia and the whites. One gentleman whose +opinion I respect, and am so bold as to hope I may in some points modify, +will understand the allusion and appreciate my reserve. About the same +time there occurred an incident, upon which I must be more particular. +_A_ was a gentleman who had long been an intimate of Mataafa's, and had +recently (upon account, indeed, of the secession to Malie) more or less +wholly broken off relations. To him came one whom I shall call _B_ with +a dastardly proposition. It may have been _B_'s own, in which case he +were the more unpardonable; but from the closeness of his intercourse +with the chief justice, as well as from the terms used in the interview, +men judged otherwise. It was proposed that _A_ should simulate a renewal +of the friendship, decoy Mataafa to a suitable place, and have him there +arrested. What should follow in those days of violent speech was at the +least disputable; and the proposal was of course refused. "You do not +understand," was the base rejoinder. "_You_ will have no discredit. The +Germans are to take the blame of the arrest." Of course, upon the +testimony of a gentleman so depraved, it were unfair to hang a dog; and +both the Germans and the chief justice must be held innocent. But the +chief justice has shown that he can himself be led, by his animosity +against Mataafa, into questionable acts. Certain natives of Malie were +accused of stealing pigs; the chief justice summoned them through +Mataafa; several were sent, and along with them a written promise that, +if others were required, these also should be forthcoming upon +requisition. Such as came were duly tried and acquitted; and Mataafa's +offer was communicated to the chief justice, who made a formal answer, +and the same day (in pursuance of his constant design to have Malie +attacked by war-ships) reported to one of the consuls that his warrant +would not run in the country and that certain of the accused had been +withheld. At least, this is not fair dealing; and the next instance I +have to give is possibly worse. For one blunder the chief justice is +only so far responsible, in that he was not present where it seems he +should have been, when it was made. He had nothing to do with the silly +proscription of the Mataafas; he has always disliked the measure; and it +occurred to him at last that he might get rid of this dangerous absurdity +and at the same time reap a further advantage. Let Mataafa leave Malie +for any other district in Samoa; it should be construed as an act of +submission and the confiscation and proscription instantly recalled. This +was certainly well devised; the government escaped from their own false +position, and by the same stroke lowered the prestige of their +adversaries. But unhappily the chief justice did not put all his eggs in +one basket. Concurrently with these negotiations he began again to move +the captain of one of the war-ships to shell the rebel village; the +captain, conceiving the extremity wholly unjustified, not only refused +these instances, but more or less publicly complained of their being +made; the matter came to the knowledge of the white resident who was at +that time playing the part of intermediary with Malie; and he, in natural +anger and disgust, withdrew from the negotiation. These duplicities, +always deplorable when discovered, are never more fatal than with men +imperfectly civilised. Almost incapable of truth themselves, they +cherish a particular score of the same fault in whites. And Mataafa is +besides an exceptional native. I would scarce dare say of any Samoan +that he is truthful, though I seem to have encountered the phenomenon; +but I must say of Mataafa that he seems distinctly and consistently +averse to lying. + +For the affair of the Manono prisoners, the chief justice is only again +in so far answerable as he was at the moment absent from the seat of his +duties; and the blame falls on Baron Senfft von Pilsach, president of the +municipal council. There were in Manono certain dissidents, loyal to +Laupepa. Being Manono people, I daresay they were very annoying to their +neighbours; the majority, as they belonged to the same island, were the +more impatient; and one fine day fell upon and destroyed the houses and +harvests of the dissidents "according to the laws and customs of Samoa." +The president went down to the unruly island in a war-ship and was landed +alone upon the beach. To one so much a stranger to the mansuetude of +Polynesians, this must have seemed an act of desperation; and the baron's +gallantry met with a deserved success. The six ringleaders, acting in +Mataafa's interest, had been guilty of a delict; with Mataafa's approval, +they delivered themselves over to be tried. On Friday, September 4, +1891, they were convicted before a native magistrate and sentenced to six +months' imprisonment; or, I should rather say, detention; for it was +expressly directed that they were to be used as gentlemen and not as +prisoners, that the door was to stand open, and that all their wishes +should be gratified. This extraordinary sentence fell upon the accused +like a thunderbolt. There is no need to suppose perfidy, where a +careless interpreter suffices to explain all; but the six chiefs claim to +have understood their coming to Apia as an act of submission merely +formal, that they came in fact under an implied indemnity, and that the +president stood pledged to see them scatheless. Already, on their way +from the court-house, they were tumultuously surrounded by friends and +clansmen, who pressed and cried upon them to escape; Lieutenant Ulfsparre +must order his men to load; and with that the momentary effervescence +died away. Next day, Saturday, 5th, the chief justice took his departure +from the islands--a step never yet explained and (in view of the doings +of the day before and the remonstrances of other officials) hard to +justify. The president, an amiable and brave young man of singular +inexperience, was thus left to face the growing difficulty by himself. +The clansmen of the prisoners, to the number of near upon a hundred, lay +in Vaiusu, a village half way between Apia and Malie; there they talked +big, thence sent menacing messages; the gaol should be broken in the +night, they said, and the six martyrs rescued. Allowance is to be made +for the character of the people of Manono, turbulent fellows, boastful of +tongue, but of late days not thought to be answerably bold in person. Yet +the moment was anxious. The government of Mulinuu had gained an +important moral victory by the surrender and condemnation of the chiefs; +and it was needful the victory should be maintained. The guard upon the +gaol was accordingly strengthened; a war-party was sent to watch the +Vaiusu road under Asi; and the chiefs of the Vaimaunga were notified to +arm and assemble their men. It must be supposed the president was +doubtful of the loyalty of these assistants. He turned at least to the +war-ships, where it seems he was rebuffed; thence he fled into the arms +of the wrecker gang, where he was unhappily more successful. The +government of Washington had presented to the Samoan king the wrecks of +the _Trenton_ and the _Vandalia_; an American syndicate had been formed +to break them up; an experienced gang was in consequence settled in Apia +and the report of submarine explosions had long grown familiar in the +ears of residents. From these artificers the president obtained a supply +of dynamite, the needful mechanism, and the loan of a mechanic; the gaol +was mined, and the Manono people in Vaiusu were advertised of the fact in +a letter signed by Laupepa. Partly by the indiscretion of the mechanic, +who had sought to embolden himself (like Lady Macbeth) with liquor for +his somewhat dreadful task, the story leaked immediately out and raised a +very general, or I might say almost universal, reprobation. Some blamed +the proposed deed because it was barbarous and a foul example to set +before a race half barbarous itself; others because it was illegal; +others again because, in the face of so weak an enemy, it appeared +pitifully pusillanimous; almost all because it tended to precipitate and +embitter war. In the midst of the turmoil he had raised, and under the +immediate pressure of certain indignant white residents, the baron fell +back upon a new expedient, certainly less barbarous, perhaps no more +legal; and on Monday afternoon, September 7th, packed his six prisoners +on board the cutter _Lancashire Lass_, and deported them to the +neighbouring low-island group of the Tokelaus. We watched her put to sea +with mingled feelings. Anything were better than dynamite, but this was +not good. The men had been summoned in the name of law; they had +surrendered; the law had uttered its voice; they were under one sentence +duly delivered; and now the president, by no right with which we were +acquainted, had exchanged it for another. It was perhaps no less +fortunate, though it was more pardonable in a stranger, that he had +increased the punishment to that which, in the eyes of Samoans, ranks +next to death,--exile from their native land and friends. And the +_Lancashire Lass_ appeared to carry away with her into the uttermost +parts of the sea the honour of the administration and the prestige of the +supreme court. + +The policy of the government towards Mataafa has thus been of a piece +throughout; always would-be violent, it has been almost always defaced +with some appearance of perfidy or unfairness. The policy of Mataafa +(though extremely bewildering to any white) appears everywhere consistent +with itself, and the man's bearing has always been calm. But to +represent the fulness of the contrast, it is necessary that I should give +some description of the two capitals, or the two camps, and the ways and +means of the regular and irregular government. + +_Mulinuu_. Mulinuu, the reader may remember, is a narrow finger of land +planted in cocoa-palms, which runs forth into the lagoon perhaps three +quarters of a mile. To the east is the bay of Apia. To the west, there +is, first of all, a mangrove swamp, the mangroves excellently green, the +mud ink-black, and its face crawled upon by countless insects and black +and scarlet crabs. Beyond the swamp is a wide and shallow bay of the +lagoon, bounded to the west by Faleula Point. Faleula is the next +village to Malie; so that from the top of some tall palm in Malie it +should be possible to descry against the eastern heavens the palms of +Mulinuu. The trade wind sweeps over the low peninsula and cleanses it +from the contagion of the swamp. Samoans have a quaint phrase in their +language; when out of health, they seek exposed places on the shore "to +eat the wind," say they; and there can be few better places for such a +diet than the point of Mulinuu. + +Two European houses stand conspicuous on the harbour side; in Europe they +would seem poor enough, but they are fine houses for Samoa. One is new; +it was built the other day under the apologetic title of a Government +House, to be the residence of Baron Senfft. The other is historical; it +was built by Brandeis on a mortgage, and is now occupied by the chief +justice on conditions never understood, the rumour going uncontradicted +that he sits rent free. I do not say it is true, I say it goes +uncontradicted; and there is one peculiarity of our officials in a +nutshell,--their remarkable indifference to their own character. From +the one house to the other extends a scattering village for the Faipule +or native parliament men. In the days of Tamasese this was a brave +place, both his own house and those of the Faipule good, and the whole +excellently ordered and approached by a sanded way. It is now like a +neglected bush-town, and speaks of apathy in all concerned. But the +chief scandal of Mulinuu is elsewhere. The house of the president stands +just to seaward of the isthmus, where the watch is set nightly, and armed +men guard the uneasy slumbers of the government. On the landward side +there stands a monument to the poor German lads who fell at Fangalii, +just beyond which the passer-by may chance to observe a little house +standing back-ward from the road. It is such a house as a commoner might +use in a bush village; none could dream that it gave shelter even to a +family chief; yet this is the palace of Malietoa-Natoaitele-Tamasoalii +Laupepa, king of Samoa. As you sit in his company under this humble +shelter, you shall see, between the posts, the new house of the +president. His Majesty himself beholds it daily, and the tenor of his +thoughts may be divined. The fine house of a Samoan chief is his +appropriate attribute; yet, after seventeen months, the government (well +housed themselves) have not yet found--have not yet sought--a roof-tree +for their sovereign. And the lodging is typical. I take up the +president's financial statement of September 8, 1891. I find the king's +allowance to figure at seventy-five dollars a month; and I find that he +is further (though somewhat obscurely) debited with the salaries of +either two or three clerks. Take the outside figure, and the sum +expended on or for His Majesty amounts to ninety-five dollars in the +month. Lieutenant Ulfsparre and Dr. Hagberg (the chief justice's Swedish +friends) drew in the same period one hundred and forty and one hundred +dollars respectively on account of salary alone. And it should be +observed that Dr. Hagberg was employed, or at least paid, from government +funds, in the face of His Majesty's express and reiterated protest. In +another column of the statement, one hundred and seventy-five dollars and +seventy-five cents are debited for the chief justice's travelling +expenses. I am of the opinion that if His Majesty desired (or dared) to +take an outing, he would be asked to bear the charge from his allowance. +But although I think the chief justice had done more nobly to pay for +himself, I am far from denying that his excursions were well meant; he +should indeed be praised for having made them; and I leave the charge out +of consideration in the following statement. + + ON THE ONE HAND + + Salary of Chief Justice Cedarkrantz $500 + Salary of President Baron Senfft von Pilsach (about) 415 + Salary of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, Chief of Police 140 + Salary of Dr. Hagberg, Private Secretary to the Chief Justice 100 + + Total monthly salary to four whites, one of them paid against His + Majesty's protest $1155 + + ON THE OTHER HAND + + Total monthly payments to and for His Majesty the King, including + allowance and hire of three clerks, one of these placed under the + rubric of extraordinary expenses $95 + +This looks strange enough and mean enough already. But we have ground of +comparison in the practice of Brandeis. + + Brandeis, white prime minister $200 + Tamasese (about) 160 + White Chief of Police 100 + +Under Brandeis, in other words, the king received the second highest +allowance on the sheet; and it was a good second, and the third was a bad +third. And it must be borne in mind that Tamasese himself was pointed +and laughed at among natives. Judge, then, what is muttered of Laupepa, +housed in his shanty before the president's doors like Lazarus before the +doors of Dives; receiving not so much of his own taxes as the private +secretary of the law officer; and (in actual salary) little more than +half as much as his own chief of police. It is known besides that he has +protested in vain against the charge for Dr. Hagberg; it is known that he +has himself applied for an advance and been refused. Money is certainly +a grave subject on Mulinuu; but respect costs nothing, and thrifty +officials might have judged it wise to make up in extra politeness for +what they curtailed of pomp or comfort. One instance may suffice. +Laupepa appeared last summer on a public occasion; the president was +there and not even the president rose to greet the entrance of the +sovereign. Since about the same period, besides, the monarch must be +described as in a state of sequestration. A white man, an Irishman, the +true type of all that is most gallant, humorous, and reckless in his +country, chose to visit His Majesty and give him some excellent advice +(to make up his difference with Mataafa) couched unhappily in vivid and +figurative language. The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific, but the evil +that he chanced to do lives after him. His Majesty was greatly (and I +must say justly) offended by the freedom of the expressions used; he +appealed to his white advisers; and these, whether from want of thought +or by design, issued an ignominious proclamation. Intending visitors to +the palace must appear before their consuls and justify their business. +The majesty of buried Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a +private collection) under special permit; and was thus at once cut off +from the company and opinions of the self respecting. To retain any +dignity in such an abject state would require a man of very different +virtues from those claimed by the not unvirtuous Laupepa. He is not +designed to ride the whirlwind or direct the storm, rather to be the +ornament of private life. He is kind, gentle, patient as Job, +conspicuously well-intentioned, of charming manners; and when he pleases, +he has one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone--I mean that +he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language. + +The government of Brandeis accomplished a good deal and was continually +and heroically attempting more. The government of our two whites has +confined itself almost wholly to paying and receiving salaries. They +have built, indeed, a house for the president; they are believed (if that +be a merit) to have bought the local newspaper with government funds; and +their rule has been enlivened by a number of scandals, into which I feel +with relief that it is unnecessary I should enter. Even if the three +Powers do not remove these gentlemen, their absurd and disastrous +government must perish by itself of inanition. Native taxes (except +perhaps from Mataafa, true to his own private policy) have long been +beyond hope. And only the other day (May 6th, 1892), on the expressed +ground that there was no guarantee as to how the funds would be expended, +and that the president consistently refused to allow the verification of +his cash balances, the municipal council has negatived the proposal to +call up further taxes from the whites. All is well that ends even ill, +so that it end; and we believe that with the last dollar we shall see the +last of the last functionary. Now when it is so nearly over, we can +afford to smile at this extraordinary passage, though we must still sigh +over the occasion lost. + +* * * * * + +_Malie_. The way to Malie lies round the shores of Faleula bay and +through a succession of pleasant groves and villages. The road, one of +the works of Brandeis, is now cut up by pig fences. Eight times you must +leap a barrier of cocoa posts; the take-off and the landing both in a +patch of mire planted with big stones, and the stones sometimes reddened +with the blood of horses that have gone before. To make these obstacles +more annoying, you have sometimes to wait while a black boar clambers +sedately over the so-called pig fence. Nothing can more thoroughly +depict the worst side of the Samoan character than these useless barriers +which deface their only road. It was one of the first orders issued by +the government of Mulinuu after the coming of the chief justice, to have +the passage cleared. It is the disgrace of Mataafa that the thing is not +yet done. + +The village of Malie is the scene of prosperity and peace. In a very +good account of a visit there, published in the _Australasian_, the +writer describes it to be fortified; she must have been deceived by the +appearance of some pig walls on the shore. There is no fortification, no +parade of war. I understand that from one to five hundred fighting men +are always within reach; but I have never seen more than five together +under arms, and these were the king's guard of honour. A Sabbath quiet +broods over the well-weeded green, the picketed horses, the troops of +pigs, the round or oval native dwellings. Of these there are a +surprising number, very fine of their sort: yet more are in the building; +and in the midst a tall house of assembly, by far the greatest Samoan +structure now in these islands, stands about half finished and already +makes a figure in the landscape. No bustle is to be observed, but the +work accomplished testifies to a still activity. + +The centre-piece of all is the high chief himself, +Malietoa-Tuiatua-Tuiaana Mataafa, king--or not king--or king-claimant--of +Samoa. All goes to him, all comes from him. Native deputations bring +him gifts and are feasted in return. White travellers, to their +indescribable irritation, are (on his approach) waved from his path by +his armed guards. He summons his dancers by the note of a bugle. He +sits nightly at home before a semicircle of talking-men from many +quarters of the islands, delivering and hearing those ornate and elegant +orations in which the Samoan heart delights. About himself and all his +surroundings there breathes a striking sense of order, tranquillity, and +native plenty. He is of a tall and powerful person, sixty years of age, +white-haired and with a white moustache; his eyes bright and quiet; his +jaw perceptibly underhung, which gives him something of the expression of +a benevolent mastiff; his manners dignified and a thought insinuating, +with an air of a Catholic prelate. He was never married, and a natural +daughter attends upon his guests. Long since he made a vow of +chastity,--"to live as our Lord lived on this earth" and Polynesians +report with bated breath that he has kept it. On all such points, true +to his Catholic training, he is inclined to be even rigid. Lauati, the +pivot of Savaii, has recently repudiated his wife and taken a fairer; and +when I was last in Malie, Mataafa (with a strange superiority to his own +interests) had but just despatched a reprimand. In his immediate circle, +in spite of the smoothness of his ways, he is said to be more respected +than beloved; and his influence is the child rather of authority than +popularity. No Samoan grandee now living need have attempted that which +he has accomplished during the last twelve months with unimpaired +prestige, not only to withhold his followers from war, but to send them +to be judged in the camp of their enemies on Mulinuu. And it is a matter +of debate whether such a triumph of authority were ever possible before. +Speaking for myself, I have visited and dwelt in almost every seat of the +Polynesian race, and have met but one man who gave me a stronger +impression of character and parts. + +About the situation, Mataafa expresses himself with unshaken peace. To +the chief justice he refers with some bitterness; to Laupepa, with a +smile, as "my poor brother." For himself, he stands upon the treaty, and +expects sooner or later an election in which he shall be raised to the +chief power. In the meanwhile, or for an alternative, he would willingly +embrace a compromise with Laupepa; to which he would probably add one +condition, that the joint government should remain seated at Malie, a +sensible but not inconvenient distance from white intrigues and white +officials. One circumstance in my last interview particularly pleased +me. The king's chief scribe, Esela, is an old employe under Tamasese, +and the talk ran some while upon the character of Brandeis. Loyalty in +this world is after all not thrown away; Brandeis was guilty, in Samoan +eyes, of many irritating errors, but he stood true to Tamasese; in the +course of time a sense of this virtue and of his general uprightness has +obliterated the memory of his mistakes; and it would have done his heart +good if he could have heard his old scribe and his old adversary join in +praising him. "Yes," concluded Mataafa, "I wish we had Planteisa back +again." _A quelque chose malheur est bon_. So strong is the impression +produced by the defects of Cedarcrantz and Baron Senfft, that I believe +Mataafa far from singular in this opinion, and that the return of the +upright Brandeis might be even welcome to many. + +I must add a last touch to the picture of Malie and the pretender's life. +About four in the morning, the visitor in his house will be awakened by +the note of a pipe, blown without, very softly and to a soothing melody. +This is Mataafa's private luxury to lead on pleasant dreams. We have a +bird here in Samoa that about the same hour of darkness sings in the +bush. The father of Mataafa, while he lived, was a great friend and +protector to all living creatures, and passed under the by-name of _the +King of Birds_. It may be it was among the woodland clients of the sire +that the son acquired his fancy for this morning music. + +* * * * * + +I have now sought to render without extenuation the impressions received: +of dignity, plenty, and peace at Malie, of bankruptcy and distraction at +Mulinuu. And I wish I might here bring to an end ungrateful labours. But +I am sensible that there remain two points on which it would be improper +to be silent. I should be blamed if I did not indicate a practical +conclusion; and I should blame myself if I did not do a little justice to +that tried company of the Land Commissioners. + +The Land Commission has been in many senses unfortunate. The original +German member, a gentleman of the name of Eggert, fell early into +precarious health; his work was from the first interrupted, he was at +last (to the regret of all that knew him) invalided home; and his +successor had but just arrived. In like manner, the first American +commissioner, Henry C. Ide, a man of character and intelligence, was +recalled (I believe by private affairs) when he was but just settling +into the spirit of the work; and though his place was promptly filled by +ex-Governor Ormsbee, a worthy successor, distinguished by strong and +vivacious common sense, the break was again sensible. The English +commissioner, my friend Bazett Michael Haggard, is thus the only one who +has continued at his post since the beginning. And yet, in spite of +these unusual changes, the Commission has a record perhaps unrivalled +among international commissions. It has been unanimous practically from +the first until the last; and out of some four hundred cases disposed of, +there is but one on which the members were divided. It was the more +unfortunate they should have early fallen in a difficulty with the chief +justice. The original ground of this is supposed to be a difference of +opinion as to the import of the Berlin Act, on which, as a layman, it +would be unbecoming if I were to offer an opinion. But it must always +seem as if the chief justice had suffered himself to be irritated beyond +the bounds of discretion. It must always seem as if his original attempt +to deprive the commissioners of the services of a secretary and the use +of a safe were even senseless; and his step in printing and posting a +proclamation denying their jurisdiction were equally impolitic and +undignified. The dispute had a secondary result worse than itself. The +gentleman appointed to be Natives' Advocate shared the chief justice's +opinion, was his close intimate, advised with him almost daily, and +drifted at last into an attitude of opposition to his colleagues. He +suffered himself besides (being a layman in law) to embrace the interest +of his clients with something of the warmth of a partisan. Disagreeable +scenes occurred in court; the advocate was more than once reproved, he +was warned that his consultations with the judge of appeal tended to +damage his own character and to lower the credit of the appellate court. +Having lost some cases on which he set importance, it should seem that he +spoke unwisely among natives. A sudden cry of colour prejudice went up; +and Samoans were heard to assure each other that it was useless to appear +before the Land Commission, which was sworn to support the whites. + +This deplorable state of affairs was brought to an end by the departure +from Samoa of the Natives' Advocate. He was succeeded _pro tempore_ by a +young New Zealander, E. W. Gurr, not much more versed in law than +himself, and very much less so in Samoan. Whether by more skill or +better fortune, Gurr has been able in the course of a few weeks to +recover for the natives several important tracts of land; and the +prejudice against the Commission seems to be abating as fast as it arose. +I should not omit to say that, in the eagerness of the original advocate, +there was much that was amiable; nor must I fail to point out how much +there was of blindness. Fired by the ardour of pursuit, he seems to have +regarded his immediate clients as the only natives extant and the epitome +and emblem of the Samoan race. Thus, in the case that was the most +exclaimed against as "an injustice to natives," his client, Puaauli, was +certainly nonsuited. But in that intricate affair who lost the money? +The German firm. And who got the land? Other natives. To twist such a +decision into evidence, either of a prejudice against Samoans or a +partiality to whites, is to keep one eye shut and have the other +bandaged. + +And lastly, one word as to the future. Laupepa and Mataafa stand over +against each other, rivals with no third competitor. They may be said to +hold the great name of Malietoa in commission; each has borne the style, +each exercised the authority, of a Samoan king; one is secure of the +small but compact and fervent following of the Catholics, the other has +the sympathies of a large part of the Protestant majority, and upon any +sign of Catholic aggression would have more. With men so nearly +balanced, it may be asked whether a prolonged successful exercise of +power be possible for either. In the case of the feeble Laupepa, it is +certainly not; we have the proof before us. Nor do I think we should +judge, from what we see to-day, that it would be possible, or would +continue to be possible, even for the kingly Mataafa. It is always the +easier game to be in opposition. The tale of David and Saul would +infallibly be re-enacted; once more we shall have two kings in the +land,--the latent and the patent; and the house of the first will become +once more the resort of "every one that is in distress, and every one +that is in debt, and every one that is discontented." Against such odds +it is my fear that Mataafa might contend in vain; it is beyond the bounds +of my imagination that Laupepa should contend at all. Foreign ships and +bayonets is the cure proposed in Mulinuu. And certainly, if people at +home desire that money should be thrown away and blood shed in Samoa, an +effect of a kind, and for the time, may be produced. Its nature and +prospective durability I will ask readers of this volume to forecast for +themselves. There is one way to peace and unity: that Laupepa and +Mataafa should be again conjoined on the best terms procurable. There +may be other ways, although I cannot see them; but not even malevolence, +not even stupidity, can deny that this is one. It seems, indeed, so +obvious, and sure, and easy, that men look about with amazement and +suspicion, seeking some hidden motive why it should not be adopted. + +To Laupepa's opposition, as shown in the case of the Lauati scheme, no +dweller in Samoa will give weight, for they know him to be as putty in +the hands of his advisers. It may be right, it may be wrong, but we are +many of us driven to the conclusion that the stumbling-block is Fangalii, +and that the memorial of that affair shadows appropriately the house of a +king who reigns in right of it. If this be all, it should not trouble us +long. Germany has shown she can be generous; it now remains for her only +to forget a natural but certainly ill-grounded prejudice, and allow to +him, who was sole king before the plenipotentiaries assembled, and who +would be sole king to-morrow if the Berlin Act could be rescinded, a +fitting share of rule. The future of Samoa should lie thus in the hands +of a single man, on whom the eyes of Europe are already fixed. Great +concerns press on his attention; the Samoan group, in his view, is but as +a grain of dust; and the country where he reigns has bled on too many +august scenes of victory to remember for ever a blundering skirmish in +the plantation of Vailele. It is to him--to the sovereign of the wise +Stuebel and the loyal Brandeis,--that I make my appeal. + +_May_ 25, 1892. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{1} Brother and successor of Theodor. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY*** + + +******* This file should be named 536.txt or 536.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/3/536 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + Binary files differdiff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb13478 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #536 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/536) diff --git a/old/fnhst10.txt b/old/fnhst10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01fd229 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fnhst10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6241 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Footnote to History, by Robert Louis Stevenson +(#25 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Footnote to History + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Release Date: May, 1996 [EBook #536] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 20, 1996] +[Most recently updated: August 27, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY *** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1912 Swanston edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY + + + + +PREFACE + + + +An affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines in +any general history has been here expanded to the size of a volume +or large pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularity +of the manners and events and many of the characters, considered, +it is hoped that, in spite of its outlandish subject, the sketch +may find readers. It has been a task of difficulty. Speed was +essential, or it might come too late to be of any service to a +distracted country. Truth, in the midst of conflicting rumours and +in the dearth of printed material, was often hard to ascertain, and +since most of those engaged were of my personal acquaintance, it +was often more than delicate to express. I must certainly have +erred often and much; it is not for want of trouble taken nor of an +impartial temper. And if my plain speaking shall cost me any of +the friends that I still count, I shall be sorry, but I need not be +ashamed. + +In one particular the spelling of Samoan words has been altered; +and the characteristic nasal n of the language written throughout +ng instead of g. Thus I put Pango-Pango, instead of Pago-Pago; the +sound being that of soft ng in English, as in singer, not as in +finger. + + +R. L. S. +VAILIMA, +UPOLU, +SAMOA. + + + +EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA + + + +CHAPTER I--THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE + + + +The story I have to tell is still going on as I write; the +characters are alive and active; it is a piece of contemporary +history in the most exact sense. And yet, for all its actuality +and the part played in it by mails and telegraphs and iron war- +ships, the ideas and the manners of the native actors date back +before the Roman Empire. They are Christians, church-goers, +singers of hymns at family worship, hardy cricketers; their books +are printed in London by Spottiswoode, Trubner, or the Tract +Society; but in most other points they are the contemporaries of +our tattooed ancestors who drove their chariots on the wrong side +of the Roman wall. We have passed the feudal system; they are not +yet clear of the patriarchal. We are in the thick of the age of +finance; they are in a period of communism. And this makes them +hard to understand. + +To us, with our feudal ideas, Samoa has the first appearance of a +land of despotism. An elaborate courtliness marks the race alone +among Polynesians; terms of ceremony fly thick as oaths on board a +ship; commoners my-lord each other when they meet--and urchins as +they play marbles. And for the real noble a whole private dialect +is set apart. The common names for an axe, for blood, for bamboo, +a bamboo knife, a pig, food, entrails, and an oven are taboo in his +presence, as the common names for a bug and for many offices and +members of the body are taboo in the drawing-rooms of English +ladies. Special words are set apart for his leg, his face, his +hair, his belly, his eyelids, his son, his daughter, his wife, his +wife's pregnancy, his wife's adultery, adultery with his wife, his +dwelling, his spear, his comb, his sleep, his dreams, his anger, +the mutual anger of several chiefs, his food, his pleasure in +eating, the food and eating of his pigeons, his ulcers, his cough, +his sickness, his recovery, his death, his being carried on a bier, +the exhumation of his bones, and his skull after death. To address +these demigods is quite a branch of knowledge, and he who goes to +visit a high chief does well to make sure of the competence of his +interpreter. To complete the picture, the same word signifies the +watching of a virgin and the warding of a chief; and the same word +means to cherish a chief and to fondle a favourite child. + +Men like us, full of memories of feudalism, hear of a man so +addressed, so flattered, and we leap at once to the conclusion that +he is hereditary and absolute. Hereditary he is; born of a great +family, he must always be a man of mark; but yet his office is +elective and (in a weak sense) is held on good behaviour. Compare +the case of a Highland chief: born one of the great ones of his +clan, he was sometimes appointed its chief officer and conventional +father; was loved, and respected, and served, and fed, and died for +implicitly, if he gave loyalty a chance; and yet if he sufficiently +outraged clan sentiment, was liable to deposition. As to +authority, the parallel is not so close. Doubtless the Samoan +chief, if he be popular, wields a great influence; but it is +limited. Important matters are debated in a fono, or native +parliament, with its feasting and parade, its endless speeches and +polite genealogical allusions. Debated, I say--not decided; for +even a small minority will often strike a clan or a province +impotent. In the midst of these ineffective councils the chief +sits usually silent: a kind of a gagged audience for village +orators. And the deliverance of the fono seems (for the moment) to +be final. The absolute chiefs of Tahiti and Hawaii were addressed +as plain John and Thomas; the chiefs of Samoa are surfeited with +lip-honour, but the seat and extent of their actual authority is +hard to find. + +It is so in the members of the state, and worse in the belly. The +idea of a sovereign pervades the air; the name we have; the thing +we are not so sure of. And the process of election to the chief +power is a mystery. Certain provinces have in their gift certain +high titles, or NAMES, as they are called. These can only be +attributed to the descendants of particular lines. Once granted, +each name conveys at once the principality (whatever that be worth) +of the province which bestows it, and counts as one suffrage +towards the general sovereignty of Samoa. To be indubitable king, +they say, or some of them say,--I find few in perfect harmony,--a +man should resume five of these names in his own person. But the +case is purely hypothetical; local jealousy forbids its occurrence. +There are rival provinces, far more concerned in the prosecution of +their rivalry than in the choice of a right man for king. If one +of these shall have bestowed its name on competitor A, it will be +the signal and the sufficient reason for the other to bestow its +name on competitor B or C. The majority of Savaii and that of Aana +are thus in perennial opposition. Nor is this all. In 1881, +Laupepa, the present king, held the three names of Malietoa, +Natoaitele, and Tamasoalii; Tamasese held that of Tuiaana; and +Mataafa that of Tuiatua. Laupepa had thus a majority of suffrages; +he held perhaps as high a proportion as can be hoped in these +distracted islands; and he counted among the number the +preponderant name of Malietoa. Here, if ever, was an election. +Here, if a king were at all possible, was the king. And yet the +natives were not satisfied. Laupepa was crowned, March 19th; and +next month, the provinces of Aana and Atua met in joint parliament, +and elected their own two princes, Tamasese and Mataafa, to an +alternate monarchy, Tamasese taking the first trick of two years. +War was imminent, when the consuls interfered, and any war were +preferable to the terms of the peace which they procured. By the +Lackawanna treaty, Laupepa was confirmed king, and Tamasese set by +his side in the nondescript office of vice-king. The compromise +was not, I am told, without precedent; but it lacked all appearance +of success. To the constitution of Samoa, which was already all +wheels and no horses, the consuls had added a fifth wheel. In +addition to the old conundrum, "Who is the king?" they had supplied +a new one, "What is the vice-king?" + +Two royal lines; some cloudy idea of alternation between the two; +an electorate in which the vote of each province is immediately +effectual, as regards itself, so that every candidate who attains +one name becomes a perpetual and dangerous competitor for the other +four: such are a few of the more trenchant absurdities. Many +argue that the whole idea of sovereignty is modern and imported; +but it seems impossible that anything so foolish should have been +suddenly devised, and the constitution bears on its front the marks +of dotage. + +But the king, once elected and nominated, what does he become? It +may be said he remains precisely as he was. Election to one of the +five names is significant; it brings not only dignity but power, +and the holder is secure, from that moment, of a certain following +in war. But I cannot find that the further step of election to the +kingship implies anything worth mention. The successful candidate +is now the Tupu o Samoa--much good may it do him! He can so sign +himself on proclamations, which it does not follow that any one +will heed. He can summon parliaments; it does not follow they will +assemble. If he be too flagrantly disobeyed, he can go to war. +But so he could before, when he was only the chief of certain +provinces. His own provinces will support him, the provinces of +his rivals will take the field upon the other part; just as before. +In so far as he is the holder of any of the five NAMES, in short, +he is a man to be reckoned with; in so far as he is king of Samoa, +I cannot find but what the president of a college debating society +is a far more formidable officer. And unfortunately, although the +credit side of the account proves thus imaginary, the debit side is +actual and heavy. For he is now set up to be the mark of consuls; +he will be badgered to raise taxes, to make roads, to punish crime, +to quell rebellion: and how he is to do it is not asked. + +If I am in the least right in my presentation of this obscure +matter, no one need be surprised to hear that the land is full of +war and rumours of war. Scarce a year goes by but what some +province is in arms, or sits sulky and menacing, holding +parliaments, disregarding the king's proclamations and planting +food in the bush, the first step of military preparation. The +religious sentiment of the people is indeed for peace at any price; +no pastor can bear arms; and even the layman who does so is denied +the sacraments. In the last war the college of Malua, where the +picked youth are prepared for the ministry, lost but a single +student; the rest, in the bosom of a bleeding country, and deaf to +the voices of vanity and honour, peacefully pursued their studies. +But if the church looks askance on war, the warrior in no extremity +of need or passion forgets his consideration for the church. The +houses and gardens of her ministers stand safe in the midst of +armies; a way is reserved for themselves along the beach, where +they may be seen in their white kilts and jackets openly passing +the lines, while not a hundred yards behind the skirmishers will be +exchanging the useless volleys of barbaric warfare. Women are also +respected; they are not fired upon; and they are suffered to pass +between the hostile camps, exchanging gossip, spreading rumour, and +divulging to either army the secret councils of the other. This is +plainly no savage war; it has all the punctilio of the barbarian, +and all his parade; feasts precede battles, fine dresses and songs +decorate and enliven the field; and the young soldier comes to camp +burning (on the one hand) to distinguish himself by acts of valour, +and (on the other) to display his acquaintance with field +etiquette. Thus after Mataafa became involved in hostilities +against the Germans, and had another code to observe beside his +own, he was always asking his white advisers if "things were done +correctly." Let us try to be as wise as Mataafa, and to conceive +that etiquette and morals differ in one country and another. We +shall be the less surprised to find Samoan war defaced with some +unpalatable customs. The childish destruction of fruit-trees in an +enemy's country cripples the resources of Samoa; and the habit of +head-hunting not only revolts foreigners, but has begun to exercise +the minds of the natives themselves. Soon after the German heads +were taken, Mr. Carne, Wesleyan missionary, had occasion to visit +Mataafa's camp, and spoke of the practice with abhorrence. "Misi +Kane," said one chief, "we have just been puzzling ourselves to +guess where that custom came from. But, Misi, is it not so that +when David killed Goliath, he cut off his head and carried it +before the king?" + +With the civil life of the inhabitants we have far less to do; and +yet even here a word of preparation is inevitable. They are easy, +merry, and pleasure-loving; the gayest, though by far from either +the most capable or the most beautiful of Polynesians. Fine dress +is a passion, and makes a Samoan festival a thing of beauty. Song +is almost ceaseless. The boatman sings at the oar, the family at +evening worship, the girls at night in the guest-house, sometimes +the workman at his toil. No occasion is too small for the poets +and musicians; a death, a visit, the day's news, the day's +pleasantry, will be set to rhyme and harmony. Even half-grown +girls, the occasion arising, fashion words and train choruses of +children for its celebration. Song, as with all Pacific islanders, +goes hand in hand with the dance, and both shade into the drama. +Some of the performances are indecent and ugly, some only dull; +others are pretty, funny, and attractive. Games are popular. +Cricket-matches, where a hundred played upon a side, endured at +times for weeks, and ate up the country like the presence of an +army. Fishing, the daily bath, flirtation; courtship, which is +gone upon by proxy; conversation, which is largely political; and +the delights of public oratory, fill in the long hours. + +But the special delight of the Samoan is the malanga. When people +form a party and go from village to village, junketing and +gossiping, they are said to go on a malanga. Their songs have +announced their approach ere they arrive; the guest-house is +prepared for their reception; the virgins of the village attend to +prepare the kava bowl and entertain them with the dance; time flies +in the enjoyment of every pleasure which an islander conceives; and +when the malanga sets forth, the same welcome and the same joys +expect them beyond the next cape, where the nearest village nestles +in its grove of palms. To the visitors it is all golden; for the +hosts, it has another side. In one or two words of the language +the fact peeps slyly out. The same word (afemoeina) expresses "a +long call" and "to come as a calamity"; the same word (lesolosolou) +signifies "to have no intermission of pain" and "to have no +cessation, as in the arrival of visitors"; and soua, used of +epidemics, bears the sense of being overcome as with "fire, flood, +or visitors." But the gem of the dictionary is the verb alovao, +which illustrates its pages like a humorous woodcut. It is used in +the sense of "to avoid visitors," but it means literally "hide in +the wood." So, by the sure hand of popular speech, we have the +picture of the house deserted, the malanga disappointed, and the +host that should have been quaking in the bush. + +We are thus brought to the beginning of a series of traits of +manners, highly curious in themselves, and essential to an +understanding of the war. In Samoa authority sits on the one hand +entranced; on the other, property stands bound in the midst of +chartered marauders. What property exists is vested in the family, +not in the individual; and of the loose communism in which a family +dwells, the dictionary may yet again help us to some idea. I find +a string of verbs with the following senses: to deal leniently +with, as in helping oneself from a family plantation; to give away +without consulting other members of the family; to go to strangers +for help instead of to relatives; to take from relatives without +permission; to steal from relatives; to have plantations robbed by +relatives. The ideal of conduct in the family, and some of its +depravations, appear here very plainly. The man who (in a native +word of praise) is mata-ainga, a race-regarder, has his hand always +open to his kindred; the man who is not (in a native term of +contempt) noa, knows always where to turn in any pinch of want or +extremity of laziness. Beggary within the family--and by the less +self-respecting, without it--has thus grown into a custom and a +scourge, and the dictionary teems with evidence of its abuse. +Special words signify the begging of food, of uncooked food, of +fish, of pigs, of pigs for travellers, of pigs for stock, of taro, +of taro-tops, of taro-tops for planting, of tools, of flyhooks, of +implements for netting pigeons, and of mats. It is true the beggar +was supposed in time to make a return, somewhat as by the Roman +contract of mutuum. But the obligation was only moral; it could +not be, or was not, enforced; as a matter of fact, it was +disregarded. The language had recently to borrow from the +Tahitians a word for debt; while by a significant excidence, it +possessed a native expression for the failure to pay--"to omit to +make a return for property begged." Conceive now the position of +the householder besieged by harpies, and all defence denied him by +the laws of honour. The sacramental gesture of refusal, his last +and single resource, was supposed to signify "my house is +destitute." Until that point was reached, in other words, the +conduct prescribed for a Samoan was to give and to continue giving. +But it does not appear he was at all expected to give with a good +grace. The dictionary is well stocked with expressions standing +ready, like missiles, to be discharged upon the locusts--"troop of +shamefaced ones," "you draw in your head like a tern," "you make +your voice small like a whistle-pipe," "you beg like one +delirious"; and the verb pongitai, "to look cross," is equipped +with the pregnant rider, "as at the sight of beggars." + +This insolence of beggars and the weakness of proprietors can only +be illustrated by examples. We have a girl in our service to whom +we had given some finery, that she might wait at table, and (at her +own request) some warm clothing against the cold mornings of the +bush. She went on a visit to her family, and returned in an old +tablecloth, her whole wardrobe having been divided out among +relatives in the course of twenty-four hours. A pastor in the +province of Atua, being a handy, busy man, bought a boat for a +hundred dollars, fifty of which he paid down. Presently after, +relatives came to him upon a visit and took a fancy to his new +possession. "We have long been wanting a boat," said they. "Give +us this one." So, when the visit was done, they departed in the +boat. The pastor, meanwhile, travelled into Savaii the best way he +could, sold a parcel of land, and begged mats among his other +relatives, to pay the remainder of the price of the boat which was +no longer his. You might think this was enough; but some months +later, the harpies, having broken a thwart, brought back the boat +to be repaired and repainted by the original owner. + +Such customs, it might be argued, being double-edged, will +ultimately right themselves. But it is otherwise in practice. +Such folk as the pastor's harpy relatives will generally have a +boat, and will never have paid for it; such men as the pastor may +have sometimes paid for a boat, but they will never have one. It +is there as it is with us at home: the measure of the abuse of +either system is the blackness of the individual heart. The same +man, who would drive his poor relatives from his own door in +England, would besiege in Samoa the doors of the rich; and the +essence of the dishonesty in either case is to pursue one's own +advantage and to be indifferent to the losses of one's neighbour. +But the particular drawback of the Polynesian system is to depress +and stagger industry. To work more is there only to be more +pillaged; to save is impossible. The family has then made a good +day of it when all are filled and nothing remains over for the crew +of free-booters; and the injustice of the system begins to be +recognised even in Samoa. One native is said to have amassed a +certain fortune; two clever lads have individually expressed to us +their discontent with a system which taxes industry to pamper +idleness; and I hear that in one village of Savaii a law has been +passed forbidding gifts under the penalty of a sharp fine. + +Under this economic regimen, the unpopularity of taxes, which +strike all at the same time, which expose the industrious to a +perfect siege of mendicancy, and the lazy to be actually condemned +to a day's labour, may be imagined without words. It is more +important to note the concurrent relaxation of all sense of +property. From applying for help to kinsmen who are scarce +permitted to refuse, it is but a step to taking from them (in the +dictionary phrase) "without permission"; from that to theft at +large is but a hair's-breadth. + + + +CHAPTER II--THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: FOREIGN + + + +The huge majority of Samoans, like other God-fearing folk in other +countries, are perfectly content with their own manners. And upon +one condition, it is plain they might enjoy themselves far beyond +the average of man. Seated in islands very rich in food, the +idleness of the many idle would scarce matter; and the provinces +might continue to bestow their names among rival pretenders, and +fall into war and enjoy that a while, and drop into peace and enjoy +that, in a manner highly to be envied. But the condition--that +they should be let alone--is now no longer possible. More than a +hundred years ago, and following closely on the heels of Cook, an +irregular invasion of adventurers began to swarm about the isles of +the Pacific. The seven sleepers of Polynesia stand, still but half +aroused, in the midst of the century of competition. And the +island races, comparable to a shopful of crockery launched upon the +stream of time, now fall to make their desperate voyage among pots +of brass and adamant. + +Apia, the port and mart, is the seat of the political sickness of +Samoa. At the foot of a peaked, woody mountain, the coast makes a +deep indent, roughly semicircular. In front the barrier reef is +broken by the fresh water of the streams; if the swell be from the +north, it enters almost without diminution; and the war-ships roll +dizzily at their moorings, and along the fringing coral which +follows the configuration of the beach, the surf breaks with a +continuous uproar. In wild weather, as the world knows, the roads +are untenable. Along the whole shore, which is everywhere green +and level and overlooked by inland mountain-tops, the town lies +drawn out in strings and clusters. The western horn is Mulinuu, +the eastern, Matautu; and from one to the other of these extremes, +I ask the reader to walk. He will find more of the history of +Samoa spread before his eyes in that excursion, than has yet been +collected in the blue-books or the white-books of the world. +Mulinuu (where the walk is to begin) is a flat, wind-swept +promontory, planted with palms, backed against a swamp of +mangroves, and occupied by a rather miserable village. The reader +is informed that this is the proper residence of the Samoan kings; +he will be the more surprised to observe a board set up, and to +read that this historic village is the property of the German firm. +But these boards, which are among the commonest features of the +landscape, may be rather taken to imply that the claim has been +disputed. A little farther east he skirts the stores, offices, and +barracks of the firm itself. Thence he will pass through Matafele, +the one really town-like portion of this long string of villages, +by German bars and stores and the German consulate; and reach the +Catholic mission and cathedral standing by the mouth of a small +river. The bridge which crosses here (bridge of Mulivai) is a +frontier; behind is Matafele; beyond, Apia proper; behind, Germans +are supreme; beyond, with but few exceptions, all is Anglo-Saxon. +Here the reader will go forward past the stores of Mr. Moors +(American) and Messrs. MacArthur (English); past the English +mission, the office of the English newspaper, the English church, +and the old American consulate, till he reaches the mouth of a +larger river, the Vaisingano. Beyond, in Matautu, his way takes +him in the shade of many trees and by scattered dwellings, and +presently brings him beside a great range of offices, the place and +the monument of a German who fought the German firm during his +life. His house (now he is dead) remains pointed like a discharged +cannon at the citadel of his old enemies. Fitly enough, it is at +present leased and occupied by Englishmen. A little farther, and +the reader gains the eastern flanking angle of the bay, where +stands the pilot-house and signal-post, and whence he can see, on +the line of the main coast of the island, the British and the new +American consulates. + +The course of his walk will have been enlivened by a considerable +to and fro of pleasure and business. He will have encountered many +varieties of whites,--sailors, merchants, clerks, priests, +Protestant missionaries in their pith helmets, and the nondescript +hangers-on of any island beach. And the sailors are sometimes in +considerable force; but not the residents. He will think at times +there are more signboards than men to own them. It may chance it +is a full day in the harbour; he will then have seen all manner of +ships, from men-of-war and deep-sea packets to the labour vessels +of the German firm and the cockboat island schooner; and if he be +of an arithmetical turn, he may calculate that there are more +whites afloat in Apia bay than whites ashore in the whole +Archipelago. On the other hand, he will have encountered all ranks +of natives, chiefs and pastors in their scrupulous white clothes; +perhaps the king himself, attended by guards in uniform; smiling +policemen with their pewter stars; girls, women, crowds of cheerful +children. And he will have asked himself with some surprise where +these reside. Here and there, in the back yards of European +establishments, he may have had a glimpse of a native house elbowed +in a corner; but since he left Mulinuu, none on the beach where +islanders prefer to live, scarce one on the line of street. The +handful of whites have everything; the natives walk in a foreign +town. A year ago, on a knoll behind a bar-room, he might have +observed a native house guarded by sentries and flown over by the +standard of Samoa. He would then have been told it was the seat of +government, driven (as I have to relate) over the Mulivai and from +beyond the German town into the Anglo-Saxon. To-day, he will learn +it has been carted back again to its old quarters. And he will +think it significant that the king of the islands should be thus +shuttled to and fro in his chief city at the nod of aliens. And +then he will observe a feature more significant still: a house +with some concourse of affairs, policemen and idlers hanging by, a +man at a bank-counter overhauling manifests, perhaps a trial +proceeding in the front verandah, or perhaps the council breaking +up in knots after a stormy sitting. And he will remember that he +is in the Eleele Sa, the "Forbidden Soil," or Neutral Territory of +the treaties; that the magistrate whom he has just seen trying +native criminals is no officer of the native king's; and that this, +the only port and place of business in the kingdom, collects and +administers its own revenue for its own behoof by the hands of +white councillors and under the supervision of white consuls. Let +him go further afield. He will find the roads almost everywhere to +cease or to be made impassable by native pig-fences, bridges to be +quite unknown, and houses of the whites to become at once a rare +exception. Set aside the German plantations, and the frontier is +sharp. At the boundary of the Eleele Sa, Europe ends, Samoa +begins. Here, then, is a singular state of affairs: all the +money, luxury, and business of the kingdom centred in one place; +that place excepted from the native government and administered by +whites for whites; and the whites themselves holding it not in +common but in hostile camps, so that it lies between them like a +bone between two dogs, each growling, each clutching his own end. + +Should Apia ever choose a coat of arms, I have a motto ready: +"Enter Rumour painted full of tongues." The majority of the +natives do extremely little; the majority of the whites are +merchants with some four mails in the month, shopkeepers with some +ten or twenty customers a day, and gossip is the common resource of +all. The town hums to the day's news, and the bars are crowded +with amateur politicians. Some are office-seekers, and earwig king +and consul, and compass the fall of officials, with an eye to +salary. Some are humorists, delighted with the pleasure of faction +for itself. "I never saw so good a place as this Apia," said one +of these; "you can be in a new conspiracy every day!" Many, on the +other hand, are sincerely concerned for the future of the country. +The quarters are so close and the scale is so small, that perhaps +not any one can be trusted always to preserve his temper. Every +one tells everything he knows; that is our country sickness. +Nearly every one has been betrayed at times, and told a trifle +more; the way our sickness takes the predisposed. And the news +flies, and the tongues wag, and fists are shaken. Pot boil and +caldron bubble! + +Within the memory of man, the white people of Apia lay in the worst +squalor of degradation. They are now unspeakably improved, both +men and women. To-day they must be called a more than fairly +respectable population, and a much more than fairly intelligent. +The whole would probably not fill the ranks of even an English +half-battalion, yet there are a surprising number above the average +in sense, knowledge, and manners. The trouble (for Samoa) is that +they are all here after a livelihood. Some are sharp +practitioners, some are famous (justly or not) for foul play in +business. Tales fly. One merchant warns you against his +neighbour; the neighbour on the first occasion is found to return +the compliment: each with a good circumstantial story to the +proof. There is so much copra in the islands, and no more; a man's +share of it is his share of bread; and commerce, like politics, is +here narrowed to a focus, shows its ugly side, and becomes as +personal as fisticuffs. Close at their elbows, in all this +contention, stands the native looking on. Like a child, his true +analogue, he observes, apprehends, misapprehends, and is usually +silent. As in a child, a considerable intemperance of speech is +accompanied by some power of secrecy. News he publishes; his +thoughts have often to be dug for. He looks on at the rude career +of the dollar-hunt, and wonders. He sees these men rolling in a +luxury beyond the ambition of native kings; he hears them accused +by each other of the meanest trickery; he knows some of them to be +guilty; and what is he to think? He is strongly conscious of his +own position as the common milk-cow; and what is he to do? "Surely +these white men on the beach are not great chiefs?" is a common +question, perhaps asked with some design of flattering the person +questioned. And one, stung by the last incident into an unusual +flow of English, remarked to me: "I begin to be weary of white men +on the beach." + +But the true centre of trouble, the head of the boil of which Samoa +languishes, is the German firm. From the conditions of business, a +great island house must ever be an inheritance of care; and it +chances that the greatest still afoot has its chief seat in Apia +bay, and has sunk the main part of its capital in the island of +Upolu. When its founder, John Caesar Godeffroy, went bankrupt over +Russian paper and Westphalian iron, his most considerable asset was +found to be the South Sea business. This passed (I understand) +through the hands of Baring Brothers in London, and is now run by a +company rejoicing in the Gargantuan name of the Deutsche Handels +und Plantagen Gesellschaft fur Sud-See Inseln zu Hamburg. This +piece of literature is (in practice) shortened to the D. H. and P. +G., the Old Firm, the German Firm, the Firm, and (among humorists) +the Long Handle Firm. Even from the deck of an approaching ship, +the island is seen to bear its signature--zones of cultivation +showing in a more vivid tint of green on the dark vest of forest. +The total area in use is near ten thousand acres. Hedges of +fragrant lime enclose, broad avenues intersect them. You shall +walk for hours in parks of palm-tree alleys, regular, like soldiers +on parade; in the recesses of the hills you may stumble on a mill- +house, tolling and trembling there, fathoms deep in superincumbent +forest. On the carpet of clean sward, troops of horses and herds +of handsome cattle may be seen to browse; and to one accustomed to +the rough luxuriance of the tropics, the appearance is of +fairyland. The managers, many of them German sea-captains, are +enthusiastic in their new employment. Experiment is continually +afoot: coffee and cacao, both of excellent quality, are among the +more recent outputs; and from one plantation quantities of +pineapples are sent at a particular season to the Sydney markets. +A hundred and fifty thousand pounds of English money, perhaps two +hundred thousand, lie sunk in these magnificent estates. In +estimating the expense of maintenance quite a fleet of ships must +be remembered, and a strong staff of captains, supercargoes, +overseers, and clerks. These last mess together at a liberal +board; the wages are high, and the staff is inspired with a strong +and pleasing sentiment of loyalty to their employers. + +Seven or eight hundred imported men and women toil for the company +on contracts of three or of five years, and at a hypothetical wage +of a few dollars in the month. I am now on a burning question: +the labour traffic; and I shall ask permission in this place only +to touch it with the tongs. Suffice it to say that in Queensland, +Fiji, New Caledonia, and Hawaii it has been either suppressed or +placed under close public supervision. In Samoa, where it still +flourishes, there is no regulation of which the public receives any +evidence; and the dirty linen of the firm, if there be any dirty, +and if it be ever washed at all, is washed in private. This is +unfortunate, if Germans would believe it. But they have no idea of +publicity, keep their business to themselves, rather affect to +"move in a mysterious way," and are naturally incensed by +criticisms, which they consider hypocritical, from men who would +import "labour" for themselves, if they could afford it, and would +probably maltreat them if they dared. It is said the whip is very +busy on some of the plantations; it is said that punitive extra- +labour, by which the thrall's term of service is extended, has +grown to be an abuse; and it is complained that, even where that +term is out, much irregularity occurs in the repatriation of the +discharged. To all this I can say nothing, good or bad. A certain +number of the thralls, many of them wild negritos from the west, +have taken to the bush, harbour there in a state partly bestial, or +creep into the back quarters of the town to do a day's stealthy +labour under the nose of their proprietors. Twelve were arrested +one morning in my own boys' kitchen. Farther in the bush, huts, +small patches of cultivation, and smoking ovens, have been found by +hunters. There are still three runaways in the woods of Tutuila, +whither they escaped upon a raft. And the Samoans regard these +dark-skinned rangers with extreme alarm; the fourth refugee in +Tutuila was shot down (as I was told in that island) while carrying +off the virgin of a village; and tales of cannibalism run round the +country, and the natives shudder about the evening fire. For the +Samoans are not cannibals, do not seem to remember when they were, +and regard the practice with a disfavour equal to our own. + +The firm is Gulliver among the Lilliputs; and it must not be +forgotten, that while the small, independent traders are fighting +for their own hand, and inflamed with the usual jealousy against +corporations, the Germans are inspired with a sense of the +greatness of their affairs and interests. The thought of the money +sunk, the sight of these costly and beautiful plantations, menaced +yearly by the returning forest, and the responsibility of +administering with one hand so many conjunct fortunes, might well +nerve the manager of such a company for desperate and questionable +deeds. Upon this scale, commercial sharpness has an air of +patriotism; and I can imagine the man, so far from haggling over +the scourge for a few Solomon islanders, prepared to oppress rival +firms, overthrow inconvenient monarchs, and let loose the dogs of +war. Whatever he may decide, he will not want for backing. Every +clerk will be eager to be up and strike a blow; and most Germans in +the group, whatever they may babble of the firm over the walnuts +and the wine, will rally round the national concern at the approach +of difficulty. They are so few--I am ashamed to give their number, +it were to challenge contradiction--they are so few, and the amount +of national capital buried at their feet is so vast, that we must +not wonder if they seem oppressed with greatness and the sense of +empire. Other whites take part in our brabbles, while temper holds +out, with a certain schoolboy entertainment. In the Germans alone, +no trace of humour is to be observed, and their solemnity is +accompanied by a touchiness often beyond belief. Patriotism flies +in arms about a hen; and if you comment upon the colour of a Dutch +umbrella, you have cast a stone against the German Emperor. I give +one instance, typical although extreme. One who had returned from +Tutuila on the mail cutter complained of the vermin with which she +is infested. He was suddenly and sharply brought to a stand. The +ship of which he spoke, he was reminded, was a German ship. + +John Caesar Godeffroy himself had never visited the islands; his +sons and nephews came, indeed, but scarcely to reap laurels; and +the mainspring and headpiece of this great concern, until death +took him, was a certain remarkable man of the name of Theodor +Weber. He was of an artful and commanding character; in the +smallest thing or the greatest, without fear or scruple; equally +able to affect, equally ready to adopt, the most engaging +politeness or the most imperious airs of domination. It was he who +did most damage to rival traders; it was he who most harried the +Samoans; and yet I never met any one, white or native, who did not +respect his memory. All felt it was a gallant battle, and the man +a great fighter; and now when he is dead, and the war seems to have +gone against him, many can scarce remember, without a kind of +regret, how much devotion and audacity have been spent in vain. +His name still lives in the songs of Samoa. One, that I have +heard, tells of Misi Ueba and a biscuit-box--the suggesting +incident being long since forgotten. Another sings plaintively how +all things, land and food and property, pass progressively, as by a +law of nature, into the hands of Misi Ueba, and soon nothing will +be left for Samoans. This is an epitaph the man would have +enjoyed. + +At one period of his career, Weber combined the offices of director +of the firm and consul for the City of Hamburg. No question but he +then drove very hard. Germans admit that the combination was +unfortunate; and it was a German who procured its overthrow. +Captain Zembsch superseded him with an imperial appointment, one +still remembered in Samoa as "the gentleman who acted justly." +There was no house to be found, and the new consul must take up his +quarters at first under the same roof with Weber. On several +questions, in which the firm was vitally interested, Zembsch +embraced the contrary opinion. Riding one day with an Englishman +in Vailele plantation, he was startled by a burst of screaming, +leaped from the saddle, ran round a house, and found an overseer +beating one of the thralls. He punished the overseer, and, being a +kindly and perhaps not a very diplomatic man, talked high of what +he felt and what he might consider it his duty to forbid or to +enforce. The firm began to look askance at such a consul; and +worse was behind. A number of deeds being brought to the consulate +for registration, Zembsch detected certain transfers of land in +which the date, the boundaries, the measure, and the consideration +were all blank. He refused them with an indignation which he does +not seem to have been able to keep to himself; and, whether or not +by his fault, some of these unfortunate documents became public. +It was plain that the relations between the two flanks of the +German invasion, the diplomatic and the commercial, were strained +to bursting. But Weber was a man ill to conquer. Zembsch was +recalled; and from that time forth, whether through influence at +home, or by the solicitations of Weber on the spot, the German +consulate has shown itself very apt to play the game of the German +firm. That game, we may say, was twofold,--the first part even +praiseworthy, the second at least natural. On the one part, they +desired an efficient native administration, to open up the country +and punish crime; they wished, on the other, to extend their own +provinces and to curtail the dealings of their rivals. In the +first, they had the jealous and diffident sympathy of all whites; +in the second, they had all whites banded together against them for +their lives and livelihoods. It was thus a game of Beggar my +Neighbour between a large merchant and some small ones. Had it so +remained, it would still have been a cut-throat quarrel. But when +the consulate appeared to be concerned, when the war-ships of the +German Empire were thought to fetch and carry for the firm, the +rage of the independent traders broke beyond restraint. And, +largely from the national touchiness and the intemperate speech of +German clerks, this scramble among dollar-hunters assumed the +appearance of an inter-racial war. + +The firm, with the indomitable Weber at its head and the consulate +at its back--there has been the chief enemy at Samoa. No English +reader can fail to be reminded of John Company; and if the Germans +appear to have been not so successful, we can only wonder that our +own blunders and brutalities were less severely punished. Even on +the field of Samoa, though German faults and aggressors make up the +burthen of my story, they have been nowise alone. Three nations +were engaged in this infinitesimal affray, and not one appears with +credit. They figure but as the three ruffians of the elder play- +wrights. The United States have the cleanest hands, and even +theirs are not immaculate. It was an ambiguous business when a +private American adventurer was landed with his pieces of artillery +from an American war-ship, and became prime minister to the king. +It is true (even if he were ever really supported) that he was soon +dropped and had soon sold himself for money to the German firm. I +will leave it to the reader whether this trait dignifies or not the +wretched story. And the end of it spattered the credit alike of +England and the States, when this man (the premier of a friendly +sovereign) was kidnapped and deported, on the requisition of an +American consul, by the captain of an English war-ship. I shall +have to tell, as I proceed, of villages shelled on very trifling +grounds by Germans; the like has been done of late years, though in +a better quarrel, by ourselves of England. I shall have to tell +how the Germans landed and shed blood at Fangalii; it was only in +1876 that we British had our own misconceived little massacre at +Mulinuu. I shall have to tell how the Germans bludgeoned Malietoa +with a sudden call for money; it was something of the suddenest +that Sir Arthur Gordon himself, smarting under a sensible public +affront, made and enforced a somewhat similar demand. + + + +CHAPTER III--THE SORROWS OF LAUPEPA, 1883 TO 1887 + + + +You ride in a German plantation and see no bush, no soul stirring; +only acres of empty sward, miles of cocoa-nut alley: a desert of +food. In the eyes of the Samoan the place has the attraction of a +park for the holiday schoolboy, of a granary for mice. We must add +the yet more lively allurement of a haunted house, for over these +empty and silent miles there broods the fear of the negrito +cannibal. For the Samoan besides, there is something barbaric, +unhandsome, and absurd in the idea of thus growing food only to +send it from the land and sell it. A man at home who should turn +all Yorkshire into one wheatfield, and annually burn his harvest on +the altar of Mumbo-Jumbo, might impress ourselves not much +otherwise. And the firm which does these things is quite +extraneous, a wen that might be excised to-morrow without loss but +to itself; few natives drawing from it so much as day's wages; and +the rest beholding in it only the occupier of their acres. The +nearest villages have suffered most; they see over the hedge the +lands of their ancestors waving with useless cocoa-palms; and the +sales were often questionable, and must still more often appear so +to regretful natives, spinning and improving yarns about the +evening lamp. At the worst, then, to help oneself from the +plantation will seem to a Samoan very like orchard-breaking to the +British schoolboy; at the best, it will be thought a gallant Robin- +Hoodish readjustment of a public wrong. + +And there is more behind. Not only is theft from the plantations +regarded rather as a lark and peccadillo, the idea of theft in +itself is not very clearly present to these communists; and as to +the punishment of crime in general, a great gulf of opinion divides +the natives from ourselves. Indigenous punishments were short and +sharp. Death, deportation by the primitive method of setting the +criminal to sea in a canoe, fines, and in Samoa itself the penalty +of publicly biting a hot, ill-smelling root, comparable to a rough +forfeit in a children's game--these are approved. The offender is +killed, or punished and forgiven. We, on the other hand, harbour +malice for a period of years: continuous shame attaches to the +criminal; even when he is doing his best--even when he is +submitting to the worst form of torture, regular work--he is to +stand aside from life and from his family in dreadful isolation. +These ideas most Polynesians have accepted in appearance, as they +accept other ideas of the whites; in practice, they reduce it to a +farce. I have heard the French resident in the Marquesas in talk +with the French gaoler of Tai-o-hae: "Eh bien, ou sont vos +prisonnieres?--Je crois, mon commandant, qu'elles sont allees +quelque part faire une visite." And the ladies would be welcome. +This is to take the most savage of Polynesians; take some of the +most civilised. In Honolulu, convicts labour on the highways in +piebald clothing, gruesome and ridiculous; and it is a common sight +to see the family of such an one troop out, about the dinner hour, +wreathed with flowers and in their holiday best, to picnic with +their kinsman on the public wayside. The application of these +outlandish penalties, in fact, transfers the sympathy to the +offender. Remember, besides, that the clan system, and that +imperfect idea of justice which is its worst feature, are still +lively in Samoa; that it is held the duty of a judge to favour +kinsmen, of a king to protect his vassals; and the difficulty of +getting a plantation thief first caught, then convicted, and last +of all punished, will appear. + +During the early 'eighties, the Germans looked upon this system +with growing irritation. They might see their convict thrust in +gaol by the front door; they could never tell how soon he was +enfranchised by the back; and they need not be the least surprised +if they met him, a few days after, enjoying the delights of a +malanga. It was a banded conspiracy, from the king and the vice- +king downward, to evade the law and deprive the Germans of their +profits. In 1883, accordingly, the consul, Dr. Stuebel, extorted a +convention on the subject, in terms of which Samoans convicted of +offences against German subjects were to be confined in a private +gaol belonging to the German firm. To Dr. Stuebel it seemed simple +enough: the offenders were to be effectually punished, the +sufferers partially indemnified. To the Samoans, the thing +appeared no less simple, but quite different: "Malietoa was +selling Samoans to Misi Ueba." What else could be expected? Here +was a private corporation engaged in making money; to it was +delegated, upon a question of profit and loss, one of the functions +of the Samoan crown; and those who make anomalies must look for +comments. Public feeling ran unanimous and high. Prisoners who +escaped from the private gaol were not recaptured or not returned +and Malietoa hastened to build a new prison of his own, whither he +conveyed, or pretended to convey, the fugitives. In October 1885 a +trenchant state paper issued from the German consulate. Twenty +prisoners, the consul wrote, had now been at large for eight months +from Weber's prison. It was pretended they had since then +completed their term of punishment elsewhere. Dr. Stuebel did not +seek to conceal his incredulity; but he took ground beyond; he +declared the point irrelevant. The law was to be enforced. The +men were condemned to a certain period in Weber's prison; they had +run away; they must now be brought back and (whatever had become of +them in the interval) work out the sentence. Doubtless Dr. +Stuebel's demands were substantially just; but doubtless also they +bore from the outside a great appearance of harshness; and when the +king submitted, the murmurs of the people increased. + +But Weber was not yet content. The law had to be enforced; +property, or at least the property of the firm, must be respected. +And during an absence of the consul's, he seems to have drawn up +with his own hand, and certainly first showed to the king, in his +own house, a new convention. Weber here and Weber there. As an +able man, he was perhaps in the right to prepare and propose +conventions. As the head of a trading company, he seems far out of +his part to be communicating state papers to a sovereign. The +administration of justice was the colour, and I am willing to +believe the purpose, of the new paper; but its effect was to depose +the existing government. A council of two Germans and two Samoans +were to be invested with the right to make laws and impose taxes as +might be "desirable for the common interest of the Samoan +government and the German residents." The provisions of this +council the king and vice-king were to sign blindfold. And by a +last hardship, the Germans, who received all the benefit, reserved +a right to recede from the agreement on six months' notice; the +Samoans, who suffered all the loss, were bound by it in perpetuity. +I can never believe that my friend Dr. Stuebel had a hand in +drafting these proposals; I am only surprised he should have been a +party to enforcing them, perhaps the chief error in these islands +of a man who has made few. And they were enforced with a rigour +that seems injudicious. The Samoans (according to their own +account) were denied a copy of the document; they were certainly +rated and threatened; their deliberation was treated as contumacy; +two German war-ships lay in port, and it was hinted that these +would shortly intervene. + +Succeed in frightening a child, and he takes refuge in duplicity. +"Malietoa," one of the chiefs had written, "we know well we are in +bondage to the great governments." It was now thought one tyrant +might be better than three, and any one preferable to Germany. On +the 5th November 1885, accordingly, Laupepa, Tamasese, and forty- +eight high chiefs met in secret, and the supremacy of Samoa was +secretly offered to Great Britain for the second time in history. +Laupepa and Tamasese still figured as king and vice-king in the +eyes of Dr. Stuebel; in their own, they had secretly abdicated, +were become private persons, and might do what they pleased without +binding or dishonouring their country. On the morrow, accordingly, +they did public humiliation in the dust before the consulate, and +five days later signed the convention. The last was done, it is +claimed, upon an impulse. The humiliation, which it appeared to +the Samoans so great a thing to offer, to the practical mind of Dr. +Stuebel seemed a trifle to receive; and the pressure was continued +and increased. Laupepa and Tamasese were both heavy, well-meaning, +inconclusive men. Laupepa, educated for the ministry, still bears +some marks of it in character and appearance; Tamasese was in +private of an amorous and sentimental turn, but no one would have +guessed it from his solemn and dull countenance. Impossible to +conceive two less dashing champions for a threatened race; and +there is no doubt they were reduced to the extremity of muddlement +and childish fear. It was drawing towards night on the 10th, when +this luckless pair and a chief of the name of Tuiatafu, set out for +the German consulate, still minded to temporise. As they went, +they discussed their case with agitation. They could see the +lights of the German war-ships as they walked--an eloquent +reminder. And it was then that Tamasese proposed to sign the +convention. "It will give us peace for the day," said Laupepa, +"and afterwards Great Britain must decide."--"Better fight Germany +than that!" cried Tuiatafu, speaking words of wisdom, and departed +in anger. But the two others proceeded on their fatal errand; +signed the convention, writing themselves king and vice-king, as +they now believed themselves to be no longer; and with childish +perfidy took part in a scene of "reconciliation" at the German +consulate. + +Malietoa supposed himself betrayed by Tamasese. Consul Churchward +states with precision that the document was sold by a scribe for +thirty-six dollars. Twelve days later at least, November 22nd, the +text of the address to Great Britain came into the hands of Dr. +Stuebel. The Germans may have been wrong before; they were now in +the right to be angry. They had been publicly, solemnly, and +elaborately fooled; the treaty and the reconciliation were both +fraudulent, with the broad, farcical fraudulency of children and +barbarians. This history is much from the outside; it is the +digested report of eye-witnesses; it can be rarely corrected from +state papers; and as to what consuls felt and thought, or what +instructions they acted under, I must still be silent or proceed by +guess. It is my guess that Stuebel now decided Malietoa Laupepa to +be a man impossible to trust and unworthy to be dealt with. And it +is certain that the business of his deposition was put in hand at +once. The position of Weber, with his knowledge of things native, +his prestige, and his enterprising intellect, must have always made +him influential with the consul: at this juncture he was +indispensable. Here was the deed to be done; here the man of +action. "Mr. Weber rested not," says Laupepa. It was "like the +old days of his own consulate," writes Churchward. His messengers +filled the isle; his house was thronged with chiefs and orators; he +sat close over his loom, delightedly weaving the future. There was +one thing requisite to the intrigue,--a native pretender; and the +very man, you would have said, stood waiting: Mataafa, titular of +Atua, descended from both the royal lines, late joint king with +Tamasese, fobbed off with nothing in the time of the Lackawanna +treaty, probably mortified by the circumstance, a chief with a +strong following, and in character and capacity high above the +native average. Yet when Weber's spiriting was done, and the +curtain rose on the set scene of the coronation, Mataafa was +absent, and Tamasese stood in his place. Malietoa was to be +deposed for a piece of solemn and offensive trickery, and the man +selected to replace him was his sole partner and accomplice in the +act. For so strange a choice, good ground must have existed; but +it remains conjectural: some supposing Mataafa scratched as too +independent; others that Tamasese had indeed betrayed Laupepa, and +his new advancement was the price of his treachery. + +So these two chiefs began to change places like the scales of a +balance, one down, the other up. Tamasese raised his flag (Jan. +28th, 1886) in Leulumoenga, chief place of his own province of +Aana, usurped the style of king, and began to collect and arm a +force. Weber, by the admission of Stuebel, was in the market +supplying him with weapons; so were the Americans; so, but for our +salutary British law, would have been the British; for wherever +there is a sound of battle, there will the traders be gathered +together selling arms. A little longer, and we find Tamasese +visited and addressed as king and majesty by a German commodore. +Meanwhile, for the unhappy Malietoa, the road led downward. He was +refused a bodyguard. He was turned out of Mulinuu, the seat of his +royalty, on a land claim of Weber's, fled across the Mulivai, and +"had the coolness" (German expression) to hoist his flag in Apia. +He was asked "in the most polite manner," says the same account-- +"in the most delicate manner in the world," a reader of Marryat +might be tempted to amend the phrase,--to strike his flag in his +own capital; and on his "refusal to accede to this request," Dr. +Stuebel appeared himself with ten men and an officer from the +cruiser Albatross; a sailor climbed into the tree and brought down +the flag of Samoa, which was carefully folded, and sent, "in the +most polite manner," to its owner. The consuls of England and the +States were there (the excellent gentlemen!) to protest. Last, and +yet more explicit, the German commodore who visited the be-titled +Tamasese, addressed the king--we may surely say the late king--as +"the High Chief Malietoa." + +Had he no party, then? At that time, it is probable, he might have +called some five-sevenths of Samoa to his standard. And yet he sat +there, helpless monarch, like a fowl trussed for roasting. The +blame lies with himself, because he was a helpless creature; it +lies also with England and the States. Their agents on the spot +preached peace (where there was no peace, and no pretence of it) +with eloquence and iteration. Secretary Bayard seems to have felt +a call to join personally in the solemn farce, and was at the +expense of a telegram in which he assured the sinking monarch it +was "for the higher interests of Samoa" he should do nothing. +There was no man better at doing that; the advice came straight +home, and was devoutly followed. And to be just to the great +Powers, something was done in Europe; a conference was called, it +was agreed to send commissioners to Samoa, and the decks had to be +hastily cleared against their visit. Dr. Stuebel had attached the +municipality of Apia and hoisted the German war-flag over Mulinuu; +the American consul (in a sudden access of good service) had flown +the stars and stripes over Samoan colours; on either side these +steps were solemnly retracted. The Germans expressly disowned +Tamasese; and the islands fell into a period of suspense, of some +twelve months' duration, during which the seat of the history was +transferred to other countries and escapes my purview. Here on the +spot, I select three incidents: the arrival on the scene of a new +actor, the visit of the Hawaiian embassy, and the riot on the +Emperor's birthday. The rest shall be silence; only it must be +borne in view that Tamasese all the while continued to strengthen +himself in Leulumoenga, and Laupepa sat inactive listening to the +song of consuls. + +Captain Brandeis. The new actor was Brandeis, a Bavarian captain +of artillery, of a romantic and adventurous character. He had +served with credit in war; but soon wearied of garrison life, +resigned his battery, came to the States, found employment as a +civil engineer, visited Cuba, took a sub-contract on the Panama +canal, caught the fever, and came (for the sake of the sea voyage) +to Australia. He had that natural love for the tropics which lies +so often latent in persons of a northern birth; difficulty and +danger attracted him; and when he was picked out for secret duty, +to be the hand of Germany in Samoa, there is no doubt but he +accepted the post with exhilaration. It is doubtful if a better +choice could have been made. He had courage, integrity, ideas of +his own, and loved the employment, the people, and the place. Yet +there was a fly in the ointment. The double error of unnecessary +stealth and of the immixture of a trading company in political +affairs, has vitiated, and in the end defeated, much German policy. +And Brandeis was introduced to the islands as a clerk, and sent +down to Leulumoenga (where he was soon drilling the troops and +fortifying the position of the rebel king) as an agent of the +German firm. What this mystification cost in the end I shall tell +in another place; and even in the beginning, it deceived no one. +Brandeis is a man of notable personal appearance; he looks the part +allotted him; and the military clerk was soon the centre of +observation and rumour. Malietoa wrote and complained of his +presence to Becker, who had succeeded Dr. Stuebel in the consulate. +Becker replied, "I have nothing to do with the gentleman Brandeis. +Be it well known that the gentleman Brandeis has no appointment in +a military character, but resides peaceably assisting the +government of Leulumoenga in their work, for Brandeis is a quiet, +sensible gentleman." And then he promised to send the vice-consul +to "get information of the captain's doings": surely +supererogation of deceit. + +The Hawaiian Embassy. The prime minister of the Hawaiian kingdom +was, at this period, an adventurer of the name of Gibson. He +claimed, on the strength of a romantic story, to be the heir of a +great English house. He had played a part in a revolt in Java, had +languished in Dutch fetters, and had risen to be a trusted agent of +Brigham Young, the Utah president. It was in this character of a +Mormon emissary that he first came to the islands of Hawaii, where +he collected a large sum of money for the Church of the Latter Day +Saints. At a given moment, he dropped his saintship and appeared +as a Christian and the owner of a part of the island of Lanai. The +steps of the transformation are obscure; they seem, at least, to +have been ill-received at Salt Lake; and there is evidence to the +effect that he was followed to the islands by Mormon assassins. +His first attempt on politics was made under the auspices of what +is called the missionary party, and the canvass conducted largely +(it is said with tears) on the platform at prayer-meetings. It +resulted in defeat. Without any decency of delay he changed his +colours, abjured the errors of reform, and, with the support of the +Catholics, rose to the chief power. In a very brief interval he +had thus run through the gamut of religions in the South Seas. It +does not appear that he was any more particular in politics, but he +was careful to consult the character and prejudices of the late +king, Kalakaua. That amiable, far from unaccomplished, but too +convivial sovereign, had a continued use for money: Gibson was +observant to keep him well supplied. Kalakaua (one of the most +theoretical of men) was filled with visionary schemes for the +protection and development of the Polynesian race: Gibson fell in +step with him; it is even thought he may have shared in his +illusions. The king and minister at least conceived between them a +scheme of island confederation--the most obvious fault of which was +that it came too late--and armed and fitted out the cruiser +Kaimiloa, nest-egg of the future navy of Hawaii. Samoa, the most +important group still independent, and one immediately threatened +with aggression, was chosen for the scene of action. The Hon. John +E. Bush, a half-caste Hawaiian, sailed (December 1887) for Apia as +minister-plenipotentiary, accompanied by a secretary of legation, +Henry F. Poor; and as soon as she was ready for sea, the war-ship +followed in support. The expedition was futile in its course, +almost tragic in result. The Kaimiloa was from the first a scene +of disaster and dilapidation: the stores were sold; the crew +revolted; for a great part of a night she was in the hands of +mutineers, and the secretary lay bound upon the deck. The mission, +installing itself at first with extravagance in Matautu, was helped +at last out of the island by the advances of a private citizen. +And they returned from dreams of Polynesian independence to find +their own city in the hands of a clique of white shopkeepers, and +the great Gibson once again in gaol. Yet the farce had not been +quite without effect. It had encouraged the natives for the +moment, and it seems to have ruffled permanently the temper of the +Germans. So might a fly irritate Caesar. + +The arrival of a mission from Hawaii would scarce affect the +composure of the courts of Europe. But in the eyes of Polynesians +the little kingdom occupies a place apart. It is there alone that +men of their race enjoy most of the advantages and all the pomp of +independence; news of Hawaii and descriptions of Honolulu are +grateful topics in all parts of the South Seas; and there is no +better introduction than a photograph in which the bearer shall be +represented in company with Kalakaua. Laupepa was, besides, sunk +to the point at which an unfortunate begins to clutch at straws, +and he received the mission with delight. Letters were exchanged +between him and Kalakaua; a deed of confederation was signed, 17th +February 1887, and the signature celebrated in the new house of the +Hawaiian embassy with some original ceremonies. Malietoa Laupepa +came, attended by his ministry, several hundred chiefs, two guards, +and six policemen. Always decent, he withdrew at an early hour; by +those that remained, all decency appears to have been forgotten; +high chiefs were seen to dance; and day found the house carpeted +with slumbering grandees, who must be roused, doctored with coffee, +and sent home. As a first chapter in the history of Polynesian +Confederation, it was hardly cheering, and Laupepa remarked to one +of the embassy, with equal dignity and sense: "If you have come +here to teach my people to drink, I wish you had stayed away." + +The Germans looked on from the first with natural irritation that a +power of the powerlessness of Hawaii should thus profit by its +undeniable footing in the family of nations, and send embassies, +and make believe to have a navy, and bark and snap at the heels of +the great German Empire. But Becker could not prevent the hunted +Laupepa from taking refuge in any hole that offered, and he could +afford to smile at the fantastic orgie in the embassy. It was +another matter when the Hawaiians approached the intractable +Mataafa, sitting still in his Atua government like Achilles in his +tent, helping neither side, and (as the Germans suspected) keeping +the eggs warm for himself. When the Kaimiloa steamed out of Apia +on this visit, the German war-ship Adler followed at her heels; and +Mataafa was no sooner set down with the embassy than he was +summoned and ordered on board by two German officers. The step is +one of those triumphs of temper which can only be admired. Mataafa +is entertaining the plenipotentiary of a sovereign power in treaty +with his own king, and the captain of a German corvette orders him +to quit his guests. + +But there was worse to come. I gather that Tamasese was at the +time in the sulks. He had doubtless been promised prompt aid and a +prompt success; he had seen himself surreptitiously helped, +privately ordered about, and publicly disowned; and he was still +the king of nothing more than his own province, and already the +second in command of Captain Brandeis. With the adhesion of some +part of his native cabinet, and behind the back of his white +minister, he found means to communicate with the Hawaiians. A +passage on the Kaimiloa, a pension, and a home in Honolulu were the +bribes proposed; and he seems to have been tempted. A day was set +for a secret interview. Poor, the Hawaiian secretary, and J. D. +Strong, an American painter attached to the embassy in the +surprising quality of "Government Artist," landed with a Samoan +boat's-crew in Aana; and while the secretary hid himself, according +to agreement, in the outlying home of an English settler, the +artist (ostensibly bent on photography) entered the headquarters of +the rebel king. It was a great day in Leulumoenga; three hundred +recruits had come in, a feast was cooking; and the photographer, in +view of the native love of being photographed, was made entirely +welcome. But beneath the friendly surface all were on the alert. +The secret had leaked out: Weber beheld his plans threatened in +the root; Brandeis trembled for the possession of his slave and +sovereign; and the German vice-consul, Mr. Sonnenschein, had been +sent or summoned to the scene of danger. + +It was after dark, prayers had been said and the hymns sung through +all the village, and Strong and the German sat together on the mats +in the house of Tamasese, when the events began. Strong speaks +German freely, a fact which he had not disclosed, and he was scarce +more amused than embarrassed to be able to follow all the evening +the dissension and the changing counsels of his neighbours. First +the king himself was missing, and there was a false alarm that he +had escaped and was already closeted with Poor. Next came certain +intelligence that some of the ministry had run the blockade, and +were on their way to the house of the English settler. Thereupon, +in spite of some protests from Tamasese, who tried to defend the +independence of his cabinet, Brandeis gathered a posse of warriors, +marched out of the village, brought back the fugitives, and clapped +them in the corrugated iron shanty which served as gaol. Along +with these he seems to have seized Billy Coe, interpreter to the +Hawaiians; and Poor, seeing his conspiracy public, burst with his +boat's-crew into the town, made his way to the house of the native +prime minister, and demanded Coe's release. Brandeis hastened to +the spot, with Strong at his heels; and the two principals being +both incensed, and Strong seriously alarmed for his friend's +safety, there began among them a scene of great intemperance. At +one point, when Strong suddenly disclosed his acquaintance with +German, it attained a high style of comedy; at another, when a +pistol was most foolishly drawn, it bordered on drama; and it may +be said to have ended in a mixed genus, when Poor was finally +packed into the corrugated iron gaol along with the forfeited +ministers. Meanwhile the captain of his boat, Siteoni, of whom I +shall have to tell again, had cleverly withdrawn the boat's-crew at +an early stage of the quarrel. Among the population beyond +Tamasese's marches, he collected a body of armed men, returned +before dawn to Leulumoenga, demolished the corrugated iron gaol, +and liberated the Hawaiian secretary and the rump of the rebel +cabinet. No opposition was shown; and doubtless the rescue was +connived at by Brandeis, who had gained his point. Poor had the +face to complain the next day to Becker; but to compete with Becker +in effrontery was labour lost. "You have been repeatedly warned, +Mr. Poor, not to expose yourself among these savages," said he. + +Not long after, the presence of the Kaimiloa was made a casus belli +by the Germans; and the rough-and-tumble embassy withdrew, on +borrowed money, to find their own government in hot water to the +neck. + + +The Emperor's Birthday. It is possible, and it is alleged, that +the Germans entered into the conference with hope. But it is +certain they were resolved to remain prepared for either fate. And +I take the liberty of believing that Laupepa was not forgiven his +duplicity; that, during this interval, he stood marked like a tree +for felling; and that his conduct was daily scrutinised for further +pretexts of offence. On the evening of the Emperor's birthday, +March 22nd, 1887, certain Germans were congregated in a public bar. +The season and the place considered, it is scarce cynical to assume +they had been drinking; nor, so much being granted, can it be +thought exorbitant to suppose them possibly in fault for the +squabble that took place. A squabble, I say; but I am willing to +call it a riot. And this was the new fault of Laupepa; this it is +that was described by a German commodore as "the trampling upon by +Malietoa of the German Emperor." I pass the rhetoric by to examine +the point of liability. Four natives were brought to trial for +this horrid fact: not before a native judge, but before the German +magistrate of the tripartite municipality of Apia. One was +acquitted, one condemned for theft, and two for assault. On +appeal, not to Malietoa, but to the three consuls, the case was by +a majority of two to one returned to the magistrate and (as far as +I can learn) was then allowed to drop. Consul Becker himself laid +the chief blame on one of the policemen of the municipality, a +half-white of the name of Scanlon. Him he sought to have +discharged, but was again baffled by his brother consuls. Where, +in all this, are we to find a corner of responsibility for the king +of Samoa? Scanlon, the alleged author of the outrage, was a half- +white; as Becker was to learn to his cost, he claimed to be an +American subject; and he was not even in the king's employment. +Apia, the scene of the outrage, was outside the king's jurisdiction +by treaty; by the choice of Germany, he was not so much as allowed +to fly his flag there. And the denial of justice (if justice were +denied) rested with the consuls of Britain and the States. + +But when a dog is to be beaten, any stick will serve. In the +meanwhile, on the proposition of Mr. Bayard, the Washington +conference on Samoan affairs was adjourned till autumn, so that +"the ministers of Germany and Great Britain might submit the +protocols to their respective Governments." "You propose that the +conference is to adjourn and not to be broken up?" asked Sir Lionel +West. "To adjourn for the reasons stated," replied Bayard. This +was on July 26th; and, twenty-nine days later, by Wednesday the +24th of August, Germany had practically seized Samoa. For this +flagrant breach of faith one excuse is openly alleged; another +whispered. It is openly alleged that Bayard had shown himself +impracticable; it is whispered that the Hawaiian embassy was an +expression of American intrigue, and that the Germans only did as +they were done by. The sufficiency of these excuses may be left to +the discretion of the reader. But, however excused, the breach of +faith was public and express; it must have been deliberately +predetermined and it was resented in the States as a deliberate +insult. + +By the middle of August 1887 there were five sail of German war- +ships in Apia bay: the Bismarck, of 3000 tons displacement; the +Carola, the Sophie, and the Olga, all considerable ships; and the +beautiful Adler, which lies there to this day, kanted on her beam, +dismantled, scarlet with rust, the day showing through her ribs. +They waited inactive, as a burglar waits till the patrol goes by. +And on the 23rd, when the mail had left for Sydney, when the eyes +of the world were withdrawn, and Samoa plunged again for a period +of weeks into her original island-obscurity, Becker opened his +guns. The policy was too cunning to seem dignified; it gave to +conduct which would otherwise have seemed bold and even brutally +straightforward, the appearance of a timid ambuscade; and helped to +shake men's reliance on the word of Germany. On the day named, an +ultimatum reached Malietoa at Afenga, whither he had retired months +before to avoid friction. A fine of one thousand dollars and an +ifo, or public humiliation, were demanded for the affair of the +Emperor's birthday. Twelve thousand dollars were to be "paid +quickly" for thefts from German plantations in the course of the +last four years. "It is my opinion that there is nothing just or +correct in Samoa while you are at the head of the government," +concluded Becker. "I shall be at Afenga in the morning of to- +morrow, Wednesday, at 11 A.M." The blow fell on Laupepa (in his +own expression) "out of the bush"; the dilatory fellow had seen +things hang over so long, he had perhaps begun to suppose they +might hang over for ever; and here was ruin at the door. He rode +at once to Apia, and summoned his chiefs. The council lasted all +night long. Many voices were for defiance. But Laupepa had grown +inured to a policy of procrastination; and the answer ultimately +drawn only begged for delay till Saturday, the 27th. So soon as it +was signed, the king took horse and fled in the early morning to +Afenga; the council hastily dispersed; and only three chiefs, Selu, +Seumanu, and Le Mamea, remained by the government building, +tremulously expectant of the result. + +By seven the letter was received. By 7.30 Becker arrived in +person, inquired for Laupepa, was evasively answered, and declared +war on the spot. Before eight, the Germans (seven hundred men and +six guns) came ashore and seized and hoisted German colours on the +government building. The three chiefs had made good haste to +escape; but a considerable booty was made of government papers, +fire-arms, and some seventeen thousand cartridges. Then followed a +scene which long rankled in the minds of the white inhabitants, +when the German marines raided the town in search of Malietoa, +burst into private houses, and were accused (I am willing to +believe on slender grounds) of violence to private persons. + +On the morrow, the 25th, one of the German war-ships, which had +been despatched to Leulumoenga over night re-entered the bay, +flying the Tamasese colours at the fore. The new king was given a +royal salute of twenty-one guns, marched through the town by the +commodore and a German guard of honour, and established on Mulinuu +with two or three hundred warriors. Becker announced his +recognition to the other consuls. These replied by proclaiming +Malietoa, and in the usual mealy-mouthed manner advised Samoans to +do nothing. On the 27th martial law was declared; and on the 1st +September the German squadron dispersed about the group, bearing +along with them the proclamations of the new king. Tamasese was +now a great man, to have five iron war-ships for his post-runners. +But the moment was critical. The revolution had to be explained, +the chiefs persuaded to assemble at a fono summoned for the 15th; +and the ships carried not only a store of printed documents, but a +squad of Tamasese orators upon their round. + +Such was the German coup d'etat. They had declared war with a +squadron of five ships upon a single man; that man, late king of +the group, was in hiding on the mountains; and their own nominee, +backed by German guns and bayonets, sat in his stead in Mulinuu. + +One of the first acts of Malietoa, on fleeing to the bush, was to +send for Mataafa twice: "I am alone in the bush; if you do not +come quickly you will find me bound." It is to be understood the +men were near kinsmen, and had (if they had nothing else) a common +jealousy. At the urgent cry, Mataafa set forth from Falefa, and +came to Mulinuu to Tamasese. "What is this that you and the German +commodore have decided on doing?" he inquired. "I am going to obey +the German consul," replied Tamasese, "whose wish it is that I +should be the king and that all Samoa should assemble here." "Do +not pursue in wrath against Malietoa," said Mataafa "but try to +bring about a compromise, and form a united government." "Very +well," said Tamasese, "leave it to me, and I will try." From +Mulinuu, Mataafa went on board the Bismarck, and was graciously +received. "Probably," said the commodore, "we shall bring about a +reconciliation of all Samoa through you"; and then asked his +visitor if he bore any affection to Malietoa. "Yes," said Mataafa. +"And to Tamasese?" "To him also; and if you desire the weal of +Samoa, you will allow either him or me to bring about a +reconciliation." "If it were my will," said the commodore, "I +would do as you say. But I have no will in the matter. I have +instructions from the Kaiser, and I cannot go back again from what +I have been sent to do." "I thought you would be commanded," said +Mataafa, "if you brought about the weal of Samoa." "I will tell +you," said the commodore. "All shall go quietly. But there is one +thing that must be done: Malietoa must be deposed. I will do +nothing to him beyond; he will only be kept on board for a couple +of months and be well treated, just as we Germans did to the French +chief [Napoleon III.] some time ago, whom we kept a while and cared +for well." Becker was no less explicit: war, he told Sewall, +should not cease till the Germans had custody of Malietoa and +Tamasese should be recognised. + +Meantime, in the Malietoa provinces, a profound impression was +received. People trooped to their fugitive sovereign in the bush. +Many natives in Apia brought their treasures, and stored them in +the houses of white friends. The Tamasese orators were sometimes +ill received. Over in Savaii, they found the village of Satupaitea +deserted, save for a few lads at cricket. These they harangued, +and were rewarded with ironical applause; and the proclamation, as +soon as they had departed, was torn down. For this offence the +village was ultimately burned by German sailors, in a very decent +and orderly style, on the 3rd September. This was the dinner-bell +of the fono on the 15th. The threat conveyed in the terms of the +summons--"If any government district does not quickly obey this +direction, I will make war on that government district"--was thus +commented on and reinforced. And the meeting was in consequence +well attended by chiefs of all parties. They found themselves +unarmed among the armed warriors of Tamasese and the marines of the +German squadron, and under the guns of five strong ships. Brandeis +rose; it was his first open appearance, the German firm signing its +revolutionary work. His words were few and uncompromising: "Great +are my thanks that the chiefs and heads of families of the whole of +Samoa are assembled here this day. It is strictly forbidden that +any discussion should take place as to whether it is good or not +that Tamasese is king of Samoa, whether at this fono or at any +future fono. I place for your signature the following: 'We inform +all the people of Samoa of what follows: (1) The government of +Samoa has been assumed by King Tuiaana Tamasese. (2) By order of +the king, it was directed that a fono should take place to-day, +composed of the chiefs and heads of families, and we have obeyed +the summons. We have signed our names under this, 15th September +1887." Needs must under all these guns; and the paper was signed, +but not without open sullenness. The bearing of Mataafa in +particular was long remembered against him by the Germans. "Do you +not see the king?" said the commodore reprovingly. "His father was +no king," was the bold answer. A bolder still has been printed, +but this is Mataafa's own recollection of the passage. On the next +day, the chiefs were all ordered back to shake hands with Tamasese. +Again they obeyed; but again their attitude was menacing, and some, +it is said, audibly murmured as they gave their hands. + +It is time to follow the poor Sheet of Paper (literal meaning of +Laupepa), who was now to be blown so broadly over the face of +earth. As soon as news reached him of the declaration of war, he +fled from Afenga to Tanungamanono, a hamlet in the bush, about a +mile and a half behind Apia, where he lurked some days. On the +24th, Selu, his secretary, despatched to the American consul an +anxious appeal, his majesty's "cry and prayer" in behalf of "this +weak people." By August 30th, the Germans had word of his lurking- +place, surrounded the hamlet under cloud of night, and in the early +morning burst with a force of sailors on the houses. The people +fled on all sides, and were fired upon. One boy was shot in the +hand, the first blood of the war. But the king was nowhere to be +found; he had wandered farther, over the woody mountains, the +backbone of the land, towards Siumu and Safata. Here, in a safe +place, he built himself a town in the forest, where he received a +continual stream of visitors and messengers. Day after day the +German blue-jackets were employed in the hopeless enterprise of +beating the forests for the fugitive; day after day they were +suffered to pass unhurt under the guns of ambushed Samoans; day +after day they returned, exhausted and disappointed, to Apia. +Seumanu Tafa, high chief of Apia, was known to be in the forest +with the king; his wife, Fatuila, was seized, imprisoned in the +German hospital, and when it was thought her spirit was +sufficiently reduced, brought up for cross-examination. The wise +lady confined herself in answer to a single word. "Is your husband +near Apia?" "Yes." "Is he far from Apia?" "Yes." "Is he with the +king?" "Yes." "Are he and the king in different places?" "Yes." +Whereupon the witness was discharged. About the 10th of September, +Laupepa was secretly in Apia at the American consulate with two +companions. The German pickets were close set and visited by a +strong patrol; and on his return, his party was observed and hailed +and fired on by a sentry. They ran away on all fours in the dark, +and so doing plumped upon another sentry, whom Laupepa grappled and +flung in a ditch; for the Sheet of Paper, although infirm of +character, is, like most Samoans, of an able body. The second +sentry (like the first) fired after his assailants at random in the +dark; and the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia. On the +afternoon of the 16th, the day of the hand-shakings, Suatele, a +high chief, despatched two boys across the island with a letter. +They were most of the night upon the road; it was near three in the +morning before the sentries in the camp of Malietoa beheld their +lantern drawing near out of the wood; but the king was at once +awakened. The news was decisive and the letter peremptory; if +Malietoa did not give himself up before ten on the morrow, he was +told that great sorrows must befall his country. I have not been +able to draw Laupepa as a hero; but he is a man of certain virtues, +which the Germans had now given him an occasion to display. +Without hesitation he sacrificed himself, penned his touching +farewell to Samoa, and making more expedition than the messengers, +passed early behind Apia to the banks of the Vaisingano. As he +passed, he detached a messenger to Mataafa at the Catholic mission. +Mataafa followed by the same road, and the pair met at the river- +side and went and sat together in a house. All present were in +tears. "Do not let us weep," said the talking man, Lauati. "We +have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but to the +invincible strangers." The departing king bequeathed the care of +his country to Mataafa; and when the latter sought to console him +with the commodore's promises, he shook his head, and declared his +assurance that he was going to a life of exile, and perhaps to +death. About two o'clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa returned to +the Catholic mission by the back of the town; and Malietoa +proceeded by the beach road to the German naval hospital, where he +was received (as he owns, with perfect civility) by Brandeis. +About three, Becker brought him forth again. As they went to the +wharf, the people wept and clung to their departing monarch. A +boat carried him on board the Bismarck, and he vanished from his +countrymen. Yet it was long rumoured that he still lay in the +harbour; and so late as October 7th, a boy, who had been paddling +round the Carola, professed to have seen and spoken with him. Here +again the needless mystery affected by the Germans bitterly +disserved them. The uncertainty which thus hung over Laupepa's +fate, kept his name continually in men's mouths. The words of his +farewell rang in their ears: "To all Samoa: On account of my +great love to my country and my great affection to all Samoa, this +is the reason that I deliver up my body to the German government. +That government may do as they wish to me. The reason of this is, +because I do not desire that the blood of Samoa shall be spilt for +me again. But I do not know what is my offence which has caused +their anger to me and to my country." And then, apostrophising the +different provinces: "Tuamasanga, farewell! Manono and family, +farewell! So, also, Salafai, Tutuila, Aana, and Atua, farewell! +If we do not again see one another in this world, pray that we may +be again together above." So the sheep departed with the halo of a +saint, and men thought of him as of some King Arthur snatched into +Avilion. + +On board the Bismarck, the commodore shook hands with him, told him +he was to be "taken away from all the chiefs with whom he had been +accustomed," and had him taken to the wardroom under guard. The +next day he was sent to sea in the Adler. There went with him his +brother Moli, one Meisake, and one Alualu, half-caste German, to +interpret. He was respectfully used; he dined in the stern with +the officers, but the boys dined "near where the fire was." They +come to a "newly-formed place" in Australia, where the Albatross +was lying, and a British ship, which he knew to be a man-of-war +"because the officers were nicely dressed and wore epaulettes." +Here he was transhipped, "in a boat with a screen," which he +supposed was to conceal him from the British ship; and on board the +Albatross was sent below and told he must stay there till they had +sailed. Later, however, he was allowed to come on deck, where he +found they had rigged a screen (perhaps an awning) under which he +walked, looking at "the newly-formed settlement," and admiring a +big house "where he was sure the governor lived." From Australia, +they sailed some time, and reached an anchorage where a consul- +general came on board, and where Laupepa was only allowed on deck +at night. He could then see the lights of a town with wharves; he +supposes Cape Town. Off the Cameroons they anchored or lay-to, far +at sea, and sent a boat ashore to see (he supposes) that there was +no British man-of-war. It was the next morning before the boat +returned, when the Albatross stood in and came to anchor near +another German ship. Here Alualu came to him on deck and told him +this was the place. "That is an astonishing thing," said he. "I +thought I was to go to Germany, I do not know what this means; I do +not know what will be the end of it; my heart is troubled." +Whereupon Alualu burst into tears. A little after, Laupepa was +called below to the captain and the governor. The last addressed +him: "This is my own place, a good place, a warm place. My house +is not yet finished, but when it is, you shall live in one of my +rooms until I can make a house for you." Then he was taken ashore +and brought to a tall, iron house. "This house is regulated," said +the governor; "there is no fire allowed to burn in it." In one +part of this house, weapons of the government were hung up; there +was a passage, and on the other side of the passage, fifty +criminals were chained together, two and two, by the ankles. The +windows were out of reach; and there was only one door, which was +opened at six in the morning and shut again at six at night. All +day he had his liberty, went to the Baptist Mission, and walked +about viewing the negroes, who were "like the sand on the seashore" +for number. At six they were called into the house and shut in for +the night without beds or lights. "Although they gave me no +light," said he, with a smile, "I could see I was in a prison." +Good food was given him: biscuits, "tea made with warm water," +beef, etc.; all excellent. Once, in their walks, they spied a +breadfruit tree bearing in the garden of an English merchant, ran +back to the prison to get a shilling, and came and offered to +purchase. "I am not going to sell breadfruit to you people," said +the merchant; "come and take what you like." Here Malietoa +interrupted himself to say it was the only tree bearing in the +Cameroons. "The governor had none, or he would have given it to +me." On the passage from the Cameroons to Germany, he had great +delight to see the cliffs of England. He saw "the rocks shining in +the sun, and three hours later was surprised to find them sunk in +the heavens." He saw also wharves and immense buildings; perhaps +Dover and its castle. In Hamburg, after breakfast, Mr. Weber, who +had now finally "ceased from troubling" Samoa, came on board, and +carried him ashore "suitably" in a steam launch to "a large house +of the government," where he stayed till noon. At noon Weber told +him he was going to "the place where ships are anchored that go to +Samoa," and led him to "a very magnificent house, with carriages +inside and a wonderful roof of glass"; to wit, the railway station. +They were benighted on the train, and then went in "something with +a house, drawn by horses, which had windows and many decks"; +plainly an omnibus. Here (at Bremen or Bremerhaven, I believe) +they stayed some while in "a house of five hundred rooms"; then +were got on board the Nurnberg (as they understood) for Samoa, +anchored in England on a Sunday, were joined en route by the famous +Dr. Knappe, passed through "a narrow passage where they went very +slow and which was just like a river," and beheld with exhilarated +curiosity that Red Sea of which they had learned so much in their +Bibles. At last, "at the hour when the fires burn red," they came +to a place where was a German man-of-war. Laupepa was called, with +one of the boys, on deck, when he found a German officer awaiting +him, and a steam launch alongside, and was told he must now leave +his brother and go elsewhere. "I cannot go like this," he cried. +"You must let me see my brother and the other old men"--a term of +courtesy. Knappe, who seems always to have been good-natured, +revised his orders, and consented not only to an interview, but to +allow Moli to continue to accompany the king. So these two were +carried to the man-of-war, and sailed many a day, still supposing +themselves bound for Samoa; and lo! she came to a country the like +of which they had never dreamed of, and cast anchor in the great +lagoon of Jaluit; and upon that narrow land the exiles were set on +shore. This was the part of his captivity on which he looked back +with the most bitterness. It was the last, for one thing, and he +was worn down with the long suspense, and terror, and deception. +He could not bear the brackish water; and though "the Germans were +still good to him, and gave him beef and biscuit and tea," he +suffered from the lack of vegetable food. + +Such is the narrative of this simple exile. I have not sought to +correct it by extraneous testimony. It is not so much the facts +that are historical, as the man's attitude. No one could hear this +tale as he originally told it in my hearing--I think none can read +it as here condensed and unadorned--without admiring the fairness +and simplicity of the Samoan; and wondering at the want of heart-- +or want of humour--in so many successive civilised Germans, that +they should have continued to surround this infant with the secrecy +of state. + + + +CHAPTER IV--BRANDEIS +September '87 to August '88 + + + +So Tamasese was on the throne, and Brandeis behind it; and I have +now to deal with their brief and luckless reign. That it was the +reign of Brandeis needs not to be argued: the policy is throughout +that of an able, over-hasty white, with eyes and ideas. But it +should be borne in mind that he had a double task, and must first +lead his sovereign, before he could begin to drive their common +subjects. Meanwhile, he himself was exposed (if all tales be true) +to much dictation and interference, and to some "cumbrous aid," +from the consulate and the firm. And to one of these aids, the +suppression of the municipality, I am inclined to attribute his +ultimate failure. + +The white enemies of the new regimen were of two classes. In the +first stood Moors and the employes of MacArthur, the two chief +rivals of the firm, who saw with jealousy a clerk (or a so-called +clerk) of their competitors advanced to the chief power. The +second class, that of the officials, numbered at first exactly one. +Wilson, the English acting consul, is understood to have held +strict orders to help Germany. Commander Leary, of the Adams, the +American captain, when he arrived, on the 16th October, and for +some time after, seemed devoted to the German interest, and spent +his days with a German officer, Captain Von Widersheim, who was +deservedly beloved by all who knew him. There remains the American +consul-general, Harold Marsh Sewall, a young man of high spirit and +a generous disposition. He had obeyed the orders of his government +with a grudge; and looked back on his past action with regret +almost to be called repentance. From the moment of the declaration +of war against Laupepa, we find him standing forth in bold, +consistent, and sometimes rather captious opposition, stirring up +his government at home with clear and forcible despatches, and on +the spot grasping at every opportunity to thrust a stick into the +German wheels. For some while, he and Moors fought their difficult +battle in conjunction; in the course of which, first one, and then +the other, paid a visit home to reason with the authorities at +Washington; and during the consul's absence, there was found an +American clerk in Apia, William Blacklock, to perform the duties of +the office with remarkable ability and courage. The three names +just brought together, Sewall, Moors, and Blacklock, make the head +and front of the opposition; if Tamasese fell, if Brandeis was +driven forth, if the treaty of Berlin was signed, theirs is the +blame or the credit. + +To understand the feelings of self-reproach and bitterness with +which Sewall took the field, the reader must see Laupepa's letter +of farewell to the consuls of England and America. It is singular +that this far from brilliant or dignified monarch, writing in the +forest, in heaviness of spirit and under pressure for time, should +have left behind him not only one, but two remarkable and most +effective documents. The farewell to his people was touching; the +farewell to the consuls, for a man of the character of Sewall, must +have cut like a whip. "When the chief Tamasese and others first +moved the present troubles," he wrote, "it was my wish to punish +them and put an end to the rebellion; but I yielded to the advice +of the British and American consuls. Assistance and protection was +repeatedly promised to me and my government, if I abstained from +bringing war upon my country. Relying upon these promises, I did +not put down the rebellion. Now I find that war has been made upon +me by the Emperor of Germany, and Tamasese has been proclaimed king +of Samoa. I desire to remind you of the promises so frequently +made by your government, and trust that you will so far redeem them +as to cause the lives and liberties of my chiefs and people to be +respected." + +Sewall's immediate adversary was, of course, Becker. I have formed +an opinion of this gentleman, largely from his printed despatches, +which I am at a loss to put in words. Astute, ingenious, capable, +at moments almost witty with a kind of glacial wit in action, he +displayed in the course of this affair every description of +capacity but that which is alone useful and which springs from a +knowledge of men's natures. It chanced that one of Sewall's early +moves played into his hands, and he was swift to seize and to +improve the advantage. The neutral territory and the tripartite +municipality of Apia were eyesores to the German consulate and +Brandeis. By landing Tamasese's two or three hundred warriors at +Mulinuu, as Becker himself owns, they had infringed the treaties, +and Sewall entered protest twice. There were two ways of escaping +this dilemma: one was to withdraw the warriors; the other, by some +hocus-pocus, to abrogate the neutrality. And the second had +subsidiary advantages: it would restore the taxes of the richest +district in the islands to the Samoan king; and it would enable +them to substitute over the royal seat the flag of Germany for the +new flag of Tamasese. It is true (and it was the subject of much +remark) that these two could hardly be distinguished by the naked +eye; but their effects were different. To seat the puppet king on +German land and under German colours, so that any rebellion was +constructive war on Germany, was a trick apparently invented by +Becker, and which we shall find was repeated and persevered in till +the end. + +Otto Martin was at this time magistrate in the municipality. The +post was held in turn by the three nationalities; Martin had served +far beyond his term, and should have been succeeded months before +by an American. To make the change it was necessary to hold a +meeting of the municipal board, consisting of the three consuls, +each backed by an assessor. And for some time these meetings had +been evaded or refused by the German consul. As long as it was +agreed to continue Martin, Becker had attended regularly; as soon +as Sewall indicated a wish for his removal, Becker tacitly +suspended the municipality by refusing to appear. This policy was +now the more necessary; for if the whole existence of the +municipality were a check on the freedom of the new government, it +was plainly less so when the power to enforce and punish lay in +German hands. For some while back the Malietoa flag had been flown +on the municipal building: Becker denies this; I am sorry; my +information obliges me to suppose he is in error. Sewall, with +post-mortem loyalty to the past, insisted that this flag should be +continued. And Becker immediately made his point. He declared, +justly enough, that the proposal was hostile, and argued that it +was impossible he should attend a meeting under a flag with which +his sovereign was at war. Upon one occasion of urgency, he was +invited to meet the two other consuls at the British consulate; +even this he refused; and for four months the municipality +slumbered, Martin still in office. In the month of October, in +consequence, the British and American ratepayers announced they +would refuse to pay. Becker doubtless rubbed his hands. On +Saturday, the 10th, the chief Tamaseu, a Malietoa man of substance +and good character, was arrested on a charge of theft believed to +be vexatious, and cast by Martin into the municipal prison. He +sent to Moors, who was his tenant and owed him money at the time, +for bail. Moors applied to Sewall, ranking consul. After some +search, Martin was found and refused to consider bail before the +Monday morning. Whereupon Sewall demanded the keys from the +gaoler, accepted Moors's verbal recognisances, and set Tamaseu +free. + +Things were now at a deadlock; and Becker astonished every one by +agreeing to a meeting on the 14th. It seems he knew what to +expect. Writing on the 13th at least, he prophesies that the +meeting will be held in vain, that the municipality must lapse, and +the government of Tamasese step in. On the 14th, Sewall left his +consulate in time, and walked some part of the way to the place of +meeting in company with Wilson, the English pro-consul. But he had +forgotten a paper, and in an evil hour returned for it alone. +Wilson arrived without him, and Becker broke up the meeting for +want of a quorum. There was some unedifying disputation as to +whether he had waited ten or twenty minutes, whether he had been +officially or unofficially informed by Wilson that Sewall was on +the way, whether the statement had been made to himself or to Weber +{1} in answer to a question, and whether he had heard Wilson's +answer or only Weber's question: all otiose; if he heard the +question, he was bound to have waited for the answer; if he heard +it not, he should have put it himself; and it was the manifest +truth that he rejoiced in his occasion. "Sir," he wrote to Sewall, +"I have the honour to inform you that, to my regret, I am obliged +to consider the municipal government to be provisionally in +abeyance since you have withdrawn your consent to the continuation +of Mr. Martin in his position as magistrate, and since you have +refused to take part in the meeting of the municipal board agreed +to for the purpose of electing a magistrate. The government of the +town and district of the municipality rests, as long as the +municipality is in abeyance, with the Samoan government. The +Samoan government has taken over the administration, and has +applied to the commander of the imperial German squadron for +assistance in the preservation of good order." This letter was not +delivered until 4 P.M. By three, sailors had been landed. Already +German colours flew over Tamasese's headquarters at Mulinuu, and +German guards had occupied the hospital, the German consulate, and +the municipal gaol and court-house, where they stood to arms under +the flag of Tamasese. The same day Sewall wrote to protest. +Receiving no reply, he issued on the morrow a proclamation bidding +all Americans look to himself alone. On the 26th, he wrote again +to Becker, and on the 27th received this genial reply: "Sir, your +high favour of the 26th of this month, I give myself the honour of +acknowledging. At the same time I acknowledge the receipt of your +high favour of the 14th October in reply to my communication of the +same date, which contained the information of the suspension of the +arrangements for the municipal government." There the +correspondence ceased. And on the 18th January came the last step +of this irritating intrigue when Tamasese appointed a judge--and +the judge proved to be Martin. + +Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir +Becker the chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, +all passed into the hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was +secured upon the bench; and the German flag might wave over her +puppet unquestioned. But there is a law of human nature which +diplomatists should be taught at school, and it seems they are not; +that men can tolerate bare injustice, but not the combination of +injustice and subterfuge. Hence the chequered career of the +thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been seized by open force, +there might have been complaint, it would not have aroused the same +lasting grudge. + +This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble +enough in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported +by the guns of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien's +work, highly needful for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all +Samoans. The law to be enforced, causes of dispute between white +and brown to be eliminated, taxes to be raised, a central power +created, the country opened up, the native race taught industry: +all these were detestable to the natives, and to all of these he +must set his hand. The more I learn of his brief term of rule, the +more I learn to admire him, and to wish we had his like. + +In the face of bitter native opposition, he got some roads +accomplished. He set up beacons. The taxes he enforced with +necessary vigour. By the 6th of January, Aua and Fangatonga, +districts in Tutuila, having made a difficulty, Brandeis is down at +the island in a schooner, with the Adler at his heels, seizes the +chief Maunga, fines the recalcitrant districts in three hundred +dollars for expenses, and orders all to be in by April 20th, which +if it is not, "not one thing will be done," he proclaimed, "but war +declared against you, and the principal chiefs taken to a distant +island." He forbade mortgages of copra, a frequent source of +trickery and quarrel; and to clear off those already contracted, +passed a severe but salutary law. Each individual or family was +first to pay off its own obligation; that settled, the free man was +to pay for the indebted village, the free village for the indebted +province, and one island for another. Samoa, he declared, should +be free of debt within a year. Had he given it three years, and +gone more gently, I believe it might have been accomplished. To +make it the more possible, he sought to interdict the natives from +buying cotton stuffs and to oblige them to dress (at least for the +time) in their own tapa. He laid the beginnings of a royal +territorial army. The first draft was in his hands drilling. But +it was not so much on drill that he depended; it was his hope to +kindle in these men an esprit de corps, which should weaken the old +local jealousies and bonds, and found a central or national party +in the islands. Looking far before, and with a wisdom beyond that +of many merchants, he had condemned the single dependence placed on +copra for the national livelihood. His recruits, even as they +drilled, were taught to plant cacao. Each, his term of active +service finished, should return to his own land and plant and +cultivate a stipulated area. Thus, as the young men continued to +pass through the army, habits of discipline and industry, a central +sentiment, the principles of the new culture, and actual gardens of +cacao, should be concurrently spread over the face of the islands. + +Tamasese received, including his household expenses, 1960 dollars a +year; Brandeis, 2400. All such disproportions are regrettable, but +this is not extreme: we have seen horses of a different colour +since then. And the Tamaseseites, with true Samoan ostentation, +offered to increase the salary of their white premier: an offer he +had the wisdom and good feeling to refuse. A European chief of +police received twelve hundred. There were eight head judges, one +to each province, and appeal lay from the district judge to the +provincial, thence to Mulinuu. From all salaries (I gather) a +small monthly guarantee was withheld. The army was to cost from +three to four thousand, Apia (many whites refusing to pay taxes +since the suppression of the municipality) might cost three +thousand more: Sir Becker's high feat of arms coming expensive (it +will be noticed) even in money. The whole outlay was estimated at +twenty-seven thousand; and the revenue forty thousand: a sum Samoa +is well able to pay. + +Such were the arrangements and some of the ideas of this strong, +ardent, and sanguine man. Of criticisms upon his conduct, beyond +the general consent that he was rather harsh and in too great a +hurry, few are articulate. The native paper of complaints was +particularly childish. Out of twenty-three counts, the first two +refer to the private character of Brandeis and Tamasese. Three +complain that Samoan officials were kept in the dark as to the +finances; one, of the tapa law; one, of the direct appointment of +chiefs by Tamasese-Brandeis, the sort of mistake into which +Europeans in the South Seas fall so readily; one, of the enforced +labour of chiefs; one, of the taxes; and one, of the roads. This I +may give in full from the very lame translation in the American +white book. "The roads that were made were called the Government +Roads; they were six fathoms wide. Their making caused much damage +to Samoa's lands and what was planted on it. The Samoans cried on +account of their lands, which were taken high-handedly and abused. +They again cried on account of the loss of what they had planted, +which was now thrown away in a high-handed way, without any regard +being shown or question asked of the owner of the land, or any +compensation offered for the damage done. This was different with +foreigners' land; in their case permission was first asked to make +the roads; the foreigners were paid for any destruction made." The +sting of this count was, I fancy, in the last clause. No less than +six articles complain of the administration of the law; and I +believe that was never satisfactory. Brandeis told me himself he +was never yet satisfied with any native judge. And men say (and it +seems to fit in well with his hasty and eager character) that he +would legislate by word of mouth; sometimes forget what he had +said; and, on the same question arising in another province, decide +it perhaps otherwise. I gather, on the whole, our artillery +captain was not great in law. Two articles refer to a matter I +must deal with more at length, and rather from the point of view of +the white residents. + +The common charge against Brandeis was that of favouring the German +firm. Coming as he did, this was inevitable. Weber had bought +Steinberger with hard cash; that was matter of history. The +present government he did not even require to buy, having founded +it by his intrigues, and introduced the premier to Samoa through +the doors of his own office. And the effect of the initial blunder +was kept alive by the chatter of the clerks in bar-rooms, boasting +themselves of the new government and prophesying annihilation to +all rivals. The time of raising a tax is the harvest of the +merchants; it is the time when copra will be made, and must be +sold; and the intention of the German firm, first in the time of +Steinberger, and again in April and May, 1888, with Brandeis, was +to seize and handle the whole operation. Their chief rivals were +the Messrs. MacArthur; and it seems beyond question that provincial +governors more than once issued orders forbidding Samoans to take +money from "the New Zealand firm." These, when they were brought +to his notice, Brandeis disowned, and he is entitled to be heard. +No man can live long in Samoa and not have his honesty impugned. +But the accusations against Brandeis's veracity are both few and +obscure. I believe he was as straight as his sword. The governors +doubtless issued these orders, but there were plenty besides +Brandeis to suggest them. Every wandering clerk from the firm's +office, every plantation manager, would be dinning the same story +in the native ear. And here again the initial blunder hung about +the neck of Brandeis, a ton's weight. The natives, as well as the +whites, had seen their premier masquerading on a stool in the +office; in the eyes of the natives, as well as in those of the +whites, he must always have retained the mark of servitude from +that ill-judged passage; and they would be inclined to look behind +and above him, to the great house of Misi Ueba. The government was +like a vista of puppets. People did not trouble with Tamasese, if +they got speech with Brandeis; in the same way, they might not +always trouble to ask Brandeis, if they had a hint direct from Misi +Ueba. In only one case, though it seems to have had many +developments, do I find the premier personally committed. The +MacArthurs claimed the copra of Fasitotai on a district mortgage of +three hundred dollars. The German firm accepted a mortgage of the +whole province of Aana, claimed the copra of Fasitotai as that of a +part of Aana, and were supported by the government. Here Brandeis +was false to his own principle, that personal and village debts +should come before provincial. But the case occurred before the +promulgation of the law, and was, as a matter of fact, the cause of +it; so the most we can say is that he changed his mind, and changed +it for the better. If the history of his government be considered- +-how it originated in an intrigue between the firm and the +consulate, and was (for the firm's sake alone) supported by the +consulate with foreign bayonets--the existence of the least doubt +on the man's action must seem marvellous. We should have looked to +find him playing openly and wholly into their hands; that he did +not, implies great independence and much secret friction; and I +believe (if the truth were known) the firm would be found to have +been disgusted with the stubbornness of its intended tool, and +Brandeis often impatient of the demands of his creators. + +But I may seem to exaggerate the degree of white opposition. And +it is true that before fate overtook the Brandeis government, it +appeared to enjoy the fruits of victory in Apia; and one dissident, +the unconquerable Moors, stood out alone to refuse his taxes. But +the victory was in appearance only; the opposition was latent; it +found vent in talk, and thus reacted on the natives; upon the least +excuse, it was ready to flame forth again. And this is the more +singular because some were far from out of sympathy with the native +policy pursued. When I met Captain Brandeis, he was amazed at my +attitude. "Whom did you find in Apia to tell you so much good of +me?" he asked. I named one of my informants. "He?" he cried. "If +he thought all that, why did he not help me?" I told him as well +as I was able. The man was a merchant. He beheld in the +government of Brandeis a government created by and for the firm who +were his rivals. If Brandeis were minded to deal fairly, where was +the probability that he would be allowed? If Brandeis insisted and +were strong enough to prevail, what guarantee that, as soon as the +government were fairly accepted, Brandeis might not be removed? +Here was the attitude of the hour; and I am glad to find it clearly +set forth in a despatch of Sewall's, June 18th, 1888, when he +commends the law against mortgages, and goes on: "Whether the +author of this law will carry out the good intentions which he +professes--whether he will be allowed to do so, if he desires, +against the opposition of those who placed him in power and protect +him in the possession of it--may well be doubted." Brandeis had +come to Apia in the firm's livery. Even while he promised +neutrality in commerce, the clerks were prating a different story +in the bar-rooms; and the late high feat of the knight-errant, +Becker, had killed all confidence in Germans at the root. By these +three impolicies, the German adventure in Samoa was defeated. + +I imply that the handful of whites were the true obstacle, not the +thousands of malcontent Samoans; for had the whites frankly +accepted Brandeis, the path of Germany was clear, and the end of +their policy, however troublesome might be its course, was obvious. +But this is not to say that the natives were content. In a sense, +indeed, their opposition was continuous. There will always be +opposition in Samoa when taxes are imposed; and the deportation of +Malietoa stuck in men's throats. Tuiatua Mataafa refused to act +under the new government from the beginning, and Tamasese usurped +his place and title. As early as February, I find him signing +himself "Tuiaana Tuiatua Tamasese," the first step on a dangerous +path. Asi, like Mataafa, disclaimed his chiefship and declared +himself a private person; but he was more rudely dealt with. +German sailors surrounded his house in the night, burst in, and +dragged the women out of the mosquito nets--an offence against +Samoan manners. No Asi was to be found; but at last they were +shown his fishing-lights on the reef, rowed out, took him as he +was, and carried him on board a man-of-war, where he was detained +some while between-decks. At last, January 16th, after a farewell +interview over the ship's side with his wife, he was discharged +into a ketch, and along with two other chiefs, Maunga and Tuiletu- +funga, deported to the Marshalls. The blow struck fear upon all +sides. Le Mamea (a very able chief) was secretly among the +malcontents. His family and followers murmured at his weakness; +but he continued, throughout the duration of the government, to +serve Brandeis with trembling. A circus coming to Apia, he seized +at the pretext for escape, and asked leave to accept an engagement +in the company. "I will not allow you to make a monkey of +yourself," said Brandeis; and the phrase had a success throughout +the islands, pungent expressions being so much admired by the +natives that they cannot refrain from repeating them, even when +they have been levelled at themselves. The assumption of the Atua +name spread discontent in that province; many chiefs from thence +were convicted of disaffection, and condemned to labour with their +hands upon the roads--a great shock to the Samoan sense of the +becoming, which was rendered the more sensible by the death of one +of the number at his task. Mataafa was involved in the same +trouble. His disaffected speech at a meeting of Atua chiefs was +betrayed by the girls that made the kava, and the man of the future +was called to Apia on safe-conduct, but, after an interview, +suffered to return to his lair. The peculiarly tender treatment of +Mataafa must be explained by his relationship to Tamasese. Laupepa +was of Malietoa blood. The hereditary retainers of the Tupua would +see him exiled even with some complacency. But Mataafa was Tupua +himself; and Tupua men would probably have murmured, and would +perhaps have mutinied, had he been harshly dealt with. + +The native opposition, I say, was in a sense continuous. And it +kept continuously growing. The sphere of Brandeis was limited to +Mulinuu and the north central quarters of Upolu--practically what +is shown upon the map opposite. There the taxes were expanded; in +the out-districts, men paid their money and saw no return. Here +the eye and hand of the dictator were ready to correct the scales +of justice; in the out-districts, all things lay at the mercy of +the native magistrates, and their oppressions increased with the +course of time and the experience of impunity. In the spring of +the year, a very intelligent observer had occasion to visit many +places in the island of Savaii. "Our lives are not worth living," +was the burthen of the popular complaint. "We are groaning under +the oppression of these men. We would rather die than continue to +endure it." On his return to Apia, he made haste to communicate +his impressions to Brandeis. Brandeis replied in an epigram: +"Where there has been anarchy in a country, there must be +oppression for a time." But unfortunately the terms of the epigram +may be reversed; and personal supervision would have been more in +season than wit. The same observer who conveyed to him this +warning thinks that, if Brandeis had himself visited the districts +and inquired into complaints, the blow might yet have been averted +and the government saved. At last, upon a certain unconstitutional +act of Tamasese, the discontent took life and fire. The act was of +his own conception; the dull dog was ambitious. Brandeis declares +he would not be dissuaded; perhaps his adviser did not seriously +try, perhaps did not dream that in that welter of contradictions, +the Samoan constitution, any one point would be considered sacred. +I have told how Tamasese assumed the title of Tuiatua. In August +1888 a year after his installation, he took a more formidable step +and assumed that of Malietoa. This name, as I have said, is of +peculiar honour; it had been given to, it had never been taken +from, the exiled Laupepa; those in whose grant it lay, stood +punctilious upon their rights; and Tamasese, as the representative +of their natural opponents, the Tupua line, was the last who should +have had it. And there was yet more, though I almost despair to +make it thinkable by Europeans. Certain old mats are handed down, +and set huge store by; they may be compared to coats of arms or +heirlooms among ourselves; and to the horror of more than one-half +of Samoa, Tamasese, the head of the Tupua, began collecting +Malietoa mats. It was felt that the cup was full, and men began to +prepare secretly for rebellion. The history of the month of August +is unknown to whites; it passed altogether in the covert of the +woods or in the stealthy councils of Samoans. One ominous sign was +to be noted; arms and ammunition began to be purchased or inquired +about; and the more wary traders ordered fresh consignments of +material of war. But the rest was silence; the government slept in +security; and Brandeis was summoned at last from a public dinner, +to find rebellion organised, the woods behind Apia full of +insurgents, and a plan prepared, and in the very article of +execution, to surprise and seize Mulinuu. The timely discovery +averted all; and the leaders hastily withdrew towards the south +side of the island, leaving in the bush a rear-guard under a young +man of the name of Saifaleupolu. According to some accounts, it +scarce numbered forty; the leader was no great chief, but a +handsome, industrious lad who seems to have been much beloved. And +upon this obstacle Brandeis fell. It is the man's fault to be too +impatient of results; his public intention to free Samoa of all +debt within the year, depicts him; and instead of continuing to +temporise and let his enemies weary and disperse, he judged it +politic to strike a blow. He struck it, with what seemed to be +success, and the sound of it roused Samoa to rebellion. + +About two in the morning of August 31st, Apia was wakened by men +marching. Day came, and Brandeis and his war-party were already +long disappeared in the woods. All morning belated Tamaseseites +were still to be seen running with their guns. All morning shots +were listened for in vain; but over the top of the forest, far up +the mountain, smoke was for some time observed to hang. About ten +a dead man was carried in, lashed under a pole like a dead pig, his +rosary (for he was a Catholic) hanging nearly to the ground. Next +came a young fellow wounded, sitting in a rope swung from a pole; +two fellows bearing him, two running behind for a relief. At last +about eleven, three or four heavy volleys and a great shouting were +heard from the bush town Tanungamanono; the affair was over, the +victorious force, on the march back, was there celebrating its +victory by the way. Presently after, it marched through Apia, five +or six hundred strong, in tolerable order and strutting with the +ludicrous assumption of the triumphant islander. Women who had +been buying bread ran and gave them loaves. At the tail end came +Brandeis himself, smoking a cigar, deadly pale, and with perhaps an +increase of his usual nervous manner. One spoke to him by the way. +He expressed his sorrow the action had been forced on him. "Poor +people, it's all the worse for them!" he said. "It'll have to be +done another way now." And it was supposed by his hearer that he +referred to intervention from the German war-ships. He meant, he +said, to put a stop to head-hunting; his men had taken two that +day, he added, but he had not suffered them to bring them in, and +they had been left in Tanungamanono. Thither my informant rode, +was attracted by the sound of walling, and saw in a house the two +heads washed and combed, and the sister of one of the dead +lamenting in the island fashion and kissing the cold face. Soon +after, a small grave was dug, the heads were buried in a beef box, +and the pastor read the service. The body of Saifaleupolu himself +was recovered unmutilated, brought down from the forest, and buried +behind Apia. + +The same afternoon, the men of Vaimaunga were ordered to report in +Mulinuu, where Tamasese's flag was half-masted for the death of a +chief in the skirmish. Vaimaunga is that district of Taumasanga +which includes the bay and the foothills behind Apia; and both +province and district are strong Malietoa. Not one man, it is +said, obeyed the summons. Night came, and the town lay in unusual +silence; no one abroad; the blinds down around the native houses, +the men within sleeping on their arms; the old women keeping watch +in pairs. And in the course of the two following days all +Vaimaunga was gone into the bush, the very gaoler setting free his +prisoners and joining them in their escape. Hear the words of the +chiefs in the 23rd article of their complaint: "Some of the chiefs +fled to the bush from fear of being reported, fear of German men- +of-war, constantly being accused, etc., and Brandeis commanded that +they were to be shot on sight. This act was carried out by +Brandeis on the 31st day of August, 1888. After this we evaded +these laws; we could not stand them; our patience was worn out with +the constant wickedness of Tamasese and Brandeis. We were tired +out and could stand no longer the acts of these two men." + +So through an ill-timed skirmish, two severed heads, and a dead +body, the rule of Brandeis came to a sudden end. We shall see him +a while longer fighting for existence in a losing battle; but his +government--take it for all in all, the most promising that has +ever been in these unlucky islands--was from that hour a piece of +history. + + + +CHAPTER V--THE BATTLE OF MATAUTU +September 1888 + + + +The revolution had all the character of a popular movement. Many +of the high chiefs were detained in Mulinuu; the commons trooped to +the bush under inferior leaders. A camp was chosen near Faleula, +threatening Mulinuu, well placed for the arrival of recruits and +close to a German plantation from which the force could be +subsisted. Manono came, all Tuamasanga, much of Savaii, and part +of Aana, Tamasese's own government and titular seat. Both sides +were arming. It was a brave day for the trader, though not so +brave as some that followed, when a single cartridge is said to +have been sold for twelve cents currency--between nine and ten +cents gold. Yet even among the traders a strong party feeling +reigned, and it was the common practice to ask a purchaser upon +which side he meant to fight. + +On September 5th, Brandeis published a letter: "To the chiefs of +Tuamasanga, Manono, and Faasaleleanga in the Bush: Chiefs, by +authority of his majesty Tamasese, the king of Samoa, I make known +to you all that the German man-of-war is about to go together with +a Samoan fleet for the purpose of burning Manono. After this +island is all burnt, 'tis good if the people return to Manono and +live quiet. To the people of Faasaleleanga I say, return to your +houses and stop there. The same to those belonging to Tuamasanga. +If you obey this instruction, then you will all be forgiven; if you +do not obey, then all your villages will be burnt like Manono. +These instructions are made in truth in the sight of God in the +Heaven." The same morning, accordingly, the Adler steamed out of +the bay with a force of Tamasese warriors and some native boats in +tow, the Samoan fleet in question. Manono was shelled; the +Tamasese warriors, under the conduct of a Manono traitor, who paid +before many days the forfeit of his blood, landed and did some +damage, but were driven away by the sight of a force returning from +the mainland; no one was hurt, for the women and children, who +alone remained on the island, found a refuge in the bush; and the +Adler and her acolytes returned the same evening. The letter had +been energetic; the performance fell below the programme. The +demonstration annoyed and yet re-assured the insurgents, and it +fully disclosed to the Germans a new enemy. + +Captain Yon Widersheim had been relieved. His successor, Captain +Fritze, was an officer of a different stamp. I have nothing to say +of him but good; he seems to have obeyed the consul's requisitions +with secret distaste; his despatches were of admirable candour; but +his habits were retired, he spoke little English, and was far +indeed from inheriting von Widersheim's close relations with +Commander Leary. It is believed by Germans that the American +officer resented what he took to be neglect. I mention this, not +because I believe it to depict Commander Leary, but because it is +typical of a prevailing infirmity among Germans in Samoa. Touchy +themselves, they read all history in the light of personal affronts +and tiffs; and I find this weakness indicated by the big thumb of +Bismarck, when he places "sensitiveness to small disrespects-- +Empfindlichkeit ueber Mangel an Respect," among the causes of the +wild career of Knappe. Whatever the cause, at least, the natives +had no sooner taken arms than Leary appeared with violence upon +that side. As early as the 3rd, he had sent an obscure but +menacing despatch to Brandeis. On the 6th, he fell on Fritze in +the matter of the Manono bombardment. "The revolutionists," he +wrote, "had an armed force in the field within a few miles of this +harbour, when the vessels under your command transported the +Tamasese troops to a neighbouring island with the avowed intention +of making war on the isolated homes of the women and children of +the enemy. Being the only other representative of a naval power +now present in this harbour, for the sake of humanity I hereby +respectfully and solemnly protest in the name of the United States +of America and of the civilised world in general against the use of +a national war-vessel for such services as were yesterday rendered +by the German corvette Adler." Fritze's reply, to the effect that +he is under the orders of the consul and has no right of choice, +reads even humble; perhaps he was not himself vain of the exploit, +perhaps not prepared to see it thus described in words. From that +moment Leary was in the front of the row. His name is diagnostic, +but it was not required; on every step of his subsequent action in +Samoa Irishman is writ large; over all his doings a malign spirit +of humour presided. No malice was too small for him, if it were +only funny. When night signals were made from Mulinuu, he would +sit on his own poop and confound them with gratuitous rockets. He +was at the pains to write a letter and address it to "the High +Chief Tamasese"--a device as old at least as the wars of Robert +Bruce--in order to bother the officials of the German post-office, +in whose hands he persisted in leaving it, although the address was +death to them and the distribution of letters in Samoa formed no +part of their profession. His great masterwork of pleasantry, the +Scanlon affair, must be narrated in its place. And he was no less +bold than comical. The Adams was not supposed to be a match for +the Adler; there was no glory to be gained in beating her; and yet +I have heard naval officers maintain she might have proved a +dangerous antagonist in narrow waters and at short range. +Doubtless Leary thought so. He was continually daring Fritze to +come on; and already, in a despatch of the 9th, I find Becker +complaining of his language in the hearing of German officials, and +how he had declared that, on the Adler again interfering, he would +interfere himself, "if he went to the bottom for it--und wenn sein +Schiff dabei zu Grunde ginge." Here is the style of opposition +which has the merit of being frank, not that of being agreeable. +Becker was annoying, Leary infuriating; there is no doubt that the +tempers in the German consulate were highly ulcerated; and if war +between the two countries did not follow, we must set down the +praise to the forbearance of the German navy. This is not the last +time that I shall have to salute the merits of that service. + +The defeat and death of Saifaleupolu and the burning of Manono had +thus passed off without the least advantage to Tamasese. But he +still held the significant position of Mulinuu, and Brandeis was +strenuous to make it good. The whole peninsula was surrounded with +a breastwork; across the isthmus it was six feet high and +strengthened with a ditch; and the beach was staked against +landing. Weber's land claim--the same that now broods over the +village in the form of a signboard--then appeared in a more +military guise; the German flag was hoisted, and German sailors +manned the breastwork at the isthmus--"to protect German property" +and its trifling parenthesis, the king of Samoa. Much vigilance +reigned and, in the island fashion, much wild firing. And in spite +of all, desertion was for a long time daily. The detained high +chiefs would go to the beach on the pretext of a natural occasion, +plunge in the sea, and swimming across a broad, shallow bay of the +lagoon, join the rebels on the Faleula side. Whole bodies of +warriors, sometimes hundreds strong, departed with their arms and +ammunition. On the 7th of September, for instance, the day after +Leary's letter, Too and Mataia left with their contingents, and the +whole Aana people returned home in a body to hold a parliament. +Ten days later, it is true, a part of them returned to their duty; +but another part branched off by the way and carried their +services, and Tamasese's dear-bought guns, to Faleula. + +On the 8th, there was a defection of a different kind, but yet +sensible. The High Chief Seumanu had been still detained in +Mulinuu under anxious observation. His people murmured at his +absence, threatened to "take away his name," and had already +attempted a rescue. The adventure was now taken in hand by his +wife Faatulia, a woman of much sense and spirit and a strong +partisan; and by her contrivance, Seumanu gave his guardians the +slip and rejoined his clan at Faleula. This process of winnowing +was of course counterbalanced by another of recruitment. But the +harshness of European and military rule had made Brandeis detested +and Tamasese unpopular with many; and the force on Mulinuu is +thought to have done little more than hold its own. Mataafa +sympathisers set it down at about two or three thousand. I have no +estimate from the other side; but Becker admits they were not +strong enough to keep the field in the open. + +The political significance of Mulinuu was great, but in a military +sense the position had defects. If it was difficult to carry, it +was easy to blockade: and to be hemmed in on that narrow finger of +land were an inglorious posture for the monarch of Samoa. The +peninsula, besides, was scant of food and destitute of water. +Pressed by these considerations, Brandeis extended his lines till +he had occupied the whole foreshore of Apia bay and the opposite +point, Matautu. His men were thus drawn out along some three +nautical miles of irregular beach, everywhere with their backs to +the sea, and without means of communication or mutual support +except by water. The extension led to fresh sorrows. The Tamasese +men quartered themselves in the houses of the absent men of the +Vaimaunga. Disputes arose with English and Americans. Leary +interposed in a loud voice of menace. It was said the firm +profited by the confusion to buttress up imperfect land claims; I +am sure the other whites would not be far behind the firm. +Properties were fenced in, fences and houses were torn down, +scuffles ensued. The German example at Mulinuu was followed with +laughable unanimity; wherever an Englishman or an American +conceived himself to have a claim, he set up the emblem of his +country; and the beach twinkled with the flags of nations. + +All this, it will be observed, was going forward in that neutral +territory, sanctified by treaty against the presence of armed +Samoans. The insurgents themselves looked on in wonder: on the +4th, trembling to transgress against the great Powers, they had +written for a delimitation of the Eleele Sa; and Becker, in +conversation with the British consul, replied that he recognised +none. So long as Tamasese held the ground, this was expedient. +But suppose Tamasese worsted, it might prove awkward for the +stores, mills, and offices of a great German firm, thus bared of +shelter by the act of their own consul. + +On the morning of the 9th September, just ten days after the death +of Saifaleupolu, Mataafa, under the name of Malietoa To'oa Mataafa, +was crowned king at Faleula. On the 11th he wrote to the British +and American consuls: "Gentlemen, I write this letter to you two +very humbly and entreatingly, on account of this difficulty that +has come before me. I desire to know from you two gentlemen the +truth where the boundaries of the neutral territory are. You will +observe that I am now at Vaimoso [a step nearer the enemy], and I +have stopped here until I knew what you say regarding the neutral +territory. I wish to know where I can go, and where the forbidden +ground is, for I do not wish to go on any neutral territory, or on +any foreigner's property. I do not want to offend any of the great +Powers. Another thing I would like. Would it be possible for you +three consuls to make Tamasese remove from German property? for I +am in awe of going on German land." He must have received a reply +embodying Becker's renunciation of the principle, at once; for he +broke camp the same day, and marched eastward through the bush +behind Apia. + +Brandeis, expecting attack, sought to improve his indefensible +position. He reformed his centre by the simple expedient of +suppressing it. Apia was evacuated. The two flanks, Mulinuu and +Matautu, were still held and fortified, Mulinuu (as I have said) to +the isthmus, Matautu on a line from the bayside to the little river +Fuisa. The centre was represented by the trajectory of a boat +across the bay from one flank to another, and was held (we may say) +by the German war-ship. Mataafa decided (I am assured) to make a +feint on Matautu, induce Brandeis to deplete Mulinuu in support, +and then fall upon and carry that. And there is no doubt in my +mind that such a plan was bruited abroad, for nothing but a belief +in it could explain the behaviour of Brandeis on the 12th. That it +was seriously entertained by Mataafa I stoutly disbelieve; the +German flag and sailors forbidding the enterprise in Mulinuu. So +that we may call this false intelligence the beginning and the end +of Mataafa's strategy. + +The whites who sympathised with the revolt were uneasy and +impatient. They will still tell you, though the dates are there to +show them wrong, that Mataafa, even after his coronation, delayed +extremely: a proof of how long two days may seem to last when men +anticipate events. On the evening of the 11th, while the new king +was already on the march, one of these walked into Matautu. The +moon was bright. By the way he observed the native houses dark and +silent; the men had been about a fortnight in the bush, but now the +women and children were gone also; at which he wondered. On the +sea-beach, in the camp of the Tamaseses, the solitude was near as +great; he saw three or four men smoking before the British +consulate, perhaps a dozen in all; the rest were behind in the bush +upon their line of forts. About the midst he sat down, and here a +woman drew near to him. The moon shone in her face, and he knew +her for a householder near by, and a partisan of Mataafa's. She +looked about her as she came, and asked him, trembling, what he did +in the camp of Tamasese. He was there after news, he told her. +She took him by the hand. "You must not stay here, you will get +killed," she said. "The bush is full of our people, the others are +watching them, fighting may begin at any moment, and we are both +here too long." So they set off together; and she told him by the +way that she had came to the hostile camp with a present of +bananas, so that the Tamasese men might spare her house. By the +Vaisingano they met an old man, a woman, and a child; and these +also she warned and turned back. Such is the strange part played +by women among the scenes of Samoan warfare, such were the +liberties then permitted to the whites, that these two could pass +the lines, talk together in Tamasese's camp on the eve of an +engagement, and pass forth again bearing intelligence, like +privileged spies. And before a few hours the white man was in +direct communication with the opposing general. The next morning +he was accosted "about breakfast-time" by two natives who stood +leaning against the pickets of a public-house, where the Siumu road +strikes in at right angles to the main street of Apia. They told +him battle was imminent, and begged him to pass a little way inland +and speak with Mataafa. The road is at this point broad and fairly +good, running between thick groves of cocoa-palm and breadfruit. A +few hundred yards along this the white man passed a picket of four +armed warriors, with red handkerchiefs and their faces blackened in +the form of a full beard, the Mataafa rallying signs for the day; a +little farther on, some fifty; farther still, a hundred; and at +last a quarter of a mile of them sitting by the wayside armed and +blacked. + +Near by, in the verandah of a house on a knoll, he found Mataafa +seated in white clothes, a Winchester across his knees. His men, +he said, were still arriving from behind, and there was a turning +movement in operation beyond the Fuisa, so that the Tamaseses +should be assailed at the same moment from the south and east. And +this is another indication that the attack on Matautu was the true +attack; had any design on Mulinuu been in the wind, not even a +Samoan general would have detached these troops upon the other +side. While they still spoke, five Tamasese women were brought in +with their hands bound; they had been stealing "our" bananas. + +All morning the town was strangely deserted, the very children +gone. A sense of expectation reigned, and sympathy for the attack +was expressed publicly. Some men with unblacked faces came to +Moors's store for biscuit. A native woman, who was there +marketing, inquired after the news, and, hearing that the battle +was now near at hand, "Give them two more tins," said she; "and +don't put them down to my husband--he would growl; put them down to +me." Between twelve and one, two white men walked toward Matautu, +finding as they went no sign of war until they had passed the +Vaisingano and come to the corner of a by-path leading to the bush. +Here were four blackened warriors on guard,--the extreme left wing +of the Mataafa force, where it touched the waters of the bay. +Thence the line (which the white men followed) stretched inland +among bush and marsh, facing the forts of the Tamaseses. The +warriors lay as yet inactive behind trees; but all the young boys +and harlots of Apia toiled in the front upon a trench, digging with +knives and cocoa-shells; and a continuous stream of children +brought them water. The young sappers worked crouching; from the +outside only an occasional head, or a hand emptying a shell of +earth, was visible; and their enemies looked on inert from the line +of the opposing forts. The lists were not yet prepared, the +tournament was not yet open; and the attacking force was suffered +to throw up works under the silent guns of the defence. But there +is an end even to the delay of islanders. As the white men stood +and looked, the Tamasese line thundered into a volley; it was +answered; the crowd of silent workers broke forth in laughter and +cheers; and the battle had begun. + +Thenceforward, all day and most of the next night, volley followed +volley; and pounds of lead and pounds sterling of money continued +to be blown into the air without cessation and almost without +result. Colonel de Coetlogon, an old soldier, described the noise +as deafening. The harbour was all struck with shots; a man was +knocked over on the German war-ship; half Apia was under fire; and +a house was pierced beyond the Mulivai. All along the two lines of +breastwork, the entrenched enemies exchanged this hail of balls; +and away on the east of the battle the fusillade was maintained, +with equal spirit, across the narrow barrier of the Fuisa. The +whole rear of the Tamaseses was enfiladed by this flank fire; and I +have seen a house there, by the river brink, that was riddled with +bullets like a piece of worm-eaten wreck-wood. At this point of +the field befell a trait of Samoan warfare worth recording. Taiese +(brother to Siteoni already mentioned) shot a Tamasese man. He saw +him fall, and, inflamed with the lust of glory, passed the river +single-handed in that storm of missiles to secure the head. On the +farther bank, as was but natural, he fell himself; he who had gone +to take a trophy remained to afford one; and the Mataafas, who had +looked on exulting in the prospect of a triumph, saw themselves +exposed instead to a disgrace. Then rose one Vingi, passed the +deadly water, swung the body of Taiese on his back, and returned +unscathed to his own side, the head saved, the corpse filled with +useless bullets. + +At this rate of practice, the ammunition soon began to run low, and +from an early hour of the afternoon, the Malietoa stores were +visited by customers in search of more. An elderly man came +leaping and cheering, his gun in one hand, a basket of three heads +in the other. A fellow came shot through the forearm. "It doesn't +hurt now," he said, as he bought his cartridges; "but it will hurt +to-morrow, and I want to fight while I can." A third followed, a +mere boy, with the end of his nose shot off: "Have you any +painkiller? give it me quick, so that I can get back to fight." On +either side, there was the same delight in sound and smoke and +schoolboy cheering, the same unsophisticated ardour of battle; and +the misdirected skirmish proceeded with a din, and was illustrated +with traits of bravery that would have fitted a Waterloo or a +Sedan. + +I have said how little I regard the alleged plan of battle. At +least it was now all gone to water. The whole forces of Mataafa +had leaked out, man by man, village by village, on the so-called +false attack. They were all pounding for their lives on the front +and the left flank of Matautu. About half-past three they +enveloped the right flank also. The defenders were driven back +along the beach road as far as the pilot station at the turn of the +land. From this also they were dislodged, stubbornly fighting. +One, it Is told, retreated to his middle in the lagoon; stood +there, loading and firing, till he fell; and his body was found on +the morrow pierced with four mortal wounds. The Tamasese force was +now enveloped on three sides; it was besides almost cut off from +the sea; and across its whole rear and only way of retreat a fire +of hostile bullets crossed from east and west, in the midst of +which men were surprised to observe the birds continuing to sing, +and a cow grazed all afternoon unhurt. Doubtless here was the +defence in a poor way; but then the attack was in irons. For the +Mataafas about the pilot house could scarcely advance beyond +without coming under the fire of their own men from the other side +of the Fuisa; and there was not enough organisation, perhaps not +enough authority, to divert or to arrest that fire. + +The progress of the fight along the beach road was visible from +Mulinuu, and Brandeis despatched ten boats of reinforcements. They +crossed the harbour, paused for a while beside the Adler--it is +supposed for ammunition--and drew near the Matautu shore. The +Mataafa men lay close among the shore-side bushes, expecting their +arrival; when a silly lad, in mere lightness of heart, fired a shot +in the air. My native friend, Mrs. Mary Hamilton, ran out of her +house and gave the culprit a good shaking: an episode in the midst +of battle as incongruous as the grazing cow. But his sillier +comrades followed his example; a harmless volley warned the boats +what they might expect; and they drew back and passed outside the +reef for the passage of the Fuisa. Here they came under the fire +of the right wing of the Mataafas on the river-bank. The beach, +raked east and west, appeared to them no place to land on. And +they hung off in the deep water of the lagoon inside the barrier +reef, feebly fusillading the pilot house. + +Between four and five, the Fabeata regiment (or folk of that +village) on the Mataafa left, which had been under arms all day, +fell to be withdrawn for rest and food; the Siumu regiment, which +should have relieved it, was not ready or not notified in time; and +the Tamaseses, gallantly profiting by the mismanagement, recovered +the most of the ground in their proper right. It was not for long. +They lost it again, yard by yard and from house to house, till the +pilot station was once more in the hands of the Mataafas. This is +the last definite incident in the battle. The vicissitudes along +the line of the entrenchments remain concealed from us under the +cover of the forest. Some part of the Tamasese position there +appears to have been carried, but what part, or at what hour, or +whether the advantage was maintained, I have never learned. Night +and rain, but not silence, closed upon the field. The trenches +were deep in mud; but the younger folk wrecked the houses in the +neighbourhood, carried the roofs to the front, and lay under them, +men and women together, through a long night of furious squalls and +furious and useless volleys. Meanwhile the older folk trailed back +into Apia in the rain; they talked as they went of who had fallen +and what heads had been taken upon either side--they seemed to know +by name the losses upon both; and drenched with wet and broken with +excitement and fatigue, they crawled into the verandahs of the town +to eat and sleep. The morrow broke grey and drizzly, but as so +often happens in the islands, cleared up into a glorious day. +During the night, the majority of the defenders had taken advantage +of the rain and darkness and stolen from their forts unobserved. +The rallying sign of the Tamaseses had been a white handkerchief. +With the dawn, the de Coetlogons from the English consulate beheld +the ground strewn with these badges discarded; and close by the +house, a belated turncoat was still changing white for red. +Matautu was lost; Tamasese was confined to Mulinuu; and by nine +o'clock two Mataafa villages paraded the streets of Apia, taking +possession. The cost of this respectable success in ammunition +must have been enormous; in life it was but small. Some compute +forty killed on either side, others forty on both, three or four +being women and one a white man, master of a schooner from Fiji. +Nor was the number even of the wounded at all proportionate to the +surprising din and fury of the affair while it lasted. + + + +CHAPTER VI--LAST EXPLOITS OF BECKER +September--November 1888 + + + +Brandeis had held all day by Mulinuu, expecting the reported real +attack. He woke on the 13th to find himself cut off on that +unwatered promontory, and the Mataafa villagers parading Apia. The +same day Fritze received a letter from Mataafa summoning him to +withdraw his party from the isthmus; and Fritze, as if in answer, +drew in his ship into the small harbour close to Mulinuu, and +trained his port battery to assist in the defence. From a step so +decisive, it might be thought the German plans were unaffected by +the disastrous issue of the battle. I conceive nothing would be +further from the truth. Here was Tamasese penned on Mulinuu with +his troops; Apia, from which alone these could be subsisted, in the +hands of the enemy; a battle imminent, in which the German vessel +must apparently take part with men and battery, and the buildings +of the German firm were apparently destined to be the first target +of fire. Unless Becker re-established that which he had so lately +and so artfully thrown down--the neutral territory--the firm would +have to suffer. If he re-established it, Tamasese must retire from +Mulinuu. If Becker saved his goose, he lost his cabbage. Nothing +so well depicts the man's effrontery as that he should have +conceived the design of saving both,--of re-establishing only so +much of the neutral territory as should hamper Mataafa, and leaving +in abeyance all that could incommode Tamasese. By drawing the +boundary where he now proposed, across the isthmus, he protected +the firm, drove back the Mataafas out of almost all that they had +conquered, and, so far from disturbing Tamasese, actually fortified +him in his old position. + +The real story of the negotiations that followed we shall perhaps +never learn. But so much is plain: that while Becker was thus +outwardly straining decency in the interest of Tamasese, he was +privately intriguing, or pretending to intrigue, with Mataafa. In +his despatch of the 11th, he had given an extended criticism of +that chieftain, whom he depicts as very dark and artful; and while +admitting that his assumption of the name of Malietoa might raise +him up followers, predicted that he could not make an orderly +government or support himself long in sole power "without very +energetic foreign help." Of what help was the consul thinking? +There was no helper in the field but Germany. On the 15th he had +an interview with the victor; told him that Tamasese's was the only +government recognised by Germany, and that he must continue to +recognise it till he received "other instructions from his +government, whom he was now advising of the late events"; refused, +accordingly, to withdraw the guard from the isthmus; and desired +Mataafa, "until the arrival of these fresh instructions," to +refrain from an attack on Mulinuu. One thing of two: either this +language is extremely perfidious, or Becker was preparing to change +sides. The same detachment appears in his despatch of October 7th. +He computes the losses of the German firm with an easy +cheerfulness. If Tamasese get up again (gelingt die +Wiederherstellung der Regierung Tamasese's), Tamasese will have to +pay. If not, then Mataafa. This is not the language of a +partisan. The tone of indifference, the easy implication that the +case of Tamasese was already desperate, the hopes held secretly +forth to Mataafa and secretly reported to his government at home, +trenchantly contrast with his external conduct. At this very time +he was feeding Tamasese; he had German sailors mounting guard on +Tamasese's battlements; the German war-ship lay close in, whether +to help or to destroy. If he meant to drop the cause of Tamasese, +he had him in a corner, helpless, and could stifle him without a +sob. If he meant to rat, it was to be with every condition of +safety and every circumstance of infamy. + +Was it conceivable, then, that he meant it? Speaking with a +gentleman who was in the confidence of Dr. Knappe: "Was it not a +pity," I asked, "that Knappe did not stick to Becker's policy of +supporting Mataafa?" "You are quite wrong there; that was not +Knappe's doing," was the reply. "Becker had changed his mind +before Knappe came." Why, then, had he changed it? This +excellent, if ignominious, idea once entertained, why was it let +drop? It is to be remembered there was another German in the +field, Brandeis, who had a respect, or rather, perhaps, an +affection, for Tamasese, and who thought his own honour and that of +his country engaged in the support of that government which they +had provoked and founded. Becker described the captain to Laupepa +as "a quiet, sensible gentleman." If any word came to his ears of +the intended manoeuvre, Brandeis would certainly show himself very +sensible of the affront; but Becker might have been tempted to +withdraw his former epithet of quiet. Some such passage, some such +threatened change of front at the consulate, opposed with outcry, +would explain what seems otherwise inexplicable, the bitter, +indignant, almost hostile tone of a subsequent letter from Brandeis +to Knappe--"Brandeis's inflammatory letter," Bismarck calls it--the +proximate cause of the German landing and reverse at Fangalii. + +But whether the advances of Becker were sincere or not--whether he +meditated treachery against the old king or was practising +treachery upon the new, and the choice is between one or other--no +doubt but he contrived to gain his points with Mataafa, prevailing +on him to change his camp for the better protection of the German +plantations, and persuading him (long before he could persuade his +brother consuls) to accept that miraculous new neutral territory of +his, with a piece cut out for the immediate needs of Tamasese. + +During the rest of September, Tamasese continued to decline. On +the 19th one village and half of another deserted him; on the 22nd +two more. On the 21st the Mataafas burned his town of Leulumoenga, +his own splendid house flaming with the rest; and there are few +things of which a native thinks more, or has more reason to think +well, than of a fine Samoan house. Tamasese women and children +were marched up the same day from Atua, and handed over with their +sleeping-mats to Mulinuu: a most unwelcome addition to a party +already suffering from want. By the 20th, they were being watered +from the Adler. On the 24th the Manono fleet of sixteen large +boats, fortified and rendered unmanageable with tons of firewood, +passed to windward to intercept supplies from Atua. By the 27th +the hungry garrison flocked in great numbers to draw rations at the +German firm. On the 28th the same business was repeated with a +different issue. Mataafas crowded to look on; words were +exchanged, blows followed; sticks, stones, and bottles were caught +up; the detested Brandeis, at great risk, threw himself between the +lines and expostulated with the Mataafas--his only personal +appearance in the wars, if this could be called war. The same +afternoon, the Tamasese boats got in with provisions, having passed +to seaward of the lumbering Manono fleet; and from that day on, +whether from a high degree of enterprise on the one side or a great +lack of capacity on the other, supplies were maintained from the +sea with regularity. Thus the spectacle of battle, or at least of +riot, at the doors of the German firm was not repeated. But the +memory must have hung heavy on the hearts, not of the Germans only, +but of all Apia. The Samoans are a gentle race, gentler than any +in Europe; we are often enough reminded of the circumstance, not +always by their friends. But a mob is a mob, and a drunken mob is +a drunken mob, and a drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a +drunken mob with weapons in its hands, all the world over: +elementary propositions, which some of us upon these islands might +do worse than get by rote, but which must have been evident enough +to Becker. And I am amazed by the man's constancy, that, even +while blows were going at the door of that German firm which he was +in Samoa to protect, he should have stuck to his demands. Ten days +before, Blacklock had offered to recognise the old territory, +including Mulinuu, and Becker had refused, and still in the midst +of these "alarums and excursions," he continued to refuse it. + +On October 2nd, anchored in Apia bay H.B.M.S. Calliope, Captain +Kane, carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Fairfax, and the gunboat +Lizard, Lieutenant-Commander Pelly. It was rumoured the admiral +had come to recognise the government of Tamasese, I believe in +error. And at least the day for that was quite gone by; and he +arrived not to salute the king's accession, but to arbitrate on his +remains. A conference of the consuls and commanders met on board +the Calliope, October 4th, Fritze alone being absent, although +twice invited: the affair touched politics, his consul was to be +there; and even if he came to the meeting (so he explained to +Fairfax) he would have no voice in its deliberations. The parties +were plainly marked out: Blacklock and Leary maintaining their +offer of the old neutral territory, and probably willing to expand +or to contract it to any conceivable extent, so long as Mulinuu was +still included; Knappe offered (if the others liked) to include +"the whole eastern end of the island," but quite fixed upon the one +point that Mulinuu should be left out; the English willing to meet +either view, and singly desirous that Apia should be neutralised. +The conclusion was foregone. Becker held a trump card in the +consent of Mataafa; Blacklock and Leary stood alone, spoke with all +ill grace, and could not long hold out. Becker had his way; and +the neutral boundary was chosen just where he desired: across the +isthmus, the firm within, Mulinuu without. He did not long enjoy +the fruits of victory. + +On the 7th, three days after the meeting, one of the Scanlons +(well-known and intelligent half-castes) came to Blacklock with a +complaint. The Scanlon house stood on the hither side of the +Tamasese breastwork, just inside the newly accepted territory, and +within easy range of the firm. Armed men, to the number of a +hundred, had issued from Mulinuu, had "taken charge" of the house, +had pointed a gun at Scanlon's head, and had twice "threatened to +kill" his pigs. I hear elsewhere of some effects (Gegenstande) +removed. At the best a very pale atrocity, though we shall find +the word employed. Germans declare besides that Scanlon was no +American subject; they declare the point had been decided by court- +martial in 1875; that Blacklock had the decision in the consular +archives; and that this was his reason for handing the affair to +Leary. It is not necessary to suppose so. It is plain he thought +little of the business; thought indeed nothing of it; except in so +far as armed men had entered the neutral territory from Mulinuu; +and it was on this ground alone, and the implied breach of Becker's +engagement at the conference, that he invited Leary's attention to +the tale. The impish ingenuity of the commander perceived in it +huge possibilities of mischief. He took up the Scanlon outrage, +the atrocity of the threatened pigs; and with that poor instrument- +-I am sure, to his own wonder--drove Tamasese out of Mulinuu. It +was "an intrigue," Becker complains. To be sure it was; but who +was Becker to be complaining of intrigue? + +On the 7th Leary laid before Fritze the following conundrum: "As +the natives of Mulinuu appear to be under the protection of the +Imperial German naval guard belonging to the vessel under your +command, I have the honour to request you to inform me whether or +not they are under such protection? Amicable relations," pursued +the humorist, "amicable relations exist between the government of +the United States and His Imperial German Majesty's government, but +we do not recognise Tamasese's government, and I am desirous of +locating the responsibility for violations of American rights." +Becker and Fritze lost no time in explanation or denial, but went +straight to the root of the matter and sought to buy off Scanlon. +Becker declares that every reparation was offered. Scanlon takes a +pride to recapitulate the leases and the situations he refused, and +the long interviews in which he was tempted and plied with drink by +Becker or Beckmann of the firm. No doubt, in short, that he was +offered reparation in reason and out of reason, and, being +thoroughly primed, refused it all. Meantime some answer must be +made to Leary; and Fritze repeated on the 8th his oft-repeated +assurances that he was not authorised to deal with politics. The +same day Leary retorted: "The question is not one of diplomacy nor +of politics. It is strictly one of military jurisdiction and +responsibility. Under the shadow of the German fort at Mulinuu," +continued the hyperbolical commander, "atrocities have been +committed. . . . And I again have the honour respectfully to +request to be informed whether or not the armed natives at Mulinuu +are under the protection of the Imperial German naval guard +belonging to the vessel under your command." To this no answer was +vouchsafed till the 11th, and then in the old terms; and meanwhile, +on the 10th, Leary got into his gaiters--the sure sign, as was both +said and sung aboard his vessel, of some desperate or some amusing +service--and was set ashore at the Scanlons' house. Of this he +took possession at the head of an old woman and a mop, and was seen +from the Tamasese breastwork directing operations and plainly +preparing to install himself there in a military posture. So much +he meant to be understood; so much he meant to carry out, and an +armed party from the Adams was to have garrisoned on the morrow the +scene of the atrocity. But there is no doubt he managed to convey +more. No doubt he was a master in the art of loose speaking, and +could always manage to be overheard when he wanted; and by this, or +some other equally unofficial means, he spread the rumour that on +the morrow he was to bombard. + +The proposed post, from its position, and from Leary's well- +established character as an artist in mischief, must have been +regarded by the Germans with uneasiness. In the bombardment we can +scarce suppose them to have believed. But Tamasese must have both +believed and trembled. The prestige of the European Powers was +still unbroken. No native would then have dreamed of defying these +colossal ships, worked by mysterious powers, and laden with +outlandish instruments of death. None would have dreamed of +resisting those strange but quite unrealised Great Powers, +understood (with difficulty) to be larger than Tonga and Samoa put +together, and known to be prolific of prints, knives, hard biscuit, +picture-books, and other luxuries, as well as of overbearing men +and inconsistent orders. Laupepa had fallen in ill-blood with one +of them; his only idea of defence had been to throw himself in the +arms of another; his name, his rank, and his great following had +not been able to preserve him; and he had vanished from the eyes of +men--as the Samoan thinks of it, beyond the sky. Asi, Maunga, +Tuiletu-funga, had followed him in that new path of doom. We have +seen how carefully Mataafa still walked, how he dared not set foot +on the neutral territory till assured it was no longer sacred, how +he withdrew from it again as soon as its sacredness had been +restored, and at the bare word of a consul (however gilded with +ambiguous promises) paused in his course of victory and left his +rival unassailed in Mulinuu. And now it was the rival's turn. +Hitherto happy in the continued support of one of the white Powers, +he now found himself--or thought himself--threatened with war by no +less than two others. + +Tamasese boats as they passed Matautu were in the habit of firing +on the shore, as like as not without particular aim, and more in +high spirits than hostility. One of these shots pierced the house +of a British subject near the consulate; the consul reported to +Admiral Fairfax; and, on the morning of the 10th, the admiral +despatched Captain Kane of the Calliope to Mulinuu. Brandeis met +the messenger with voluble excuses and engagements for the future. +He was told his explanations were satisfactory so far as they went, +but that the admiral's message was to Tamasese, the de facto king. +Brandeis, not very well assured of his puppet's courage, attempted +in vain to excuse him from appearing. No de facto king, no +message, he was told: produce your de facto king. And Tamasese +had at last to be produced. To him Kane delivered his errand: +that the Lizard was to remain for the protection of British +subjects; that a signalman was to be stationed at the consulate; +that, on any further firing from boats, the signalman was to notify +the Lizard and she to fire one gun, on which all boats must lower +sail and come alongside for examination and the detection of the +guilty; and that, "in the event of the boats not obeying the gun, +the admiral would not be responsible for the consequences." It was +listened to by Brandeis and Tamasese "with the greatest attention." +Brandeis, when it was done, desired his thanks to the admiral for +the moderate terms of his message, and, as Kane went to his boat, +repeated the expression of his gratitude as though he meant it, +declaring his own hands would be thus strengthened for the +maintenance of discipline. But I have yet to learn of any +gratitude on the part of Tamasese. Consider the case of the poor +owlish man hearing for the first time our diplomatic commonplaces. +The admiral would not be answerable for the consequences. Think of +it! A devil of a position for a de facto king. And here, the same +afternoon, was Leary in the Scalon house, mopping it out for +unknown designs by the hands of an old woman, and proffering +strange threats of bloodshed. Scanlon and his pigs, the admiral +and his gun, Leary and his bombardment,--what a kettle of fish! + +I dwell on the effect on Tamasese. Whatever the faults of Becker, +he was not timid; he had already braved so much for Mulinuu that I +cannot but think he might have continued to hold up his head even +after the outrage of the pigs, and that the weakness now shown +originated with the king. Late in the night, Blacklock was wakened +to receive a despatch addressed to Leary. "You have asked that I +and my government go away from Mulinuu, because you pretend a man +who lives near Mulinuu and who is under your protection, has been +threatened by my soldiers. As your Excellency has forbidden the +man to accept any satisfaction, and as I do not wish to make war +against the United States, I shall remove my government from +Mulinuu to another place." It was signed by Tamasese, but I think +more heads than his had wagged over the direct and able letter. On +the morning of the 11th, accordingly, Mulinuu the much defended lay +desert. Tamasese and Brandeis had slipped to sea in a schooner; +their troops had followed them in boats; the German sailors and +their war-flag had returned on board the Adler; and only the German +merchant flag blew there for Weber's land-claim. Mulinuu, for +which Becker had intrigued so long and so often, for which he had +overthrown the municipality, for which he had abrogated and refused +and invented successive schemes of neutral territory, was now no +more to the Germans than a very unattractive, barren peninsula and +a very much disputed land-claim of Mr. Weber's. It will scarcely +be believed that the tale of the Scanlon outrages was not yet +finished. Leary had gained his point, but Scanlon had lost his +compensation. And it was months later, and this time in the shape +of a threat of bombardment in black and white, that Tamasese heard +the last of the absurd affair. Scanlon had both his fun and his +money, and Leary's practical joke was brought to an artistic end. + +Becker sought and missed an instant revenge. Mataafa, a devout +Catholic, was in the habit of walking every morning to mass from +his camp at Vaiala beyond Matautu to the mission at the Mulivai. +He was sometimes escorted by as many as six guards in uniform, who +displayed their proficiency in drill by perpetually shifting arms +as they marched. Himself, meanwhile, paced in front, bareheaded +and barefoot, a staff in his hand, in the customary chief's dress +of white kilt, shirt, and jacket, and with a conspicuous rosary +about his neck. Tall but not heavy, with eager eyes and a marked +appearance of courage and capacity, Mataafa makes an admirable +figure in the eyes of Europeans; to those of his countrymen, he may +seem not always to preserve that quiescence of manner which is +thought becoming in the great. On the morning of October 16th he +reached the mission before day with two attendants, heard mass, had +coffee with the fathers, and left again in safety. The smallness +of his following we may suppose to have been reported. He was +scarce gone, at least, before Becker had armed men at the mission +gate and came in person seeking him. + +The failure of this attempt doubtless still further exasperated the +consul, and he began to deal as in an enemy's country. He had +marines from the Adler to stand sentry over the consulate and +parade the streets by threes and fours. The bridge of the +Vaisingano, which cuts in half the English and American quarters, +he closed by proclamation and advertised for tenders to demolish +it. On the 17th Leary and Pelly landed carpenters and repaired it +in his teeth. Leary, besides, had marines under arms, ready to +land them if it should be necessary to protect the work. But +Becker looked on without interference, perhaps glad enough to have +the bridge repaired; for even Becker may not always have offended +intentionally. Such was now the distracted posture of the little +town: all government extinct, the German consul patrolling it with +armed men and issuing proclamations like a ruler, the two other +Powers defying his commands, and at least one of them prepared to +use force in the defiance. Close on its skirts sat the warriors of +Mataafa, perhaps four thousand strong, highly incensed against the +Germans, having all to gain in the seizure of the town and firm, +and, like an army in a fairy tale, restrained by the air-drawn +boundary of the neutral ground. + +I have had occasion to refer to the strange appearance in these +islands of an American adventurer with a battery of cannon. The +adventurer was long since gone, but his guns remained, and one of +them was now to make fresh history. It had been cast overboard by +Brandeis on the outer reef in the course of this retreat; and word +of it coming to the ears of the Mataafas, they thought it natural +that they should serve themselves the heirs of Tamasese. On the +23rd a Manono boat of the kind called taumualua dropped down the +coast from Mataafa's camp, called in broad day at the German +quarter of the town for guides, and proceeded to the reef. Here, +diving with a rope, they got the gun aboard; and the night being +then come, returned by the same route in the shallow water along +shore, singing a boat-song. It will be seen with what childlike +reliance they had accepted the neutrality of Apia bay; they came +for the gun without concealment, laboriously dived for it in broad +day under the eyes of the town and shipping, and returned with it, +singing as they went. On Grevsmuhl's wharf, a light showed them a +crowd of German blue-jackets clustered, and a hail was heard. +"Stop the singing so that we may hear what is said," said one of +the chiefs in the taumualua. The song ceased; the hail was heard +again, "Au mai le fana--bring the gun"; and the natives report +themselves to have replied in the affirmative, and declare that +they had begun to back the boat. It is perhaps not needful to +believe them. A volley at least was fired from the wharf, at about +fifty yards' range and with a very ill direction, one bullet +whistling over Pelly's head on board the Lizard. The natives +jumped overboard; and swimming under the lee of the taumualua +(where they escaped a second volley) dragged her towards the east. +As soon as they were out of range and past the Mulivai, the German +border, they got on board and (again singing--though perhaps a +different song) continued their return along the English and +American shore. Off Matautu they were hailed from the seaward by +one of the Adler's boats, which had been suddenly despatched on the +sound of the firing or had stood ready all evening to secure the +gun. The hail was in German; the Samoans knew not what it meant, +but took the precaution to jump overboard and swim for land. Two +volleys and some dropping shot were poured upon them in the water; +but they dived, scattered, and came to land unhurt in different +quarters of Matautu. The volleys, fired inshore, raked the +highway, a British house was again pierced by numerous bullets, and +these sudden sounds of war scattered consternation through the +town. + +Two British subjects, Hetherington-Carruthers, a solicitor, and +Maben, a land-surveyor--the first being in particular a man well +versed in the native mind and language--hastened at once to their +consul; assured him the Mataafas would be roused to fury by this +onslaught in the neutral zone, that the German quarter would be +certainly attacked, and the rest of the town and white inhabitants +exposed to a peril very difficult of estimation; and prevailed upon +him to intrust them with a mission to the king. By the time they +reached headquarters, the warriors were already taking post round +Matafele, and the agitation of Mataafa himself was betrayed in the +fact that he spoke with the deputation standing and gun in hand: a +breach of high-chief dignity perhaps unparalleled. The usual +result, however, followed: the whites persuaded the Samoan; and +the attack was countermanded, to the benefit of all concerned, and +not least of Mataafa. To the benefit of all, I say; for I do not +think the Germans were that evening in a posture to resist; the +liquor-cellars of the firm must have fallen into the power of the +insurgents; and I will repeat my formula that a mob is a mob, a +drunken mob is a drunken mob, and a drunken mob with weapons in its +hands is a drunken mob with weapons in its hands, all the world +over. + +In the opinion of some, then, the town had narrowly escaped +destruction, or at least the miseries of a drunken sack. To the +knowledge of all, the air of the neutral territory had once more +whistled with bullets. And it was clear the incident must have +diplomatic consequences. Leary and Pelly both protested to Fritze. +Leary announced he should report the affair to his government "as a +gross violation of the principles of international law, and as a +breach of the neutrality." "I positively decline the protest," +replied Fritze, "and cannot fail to express my astonishment at the +tone of your last letter." This was trenchant. It may be said, +however, that Leary was already out of court; that, after the night +signals and the Scanlon incident, and so many other acts of +practical if humorous hostility, his position as a neutral was no +better than a doubtful jest. The case with Pelly was entirely +different; and with Pelly, Fritze was less well inspired. In his +first note, he was on the old guard; announced that he had acted on +the requisition of his consul, who was alone responsible on "the +legal side"; and declined accordingly to discuss "whether the lives +of British subjects were in danger, and to what extent armed +intervention was necessary." Pelly replied judiciously that he had +nothing to do with political matters, being only responsible for +the safety of Her Majesty's ships under his command and for the +lives and property of British subjects; that he had considered his +protest a purely naval one; and as the matter stood could only +report the case to the admiral on the station. "I have the +honour," replied Fritze, "to refuse to entertain the protest +concerning the safety of Her Britannic Majesty's ship Lizard as +being a naval matter. The safety of Her Majesty's ship Lizard was +never in the least endangered. This was guaranteed by the +disciplined fire of a few shots under the direction of two +officers." This offensive note, in view of Fritze's careful and +honest bearing among so many other complications, may be attributed +to some misunderstanding. His small knowledge of English perhaps +failed him. But I cannot pass it by without remarking how far too +much it is the custom of German officials to fall into this style. +It may be witty, I am sure it is not wise. It may be sometimes +necessary to offend for a definite object, it can never be +diplomatic to offend gratuitously. + +Becker was more explicit, although scarce less curt. And his +defence may be divided into two statements: first, that the +taumualua was proceeding to land with a hostile purpose on Mulinuu; +second, that the shots complained of were fired by the Samoans. +The second may be dismissed with a laugh. Human nature has laws. +And no men hitherto discovered, on being suddenly challenged from +the sea, would have turned their backs upon the challenger and +poured volleys on the friendly shore. The first is not extremely +credible, but merits examination. The story of the recovered gun +seems straightforward; it is supported by much testimony, the +diving operations on the reef seem to have been watched from shore +with curiosity; it is hard to suppose that it does not roughly +represent the fact. And yet if any part of it be true, the whole +of Becker's explanation falls to the ground. A boat which had +skirted the whole eastern coast of Mulinuu, and was already +opposite a wharf in Matafele, and still going west, might have been +guilty on a thousand points--there was one on which she was +necessarily innocent; she was necessarily innocent of proceeding on +Mulinuu. Or suppose the diving operations, and the native +testimony, and Pelly's chart of the boat's course, and the boat +itself, to be all stages of some epidemic hallucination or steps in +a conspiracy--suppose even a second taumualua to have entered Apia +bay after nightfall, and to have been fired upon from Grevsmuhl's +wharf in the full career of hostilities against Mulinuu--suppose +all this, and Becker is not helped. At the time of the first fire, +the boat was off Grevsmuhl's wharf. At the time of the second (and +that is the one complained of) she was off Carruthers's wharf in +Matautu. Was she still proceeding on Mulinuu? I trow not. The +danger to German property was no longer imminent, the shots had +been fired upon a very trifling provocation, the spirit implied was +that of designed disregard to the neutrality. Such was the +impression here on the spot; such in plain terms the statement of +Count Hatzfeldt to Lord Salisbury at home: that the neutrality of +Apia was only "to prevent the natives from fighting," not the +Germans; and that whatever Becker might have promised at the +conference, he could not "restrict German war-vessels in their +freedom of action." + +There was nothing to surprise in this discovery; and had events +been guided at the same time with a steady and discreet hand, it +might have passed with less observation. But the policy of Becker +was felt to be not only reckless, it was felt to be absurd also. +Sudden nocturnal onfalls upon native boats could lead, it was felt, +to no good end whether of peace or war; they could but exasperate; +they might prove, in a moment, and when least expected, ruinous. +To those who knew how nearly it had come to fighting, and who +considered the probable result, the future looked ominous. And +fear was mingled with annoyance in the minds of the Anglo-Saxon +colony. On the 24th, a public meeting appealed to the British and +American consuls. At half-past seven in the evening guards were +landed at the consulates. On the morrow they were each fortified +with sand-bags; and the subjects informed by proclamation that +these asylums stood open to them on any alarm, and at any hour of +the day or night. The social bond in Apia was dissolved. The +consuls, like barons of old, dwelt each in his armed citadel. The +rank and file of the white nationalities dared each other, and +sometimes fell to on the street like rival clansmen. And the +little town, not by any fault of the inhabitants, rather by the act +of Becker, had fallen back in civilisation about a thousand years. + +There falls one more incident to be narrated, and then I can close +with this ungracious chapter. I have mentioned the name of the new +English consul. It is already familiar to English readers; for the +gentleman who was fated to undergo some strange experiences in Apia +was the same de Coetlogon who covered Hicks's flank at the time of +the disaster in the desert, and bade farewell to Gordon in Khartoum +before the investment. The colonel was abrupt and testy; Mrs. de +Coetlogon was too exclusive for society like that of Apia; but +whatever their superficial disabilities, it is strange they should +have left, in such an odour of unpopularity, a place where they set +so shining an example of the sterling virtues. The colonel was +perhaps no diplomatist; he was certainly no lawyer; but he +discharged the duties of his office with the constancy and courage +of an old soldier, and these were found sufficient. He and his +wife had no ambition to be the leaders of society; the consulate +was in their time no house of feasting; but they made of it that +house of mourning to which the preacher tells us it is better we +should go. At an early date after the battle of Matautu, it was +opened as a hospital for the wounded. The English and Americans +subscribed what was required for its support. Pelly of the Lizard +strained every nerve to help, and set up tents on the lawn to be a +shelter for the patients. The doctors of the English and American +ships, and in particular Dr. Oakley of the Lizard, showed +themselves indefatigable. But it was on the de Coetlogons that the +distress fell. For nearly half a year, their lawn, their verandah, +sometimes their rooms, were cumbered with the sick and dying, their +ears were filled with the complaints of suffering humanity, their +time was too short for the multiplicity of pitiful duties. In Mrs. +de Coetlogon, and her helper, Miss Taylor, the merit of this +endurance was perhaps to be looked for; in a man of the colonel's +temper, himself painfully suffering, it was viewed with more +surprise, if with no more admiration. Doubtless all had their +reward in a sense of duty done; doubtless, also, as the days +passed, in the spectacle of many traits of gratitude and patience, +and in the success that waited on their efforts. Out of a hundred +cases treated, only five died. They were all well-behaved, though +full of childish wiles. One old gentleman, a high chief, was +seized with alarming symptoms of belly-ache whenever Mrs. de +Coetlogon went her rounds at night: he was after brandy. Others +were insatiable for morphine or opium. A chief woman had her foot +amputated under chloroform. "Let me see my foot! Why does it not +hurt?" she cried. "It hurt so badly before I went to sleep." +Siteoni, whose name has been already mentioned, had his shoulder- +blade excised, lay the longest of any, perhaps behaved the worst, +and was on all these grounds the favourite. At times he was +furiously irritable, and would rail upon his family and rise in bed +until he swooned with pain. Once on the balcony he was thought to +be dying, his family keeping round his mat, his father exhorting +him to be prepared, when Mrs. de Coetlogon brought him round again +with brandy and smelling-salts. After discharge, he returned upon +a visit of gratitude; and it was observed, that instead of coming +straight to the door, he went and stood long under his umbrella on +that spot of ground where his mat had been stretched and he had +endured pain so many months. Similar visits were the rule, I +believe without exception; and the grateful patients loaded Mrs. de +Coetlogon with gifts which (had that been possible in Polynesia) +she would willingly have declined, for they were often of value to +the givers. + +The tissue of my story is one of rapacity, intrigue, and the +triumphs of temper; the hospital at the consulate stands out almost +alone as an episode of human beauty, and I dwell on it with +satisfaction. But it was not regarded at the time with universal +favour; and even to-day its institution is thought by many to have +been impolitic. It was opened, it stood open, for the wounded of +either party. As a matter of fact it was never used but by the +Mataafas, and the Tamaseses were cared for exclusively by German +doctors. In the progressive decivilisation of the town, these +duties of humanity became thus a ground of quarrel. When the +Mataafa hurt were first brought together after the battle of +Matautu, and some more or less amateur surgeons were dressing +wounds on a green by the wayside, one from the German consulate +went by in the road. "Why don't you let the dogs die?" he asked. +"Go to hell," was the rejoinder. Such were the amenities of Apia. +But Becker reserved for himself the extreme expression of this +spirit. On November 7th hostilities began again between the Samoan +armies, and an inconclusive skirmish sent a fresh crop of wounded +to the de Coetlogons. Next door to the consulate, some native +houses and a chapel (now ruinous) stood on a green. Chapel and +houses were certainly Samoan, but the ground was under a land-claim +of the German firm; and de Coetlogon wrote to Becker requesting +permission (in case it should prove necessary) to use these +structures for his wounded. Before an answer came, the hospital +was startled by the appearance of a case of gangrene, and the +patient was hastily removed into the chapel. A rebel laid on +German ground--here was an atrocity! The day before his own +relief, November 11th, Becker ordered the man's instant removal. +By his aggressive carriage and singular mixture of violence and +cunning, he had already largely brought about the fall of Brandeis, +and forced into an attitude of hostility the whole non-German +population of the islands. Now, in his last hour of office, by +this wanton buffet to his English colleague, he prepared a +continuance of evil days for his successor. If the object of +diplomacy be the organisation of failure in the midst of hate, he +was a great diplomatist. And amongst a certain party on the beach +he is still named as the ideal consul. + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE SAMOAN CAMPS +November 1888 + + + +When Brandeis and Tamasese fled by night from Mulinuu, they carried +their wandering government some six miles to windward, to a +position above Lotoanuu. For some three miles to the eastward of +Apia, the shores of Upolu are low and the ground rises with a +gentle acclivity, much of which waves with German plantations. A +barrier reef encloses a lagoon passable for boats: and the +traveller skims there, on smooth, many-tinted shallows, between the +wall of the breakers on the one hand, and on the other a succession +of palm-tree capes and cheerful beach-side villages. Beyond the +great plantation of Vailele, the character of the coast is changed. +The barrier reef abruptly ceases, the surf beats direct upon the +shore; and the mountains and untenanted forest of the interior +descend sheer into the sea. The first mountain promontory is +Letongo. The bay beyond is called Laulii, and became the +headquarters of Mataafa. And on the next projection, on steep, +intricate ground, veiled in forest and cut up by gorges and +defiles, Tamasese fortified his lines. This greenwood citadel, +which proved impregnable by Samoan arms, may be regarded as his +front; the sea covered his right; and his rear extended along the +coast as far as Saluafata, and thus commanded and drew upon a rich +country, including the plain of Falefa. + +He was left in peace from 11th October till November 6th. But his +adversary is not wholly to be blamed for this delay, which depended +upon island etiquette. His Savaii contingent had not yet come in, +and to have moved again without waiting for them would have been +surely to offend, perhaps to lose them. With the month of November +they began to arrive: on the 2nd twenty boats, on the 3rd twenty- +nine, on the 5th seventeen. On the 6th the position Mataafa had so +long occupied on the skirts of Apia was deserted; all that day and +night his force kept streaming eastward to Laulii; and on the 7th +the siege of Lotoanuu was opened with a brisk skirmish. + +Each side built forts, facing across the gorge of a brook. An +endless fusillade and shouting maintained the spirit of the +warriors; and at night, even if the firing slackened, the pickets +continued to exchange from either side volleys of songs and pungent +pleasantries. Nearer hostilities were rendered difficult by the +nature of the ground, where men must thread dense bush and clamber +on the face of precipices. Apia was near enough; a man, if he had +a dollar or two, could walk in before a battle and array himself in +silk or velvet. Casualties were not common; there was nothing to +cast gloom upon the camps, and no more danger than was required to +give a spice to the perpetual firing. For the young warriors it +was a period of admirable enjoyment. But the anxiety of Mataafa +must have been great and growing. His force was now considerable. +It was scarce likely he should ever have more. That he should be +long able to supply them with ammunition seemed incredible; at the +rates then or soon after current, hundreds of pounds sterling might +be easily blown into the air by the skirmishers in the course of a +few days. And in the meanwhile, on the mountain opposite, his +outnumbered adversary held his ground unshaken. + +By this time the partisanship of the whites was unconcealed. +Americans supplied Mataafa with ammunition; English and Americans +openly subscribed together and sent boat-loads of provisions to his +camp. One such boat started from Apia on a day of rain; it was +pulled by six oars, three being paid by Moors, three by the +MacArthurs; Moors himself and a clerk of the MacArthurs' were in +charge; and the load included not only beef and biscuit, but three +or four thousand rounds of ammunition. They came ashore in Laulii, +and carried the gift to Mataafa. While they were yet in his house +a bullet passed overhead; and out of his door they could see the +Tamasese pickets on the opposite hill. Thence they made their way +to the left flank of the Mataafa position next the sea. A Tamasese +barricade was visible across the stream. It rained, but the +warriors crowded in their shanties, squatted in the mud, and +maintained an excited conversation. Balls flew; either faction, +both happy as lords, spotting for the other in chance shots, and +missing. One point is characteristic of that war; experts in +native feeling doubt if it will characterise the next. The two +white visitors passed without and between the lines to a rocky +point upon the beach. The person of Moors was well known; the +purpose of their coming to Laulii must have been already bruited +abroad; yet they were not fired upon. From the point they spied a +crow's nest, or hanging fortification, higher up; and, judging it +was a good position for a general view, obtained a guide. He led +them up a steep side of the mountain, where they must climb by +roots and tufts of grass; and coming to an open hill-top with some +scattered trees, bade them wait, let him draw the fire, and then be +swift to follow. Perhaps a dozen balls whistled about him ere he +had crossed the dangerous passage and dropped on the farther side +into the crow's-nest; the white men, briskly following, escaped +unhurt. The crow's-nest was built like a bartizan on the +precipitous front of the position. Across the ravine, perhaps at +five hundred yards, heads were to be seen popping up and down in a +fort of Tamesese's. On both sides the same enthusiasm without +council, the same senseless vigilance, reigned. Some took aim; +some blazed before them at a venture. Now--when a head showed on +the other side--one would take a crack at it, remarking that it +would never do to "miss a chance." Now they would all fire a +volley and bob down; a return volley rang across the ravine, and +was punctually answered: harmless as lawn-tennis. The whites +expostulated in vain. The warriors, drunken with noise, made +answer by a fresh general discharge and bade their visitors run +while it was time. Upon their return to headquarters, men were +covering the front with sheets of coral limestone, two balls having +passed through the house in the interval. Mataafa sat within, over +his kava bowl, unmoved. The picture is of a piece throughout: +excellent courage, super-excellent folly, a war of school-children; +expensive guns and cartridges used like squibs or catherine-wheels +on Guy Fawkes's Day. + +On the 20th Mataafa changed his attack. Tamasese's front was +seemingly impregnable. Something must be tried upon his rear. +There was his bread-basket; a small success in that direction would +immediately curtail his resources; and it might be possible with +energy to roll up his line along the beach and take the citadel in +reverse. The scheme was carried out as might be expected from +these childish soldiers. Mataafa, always uneasy about Apia, clung +with a portion of his force to Laulii; and thus, had the foe been +enterprising, exposed himself to disaster. The expedition fell +successfully enough on Saluafata and drove out the Tamaseses with a +loss of four heads; but so far from improving the advantage, +yielded immediately to the weakness of the Samoan warrior, and +ranged farther east through unarmed populations, bursting with +shouts and blackened faces into villages terrified or admiring, +making spoil of pigs, burning houses, and destroying gardens. The +Tamasese had at first evacuated several beach towns in succession, +and were still in retreat on Lotoanuu; finding themselves +unpursued, they reoccupied them one after another, and re- +established their lines to the very borders of Saluafata. Night +fell; Mataafa had taken Saluafata, Tamasese had lost it; and that +was all. But the day came near to have a different and very +singular issue. The village was not long in the hands of the +Mataafas, when a schooner, flying German colours, put into the bay +and was immediately surrounded by their boats. It chanced that +Brandeis was on board. Word of it had gone abroad, and the boats +as they approached demanded him with threats. The late premier, +alone, entirely unarmed, and a prey to natural and painful +feelings, concealed himself below. The captain of the schooner +remained on deck, pointed to the German colours, and defied +approaching boats. Again the prestige of a great Power triumphed; +the Samoans fell back before the bunting; the schooner worked out +of the bay; Brandeis escaped. He himself apprehended the worst if +he fell into Samoan hands; it is my diffident impression that his +life would have been safe. + +On the 22nd, a new German war-ship, the Eber, of tragic memory, +came to Apia from the Gilberts, where she had been disarming +turbulent islands. The rest of that day and all night she loaded +stores from the firm, and on the morrow reached Saluafata bay. +Thanks to the misconduct of the Mataafas, the most of the foreshore +was still in the hands of the Tamaseses; and they were thus able to +receive from the Eber both the stores and weapons. The weapons had +been sold long since to Tarawa, Apaiang, and Pleasant Island; +places unheard of by the general reader, where obscure inhabitants +paid for these instruments of death in money or in labour, misused +them as it was known they would be misused, and had been disarmed +by force. The Eber had brought back the guns to a German counter, +whence many must have been originally sold; and was here engaged, +like a shopboy, in their distribution to fresh purchasers. Such is +the vicious circle of the traffic in weapons of war. Another aid +of a more metaphysical nature was ministered by the Eber to +Tamasese, in the shape of uncountable German flags. The full +history of this epidemic of bunting falls to be told in the next +chapter. But the fact has to be chronicled here, for I believe it +was to these flags that we owe the visit of the Adams, and my next +and best authentic glance into a native camp. The Adams arrived in +Saluafata on the 26th. On the morrow Leary and Moors landed at the +village. It was still occupied by Mataafas, mostly from Manono and +Savaii, few in number, high in spirit. The Tamasese pickets were +meanwhile within musket range; there was maintained a steady +sputtering of shots; and yet a party of Tamasese women were here on +a visit to the women of Manono, with whom they sat talking and +smoking, under the fire of their own relatives. It was reported +that Leary took part in a council of war, and promised to join with +his broadside in the next attack. It is certain he did nothing of +the sort: equally certain that, in Tamasese circles, he was firmly +credited with having done so. And this heightens the extraordinary +character of what I have now to tell. Prudence and delicacy alike +ought to have forbid the camp of Tamasese to the feet of either +Leary or Moors. Moors was the original--there was a time when he +had been the only--opponent of the puppet king. Leary had driven +him from the seat of government; it was but a week or two since he +had threatened to bombard him in his present refuge. Both were in +close and daily council with his adversary, and it was no secret +that Moors was supplying the latter with food. They were +partisans; it lacked but a hair that they should be called +belligerents; it were idle to try to deny they were the most +dangerous of spies. And yet these two now sailed across the bay +and landed inside the Tamasese lines at Salelesi. On the very +beach they had another glimpse of the artlessness of Samoan war. +Hitherto the Tamasese fleet, being hardy and unencumbered, had made +a fool of the huge floating forts upon the other side; and here +they were tolling, not to produce another boat on their own pattern +in which they had always enjoyed the advantage, but to make a new +one the type of their enemies', of which they had now proved the +uselessness for months. It came on to rain as the Americans +landed; and though none offered to oppose their coming ashore, none +invited them to take shelter. They were nowise abashed, entered a +house unbidden, and were made welcome with obvious reserve. The +rain clearing off, they set forth westward, deeper into the heart +of the enemies' position. Three or four young men ran some way +before them, doubtless to give warning; and Leary, with his +indomitable taste for mischief, kept inquiring as he went after +"the high chief" Tamasese. The line of the beach was one +continuous breastwork; some thirty odd iron cannon of all sizes and +patterns stood mounted in embrasures; plenty grape and canister lay +ready; and at every hundred yards or so the German flag was flying. +The numbers of the guns and flags I give as I received them, though +they test my faith. At the house of Brandeis--a little, +weatherboard house, crammed at the time with natives, men, women, +and squalling children--Leary and Moors again asked for "the high +chief," and, were again assured that he was farther on. A little +beyond, the road ran in one place somewhat inland, the two +Americans had gone down to the line of the beach to continue their +inspection of the breastwork, when Brandeis himself, in his shirt- +sleeves and accompanied by several German officers, passed them by +the line of the road. The two parties saluted in silence. Beyond +Eva Point there was an observable change for the worse in the +reception of the Americans; some whom they met began to mutter at +Moors; and the adventurers, with tardy but commendable prudence, +desisted from their search after the high chief, and began to +retrace their steps. On the return, Suatele and some chiefs were +drinking kava in a "big house," and called them in to join--their +only invitation. But the night was closing, the rain had begun +again: they stayed but for civility, and returned on board the +Adams, wet and hungry, and I believe delighted with their +expedition. It was perhaps the last as it was certainly one of the +most extreme examples of that divinity which once hedged the white +in Samoa. The feeling was already different in the camp of +Mataafa, where the safety of a German loiterer had been a matter of +extreme concern. Ten days later, three commissioners, an +Englishman, an American, and a German, approached a post of +Mataafas, were challenged by an old man with a gun, and mentioned +in answer what they were. "Ifea Siamani? Which is the German?" +cried the old gentleman, dancing, and with his finger on the +trigger; and the commissioners stood somewhile in a very anxious +posture, till they were released by the opportune arrival of a +chief. It was November the 27th when Leary and Moors completed +their absurd excursion; in about three weeks an event was to befall +which changed at once, and probably for ever, the relations of the +natives and the whites. + +By the 28th Tamasese had collected seventeen hundred men in the +trenches before Saluafata, thinking to attack next day. But the +Mataafas evacuated the place in the night. At half-past five on +the morning of the 29th a signal-gun was fired in the trenches at +Laulii, and the Tamasese citadel was assaulted and defended with a +fury new among Samoans. When the battle ended on the following +day, one or more outworks remained in the possession of Mataafa. +Another had been taken and lost as many as four times. Carried +originally by a mixed force from Savaii and Tuamasanga, the +victors, instead of completing fresh defences or pursuing their +advantage, fell to eat and smoke and celebrate their victory with +impromptu songs. In this humour a rally of the Tamaseses smote +them, drove them out pell-mell, and tumbled them into the ravine, +where many broke their heads and legs. Again the work was taken, +again lost. Ammunition failed the belligerents; and they fought +hand to hand in the contested fort with axes, clubs, and clubbed +rifles. The sustained ardour of the engagement surprised even +those who were engaged; and the butcher's bill was counted +extraordinary by Samoans. On December 1st the women of either side +collected the headless bodies of the dead, each easily identified +by the name tattooed on his forearm. Mataafa is thought to have +lost sixty killed; and the de Coetlogons' hospital received three +women and forty men. The casualties on the Tamasese side cannot be +accepted, but they were presumably much less. + + + +CHAPTER VIII--AFFAIRS OF LAULII AND FANGALII +November-December 1888 + + + +For Becker I have not been able to conceal my distaste, for he +seems to me both false and foolish. But of his successor, the +unfortunately famous Dr. Knappe, we may think as of a good enough +fellow driven distraught. Fond of Samoa and the Samoans, he +thought to bring peace and enjoy popularity among the islanders; of +a genial, amiable, and sanguine temper, he made no doubt but he +could repair the breach with the English consul. Hope told a +flattering tale. He awoke to find himself exchanging defiances +with de Coetlogon, beaten in the field by Mataafa, surrounded on +the spot by general exasperation, and disowned from home by his own +government. The history of his administration leaves on the mind +of the student a sentiment of pity scarcely mingled. + +On Blacklock he did not call, and, in view of Leary's attitude, may +be excused. But the English consul was in a different category. +England, weary of the name of Samoa, and desirous only to see peace +established, was prepared to wink hard during the process and to +welcome the result of any German settlement. It was an +unpardonable fault in Becker to have kicked and buffeted his ready- +made allies into a state of jealousy, anger, and suspicion. Knappe +set himself at once to efface these impressions, and the English +officials rejoiced for the moment in the change. Between Knappe +and de Coetlogon there seems to have been mutual sympathy; and, in +considering the steps by which they were led at last into an +attitude of mutual defiance, it must be remembered that both the +men were sick,--Knappe from time to time prostrated with that +formidable complaint, New Guinea fever, and de Coetlogon throughout +his whole stay in the islands continually ailing. + +Tamasese was still to be recognised, and, if possible, supported: +such was the German policy. Two days after his arrival, +accordingly, Knappe addressed to Mataafa a threatening despatch. +The German plantation was suffering from the proximity of his "war- +party." He must withdraw from Laulii at once, and, whithersoever +he went, he must approach no German property nor so much as any +village where there was a German trader. By five o'clock on the +morrow, if he were not gone, Knappe would turn upon him "the +attention of the man-of-war" and inflict a fine. The same evening, +November 14th, Knappe went on board the Adler, which began to get +up steam. + +Three months before, such direct intervention on the part of +Germany would have passed almost without protest; but the hour was +now gone by. Becker's conduct, equally timid and rash, equally +inconclusive and offensive, had forced the other nations into a +strong feeling of common interest with Mataafa. Even had the +German demands been moderate, de Coetlogon could not have forgotten +the night of the taumualua, nor how Mataafa had relinquished, at +his request, the attack upon the German quarter. Blacklock, with +his driver of a captain at his elbow, was not likely to lag behind. +And Mataafa having communicated Knappe's letter, the example of the +Germans was on all hands exactly followed; the consuls hastened on +board their respective war-ships, and these began to get up steam. +About midnight, in a pouring rain, Pelly communicated to Fritze his +intention to follow him and protect British interests; and Knappe +replied that he would come on board the Lizard and see de Coetlogon +personally. It was deep in the small hours, and de Coetlogon had +been long asleep, when he was wakened to receive his colleague; but +he started up with an old soldier's readiness. The conference was +long. De Coetlogon protested, as he did afterwards in writing, +against Knappe's claim: the Samoans were in a state of war; they +had territorial rights; it was monstrous to prevent them from +entering one of their own villages because a German trader kept the +store; and in case property suffered, a claim for compensation was +the proper remedy. Knappe argued that this was a question between +Germans and Samoans, in which de Coetlogon had nothing to see; and +that he must protect German property according to his instructions. +To which de Coetlogon replied that he was himself in the same +attitude to the property of the British; that he understood Knappe +to be intending hostilities against Laulii; that Laulii was +mortgaged to the MacArthurs; that its crops were accordingly +British property; and that, while he was ever willing to recognise +the territorial rights of the Samoans, he must prevent that +property from being molested "by any other nation." "But if a +German man-of-war does it?" asked Knappe.--"We shall prevent it to +the best of our ability," replied the colonel. It is to the credit +of both men that this trying interview should have been conducted +and concluded without heat; but Knappe must have returned to the +Adler with darker anticipations. + +At sunrise on the morning of the 15th, the three ships, each loaded +with its consul, put to sea. It is hard to exaggerate the peril of +the forenoon that followed, as they lay off Laulii. Nobody desired +a collision, save perhaps the reckless Leary; but peace and war +trembled in the balance; and when the Adler, at one period, lowered +her gun ports, war appeared to preponderate. It proved, however, +to be a last--and therefore surely an unwise--extremity. Knappe +contented himself with visiting the rival kings, and the three +ships returned to Apia before noon. Beyond a doubt, coming after +Knappe's decisive letter of the day before, this impotent +conclusion shook the credit of Germany among the natives of both +sides; the Tamaseses fearing they were deserted, the Mataafas (with +secret delight) hoping they were feared. And it gave an impetus to +that ridiculous business which might have earned for the whole +episode the name of the war of flags. British and American flags +had been planted the night before, and were seen that morning +flying over what they claimed about Laulii. British and American +passengers, on the way up and down, pointed out from the decks of +the war-ships, with generous vagueness, the boundaries of +problematical estates. Ten days later, the beach of Saluafata bay +fluttered (as I have told in the last chapter) with the flag of +Germany. The Americans riposted with a claim to Tamasese's camp, +some small part of which (says Knappe) did really belong to "an +American nigger." The disease spread, the flags were multiplied, +the operations of war became an egg-dance among miniature neutral +territories; and though all men took a hand in these proceedings, +all men in turn were struck with their absurdity. Mullan, Leary's +successor, warned Knappe, in an emphatic despatch, not to squander +and discredit the solemnity of that emblem which was all he had to +be a defence to his own consulate. And Knappe himself, in his +despatch of March 21st, 1889, castigates the practice with much +sense. But this was after the tragicomic culmination had been +reached, and the burnt rags of one of these too-frequently +mendacious signals gone on a progress to Washington, like Caesar's +body, arousing indignation where it came. To such results are +nations conducted by the patent artifices of a Becker. + +The discussion of the morning, the silent menace and defiance of +the voyage to Laulii, might have set the best-natured by the ears. +But Knappe and de Coetlogon took their difference in excellent +part. On the morrow, November 16th, they sat down together with +Blacklock in conference. The English consul introduced his +colleagues, who shook hands. If Knappe were dead-weighted with the +inheritance of Becker, Blacklock was handicapped by reminiscences +of Leary; it is the more to the credit of this inexperienced man +that he should have maintained in the future so excellent an +attitude of firmness and moderation, and that when the crash came, +Knappe and de Coetlogon, not Knappe and Blacklock, were found to be +the protagonists of the drama. The conference was futile. The +English and American consuls admitted but one cure of the evils of +the time: that the farce of the Tamasese monarchy should cease. +It was one which the German refused to consider. And the agents +separated without reaching any result, save that diplomatic +relations had been restored between the States and Germany, and +that all three were convinced of their fundamental differences. + +Knappe and de Coetlogon were still friends; they had disputed and +differed and come within a finger's breadth of war, and they were +still friends. But an event was at hand which was to separate them +for ever. On December 4th came the Royalist, Captain Hand, to +relieve the Lizard. Pelly of course had to take his canvas from +the consulate hospital; but he had in charge certain awnings +belonging to the Royalist, and with these they made shift to cover +the wounded, at that time (after the fight at Laulii) more than +usually numerous. A lieutenant came to the consulate, and +delivered (as I have received it) the following message: "Captain +Hand's compliments, and he says you must get rid of these niggers +at once, and he will help you to do it." Doubtless the reply was +no more civil than the message. The promised "help," at least, +followed promptly. A boat's crew landed and the awnings were +stripped from the wounded, Hand himself standing on the colonel's +verandah to direct operations. It were fruitless to discuss this +passage from the humanitarian point of view, or from that of formal +courtesy. The mind of the new captain was plainly not directed to +these objects. But it is understood that he considered the +existence of a hospital a source of irritation to Germans and a +fault in policy. His own rude act proved in the result far more +impolitic. The hospital had now been open some two months, and de +Coetlogon was still on friendly terms with Knappe, and he and his +wife were engaged to dine with him that day. By the morrow that +was practically ended. For the rape of the awnings had two +results: one, which was the fault of de Coetlogon, not at all of +Hand, who could not have foreseen it; the other which it was his +duty to have seen and prevented. The first was this: the de +Coetlogons found themselves left with their wounded exposed to the +inclemencies of the season; they must all be transported into the +house and verandah; in the distress and pressure of this task, the +dinner engagement was too long forgotten; and a note of excuse did +not reach the German consulate before the table was set, and Knappe +dressed to receive his visitors. The second consequence was +inevitable. Captain Hand was scarce landed ere it became public +(was "sofort bekannt," writes Knappe) that he and the consul were +in opposition. All that had been gained by the demonstration at +Laulii was thus immediately cast away; de Coetlogon's prestige was +lessened; and it must be said plainly that Hand did less than +nothing to restore it. Twice indeed he interfered, both times with +success; and once, when his own person had been endangered, with +vehemence; but during all the strange doings I have to narrate, he +remained in close intimacy with the German consulate, and on one +occasion may be said to have acted as its marshal. After the worst +is over, after Bismarck has told Knappe that "the protests of his +English colleague were grounded," that his own conduct "has not +been good," and that in any dispute which may arise he "will find +himself in the wrong," Knappe can still plead in his defence that +Captain Hand "has always maintained friendly intercourse with the +German authorities." Singular epitaph for an English sailor. In +this complicity on the part of Hand we may find the reason--and I +had almost said, the excuse--of much that was excessive in the +bearing of the unfortunate Knappe. + +On the 11th December, Mataafa received twenty-eight thousand +cartridges, brought into the country in salt-beef kegs by the +British ship Richmond. This not only sharpened the animosity +between whites; following so closely on the German fizzle at +Laulii, it raised a convulsion in the camp of Tamasese. On the +13th Brandeis addressed to Knappe his famous and fatal letter. I +may not describe it as a letter of burning words, but it is plainly +dictated by a burning heart. Tamasese and his chiefs, he +announces, are now sick of the business, and ready to make peace +with Mataafa. They began the war relying upon German help; they +now see and say that "e faaalo Siamani i Peritania ma America, that +Germany is subservient to England and the States." It is grimly +given to be understood that the despatch is an ultimatum, and a +last chance is being offered for the recreant ally to fulfil her +pledge. To make it more plain, the document goes on with a kind of +bilious irony: "The two German war-ships now in Samoa are here for +the protection of German property alone; and when the Olga shall +have arrived" [she arrived on the morrow] "the German war-ships +will continue to do against the insurgents precisely as little as +they have done heretofore." Plant flags, in fact. + +Here was Knappe's opportunity, could he have stooped to seize it. +I find it difficult to blame him that he could not. Far from being +so inglorious as the treachery once contemplated by Becker, the +acceptance of this ultimatum would have been still in the nature of +a disgrace. Brandeis's letter, written by a German, was hard to +swallow. It would have been hard to accept that solution which +Knappe had so recently and so peremptorily refused to his brother +consuls. And he was tempted, on the other hand, by recent changes. +There was no Pelly to support de Coetlogon, who might now be +disregarded. Mullan, Leary's successor, even if he were not +precisely a Hand, was at least no Leary; and even if Mullan should +show fight, Knappe had now three ships and could defy or sink him +without danger. Many small circumstances moved him in the same +direction. The looting of German plantations continued; the whole +force of Mataafa was to a large extent subsisted from the crops of +Vailele; and armed men were to be seen openly plundering bananas, +breadfruit, and cocoa-nuts under the walls of the plantation +building. On the night of the 13th the consulate stable had been +broken into and a horse removed. On the 16th there was a riot in +Apia between half-castes and sailors from the new ship Olga, each +side claiming that the other was the worse of drink, both (for a +wager) justly. The multiplication of flags and little neutral +territories had, besides, begun to irritate the Samoans. The +protests of German settlers had been received uncivilly. On the +16th the Mataafas had again sought to land in Saluafata bay, with +the manifest intention to attack the Tamaseses, or (in other words) +"to trespass on German lands, covered, as your Excellency knows, +with flags." I quote from his requisition to Fritze, December +17th. Upon all these considerations, he goes on, it is necessary +to bring the fighting to an end. Both parties are to be disarmed +and returned to their villages--Mataafa first. And in case of any +attempt upon Apia, the roads thither are to be held by a strong +landing-party. Mataafa was to be disarmed first, perhaps rightly +enough in his character of the last insurgent. Then was to have +come the turn of Tamasese; but it does not appear the disarming +would have had the same import or have been gone about in the same +way. Germany was bound to Tamasese. No honest man would dream of +blaming Knappe because he sought to redeem his country's word. The +path he chose was doubtless that of honour, so far as honour was +still left. But it proved to be the road to ruin. + +Fritze, ranking German officer, is understood to have opposed the +measure. His attitude earned him at the time unpopularity among +his country-people on the spot, and should now redound to his +credit. It is to be hoped he extended his opposition to some of +the details. If it were possible to disarm Mataafa at all, it must +be done rather by prestige than force. A party of blue-jackets +landed in Samoan bush, and expected to hold against Samoans a +multiplicity of forest paths, had their work cut out for them. And +it was plain they should be landed in the light of day, with a +discouraging openness, and even with parade. To sneak ashore by +night was to increase the danger of resistance and to minimise the +authority of the attack. The thing was a bluff, and it is +impossible to bluff with stealth. Yet this was what was tried. A +landing-party was to leave the Olga in Apia bay at two in the +morning; the landing was to be at four on two parts of the +foreshore of Vailele. At eight they were to be joined by a second +landing-party from the Eber. By nine the Olgas were to be on the +crest of Letongo Mountain, and the Ebers to be moving round the +promontory by the seaward paths, "with measures of precaution," +disarming all whom they encountered. There was to be no firing +unless fired upon. At the appointed hour (or perhaps later) on the +morning of the 19th, this unpromising business was put in hand, and +there moved off from the Olga two boats with some fifty blue- +jackets between them, and a praam or punt containing ninety,--the +boats and the whole expedition under the command of Captain- +Lieutenant Jaeckel, the praam under Lieutenant Spengler. The men +had each forty rounds, one day's provisions, and their flasks +filled. + +In the meanwhile, Mataafa sympathisers about Apia were on the +alert. Knappe had informed the consuls that the ships were to put +to sea next day for the protection of German property; but the +Tamaseses had been less discreet. "To-morrow at the hour of +seven," they had cried to their adversaries, "you will know of a +difficulty, and our guns shall be made good in broken bones." An +accident had pointed expectation towards Apia. The wife of Le +Mamea washed for the German ships--a perquisite, I suppose, for her +husband's unwilling fidelity. She sent a man with linen on board +the Adler, where he was surprised to see Le Mamea in person, and to +be himself ordered instantly on shore. The news spread. If Mamea +were brought down from Lotoanuu, others might have come at the same +time. Tamasese himself and half his army might perhaps lie +concealed on board the German ships. And a watch was accordingly +set and warriors collected along the line of the shore. One +detachment lay in some rifle-pits by the mouth of the Fuisa. They +were commanded by Seumanu; and with his party, probably as the most +contiguous to Apia, was the war-correspondent, John Klein. Of +English birth, but naturalised American, this gentleman had been +for some time representing the New York World in a very effective +manner, always in the front, living in the field with the Samoans, +and in all vicissitudes of weather, toiling to and fro with his +despatches. His wisdom was perhaps not equal to his energy. He +made himself conspicuous, going about armed to the teeth in a boat +under the stars and stripes; and on one occasion, when he supposed +himself fired upon by the Tamaseses, had the petulance to empty his +revolver in the direction of their camp. By the light of the moon, +which was then nearly down, this party observed the Olga's two +boats and the praam, which they described as "almost sinking with +men," the boats keeping well out towards the reef, the praam at the +moment apparently heading for the shore. An extreme agitation +seems to have reigned in the rifle-pits. What were the newcomers? +What was their errand? Were they Germans or Tamaseses? Had they a +mind to attack? The praam was hailed in Samoan and did not answer. +It was proposed to fire upon her ere she drew near. And at last, +whether on his own suggestion or that of Seumanu, Klein hailed her +in English, and in terms of unnecessary melodrama. "Do not try to +land here," he cried. "If you do, your blood will be upon your +head." Spengler, who had never the least intention to touch at the +Fuisa, put up the head of the praam to her true course and +continued to move up the lagoon with an offing of some seventy or +eighty yards. Along all the irregularities and obstructions of the +beach, across the mouth of the Vaivasa, and through the startled +village of Matafangatele, Seumanu, Klein, and seven or eight others +raced to keep up, spreading the alarm and rousing reinforcements as +they went. Presently a man on horse-back made his appearance on +the opposite beach of Fangalii. Klein and the natives distinctly +saw him signal with a lantern; which is the more strange, as the +horseman (Captain Hufnagel, plantation manager of Vailele) had +never a lantern to signal with. The praam kept in. Many men in +white were seen to stand up, step overboard, and wade to shore. At +the same time the eye of panic descried a breastwork of "foreign +stone" (brick) upon the beach. Samoans are prepared to-day to +swear to its existence, I believe conscientiously, although no such +thing was ever made or ever intended in that place. The hour is +doubtful. "It was the hour when the streak of dawn is seen, the +hour known in the warfare of heathen times as the hour of the night +attack," says the Mataafa official account. A native whom I met on +the field declared it was at cock-crow. Captain Hufnagel, on the +other hand, is sure it was long before the day. It was dark at +least, and the moon down. Darkness made the Samoans bold; +uncertainty as to the composition and purpose of the landing-party +made them desperate. Fire was opened on the Germans, one of whom +was here killed. The Germans returned it, and effected a lodgment +on the beach; and the skirmish died again to silence. It was at +this time, if not earlier, that Klein returned to Apia. + +Here, then, were Spengler and the ninety men of the praam, landed +on the beach in no very enviable posture, the woods in front filled +with unnumbered enemies, but for the time successful. Meanwhile, +Jaeckel and the boats had gone outside the reef, and were to land +on the other side of the Vailele promontory, at Sunga, by the +buildings of the plantation. It was Hufnagel's part to go and meet +them. His way led straight into the woods and through the midst of +the Samoans, who had but now ceased firing. He went in the saddle +and at a foot's pace, feeling speed and concealment to be equally +helpless, and that if he were to fall at all, he had best fall with +dignity. Not a shot was fired at him; no effort made to arrest him +on his errand. As he went, he spoke and even jested with the +Samoans, and they answered in good part. One fellow was leaping, +yelling, and tossing his axe in the air, after the way of an +excited islander. "Faimalosi! go it!" said Hufnagel, and the +fellow laughed and redoubled his exertions. As soon as the boats +entered the lagoon, fire was again opened from the woods. The +fifty blue-jackets jumped overboard, hove down the boats to be a +shield, and dragged them towards the landing-place. In this way, +their rations, and (what was more unfortunate) some of their +miserable provision of forty rounds got wetted; but the men came to +shore and garrisoned the plantation house without a casualty. +Meanwhile the sound of the firing from Sunga immediately renewed +the hostilities at Fangalii. The civilians on shore decided that +Spengler must be at once guided to the house, and Haideln, the +surveyor, accepted the dangerous errand. Like Hufnagel, he was +suffered to pass without question through the midst of these +platonic enemies. He found Spengler some way inland on a knoll, +disastrously engaged, the woods around him filled with Samoans, who +were continuously reinforced. In three successive charges, +cheering as they ran, the blue-jackets burst through their +scattered opponents, and made good their junction with Jaeckel. +Four men only remained upon the field, the other wounded being +helped by their comrades or dragging themselves painfully along. + +The force was now concentrated in the house and its immediate patch +of garden. Their rear, to the seaward, was unmolested; but on +three sides they were beleaguered. On the left, the Samoans +occupied and fired from some of the plantation offices. In front, +a long rising crest of land in the horse-pasture commanded the +house, and was lined with the assailants. And on the right, the +hedge of the same paddock afforded them a dangerous cover. It was +in this place that a Samoan sharpshooter was knocked over by +Jaeckel with his own hand. The fire was maintained by the Samoans +in the usual wasteful style. The roof was made a sieve; the balls +passed clean through the house; Lieutenant Sieger, as he lay, +already dying, on Hufnagel's bed, was despatched with a fresh +wound. The Samoans showed themselves extremely enterprising: +pushed their lines forward, ventured beyond cover, and continually +threatened to envelop the garden. Thrice, at least, it was +necessary to repel them by a sally. The men were brought into the +house from the rear, the front doors were thrown suddenly open, and +the gallant blue-jackets issued cheering: necessary, successful, +but extremely costly sorties. Neither could these be pushed far. +The foes were undaunted; so soon as the sailors advanced at all +deep in the horse-pasture, the Samoans began to close in upon both +flanks; and the sally had to be recalled. To add to the dangers of +the German situation, ammunition began to run low; and the +cartridge-boxes of the wounded and the dead had been already +brought into use before, at about eight o'clock, the Eber steamed +into the bay. Her commander, Wallis, threw some shells into +Letongo, one of which killed five men about their cooking-pot. The +Samoans began immediately to withdraw; their movements were +hastened by a sortie, and the remains of the landing-party brought +on board. This was an unfortunate movement; it gave an +irremediable air of defeat to what might have been else claimed for +a moderate success. The blue-jackets numbered a hundred and forty +all told; they were engaged separately and fought under the worst +conditions, in the dark and among woods; their position in the +house was scarce tenable; they lost in killed and wounded fifty- +six,--forty per cent.; and their spirit to the end was above +question. Whether we think of the poor sailor lads, always so +pleasantly behaved in times of peace, or whether we call to mind +the behaviour of the two civilians, Haideln and Hufnagel, we can +only regret that brave men should stand to be exposed upon so poor +a quarrel, or lives cast away upon an enterprise so hopeless. + +News of the affair reached Apia early, and Moors, always curious of +these spectacles of war, was immediately in the saddle. Near +Matafangatele he met a Manono chief, whom he asked if there were +any German dead. "I think there are about thirty of them knocked +over," said he. "Have you taken their heads?" asked Moors. "Yes," +said the chief. "Some foolish people did it, but I have stopped +them. We ought not to cut off their heads when they do not cut off +ours." He was asked what had been done with the heads. "Two have +gone to Mataafa," he replied, "and one is buried right under where +your horse is standing, in a basket wrapped in tapa." This was +afterwards dug up, and I am told on native authority that, besides +the three heads, two ears were taken. Moors next asked the Manono +man how he came to be going away. "The man-of-war is throwing +shells," said he. "When they stopped firing out of the house, we +stopped firing also; so it was as well to scatter when the shells +began. We could have killed all the white men. I wish they had +been Tamaseses." This is an ex parte statement, and I give it for +such; but the course of the affair, and in particular the +adventures of Haideln and Hufnagel, testify to a surprising lack of +animosity against the Germans. About the same time or but a little +earlier than this conversation, the same spirit was being +displayed. Hufnagel, with a party of labour, had gone out to bring +in the German dead, when he was surprised to be suddenly fired on +from the wood. The boys he had with him were not negritos, but +Polynesians from the Gilbert Islands; and he suddenly remembered +that these might be easily mistaken for a detachment of Tamaseses. +Bidding his boys conceal themselves in a thicket, this brave man +walked into the open. So soon as he was recognised, the firing +ceased, and the labourers followed him in safety. This is +chivalrous war; but there was a side to it less chivalrous. As +Moors drew nearer to Vailele, he began to meet Samoans with hats, +guns, and even shirts, taken from the German sailors. With one of +these who had a hat and a gun he stopped and spoke. The hat was +handed up for him to look at; it had the late owner's name on the +inside. "Where is he?" asked Moors. "He is dead; I cut his head +off." "You shot him?" "No, somebody else shot him in the hip. +When I came, he put up his hands, and cried: 'Don't kill me; I am +a Malietoa man.' I did not believe him, and I cut his head +off...... Have you any ammunition to fit that gun?" "I do not +know." "What has become of the cartridge-belt?" "Another fellow +grabbed that and the cartridges, and he won't give them to me." A +dreadful and silly picture of barbaric war. The words of the +German sailor must be regarded as imaginary: how was the poor lad +to speak native, or the Samoan to understand German? When Moors +came as far as Sunga, the Eber was yet in the bay, the smoke of +battle still lingered among the trees, which were themselves marked +with a thousand bullet-wounds. But the affair was over, the +combatants, German and Samoan, were all gone, and only a couple of +negrito labour boys lurked on the scene. The village of Letongo +beyond was equally silent; part of it was wrecked by the shells of +the Eber, and still smoked; the inhabitants had fled. On the beach +were the native boats, perhaps five thousand dollars' worth, +deserted by the Mataafas and overlooked by the Germans, in their +common hurry to escape. Still Moors held eastward by the sea- +paths. It was his hope to get a view from the other side of the +promontory, towards Laulii. In the way he found a house hidden in +the wood and among rocks, where an aged and sick woman was being +tended by her elderly daughter. Last lingerers in that deserted +piece of coast, they seemed indifferent to the events which had +thus left them solitary, and, as the daughter said, did not know +where Mataafa was, nor where Tamasese. + +It is the official Samoan pretension that the Germans fired first +at Fangalii. In view of all German and some native testimony, the +text of Fritze's orders, and the probabilities of the case, no +honest mind will believe it for a moment. Certainly the Samoans +fired first. As certainly they were betrayed into the engagement +in the agitation of the moment, and it was not till afterwards that +they understood what they had done. Then, indeed, all Samoa drew a +breath of wonder and delight. The invincible had fallen; the men +of the vaunted war-ships had been met in the field by the braves of +Mataafa: a superstition was no more. Conceive this people +steadily as schoolboys; and conceive the elation in any school if +the head boy should suddenly arise and drive the rector from the +schoolhouse. I have received one instance of the feeling instantly +aroused. There lay at the time in the consular hospital an old +chief who was a pet of the colonel's. News reached him of the +glorious event; he was sick, he thought himself sinking, sent for +the colonel, and gave him his gun. "Don't let the Germans get it," +said the old gentleman, and having received a promise, was at +peace. + + + +CHAPTER IX--"FUROR CONSULARIS" +December 1888 to March 1889 + + + +Knappe, in the Adler, with a flag of truce at the fore, was +entering Laulii Bay when the Eber brought him the news of the +night's reverse. His heart was doubtless wrung for his young +countrymen who had been butchered and mutilated in the dark woods, +or now lay suffering, and some of them dying, on the ship. And he +must have been startled as he recognised his own position. He had +gone too far; he had stumbled into war, and, what was worse, into +defeat; he had thrown away German lives for less than nothing, and +now saw himself condemned either to accept defeat, or to kick and +pummel his failure into something like success; either to accept +defeat, or take frenzy for a counsellor. Yesterday, in cold blood, +he had judged it necessary to have the woods to the westward +guarded lest the evacuation of Laulii should prove only the peril +of Apia. To-day, in the irritation and alarm of failure, he forgot +or despised his previous reasoning, and, though his detachment was +beat back to the ships, proceeded with the remainder of his maimed +design. The only change he made was to haul down the flag of +truce. He had now no wish to meet with Mataafa. Words were out of +season, shells must speak. + +At this moment an incident befell him which must have been trying +to his self-command. The new American ship Nipsic entered Laulii +Bay; her commander, Mullan, boarded the Adler to protest, succeeded +in wresting from Knappe a period of delay in order that the women +might be spared, and sent a lieutenant to Mataafa with a warning. +The camp was already excited by the news and the trophies of +Fangalii. Already Tamasese and Lotoanuu seemed secondary +objectives to the Germans and Apia. Mullan's message put an end to +hesitation. Laulii was evacuated. The troops streamed westward by +the mountain side, and took up the same day a strong position about +Tanungamanono and Mangiangi, some two miles behind Apia, which they +threatened with the one hand, while with the other they continued +to draw their supplies from the devoted plantations of the German +firm. Laulii, when it was shelled, was empty. The British flags +were, of course, fired upon; and I hear that one of them was struck +down, but I think every one must be privately of the mind that it +was fired upon and fell, in a place where it had little business to +be shown. + +Such was the military epilogue to the ill-judged adventure of +Fangalii; it was difficult for failure to be more complete. But +the other consequences were of a darker colour and brought the +whites immediately face to face in a spirit of ill-favoured +animosity. Knappe was mourning the defeat and death of his +country-folk, he was standing aghast over the ruin of his own +career, when Mullan boarded him. The successor of Leary served +himself, in that bitter moment, heir to Leary's part. And in +Mullan, Knappe saw more even than the successor of Leary,--he saw +in him the representative of Klein. Klein had hailed the praam +from the rifle-pits; he had there uttered ill-chosen words, +unhappily prophetic; it is even likely that he was present at the +time of the first fire. To accuse him of the design and conduct of +the whole attack was but a step forward; his own vapouring served +to corroborate the accusation; and it was not long before the +German consulate was in possession of sworn native testimony in +support. The worth of native testimony is small, the worth of +white testimony not overwhelming; and I am in the painful position +of not being able to subscribe either to Klein's own account of the +affair or to that of his accusers. Klein was extremely flurried; +his interest as a reporter must have tempted him at first to make +the most of his share in the exploit, the immediate peril in which +he soon found himself to stand must have at least suggested to him +the idea of minimising it; one way and another, he is not a good +witness. As for the natives, they were no doubt cross-examined in +that hall of terror, the German consulate, where they might be +trusted to lie like schoolboys, or (if the reader prefer it) like +Samoans. By outside white testimony, it remains established for me +that Klein returned to Apia either before or immediately after the +first shots. That he ever sought or was ever allowed a share in +the command may be denied peremptorily; but it is more than likely +that he expressed himself in an excited manner and with a highly +inflammatory effect upon his hearers. He was, at least, severely +punished. The Germans, enraged by his provocative behaviour and +what they thought to be his German birth, demanded him to be tried +before court-martial; he had to skulk inside the sentries of the +American consulate, to be smuggled on board a war-ship, and to be +carried almost by stealth out of the island; and what with the +agitations of his mind, and the results of a marsh fever contracted +in the lines of Mataafa, reached Honolulu a very proper object of +commiseration. Nor was Klein the only accused: de Coetlogon was +himself involved. As the boats passed Matautu, Knappe declares a +signal was made from the British consulate. Perhaps we should +rather read "from its neighbourhood"; since, in the general warding +of the coast, the point of Matautu could scarce have been +neglected. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the Samoans, +in the anxiety of that night of watching and fighting, crowded to +the friendly consul for advice. Late in the night, the wounded +Siteoni, lying on the colonel's verandah, one corner of which had +been blinded down that he might sleep, heard the coming and going +of bare feet and the voices of eager consultation. And long after, +a man who had been discharged from the colonel's employment took +upon himself to swear an affidavit as to the nature of the advice +then given, and to carry the document to the German consul. It was +an act of private revenge; it fell long out of date in the good +days of Dr. Stuebel, and had no result but to discredit the +gentleman who volunteered it. Colonel de Coetlogon had his faults, +but they did not touch his honour; his bare word would always +outweigh a waggon-load of such denunciations; and he declares his +behaviour on that night to have been blameless. The question was +besides inquired into on the spot by Sir John Thurston, and the +colonel honourably acquitted. But during the weeks that were now +to follow, Knappe believed the contrary; he believed not only that +Moors and others had supplied ammunition and Klein commanded in the +field, but that de Coetlogon had made the signal of attack; that +though his blue-jackets had bled and fallen against the arms of +Samoans, these were supplied, inspired, and marshalled by Americans +and English. + +The legend was the more easily believed because it embraced and was +founded upon so much truth. Germans lay dead, the German wounded +groaned in their cots; and the cartridges by which they fell had +been sold by an American and brought into the country in a British +bottom. Had the transaction been entirely mercenary, it would +already have been hard to swallow; but it was notoriously not so. +British and Americans were notoriously the partisans of Mataafa. +They rejoiced in the result of Fangalii, and so far from seeking to +conceal their rejoicing, paraded and displayed it. Calumny ran +high. Before the dead were buried, while the wounded yet lay in +pain and fever, cowardly accusations of cowardice were levelled at +the German blue-jackets. It was said they had broken and run +before their enemies, and that they had huddled helpless like sheep +in the plantation house. Small wonder if they had; small wonder +had they been utterly destroyed. But the fact was heroically +otherwise; and these dastard calumnies cut to the blood. They are +not forgotten; perhaps they will never be forgiven. + +In the meanwhile, events were pressing towards a still more +trenchant opposition. On the 20th, the three consuls met and +parted without agreement, Knappe announcing that he had lost men +and must take the matter in his own hands to avenge their death. +On the 21st the Olga came before Matafangatele, ordered the +delivery of all arms within the hour, and at the end of that +period, none being brought, shelled and burned the village. The +shells fell for the most part innocuous; an eyewitness saw children +at play beside the flaming houses; not a soul was injured; and the +one noteworthy event was the mutilation of Captain Hamilton's +American flag. In one sense an incident too small to be +chronicled, in another this was of historic interest and import. +These rags of tattered bunting occasioned the display of a new +sentiment in the United States; and the republic of the West, +hitherto so apathetic and unwieldy, but already stung by German +nonchalance, leaped to its feet for the first time at the news of +this fresh insult. As though to make the inefficiency of the war- +ships more apparent, three shells were thrown inland at Mangiangi; +they flew high over the Mataafa camp, where the natives could "hear +them singing" as they flew, and fell behind in the deep romantic +valley of the Vaisingano. Mataafa had been already summoned on +board the Adler; his life promised if he came, declared "in danger" +if he came not; and he had declined in silence the unattractive +invitation. These fresh hostile acts showed him that the worst had +come. He was in strength, his force posted along the whole front +of the mountain behind Apia, Matautu occupied, the Siumu road lined +up to the houses of the town with warriors passionate for war. The +occasion was unique, and there is no doubt that he designed to +seize it. The same day of this bombardment, he sent word bidding +all English and Americans wear a black band upon their arm, so that +his men should recognise and spare them. The hint was taken, and +the band worn for a continuance of days. To have refused would +have been insane; but to consent was unhappily to feed the +resentment of the Germans by a fresh sign of intelligence with +their enemies, and to widen the breach between the races by a fresh +and a scarce pardonable mark of their division. The same day again +the Germans repeated one of their earlier offences by firing on a +boat within the harbour. Times were changed; they were now at war +and in peril, the rigour of military advantage might well be seized +by them and pardoned by others; but it so chanced that the bullets +flew about the ears of Captain Hand, and that commander is said to +have been insatiable of apologies. The affair, besides, had a +deplorable effect on the inhabitants. A black band (they saw) +might protect them from the Mataafas, not from undiscriminating +shots. Panic ensued. The war-ships were open to receive the +fugitives, and the gentlemen who had made merry over Fangalii were +seen to thrust each other from the wharves in their eagerness to +flee Apia. I willingly drop the curtain on the shameful picture. + +Meanwhile, on the German side of the bay, a more manly spirit was +exhibited in circumstances of alarming weakness. The plantation +managers and overseers had all retreated to Matafele, only one (I +understand) remaining at his post. The whole German colony was +thus collected in one spot, and could count and wonder at its +scanty numbers. Knappe declares (to my surprise) that the war- +ships could not spare him more than fifty men a day. The great +extension of the German quarter, he goes on, did not "allow a full +occupation of the outer line"; hence they had shrunk into the +western end by the firm buildings, and the inhabitants were warned +to fall back on this position, in the case of an alert. So that he +who had set forth, a day or so before, to disarm the Mataafas in +the open field, now found his resources scarce adequate to garrison +the buildings of the firm. But Knappe seemed unteachable by fate. +It is probable he thought he had + + +"Already waded in so deep, +Returning were as tedious as go o'er"; + + +it is certain that he continued, on the scene of his defeat and in +the midst of his weakness, to bluster and menace like a conqueror. +Active war, which he lacked the means of attempting, was +continually threatened. On the 22nd he sought the aid of his +brother consuls to maintain the neutral territory against Mataafa; +and at the same time, as though meditating instant deeds of +prowess, refused to be bound by it himself. This singular +proposition was of course refused: Blacklock remarking that he had +no fear of the natives, if these were let alone; de Coetlogon +refusing in the circumstances to recognise any neutral territory at +all. In vain Knappe amended and baited his proposal with the offer +of forty-eight or ninety-six hours' notice, according as his +objective should be near or within the boundary of the Eleele Sa. +It was rejected; and he learned that he must accept war with all +its consequences--and not that which he desired--war with the +immunities of peace. + +This monstrous exigence illustrates the man's frame of mind. It +has been still further illuminated in the German white-book by +printing alongside of his despatches those of the unimpassioned +Fritze. On January 8th the consulate was destroyed by fire. +Knappe says it was the work of incendiaries, "without doubt"; +Fritze admits that "everything seems to show" it was an accident. +"Tamasese's people fit to bear arms," writes Knappe, "are certainly +for the moment equal to Mataafa's," though restrained from battle +by the lack of ammunition. "As for Tamasese," says Fritze of the +same date, "he is now but a phantom--dient er nur als Gespenst. +His party, for practical purposes, is no longer large. They +pretend ammunition to be lacking, but what they lack most is good- +will. Captain Brandeis, whose influence is now small, declares +they can no longer sustain a serious engagement, and is himself in +the intention of leaving Samoa by the Lubeck of the 5th February." +And Knappe, in the same despatch, confutes himself and confirms the +testimony of his naval colleague, by the admission that "the re- +establishment of Tamasese's government is, under present +circumstances, not to be thought of." Plainly, then, he was not so +much seeking to deceive others, as he was himself possessed; and we +must regard the whole series of his acts and despatches as the +agitations of a fever. + +The British steamer Richmond returned to Apia, January 15th. On +the last voyage she had brought the ammunition already so +frequently referred to; as a matter of fact, she was again bringing +contraband of war. It is necessary to be explicit upon this, which +served as spark to so great a flame of scandal. Knappe was +justified in interfering; he would have been worthy of all +condemnation if he had neglected, in his posture of semi- +investment, a precaution so elementary; and the manner in which he +set about attempting it was conciliatory and almost timid. He +applied to Captain Hand, and begged him to accept himself the duty +of "controlling" the discharge of the Richmond's cargo. Hand was +unable to move without his consul; and at night an armed boat from +the Germans boarded, searched, and kept possession of, the +suspected ship. The next day, as by an after-thought, war and +martial law were proclaimed for the Samoan Islands, the +introduction of contraband of war forbidden, and ships and boats +declared liable to search. "All support of the rebels will be +punished by martial law," continued the proclamation, "no matter to +what nationality the person [Thater] may belong." + +Hand, it has been seen, declined to act in the matter of the +Richmond without the concurrence of his consul; but I have found no +evidence that either Hand or Knappe communicated with de Coetlogon, +with whom they were both at daggers drawn. First the seizure and +next the proclamation seem to have burst on the English consul from +a clear sky; and he wrote on the same day, throwing doubt on +Knappe's authority to declare war. Knappe replied on the 20th that +the Imperial German Government had been at war as a matter of fact +since December 19th, and that it was only for the convenience of +the subjects of other states that he had been empowered to make a +formal declaration. "From that moment," he added, "martial law +prevails in Samoa." De Coetlogon instantly retorted, declining +martial law for British subjects, and announcing a proclamation in +that sense. Instantly, again, came that astonishing document, +Knappe's rejoinder, without pause, without reflection--the pens +screeching on the paper, the messengers (you would think) running +from consulate to consulate: "I have had the honour to receive +your Excellency's [Hochwohlgeboren] agreeable communication of to- +day. Since, on the ground of received instructions, martial law +has been declared in Samoa, British subjects as well as others fall +under its application. I warn you therefore to abstain from such a +proclamation as you announce in your letter. It will be such a +piece of business as shall make yourself answerable under martial +law. Besides, your proclamation will be disregarded." De +Coetlogon of course issued his proclamation at once, Knappe +retorted with another, and night closed on the first stage of this +insane collision. I hear the German consul was on this day +prostrated with fever; charity at least must suppose him hardly +answerable for his language. + +Early on the 21st, Mr. Mansfield Gallien, a passing traveller, was +seized in his berth on board the Richmond, and carried, half- +dressed, on board a German war-ship. His offence was, in the +circumstances and after the proclamation, substantial. He had gone +the day before, in the spirit of a tourist to Mataafa's camp, had +spoken with the king, and had even recommended him an appeal to Sir +George Grey. Fritze, I gather, had been long uneasy; this arrest +on board a British ship fitted the measure. Doubtless, as he had +written long before, the consul alone was responsible "on the legal +side"; but the captain began to ask himself, "What next?"-- +telegraphed direct home for instructions, "Is arrest of foreigners +on foreign vessels legal?"--and was ready, at a word from Captain +Hand, to discharge his dangerous prisoner. The word in question +(so the story goes) was not without a kind of wit. "I wish you +would set that man ashore," Hand is reported to have said, +indicating Gallien; "I wish you would set that man ashore, to save +me the trouble." The same day de Coetlogon published a +proclamation requesting captains to submit to search for contraband +of war. + +On the 22nd the Samoa Times and South Sea Advertiser was suppressed +by order of Fritze. I have hitherto refrained from mentioning the +single paper of our islands, that I might deal with it once for +all. It is of course a tiny sheet; but I have often had occasion +to wonder at the ability of its articles, and almost always at the +decency of its tone. Officials may at times be a little roughly, +and at times a little captiously, criticised; private persons are +habitually respected; and there are many papers in England, and +still more in the States, even of leading organs in chief cities, +that might envy, and would do well to imitate, the courtesy and +discretion of the Samoa Times. Yet the editor, Cusack, is only an +amateur in journalism, and a carpenter by trade. His chief fault +is one perhaps inevitable in so small a place--that he seems a +little in the leading of a clique; but his interest in the public +weal is genuine and generous. One man's meat is another man's +poison: Anglo-Saxons and Germans have been differently brought up. +To our galled experience the paper appears moderate; to their +untried sensations it seems violent. We think a public man fair +game; we think it a part of his duty, and I am told he finds it a +part of his reward, to be continually canvassed by the press. For +the Germans, on the other hand, an official wears a certain +sacredness; when he is called over the coals, they are shocked, and +(if the official be a German) feel that Germany itself has been +insulted. The Samoa Times had been long a mountain of offence. +Brandeis had imported from the colonies another printer of the name +of Jones, to deprive Cusack of the government printing. German +sailors had come ashore one day, wild with offended patriotism, to +punish the editor with stripes, and the result was delightfully +amusing. The champions asked for the English printer. They were +shown the wrong man, and the blows intended for Cusack had hailed +on the shoulders of his rival Jones. On the 12th, Cusack had +reprinted an article from a San Francisco paper; the Germans had +complained; and de Coetlogon, in a moment of weakness, had fined +the editor twenty pounds. The judgment was afterwards reversed in +Fiji; but even at the time it had not satisfied the Germans. And +so now, on the third day of martial law, the paper was suppressed. +Here we have another of these international obscurities. To Fritze +the step seemed natural and obvious; for Anglo-Saxons it was a hand +laid upon the altar; and the month was scarce out before the voice +of Senator Frye announced to his colleagues that free speech had +been suppressed in Samoa. + +Perhaps we must seek some similar explanation for Fritze's short- +lived code, published and withdrawn the next day, the 23rd. Fritze +himself was in no humour for extremities. He was much in the +position of a lieutenant who should perceive his captain urging the +ship upon the rocks. It is plain he had lost all confidence in his +commanding officer "upon the legal side"; and we find him writing +home with anxious candour. He had understood that martial law +implied military possession; he was in military possession of +nothing but his ship, and shrewdly suspected that his martial +jurisdiction should be confined within the same limits. "As a +matter of fact," he writes, "we do not occupy the territory, and +cannot give foreigners the necessary protection, because Mataafa +and his people can at any moment forcibly interrupt me in my +jurisdiction." Yet in the eyes of Anglo-Saxons the severity of his +code appeared burlesque. I give but three of its provisions. The +crime of inciting German troops "by any means, as, for instance, +informing them of proclamations by the enemy," was punishable with +death; that of "publishing or secretly distributing anything, +whether printed or written, bearing on the war," with prison or +deportation; and that of calling or attending a public meeting, +unless permitted, with the same. Such were the tender mercies of +Knappe, lurking in the western end of the German quarter, where +Mataafa could "at any moment" interrupt his jurisdiction. + +On the 22nd (day of the suppression of the Times) de Coetlogon +wrote to inquire if hostilities were intended against Great +Britain, which Knappe on the same day denied. On the 23rd de +Coetlogon sent a complaint of hostile acts, such as the armed and +forcible entry of the Richmond before the declaration and arrest of +Gallien. In his reply, dated the 24th, Knappe took occasion to +repeat, although now with more self-command, his former threat +against de Coetlogon. "I am still of the opinion," he writes, +"that even foreign consuls are liable to the application of martial +law, if they are guilty of offences against the belligerent state." +The same day (24th) de Coetlogon complained that Fletcher, manager +for Messrs. MacArthur, had been summoned by Fritze. In answer, +Knappe had "the honour to inform your Excellency that since the +declaration of the state of war, British subjects are liable to +martial law, and Mr. Fletcher will be arrested if he does not +appear." Here, then, was the gauntlet thrown down, and de +Coetlogon was burning to accept it. Fletcher's offence was this. +Upon the 22nd a steamer had come in from Wellington, specially +chartered to bring German despatches to Apia. The rumour came +along with her from New Zealand that in these despatches Knappe +would find himself rebuked, and Fletcher was accused of having +"interested himself in the spreading of this rumour." His arrest +was actually ordered, when Hand succeeded in persuading him to +surrender. At the German court, the case was dismissed "wegen +Nichtigkeit"; and the acute stage of these distempers may be said +to have ended. Blessed are the peacemakers. Hand had perhaps +averted a collision. What is more certain, he had offered to the +world a perfectly original reading of the part of British seaman. + +Hand may have averted a collision, I say; but I am tempted to +believe otherwise. I am tempted to believe the threat to arrest +Fletcher was the last mutter of the declining tempest and a mere +sop to Knappe's self-respect. I am tempted to believe the rumour +in question was substantially correct, and the steamer from +Wellington had really brought the German consul grounds for +hesitation, if not orders to retreat. I believe the unhappy man to +have awakened from a dream, and to have read ominous writing on the +wall. An enthusiastic popularity surrounded him among the Germans. +It was natural. Consul and colony had passed through an hour of +serious peril, and the consul had set the example of undaunted +courage. He was entertained at dinner. Fritze, who was known to +have secretly opposed him, was scorned and avoided. But the clerks +of the German firm were one thing, Prince Bismarck was another; and +on a cold review of these events, it is not improbable that Knappe +may have envied the position of his naval colleague. It is +certain, at least, that he set himself to shuffle and capitulate; +and when the blow fell, he was able to reply that the martial law +business had in the meanwhile come right; that the English and +American consular courts stood open for ordinary cases and that in +different conversations with Captain Hand, "who has always +maintained friendly intercourse with the German authorities," it +had been repeatedly explained that only the supply of weapons and +ammunition, or similar aid and support, was to come under German +martial law. Was it weapons or ammunition that Fletcher had +supplied? But it is unfair to criticise these wrigglings of an +unfortunate in a false position. + +In a despatch of the 23rd, which has not been printed, Knappe had +told his story: how he had declared war, subjected foreigners to +martial law, and been received with a counter-proclamation by the +English consul; and how (in an interview with Mataafa chiefs at the +plantation house of Motuotua, of which I cannot find the date) he +had demanded the cession of arms and of ringleaders for punishment, +and proposed to assume the government of the islands. On February +12th he received Bismarck's answer: "You had no right to take +foreigners from the jurisdiction of their consuls. The protest of +your English colleague is grounded. In disputes which may arise +from this cause you will find yourself in the wrong. The demand +formulated by you, as to the assumption of the government of Samoa +by Germany, lay outside of your instructions and of our design. +Take it immediately back. If your telegram is here rightly +understood, I cannot call your conduct good." It must be a hard +heart that does not sympathise with Knappe in the hour when he +received this document. Yet it may be said that his troubles were +still in the beginning. Men had contended against him, and he had +not prevailed; he was now to be at war with the elements, and find +his name identified with an immense disaster. + +One more date, however, must be given first. It was on February +27th that Fritze formally announced martial law to be suspended, +and himself to have relinquished the control of the police. + + + +CHAPTER X--THE HURRICANE +March 1889 + + + +The so-called harbour of Apia is formed in part by a recess of the +coast-line at Matautu, in part by the slim peninsula of Mulinuu, +and in part by the fresh waters of the Mulivai and Vaisingano. The +barrier reef--that singular breakwater that makes so much of the +circuit of Pacific islands--is carried far to sea at Matautu and +Mulinuu; inside of these two horns it runs sharply landward, and +between them it is burst or dissolved by the fresh water. The +shape of the enclosed anchorage may be compared to a high- +shouldered jar or bottle with a funnel mouth. Its sides are almost +everywhere of coral; for the reef not only bounds it to seaward and +forms the neck and mouth, but skirting about the beach, it forms +the bottom also. As in the bottle of commerce, the bottom is re- +entrant, and the shore-reef runs prominently forth into the basin +and makes a dangerous cape opposite the fairway of the entrance. +Danger is, therefore, on all hands. The entrance gapes three +cables wide at the narrowest, and the formidable surf of the +Pacific thunders both outside and in. There are days when speech +is difficult in the chambers of shore-side houses; days when no +boat can land, and when men are broken by stroke of sea against the +wharves. As I write these words, three miles in the mountains, and +with the land-breeze still blowing from the island summit, the +sound of that vexed harbour hums in my ears. Such a creek in my +native coast of Scotland would scarce be dignified with the mark of +an anchor in the chart; but in the favoured climate of Samoa, and +with the mechanical regularity of the winds in the Pacific, it +forms, for ten or eleven months out of the twelve, a safe if hardly +a commodious port. The ill-found island traders ride there with +their insufficient moorings the year through, and discharge, and +are loaded, without apprehension. Of danger, when it comes, the +glass gives timely warning; and that any modern war-ship, furnished +with the power of steam, should have been lost in Apia, belongs not +so much to nautical as to political history. + +The weather throughout all that winter (the turbulent summer of the +islands) was unusually fine, and the circumstance had been +commented on as providential, when so many Samoans were lying on +their weapons in the bush. By February it began to break in +occasional gales. On February 10th a German brigantine was driven +ashore. On the 14th the same misfortune befell an American +brigantine and a schooner. On both these days, and again on the +7th March, the men-of-war must steam to their anchors. And it was +in this last month, the most dangerous of the twelve, that man's +animosities crowded that indentation of the reef with costly, +populous, and vulnerable ships. + +I have shown, perhaps already at too great a length, how violently +passion ran upon the spot; how high this series of blunders and +mishaps had heated the resentment of the Germans against all other +nationalities and of all other nationalities against the Germans. +But there was one country beyond the borders of Samoa where the +question had aroused a scarce less angry sentiment. The breach of +the Washington Congress, the evidence of Sewall before a sub- +committee on foreign relations, the proposal to try Klein before a +military court, and the rags of Captain Hamilton's flag, had +combined to stir the people of the States to an unwonted fervour. +Germany was for the time the abhorred of nations. Germans in +America publicly disowned the country of their birth. In Honolulu, +so near the scene of action, German and American young men fell to +blows in the street. In the same city, from no traceable source, +and upon no possible authority, there arose a rumour of tragic news +to arrive by the next occasion, that the Nipsic had opened fire on +the Adler, and the Adler had sunk her on the first reply. +Punctually on the day appointed, the news came; and the two +nations, instead of being plunged into war, could only mingle tears +over the loss of heroes. + +By the second week in March three American ships were in Apia bay,- +-the Nipsic, the Vandalia, and the Trenton, carrying the flag of +Rear-Admiral Kimberley; three German,--the Adler, the Eber, and the +Olga; and one British,--the Calliope, Captain Kane. Six merchant- +men, ranging from twenty-five up to five hundred tons, and a number +of small craft, further encumbered the anchorage. Its capacity is +estimated by Captain Kane at four large ships; and the latest +arrivals, the Vandalia and Trenton, were in consequence excluded, +and lay without in the passage. Of the seven war-ships, the +seaworthiness of two was questionable: the Trenton's, from an +original defect in her construction, often reported, never +remedied--her hawse-pipes leading in on the berth-deck; the Eber's, +from an injury to her screw in the blow of February 14th. In this +overcrowding of ships in an open entry of the reef, even the eye of +the landsman could spy danger; and Captain-Lieutenant Wallis of the +Eber openly blamed and lamented, not many hours before the +catastrophe, their helpless posture. Temper once more triumphed. +The army of Mataafa still hung imminent behind the town; the German +quarter was still daily garrisoned with fifty sailors from the +squadron; what was yet more influential, Germany and the States, at +least in Apia bay, were on the brink of war, viewed each other with +looks of hatred, and scarce observed the letter of civility. On +the day of the admiral's arrival, Knappe failed to call on him, and +on the morrow called on him while he was on shore. The slight was +remarked and resented, and the two squadrons clung more obstinately +to their dangerous station. + +On the 15th the barometer fell to 29.11 in. by 2 P.M. This was the +moment when every sail in port should have escaped. Kimberley, who +flew the only broad pennant, should certainly have led the way: he +clung, instead, to his moorings, and the Germans doggedly followed +his example: semi-belligerents, daring each other and the violence +of heaven. Kane, less immediately involved, was led in error by +the report of residents and a fallacious rise in the glass; he +stayed with the others, a misjudgment that was like to cost him +dear. All were moored, as is the custom in Apia, with two anchors +practically east and west, clear hawse to the north, and a kedge +astern. Topmasts were struck, and the ships made snug. The night +closed black, with sheets of rain. By midnight it blew a gale; and +by the morning watch, a tempest. Through what remained of +darkness, the captains impatiently expected day, doubtful if they +were dragging, steaming gingerly to their moorings, and afraid to +steam too much. + +Day came about six, and presented to those on shore a seizing and +terrific spectacle. In the pressure of the squalls the bay was +obscured as if by midnight, but between them a great part of it was +clearly if darkly visible amid driving mist and rain. The wind +blew into the harbour mouth. Naval authorities describe it as of +hurricane force. It had, however, few or none of the effects on +shore suggested by that ominous word, and was successfully +withstood by trees and buildings. The agitation of the sea, on the +other hand, surpassed experience and description. Seas that might +have awakened surprise and terror in the midst of the Atlantic +ranged bodily and (it seemed to observers) almost without +diminution into the belly of that flask-shaped harbour; and the +war-ships were alternately buried from view in the trough, or seen +standing on end against the breast of billows. + +The Trenton at daylight still maintained her position in the neck +of the bottle. But five of the remaining ships tossed, already +close to the bottom, in a perilous and helpless crowd; threatening +ruin to each other as they tossed; threatened with a common and +imminent destruction on the reefs. Three had been already in +collision: the Olga was injured in the quarter, the Adler had lost +her bowsprit; the Nipsic had lost her smoke-stack, and was making +steam with difficulty, maintaining her fire with barrels of pork, +and the smoke and sparks pouring along the level of the deck. For +the seventh war-ship the day had come too late; the Eber had +finished her last cruise; she was to be seen no more save by the +eyes of divers. A coral reef is not only an instrument of +destruction, but a place of sepulchre; the submarine cliff is +profoundly undercut, and presents the mouth of a huge antre in +which the bodies of men and the hulls of ships are alike hurled +down and buried. The Eber had dragged anchors with the rest; her +injured screw disabled her from steaming vigorously up; and a +little before day she had struck the front of the coral, come off, +struck again, and gone down stern foremost, oversetting as she +went, into the gaping hollow of the reef. Of her whole complement +of nearly eighty, four souls were cast alive on the beach; and the +bodies of the remainder were, by the voluminous outpouring of the +flooded streams, scoured at last from the harbour, and strewed +naked on the seaboard of the island. + +Five ships were immediately menaced with the same destruction. The +Eber vanished--the four poor survivors on shore--read a dreadful +commentary on their danger; which was swelled out of all proportion +by the violence of their own movements as they leaped and fell +among the billows. By seven the Nipsic was so fortunate as to +avoid the reef and beach upon a space of sand; where she was +immediately deserted by her crew, with the assistance of Samoans, +not without loss of life. By about eight it was the turn of the +Adler. She was close down upon the reef; doomed herself, it might +yet be possible to save a portion of her crew; and for this end +Captain Fritze placed his reliance on the very hugeness of the seas +that threatened him. The moment was watched for with the anxiety +of despair, but the coolness of disciplined courage. As she rose +on the fatal wave, her moorings were simultaneously slipped; she +broached to in rising; and the sea heaved her bodily upward and +cast her down with a concussion on the summit of the reef, where +she lay on her beam-ends, her back broken, buried in breaching +seas, but safe. Conceive a table: the Eber in the darkness had +been smashed against the rim and flung below; the Adler, cast free +in the nick of opportunity, had been thrown upon the top. Many +were injured in the concussion; many tossed into the water; twenty +perished. The survivors crept again on board their ship, as it now +lay, and as it still remains, keel to the waves, a monument of the +sea's potency. In still weather, under a cloudless sky, in those +seasons when that ill-named ocean, the Pacific, suffers its vexed +shores to rest, she lies high and dry, the spray scarce touching +her--the hugest structure of man's hands within a circuit of a +thousand miles--tossed up there like a schoolboy's cap upon a +shelf; broken like an egg; a thing to dream of. + +The unfriendly consuls of Germany and Britain were both that +morning in Matautu, and both displayed their nobler qualities. De +Coetlogon, the grim old soldier, collected his family and kneeled +with them in an agony of prayer for those exposed. Knappe, more +fortunate in that he was called to a more active service, must, +upon the striking of the Adler, pass to his own consulate. From +this he was divided by the Vaisingano, now a raging torrent, +impetuously charioting the trunks of trees. A kelpie might have +dreaded to attempt the passage; we may conceive this brave but +unfortunate and now ruined man to have found a natural joy in the +exposure of his life; and twice that day, coming and going, he +braved the fury of the river. It was possible, in spite of the +darkness of the hurricane and the continual breaching of the seas, +to remark human movements on the Adler; and by the help of Samoans, +always nobly forward in the work, whether for friend or enemy, +Knappe sought long to get a line conveyed from shore, and was for +long defeated. The shore guard of fifty men stood to their arms +the while upon the beach, useless themselves, and a great deterrent +of Samoan usefulness. It was perhaps impossible that this mistake +should be avoided. What more natural, to the mind of a European, +than that the Mataafas should fall upon the Germans in this hour of +their disadvantage? But they had no other thought than to assist; +and those who now rallied beside Knappe braved (as they supposed) +in doing so a double danger, from the fury of the sea and the +weapons of their enemies. About nine, a quarter-master swam +ashore, and reported all the officers and some sixty men alive but +in pitiable case; some with broken limbs, others insensible from +the drenching of the breakers. Later in the forenoon, certain +valorous Samoans succeeded in reaching the wreck and returning with +a line; but it was speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts +proved unavailing, the strongest adventurers being cast back again +by the bursting seas. Thenceforth, all through that day and night, +the deafened survivors must continue to endure their martyrdom; and +one officer died, it was supposed from agony of mind, in his +inverted cabin. + +Three ships still hung on the next margin of destruction, steaming +desperately to their moorings, dashed helplessly together. The +Calliope was the nearest in; she had the Vandalia close on her port +side and a little ahead, the Olga close a-starboard, the reef under +her heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the unhappy ship +fenced with her three dangers. About a quarter to nine she carried +away the Vandalia's quarter gallery with her jib-boom; a moment +later, the Olga had near rammed her from the other side. By nine +the Vandalia dropped down on her too fast to be avoided, and +clapped her stern under the bowsprit of the English ship, the +fastenings of which were burst asunder as she rose. To avoid +cutting her down, it was necessary for the Calliope to stop and +even to reverse her engines; and her rudder was at the moment--or +it seemed so to the eyes of those on board--within ten feet of the +reef. "Between the Vandalia and the reef" (writes Kane, in his +excellent report) "it was destruction." To repeat Fritze's +manoeuvre with the Adler was impossible; the Calliope was too +heavy. The one possibility of escape was to go out. If the +engines should stand, if they should have power to drive the ship +against wind and sea, if she should answer the helm, if the wheel, +rudder, and gear should hold out, and if they were favoured with a +clear blink of weather in which to see and avoid the outer reef-- +there, and there only, were safety. Upon this catalogue of "ifs" +Kane staked his all. He signalled to the engineer for every pound +of steam--and at that moment (I am told) much of the machinery was +already red-hot. The ship was sheered well to starboard of the +Vandalia, the last remaining cable slipped. For a time--and there +was no onlooker so cold-blooded as to offer a guess at its +duration--the Calliope lay stationary; then gradually drew ahead. +The highest speed claimed for her that day is of one sea-mile an +hour. The question of times and seasons, throughout all this +roaring business, is obscured by a dozen contradictions; I have but +chosen what appeared to be the most consistent; but if I am to pay +any attention to the time named by Admiral Kimberley, the Calliope, +in this first stage of her escape, must have taken more than two +hours to cover less than four cables. As she thus crept seaward, +she buried bow and stem alternately under the billows. + +In the fairway of the entrance the flagship Trenton still held on. +Her rudder was broken, her wheel carried away; within she was +flooded with water from the peccant hawse-pipes; she had just made +the signal "fires extinguished," and lay helpless, awaiting the +inevitable end. Between this melancholy hulk and the external reef +Kane must find a path. Steering within fifty yards of the reef +(for which she was actually headed) and her foreyard passing on the +other hand over the Trenton's quarter as she rolled, the Calliope +sheered between the rival dangers, came to the wind triumphantly, +and was once more pointed for the sea and safety. Not often in +naval history was there a moment of more sickening peril, and it +was dignified by one of those incidents that reconcile the +chronicler with his otherwise abhorrent task. From the doomed +flagship the Americans hailed the success of the English with a +cheer. It was led by the old admiral in person, rang out over the +storm with holiday vigour, and was answered by the Calliopes with +an emotion easily conceived. This ship of their kinsfolk was +almost the last external object seen from the Calliope for hours; +immediately after, the mists closed about her till the morrow. She +was safe at sea again--una de multis--with a damaged foreyard, and +a loss of all the ornamental work about her bow and stern, three +anchors, one kedge-anchor, fourteen lengths of chain, four boats, +the jib-boom, bobstay, and bands and fastenings of the bowsprit. + +Shortly after Kane had slipped his cable, Captain Schoonmaker, +despairing of the Vandalia, succeeded in passing astern of the +Olga, in the hope to beach his ship beside the Nipsic. At a +quarter to eleven her stern took the reef, her hand swung to +starboard, and she began to fill and settle. Many lives of brave +men were sacrificed in the attempt to get a line ashore; the +captain, exhausted by his exertions, was swept from deck by a sea; +and the rail being soon awash, the survivors took refuge in the +tops. + +Out of thirteen that had lain there the day before, there were now +but two ships afloat in Apia harbour, and one of these was doomed +to be the bane of the other. About 3 P.M. the Trenton parted one +cable, and shortly after a second. It was sought to keep her head +to wind with storm-sails and by the ingenious expedient of filling +the rigging with seamen; but in the fury of the gale, and in that +sea, perturbed alike by the gigantic billows and the volleying +discharges of the rivers, the rudderless ship drove down stern +foremost into the inner basin; ranging, plunging, and striking like +a frightened horse; drifting on destruction for herself and +bringing it to others. Twice the Olga (still well under command) +avoided her impact by the skilful use of helm and engines. But +about four the vigilance of the Germans was deceived, and the ships +collided; the Olga cutting into the Trenton's quarters, first from +one side, then from the other, and losing at the same time two of +her own cables. Captain von Ehrhardt instantly slipped the +remainder of his moorings, and setting fore and aft canvas, and +going full steam ahead, succeeded in beaching his ship in Matautu; +whither Knappe, recalled by this new disaster, had returned. The +berth was perhaps the best in the harbour, and von Ehrhardt +signalled that ship and crew were in security. + +The Trenton, guided apparently by an under-tow or eddy from the +discharge of the Vaisingano, followed in the course of the Nipsic +and Vandalia, and skirted south-eastward along the front of the +shore reef, which her keel was at times almost touching. Hitherto +she had brought disaster to her foes; now she was bringing it to +friends. She had already proved the ruin of the Olga, the one ship +that had rid out the hurricane in safety; now she beheld across her +course the submerged Vandalia, the tops filled with exhausted +seamen. Happily the approach of the Trenton was gradual, and the +time employed to advantage. Rockets and lines were thrown into the +tops of the friendly wreck; the approach of danger was transformed +into a means of safety; and before the ships struck, the men from +the Vandalia's main and mizzen masts, which went immediately by the +board in the collision, were already mustered on the Trenton's +decks. Those from the foremast were next rescued; and the flagship +settled gradually into a position alongside her neighbour, against +which she beat all night with violence. Out of the crew of the +Vandalia forty-three had perished; of the four hundred and fifty on +board the Trenton, only one. + +The night of the 16th was still notable for a howling tempest and +extraordinary floods of rain. It was feared the wreck could scarce +continue to endure the breaching of the seas; among the Germans, +the fate of those on board the Adler awoke keen anxiety; and +Knappe, on the beach of Matautu, and the other officers of his +consulate on that of Matafele, watched all night. The morning of +the 17th displayed a scene of devastation rarely equalled: the +Adler high and dry, the Olga and Nipsic beached, the Trenton partly +piled on the Vandalia and herself sunk to the gun-deck; no sail +afloat; and the beach heaped high with the debris of ships and the +wreck of mountain forests. Already, before the day, Seumanu, the +chief of Apia, had gallantly ventured forth by boat through the +subsiding fury of the seas, and had succeeded in communicating with +the admiral; already, or as soon after as the dawn permitted, +rescue lines were rigged, and the survivors were with difficulty +and danger begun to be brought to shore. And soon the cheerful +spirit of the admiral added a new feature to the scene. Surrounded +as he was by the crews of two wrecked ships, he paraded the band of +the Trenton, and the bay was suddenly enlivened with the strains of +"Hail Columbia." + +During a great part of the day the work of rescue was continued, +with many instances of courage and devotion; and for a long time +succeeding, the almost inexhaustible harvest of the beach was to be +reaped. In the first employment, the Samoans earned the gratitude +of friend and foe; in the second, they surprised all by an +unexpected virtue, that of honesty. The greatness of the disaster, +and the magnitude of the treasure now rolling at their feet, may +perhaps have roused in their bosoms an emotion too serious for the +rule of greed, or perhaps that greed was for the moment satiated. +Sails that twelve strong Samoans could scarce drag from the water, +great guns (one of which was rolled by the sea on the body of a +man, the only native slain in all the hurricane), an infinite +wealth of rope and wood, of tools and weapons, tossed upon the +beach. Yet I have never heard that much was stolen; and beyond +question, much was very honestly returned. On both accounts, for +the saving of life and the restoration of property, the government +of the United States showed themselves generous in reward. A fine +boat was fitly presented to Seumanu; and rings, watches, and money +were lavished on all who had assisted. The Germans also gave money +at the rate (as I receive the tale) of three dollars a head for +every German saved. The obligation was in this instance +incommensurably deep, those with whom they were at war had saved +the German blue-jackets at the venture of their lives; Knappe was, +besides, far from ungenerous; and I can only explain the niggard +figure by supposing it was paid from his own pocket. In one case, +at least, it was refused. "I have saved three Germans," said the +rescuer; "I will make you a present of the three." + +The crews of the American and German squadrons were now cast, still +in a bellicose temper, together on the beach. The discipline of +the Americans was notoriously loose; the crew of the Nipsic had +earned a character for lawlessness in other ports; and recourse was +had to stringent and indeed extraordinary measures. The town was +divided in two camps, to which the different nationalities were +confined. Kimberley had his quarter sentinelled and patrolled. +Any seaman disregarding a challenge was to be shot dead; any +tavern-keeper who sold spirits to an American sailor was to have +his tavern broken and his stock destroyed. Many of the publicans +were German; and Knappe, having narrated these rigorous but +necessary dispositions, wonders (grinning to himself over his +despatch) how far these Americans will go in their assumption of +jurisdiction over Germans. Such as they were, the measures were +successful. The incongruous mass of castaways was kept in peace, +and at last shipped in peace out of the islands. + +Kane returned to Apia on the 19th, to find the Calliope the sole +survivor of thirteen sail. He thanked his men, and in particular +the engineers, in a speech of unusual feeling and beauty, of which +one who was present remarked to another, as they left the ship, +"This has been a means of grace." Nor did he forget to thank and +compliment the admiral; and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of +transcribing from Kimberley's reply some generous and engaging +words. "My dear captain," he wrote, "your kind note received. You +went out splendidly, and we all felt from our hearts for you, and +our cheers came with sincerity and admiration for the able manner +in which you handled your ship. We could not have been gladder if +it had been one of our ships, for in a time like that I can truly +say with old Admiral Josiah Latnall, 'that blood is thicker than +water.'" One more trait will serve to build up the image of this +typical sea-officer. A tiny schooner, the Equator, Captain Edwin +Reid, dear to myself from the memories of a six months' cruise, +lived out upon the high seas the fury of that tempest which had +piled with wrecks the harbour of Apia, found a refuge in Pango- +Pango, and arrived at last in the desolated port with a welcome and +lucrative cargo of pigs. The admiral was glad to have the pigs; +but what most delighted the man's noble and childish soul, was to +see once more afloat the colours of his country. + +Thus, in what seemed the very article of war, and within the +duration of a single day, the sword-arm of each of the two angry +Powers was broken; their formidable ships reduced to junk; their +disciplined hundreds to a horde of castaways, fed with difficulty, +and the fear of whose misconduct marred the sleep of their +commanders. Both paused aghast; both had time to recognise that +not the whole Samoan Archipelago was worth the loss in men and +costly ships already suffered. The so-called hurricane of March +16th made thus a marking epoch in world-history; directly, and at +once, it brought about the congress and treaty of Berlin; +indirectly, and by a process still continuing, it founded the +modern navy of the States. Coming years and other historians will +declare the influence of that. + + + +CHAPTER XI--LAUPEPA AND MATAAFA +1889-1892 + + + +With the hurricane, the broken war-ships, and the stranded sailors, +I am at an end of violence, and my tale flows henceforth among +carpet incidents. The blue-jackets on Apia beach were still +jealously held apart by sentries, when the powers at home were +already seeking a peaceable solution. It was agreed, so far as +might be, to obliterate two years of blundering; and to resume in +1889, and at Berlin, those negotiations which had been so unhappily +broken off at Washington in 1887. The example thus offered by +Germany is rare in history; in the career of Prince Bismarck, so +far as I am instructed, it should stand unique. On a review of +these two years of blundering, bullying, and failure in a little +isle of the Pacific, he seems magnanimously to have owned his +policy was in the wrong. He left Fangalii unexpiated; suffered +that house of cards, the Tamasese government, to fall by its own +frailty and without remark or lamentation; left the Samoan question +openly and fairly to the conference: and in the meanwhile, to +allay the local heats engendered by Becker and Knappe, he sent to +Apia that invaluable public servant, Dr. Stuebel. I should be a +dishonest man if I did not bear testimony to the loyalty since +shown by Germans in Samoa. Their position was painful; they had +talked big in the old days, now they had to sing small. Even +Stuebel returned to the islands under the prejudice of an +unfortunate record. To the minds of the Samoans his name +represented the beginning of their sorrows; and in his first term +of office he had unquestionably driven hard. The greater his merit +in the surprising success of the second. So long as he stayed, the +current of affairs moved smoothly; he left behind him on his +departure all men at peace; and whether by fortune, or for the want +of that wise hand of guidance, he was scarce gone before the clouds +began to gather once more on our horizon. + +Before the first convention, Germany and the States hauled down +their flags. It was so done again before the second; and Germany, +by a still more emphatic step of retrogression, returned the exile +Laupepa to his native shores. For two years the unfortunate man +had trembled and suffered in the Cameroons, in Germany, in the +rainy Marshalls. When he left (September 1887) Tamasese was king, +served by five iron war-ships; his right to rule (like a dogma of +the Church) was placed outside dispute; the Germans were still, as +they were called at that last tearful interview in the house by the +river, "the invincible strangers"; the thought of resistance, far +less the hope of success, had not yet dawned on the Samoan mind. +He returned (November 1889) to a changed world. The Tupua party +was reduced to sue for peace, Brandeis was withdrawn, Tamasese was +dying obscurely of a broken heart; the German flag no longer waved +over the capital; and over all the islands one figure stood +supreme. During Laupepa's absence this man had succeeded him in +all his honours and titles, in tenfold more than all his power and +popularity. He was the idol of the whole nation but the rump of +the Tamaseses, and of these he was already the secret admiration. +In his position there was but one weak point,--that he had even +been tacitly excluded by the Germans. Becker, indeed, once +coquetted with the thought of patronising him; but the project had +no sequel, and it stands alone. In every other juncture of history +the German attitude has been the same. Choose whom you will to be +king; when he has failed, choose whom you please to succeed him; +when the second fails also, replace the first: upon the one +condition, that Mataafa be excluded. "Pourvu qu'il sache signer!"- +-an official is said to have thus summed up the qualifications +necessary in a Samoan king. And it was perhaps feared that Mataafa +could do no more and might not always do so much. But this +original diffidence was heightened by late events to something +verging upon animosity. Fangalii was unavenged: the arms of +Mataafa were + + +Nondum inexpiatis uncta cruoribus, +Still soiled with the unexpiated blood + + +of German sailors; and though the chief was not present in the +field, nor could have heard of the affair till it was over, he had +reaped from it credit with his countrymen and dislike from the +Germans. + +I may not say that trouble was hoped. I must say--if it were not +feared, the practice of diplomacy must teach a very hopeful view of +human nature. Mataafa and Laupepa, by the sudden repatriation of +the last, found themselves face to face in conditions of +exasperating rivalry. The one returned from the dead of exile to +find himself replaced and excelled. The other, at the end of a +long, anxious, and successful struggle, beheld his only possible +competitor resuscitated from the grave. The qualities of both, in +this difficult moment, shone out nobly. I feel I seem always less +than partial to the lovable Laupepa; his virtues are perhaps not +those which chiefly please me, and are certainly not royal; but he +found on his return an opportunity to display the admirable +sweetness of his nature. The two entered into a competition of +generosity, for which I can recall no parallel in history, each +waiving the throne for himself, each pressing it upon his rival; +and they embraced at last a compromise the terms of which seem to +have been always obscure and are now disputed. Laupepa at least +resumed his style of King of Samoa; Mataafa retained much of the +conduct of affairs, and continued to receive much of the attendance +and respect befitting royalty; and the two Malietoas, with so many +causes of disunion, dwelt and met together in the same town like +kinsmen. It was so, that I first saw them; so, in a house set +about with sentries--for there was still a haunting fear of +Germany,--that I heard them relate their various experience in the +past; heard Laupepa tell with touching candour of the sorrows of +his exile, and Mataafa with mirthful simplicity of his resources +and anxieties in the war. The relation was perhaps too beautiful +to last; it was perhaps impossible but the titular king should grow +at last uneasily conscious of the maire de palais at his side, or +the king-maker be at last offended by some shadow of distrust or +assumption in his creature. I repeat the words king-maker and +creature; it is so that Mataafa himself conceives of their +relation: surely not without justice; for, had he not contended +and prevailed, and been helped by the folly of consuls and the fury +of the storm, Laupepa must have died in exile. + +Foreigners in these islands know little of the course of native +intrigue. Partly the Samoans cannot explain, partly they will not +tell. Ask how much a master can follow of the puerile politics in +any school; so much and no more we may understand of the events +which surround and menace us with their results. The missions may +perhaps have been to blame. Missionaries are perhaps apt to meddle +overmuch outside their discipline; it is a fault which should be +judged with mercy; the problem is sometimes so insidiously +presented that even a moderate and able man is betrayed beyond his +own intention; and the missionary in such a land as Samoa is +something else besides a minister of mere religion; he represents +civilisation, he is condemned to be an organ of reform, he could +scarce evade (even if he desired) a certain influence in political +affairs. And it is believed, besides, by those who fancy they +know, that the effective force of division between Mataafa and +Laupepa came from the natives rather than from whites. Before the +end of 1890, at least, it began to be rumoured that there was +dispeace between the two Malietoas; and doubtless this had an +unsettling influence throughout the islands. But there was another +ingredient of anxiety. The Berlin convention had long closed its +sittings; the text of the Act had been long in our hands; +commissioners were announced to right the wrongs of the land +question, and two high officials, a chief justice and a president, +to guide policy and administer law in Samoa. Their coming was +expected with an impatience, with a childishness of trust, that can +hardly be exaggerated. Months passed, these angel-deliverers still +delayed to arrive, and the impatience of the natives became changed +to an ominous irritation. They have had much experience of being +deceived, and they began to think they were deceived again. A +sudden crop of superstitious stories buzzed about the islands. +Rivers had come down red; unknown fishes had been taken on the reef +and found to be marked with menacing runes; a headless lizard +crawled among chiefs in council; the gods of Upolu and Savaii made +war by night, they swam the straits to battle, and, defaced by +dreadful wounds, they had besieged the house of a medical +missionary. Readers will remember the portents in mediaeval +chronicles, or those in Julius Caesar when + + +"Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds +In ranks and squadrons." + + +And doubtless such fabrications are, in simple societies, a natural +expression of discontent; and those who forge, and even those who +spread them, work towards a conscious purpose. + +Early in January 1891 this period of expectancy was brought to an +end by the arrival of Conrad Cedarcrantz, chief justice of Samoa. +The event was hailed with acclamation, and there was much about the +new official to increase the hopes already entertained. He was +seen to be a man of culture and ability; in public, of an excellent +presence--in private, of a most engaging cordiality. But there was +one point, I scarce know whether to say of his character or policy, +which immediately and disastrously affected public feeling in the +islands. He had an aversion, part judicial, part perhaps +constitutional, to haste; and he announced that, until he should +have well satisfied his own mind, he should do nothing; that he +would rather delay all than do aught amiss. It was impossible to +hear this without academical approval; impossible to hear it +without practical alarm. The natives desired to see activity; they +desired to see many fair speeches taken on a body of deeds and +works of benefit. Fired by the event of the war, filled with +impossible hopes, they might have welcomed in that hour a ruler of +the stamp of Brandeis, breathing hurry, perhaps dealing blows. And +the chief justice, unconscious of the fleeting opportunity, ripened +his opinions deliberately in Mulinuu; and had been already the +better part of half a year in the islands before he went through +the form of opening his court. The curtain had risen; there was no +play. A reaction, a chill sense of disappointment, passed about +the island; and intrigue, one moment suspended, was resumed. + +In the Berlin Act, the three Powers recognise, on the threshold, +"the independence of the Samoan government, and the free right of +the natives to elect their chief or king and choose their form of +government." True, the text continues that, "in view of the +difficulties that surround an election in the present disordered +condition of the government," Malietoa Laupepa shall be recognised +as king, "unless the three Powers shall by common accord otherwise +declare." But perhaps few natives have followed it so far, and +even those who have, were possibly all cast abroad again by the +next clause: "and his successor shall be duly elected according to +the laws and customs of Samoa." The right to elect, freely given +in one sentence, was suspended in the next, and a line or so +further on appeared to be reconveyed by a side-wind. The reason +offered for suspension was ludicrously false; in May 1889, when Sir +Edward Malet moved the matter in the conference, the election of +Mataafa was not only certain to have been peaceful, it could not +have been opposed; and behind the English puppet it was easy to +suspect the hand of Germany. No one is more swift to smell +trickery than a Samoan; and the thought, that, under the long, +bland, benevolent sentences of the Berlin Act, some trickery lay +lurking, filled him with the breath of opposition. Laupepa seems +never to have been a popular king. Mataafa, on the other hand, +holds an unrivalled position in the eyes of his fellow-countrymen; +he was the hero of the war, he had lain with them in the bush, he +had borne the heat and burthen of the day; they began to claim that +he should enjoy more largely the fruits of victory; his exclusion +was believed to be a stroke of German vengeance, his elevation to +the kingship was looked for as the fitting crown and copestone of +the Samoan triumph; and but a little after the coming of the chief +justice, an ominous cry for Mataafa began to arise in the islands. +It is difficult to see what that official could have done but what +he did. He was loyal, as in duty bound, to the treaty and to +Laupepa; and when the orators of the important and unruly islet of +Manono demanded to his face a change of kings, he had no choice but +to refuse them, and (his reproof being unheeded) to suspend the +meeting. Whether by any neglect of his own or the mere force of +circumstance, he failed, however, to secure the sympathy, failed +even to gain the confidence, of Mataafa. The latter is not without +a sense of his own abilities or of the great service he has +rendered to his native land. He felt himself neglected; at the +very moment when the cry for his elevation rang throughout the +group he thought himself made little of on Mulinuu; and he began to +weary of his part. In this humour, he was exposed to a temptation +which I must try to explain, as best I may be able, to Europeans. + +The bestowal of the great name, Malietoa, is in the power of the +district of Malie, some seven miles to the westward of Apia. The +most noisy and conspicuous supporters of that party are the +inhabitants of Manono. Hence in the elaborate, allusive oratory of +Samoa, Malie is always referred to by the name of Pule (authority) +as having the power of the name, and Manono by that of Ainga (clan, +sept, or household) as forming the immediate family of the chief. +But these, though so important, are only small communities; and +perhaps the chief numerical force of the Malietoas inhabits the +island of Savaii. Savaii has no royal name to bestow, all the five +being in the gift of different districts of Upolu; but she has the +weight of numbers, and in these latter days has acquired a certain +force by the preponderance in her councils of a single man, the +orator Lauati. The reader will now understand the peculiar +significance of a deputation which should embrace Lauati and the +orators of both Malie and Manono, how it would represent all that +is most effective on the Malietoa side, and all that is most +considerable in Samoan politics, except the opposite feudal party +of the Tupua. And in the temptation brought to bear on Mataafa, +even the Tupua was conjoined. Tamasese was dead. His followers +had conceived a not unnatural aversion to all Germans, from which +only the loyal Brandeis is excepted; and a not unnatural admiration +for their late successful adversary. Men of his own blood and +clan, men whom he had fought in the field, whom he had driven from +Matautu, who had smitten him back time and again from before the +rustic bulwarks of Lotoanuu, they approached him hand in hand with +their ancestral enemies and concurred in the same prayer. The +treaty (they argued) was not carried out. The right to elect their +king had been granted them; or if that were denied or suspended, +then the right to elect "his successor." They were dissatisfied +with Laupepa, and claimed, "according to the laws and customs of +Samoa," duly to appoint another. The orators of Malie declared +with irritation that their second appointment was alone valid and +Mataafa the sole Malietoa; the whole body of malcontents named him +as their choice for king; and they requested him in consequence to +leave Apia and take up his dwelling in Malie, the name-place of +Malietoa; a step which may be described, to European ears, as +placing before the country his candidacy for the crown. + +I do not know when the proposal was first made. Doubtless the +disaffection grew slowly, every trifle adding to its force; +doubtless there lingered for long a willingness to give the new +government a trial. The chief justice at least had been nearly +five months in the country, and the president, Baron Senfft von +Pilsach, rather more than a month before the mine was sprung. On +May 31, 1891, the house of Mataafa was found empty, he and his +chiefs had vanished from Apia, and, what was worse, three +prisoners, liberated from the gaol, had accompanied them in their +secession; two being political offenders, and the third (accused of +murder) having been perhaps set free by accident. Although the +step had been discussed in certain quarters, it took all men by +surprise. The inhabitants at large expected instant war. The +officials awakened from a dream to recognise the value of that +which they had lost. Mataafa at Vaiala, where he was the pledge of +peace, had perhaps not always been deemed worthy of particular +attention; Mataafa at Malie was seen, twelve hours too late, to be +an altogether different quantity. With excess of zeal on the other +side, the officials trooped to their boats and proceeded almost in +a body to Malie, where they seem to have employed every artifice of +flattery and every resource of eloquence upon the fugitive high +chief. These courtesies, perhaps excessive in themselves, had the +unpardonable fault of being offered when too late. Mataafa showed +himself facile on small issues, inflexible on the main; he restored +the prisoners, he returned with the consuls to Apia on a flying +visit; he gave his word that peace should be preserved--a pledge in +which perhaps no one believed at the moment, but which he has since +nobly redeemed. On the rest he was immovable; he had cast the die, +he had declared his candidacy, he had gone to Malie. Thither, +after his visit to Apia, he returned again; there he has +practically since resided. + +Thus was created in the islands a situation, strange in the +beginning, and which, as its inner significance is developed, +becomes daily stranger to observe. On the one hand, Mataafa sits +in Malie, assumes a regal state, receives deputations, heads his +letters "Government of Samoa," tacitly treats the king as a co- +ordinate; and yet declares himself, and in many ways conducts +himself, as a law-abiding citizen. On the other, the white +officials in Mulinuu stand contemplating the phenomenon with eyes +of growing stupefaction; now with symptoms of collapse, now with +accesses of violence. For long, even those well versed in island +manners and the island character daily expected war, and heard +imaginary drums beat in the forest. But for now close upon a year, +and against every stress of persuasion and temptation, Mataafa has +been the bulwark of our peace. Apia lay open to be seized, he had +the power in his hand, his followers cried to be led on, his +enemies marshalled him the same way by impotent examples; and he +has never faltered. Early in the day, a white man was sent from +the government of Mulinuu to examine and report upon his actions: +I saw the spy on his return; "It was only our rebel that saved us," +he said, with a laugh. There is now no honest man in the islands +but is well aware of it; none but knows that, if we have enjoyed +during the past eleven months the conveniences of peace, it is due +to the forbearance of "our rebel." Nor does this part of his +conduct stand alone. He calls his party at Malie the government,-- +"our government,"--but he pays his taxes to the government at +Mulinuu. He takes ground like a king; he has steadily and blandly +refused to obey all orders as to his own movements or behaviour; +but upon requisition he sends offenders to be tried under the chief +justice. + +We have here a problem of conduct, and what seems an image of +inconsistency, very hard at the first sight to be solved by any +European. Plainly Mataafa does not act at random. Plainly, in the +depths of his Samoan mind, he regards his attitude as regular and +constitutional. It may be unexpected, it may be inauspicious, it +may be undesirable; but he thinks it--and perhaps it is--in full +accordance with those "laws and customs of Samoa" ignorantly +invoked by the draughtsmen of the Berlin Act. The point is worth +an effort of comprehension; a man's life may yet depend upon it. +Let us conceive, in the first place, that there are five separate +kingships in Samoa, though not always five different kings; and +that though one man, by holding the five royal names, might become +king in ALL PARTS of Samoa, there is perhaps no such matter as a +kingship of all Samoa. He who holds one royal name would be, upon +this view, as much a sovereign person as he who should chance to +hold the other four; he would have less territory and fewer +subjects, but the like independence and an equal royalty. Now +Mataafa, even if all debatable points were decided against him, is +still Tuiatua, and as such, on this hypothesis, a sovereign prince. +In the second place, the draughtsmen of the Act, waxing exceeding +bold, employed the word "election," and implicitly justified all +precedented steps towards the kingship according with the "customs +of Samoa." I am not asking what was intended by the gentlemen who +sat and debated very benignly and, on the whole, wisely in Berlin; +I am asking what will be understood by a Samoan studying their +literary work, the Berlin Act; I am asking what is the result of +taking a word out of one state of society, and applying it to +another, of which the writers know less than nothing, and no +European knows much. Several interpreters and several days were +employed last September in the fruitless attempt to convey to the +mind of Laupepa the sense of the word "resignation." What can a +Samoan gather from the words, ELECTION? ELECTION OF A KING? +ELECTION OF A KING ACCORDING TO THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF SAMOA? +What are the electoral measures, what is the method of canvassing, +likely to be employed by two, three, four, or five, more or less +absolute princelings, eager to evince each other? And who is to +distinguish such a process from the state of war? In such +international--or, I should say, interparochial--differences, the +nearest we can come towards understanding is to appreciate the +cloud of ambiguity in which all parties grope - + + +"Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, +Half flying." + + +Now, in one part of Mataafa's behaviour his purpose is beyond +mistake. Towards the provisions of the Berlin Act, his desire to +be formally obedient is manifest. The Act imposed the tax. He has +paid his taxes, although he thus contributes to the ways and means +of his immediate rival. The Act decreed the supreme court, and he +sends his partisans to be tried at Mulinuu, although he thus places +them (as I shall have occasion to show) in a position far from +wholly safe. From this literal conformity, in matters regulated, +to the terms of the Berlin plenipotentiaries, we may plausibly +infer, in regard to the rest, a no less exact observance of the +famous and obscure "laws and customs of Samoa." + +But though it may be possible to attain, in the study, to some such +adumbration of an understanding, it were plainly unfair to expect +it of officials in the hurry of events. Our two white officers +have accordingly been no more perspicacious than was to be looked +for, and I think they have sometimes been less wise. It was not +wise in the president to proclaim Mataafa and his followers rebels +and their estates confiscated. Such words are not respectable till +they repose on force; on the lips of an angry white man, standing +alone on a small promontory, they were both dangerous and absurd; +they might have provoked ruin; thanks to the character of Mataafa, +they only raised a smile and damaged the authority of government. +And again it is not wise in the government of Mulinuu to have twice +attempted to precipitate hostilities, once in Savaii, once here in +the Tuamasanga. The fate of the Savaii attempt I never heard; it +seems to have been stillborn. The other passed under my eyes. A +war-party was armed in Apia, and despatched across the island +against Mataafa villages, where it was to seize the women and +children. It was absent for some days, engaged in feasting with +those whom it went out to fight; and returned at last, innocuous +and replete. In this fortunate though undignified ending we may +read the fact that the natives on Laupepa's side are sometimes more +wise than their advisers. Indeed, for our last twelve months of +miraculous peace under what seem to be two rival kings, the credit +is due first of all to Mataafa, and second to the half-heartedness, +or the forbearance, or both, of the natives in the other camp. The +voice of the two whites has ever been for war. They have published +at least one incendiary proclamation; they have armed and sent into +the field at least one Samoan war-party; they have continually +besieged captains of war-ships to attack Malie, and the captains of +the war-ships have religiously refused. Thus in the last twelve +months our European rulers have drawn a picture of themselves, as +bearded like the pard, full of strange oaths, and gesticulating +like semaphores; while over against them Mataafa reposes smilingly +obstinate, and their own retainers surround them, frowningly inert. +Into the question of motive I refuse to enter; but if we come to +war in these islands, and with no fresh occasion, it will be a +manufactured war, and one that has been manufactured, against the +grain of opinion, by two foreigners. + +For the last and worst of the mistakes on the Laupepa side it would +be unfair to blame any but the king himself. Capable both of +virtuous resolutions and of fits of apathetic obstinacy, His +Majesty is usually the whip-top of competitive advisers; and his +conduct is so unstable as to wear at times an appearance of +treachery which would surprise himself if he could see it. Take, +for example, the experience of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, late chief of +police, and (so to speak) commander of the forces. His men were +under orders for a certain hour; he found himself almost alone at +the place of muster, and learned the king had sent the soldiery on +errands. He sought an audience, explained that he was here to +implant discipline, that (with this purpose in view) his men could +only receive orders through himself, and if that condition were not +agreed to and faithfully observed, he must send in his papers. The +king was as usual easily persuaded, the interview passed and ended +to the satisfaction of all parties engaged--and the bargain was +kept for one day. On the day after, the troops were again +dispersed as post-runners, and their commander resigned. With such +a sovereign, I repeat, it would be unfair to blame any individual +minister for any specific fault. And yet the policy of our two +whites against Mataafa has appeared uniformly so excessive and +implacable, that the blame of the last scandal is laid generally at +their doors. It is yet fresh. Lauati, towards the end of last +year, became deeply concerned about the situation; and by great +personal exertions and the charms of oratory brought Savaii and +Manono into agreement upon certain terms of compromise: Laupepa +still to be king, Mataafa to accept a high executive office +comparable to that of our own prime minister, and the two +governments to coalesce. Intractable Manono was a party. Malie +was said to view the proposal with resignation, if not relief. +Peace was thought secure. The night before the king was to receive +Lauati, I met one of his company,--the family chief, Iina,--and we +shook hands over the unexpected issue of our troubles. What no one +dreamed was that Laupepa would refuse. And he did. He refused +undisputed royalty for himself and peace for these unhappy islands; +and the two whites on Mulinuu rightly or wrongly got the blame of +it. + +But their policy has another and a more awkward side. About the +time of the secession to Malie, many ugly things were said; I will +not repeat that which I hope and believe the speakers did not +wholly mean; let it suffice that, if rumour carried to Mataafa the +language I have heard used in my own house and before my own native +servants, he would be highly justified in keeping clear of Apia and +the whites. One gentleman whose opinion I respect, and am so bold +as to hope I may in some points modify, will understand the +allusion and appreciate my reserve. About the same time there +occurred an incident, upon which I must be more particular. A was +a gentleman who had long been an intimate of Mataafa's, and had +recently (upon account, indeed, of the secession to Malie) more or +less wholly broken off relations. To him came one whom I shall +call B with a dastardly proposition. It may have been B's own, in +which case he were the more unpardonable; but from the closeness of +his intercourse with the chief justice, as well as from the terms +used in the interview, men judged otherwise. It was proposed that +A should simulate a renewal of the friendship, decoy Mataafa to a +suitable place, and have him there arrested. What should follow in +those days of violent speech was at the least disputable; and the +proposal was of course refused. "You do not understand," was the +base rejoinder. "YOU will have no discredit. The Germans are to +take the blame of the arrest." Of course, upon the testimony of a +gentleman so depraved, it were unfair to hang a dog; and both the +Germans and the chief justice must be held innocent. But the chief +justice has shown that he can himself be led, by his animosity +against Mataafa, into questionable acts. Certain natives of Malie +were accused of stealing pigs; the chief justice summoned them +through Mataafa; several were sent, and along with them a written +promise that, if others were required, these also should be +forthcoming upon requisition. Such as came were duly tried and +acquitted; and Mataafa's offer was communicated to the chief +justice, who made a formal answer, and the same day (in pursuance +of his constant design to have Malie attacked by war-ships) +reported to one of the consuls that his warrant would not run in +the country and that certain of the accused had been withheld. At +least, this is not fair dealing; and the next instance I have to +give is possibly worse. For one blunder the chief justice is only +so far responsible, in that he was not present where it seems he +should have been, when it was made. He had nothing to do with the +silly proscription of the Mataafas; he has always disliked the +measure; and it occurred to him at last that he might get rid of +this dangerous absurdity and at the same time reap a further +advantage. Let Mataafa leave Malie for any other district in +Samoa; it should be construed as an act of submission and the +confiscation and proscription instantly recalled. This was +certainly well devised; the government escaped from their own false +position, and by the same stroke lowered the prestige of their +adversaries. But unhappily the chief justice did not put all his +eggs in one basket. Concurrently with these negotiations he began +again to move the captain of one of the war-ships to shell the +rebel village; the captain, conceiving the extremity wholly +unjustified, not only refused these instances, but more or less +publicly complained of their being made; the matter came to the +knowledge of the white resident who was at that time playing the +part of intermediary with Malie; and he, in natural anger and +disgust, withdrew from the negotiation. These duplicities, always +deplorable when discovered, are never more fatal than with men +imperfectly civilised. Almost incapable of truth themselves, they +cherish a particular score of the same fault in whites. And +Mataafa is besides an exceptional native. I would scarce dare say +of any Samoan that he is truthful, though I seem to have +encountered the phenomenon; but I must say of Mataafa that he seems +distinctly and consistently averse to lying. + +For the affair of the Manono prisoners, the chief justice is only +again in so far answerable as he was at the moment absent from the +seat of his duties; and the blame falls on Baron Senfft von +Pilsach, president of the municipal council. There were in Manono +certain dissidents, loyal to Laupepa. Being Manono people, I +daresay they were very annoying to their neighbours; the majority, +as they belonged to the same island, were the more impatient; and +one fine day fell upon and destroyed the houses and harvests of the +dissidents "according to the laws and customs of Samoa." The +president went down to the unruly island in a war-ship and was +landed alone upon the beach. To one so much a stranger to the +mansuetude of Polynesians, this must have seemed an act of +desperation; and the baron's gallantry met with a deserved success. +The six ringleaders, acting in Mataafa's interest, had been guilty +of a delict; with Mataafa's approval, they delivered themselves +over to be tried. On Friday, September 4, 1891, they were +convicted before a native magistrate and sentenced to six months' +imprisonment; or, I should rather say, detention; for it was +expressly directed that they were to be used as gentlemen and not +as prisoners, that the door was to stand open, and that all their +wishes should be gratified. This extraordinary sentence fell upon +the accused like a thunderbolt. There is no need to suppose +perfidy, where a careless interpreter suffices to explain all; but +the six chiefs claim to have understood their coming to Apia as an +act of submission merely formal, that they came in fact under an +implied indemnity, and that the president stood pledged to see them +scatheless. Already, on their way from the court-house, they were +tumultuously surrounded by friends and clansmen, who pressed and +cried upon them to escape; Lieutenant Ulfsparre must order his men +to load; and with that the momentary effervescence died away. Next +day, Saturday, 5th, the chief justice took his departure from the +islands--a step never yet explained and (in view of the doings of +the day before and the remonstrances of other officials) hard to +justify. The president, an amiable and brave young man of singular +inexperience, was thus left to face the growing difficulty by +himself. The clansmen of the prisoners, to the number of near upon +a hundred, lay in Vaiusu, a village half way between Apia and +Malie; there they talked big, thence sent menacing messages; the +gaol should be broken in the night, they said, and the six martyrs +rescued. Allowance is to be made for the character of the people +of Manono, turbulent fellows, boastful of tongue, but of late days +not thought to be answerably bold in person. Yet the moment was +anxious. The government of Mulinuu had gained an important moral +victory by the surrender and condemnation of the chiefs; and it was +needful the victory should be maintained. The guard upon the gaol +was accordingly strengthened; a war-party was sent to watch the +Vaiusu road under Asi; and the chiefs of the Vaimaunga were +notified to arm and assemble their men. It must be supposed the +president was doubtful of the loyalty of these assistants. He +turned at least to the war-ships, where it seems he was rebuffed; +thence he fled into the arms of the wrecker gang, where he was +unhappily more successful. The government of Washington had +presented to the Samoan king the wrecks of the Trenton and the +Vandalia; an American syndicate had been formed to break them up; +an experienced gang was in consequence settled in Apia and the +report of submarine explosions had long grown familiar in the ears +of residents. From these artificers the president obtained a +supply of dynamite, the needful mechanism, and the loan of a +mechanic; the gaol was mined, and the Manono people in Vaiusu were +advertised of the fact in a letter signed by Laupepa. Partly by +the indiscretion of the mechanic, who had sought to embolden +himself (like Lady Macbeth) with liquor for his somewhat dreadful +task, the story leaked immediately out and raised a very general, +or I might say almost universal, reprobation. Some blamed the +proposed deed because it was barbarous and a foul example to set +before a race half barbarous itself; others because it was illegal; +others again because, in the face of so weak an enemy, it appeared +pitifully pusillanimous; almost all because it tended to +precipitate and embitter war. In the midst of the turmoil he had +raised, and under the immediate pressure of certain indignant white +residents, the baron fell back upon a new expedient, certainly less +barbarous, perhaps no more legal; and on Monday afternoon, +September 7th, packed his six prisoners on board the cutter +Lancashire Lass, and deported them to the neighbouring low-island +group of the Tokelaus. We watched her put to sea with mingled +feelings. Anything were better than dynamite, but this was not +good. The men had been summoned in the name of law; they had +surrendered; the law had uttered its voice; they were under one +sentence duly delivered; and now the president, by no right with +which we were acquainted, had exchanged it for another. It was +perhaps no less fortunate, though it was more pardonable in a +stranger, that he had increased the punishment to that which, in +the eyes of Samoans, ranks next to death,--exile from their native +land and friends. And the Lancashire Lass appeared to carry away +with her into the uttermost parts of the sea the honour of the +administration and the prestige of the supreme court. + +The policy of the government towards Mataafa has thus been of a +piece throughout; always would-be violent, it has been almost +always defaced with some appearance of perfidy or unfairness. The +policy of Mataafa (though extremely bewildering to any white) +appears everywhere consistent with itself, and the man's bearing +has always been calm. But to represent the fulness of the +contrast, it is necessary that I should give some description of +the two capitals, or the two camps, and the ways and means of the +regular and irregular government. + +Mulinuu. Mulinuu, the reader may remember, is a narrow finger of +land planted in cocoa-palms, which runs forth into the lagoon +perhaps three quarters of a mile. To the east is the bay of Apia. +To the west, there is, first of all, a mangrove swamp, the +mangroves excellently green, the mud ink-black, and its face +crawled upon by countless insects and black and scarlet crabs. +Beyond the swamp is a wide and shallow bay of the lagoon, bounded +to the west by Faleula Point. Faleula is the next village to +Malie; so that from the top of some tall palm in Malie it should be +possible to descry against the eastern heavens the palms of +Mulinuu. The trade wind sweeps over the low peninsula and cleanses +it from the contagion of the swamp. Samoans have a quaint phrase +in their language; when out of health, they seek exposed places on +the shore "to eat the wind," say they; and there can be few better +places for such a diet than the point of Mulinuu. + +Two European houses stand conspicuous on the harbour side; in +Europe they would seem poor enough, but they are fine houses for +Samoa. One is new; it was built the other day under the apologetic +title of a Government House, to be the residence of Baron Senfft. +The other is historical; it was built by Brandeis on a mortgage, +and is now occupied by the chief justice on conditions never +understood, the rumour going uncontradicted that he sits rent free. +I do not say it is true, I say it goes uncontradicted; and there is +one peculiarity of our officials in a nutshell,--their remarkable +indifference to their own character. From the one house to the +other extends a scattering village for the Faipule or native +parliament men. In the days of Tamasese this was a brave place, +both his own house and those of the Faipule good, and the whole +excellently ordered and approached by a sanded way. It is now like +a neglected bush-town, and speaks of apathy in all concerned. But +the chief scandal of Mulinuu is elsewhere. The house of the +president stands just to seaward of the isthmus, where the watch is +set nightly, and armed men guard the uneasy slumbers of the +government. On the landward side there stands a monument to the +poor German lads who fell at Fangalii, just beyond which the +passer-by may chance to observe a little house standing back-ward +from the road. It is such a house as a commoner might use in a +bush village; none could dream that it gave shelter even to a +family chief; yet this is the palace of Malietoa-Natoaitele- +Tamasoalii Laupepa, king of Samoa. As you sit in his company under +this humble shelter, you shall see, between the posts, the new +house of the president. His Majesty himself beholds it daily, and +the tenor of his thoughts may be divined. The fine house of a +Samoan chief is his appropriate attribute; yet, after seventeen +months, the government (well housed themselves) have not yet found- +-have not yet sought--a roof-tree for their sovereign. And the +lodging is typical. I take up the president's financial statement +of September 8, 1891. I find the king's allowance to figure at +seventy-five dollars a month; and I find that he is further (though +somewhat obscurely) debited with the salaries of either two or +three clerks. Take the outside figure, and the sum expended on or +for His Majesty amounts to ninety-five dollars in the month. +Lieutenant Ulfsparre and Dr. Hagberg (the chief justice's Swedish +friends) drew in the same period one hundred and forty and one +hundred dollars respectively on account of salary alone. And it +should be observed that Dr. Hagberg was employed, or at least paid, +from government funds, in the face of His Majesty's express and +reiterated protest. In another column of the statement, one +hundred and seventy-five dollars and seventy-five cents are debited +for the chief justice's travelling expenses. I am of the opinion +that if His Majesty desired (or dared) to take an outing, he would +be asked to bear the charge from his allowance. But although I +think the chief justice had done more nobly to pay for himself, I +am far from denying that his excursions were well meant; he should +indeed be praised for having made them; and I leave the charge out +of consideration in the following statement. + + +ON THE ONE HAND + +Salary of Chief Justice Cedarkrantz $500 +Salary of President Baron Senfft von Pilsach (about) 415 +Salary of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, Chief of Police 140 +Salary of Dr. Hagberg, Private Secretary to the Chief Justice 100 + +Total monthly salary to four whites, one of them paid against His +Majesty's protest $1155 + +ON THE OTHER HAND + +Total monthly payments to and for His Majesty the King, including +allowance and hire of three clerks, one of these placed under the +rubric of extraordinary expenses $95 + + +This looks strange enough and mean enough already. But we have +ground of comparison in the practice of Brandeis. + + +Brandeis, white prime minister $200 +Tamasese (about) 160 +White Chief of Police 100 + + +Under Brandeis, in other words, the king received the second +highest allowance on the sheet; and it was a good second, and the +third was a bad third. And it must be borne in mind that Tamasese +himself was pointed and laughed at among natives. Judge, then, +what is muttered of Laupepa, housed in his shanty before the +president's doors like Lazarus before the doors of Dives; receiving +not so much of his own taxes as the private secretary of the law +officer; and (in actual salary) little more than half as much as +his own chief of police. It is known besides that he has protested +in vain against the charge for Dr. Hagberg; it is known that he has +himself applied for an advance and been refused. Money is +certainly a grave subject on Mulinuu; but respect costs nothing, +and thrifty officials might have judged it wise to make up in extra +politeness for what they curtailed of pomp or comfort. One +instance may suffice. Laupepa appeared last summer on a public +occasion; the president was there and not even the president rose +to greet the entrance of the sovereign. Since about the same +period, besides, the monarch must be described as in a state of +sequestration. A white man, an Irishman, the true type of all that +is most gallant, humorous, and reckless in his country, chose to +visit His Majesty and give him some excellent advice (to make up +his difference with Mataafa) couched unhappily in vivid and +figurative language. The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific, but +the evil that he chanced to do lives after him. His Majesty was +greatly (and I must say justly) offended by the freedom of the +expressions used; he appealed to his white advisers; and these, +whether from want of thought or by design, issued an ignominious +proclamation. Intending visitors to the palace must appear before +their consuls and justify their business. The majesty of buried +Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a private collection) +under special permit; and was thus at once cut off from the company +and opinions of the self respecting. To retain any dignity in such +an abject state would require a man of very different virtues from +those claimed by the not unvirtuous Laupepa. He is not designed to +ride the whirlwind or direct the storm, rather to be the ornament +of private life. He is kind, gentle, patient as Job, conspicuously +well-intentioned, of charming manners; and when he pleases, he has +one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone--I mean that +he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language. + +The government of Brandeis accomplished a good deal and was +continually and heroically attempting more. The government of our +two whites has confined itself almost wholly to paying and +receiving salaries. They have built, indeed, a house for the +president; they are believed (if that be a merit) to have bought +the local newspaper with government funds; and their rule has been +enlivened by a number of scandals, into which I feel with relief +that it is unnecessary I should enter. Even if the three Powers do +not remove these gentlemen, their absurd and disastrous government +must perish by itself of inanition. Native taxes (except perhaps +from Mataafa, true to his own private policy) have long been beyond +hope. And only the other day (May 6th, 1892), on the expressed +ground that there was no guarantee as to how the funds would be +expended, and that the president consistently refused to allow the +verification of his cash balances, the municipal council has +negatived the proposal to call up further taxes from the whites. +All is well that ends even ill, so that it end; and we believe that +with the last dollar we shall see the last of the last functionary. +Now when it is so nearly over, we can afford to smile at this +extraordinary passage, though we must still sigh over the occasion +lost. + + +Malie. The way to Malie lies round the shores of Faleula bay and +through a succession of pleasant groves and villages. The road, +one of the works of Brandeis, is now cut up by pig fences. Eight +times you must leap a barrier of cocoa posts; the take-off and the +landing both in a patch of mire planted with big stones, and the +stones sometimes reddened with the blood of horses that have gone +before. To make these obstacles more annoying, you have sometimes +to wait while a black boar clambers sedately over the so-called pig +fence. Nothing can more thoroughly depict the worst side of the +Samoan character than these useless barriers which deface their +only road. It was one of the first orders issued by the government +of Mulinuu after the coming of the chief justice, to have the +passage cleared. It is the disgrace of Mataafa that the thing is +not yet done. + +The village of Malie is the scene of prosperity and peace. In a +very good account of a visit there, published in the Australasian, +the writer describes it to be fortified; she must have been +deceived by the appearance of some pig walls on the shore. There +is no fortification, no parade of war. I understand that from one +to five hundred fighting men are always within reach; but I have +never seen more than five together under arms, and these were the +king's guard of honour. A Sabbath quiet broods over the well- +weeded green, the picketed horses, the troops of pigs, the round or +oval native dwellings. Of these there are a surprising number, +very fine of their sort: yet more are in the building; and in the +midst a tall house of assembly, by far the greatest Samoan +structure now in these islands, stands about half finished and +already makes a figure in the landscape. No bustle is to be +observed, but the work accomplished testifies to a still activity. + +The centre-piece of all is the high chief himself, Malietoa- +Tuiatua-Tuiaana Mataafa, king--or not king--or king-claimant--of +Samoa. All goes to him, all comes from him. Native deputations +bring him gifts and are feasted in return. White travellers, to +their indescribable irritation, are (on his approach) waved from +his path by his armed guards. He summons his dancers by the note +of a bugle. He sits nightly at home before a semicircle of +talking-men from many quarters of the islands, delivering and +hearing those ornate and elegant orations in which the Samoan heart +delights. About himself and all his surroundings there breathes a +striking sense of order, tranquillity, and native plenty. He is of +a tall and powerful person, sixty years of age, white-haired and +with a white moustache; his eyes bright and quiet; his jaw +perceptibly underhung, which gives him something of the expression +of a benevolent mastiff; his manners dignified and a thought +insinuating, with an air of a Catholic prelate. He was never +married, and a natural daughter attends upon his guests. Long +since he made a vow of chastity,--"to live as our Lord lived on +this earth" and Polynesians report with bated breath that he has +kept it. On all such points, true to his Catholic training, he is +inclined to be even rigid. Lauati, the pivot of Savaii, has +recently repudiated his wife and taken a fairer; and when I was +last in Malie, Mataafa (with a strange superiority to his own +interests) had but just despatched a reprimand. In his immediate +circle, in spite of the smoothness of his ways, he is said to be +more respected than beloved; and his influence is the child rather +of authority than popularity. No Samoan grandee now living need +have attempted that which he has accomplished during the last +twelve months with unimpaired prestige, not only to withhold his +followers from war, but to send them to be judged in the camp of +their enemies on Mulinuu. And it is a matter of debate whether +such a triumph of authority were ever possible before. Speaking +for myself, I have visited and dwelt in almost every seat of the +Polynesian race, and have met but one man who gave me a stronger +impression of character and parts. + +About the situation, Mataafa expresses himself with unshaken peace. +To the chief justice he refers with some bitterness; to Laupepa, +with a smile, as "my poor brother." For himself, he stands upon +the treaty, and expects sooner or later an election in which he +shall be raised to the chief power. In the meanwhile, or for an +alternative, he would willingly embrace a compromise with Laupepa; +to which he would probably add one condition, that the joint +government should remain seated at Malie, a sensible but not +inconvenient distance from white intrigues and white officials. +One circumstance in my last interview particularly pleased me. The +king's chief scribe, Esela, is an old employe under Tamasese, and +the talk ran some while upon the character of Brandeis. Loyalty in +this world is after all not thrown away; Brandeis was guilty, in +Samoan eyes, of many irritating errors, but he stood true to +Tamasese; in the course of time a sense of this virtue and of his +general uprightness has obliterated the memory of his mistakes; and +it would have done his heart good if he could have heard his old +scribe and his old adversary join in praising him. "Yes," +concluded Mataafa, "I wish we had Planteisa back again." A quelque +chose malheur est bon. So strong is the impression produced by the +defects of Cedarcrantz and Baron Senfft, that I believe Mataafa far +from singular in this opinion, and that the return of the upright +Brandeis might be even welcome to many. + +I must add a last touch to the picture of Malie and the pretender's +life. About four in the morning, the visitor in his house will be +awakened by the note of a pipe, blown without, very softly and to a +soothing melody. This is Mataafa's private luxury to lead on +pleasant dreams. We have a bird here in Samoa that about the same +hour of darkness sings in the bush. The father of Mataafa, while +he lived, was a great friend and protector to all living creatures, +and passed under the by-name of the King of Birds. It may be it +was among the woodland clients of the sire that the son acquired +his fancy for this morning music. + + +I have now sought to render without extenuation the impressions +received: of dignity, plenty, and peace at Malie, of bankruptcy +and distraction at Mulinuu. And I wish I might here bring to an +end ungrateful labours. But I am sensible that there remain two +points on which it would be improper to be silent. I should be +blamed if I did not indicate a practical conclusion; and I should +blame myself if I did not do a little justice to that tried company +of the Land Commissioners. + +The Land Commission has been in many senses unfortunate. The +original German member, a gentleman of the name of Eggert, fell +early into precarious health; his work was from the first +interrupted, he was at last (to the regret of all that knew him) +invalided home; and his successor had but just arrived. In like +manner, the first American commissioner, Henry C. Ide, a man of +character and intelligence, was recalled (I believe by private +affairs) when he was but just settling into the spirit of the work; +and though his place was promptly filled by ex-Governor Ormsbee, a +worthy successor, distinguished by strong and vivacious common +sense, the break was again sensible. The English commissioner, my +friend Bazett Michael Haggard, is thus the only one who has +continued at his post since the beginning. And yet, in spite of +these unusual changes, the Commission has a record perhaps +unrivalled among international commissions. It has been unanimous +practically from the first until the last; and out of some four +hundred cases disposed of, there is but one on which the members +were divided. It was the more unfortunate they should have early +fallen in a difficulty with the chief justice. The original ground +of this is supposed to be a difference of opinion as to the import +of the Berlin Act, on which, as a layman, it would be unbecoming if +I were to offer an opinion. But it must always seem as if the +chief justice had suffered himself to be irritated beyond the +bounds of discretion. It must always seem as if his original +attempt to deprive the commissioners of the services of a secretary +and the use of a safe were even senseless; and his step in printing +and posting a proclamation denying their jurisdiction were equally +impolitic and undignified. The dispute had a secondary result +worse than itself. The gentleman appointed to be Natives' Advocate +shared the chief justice's opinion, was his close intimate, advised +with him almost daily, and drifted at last into an attitude of +opposition to his colleagues. He suffered himself besides (being a +layman in law) to embrace the interest of his clients with +something of the warmth of a partisan. Disagreeable scenes +occurred in court; the advocate was more than once reproved, he was +warned that his consultations with the judge of appeal tended to +damage his own character and to lower the credit of the appellate +court. Having lost some cases on which he set importance, it +should seem that he spoke unwisely among natives. A sudden cry of +colour prejudice went up; and Samoans were heard to assure each +other that it was useless to appear before the Land Commission, +which was sworn to support the whites. + +This deplorable state of affairs was brought to an end by the +departure from Samoa of the Natives' Advocate. He was succeeded +pro tempore by a young New Zealander, E. W. Gurr, not much more +versed in law than himself, and very much less so in Samoan. +Whether by more skill or better fortune, Gurr has been able in the +course of a few weeks to recover for the natives several important +tracts of land; and the prejudice against the Commission seems to +be abating as fast as it arose. I should not omit to say that, in +the eagerness of the original advocate, there was much that was +amiable; nor must I fail to point out how much there was of +blindness. Fired by the ardour of pursuit, he seems to have +regarded his immediate clients as the only natives extant and the +epitome and emblem of the Samoan race. Thus, in the case that was +the most exclaimed against as "an injustice to natives," his +client, Puaauli, was certainly nonsuited. But in that intricate +affair who lost the money? The German firm. And who got the land? +Other natives. To twist such a decision into evidence, either of a +prejudice against Samoans or a partiality to whites, is to keep one +eye shut and have the other bandaged. + +And lastly, one word as to the future. Laupepa and Mataafa stand +over against each other, rivals with no third competitor. They may +be said to hold the great name of Malietoa in commission; each has +borne the style, each exercised the authority, of a Samoan king; +one is secure of the small but compact and fervent following of the +Catholics, the other has the sympathies of a large part of the +Protestant majority, and upon any sign of Catholic aggression would +have more. With men so nearly balanced, it may be asked whether a +prolonged successful exercise of power be possible for either. In +the case of the feeble Laupepa, it is certainly not; we have the +proof before us. Nor do I think we should judge, from what we see +to-day, that it would be possible, or would continue to be +possible, even for the kingly Mataafa. It is always the easier +game to be in opposition. The tale of David and Saul would +infallibly be re-enacted; once more we shall have two kings in the +land,--the latent and the patent; and the house of the first will +become once more the resort of "every one that is in distress, and +every one that is in debt, and every one that is discontented." +Against such odds it is my fear that Mataafa might contend in vain; +it is beyond the bounds of my imagination that Laupepa should +contend at all. Foreign ships and bayonets is the cure proposed in +Mulinuu. And certainly, if people at home desire that money should +be thrown away and blood shed in Samoa, an effect of a kind, and +for the time, may be produced. Its nature and prospective +durability I will ask readers of this volume to forecast for +themselves. There is one way to peace and unity: that Laupepa and +Mataafa should be again conjoined on the best terms procurable. +There may be other ways, although I cannot see them; but not even +malevolence, not even stupidity, can deny that this is one. It +seems, indeed, so obvious, and sure, and easy, that men look about +with amazement and suspicion, seeking some hidden motive why it +should not be adopted. + +To Laupepa's opposition, as shown in the case of the Lauati scheme, +no dweller in Samoa will give weight, for they know him to be as +putty in the hands of his advisers. It may be right, it may be +wrong, but we are many of us driven to the conclusion that the +stumbling-block is Fangalii, and that the memorial of that affair +shadows appropriately the house of a king who reigns in right of +it. If this be all, it should not trouble us long. Germany has +shown she can be generous; it now remains for her only to forget a +natural but certainly ill-grounded prejudice, and allow to him, who +was sole king before the plenipotentiaries assembled, and who would +be sole king to-morrow if the Berlin Act could be rescinded, a +fitting share of rule. The future of Samoa should lie thus in the +hands of a single man, on whom the eyes of Europe are already +fixed. Great concerns press on his attention; the Samoan group, in +his view, is but as a grain of dust; and the country where he +reigns has bled on too many august scenes of victory to remember +for ever a blundering skirmish in the plantation of Vailele. It is +to him--to the sovereign of the wise Stuebel and the loyal +Brandeis,--that I make my appeal. + +May 25, 1892. + + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} Brother and successor of Theodor. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY *** + +This file should be named fnhst10.txt or fnhst10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, fnhst11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, fnhst10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04 + +Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/fnhst10.zip b/old/fnhst10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26606c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fnhst10.zip diff --git a/old/fnhst10h.htm b/old/fnhst10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b55472d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fnhst10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6022 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> +<title>A Footnote to History</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">A Footnote to History, by Robert Louis Stevenson</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Footnote to History, by Robert Louis Stevenson +(#25 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Footnote to History + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Release Date: May, 1996 [EBook #536] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 20, 1996] +[Most recently updated: August 27, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII +</pre> +<p> +<a name="startoftext"></a> +Transcribed from the 1912 Swanston edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +PREFACE<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +An affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines in any +general history has been here expanded to the size of a volume or large +pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularity of the +manners and events and many of the characters, considered, it is hoped +that, in spite of its outlandish subject, the sketch may find readers. +It has been a task of difficulty. Speed was essential, or it might +come too late to be of any service to a distracted country. Truth, +in the midst of conflicting rumours and in the dearth of printed material, +was often hard to ascertain, and since most of those engaged were of +my personal acquaintance, it was often more than delicate to express. +I must certainly have erred often and much; it is not for want of trouble +taken nor of an impartial temper. And if my plain speaking shall +cost me any of the friends that I still count, I shall be sorry, but +I need not be ashamed.<br> +<br> +In one particular the spelling of Samoan words has been altered; and +the characteristic nasal <i>n</i> of the language written throughout +<i>ng</i> instead of <i>g</i>. Thus I put Pango-Pango, instead +of Pago-Pago; the sound being that of soft <i>ng</i> in English, as +in <i>singer</i>, not as in <i>finger.<br> +<br> +<br> +</i>R. L. S.<br> +VAILIMA,<br> +UPOLU,<br> +SAMOA.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER I - THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +The story I have to tell is still going on as I write; the characters +are alive and active; it is a piece of contemporary history in the most +exact sense. And yet, for all its actuality and the part played +in it by mails and telegraphs and iron war-ships, the ideas and the +manners of the native actors date back before the Roman Empire. +They are Christians, church-goers, singers of hymns at family worship, +hardy cricketers; their books are printed in London by Spottiswoode, +Trübner, or the Tract Society; but in most other points they are +the contemporaries of our tattooed ancestors who drove their chariots +on the wrong side of the Roman wall. We have passed the feudal +system; they are not yet clear of the patriarchal. We are in the +thick of the age of finance; they are in a period of communism. +And this makes them hard to understand.<br> +<br> +To us, with our feudal ideas, Samoa has the first appearance of a land +of despotism. An elaborate courtliness marks the race alone among +Polynesians; terms of ceremony fly thick as oaths on board a ship; commoners +my-lord each other when they meet - and urchins as they play marbles. +And for the real noble a whole private dialect is set apart. The +common names for an axe, for blood, for bamboo, a bamboo knife, a pig, +food, entrails, and an oven are taboo in his presence, as the common +names for a bug and for many offices and members of the body are taboo +in the drawing-rooms of English ladies. Special words are set +apart for his leg, his face, his hair, his belly, his eyelids, his son, +his daughter, his wife, his wife’s pregnancy, his wife’s +adultery, adultery with his wife, his dwelling, his spear, his comb, +his sleep, his dreams, his anger, the mutual anger of several chiefs, +his food, his pleasure in eating, the food and eating of his pigeons, +his ulcers, his cough, his sickness, his recovery, his death, his being +carried on a bier, the exhumation of his bones, and his skull after +death. To address these demigods is quite a branch of knowledge, +and he who goes to visit a high chief does well to make sure of the +competence of his interpreter. To complete the picture, the same +word signifies the watching of a virgin and the warding of a chief; +and the same word means to cherish a chief and to fondle a favourite +child.<br> +<br> +Men like us, full of memories of feudalism, hear of a man so addressed, +so flattered, and we leap at once to the conclusion that he is hereditary +and absolute. Hereditary he is; born of a great family, he must +always be a man of mark; but yet his office is elective and (in a weak +sense) is held on good behaviour. Compare the case of a Highland +chief: born one of the great ones of his clan, he was sometimes appointed +its chief officer and conventional father; was loved, and respected, +and served, and fed, and died for implicitly, if he gave loyalty a chance; +and yet if he sufficiently outraged clan sentiment, was liable to deposition. +As to authority, the parallel is not so close. Doubtless the Samoan +chief, if he be popular, wields a great influence; but it is limited. +Important matters are debated in a fono, or native parliament, with +its feasting and parade, its endless speeches and polite genealogical +allusions. Debated, I say - not decided; for even a small minority +will often strike a clan or a province impotent. In the midst +of these ineffective councils the chief sits usually silent: a kind +of a gagged audience for village orators. And the deliverance +of the fono seems (for the moment) to be final. The absolute chiefs +of Tahiti and Hawaii were addressed as plain John and Thomas; the chiefs +of Samoa are surfeited with lip-honour, but the seat and extent of their +actual authority is hard to find.<br> +<br> +It is so in the members of the state, and worse in the belly. +The idea of a sovereign pervades the air; the name we have; the thing +we are not so sure of. And the process of election to the chief +power is a mystery. Certain provinces have in their gift certain +high titles, or <i>names</i>, as they are called. These can only +be attributed to the descendants of particular lines. Once granted, +each name conveys at once the principality (whatever that be worth) +of the province which bestows it, and counts as one suffrage towards +the general sovereignty of Samoa. To be indubitable king, they +say, or some of them say, - I find few in perfect harmony, - a man should +resume five of these names in his own person. But the case is +purely hypothetical; local jealousy forbids its occurrence. There +are rival provinces, far more concerned in the prosecution of their +rivalry than in the choice of a right man for king. If one of +these shall have bestowed its name on competitor A, it will be the signal +and the sufficient reason for the other to bestow its name on competitor +B or C. The majority of Savaii and that of Aana are thus in perennial +opposition. Nor is this all. In 1881, Laupepa, the present +king, held the three names of Malietoa, Natoaitele, and Tamasoalii; +Tamasese held that of Tuiaana; and Mataafa that of Tuiatua. Laupepa +had thus a majority of suffrages; he held perhaps as high a proportion +as can be hoped in these distracted islands; and he counted among the +number the preponderant name of Malietoa. Here, if ever, was an +election. Here, if a king were at all possible, was the king. +And yet the natives were not satisfied. Laupepa was crowned, March +19th; and next month, the provinces of Aana and Atua met in joint parliament, +and elected their own two princes, Tamasese and Mataafa, to an alternate +monarchy, Tamasese taking the first trick of two years. War was +imminent, when the consuls interfered, and any war were preferable to +the terms of the peace which they procured. By the Lackawanna +treaty, Laupepa was confirmed king, and Tamasese set by his side in +the nondescript office of vice-king. The compromise was not, I +am told, without precedent; but it lacked all appearance of success. +To the constitution of Samoa, which was already all wheels and no horses, +the consuls had added a fifth wheel. In addition to the old conundrum, +“Who is the king?” they had supplied a new one, “What +is the vice-king?”<br> +<br> +Two royal lines; some cloudy idea of alternation between the two; an +electorate in which the vote of each province is immediately effectual, +as regards itself, so that every candidate who attains one name becomes +a perpetual and dangerous competitor for the other four: such are a +few of the more trenchant absurdities. Many argue that the whole +idea of sovereignty is modern and imported; but it seems impossible +that anything so foolish should have been suddenly devised, and the +constitution bears on its front the marks of dotage.<br> +<br> +But the king, once elected and nominated, what does he become? +It may be said he remains precisely as he was. Election to one +of the five names is significant; it brings not only dignity but power, +and the holder is secure, from that moment, of a certain following in +war. But I cannot find that the further step of election to the +kingship implies anything worth mention. The successful candidate +is now the <i>Tupu o Samoa</i> - much good may it do him! He can +so sign himself on proclamations, which it does not follow that any +one will heed. He can summon parliaments; it does not follow they +will assemble. If he be too flagrantly disobeyed, he can go to +war. But so he could before, when he was only the chief of certain +provinces. His own provinces will support him, the provinces of +his rivals will take the field upon the other part; just as before. +In so far as he is the holder of any of the five <i>names</i>, in short, +he is a man to be reckoned with; in so far as he is king of Samoa, I +cannot find but what the president of a college debating society is +a far more formidable officer. And unfortunately, although the +credit side of the account proves thus imaginary, the debit side is +actual and heavy. For he is now set up to be the mark of consuls; +he will be badgered to raise taxes, to make roads, to punish crime, +to quell rebellion: and how he is to do it is not asked.<br> +<br> +If I am in the least right in my presentation of this obscure matter, +no one need be surprised to hear that the land is full of war and rumours +of war. Scarce a year goes by but what some province is in arms, +or sits sulky and menacing, holding parliaments, disregarding the king’s +proclamations and planting food in the bush, the first step of military +preparation. The religious sentiment of the people is indeed for +peace at any price; no pastor can bear arms; and even the layman who +does so is denied the sacraments. In the last war the college +of Mãlua, where the picked youth are prepared for the ministry, +lost but a single student; the rest, in the bosom of a bleeding country, +and deaf to the voices of vanity and honour, peacefully pursued their +studies. But if the church looks askance on war, the warrior in +no extremity of need or passion forgets his consideration for the church. +The houses and gardens of her ministers stand safe in the midst of armies; +a way is reserved for themselves along the beach, where they may be +seen in their white kilts and jackets openly passing the lines, while +not a hundred yards behind the skirmishers will be exchanging the useless +volleys of barbaric warfare. Women are also respected; they are +not fired upon; and they are suffered to pass between the hostile camps, +exchanging gossip, spreading rumour, and divulging to either army the +secret councils of the other. This is plainly no savage war; it +has all the punctilio of the barbarian, and all his parade; feasts precede +battles, fine dresses and songs decorate and enliven the field; and +the young soldier comes to camp burning (on the one hand) to distinguish +himself by acts of valour, and (on the other) to display his acquaintance +with field etiquette. Thus after Mataafa became involved in hostilities +against the Germans, and had another code to observe beside his own, +he was always asking his white advisers if “things were done correctly.” +Let us try to be as wise as Mataafa, and to conceive that etiquette +and morals differ in one country and another. We shall be the +less surprised to find Samoan war defaced with some unpalatable customs. +The childish destruction of fruit-trees in an enemy’s country +cripples the resources of Samoa; and the habit of head-hunting not only +revolts foreigners, but has begun to exercise the minds of the natives +themselves. Soon after the German heads were taken, Mr. Carne, +Wesleyan missionary, had occasion to visit Mataafa’s camp, and +spoke of the practice with abhorrence. “Misi Kãne,” +said one chief, “we have just been puzzling ourselves to guess +where that custom came from. But, Misi, is it not so that when +David killed Goliath, he cut off his head and carried it before the +king?”<br> +<br> +With the civil life of the inhabitants we have far less to do; and yet +even here a word of preparation is inevitable. They are easy, +merry, and pleasure-loving; the gayest, though by far from either the +most capable or the most beautiful of Polynesians. Fine dress +is a passion, and makes a Samoan festival a thing of beauty. Song +is almost ceaseless. The boatman sings at the oar, the family +at evening worship, the girls at night in the guest-house, sometimes +the workman at his toil. No occasion is too small for the poets +and musicians; a death, a visit, the day’s news, the day’s +pleasantry, will be set to rhyme and harmony. Even half-grown +girls, the occasion arising, fashion words and train choruses of children +for its celebration. Song, as with all Pacific islanders, goes +hand in hand with the dance, and both shade into the drama. Some +of the performances are indecent and ugly, some only dull; others are +pretty, funny, and attractive. Games are popular. Cricket-matches, +where a hundred played upon a side, endured at times for weeks, and +ate up the country like the presence of an army. Fishing, the +daily bath, flirtation; courtship, which is gone upon by proxy; conversation, +which is largely political; and the delights of public oratory, fill +in the long hours.<br> +<br> +But the special delight of the Samoan is the <i>malanga</i>. When +people form a party and go from village to village, junketing and gossiping, +they are said to go on a <i>malanga</i>. Their songs have announced +their approach ere they arrive; the guest-house is prepared for their +reception; the virgins of the village attend to prepare the kava bowl +and entertain them with the dance; time flies in the enjoyment of every +pleasure which an islander conceives; and when the <i>malanga</i> sets +forth, the same welcome and the same joys expect them beyond the next +cape, where the nearest village nestles in its grove of palms. +To the visitors it is all golden; for the hosts, it has another side. +In one or two words of the language the fact peeps slyly out. +The same word (<i>afemoeina</i>) expresses “a long call” +and “to come as a calamity”; the same word <i>(lesolosolou</i>) +signifies “to have no intermission of pain” and “to +have no cessation, as in the arrival of visitors”; and <i>soua</i>, +used of epidemics, bears the sense of being overcome as with “fire, +flood, or visitors.” But the gem of the dictionary is the +verb <i>alovao</i>, which illustrates its pages like a humorous woodcut. +It is used in the sense of “to avoid visitors,” but it means +literally “hide in the wood.” So, by the sure hand +of popular speech, we have the picture of the house deserted, the <i>malanga</i> +disappointed, and the host that should have been quaking in the bush.<br> +<br> +We are thus brought to the beginning of a series of traits of manners, +highly curious in themselves, and essential to an understanding of the +war. In Samoa authority sits on the one hand entranced; on the +other, property stands bound in the midst of chartered marauders. +What property exists is vested in the family, not in the individual; +and of the loose communism in which a family dwells, the dictionary +may yet again help us to some idea. I find a string of verbs with +the following senses: to deal leniently with, as in helping oneself +from a family plantation; to give away without consulting other members +of the family; to go to strangers for help instead of to relatives; +to take from relatives without permission; to steal from relatives; +to have plantations robbed by relatives. The ideal of conduct +in the family, and some of its depravations, appear here very plainly. +The man who (in a native word of praise) is <i>mata-ainga</i>, a race-regarder, +has his hand always open to his kindred; the man who is not (in a native +term of contempt) <i>noa</i>, knows always where to turn in any pinch +of want or extremity of laziness. Beggary within the family - +and by the less self-respecting, without it - has thus grown into a +custom and a scourge, and the dictionary teems with evidence of its +abuse. Special words signify the begging of food, of uncooked +food, of fish, of pigs, of pigs for travellers, of pigs for stock, of +taro, of taro-tops, of taro-tops for planting, of tools, of flyhooks, +of implements for netting pigeons, and of mats. It is true the +beggar was supposed in time to make a return, somewhat as by the Roman +contract of <i>mutuum</i>. But the obligation was only moral; +it could not be, or was not, enforced; as a matter of fact, it was disregarded. +The language had recently to borrow from the Tahitians a word for debt; +while by a significant excidence, it possessed a native expression for +the failure to pay - “to omit to make a return for property begged.” +Conceive now the position of the householder besieged by harpies, and +all defence denied him by the laws of honour. The sacramental +gesture of refusal, his last and single resource, was supposed to signify +“my house is destitute.” Until that point was reached, +in other words, the conduct prescribed for a Samoan was to give and +to continue giving. But it does not appear he was at all expected +to give with a good grace. The dictionary is well stocked with +expressions standing ready, like missiles, to be discharged upon the +locusts - “troop of shamefaced ones,” “you draw in +your head like a tern,” “you make your voice small like +a whistle-pipe,” “you beg like one delirious”; and +the verb <i>pongitai</i>, “to look cross,” is equipped with +the pregnant rider, “as at the sight of beggars.”<br> +<br> +This insolence of beggars and the weakness of proprietors can only be +illustrated by examples. We have a girl in our service to whom +we had given some finery, that she might wait at table, and (at her +own request) some warm clothing against the cold mornings of the bush. +She went on a visit to her family, and returned in an old tablecloth, +her whole wardrobe having been divided out among relatives in the course +of twenty-four hours. A pastor in the province of Atua, being +a handy, busy man, bought a boat for a hundred dollars, fifty of which +he paid down. Presently after, relatives came to him upon a visit +and took a fancy to his new possession. “We have long been +wanting a boat,” said they. “Give us this one.” +So, when the visit was done, they departed in the boat. The pastor, +meanwhile, travelled into Savaii the best way he could, sold a parcel +of land, and begged mats among his other relatives, to pay the remainder +of the price of the boat which was no longer his. You might think +this was enough; but some months later, the harpies, having broken a +thwart, brought back the boat to be repaired and repainted by the original +owner.<br> +<br> +Such customs, it might be argued, being double-edged, will ultimately +right themselves. But it is otherwise in practice. Such +folk as the pastor’s harpy relatives will generally have a boat, +and will never have paid for it; such men as the pastor may have sometimes +paid for a boat, but they will never have one. It is there as +it is with us at home: the measure of the abuse of either system is +the blackness of the individual heart. The same man, who would +drive his poor relatives from his own door in England, would besiege +in Samoa the doors of the rich; and the essence of the dishonesty in +either case is to pursue one’s own advantage and to be indifferent +to the losses of one’s neighbour. But the particular drawback +of the Polynesian system is to depress and stagger industry. To +work more is there only to be more pillaged; to save is impossible. +The family has then made a good day of it when all are filled and nothing +remains over for the crew of free-booters; and the injustice of the +system begins to be recognised even in Samoa. One native is said +to have amassed a certain fortune; two clever lads have individually +expressed to us their discontent with a system which taxes industry +to pamper idleness; and I hear that in one village of Savaii a law has +been passed forbidding gifts under the penalty of a sharp fine.<br> +<br> +Under this economic regimen, the unpopularity of taxes, which strike +all at the same time, which expose the industrious to a perfect siege +of mendicancy, and the lazy to be actually condemned to a day’s +labour, may be imagined without words. It is more important to +note the concurrent relaxation of all sense of property. From +applying for help to kinsmen who are scarce permitted to refuse, it +is but a step to taking from them (in the dictionary phrase) “without +permission”; from that to theft at large is but a hair’s-breadth.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER II - THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: FOREIGN<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +The huge majority of Samoans, like other God-fearing folk in other countries, +are perfectly content with their own manners. And upon one condition, +it is plain they might enjoy themselves far beyond the average of man. +Seated in islands very rich in food, the idleness of the many idle would +scarce matter; and the provinces might continue to bestow their names +among rival pretenders, and fall into war and enjoy that a while, and +drop into peace and enjoy that, in a manner highly to be envied. +But the condition - that they should be let alone - is now no longer +possible. More than a hundred years ago, and following closely +on the heels of Cook, an irregular invasion of adventurers began to +swarm about the isles of the Pacific. The seven sleepers of Polynesia +stand, still but half aroused, in the midst of the century of competition. +And the island races, comparable to a shopful of crockery launched upon +the stream of time, now fall to make their desperate voyage among pots +of brass and adamant.<br> +<br> +Apia, the port and mart, is the seat of the political sickness of Samoa. +At the foot of a peaked, woody mountain, the coast makes a deep indent, +roughly semicircular. In front the barrier reef is broken by the +fresh water of the streams; if the swell be from the north, it enters +almost without diminution; and the war-ships roll dizzily at their moorings, +and along the fringing coral which follows the configuration of the +beach, the surf breaks with a continuous uproar. In wild weather, +as the world knows, the roads are untenable. Along the whole shore, +which is everywhere green and level and overlooked by inland mountain-tops, +the town lies drawn out in strings and clusters. The western horn +is Mulinuu, the eastern, Matautu; and from one to the other of these +extremes, I ask the reader to walk. He will find more of the history +of Samoa spread before his eyes in that excursion, than has yet been +collected in the blue-books or the white-books of the world. Mulinuu +(where the walk is to begin) is a flat, wind-swept promontory, planted +with palms, backed against a swamp of mangroves, and occupied by a rather +miserable village. The reader is informed that this is the proper +residence of the Samoan kings; he will be the more surprised to observe +a board set up, and to read that this historic village is the property +of the German firm. But these boards, which are among the commonest +features of the landscape, may be rather taken to imply that the claim +has been disputed. A little farther east he skirts the stores, +offices, and barracks of the firm itself. Thence he will pass +through Matafele, the one really town-like portion of this long string +of villages, by German bars and stores and the German consulate; and +reach the Catholic mission and cathedral standing by the mouth of a +small river. The bridge which crosses here (bridge of Mulivai) +is a frontier; behind is Matafele; beyond, Apia proper; behind, Germans +are supreme; beyond, with but few exceptions, all is Anglo-Saxon. +Here the reader will go forward past the stores of Mr. Moors (American) +and Messrs. MacArthur (English); past the English mission, the office +of the English newspaper, the English church, and the old American consulate, +till he reaches the mouth of a larger river, the Vaisingano. Beyond, +in Matautu, his way takes him in the shade of many trees and by scattered +dwellings, and presently brings him beside a great range of offices, +the place and the monument of a German who fought the German firm during +his life. His house (now he is dead) remains pointed like a discharged +cannon at the citadel of his old enemies. Fitly enough, it is +at present leased and occupied by Englishmen. A little farther, +and the reader gains the eastern flanking angle of the bay, where stands +the pilot-house and signal-post, and whence he can see, on the line +of the main coast of the island, the British and the new American consulates.<br> +<br> +The course of his walk will have been enlivened by a considerable to +and fro of pleasure and business. He will have encountered many +varieties of whites, - sailors, merchants, clerks, priests, Protestant +missionaries in their pith helmets, and the nondescript hangers-on of +any island beach. And the sailors are sometimes in considerable +force; but not the residents. He will think at times there are +more signboards than men to own them. It may chance it is a full +day in the harbour; he will then have seen all manner of ships, from +men-of-war and deep-sea packets to the labour vessels of the German +firm and the cockboat island schooner; and if he be of an arithmetical +turn, he may calculate that there are more whites afloat in Apia bay +than whites ashore in the whole Archipelago. On the other hand, +he will have encountered all ranks of natives, chiefs and pastors in +their scrupulous white clothes; perhaps the king himself, attended by +guards in uniform; smiling policemen with their pewter stars; girls, +women, crowds of cheerful children. And he will have asked himself +with some surprise where these reside. Here and there, in the +back yards of European establishments, he may have had a glimpse of +a native house elbowed in a corner; but since he left Mulinuu, none +on the beach where islanders prefer to live, scarce one on the line +of street. The handful of whites have everything; the natives +walk in a foreign town. A year ago, on a knoll behind a bar-room, +he might have observed a native house guarded by sentries and flown +over by the standard of Samoa. He would then have been told it +was the seat of government, driven (as I have to relate) over the Mulivai +and from beyond the German town into the Anglo-Saxon. To-day, +he will learn it has been carted back again to its old quarters. +And he will think it significant that the king of the islands should +be thus shuttled to and fro in his chief city at the nod of aliens. +And then he will observe a feature more significant still: a house with +some concourse of affairs, policemen and idlers hanging by, a man at +a bank-counter overhauling manifests, perhaps a trial proceeding in +the front verandah, or perhaps the council breaking up in knots after +a stormy sitting. And he will remember that he is in the <i>Eleele +Sa</i>, the “Forbidden Soil,” or Neutral Territory of the +treaties; that the magistrate whom he has just seen trying native criminals +is no officer of the native king’s; and that this, the only port +and place of business in the kingdom, collects and administers its own +revenue for its own behoof by the hands of white councillors and under +the supervision of white consuls. Let him go further afield. +He will find the roads almost everywhere to cease or to be made impassable +by native pig-fences, bridges to be quite unknown, and houses of the +whites to become at once a rare exception. Set aside the German +plantations, and the frontier is sharp. At the boundary of the +<i>Eleele</i> <i>Sa</i>, Europe ends, Samoa begins. Here, then, +is a singular state of affairs: all the money, luxury, and business +of the kingdom centred in one place; that place excepted from the native +government and administered by whites for whites; and the whites themselves +holding it not in common but in hostile camps, so that it lies between +them like a bone between two dogs, each growling, each clutching his +own end.<br> +<br> +Should Apia ever choose a coat of arms, I have a motto ready: “Enter +Rumour painted full of tongues.” The majority of the natives +do extremely little; the majority of the whites are merchants with some +four mails in the month, shopkeepers with some ten or twenty customers +a day, and gossip is the common resource of all. The town hums +to the day’s news, and the bars are crowded with amateur politicians. +Some are office-seekers, and earwig king and consul, and compass the +fall of officials, with an eye to salary. Some are humorists, +delighted with the pleasure of faction for itself. “I never +saw so good a place as this Apia,” said one of these; “you +can be in a new conspiracy every day!” Many, on the other +hand, are sincerely concerned for the future of the country. The +quarters are so close and the scale is so small, that perhaps not any +one can be trusted always to preserve his temper. Every one tells +everything he knows; that is our country sickness. Nearly every +one has been betrayed at times, and told a trifle more; the way our +sickness takes the predisposed. And the news flies, and the tongues +wag, and fists are shaken. Pot boil and caldron bubble!<br> +<br> +Within the memory of man, the white people of Apia lay in the worst +squalor of degradation. They are now unspeakably improved, both +men and women. To-day they must be called a more than fairly respectable +population, and a much more than fairly intelligent. The whole +would probably not fill the ranks of even an English half-battalion, +yet there are a surprising number above the average in sense, knowledge, +and manners. The trouble (for Samoa) is that they are all here +after a livelihood. Some are sharp practitioners, some are famous +(justly or not) for foul play in business. Tales fly. One +merchant warns you against his neighbour; the neighbour on the first +occasion is found to return the compliment: each with a good circumstantial +story to the proof. There is so much copra in the islands, and +no more; a man’s share of it is his share of bread; and commerce, +like politics, is here narrowed to a focus, shows its ugly side, and +becomes as personal as fisticuffs. Close at their elbows, in all +this contention, stands the native looking on. Like a child, his +true analogue, he observes, apprehends, misapprehends, and is usually +silent. As in a child, a considerable intemperance of speech is +accompanied by some power of secrecy. News he publishes; his thoughts +have often to be dug for. He looks on at the rude career of the +dollar-hunt, and wonders. He sees these men rolling in a luxury +beyond the ambition of native kings; he hears them accused by each other +of the meanest trickery; he knows some of them to be guilty; and what +is he to think? He is strongly conscious of his own position as +the common milk-cow; and what is he to do? “Surely these +white men on the beach are not great chiefs?” is a common question, +perhaps asked with some design of flattering the person questioned. +And one, stung by the last incident into an unusual flow of English, +remarked to me: “I begin to be weary of white men on the beach.”<br> +<br> +But the true centre of trouble, the head of the boil of which Samoa +languishes, is the German firm. From the conditions of business, +a great island house must ever be an inheritance of care; and it chances +that the greatest still afoot has its chief seat in Apia bay, and has +sunk the main part of its capital in the island of Upolu. When +its founder, John Caesar Godeffroy, went bankrupt over Russian paper +and Westphalian iron, his most considerable asset was found to be the +South Sea business. This passed (I understand) through the hands +of Baring Brothers in London, and is now run by a company rejoicing +in the Gargantuan name of the <i>Deutsche Handels und Plantagen</i> +<i>Gesellschaft für Süd-See Inseln zu Hamburg</i>. This +piece of literature is (in practice) shortened to the D. H. and P. G., +the Old Firm, the German Firm, the Firm, and (among humorists) the Long +Handle Firm. Even from the deck of an approaching ship, the island +is seen to bear its signature - zones of cultivation showing in a more +vivid tint of green on the dark vest of forest. The total area +in use is near ten thousand acres. Hedges of fragrant lime enclose, +broad avenues intersect them. You shall walk for hours in parks +of palm-tree alleys, regular, like soldiers on parade; in the recesses +of the hills you may stumble on a mill-house, tolling and trembling +there, fathoms deep in superincumbent forest. On the carpet of +clean sward, troops of horses and herds of handsome cattle may be seen +to browse; and to one accustomed to the rough luxuriance of the tropics, +the appearance is of fairyland. The managers, many of them German +sea-captains, are enthusiastic in their new employment. Experiment +is continually afoot: coffee and cacao, both of excellent quality, are +among the more recent outputs; and from one plantation quantities of +pineapples are sent at a particular season to the Sydney markets. +A hundred and fifty thousand pounds of English money, perhaps two hundred +thousand, lie sunk in these magnificent estates. In estimating +the expense of maintenance quite a fleet of ships must be remembered, +and a strong staff of captains, supercargoes, overseers, and clerks. +These last mess together at a liberal board; the wages are high, and +the staff is inspired with a strong and pleasing sentiment of loyalty +to their employers.<br> +<br> +Seven or eight hundred imported men and women toil for the company on +contracts of three or of five years, and at a hypothetical wage of a +few dollars in the month. I am now on a burning question: the +labour traffic; and I shall ask permission in this place only to touch +it with the tongs. Suffice it to say that in Queensland, Fiji, +New Caledonia, and Hawaii it has been either suppressed or placed under +close public supervision. In Samoa, where it still flourishes, +there is no regulation of which the public receives any evidence; and +the dirty linen of the firm, if there be any dirty, and if it be ever +washed at all, is washed in private. This is unfortunate, if Germans +would believe it. But they have no idea of publicity, keep their +business to themselves, rather affect to “move in a mysterious +way,” and are naturally incensed by criticisms, which they consider +hypocritical, from men who would import “labour” for themselves, +if they could afford it, and would probably maltreat them if they dared. +It is said the whip is very busy on some of the plantations; it is said +that punitive extra-labour, by which the thrall’s term of service +is extended, has grown to be an abuse; and it is complained that, even +where that term is out, much irregularity occurs in the repatriation +of the discharged. To all this I can say nothing, good or bad. +A certain number of the thralls, many of them wild negritos from the +west, have taken to the bush, harbour there in a state partly bestial, +or creep into the back quarters of the town to do a day’s stealthy +labour under the nose of their proprietors. Twelve were arrested +one morning in my own boys’ kitchen. Farther in the bush, +huts, small patches of cultivation, and smoking ovens, have been found +by hunters. There are still three runaways in the woods of Tutuila, +whither they escaped upon a raft. And the Samoans regard these +dark-skinned rangers with extreme alarm; the fourth refugee in Tutuila +was shot down (as I was told in that island) while carrying off the +virgin of a village; and tales of cannibalism run round the country, +and the natives shudder about the evening fire. For the Samoans +are not cannibals, do not seem to remember when they were, and regard +the practice with a disfavour equal to our own.<br> +<br> +The firm is Gulliver among the Lilliputs; and it must not be forgotten, +that while the small, independent traders are fighting for their own +hand, and inflamed with the usual jealousy against corporations, the +Germans are inspired with a sense of the greatness of their affairs +and interests. The thought of the money sunk, the sight of these +costly and beautiful plantations, menaced yearly by the returning forest, +and the responsibility of administering with one hand so many conjunct +fortunes, might well nerve the manager of such a company for desperate +and questionable deeds. Upon this scale, commercial sharpness +has an air of patriotism; and I can imagine the man, so far from haggling +over the scourge for a few Solomon islanders, prepared to oppress rival +firms, overthrow inconvenient monarchs, and let loose the dogs of war. +Whatever he may decide, he will not want for backing. Every clerk +will be eager to be up and strike a blow; and most Germans in the group, +whatever they may babble of the firm over the walnuts and the wine, +will rally round the national concern at the approach of difficulty. +They are so few - I am ashamed to give their number, it were to challenge +contradiction - they are so few, and the amount of national capital +buried at their feet is so vast, that we must not wonder if they seem +oppressed with greatness and the sense of empire. Other whites +take part in our brabbles, while temper holds out, with a certain schoolboy +entertainment. In the Germans alone, no trace of humour is to +be observed, and their solemnity is accompanied by a touchiness often +beyond belief. Patriotism flies in arms about a hen; and if you +comment upon the colour of a Dutch umbrella, you have cast a stone against +the German Emperor. I give one instance, typical although extreme. +One who had returned from Tutuila on the mail cutter complained of the +vermin with which she is infested. He was suddenly and sharply +brought to a stand. The ship of which he spoke, he was reminded, +was a German ship.<br> +<br> +John Caesar Godeffroy himself had never visited the islands; his sons +and nephews came, indeed, but scarcely to reap laurels; and the mainspring +and headpiece of this great concern, until death took him, was a certain +remarkable man of the name of Theodor Weber. He was of an artful +and commanding character; in the smallest thing or the greatest, without +fear or scruple; equally able to affect, equally ready to adopt, the +most engaging politeness or the most imperious airs of domination. +It was he who did most damage to rival traders; it was he who most harried +the Samoans; and yet I never met any one, white or native, who did not +respect his memory. All felt it was a gallant battle, and the +man a great fighter; and now when he is dead, and the war seems to have +gone against him, many can scarce remember, without a kind of regret, +how much devotion and audacity have been spent in vain. His name +still lives in the songs of Samoa. One, that I have heard, tells +of <i>Misi Ueba</i> and a biscuit-box - the suggesting incident being +long since forgotten. Another sings plaintively how all things, +land and food and property, pass progressively, as by a law of nature, +into the hands of <i>Misi Ueba</i>, and soon nothing will be left for +Samoans. This is an epitaph the man would have enjoyed.<br> +<br> +At one period of his career, Weber combined the offices of director +of the firm and consul for the City of Hamburg. No question but +he then drove very hard. Germans admit that the combination was +unfortunate; and it was a German who procured its overthrow. Captain +Zembsch superseded him with an imperial appointment, one still remembered +in Samoa as “the gentleman who acted justly.” There +was no house to be found, and the new consul must take up his quarters +at first under the same roof with Weber. On several questions, +in which the firm was vitally interested, Zembsch embraced the contrary +opinion. Riding one day with an Englishman in Vailele plantation, +he was startled by a burst of screaming, leaped from the saddle, ran +round a house, and found an overseer beating one of the thralls. +He punished the overseer, and, being a kindly and perhaps not a very +diplomatic man, talked high of what he felt and what he might consider +it his duty to forbid or to enforce. The firm began to look askance +at such a consul; and worse was behind. A number of deeds being +brought to the consulate for registration, Zembsch detected certain +transfers of land in which the date, the boundaries, the measure, and +the consideration were all blank. He refused them with an indignation +which he does not seem to have been able to keep to himself; and, whether +or not by his fault, some of these unfortunate documents became public. +It was plain that the relations between the two flanks of the German +invasion, the diplomatic and the commercial, were strained to bursting. +But Weber was a man ill to conquer. Zembsch was recalled; and +from that time forth, whether through influence at home, or by the solicitations +of Weber on the spot, the German consulate has shown itself very apt +to play the game of the German firm. That game, we may say, was +twofold, - the first part even praiseworthy, the second at least natural. +On the one part, they desired an efficient native administration, to +open up the country and punish crime; they wished, on the other, to +extend their own provinces and to curtail the dealings of their rivals. +In the first, they had the jealous and diffident sympathy of all whites; +in the second, they had all whites banded together against them for +their lives and livelihoods. It was thus a game of <i>Beggar my +Neighbour</i> between a large merchant and some small ones. Had +it so remained, it would still have been a cut-throat quarrel. +But when the consulate appeared to be concerned, when the war-ships +of the German Empire were thought to fetch and carry for the firm, the +rage of the independent traders broke beyond restraint. And, largely +from the national touchiness and the intemperate speech of German clerks, +this scramble among dollar-hunters assumed the appearance of an inter-racial +war.<br> +<br> +The firm, with the indomitable Weber at its head and the consulate at +its back - there has been the chief enemy at Samoa. No English +reader can fail to be reminded of John Company; and if the Germans appear +to have been not so successful, we can only wonder that our own blunders +and brutalities were less severely punished. Even on the field +of Samoa, though German faults and aggressors make up the burthen of +my story, they have been nowise alone. Three nations were engaged +in this infinitesimal affray, and not one appears with credit. +They figure but as the three ruffians of the elder play-wrights. +The United States have the cleanest hands, and even theirs are not immaculate. +It was an ambiguous business when a private American adventurer was +landed with his pieces of artillery from an American war-ship, and became +prime minister to the king. It is true (even if he were ever really +supported) that he was soon dropped and had soon sold himself for money +to the German firm. I will leave it to the reader whether this +trait dignifies or not the wretched story. And the end of it spattered +the credit alike of England and the States, when this man (the premier +of a friendly sovereign) was kidnapped and deported, on the requisition +of an American consul, by the captain of an English war-ship. +I shall have to tell, as I proceed, of villages shelled on very trifling +grounds by Germans; the like has been done of late years, though in +a better quarrel, by ourselves of England. I shall have to tell +how the Germans landed and shed blood at Fangalii; it was only in 1876 +that we British had our own misconceived little massacre at Mulinuu. +I shall have to tell how the Germans bludgeoned Malietoa with a sudden +call for money; it was something of the suddenest that Sir Arthur Gordon +himself, smarting under a sensible public affront, made and enforced +a somewhat similar demand.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER III - THE SORROWS OF LAUPEPA, 1883 TO 1887<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +You ride in a German plantation and see no bush, no soul stirring; only +acres of empty sward, miles of cocoa-nut alley: a desert of food. +In the eyes of the Samoan the place has the attraction of a park for +the holiday schoolboy, of a granary for mice. We must add the +yet more lively allurement of a haunted house, for over these empty +and silent miles there broods the fear of the negrito cannibal. +For the Samoan besides, there is something barbaric, unhandsome, and +absurd in the idea of thus growing food only to send it from the land +and sell it. A man at home who should turn all Yorkshire into +one wheatfield, and annually burn his harvest on the altar of Mumbo-Jumbo, +might impress ourselves not much otherwise. And the firm which +does these things is quite extraneous, a wen that might be excised to-morrow +without loss but to itself; few natives drawing from it so much as day’s +wages; and the rest beholding in it only the occupier of their acres. +The nearest villages have suffered most; they see over the hedge the +lands of their ancestors waving with useless cocoa-palms; and the sales +were often questionable, and must still more often appear so to regretful +natives, spinning and improving yarns about the evening lamp. +At the worst, then, to help oneself from the plantation will seem to +a Samoan very like orchard-breaking to the British schoolboy; at the +best, it will be thought a gallant Robin-Hoodish readjustment of a public +wrong.<br> +<br> +And there is more behind. Not only is theft from the plantations +regarded rather as a lark and peccadillo, the idea of theft in itself +is not very clearly present to these communists; and as to the punishment +of crime in general, a great gulf of opinion divides the natives from +ourselves. Indigenous punishments were short and sharp. +Death, deportation by the primitive method of setting the criminal to +sea in a canoe, fines, and in Samoa itself the penalty of publicly biting +a hot, ill-smelling root, comparable to a rough forfeit in a children’s +game - these are approved. The offender is killed, or punished +and forgiven. We, on the other hand, harbour malice for a period +of years: continuous shame attaches to the criminal; even when he is +doing his best - even when he is submitting to the worst form of torture, +regular work - he is to stand aside from life and from his family in +dreadful isolation. These ideas most Polynesians have accepted +in appearance, as they accept other ideas of the whites; in practice, +they reduce it to a farce. I have heard the French resident in +the Marquesas in talk with the French gaoler of Tai-o-hae: “<i>Eh +bien, où sont vos prisonnières</i>? - <i>Je crois, mon +commandant, qu’elles sont allées quelque part faire une +visite</i>.” And the ladies would be welcome. This +is to take the most savage of Polynesians; take some of the most civilised. +In Honolulu, convicts labour on the highways in piebald clothing, gruesome +and ridiculous; and it is a common sight to see the family of such an +one troop out, about the dinner hour, wreathed with flowers and in their +holiday best, to picnic with their kinsman on the public wayside. +The application of these outlandish penalties, in fact, transfers the +sympathy to the offender. Remember, besides, that the clan system, +and that imperfect idea of justice which is its worst feature, are still +lively in Samoa; that it is held the duty of a judge to favour kinsmen, +of a king to protect his vassals; and the difficulty of getting a plantation +thief first caught, then convicted, and last of all punished, will appear.<br> +<br> +During the early ‘eighties, the Germans looked upon this system +with growing irritation. They might see their convict thrust in +gaol by the front door; they could never tell how soon he was enfranchised +by the back; and they need not be the least surprised if they met him, +a few days after, enjoying the delights of a <i>malanga</i>. It +was a banded conspiracy, from the king and the vice-king downward, to +evade the law and deprive the Germans of their profits. In 1883, +accordingly, the consul, Dr. Stuebel, extorted a convention on the subject, +in terms of which Samoans convicted of offences against German subjects +were to be confined in a private gaol belonging to the German firm. +To Dr. Stuebel it seemed simple enough: the offenders were to be effectually +punished, the sufferers partially indemnified. To the Samoans, +the thing appeared no less simple, but quite different: “Malietoa +was selling Samoans to Misi Ueba.” What else could be expected? +Here was a private corporation engaged in making money; to it was delegated, +upon a question of profit and loss, one of the functions of the Samoan +crown; and those who make anomalies must look for comments. Public +feeling ran unanimous and high. Prisoners who escaped from the +private gaol were not recaptured or not returned and Malietoa hastened +to build a new prison of his own, whither he conveyed, or pretended +to convey, the fugitives. In October 1885 a trenchant state paper +issued from the German consulate. Twenty prisoners, the consul +wrote, had now been at large for eight months from Weber’s prison. +It was pretended they had since then completed their term of punishment +elsewhere. Dr. Stuebel did not seek to conceal his incredulity; +but he took ground beyond; he declared the point irrelevant. The +law was to be enforced. The men were condemned to a certain period +in Weber’s prison; they had run away; they must now be brought +back and (whatever had become of them in the interval) work out the +sentence. Doubtless Dr. Stuebel’s demands were substantially +just; but doubtless also they bore from the outside a great appearance +of harshness; and when the king submitted, the murmurs of the people +increased.<br> +<br> +But Weber was not yet content. The law had to be enforced; property, +or at least the property of the firm, must be respected. And during +an absence of the consul’s, he seems to have drawn up with his +own hand, and certainly first showed to the king, in his own house, +a new convention. Weber here and Weber there. As an able +man, he was perhaps in the right to prepare and propose conventions. +As the head of a trading company, he seems far out of his part to be +communicating state papers to a sovereign. The administration +of justice was the colour, and I am willing to believe the purpose, +of the new paper; but its effect was to depose the existing government. +A council of two Germans and two Samoans were to be invested with the +right to make laws and impose taxes as might be “desirable for +the common interest of the Samoan government and the German residents.” +The provisions of this council the king and vice-king were to sign blindfold. +And by a last hardship, the Germans, who received all the benefit, reserved +a right to recede from the agreement on six months’ notice; the +Samoans, who suffered all the loss, were bound by it in perpetuity. +I can never believe that my friend Dr. Stuebel had a hand in drafting +these proposals; I am only surprised he should have been a party to +enforcing them, perhaps the chief error in these islands of a man who +has made few. And they were enforced with a rigour that seems +injudicious. The Samoans (according to their own account) were +denied a copy of the document; they were certainly rated and threatened; +their deliberation was treated as contumacy; two German war-ships lay +in port, and it was hinted that these would shortly intervene.<br> +<br> +Succeed in frightening a child, and he takes refuge in duplicity. +“Malietoa,” one of the chiefs had written, “we know +well we are in bondage to the great governments.” It was +now thought one tyrant might be better than three, and any one preferable +to Germany. On the 5th November 1885, accordingly, Laupepa, Tamasese, +and forty-eight high chiefs met in secret, and the supremacy of Samoa +was secretly offered to Great Britain for the second time in history. +Laupepa and Tamasese still figured as king and vice-king in the eyes +of Dr. Stuebel; in their own, they had secretly abdicated, were become +private persons, and might do what they pleased without binding or dishonouring +their country. On the morrow, accordingly, they did public humiliation +in the dust before the consulate, and five days later signed the convention. +The last was done, it is claimed, upon an impulse. The humiliation, +which it appeared to the Samoans so great a thing to offer, to the practical +mind of Dr. Stuebel seemed a trifle to receive; and the pressure was +continued and increased. Laupepa and Tamasese were both heavy, +well-meaning, inconclusive men. Laupepa, educated for the ministry, +still bears some marks of it in character and appearance; Tamasese was +in private of an amorous and sentimental turn, but no one would have +guessed it from his solemn and dull countenance. Impossible to +conceive two less dashing champions for a threatened race; and there +is no doubt they were reduced to the extremity of muddlement and childish +fear. It was drawing towards night on the 10th, when this luckless +pair and a chief of the name of Tuiatafu, set out for the German consulate, +still minded to temporise. As they went, they discussed their +case with agitation. They could see the lights of the German war-ships +as they walked - an eloquent reminder. And it was then that Tamasese +proposed to sign the convention. “It will give us peace +for the day,” said Laupepa, “and afterwards Great Britain +must decide.” - “Better fight Germany than that!” +cried Tuiatafu, speaking words of wisdom, and departed in anger. +But the two others proceeded on their fatal errand; signed the convention, +writing themselves king and vice-king, as they now believed themselves +to be no longer; and with childish perfidy took part in a scene of “reconciliation” +at the German consulate.<br> +<br> +Malietoa supposed himself betrayed by Tamasese. Consul Churchward +states with precision that the document was sold by a scribe for thirty-six +dollars. Twelve days later at least, November 22nd, the text of +the address to Great Britain came into the hands of Dr. Stuebel. +The Germans may have been wrong before; they were now in the right to +be angry. They had been publicly, solemnly, and elaborately fooled; +the treaty and the reconciliation were both fraudulent, with the broad, +farcical fraudulency of children and barbarians. This history +is much from the outside; it is the digested report of eye-witnesses; +it can be rarely corrected from state papers; and as to what consuls +felt and thought, or what instructions they acted under, I must still +be silent or proceed by guess. It is my guess that Stuebel now +decided Malietoa Laupepa to be a man impossible to trust and unworthy +to be dealt with. And it is certain that the business of his deposition +was put in hand at once. The position of Weber, with his knowledge +of things native, his prestige, and his enterprising intellect, must +have always made him influential with the consul: at this juncture he +was indispensable. Here was the deed to be done; here the man +of action. “Mr. Weber rested not,” says Laupepa. +It was “like the old days of his own consulate,” writes +Churchward. His messengers filled the isle; his house was thronged +with chiefs and orators; he sat close over his loom, delightedly weaving +the future. There was one thing requisite to the intrigue, - a +native pretender; and the very man, you would have said, stood waiting: +Mataafa, titular of Atua, descended from both the royal lines, late +joint king with Tamasese, fobbed off with nothing in the time of the +Lackawanna treaty, probably mortified by the circumstance, a chief with +a strong following, and in character and capacity high above the native +average. Yet when Weber’s spiriting was done, and the curtain +rose on the set scene of the coronation, Mataafa was absent, and Tamasese +stood in his place. Malietoa was to be deposed for a piece of +solemn and offensive trickery, and the man selected to replace him was +his sole partner and accomplice in the act. For so strange a choice, +good ground must have existed; but it remains conjectural: some supposing +Mataafa scratched as too independent; others that Tamasese had indeed +betrayed Laupepa, and his new advancement was the price of his treachery.<br> +<br> +So these two chiefs began to change places like the scales of a balance, +one down, the other up. Tamasese raised his flag (Jan. 28th, 1886) +in Leulumoenga, chief place of his own province of Aana, usurped the +style of king, and began to collect and arm a force. Weber, by +the admission of Stuebel, was in the market supplying him with weapons; +so were the Americans; so, but for our salutary British law, would have +been the British; for wherever there is a sound of battle, there will +the traders be gathered together selling arms. A little longer, +and we find Tamasese visited and addressed as king and majesty by a +German commodore. Meanwhile, for the unhappy Malietoa, the road +led downward. He was refused a bodyguard. He was turned +out of Mulinuu, the seat of his royalty, on a land claim of Weber’s, +fled across the Mulivai, and “had the coolness” (German +expression) to hoist his flag in Apia. He was asked “in +the most polite manner,” says the same account - “in the +most delicate manner in the world,” a reader of Marryat might +be tempted to amend the phrase, - to strike his flag in his own capital; +and on his “refusal to accede to this request,” Dr. Stuebel +appeared himself with ten men and an officer from the cruiser <i>Albatross</i>; +a sailor climbed into the tree and brought down the flag of Samoa, which +was carefully folded, and sent, “in the most polite manner,” +to its owner. The consuls of England and the States were there +(the excellent gentlemen!) to protest. Last, and yet more explicit, +the German commodore who visited the be-titled Tamasese, addressed the +king - we may surely say the late king - as “the High Chief Malietoa.”<br> +<br> +Had he no party, then? At that time, it is probable, he might +have called some five-sevenths of Samoa to his standard. And yet +he sat there, helpless monarch, like a fowl trussed for roasting. +The blame lies with himself, because he was a helpless creature; it +lies also with England and the States. Their agents on the spot +preached peace (where there was no peace, and no pretence of it) with +eloquence and iteration. Secretary Bayard seems to have felt a +call to join personally in the solemn farce, and was at the expense +of a telegram in which he assured the sinking monarch it was “for +the higher interests of Samoa” he should do nothing. There +was no man better at doing that; the advice came straight home, and +was devoutly followed. And to be just to the great Powers, something +was done in Europe; a conference was called, it was agreed to send commissioners +to Samoa, and the decks had to be hastily cleared against their visit. +Dr. Stuebel had attached the municipality of Apia and hoisted the German +war-flag over Mulinuu; the American consul (in a sudden access of good +service) had flown the stars and stripes over Samoan colours; on either +side these steps were solemnly retracted. The Germans expressly +disowned Tamasese; and the islands fell into a period of suspense, of +some twelve months’ duration, during which the seat of the history +was transferred to other countries and escapes my purview. Here +on the spot, I select three incidents: the arrival on the scene of a +new actor, the visit of the Hawaiian embassy, and the riot on the Emperor’s +birthday. The rest shall be silence; only it must be borne in +view that Tamasese all the while continued to strengthen himself in +Leulumoenga, and Laupepa sat inactive listening to the song of consuls.<br> +<br> +<i>Captain Brandeis</i>. The new actor was Brandeis, a Bavarian +captain of artillery, of a romantic and adventurous character. +He had served with credit in war; but soon wearied of garrison life, +resigned his battery, came to the States, found employment as a civil +engineer, visited Cuba, took a sub-contract on the Panama canal, caught +the fever, and came (for the sake of the sea voyage) to Australia. +He had that natural love for the tropics which lies so often latent +in persons of a northern birth; difficulty and danger attracted him; +and when he was picked out for secret duty, to be the hand of Germany +in Samoa, there is no doubt but he accepted the post with exhilaration. +It is doubtful if a better choice could have been made. He had +courage, integrity, ideas of his own, and loved the employment, the +people, and the place. Yet there was a fly in the ointment. +The double error of unnecessary stealth and of the immixture of a trading +company in political affairs, has vitiated, and in the end defeated, +much German policy. And Brandeis was introduced to the islands +as a clerk, and sent down to Leulumoenga (where he was soon drilling +the troops and fortifying the position of the rebel king) as an agent +of the German firm. What this mystification cost in the end I +shall tell in another place; and even in the beginning, it deceived +no one. Brandeis is a man of notable personal appearance; he looks +the part allotted him; and the military clerk was soon the centre of +observation and rumour. Malietoa wrote and complained of his presence +to Becker, who had succeeded Dr. Stuebel in the consulate. Becker +replied, “I have nothing to do with the gentleman Brandeis. +Be it well known that the gentleman Brandeis has no appointment in a +military character, but resides peaceably assisting the government of +Leulumoenga in their work, for Brandeis is a quiet, sensible gentleman.” +And then he promised to send the vice-consul to “get information +of the captain’s doings”: surely supererogation of deceit.<br> +<br> +<i>The Hawaiian Embassy</i>. The prime minister of the Hawaiian +kingdom was, at this period, an adventurer of the name of Gibson. +He claimed, on the strength of a romantic story, to be the heir of a +great English house. He had played a part in a revolt in Java, +had languished in Dutch fetters, and had risen to be a trusted agent +of Brigham Young, the Utah president. It was in this character +of a Mormon emissary that he first came to the islands of Hawaii, where +he collected a large sum of money for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. +At a given moment, he dropped his saintship and appeared as a Christian +and the owner of a part of the island of Lanai. The steps of the +transformation are obscure; they seem, at least, to have been ill-received +at Salt Lake; and there is evidence to the effect that he was followed +to the islands by Mormon assassins. His first attempt on politics +was made under the auspices of what is called the missionary party, +and the canvass conducted largely (it is said with tears) on the platform +at prayer-meetings. It resulted in defeat. Without any decency +of delay he changed his colours, abjured the errors of reform, and, +with the support of the Catholics, rose to the chief power. In +a very brief interval he had thus run through the gamut of religions +in the South Seas. It does not appear that he was any more particular +in politics, but he was careful to consult the character and prejudices +of the late king, Kalakaua. That amiable, far from unaccomplished, +but too convivial sovereign, had a continued use for money: Gibson was +observant to keep him well supplied. Kalakaua (one of the most +theoretical of men) was filled with visionary schemes for the protection +and development of the Polynesian race: Gibson fell in step with him; +it is even thought he may have shared in his illusions. The king +and minister at least conceived between them a scheme of island confederation +- the most obvious fault of which was that it came too late - and armed +and fitted out the cruiser <i>Kaimiloa</i>, nest-egg of the future navy +of Hawaii. Samoa, the most important group still independent, +and one immediately threatened with aggression, was chosen for the scene +of action. The Hon. John E. Bush, a half-caste Hawaiian, sailed +(December 1887) for Apia as minister-plenipotentiary, accompanied by +a secretary of legation, Henry F. Poor; and as soon as she was ready +for sea, the war-ship followed in support. The expedition was +futile in its course, almost tragic in result. The <i>Kaimiloa</i> +was from the first a scene of disaster and dilapidation: the stores +were sold; the crew revolted; for a great part of a night she was in +the hands of mutineers, and the secretary lay bound upon the deck. +The mission, installing itself at first with extravagance in Matautu, +was helped at last out of the island by the advances of a private citizen. +And they returned from dreams of Polynesian independence to find their +own city in the hands of a clique of white shopkeepers, and the great +Gibson once again in gaol. Yet the farce had not been quite without +effect. It had encouraged the natives for the moment, and it seems +to have ruffled permanently the temper of the Germans. So might +a fly irritate Caesar.<br> +<br> +The arrival of a mission from Hawaii would scarce affect the composure +of the courts of Europe. But in the eyes of Polynesians the little +kingdom occupies a place apart. It is there alone that men of +their race enjoy most of the advantages and all the pomp of independence; +news of Hawaii and descriptions of Honolulu are grateful topics in all +parts of the South Seas; and there is no better introduction than a +photograph in which the bearer shall be represented in company with +Kalakaua. Laupepa was, besides, sunk to the point at which an +unfortunate begins to clutch at straws, and he received the mission +with delight. Letters were exchanged between him and Kalakaua; +a deed of confederation was signed, 17th February 1887, and the signature +celebrated in the new house of the Hawaiian embassy with some original +ceremonies. Malietoa Laupepa came, attended by his ministry, several +hundred chiefs, two guards, and six policemen. Always decent, +he withdrew at an early hour; by those that remained, all decency appears +to have been forgotten; high chiefs were seen to dance; and day found +the house carpeted with slumbering grandees, who must be roused, doctored +with coffee, and sent home. As a first chapter in the history +of Polynesian Confederation, it was hardly cheering, and Laupepa remarked +to one of the embassy, with equal dignity and sense: “If you have +come here to teach my people to drink, I wish you had stayed away.”<br> +<br> +The Germans looked on from the first with natural irritation that a +power of the powerlessness of Hawaii should thus profit by its undeniable +footing in the family of nations, and send embassies, and make believe +to have a navy, and bark and snap at the heels of the great German Empire. +But Becker could not prevent the hunted Laupepa from taking refuge in +any hole that offered, and he could afford to smile at the fantastic +orgie in the embassy. It was another matter when the Hawaiians +approached the intractable Mataafa, sitting still in his Atua government +like Achilles in his tent, helping neither side, and (as the Germans +suspected) keeping the eggs warm for himself. When the <i>Kaimiloa</i> +steamed out of Apia on this visit, the German war-ship <i>Adler</i> +followed at her heels; and Mataafa was no sooner set down with the embassy +than he was summoned and ordered on board by two German officers. +The step is one of those triumphs of temper which can only be admired. +Mataafa is entertaining the plenipotentiary of a sovereign power in +treaty with his own king, and the captain of a German corvette orders +him to quit his guests.<br> +<br> +But there was worse to come. I gather that Tamasese was at the +time in the sulks. He had doubtless been promised prompt aid and +a prompt success; he had seen himself surreptitiously helped, privately +ordered about, and publicly disowned; and he was still the king of nothing +more than his own province, and already the second in command of Captain +Brandeis. With the adhesion of some part of his native cabinet, +and behind the back of his white minister, he found means to communicate +with the Hawaiians. A passage on the <i>Kaimiloa</i>, a pension, +and a home in Honolulu were the bribes proposed; and he seems to have +been tempted. A day was set for a secret interview. Poor, +the Hawaiian secretary, and J. D. Strong, an American painter attached +to the embassy in the surprising quality of “Government Artist,” +landed with a Samoan boat’s-crew in Aana; and while the secretary +hid himself, according to agreement, in the outlying home of an English +settler, the artist (ostensibly bent on photography) entered the headquarters +of the rebel king. It was a great day in Leulumoenga; three hundred +recruits had come in, a feast was cooking; and the photographer, in +view of the native love of being photographed, was made entirely welcome. +But beneath the friendly surface all were on the alert. The secret +had leaked out: Weber beheld his plans threatened in the root; Brandeis +trembled for the possession of his slave and sovereign; and the German +vice-consul, Mr. Sonnenschein, had been sent or summoned to the scene +of danger.<br> +<br> +It was after dark, prayers had been said and the hymns sung through +all the village, and Strong and the German sat together on the mats +in the house of Tamasese, when the events began. Strong speaks +German freely, a fact which he had not disclosed, and he was scarce +more amused than embarrassed to be able to follow all the evening the +dissension and the changing counsels of his neighbours. First +the king himself was missing, and there was a false alarm that he had +escaped and was already closeted with Poor. Next came certain +intelligence that some of the ministry had run the blockade, and were +on their way to the house of the English settler. Thereupon, in +spite of some protests from Tamasese, who tried to defend the independence +of his cabinet, Brandeis gathered a posse of warriors, marched out of +the village, brought back the fugitives, and clapped them in the corrugated +iron shanty which served as gaol. Along with these he seems to +have seized Billy Coe, interpreter to the Hawaiians; and Poor, seeing +his conspiracy public, burst with his boat’s-crew into the town, +made his way to the house of the native prime minister, and demanded +Coe’s release. Brandeis hastened to the spot, with Strong +at his heels; and the two principals being both incensed, and Strong +seriously alarmed for his friend’s safety, there began among them +a scene of great intemperance. At one point, when Strong suddenly +disclosed his acquaintance with German, it attained a high style of +comedy; at another, when a pistol was most foolishly drawn, it bordered +on drama; and it may be said to have ended in a mixed genus, when Poor +was finally packed into the corrugated iron gaol along with the forfeited +ministers. Meanwhile the captain of his boat, Siteoni, of whom +I shall have to tell again, had cleverly withdrawn the boat’s-crew +at an early stage of the quarrel. Among the population beyond +Tamasese’s marches, he collected a body of armed men, returned +before dawn to Leulumoenga, demolished the corrugated iron gaol, and +liberated the Hawaiian secretary and the rump of the rebel cabinet. +No opposition was shown; and doubtless the rescue was connived at by +Brandeis, who had gained his point. Poor had the face to complain +the next day to Becker; but to compete with Becker in effrontery was +labour lost. “You have been repeatedly warned, Mr. Poor, +not to expose yourself among these savages,” said he.<br> +<br> +Not long after, the presence of the <i>Kaimiloa</i> was made <i>a casus +belli</i> by the Germans; and the rough-and-tumble embassy withdrew, +on borrowed money, to find their own government in hot water to the +neck.<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>The Emperor’s Birthday</i>. It is possible, and it is +alleged, that the Germans entered into the conference with hope. +But it is certain they were resolved to remain prepared for either fate. +And I take the liberty of believing that Laupepa was not forgiven his +duplicity; that, during this interval, he stood marked like a tree for +felling; and that his conduct was daily scrutinised for further pretexts +of offence. On the evening of the Emperor’s birthday, March +22nd, 1887, certain Germans were congregated in a public bar. +The season and the place considered, it is scarce cynical to assume +they had been drinking; nor, so much being granted, can it be thought +exorbitant to suppose them possibly in fault for the squabble that took +place. A squabble, I say; but I am willing to call it a riot. +And this was the new fault of Laupepa; this it is that was described +by a German commodore as “the trampling upon by Malietoa of the +German Emperor.” I pass the rhetoric by to examine the point +of liability. Four natives were brought to trial for this horrid +fact: not before a native judge, but before the German magistrate of +the tripartite municipality of Apia. One was acquitted, one condemned +for theft, and two for assault. On appeal, not to Malietoa, but +to the three consuls, the case was by a majority of two to one returned +to the magistrate and (as far as I can learn) was then allowed to drop. +Consul Becker himself laid the chief blame on one of the policemen of +the municipality, a half-white of the name of Scanlon. Him he +sought to have discharged, but was again baffled by his brother consuls. +Where, in all this, are we to find a corner of responsibility for the +king of Samoa? Scanlon, the alleged author of the outrage, was +a half-white; as Becker was to learn to his cost, he claimed to be an +American subject; and he was not even in the king’s employment. +Apia, the scene of the outrage, was outside the king’s jurisdiction +by treaty; by the choice of Germany, he was not so much as allowed to +fly his flag there. And the denial of justice (if justice were +denied) rested with the consuls of Britain and the States.<br> +<br> +But when a dog is to be beaten, any stick will serve. In the meanwhile, +on the proposition of Mr. Bayard, the Washington conference on Samoan +affairs was adjourned till autumn, so that “the ministers of Germany +and Great Britain might submit the protocols to their respective Governments.” +“You propose that the conference is to adjourn and not to be broken +up?” asked Sir Lionel West. “To adjourn for the reasons +stated,” replied Bayard. This was on July 26th; and, twenty-nine +days later, by Wednesday the 24th of August, Germany had practically +seized Samoa. For this flagrant breach of faith one excuse is +openly alleged; another whispered. It is openly alleged that Bayard +had shown himself impracticable; it is whispered that the Hawaiian embassy +was an expression of American intrigue, and that the Germans only did +as they were done by. The sufficiency of these excuses may be +left to the discretion of the reader. But, however excused, the +breach of faith was public and express; it must have been deliberately +predetermined and it was resented in the States as a deliberate insult.<br> +<br> +By the middle of August 1887 there were five sail of German war-ships +in Apia bay: the <i>Bismarck</i>, of 3000 tons displacement; the <i>Carola</i>, +the <i>Sophie</i>, and the <i>Olga</i>, all considerable ships; and +the beautiful <i>Adler</i>, which lies there to this day, kanted on +her beam, dismantled, scarlet with rust, the day showing through her +ribs. They waited inactive, as a burglar waits till the patrol +goes by. And on the 23rd, when the mail had left for Sydney, when +the eyes of the world were withdrawn, and Samoa plunged again for a +period of weeks into her original island-obscurity, Becker opened his +guns. The policy was too cunning to seem dignified; it gave to +conduct which would otherwise have seemed bold and even brutally straightforward, +the appearance of a timid ambuscade; and helped to shake men’s +reliance on the word of Germany. On the day named, an ultimatum +reached Malietoa at Afenga, whither he had retired months before to +avoid friction. A fine of one thousand dollars and an <i>ifo</i>, +or public humiliation, were demanded for the affair of the Emperor’s +birthday. Twelve thousand dollars were to be “paid quickly” +for thefts from German plantations in the course of the last four years. +“It is my opinion that there is nothing just or correct in Samoa +while you are at the head of the government,” concluded Becker. +“I shall be at Afenga in the morning of to-morrow, Wednesday, +at 11 A.M.” The blow fell on Laupepa (in his own expression) +“out of the bush”; the dilatory fellow had seen things hang +over so long, he had perhaps begun to suppose they might hang over for +ever; and here was ruin at the door. He rode at once to Apia, +and summoned his chiefs. The council lasted all night long. +Many voices were for defiance. But Laupepa had grown inured to +a policy of procrastination; and the answer ultimately drawn only begged +for delay till Saturday, the 27th. So soon as it was signed, the +king took horse and fled in the early morning to Afenga; the council +hastily dispersed; and only three chiefs, Selu, Seumanu, and Le Mãmea, +remained by the government building, tremulously expectant of the result.<br> +<br> +By seven the letter was received. By 7.30 Becker arrived in person, +inquired for Laupepa, was evasively answered, and declared war on the +spot. Before eight, the Germans (seven hundred men and six guns) +came ashore and seized and hoisted German colours on the government +building. The three chiefs had made good haste to escape; but +a considerable booty was made of government papers, fire-arms, and some +seventeen thousand cartridges. Then followed a scene which long +rankled in the minds of the white inhabitants, when the German marines +raided the town in search of Malietoa, burst into private houses, and +were accused (I am willing to believe on slender grounds) of violence +to private persons.<br> +<br> +On the morrow, the 25th, one of the German war-ships, which had been +despatched to Leulumoenga over night re-entered the bay, flying the +Tamasese colours at the fore. The new king was given a royal salute +of twenty-one guns, marched through the town by the commodore and a +German guard of honour, and established on Mulinuu with two or three +hundred warriors. Becker announced his recognition to the other +consuls. These replied by proclaiming Malietoa, and in the usual +mealy-mouthed manner advised Samoans to do nothing. On the 27th +martial law was declared; and on the 1st September the German squadron +dispersed about the group, bearing along with them the proclamations +of the new king. Tamasese was now a great man, to have five iron +war-ships for his post-runners. But the moment was critical. +The revolution had to be explained, the chiefs persuaded to assemble +at a fono summoned for the 15th; and the ships carried not only a store +of printed documents, but a squad of Tamasese orators upon their round.<br> +<br> +Such was the German <i>coup d’état</i>. They had +declared war with a squadron of five ships upon a single man; that man, +late king of the group, was in hiding on the mountains; and their own +nominee, backed by German guns and bayonets, sat in his stead in Mulinuu.<br> +<br> +One of the first acts of Malietoa, on fleeing to the bush, was to send +for Mataafa twice: “I am alone in the bush; if you do not come +quickly you will find me bound.” It is to be understood +the men were near kinsmen, and had (if they had nothing else) a common +jealousy. At the urgent cry, Mataafa set forth from Falefá, +and came to Mulinuu to Tamasese. “What is this that you +and the German commodore have decided on doing?” he inquired. +“I am going to obey the German consul,” replied Tamasese, +“whose wish it is that I should be the king and that all Samoa +should assemble here.” “Do not pursue in wrath against +Malietoa,” said Mataafa “but try to bring about a compromise, +and form a united government.” “Very well,” +said Tamasese, “leave it to me, and I will try.” From +Mulinuu, Mataafa went on board the <i>Bismarck</i>, and was graciously +received. “Probably,” said the commodore, “we +shall bring about a reconciliation of all Samoa through you”; +and then asked his visitor if he bore any affection to Malietoa. +“Yes,” said Mataafa. “And to Tamasese?” +“To him also; and if you desire the weal of Samoa, you will allow +either him or me to bring about a reconciliation.” “If +it were my will,” said the commodore, “I would do as you +say. But I have no will in the matter. I have instructions +from the Kaiser, and I cannot go back again from what I have been sent +to do.” “I thought you would be commanded,” +said Mataafa, “if you brought about the weal of Samoa.” +“I will tell you,” said the commodore. “All +shall go quietly. But there is one thing that must be done: Malietoa +must be deposed. I will do nothing to him beyond; he will only +be kept on board for a couple of months and be well treated, just as +we Germans did to the French chief [Napoleon III.] some time ago, whom +we kept a while and cared for well.” Becker was no less +explicit: war, he told Sewall, should not cease till the Germans had +custody of Malietoa and Tamasese should be recognised.<br> +<br> +Meantime, in the Malietoa provinces, a profound impression was received. +People trooped to their fugitive sovereign in the bush. Many natives +in Apia brought their treasures, and stored them in the houses of white +friends. The Tamasese orators were sometimes ill received. +Over in Savaii, they found the village of Satupaitea deserted, save +for a few lads at cricket. These they harangued, and were rewarded +with ironical applause; and the proclamation, as soon as they had departed, +was torn down. For this offence the village was ultimately burned +by German sailors, in a very decent and orderly style, on the 3rd September. +This was the dinner-bell of the fono on the 15th. The threat conveyed +in the terms of the summons - “If any government district does +not quickly obey this direction, I will make war on that government +district” - was thus commented on and reinforced. And the +meeting was in consequence well attended by chiefs of all parties. +They found themselves unarmed among the armed warriors of Tamasese and +the marines of the German squadron, and under the guns of five strong +ships. Brandeis rose; it was his first open appearance, the German +firm signing its revolutionary work. His words were few and uncompromising: +“Great are my thanks that the chiefs and heads of families of +the whole of Samoa are assembled here this day. It is strictly +forbidden that any discussion should take place as to whether it is +good or not that Tamasese is king of Samoa, whether at this fono or +at any future fono. I place for your signature the following: +‘<i>We inform all the people of Samoa of what</i> <i>follows: +(1) The government of Samoa has been assumed</i> <i>by King Tuiaana +Tamasese. (2) By order of the king, it</i> <i>was directed that +a fono should take place to-day, composed</i> <i>of the chiefs and heads +of families, and we have obeyed the</i> <i>summons. We have signed +our names under this, 15th</i> <i>September</i> 1887.” Needs +must under all these guns; and the paper was signed, but not without +open sullenness. The bearing of Mataafa in particular was long +remembered against him by the Germans. “Do you not see the +king?” said the commodore reprovingly. “His father +was no king,” was the bold answer. A bolder still has been +printed, but this is Mataafa’s own recollection of the passage. +On the next day, the chiefs were all ordered back to shake hands with +Tamasese. Again they obeyed; but again their attitude was menacing, +and some, it is said, audibly murmured as they gave their hands.<br> +<br> +It is time to follow the poor Sheet of Paper (literal meaning of <i>Laupepa</i>), +who was now to be blown so broadly over the face of earth. As +soon as news reached him of the declaration of war, he fled from Afenga +to Tanungamanono, a hamlet in the bush, about a mile and a half behind +Apia, where he lurked some days. On the 24th, Selu, his secretary, +despatched to the American consul an anxious appeal, his majesty’s +“cry and prayer” in behalf of “this weak people.” +By August 30th, the Germans had word of his lurking-place, surrounded +the hamlet under cloud of night, and in the early morning burst with +a force of sailors on the houses. The people fled on all sides, +and were fired upon. One boy was shot in the hand, the first blood +of the war. But the king was nowhere to be found; he had wandered +farther, over the woody mountains, the backbone of the land, towards +Siumu and Safata. Here, in a safe place, he built himself a town +in the forest, where he received a continual stream of visitors and +messengers. Day after day the German blue-jackets were employed +in the hopeless enterprise of beating the forests for the fugitive; +day after day they were suffered to pass unhurt under the guns of ambushed +Samoans; day after day they returned, exhausted and disappointed, to +Apia. Seumanu Tafa, high chief of Apia, was known to be in the +forest with the king; his wife, Fatuila, was seized, imprisoned in the +German hospital, and when it was thought her spirit was sufficiently +reduced, brought up for cross-examination. The wise lady confined +herself in answer to a single word. “Is your husband near +Apia?” “Yes.” “Is he far from Apia?” +“Yes.” “Is he with the king?” “Yes.” +“Are he and the king in different places?” “Yes.” +Whereupon the witness was discharged. About the 10th of September, +Laupepa was secretly in Apia at the American consulate with two companions. +The German pickets were close set and visited by a strong patrol; and +on his return, his party was observed and hailed and fired on by a sentry. +They ran away on all fours in the dark, and so doing plumped upon another +sentry, whom Laupepa grappled and flung in a ditch; for the Sheet of +Paper, although infirm of character, is, like most Samoans, of an able +body. The second sentry (like the first) fired after his assailants +at random in the dark; and the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia. +On the afternoon of the 16th, the day of the hand-shakings, Suatele, +a high chief, despatched two boys across the island with a letter. +They were most of the night upon the road; it was near three in the +morning before the sentries in the camp of Malietoa beheld their lantern +drawing near out of the wood; but the king was at once awakened. +The news was decisive and the letter peremptory; if Malietoa did not +give himself up before ten on the morrow, he was told that great sorrows +must befall his country. I have not been able to draw Laupepa +as a hero; but he is a man of certain virtues, which the Germans had +now given him an occasion to display. Without hesitation he sacrificed +himself, penned his touching farewell to Samoa, and making more expedition +than the messengers, passed early behind Apia to the banks of the Vaisingano. +As he passed, he detached a messenger to Mataafa at the Catholic mission. +Mataafa followed by the same road, and the pair met at the river-side +and went and sat together in a house. All present were in tears. +“Do not let us weep,” said the talking man, Lauati. +“We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, +but to the invincible strangers.” The departing king bequeathed +the care of his country to Mataafa; and when the latter sought to console +him with the commodore’s promises, he shook his head, and declared +his assurance that he was going to a life of exile, and perhaps to death. +About two o’clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa returned to the +Catholic mission by the back of the town; and Malietoa proceeded by +the beach road to the German naval hospital, where he was received (as +he owns, with perfect civility) by Brandeis. About three, Becker +brought him forth again. As they went to the wharf, the people +wept and clung to their departing monarch. A boat carried him +on board the <i>Bismarck</i>, and he vanished from his countrymen. +Yet it was long rumoured that he still lay in the harbour; and so late +as October 7th, a boy, who had been paddling round the <i>Carola</i>, +professed to have seen and spoken with him. Here again the needless +mystery affected by the Germans bitterly disserved them. The uncertainty +which thus hung over Laupepa’s fate, kept his name continually +in men’s mouths. The words of his farewell rang in their +ears: “To all Samoa: On account of my great love to my country +and my great affection to all Samoa, this is the reason that I deliver +up my body to the German government. That government may do as +they wish to me. The reason of this is, because I do not desire +that the blood of Samoa shall be spilt for me again. But I do +not know what is my offence which has caused their anger to me and to +my country.” And then, apostrophising the different provinces: +“Tuamasanga, farewell! Manono and family, farewell! +So, also, Salafai, Tutuila, Aana, and Atua, farewell! If we do +not again see one another in this world, pray that we may be again together +above.” So the sheep departed with the halo of a saint, +and men thought of him as of some King Arthur snatched into Avilion.<br> +<br> +On board the <i>Bismarck</i>, the commodore shook hands with him, told +him he was to be “taken away from all the chiefs with whom he +had been accustomed,” and had him taken to the wardroom under +guard. The next day he was sent to sea in the <i>Adler</i>. +There went with him his brother Moli, one Meisake, and one Alualu, half-caste +German, to interpret. He was respectfully used; he dined in the +stern with the officers, but the boys dined “near where the fire +was.” They come to a “newly-formed place” in +Australia, where the <i>Albatross</i> was lying, and a British ship, +which he knew to be a man-of-war “because the officers were nicely +dressed and wore epaulettes.” Here he was transhipped, “in +a boat with a screen,” which he supposed was to conceal him from +the British ship; and on board the <i>Albatross</i> was sent below and +told he must stay there till they had sailed. Later, however, +he was allowed to come on deck, where he found they had rigged a screen +(perhaps an awning) under which he walked, looking at “the newly-formed +settlement,” and admiring a big house “where he was sure +the governor lived.” From Australia, they sailed some time, +and reached an anchorage where a consul-general came on board, and where +Laupepa was only allowed on deck at night. He could then see the +lights of a town with wharves; he supposes Cape Town. Off the +Cameroons they anchored or lay-to, far at sea, and sent a boat ashore +to see (he supposes) that there was no British man-of-war. It +was the next morning before the boat returned, when the <i>Albatross</i> +stood in and came to anchor near another German ship. Here Alualu +came to him on deck and told him this was the place. “That +is an astonishing thing,” said he. “I thought I was +to go to Germany, I do not know what this means; I do not know what +will be the end of it; my heart is troubled.” Whereupon +Alualu burst into tears. A little after, Laupepa was called below +to the captain and the governor. The last addressed him: “This +is my own place, a good place, a warm place. My house is not yet +finished, but when it is, you shall live in one of my rooms until I +can make a house for you.” Then he was taken ashore and +brought to a tall, iron house. “This house is regulated,” +said the governor; “there is no fire allowed to burn in it.” +In one part of this house, weapons of the government were hung up; there +was a passage, and on the other side of the passage, fifty criminals +were chained together, two and two, by the ankles. The windows +were out of reach; and there was only one door, which was opened at +six in the morning and shut again at six at night. All day he +had his liberty, went to the Baptist Mission, and walked about viewing +the negroes, who were “like the sand on the seashore” for +number. At six they were called into the house and shut in for +the night without beds or lights. “Although they gave me +no light,” said he, with a smile, “I could see I was in +a prison.” Good food was given him: biscuits, “tea +made with warm water,” beef, etc.; all excellent. Once, +in their walks, they spied a breadfruit tree bearing in the garden of +an English merchant, ran back to the prison to get a shilling, and came +and offered to purchase. “I am not going to sell breadfruit +to you people,” said the merchant; “come and take what you +like.” Here Malietoa interrupted himself to say it was the +only tree bearing in the Cameroons. “The governor had none, +or he would have given it to me.” On the passage from the +Cameroons to Germany, he had great delight to see the cliffs of England. +He saw “the rocks shining in the sun, and three hours later was +surprised to find them sunk in the heavens.” He saw also +wharves and immense buildings; perhaps Dover and its castle. In +Hamburg, after breakfast, Mr. Weber, who had now finally “ceased +from troubling” Samoa, came on board, and carried him ashore “suitably” +in a steam launch to “a large house of the government,” +where he stayed till noon. At noon Weber told him he was going +to “the place where ships are anchored that go to Samoa,” +and led him to “a very magnificent house, with carriages inside +and a wonderful roof of glass”; to wit, the railway station. +They were benighted on the train, and then went in “something +with a house, drawn by horses, which had windows and many decks”; +plainly an omnibus. Here (at Bremen or Bremerhaven, I believe) +they stayed some while in “a house of five hundred rooms”; +then were got on board the <i>Nürnberg</i> (as they understood) +for Samoa, anchored in England on a Sunday, were joined <i>en</i> <i>route</i> +by the famous Dr. Knappe, passed through “a narrow passage where +they went very slow and which was just like a river,” and beheld +with exhilarated curiosity that Red Sea of which they had learned so +much in their Bibles. At last, “at the hour when the fires +burn red,” they came to a place where was a German man-of-war. +Laupepa was called, with one of the boys, on deck, when he found a German +officer awaiting him, and a steam launch alongside, and was told he +must now leave his brother and go elsewhere. “I cannot go +like this,” he cried. “You must let me see my brother +and the other old men” - a term of courtesy. Knappe, who +seems always to have been good-natured, revised his orders, and consented +not only to an interview, but to allow Moli to continue to accompany +the king. So these two were carried to the man-of-war, and sailed +many a day, still supposing themselves bound for Samoa; and lo! she +came to a country the like of which they had never dreamed of, and cast +anchor in the great lagoon of Jaluit; and upon that narrow land the +exiles were set on shore. This was the part of his captivity on +which he looked back with the most bitterness. It was the last, +for one thing, and he was worn down with the long suspense, and terror, +and deception. He could not bear the brackish water; and though +“the Germans were still good to him, and gave him beef and biscuit +and tea,” he suffered from the lack of vegetable food.<br> +<br> +Such is the narrative of this simple exile. I have not sought +to correct it by extraneous testimony. It is not so much the facts +that are historical, as the man’s attitude. No one could +hear this tale as he originally told it in my hearing - I think none +can read it as here condensed and unadorned - without admiring the fairness +and simplicity of the Samoan; and wondering at the want of heart - or +want of humour - in so many successive civilised Germans, that they +should have continued to surround this infant with the secrecy of state.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER IV - BRANDEIS<br> +<i>September ’87 to August ’88<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +</i>So Tamasese was on the throne, and Brandeis behind it; and I have +now to deal with their brief and luckless reign. That it was the +reign of Brandeis needs not to be argued: the policy is throughout that +of an able, over-hasty white, with eyes and ideas. But it should +be borne in mind that he had a double task, and must first lead his +sovereign, before he could begin to drive their common subjects. +Meanwhile, he himself was exposed (if all tales be true) to much dictation +and interference, and to some “cumbrous aid,” from the consulate +and the firm. And to one of these aids, the suppression of the +municipality, I am inclined to attribute his ultimate failure.<br> +<br> +The white enemies of the new regimen were of two classes. In the +first stood Moors and the employés of MacArthur, the two chief +rivals of the firm, who saw with jealousy a clerk (or a so-called clerk) +of their competitors advanced to the chief power. The second class, +that of the officials, numbered at first exactly one. Wilson, +the English acting consul, is understood to have held strict orders +to help Germany. Commander Leary, of the <i>Adams</i>, the American +captain, when he arrived, on the 16th October, and for some time after, +seemed devoted to the German interest, and spent his days with a German +officer, Captain Von Widersheim, who was deservedly beloved by all who +knew him. There remains the American consul-general, Harold Marsh +Sewall, a young man of high spirit and a generous disposition. +He had obeyed the orders of his government with a grudge; and looked +back on his past action with regret almost to be called repentance. +From the moment of the declaration of war against Laupepa, we find him +standing forth in bold, consistent, and sometimes rather captious opposition, +stirring up his government at home with clear and forcible despatches, +and on the spot grasping at every opportunity to thrust a stick into +the German wheels. For some while, he and Moors fought their difficult +battle in conjunction; in the course of which, first one, and then the +other, paid a visit home to reason with the authorities at Washington; +and during the consul’s absence, there was found an American clerk +in Apia, William Blacklock, to perform the duties of the office with +remarkable ability and courage. The three names just brought together, +Sewall, Moors, and Blacklock, make the head and front of the opposition; +if Tamasese fell, if Brandeis was driven forth, if the treaty of Berlin +was signed, theirs is the blame or the credit.<br> +<br> +To understand the feelings of self-reproach and bitterness with which +Sewall took the field, the reader must see Laupepa’s letter of +farewell to the consuls of England and America. It is singular +that this far from brilliant or dignified monarch, writing in the forest, +in heaviness of spirit and under pressure for time, should have left +behind him not only one, but two remarkable and most effective documents. +The farewell to his people was touching; the farewell to the consuls, +for a man of the character of Sewall, must have cut like a whip. +“When the chief Tamasese and others first moved the present troubles,” +he wrote, “it was my wish to punish them and put an end to the +rebellion; but I yielded to the advice of the British and American consuls. +Assistance and protection was repeatedly promised to me and my government, +if I abstained from bringing war upon my country. Relying upon +these promises, I did not put down the rebellion. Now I find that +war has been made upon me by the Emperor of Germany, and Tamasese has +been proclaimed king of Samoa. I desire to remind you of the promises +so frequently made by your government, and trust that you will so far +redeem them as to cause the lives and liberties of my chiefs and people +to be respected.”<br> +<br> +Sewall’s immediate adversary was, of course, Becker. I have +formed an opinion of this gentleman, largely from his printed despatches, +which I am at a loss to put in words. Astute, ingenious, capable, +at moments almost witty with a kind of glacial wit in action, he displayed +in the course of this affair every description of capacity but that +which is alone useful and which springs from a knowledge of men’s +natures. It chanced that one of Sewall’s early moves played +into his hands, and he was swift to seize and to improve the advantage. +The neutral territory and the tripartite municipality of Apia were eyesores +to the German consulate and Brandeis. By landing Tamasese’s +two or three hundred warriors at Mulinuu, as Becker himself owns, they +had infringed the treaties, and Sewall entered protest twice. +There were two ways of escaping this dilemma: one was to withdraw the +warriors; the other, by some hocus-pocus, to abrogate the neutrality. +And the second had subsidiary advantages: it would restore the taxes +of the richest district in the islands to the Samoan king; and it would +enable them to substitute over the royal seat the flag of Germany for +the new flag of Tamasese. It is true (and it was the subject of +much remark) that these two could hardly be distinguished by the naked +eye; but their effects were different. To seat the puppet king +on German land and under German colours, so that any rebellion was constructive +war on Germany, was a trick apparently invented by Becker, and which +we shall find was repeated and persevered in till the end.<br> +<br> +Otto Martin was at this time magistrate in the municipality. The +post was held in turn by the three nationalities; Martin had served +far beyond his term, and should have been succeeded months before by +an American. To make the change it was necessary to hold a meeting +of the municipal board, consisting of the three consuls, each backed +by an assessor. And for some time these meetings had been evaded +or refused by the German consul. As long as it was agreed to continue +Martin, Becker had attended regularly; as soon as Sewall indicated a +wish for his removal, Becker tacitly suspended the municipality by refusing +to appear. This policy was now the more necessary; for if the +whole existence of the municipality were a check on the freedom of the +new government, it was plainly less so when the power to enforce and +punish lay in German hands. For some while back the Malietoa flag +had been flown on the municipal building: Becker denies this; I am sorry; +my information obliges me to suppose he is in error. Sewall, with +post-mortem loyalty to the past, insisted that this flag should be continued. +And Becker immediately made his point. He declared, justly enough, +that the proposal was hostile, and argued that it was impossible he +should attend a meeting under a flag with which his sovereign was at +war. Upon one occasion of urgency, he was invited to meet the +two other consuls at the British consulate; even this he refused; and +for four months the municipality slumbered, Martin still in office. +In the month of October, in consequence, the British and American ratepayers +announced they would refuse to pay. Becker doubtless rubbed his +hands. On Saturday, the 10th, the chief Tamaseu, a Malietoa man +of substance and good character, was arrested on a charge of theft believed +to be vexatious, and cast by Martin into the municipal prison. +He sent to Moors, who was his tenant and owed him money at the time, +for bail. Moors applied to Sewall, ranking consul. After +some search, Martin was found and refused to consider bail before the +Monday morning. Whereupon Sewall demanded the keys from the gaoler, +accepted Moors’s verbal recognisances, and set Tamaseu free.<br> +<br> +Things were now at a deadlock; and Becker astonished every one by agreeing +to a meeting on the 14th. It seems he knew what to expect. +Writing on the 13th at least, he prophesies that the meeting will be +held in vain, that the municipality must lapse, and the government of +Tamasese step in. On the 14th, Sewall left his consulate in time, +and walked some part of the way to the place of meeting in company with +Wilson, the English pro-consul. But he had forgotten a paper, +and in an evil hour returned for it alone. Wilson arrived without +him, and Becker broke up the meeting for want of a quorum. There +was some unedifying disputation as to whether he had waited ten or twenty +minutes, whether he had been officially or unofficially informed by +Wilson that Sewall was on the way, whether the statement had been made +to himself or to Weber <a name="citation1"></a><a href="#footnote1">{1}</a> +in answer to a question, and whether he had heard Wilson’s answer +or only Weber’s question: all otiose; if he heard the question, +he was bound to have waited for the answer; if he heard it not, he should +have put it himself; and it was the manifest truth that he rejoiced +in his occasion. “Sir,” he wrote to Sewall, “I +have the honour to inform you that, to my regret, I am obliged to consider +the municipal government to be provisionally in abeyance since you have +withdrawn your consent to the continuation of Mr. Martin in his position +as magistrate, and since you have refused to take part in the meeting +of the municipal board agreed to for the purpose of electing a magistrate. +The government of the town and district of the municipality rests, as +long as the municipality is in abeyance, with the Samoan government. +The Samoan government has taken over the administration, and has applied +to the commander of the imperial German squadron for assistance in the +preservation of good order.” This letter was not delivered +until 4 P.M. By three, sailors had been landed. Already +German colours flew over Tamasese’s headquarters at Mulinuu, and +German guards had occupied the hospital, the German consulate, and the +municipal gaol and court-house, where they stood to arms under the flag +of Tamasese. The same day Sewall wrote to protest. Receiving +no reply, he issued on the morrow a proclamation bidding all Americans +look to himself alone. On the 26th, he wrote again to Becker, +and on the 27th received this genial reply: “Sir, your high favour +of the 26th of this month, I give myself the honour of acknowledging. +At the same time I acknowledge the receipt of your high favour of the +14th October in reply to my communication of the same date, which contained +the information of the suspension of the arrangements for the municipal +government.” There the correspondence ceased. And +on the 18th January came the last step of this irritating intrigue when +Tamasese appointed a judge - and the judge proved to be Martin.<br> +<br> +Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir Becker +the chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, all passed +into the hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was secured upon the bench; +and the German flag might wave over her puppet unquestioned. But +there is a law of human nature which diplomatists should be taught at +school, and it seems they are not; that men can tolerate bare injustice, +but not the combination of injustice and subterfuge. Hence the +chequered career of the thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been +seized by open force, there might have been complaint, it would not +have aroused the same lasting grudge.<br> +<br> +This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble enough +in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported by +the guns of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien’s +work, highly needful for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all Samoans. +The law to be enforced, causes of dispute between white and brown to +be eliminated, taxes to be raised, a central power created, the country +opened up, the native race taught industry: all these were detestable +to the natives, and to all of these he must set his hand. The +more I learn of his brief term of rule, the more I learn to admire him, +and to wish we had his like.<br> +<br> +In the face of bitter native opposition, he got some roads accomplished. +He set up beacons. The taxes he enforced with necessary vigour. +By the 6th of January, Aua and Fangatonga, districts in Tutuila, having +made a difficulty, Brandeis is down at the island in a schooner, with +the <i>Adler</i> at his heels, seizes the chief Maunga, fines the recalcitrant +districts in three hundred dollars for expenses, and orders all to be +in by April 20th, which if it is not, “not one thing will be done,” +he proclaimed, “but war declared against you, and the principal +chiefs taken to a distant island.” He forbade mortgages +of copra, a frequent source of trickery and quarrel; and to clear off +those already contracted, passed a severe but salutary law. Each +individual or family was first to pay off its own obligation; that settled, +the free man was to pay for the indebted village, the free village for +the indebted province, and one island for another. Samoa, he declared, +should be free of debt within a year. Had he given it three years, +and gone more gently, I believe it might have been accomplished. +To make it the more possible, he sought to interdict the natives from +buying cotton stuffs and to oblige them to dress (at least for the time) +in their own tapa. He laid the beginnings of a royal territorial +army. The first draft was in his hands drilling. But it +was not so much on drill that he depended; it was his hope to kindle +in these men an <i>esprit de corps</i>, which should weaken the old +local jealousies and bonds, and found a central or national party in +the islands. Looking far before, and with a wisdom beyond that +of many merchants, he had condemned the single dependence placed on +copra for the national livelihood. His recruits, even as they +drilled, were taught to plant cacao. Each, his term of active +service finished, should return to his own land and plant and cultivate +a stipulated area. Thus, as the young men continued to pass through +the army, habits of discipline and industry, a central sentiment, the +principles of the new culture, and actual gardens of cacao, should be +concurrently spread over the face of the islands.<br> +<br> +Tamasese received, including his household expenses, 1960 dollars a +year; Brandeis, 2400. All such disproportions are regrettable, +but this is not extreme: we have seen horses of a different colour since +then. And the Tamaseseites, with true Samoan ostentation, offered +to increase the salary of their white premier: an offer he had the wisdom +and good feeling to refuse. A European chief of police received +twelve hundred. There were eight head judges, one to each province, +and appeal lay from the district judge to the provincial, thence to +Mulinuu. From all salaries (I gather) a small monthly guarantee +was withheld. The army was to cost from three to four thousand, +Apia (many whites refusing to pay taxes since the suppression of the +municipality) might cost three thousand more: Sir Becker’s high +feat of arms coming expensive (it will be noticed) even in money. +The whole outlay was estimated at twenty-seven thousand; and the revenue +forty thousand: a sum Samoa is well able to pay.<br> +<br> +Such were the arrangements and some of the ideas of this strong, ardent, +and sanguine man. Of criticisms upon his conduct, beyond the general +consent that he was rather harsh and in too great a hurry, few are articulate. +The native paper of complaints was particularly childish. Out +of twenty-three counts, the first two refer to the private character +of Brandeis and Tamasese. Three complain that Samoan officials +were kept in the dark as to the finances; one, of the tapa law; one, +of the direct appointment of chiefs by Tamasese-Brandeis, the sort of +mistake into which Europeans in the South Seas fall so readily; one, +of the enforced labour of chiefs; one, of the taxes; and one, of the +roads. This I may give in full from the very lame translation +in the American white book. “The roads that were made were +called the Government Roads; they were six fathoms wide. Their +making caused much damage to Samoa’s lands and what was planted +on it. The Samoans cried on account of their lands, which were +taken high-handedly and abused. They again cried on account of +the loss of what they had planted, which was now thrown away in a high-handed +way, without any regard being shown or question asked of the owner of +the land, or any compensation offered for the damage done. This +was different with foreigners’ land; in their case permission +was first asked to make the roads; the foreigners were paid for any +destruction made.” The sting of this count was, I fancy, +in the last clause. No less than six articles complain of the +administration of the law; and I believe that was never satisfactory. +Brandeis told me himself he was never yet satisfied with any native +judge. And men say (and it seems to fit in well with his hasty +and eager character) that he would legislate by word of mouth; sometimes +forget what he had said; and, on the same question arising in another +province, decide it perhaps otherwise. I gather, on the whole, +our artillery captain was not great in law. Two articles refer +to a matter I must deal with more at length, and rather from the point +of view of the white residents.<br> +<br> +The common charge against Brandeis was that of favouring the German +firm. Coming as he did, this was inevitable. Weber had bought +Steinberger with hard cash; that was matter of history. The present +government he did not even require to buy, having founded it by his +intrigues, and introduced the premier to Samoa through the doors of +his own office. And the effect of the initial blunder was kept +alive by the chatter of the clerks in bar-rooms, boasting themselves +of the new government and prophesying annihilation to all rivals. +The time of raising a tax is the harvest of the merchants; it is the +time when copra will be made, and must be sold; and the intention of +the German firm, first in the time of Steinberger, and again in April +and May, 1888, with Brandeis, was to seize and handle the whole operation. +Their chief rivals were the Messrs. MacArthur; and it seems beyond question +that provincial governors more than once issued orders forbidding Samoans +to take money from “the New Zealand firm.” These, +when they were brought to his notice, Brandeis disowned, and he is entitled +to be heard. No man can live long in Samoa and not have his honesty +impugned. But the accusations against Brandeis’s veracity +are both few and obscure. I believe he was as straight as his +sword. The governors doubtless issued these orders, but there +were plenty besides Brandeis to suggest them. Every wandering +clerk from the firm’s office, every plantation manager, would +be dinning the same story in the native ear. And here again the +initial blunder hung about the neck of Brandeis, a ton’s weight. +The natives, as well as the whites, had seen their premier masquerading +on a stool in the office; in the eyes of the natives, as well as in +those of the whites, he must always have retained the mark of servitude +from that ill-judged passage; and they would be inclined to look behind +and above him, to the great house of <i>Misi</i> <i>Ueba</i>. +The government was like a vista of puppets. People did not trouble +with Tamasese, if they got speech with Brandeis; in the same way, they +might not always trouble to ask Brandeis, if they had a hint direct +from <i>Misi Ueba</i>. In only one case, though it seems to have +had many developments, do I find the premier personally committed. +The MacArthurs claimed the copra of Fasitotai on a district mortgage +of three hundred dollars. The German firm accepted a mortgage +of the whole province of Aana, claimed the copra of Fasitotai as that +of a part of Aana, and were supported by the government. Here +Brandeis was false to his own principle, that personal and village debts +should come before provincial. But the case occurred before the +promulgation of the law, and was, as a matter of fact, the cause of +it; so the most we can say is that he changed his mind, and changed +it for the better. If the history of his government be considered +- how it originated in an intrigue between the firm and the consulate, +and was (for the firm’s sake alone) supported by the consulate +with foreign bayonets - the existence of the least doubt on the man’s +action must seem marvellous. We should have looked to find him +playing openly and wholly into their hands; that he did not, implies +great independence and much secret friction; and I believe (if the truth +were known) the firm would be found to have been disgusted with the +stubbornness of its intended tool, and Brandeis often impatient of the +demands of his creators.<br> +<br> +But I may seem to exaggerate the degree of white opposition. And +it is true that before fate overtook the Brandeis government, it appeared +to enjoy the fruits of victory in Apia; and one dissident, the unconquerable +Moors, stood out alone to refuse his taxes. But the victory was +in appearance only; the opposition was latent; it found vent in talk, +and thus reacted on the natives; upon the least excuse, it was ready +to flame forth again. And this is the more singular because some +were far from out of sympathy with the native policy pursued. +When I met Captain Brandeis, he was amazed at my attitude. “Whom +did you find in Apia to tell you so much good of me?” he asked. +I named one of my informants. “He?” he cried. +“If he thought all that, why did he not help me?” +I told him as well as I was able. The man was a merchant. +He beheld in the government of Brandeis a government created by and +for the firm who were his rivals. If Brandeis were minded to deal +fairly, where was the probability that he would be allowed? If +Brandeis insisted and were strong enough to prevail, what guarantee +that, as soon as the government were fairly accepted, Brandeis might +not be removed? Here was the attitude of the hour; and I am glad +to find it clearly set forth in a despatch of Sewall’s, June 18th, +1888, when he commends the law against mortgages, and goes on: “Whether +the author of this law will carry out the good intentions which he professes +- whether he will be allowed to do so, if he desires, against the opposition +of those who placed him in power and protect him in the possession of +it - may well be doubted.” Brandeis had come to Apia in +the firm’s livery. Even while he promised neutrality in +commerce, the clerks were prating a different story in the bar-rooms; +and the late high feat of the knight-errant, Becker, had killed all +confidence in Germans at the root. By these three impolicies, +the German adventure in Samoa was defeated.<br> +<br> +I imply that the handful of whites were the true obstacle, not the thousands +of malcontent Samoans; for had the whites frankly accepted Brandeis, +the path of Germany was clear, and the end of their policy, however +troublesome might be its course, was obvious. But this is not +to say that the natives were content. In a sense, indeed, their +opposition was continuous. There will always be opposition in +Samoa when taxes are imposed; and the deportation of Malietoa stuck +in men’s throats. Tuiatua Mataafa refused to act under the +new government from the beginning, and Tamasese usurped his place and +title. As early as February, I find him signing himself “Tuiaana +<i>Tuiatua</i> Tamasese,” the first step on a dangerous path. +Asi, like Mataafa, disclaimed his chiefship and declared himself a private +person; but he was more rudely dealt with. German sailors surrounded +his house in the night, burst in, and dragged the women out of the mosquito +nets - an offence against Samoan manners. No Asi was to be found; +but at last they were shown his fishing-lights on the reef, rowed out, +took him as he was, and carried him on board a man-of-war, where he +was detained some while between-decks. At last, January 16th, +after a farewell interview over the ship’s side with his wife, +he was discharged into a ketch, and along with two other chiefs, Maunga +and Tuiletu-funga, deported to the Marshalls. The blow struck +fear upon all sides. Le Mãmea (a very able chief) was secretly +among the malcontents. His family and followers murmured at his +weakness; but he continued, throughout the duration of the government, +to serve Brandeis with trembling. A circus coming to Apia, he +seized at the pretext for escape, and asked leave to accept an engagement +in the company. “I will not allow you to make a monkey of +yourself,” said Brandeis; and the phrase had a success throughout +the islands, pungent expressions being so much admired by the natives +that they cannot refrain from repeating them, even when they have been +levelled at themselves. The assumption of the Atua <i>name</i> +spread discontent in that province; many chiefs from thence were convicted +of disaffection, and condemned to labour with their hands upon the roads +- a great shock to the Samoan sense of the becoming, which was rendered +the more sensible by the death of one of the number at his task. +Mataafa was involved in the same trouble. His disaffected speech +at a meeting of Atua chiefs was betrayed by the girls that made the +kava, and the man of the future was called to Apia on safe-conduct, +but, after an interview, suffered to return to his lair. The peculiarly +tender treatment of Mataafa must be explained by his relationship to +Tamasese. Laupepa was of Malietoa blood. The hereditary +retainers of the Tupua would see him exiled even with some complacency. +But Mataafa was Tupua himself; and Tupua men would probably have murmured, +and would perhaps have mutinied, had he been harshly dealt with.<br> +<br> +The native opposition, I say, was in a sense continuous. And it +kept continuously growing. The sphere of Brandeis was limited +to Mulinuu and the north central quarters of Upolu - practically what +is shown upon the map opposite. There the taxes were expanded; +in the out-districts, men paid their money and saw no return. +Here the eye and hand of the dictator were ready to correct the scales +of justice; in the out-districts, all things lay at the mercy of the +native magistrates, and their oppressions increased with the course +of time and the experience of impunity. In the spring of the year, +a very intelligent observer had occasion to visit many places in the +island of Savaii. “Our lives are not worth living,” +was the burthen of the popular complaint. “We are groaning +under the oppression of these men. We would rather die than continue +to endure it.” On his return to Apia, he made haste to communicate +his impressions to Brandeis. Brandeis replied in an epigram: “Where +there has been anarchy in a country, there must be oppression for a +time.” But unfortunately the terms of the epigram may be +reversed; and personal supervision would have been more in season than +wit. The same observer who conveyed to him this warning thinks +that, if Brandeis had himself visited the districts and inquired into +complaints, the blow might yet have been averted and the government +saved. At last, upon a certain unconstitutional act of Tamasese, +the discontent took life and fire. The act was of his own conception; +the dull dog was ambitious. Brandeis declares he would not be +dissuaded; perhaps his adviser did not seriously try, perhaps did not +dream that in that welter of contradictions, the Samoan constitution, +any one point would be considered sacred. I have told how Tamasese +assumed the title of Tuiatua. In August 1888 a year after his +installation, he took a more formidable step and assumed that of Malietoa. +This name, as I have said, is of peculiar honour; it had been given +to, it had never been taken from, the exiled Laupepa; those in whose +grant it lay, stood punctilious upon their rights; and Tamasese, as +the representative of their natural opponents, the Tupua line, was the +last who should have had it. And there was yet more, though I +almost despair to make it thinkable by Europeans. Certain old +mats are handed down, and set huge store by; they may be compared to +coats of arms or heirlooms among ourselves; and to the horror of more +than one-half of Samoa, Tamasese, the head of the Tupua, began collecting +Malietoa mats. It was felt that the cup was full, and men began +to prepare secretly for rebellion. The history of the month of +August is unknown to whites; it passed altogether in the covert of the +woods or in the stealthy councils of Samoans. One ominous sign +was to be noted; arms and ammunition began to be purchased or inquired +about; and the more wary traders ordered fresh consignments of material +of war. But the rest was silence; the government slept in security; +and Brandeis was summoned at last from a public dinner, to find rebellion +organised, the woods behind Apia full of insurgents, and a plan prepared, +and in the very article of execution, to surprise and seize Mulinuu. +The timely discovery averted all; and the leaders hastily withdrew towards +the south side of the island, leaving in the bush a rear-guard under +a young man of the name of Saifaleupolu. According to some accounts, +it scarce numbered forty; the leader was no great chief, but a handsome, +industrious lad who seems to have been much beloved. And upon +this obstacle Brandeis fell. It is the man’s fault to be +too impatient of results; his public intention to free Samoa of all +debt within the year, depicts him; and instead of continuing to temporise +and let his enemies weary and disperse, he judged it politic to strike +a blow. He struck it, with what seemed to be success, and the +sound of it roused Samoa to rebellion.<br> +<br> +About two in the morning of August 31st, Apia was wakened by men marching. +Day came, and Brandeis and his war-party were already long disappeared +in the woods. All morning belated Tamaseseites were still to be +seen running with their guns. All morning shots were listened +for in vain; but over the top of the forest, far up the mountain, smoke +was for some time observed to hang. About ten a dead man was carried +in, lashed under a pole like a dead pig, his rosary (for he was a Catholic) +hanging nearly to the ground. Next came a young fellow wounded, +sitting in a rope swung from a pole; two fellows bearing him, two running +behind for a relief. At last about eleven, three or four heavy +volleys and a great shouting were heard from the bush town Tanungamanono; +the affair was over, the victorious force, on the march back, was there +celebrating its victory by the way. Presently after, it marched +through Apia, five or six hundred strong, in tolerable order and strutting +with the ludicrous assumption of the triumphant islander. Women +who had been buying bread ran and gave them loaves. At the tail +end came Brandeis himself, smoking a cigar, deadly pale, and with perhaps +an increase of his usual nervous manner. One spoke to him by the +way. He expressed his sorrow the action had been forced on him. +“Poor people, it’s all the worse for them!” he said. +“It’ll have to be done another way now.” And +it was supposed by his hearer that he referred to intervention from +the German war-ships. He meant, he said, to put a stop to head-hunting; +his men had taken two that day, he added, but he had not suffered them +to bring them in, and they had been left in Tanungamanono. Thither +my informant rode, was attracted by the sound of walling, and saw in +a house the two heads washed and combed, and the sister of one of the +dead lamenting in the island fashion and kissing the cold face. +Soon after, a small grave was dug, the heads were buried in a beef box, +and the pastor read the service. The body of Saifaleupolu himself +was recovered unmutilated, brought down from the forest, and buried +behind Apia.<br> +<br> +The same afternoon, the men of Vaimaunga were ordered to report in Mulinuu, +where Tamasese’s flag was half-masted for the death of a chief +in the skirmish. Vaimaunga is that district of Taumasanga which +includes the bay and the foothills behind Apia; and both province and +district are strong Malietoa. Not one man, it is said, obeyed +the summons. Night came, and the town lay in unusual silence; +no one abroad; the blinds down around the native houses, the men within +sleeping on their arms; the old women keeping watch in pairs. +And in the course of the two following days all Vaimaunga was gone into +the bush, the very gaoler setting free his prisoners and joining them +in their escape. Hear the words of the chiefs in the 23rd article +of their complaint: “Some of the chiefs fled to the bush from +fear of being reported, fear of German men-of-war, constantly being +accused, etc., and Brandeis commanded that they were to be shot on sight. +This act was carried out by Brandeis on the 31st day of August, 1888. +After this we evaded these laws; we could not stand them; our patience +was worn out with the constant wickedness of Tamasese and Brandeis. +We were tired out and could stand no longer the acts of these two men.”<br> +<br> +So through an ill-timed skirmish, two severed heads, and a dead body, +the rule of Brandeis came to a sudden end. We shall see him a +while longer fighting for existence in a losing battle; but his government +- take it for all in all, the most promising that has ever been in these +unlucky islands - was from that hour a piece of history.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER V - THE BATTLE OF MATAUTU<br> +<i>September 1888<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +</i>The revolution had all the character of a popular movement. +Many of the high chiefs were detained in Mulinuu; the commons trooped +to the bush under inferior leaders. A camp was chosen near Faleula, +threatening Mulinuu, well placed for the arrival of recruits and close +to a German plantation from which the force could be subsisted. +Manono came, all Tuamasanga, much of Savaii, and part of Aana, Tamasese’s +own government and titular seat. Both sides were arming. +It was a brave day for the trader, though not so brave as some that +followed, when a single cartridge is said to have been sold for twelve +cents currency - between nine and ten cents gold. Yet even among +the traders a strong party feeling reigned, and it was the common practice +to ask a purchaser upon which side he meant to fight.<br> +<br> +On September 5th, Brandeis published a letter: “To the chiefs +of Tuamasanga, Manono, and Faasaleleanga in the Bush: Chiefs, by authority +of his majesty Tamasese, the king of Samoa, I make known to you all +that the German man-of-war is about to go together with a Samoan fleet +for the purpose of burning Manono. After this island is all burnt, +’tis good if the people return to Manono and live quiet. +To the people of Faasaleleanga I say, return to your houses and stop +there. The same to those belonging to Tuamasanga. If you +obey this instruction, then you will all be forgiven; if you do not +obey, then all your villages will be burnt like Manono. These +instructions are made in truth in the sight of God in the Heaven.” +The same morning, accordingly, the <i>Adler</i> steamed out of the bay +with a force of Tamasese warriors and some native boats in tow, the +Samoan fleet in question. Manono was shelled; the Tamasese warriors, +under the conduct of a Manono traitor, who paid before many days the +forfeit of his blood, landed and did some damage, but were driven away +by the sight of a force returning from the mainland; no one was hurt, +for the women and children, who alone remained on the island, found +a refuge in the bush; and the <i>Adler</i> and her acolytes returned +the same evening. The letter had been energetic; the performance +fell below the programme. The demonstration annoyed and yet re-assured +the insurgents, and it fully disclosed to the Germans a new enemy.<br> +<br> +Captain Yon Widersheim had been relieved. His successor, Captain +Fritze, was an officer of a different stamp. I have nothing to +say of him but good; he seems to have obeyed the consul’s requisitions +with secret distaste; his despatches were of admirable candour; but +his habits were retired, he spoke little English, and was far indeed +from inheriting von Widersheim’s close relations with Commander +Leary. It is believed by Germans that the American officer resented +what he took to be neglect. I mention this, not because I believe +it to depict Commander Leary, but because it is typical of a prevailing +infirmity among Germans in Samoa. Touchy themselves, they read +all history in the light of personal affronts and tiffs; and I find +this weakness indicated by the big thumb of Bismarck, when he places +“sensitiveness to small disrespects - <i>Empfindlichkeit ueber +Mangel an Respect</i>,” among the causes of the wild career of +Knappe. Whatever the cause, at least, the natives had no sooner +taken arms than Leary appeared with violence upon that side. As +early as the 3rd, he had sent an obscure but menacing despatch to Brandeis. +On the 6th, he fell on Fritze in the matter of the Manono bombardment. +“The revolutionists,” he wrote, “had an armed force +in the field within a few miles of this harbour, when the vessels under +your command transported the Tamasese troops to a neighbouring island +with the avowed intention of making war on the isolated homes of the +women and children of the enemy. Being the only other representative +of a naval power now present in this harbour, for the sake of humanity +I hereby respectfully and solemnly protest in the name of the United +States of America and of the civilised world in general against the +use of a national war-vessel for such services as were yesterday rendered +by the German corvette <i>Adler</i>.” Fritze’s reply, +to the effect that he is under the orders of the consul and has no right +of choice, reads even humble; perhaps he was not himself vain of the +exploit, perhaps not prepared to see it thus described in words. +From that moment Leary was in the front of the row. His name is +diagnostic, but it was not required; on every step of his subsequent +action in Samoa Irishman is writ large; over all his doings a malign +spirit of humour presided. No malice was too small for him, if +it were only funny. When night signals were made from Mulinuu, +he would sit on his own poop and confound them with gratuitous rockets. +He was at the pains to write a letter and address it to “the High +Chief Tamasese” - a device as old at least as the wars of Robert +Bruce - in order to bother the officials of the German post-office, +in whose hands he persisted in leaving it, although the address was +death to them and the distribution of letters in Samoa formed no part +of their profession. His great masterwork of pleasantry, the Scanlon +affair, must be narrated in its place. And he was no less bold +than comical. The <i>Adams</i> was not supposed to be a match +for the <i>Adler</i>; there was no glory to be gained in beating her; +and yet I have heard naval officers maintain she might have proved a +dangerous antagonist in narrow waters and at short range. Doubtless +Leary thought so. He was continually daring Fritze to come on; +and already, in a despatch of the 9th, I find Becker complaining of +his language in the hearing of German officials, and how he had declared +that, on the <i>Adler</i> again interfering, he would interfere himself, +“if he went to the bottom for it - <i>und wenn sein Schiff dabei +zu Grunde ginge</i>.” Here is the style of opposition which +has the merit of being frank, not that of being agreeable. Becker +was annoying, Leary infuriating; there is no doubt that the tempers +in the German consulate were highly ulcerated; and if war between the +two countries did not follow, we must set down the praise to the forbearance +of the German navy. This is not the last time that I shall have +to salute the merits of that service.<br> +<br> +The defeat and death of Saifaleupolu and the burning of Manono had thus +passed off without the least advantage to Tamasese. But he still +held the significant position of Mulinuu, and Brandeis was strenuous +to make it good. The whole peninsula was surrounded with a breastwork; +across the isthmus it was six feet high and strengthened with a ditch; +and the beach was staked against landing. Weber’s land claim +- the same that now broods over the village in the form of a signboard +- then appeared in a more military guise; the German flag was hoisted, +and German sailors manned the breastwork at the isthmus - “to +protect German property” and its trifling parenthesis, the king +of Samoa. Much vigilance reigned and, in the island fashion, much +wild firing. And in spite of all, desertion was for a long time +daily. The detained high chiefs would go to the beach on the pretext +of a natural occasion, plunge in the sea, and swimming across a broad, +shallow bay of the lagoon, join the rebels on the Faleula side. +Whole bodies of warriors, sometimes hundreds strong, departed with their +arms and ammunition. On the 7th of September, for instance, the +day after Leary’s letter, Too and Mataia left with their contingents, +and the whole Aana people returned home in a body to hold a parliament. +Ten days later, it is true, a part of them returned to their duty; but +another part branched off by the way and carried their services, and +Tamasese’s dear-bought guns, to Faleula.<br> +<br> +On the 8th, there was a defection of a different kind, but yet sensible. +The High Chief Seumanu had been still detained in Mulinuu under anxious +observation. His people murmured at his absence, threatened to +“take away his name,” and had already attempted a rescue. +The adventure was now taken in hand by his wife Faatulia, a woman of +much sense and spirit and a strong partisan; and by her contrivance, +Seumanu gave his guardians the slip and rejoined his clan at Faleula. +This process of winnowing was of course counterbalanced by another of +recruitment. But the harshness of European and military rule had +made Brandeis detested and Tamasese unpopular with many; and the force +on Mulinuu is thought to have done little more than hold its own. +Mataafa sympathisers set it down at about two or three thousand. +I have no estimate from the other side; but Becker admits they were +not strong enough to keep the field in the open.<br> +<br> +The political significance of Mulinuu was great, but in a military sense +the position had defects. If it was difficult to carry, it was +easy to blockade: and to be hemmed in on that narrow finger of land +were an inglorious posture for the monarch of Samoa. The peninsula, +besides, was scant of food and destitute of water. Pressed by +these considerations, Brandeis extended his lines till he had occupied +the whole foreshore of Apia bay and the opposite point, Matautu. +His men were thus drawn out along some three nautical miles of irregular +beach, everywhere with their backs to the sea, and without means of +communication or mutual support except by water. The extension +led to fresh sorrows. The Tamasese men quartered themselves in +the houses of the absent men of the Vaimaunga. Disputes arose +with English and Americans. Leary interposed in a loud voice of +menace. It was said the firm profited by the confusion to buttress +up imperfect land claims; I am sure the other whites would not be far +behind the firm. Properties were fenced in, fences and houses +were torn down, scuffles ensued. The German example at Mulinuu +was followed with laughable unanimity; wherever an Englishman or an +American conceived himself to have a claim, he set up the emblem of +his country; and the beach twinkled with the flags of nations.<br> +<br> +All this, it will be observed, was going forward in that neutral territory, +sanctified by treaty against the presence of armed Samoans. The +insurgents themselves looked on in wonder: on the 4th, trembling to +transgress against the great Powers, they had written for a delimitation +of the <i>Eleele Sa</i>; and Becker, in conversation with the British +consul, replied that he recognised none. So long as Tamasese held +the ground, this was expedient. But suppose Tamasese worsted, +it might prove awkward for the stores, mills, and offices of a great +German firm, thus bared of shelter by the act of their own consul.<br> +<br> +On the morning of the 9th September, just ten days after the death of +Saifaleupolu, Mataafa, under the name of Malietoa To’oa Mataafa, +was crowned king at Faleula. On the 11th he wrote to the British +and American consuls: “Gentlemen, I write this letter to you two +very humbly and entreatingly, on account of this difficulty that has +come before me. I desire to know from you two gentlemen the truth +where the boundaries of the neutral territory are. You will observe +that I am now at Vaimoso [a step nearer the enemy], and I have stopped +here until I knew what you say regarding the neutral territory. +I wish to know where I can go, and where the forbidden ground is, for +I do not wish to go on any neutral territory, or on any foreigner’s +property. I do not want to offend any of the great Powers. +Another thing I would like. Would it be possible for you three +consuls to make Tamasese remove from German property? for I am in awe +of going on German land.” He must have received a reply +embodying Becker’s renunciation of the principle, at once; for +he broke camp the same day, and marched eastward through the bush behind +Apia.<br> +<br> +Brandeis, expecting attack, sought to improve his indefensible position. +He reformed his centre by the simple expedient of suppressing it. +Apia was evacuated. The two flanks, Mulinuu and Matautu, were +still held and fortified, Mulinuu (as I have said) to the isthmus, Matautu +on a line from the bayside to the little river Fuisá. The +centre was represented by the trajectory of a boat across the bay from +one flank to another, and was held (we may say) by the German war-ship. +Mataafa decided (I am assured) to make a feint on Matautu, induce Brandeis +to deplete Mulinuu in support, and then fall upon and carry that. +And there is no doubt in my mind that such a plan was bruited abroad, +for nothing but a belief in it could explain the behaviour of Brandeis +on the 12th. That it was seriously entertained by Mataafa I stoutly +disbelieve; the German flag and sailors forbidding the enterprise in +Mulinuu. So that we may call this false intelligence the beginning +and the end of Mataafa’s strategy.<br> +<br> +The whites who sympathised with the revolt were uneasy and impatient. +They will still tell you, though the dates are there to show them wrong, +that Mataafa, even after his coronation, delayed extremely: a proof +of how long two days may seem to last when men anticipate events. +On the evening of the 11th, while the new king was already on the march, +one of these walked into Matautu. The moon was bright. By +the way he observed the native houses dark and silent; the men had been +about a fortnight in the bush, but now the women and children were gone +also; at which he wondered. On the sea-beach, in the camp of the +Tamaseses, the solitude was near as great; he saw three or four men +smoking before the British consulate, perhaps a dozen in all; the rest +were behind in the bush upon their line of forts. About the midst +he sat down, and here a woman drew near to him. The moon shone +in her face, and he knew her for a householder near by, and a partisan +of Mataafa’s. She looked about her as she came, and asked +him, trembling, what he did in the camp of Tamasese. He was there +after news, he told her. She took him by the hand. “You +must not stay here, you will get killed,” she said. “The +bush is full of our people, the others are watching them, fighting may +begin at any moment, and we are both here too long.” So +they set off together; and she told him by the way that she had came +to the hostile camp with a present of bananas, so that the Tamasese +men might spare her house. By the Vaisingano they met an old man, +a woman, and a child; and these also she warned and turned back. +Such is the strange part played by women among the scenes of Samoan +warfare, such were the liberties then permitted to the whites, that +these two could pass the lines, talk together in Tamasese’s camp +on the eve of an engagement, and pass forth again bearing intelligence, +like privileged spies. And before a few hours the white man was +in direct communication with the opposing general. The next morning +he was accosted “about breakfast-time” by two natives who +stood leaning against the pickets of a public-house, where the Siumu +road strikes in at right angles to the main street of Apia. They +told him battle was imminent, and begged him to pass a little way inland +and speak with Mataafa. The road is at this point broad and fairly +good, running between thick groves of cocoa-palm and breadfruit. +A few hundred yards along this the white man passed a picket of four +armed warriors, with red handkerchiefs and their faces blackened in +the form of a full beard, the Mataafa rallying signs for the day; a +little farther on, some fifty; farther still, a hundred; and at last +a quarter of a mile of them sitting by the wayside armed and blacked.<br> +<br> +Near by, in the verandah of a house on a knoll, he found Mataafa seated +in white clothes, a Winchester across his knees. His men, he said, +were still arriving from behind, and there was a turning movement in +operation beyond the Fuisá, so that the Tamaseses should be assailed +at the same moment from the south and east. And this is another +indication that the attack on Matautu was the true attack; had any design +on Mulinuu been in the wind, not even a Samoan general would have detached +these troops upon the other side. While they still spoke, five +Tamasese women were brought in with their hands bound; they had been +stealing “our” bananas.<br> +<br> +All morning the town was strangely deserted, the very children gone. +A sense of expectation reigned, and sympathy for the attack was expressed +publicly. Some men with unblacked faces came to Moors’s +store for biscuit. A native woman, who was there marketing, inquired +after the news, and, hearing that the battle was now near at hand, “Give +them two more tins,” said she; “and don’t put them +down to my husband - he would growl; put them down to me.” +Between twelve and one, two white men walked toward Matautu, finding +as they went no sign of war until they had passed the Vaisingano and +come to the corner of a by-path leading to the bush. Here were +four blackened warriors on guard, - the extreme left wing of the Mataafa +force, where it touched the waters of the bay. Thence the line +(which the white men followed) stretched inland among bush and marsh, +facing the forts of the Tamaseses. The warriors lay as yet inactive +behind trees; but all the young boys and harlots of Apia toiled in the +front upon a trench, digging with knives and cocoa-shells; and a continuous +stream of children brought them water. The young sappers worked +crouching; from the outside only an occasional head, or a hand emptying +a shell of earth, was visible; and their enemies looked on inert from +the line of the opposing forts. The lists were not yet prepared, +the tournament was not yet open; and the attacking force was suffered +to throw up works under the silent guns of the defence. But there +is an end even to the delay of islanders. As the white men stood +and looked, the Tamasese line thundered into a volley; it was answered; +the crowd of silent workers broke forth in laughter and cheers; and +the battle had begun.<br> +<br> +Thenceforward, all day and most of the next night, volley followed volley; +and pounds of lead and pounds sterling of money continued to be blown +into the air without cessation and almost without result. Colonel +de Coetlogon, an old soldier, described the noise as deafening. +The harbour was all struck with shots; a man was knocked over on the +German war-ship; half Apia was under fire; and a house was pierced beyond +the Mulivai. All along the two lines of breastwork, the entrenched +enemies exchanged this hail of balls; and away on the east of the battle +the fusillade was maintained, with equal spirit, across the narrow barrier +of the Fuisá. The whole rear of the Tamaseses was enfiladed +by this flank fire; and I have seen a house there, by the river brink, +that was riddled with bullets like a piece of worm-eaten wreck-wood. +At this point of the field befell a trait of Samoan warfare worth recording. +Taiese (brother to Siteoni already mentioned) shot a Tamasese man. +He saw him fall, and, inflamed with the lust of glory, passed the river +single-handed in that storm of missiles to secure the head. On +the farther bank, as was but natural, he fell himself; he who had gone +to take a trophy remained to afford one; and the Mataafas, who had looked +on exulting in the prospect of a triumph, saw themselves exposed instead +to a disgrace. Then rose one Vingi, passed the deadly water, swung +the body of Taiese on his back, and returned unscathed to his own side, +the head saved, the corpse filled with useless bullets.<br> +<br> +At this rate of practice, the ammunition soon began to run low, and +from an early hour of the afternoon, the Malietoa stores were visited +by customers in search of more. An elderly man came leaping and +cheering, his gun in one hand, a basket of three heads in the other. +A fellow came shot through the forearm. “It doesn’t +hurt now,” he said, as he bought his cartridges; “but it +will hurt to-morrow, and I want to fight while I can.” A +third followed, a mere boy, with the end of his nose shot off: “Have +you any painkiller? give it me quick, so that I can get back to fight.” +On either side, there was the same delight in sound and smoke and schoolboy +cheering, the same unsophisticated ardour of battle; and the misdirected +skirmish proceeded with a din, and was illustrated with traits of bravery +that would have fitted a Waterloo or a Sedan.<br> +<br> +I have said how little I regard the alleged plan of battle. At +least it was now all gone to water. The whole forces of Mataafa +had leaked out, man by man, village by village, on the so-called false +attack. They were all pounding for their lives on the front and +the left flank of Matautu. About half-past three they enveloped +the right flank also. The defenders were driven back along the +beach road as far as the pilot station at the turn of the land. +From this also they were dislodged, stubbornly fighting. One, +it Is told, retreated to his middle in the lagoon; stood there, loading +and firing, till he fell; and his body was found on the morrow pierced +with four mortal wounds. The Tamasese force was now enveloped +on three sides; it was besides almost cut off from the sea; and across +its whole rear and only way of retreat a fire of hostile bullets crossed +from east and west, in the midst of which men were surprised to observe +the birds continuing to sing, and a cow grazed all afternoon unhurt. +Doubtless here was the defence in a poor way; but then the attack was +in irons. For the Mataafas about the pilot house could scarcely +advance beyond without coming under the fire of their own men from the +other side of the Fuisá; and there was not enough organisation, +perhaps not enough authority, to divert or to arrest that fire.<br> +<br> +The progress of the fight along the beach road was visible from Mulinuu, +and Brandeis despatched ten boats of reinforcements. They crossed +the harbour, paused for a while beside the <i>Adler</i> - it is supposed +for ammunition - and drew near the Matautu shore. The Mataafa +men lay close among the shore-side bushes, expecting their arrival; +when a silly lad, in mere lightness of heart, fired a shot in the air. +My native friend, Mrs. Mary Hamilton, ran out of her house and gave +the culprit a good shaking: an episode in the midst of battle as incongruous +as the grazing cow. But his sillier comrades followed his example; +a harmless volley warned the boats what they might expect; and they +drew back and passed outside the reef for the passage of the Fuisá. +Here they came under the fire of the right wing of the Mataafas on the +river-bank. The beach, raked east and west, appeared to them no +place to land on. And they hung off in the deep water of the lagoon +inside the barrier reef, feebly fusillading the pilot house.<br> +<br> +Between four and five, the Fabeata regiment (or folk of that village) +on the Mataafa left, which had been under arms all day, fell to be withdrawn +for rest and food; the Siumu regiment, which should have relieved it, +was not ready or not notified in time; and the Tamaseses, gallantly +profiting by the mismanagement, recovered the most of the ground in +their proper right. It was not for long. They lost it again, +yard by yard and from house to house, till the pilot station was once +more in the hands of the Mataafas. This is the last definite incident +in the battle. The vicissitudes along the line of the entrenchments +remain concealed from us under the cover of the forest. Some part +of the Tamasese position there appears to have been carried, but what +part, or at what hour, or whether the advantage was maintained, I have +never learned. Night and rain, but not silence, closed upon the +field. The trenches were deep in mud; but the younger folk wrecked +the houses in the neighbourhood, carried the roofs to the front, and +lay under them, men and women together, through a long night of furious +squalls and furious and useless volleys. Meanwhile the older folk +trailed back into Apia in the rain; they talked as they went of who +had fallen and what heads had been taken upon either side - they seemed +to know by name the losses upon both; and drenched with wet and broken +with excitement and fatigue, they crawled into the verandahs of the +town to eat and sleep. The morrow broke grey and drizzly, but +as so often happens in the islands, cleared up into a glorious day. +During the night, the majority of the defenders had taken advantage +of the rain and darkness and stolen from their forts unobserved. +The rallying sign of the Tamaseses had been a white handkerchief. +With the dawn, the de Coetlogons from the English consulate beheld the +ground strewn with these badges discarded; and close by the house, a +belated turncoat was still changing white for red. Matautu was +lost; Tamasese was confined to Mulinuu; and by nine o’clock two +Mataafa villages paraded the streets of Apia, taking possession. +The cost of this respectable success in ammunition must have been enormous; +in life it was but small. Some compute forty killed on either +side, others forty on both, three or four being women and one a white +man, master of a schooner from Fiji. Nor was the number even of +the wounded at all proportionate to the surprising din and fury of the +affair while it lasted.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VI - LAST EXPLOITS OF BECKER<br> +<i>September - November</i> 1888<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Brandeis had held all day by Mulinuu, expecting the reported real attack. +He woke on the 13th to find himself cut off on that unwatered promontory, +and the Mataafa villagers parading Apia. The same day Fritze received +a letter from Mataafa summoning him to withdraw his party from the isthmus; +and Fritze, as if in answer, drew in his ship into the small harbour +close to Mulinuu, and trained his port battery to assist in the defence. +From a step so decisive, it might be thought the German plans were unaffected +by the disastrous issue of the battle. I conceive nothing would +be further from the truth. Here was Tamasese penned on Mulinuu +with his troops; Apia, from which alone these could be subsisted, in +the hands of the enemy; a battle imminent, in which the German vessel +must apparently take part with men and battery, and the buildings of +the German firm were apparently destined to be the first target of fire. +Unless Becker re-established that which he had so lately and so artfully +thrown down - the neutral territory - the firm would have to suffer. +If he re-established it, Tamasese must retire from Mulinuu. If +Becker saved his goose, he lost his cabbage. Nothing so well depicts +the man’s effrontery as that he should have conceived the design +of saving both, - of re-establishing only so much of the neutral territory +as should hamper Mataafa, and leaving in abeyance all that could incommode +Tamasese. By drawing the boundary where he now proposed, across +the isthmus, he protected the firm, drove back the Mataafas out of almost +all that they had conquered, and, so far from disturbing Tamasese, actually +fortified him in his old position.<br> +<br> +The real story of the negotiations that followed we shall perhaps never +learn. But so much is plain: that while Becker was thus outwardly +straining decency in the interest of Tamasese, he was privately intriguing, +or pretending to intrigue, with Mataafa. In his despatch of the +11th, he had given an extended criticism of that chieftain, whom he +depicts as very dark and artful; and while admitting that his assumption +of the name of Malietoa might raise him up followers, predicted that +he could not make an orderly government or support himself long in sole +power “without very energetic foreign help.” Of what +help was the consul thinking? There was no helper in the field +but Germany. On the 15th he had an interview with the victor; +told him that Tamasese’s was the only government recognised by +Germany, and that he must continue to recognise it till he received +“other instructions from his government, whom he was now advising +of the late events”; refused, accordingly, to withdraw the guard +from the isthmus; and desired Mataafa, “until the arrival of these +fresh instructions,” to refrain from an attack on Mulinuu. +One thing of two: either this language is extremely perfidious, or Becker +was preparing to change sides. The same detachment appears in +his despatch of October 7th. He computes the losses of the German +firm with an easy cheerfulness. If Tamasese get up again (<i>gelingt +die Wiederherstellung der Regierung Tamasese’s</i>), Tamasese +will have to pay. If not, then Mataafa. This is not the +language of a partisan. The tone of indifference, the easy implication +that the case of Tamasese was already desperate, the hopes held secretly +forth to Mataafa and secretly reported to his government at home, trenchantly +contrast with his external conduct. At this very time he was feeding +Tamasese; he had German sailors mounting guard on Tamasese’s battlements; +the German war-ship lay close in, whether to help or to destroy. +If he meant to drop the cause of Tamasese, he had him in a corner, helpless, +and could stifle him without a sob. If he meant to rat, it was +to be with every condition of safety and every circumstance of infamy.<br> +<br> +Was it conceivable, then, that he meant it? Speaking with a gentleman +who was in the confidence of Dr. Knappe: “Was it not a pity,” +I asked, “that Knappe did not stick to Becker’s policy of +supporting Mataafa?” “You are quite wrong there; that +was not Knappe’s doing,” was the reply. “Becker +had changed his mind before Knappe came.” Why, then, had +he changed it? This excellent, if ignominious, idea once entertained, +why was it let drop? It is to be remembered there was another +German in the field, Brandeis, who had a respect, or rather, perhaps, +an affection, for Tamasese, and who thought his own honour and that +of his country engaged in the support of that government which they +had provoked and founded. Becker described the captain to Laupepa +as “a quiet, sensible gentleman.” If any word came +to his ears of the intended manoeuvre, Brandeis would certainly show +himself very sensible of the affront; but Becker might have been tempted +to withdraw his former epithet of quiet. Some such passage, some +such threatened change of front at the consulate, opposed with outcry, +would explain what seems otherwise inexplicable, the bitter, indignant, +almost hostile tone of a subsequent letter from Brandeis to Knappe - +“Brandeis’s inflammatory letter,” Bismarck calls it +- the proximate cause of the German landing and reverse at Fangalii.<br> +<br> +But whether the advances of Becker were sincere or not - whether he +meditated treachery against the old king or was practising treachery +upon the new, and the choice is between one or other - no doubt but +he contrived to gain his points with Mataafa, prevailing on him to change +his camp for the better protection of the German plantations, and persuading +him (long before he could persuade his brother consuls) to accept that +miraculous new neutral territory of his, with a piece cut out for the +immediate needs of Tamasese.<br> +<br> +During the rest of September, Tamasese continued to decline. On +the 19th one village and half of another deserted him; on the 22nd two +more. On the 21st the Mataafas burned his town of Leulumoenga, +his own splendid house flaming with the rest; and there are few things +of which a native thinks more, or has more reason to think well, than +of a fine Samoan house. Tamasese women and children were marched +up the same day from Atua, and handed over with their sleeping-mats +to Mulinuu: a most unwelcome addition to a party already suffering from +want. By the 20th, they were being watered from the <i>Adler</i>. +On the 24th the Manono fleet of sixteen large boats, fortified and rendered +unmanageable with tons of firewood, passed to windward to intercept +supplies from Atua. By the 27th the hungry garrison flocked in +great numbers to draw rations at the German firm. On the 28th +the same business was repeated with a different issue. Mataafas +crowded to look on; words were exchanged, blows followed; sticks, stones, +and bottles were caught up; the detested Brandeis, at great risk, threw +himself between the lines and expostulated with the Mataafas - his only +personal appearance in the wars, if this could be called war. +The same afternoon, the Tamasese boats got in with provisions, having +passed to seaward of the lumbering Manono fleet; and from that day on, +whether from a high degree of enterprise on the one side or a great +lack of capacity on the other, supplies were maintained from the sea +with regularity. Thus the spectacle of battle, or at least of +riot, at the doors of the German firm was not repeated. But the +memory must have hung heavy on the hearts, not of the Germans only, +but of all Apia. The Samoans are a gentle race, gentler than any +in Europe; we are often enough reminded of the circumstance, not always +by their friends. But a mob is a mob, and a drunken mob is a drunken +mob, and a drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a drunken mob with +weapons in its hands, all the world over: elementary propositions, which +some of us upon these islands might do worse than get by rote, but which +must have been evident enough to Becker. And I am amazed by the +man’s constancy, that, even while blows were going at the door +of that German firm which he was in Samoa to protect, he should have +stuck to his demands. Ten days before, Blacklock had offered to +recognise the old territory, including Mulinuu, and Becker had refused, +and still in the midst of these “alarums and excursions,” +he continued to refuse it.<br> +<br> +On October 2nd, anchored in Apia bay H.B.M.S. <i>Calliope</i>, Captain +Kane, carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Fairfax, and the gunboat <i>Lizard</i>, +Lieutenant-Commander Pelly. It was rumoured the admiral had come +to recognise the government of Tamasese, I believe in error. And +at least the day for that was quite gone by; and he arrived not to salute +the king’s accession, but to arbitrate on his remains. A +conference of the consuls and commanders met on board the <i>Calliope</i>, +October 4th, Fritze alone being absent, although twice invited: the +affair touched politics, his consul was to be there; and even if he +came to the meeting (so he explained to Fairfax) he would have no voice +in its deliberations. The parties were plainly marked out: Blacklock +and Leary maintaining their offer of the old neutral territory, and +probably willing to expand or to contract it to any conceivable extent, +so long as Mulinuu was still included; Knappe offered (if the others +liked) to include “the whole eastern end of the island,” +but quite fixed upon the one point that Mulinuu should be left out; +the English willing to meet either view, and singly desirous that Apia +should be neutralised. The conclusion was foregone. Becker +held a trump card in the consent of Mataafa; Blacklock and Leary stood +alone, spoke with all ill grace, and could not long hold out. +Becker had his way; and the neutral boundary was chosen just where he +desired: across the isthmus, the firm within, Mulinuu without. +He did not long enjoy the fruits of victory.<br> +<br> +On the 7th, three days after the meeting, one of the Scanlons (well-known +and intelligent half-castes) came to Blacklock with a complaint. +The Scanlon house stood on the hither side of the Tamasese breastwork, +just inside the newly accepted territory, and within easy range of the +firm. Armed men, to the number of a hundred, had issued from Mulinuu, +had “taken charge” of the house, had pointed a gun at Scanlon’s +head, and had twice “threatened to kill” his pigs. +I hear elsewhere of some effects (<i>Gegenstände</i>) removed. +At the best a very pale atrocity, though we shall find the word employed. +Germans declare besides that Scanlon was no American subject; they declare +the point had been decided by court-martial in 1875; that Blacklock +had the decision in the consular archives; and that this was his reason +for handing the affair to Leary. It is not necessary to suppose +so. It is plain he thought little of the business; thought indeed +nothing of it; except in so far as armed men had entered the neutral +territory from Mulinuu; and it was on this ground alone, and the implied +breach of Becker’s engagement at the conference, that he invited +Leary’s attention to the tale. The impish ingenuity of the +commander perceived in it huge possibilities of mischief. He took +up the Scanlon outrage, the atrocity of the threatened pigs; and with +that poor instrument - I am sure, to his own wonder - drove Tamasese +out of Mulinuu. It was “an intrigue,” Becker complains. +To be sure it was; but who was Becker to be complaining of intrigue?<br> +<br> +On the 7th Leary laid before Fritze the following conundrum: “As +the natives of Mulinuu appear to be under the protection of the Imperial +German naval guard belonging to the vessel under your command, I have +the honour to request you to inform me whether or not they are under +such protection? Amicable relations,” pursued the humorist, +“amicable relations exist between the government of the United +States and His Imperial German Majesty’s government, but we do +not recognise Tamasese’s government, and I am desirous of locating +the responsibility for violations of American rights.” Becker +and Fritze lost no time in explanation or denial, but went straight +to the root of the matter and sought to buy off Scanlon. Becker +declares that every reparation was offered. Scanlon takes a pride +to recapitulate the leases and the situations he refused, and the long +interviews in which he was tempted and plied with drink by Becker or +Beckmann of the firm. No doubt, in short, that he was offered +reparation in reason and out of reason, and, being thoroughly primed, +refused it all. Meantime some answer must be made to Leary; and +Fritze repeated on the 8th his oft-repeated assurances that he was not +authorised to deal with politics. The same day Leary retorted: +“The question is not one of diplomacy nor of politics. It +is strictly one of military jurisdiction and responsibility. Under +the shadow of the German fort at Mulinuu,” continued the hyperbolical +commander, “atrocities have been committed. . . . And I again +have the honour respectfully to request to be informed whether or not +the armed natives at Mulinuu are under the protection of the Imperial +German naval guard belonging to the vessel under your command.” +To this no answer was vouchsafed till the 11th, and then in the old +terms; and meanwhile, on the 10th, Leary got into his gaiters - the +sure sign, as was both said and sung aboard his vessel, of some desperate +or some amusing service - and was set ashore at the Scanlons’ +house. Of this he took possession at the head of an old woman +and a mop, and was seen from the Tamasese breastwork directing operations +and plainly preparing to install himself there in a military posture. +So much he meant to be understood; so much he meant to carry out, and +an armed party from the <i>Adams</i> was to have garrisoned on the morrow +the scene of the atrocity. But there is no doubt he managed to +convey more. No doubt he was a master in the art of loose speaking, +and could always manage to be overheard when he wanted; and by this, +or some other equally unofficial means, he spread the rumour that on +the morrow he was to bombard.<br> +<br> +The proposed post, from its position, and from Leary’s well-established +character as an artist in mischief, must have been regarded by the Germans +with uneasiness. In the bombardment we can scarce suppose them +to have believed. But Tamasese must have both believed and trembled. +The prestige of the European Powers was still unbroken. No native +would then have dreamed of defying these colossal ships, worked by mysterious +powers, and laden with outlandish instruments of death. None would +have dreamed of resisting those strange but quite unrealised Great Powers, +understood (with difficulty) to be larger than Tonga and Samoa put together, +and known to be prolific of prints, knives, hard biscuit, picture-books, +and other luxuries, as well as of overbearing men and inconsistent orders. +Laupepa had fallen in ill-blood with one of them; his only idea of defence +had been to throw himself in the arms of another; his name, his rank, +and his great following had not been able to preserve him; and he had +vanished from the eyes of men - as the Samoan thinks of it, beyond the +sky. Asi, Maunga, Tuiletu-funga, had followed him in that new +path of doom. We have seen how carefully Mataafa still walked, +how he dared not set foot on the neutral territory till assured it was +no longer sacred, how he withdrew from it again as soon as its sacredness +had been restored, and at the bare word of a consul (however gilded +with ambiguous promises) paused in his course of victory and left his +rival unassailed in Mulinuu. And now it was the rival’s +turn. Hitherto happy in the continued support of one of the white +Powers, he now found himself - or thought himself - threatened with +war by no less than two others.<br> +<br> +Tamasese boats as they passed Matautu were in the habit of firing on +the shore, as like as not without particular aim, and more in high spirits +than hostility. One of these shots pierced the house of a British +subject near the consulate; the consul reported to Admiral Fairfax; +and, on the morning of the 10th, the admiral despatched Captain Kane +of the <i>Calliope</i> to Mulinuu. Brandeis met the messenger +with voluble excuses and engagements for the future. He was told +his explanations were satisfactory so far as they went, but that the +admiral’s message was to Tamasese, the <i>de facto</i> king. +Brandeis, not very well assured of his puppet’s courage, attempted +in vain to excuse him from appearing. No <i>de facto</i> king, +no message, he was told: produce your <i>de facto</i> king. And +Tamasese had at last to be produced. To him Kane delivered his +errand: that the <i>Lizard</i> was to remain for the protection of British +subjects; that a signalman was to be stationed at the consulate; that, +on any further firing from boats, the signalman was to notify the <i>Lizard</i> +and she to fire one gun, on which all boats must lower sail and come +alongside for examination and the detection of the guilty; and that, +“in the event of the boats not obeying the gun, the admiral would +not be responsible for the consequences.” It was listened +to by Brandeis and Tamasese “with the greatest attention.” +Brandeis, when it was done, desired his thanks to the admiral for the +moderate terms of his message, and, as Kane went to his boat, repeated +the expression of his gratitude as though he meant it, declaring his +own hands would be thus strengthened for the maintenance of discipline. +But I have yet to learn of any gratitude on the part of Tamasese. +Consider the case of the poor owlish man hearing for the first time +our diplomatic commonplaces. The admiral would not be answerable +for the consequences. Think of it! A devil of a position +for a <i>de facto</i> king. And here, the same afternoon, was +Leary in the Scalon house, mopping it out for unknown designs by the +hands of an old woman, and proffering strange threats of bloodshed. +Scanlon and his pigs, the admiral and his gun, Leary and his bombardment, +- what a kettle of fish!<br> +<br> +I dwell on the effect on Tamasese. Whatever the faults of Becker, +he was not timid; he had already braved so much for Mulinuu that I cannot +but think he might have continued to hold up his head even after the +outrage of the pigs, and that the weakness now shown originated with +the king. Late in the night, Blacklock was wakened to receive +a despatch addressed to Leary. “You have asked that I and +my government go away from Mulinuu, because you pretend a man who lives +near Mulinuu and who is under your protection, has been threatened by +my soldiers. As your Excellency has forbidden the man to accept +any satisfaction, and as I do not wish to make war against the United +States, I shall remove my government from Mulinuu to another place.” +It was signed by Tamasese, but I think more heads than his had wagged +over the direct and able letter. On the morning of the 11th, accordingly, +Mulinuu the much defended lay desert. Tamasese and Brandeis had +slipped to sea in a schooner; their troops had followed them in boats; +the German sailors and their war-flag had returned on board the <i>Adler</i>; +and only the German merchant flag blew there for Weber’s land-claim. +Mulinuu, for which Becker had intrigued so long and so often, for which +he had overthrown the municipality, for which he had abrogated and refused +and invented successive schemes of neutral territory, was now no more +to the Germans than a very unattractive, barren peninsula and a very +much disputed land-claim of Mr. Weber’s. It will scarcely +be believed that the tale of the Scanlon outrages was not yet finished. +Leary had gained his point, but Scanlon had lost his compensation. +And it was months later, and this time in the shape of a threat of bombardment +in black and white, that Tamasese heard the last of the absurd affair. +Scanlon had both his fun and his money, and Leary’s practical +joke was brought to an artistic end.<br> +<br> +Becker sought and missed an instant revenge. Mataafa, a devout +Catholic, was in the habit of walking every morning to mass from his +camp at Vaiala beyond Matautu to the mission at the Mulivai. He +was sometimes escorted by as many as six guards in uniform, who displayed +their proficiency in drill by perpetually shifting arms as they marched. +Himself, meanwhile, paced in front, bareheaded and barefoot, a staff +in his hand, in the customary chief’s dress of white kilt, shirt, +and jacket, and with a conspicuous rosary about his neck. Tall +but not heavy, with eager eyes and a marked appearance of courage and +capacity, Mataafa makes an admirable figure in the eyes of Europeans; +to those of his countrymen, he may seem not always to preserve that +quiescence of manner which is thought becoming in the great. On +the morning of October 16th he reached the mission before day with two +attendants, heard mass, had coffee with the fathers, and left again +in safety. The smallness of his following we may suppose to have +been reported. He was scarce gone, at least, before Becker had +armed men at the mission gate and came in person seeking him.<br> +<br> +The failure of this attempt doubtless still further exasperated the +consul, and he began to deal as in an enemy’s country. He +had marines from the <i>Adler</i> to stand sentry over the consulate +and parade the streets by threes and fours. The bridge of the +Vaisingano, which cuts in half the English and American quarters, he +closed by proclamation and advertised for tenders to demolish it. +On the 17th Leary and Pelly landed carpenters and repaired it in his +teeth. Leary, besides, had marines under arms, ready to land them +if it should be necessary to protect the work. But Becker looked +on without interference, perhaps glad enough to have the bridge repaired; +for even Becker may not always have offended intentionally. Such +was now the distracted posture of the little town: all government extinct, +the German consul patrolling it with armed men and issuing proclamations +like a ruler, the two other Powers defying his commands, and at least +one of them prepared to use force in the defiance. Close on its +skirts sat the warriors of Mataafa, perhaps four thousand strong, highly +incensed against the Germans, having all to gain in the seizure of the +town and firm, and, like an army in a fairy tale, restrained by the +air-drawn boundary of the neutral ground.<br> +<br> +I have had occasion to refer to the strange appearance in these islands +of an American adventurer with a battery of cannon. The adventurer +was long since gone, but his guns remained, and one of them was now +to make fresh history. It had been cast overboard by Brandeis +on the outer reef in the course of this retreat; and word of it coming +to the ears of the Mataafas, they thought it natural that they should +serve themselves the heirs of Tamasese. On the 23rd a Manono boat +of the kind called <i>taumualua</i> dropped down the coast from Mataafa’s +camp, called in broad day at the German quarter of the town for guides, +and proceeded to the reef. Here, diving with a rope, they got +the gun aboard; and the night being then come, returned by the same +route in the shallow water along shore, singing a boat-song. It +will be seen with what childlike reliance they had accepted the neutrality +of Apia bay; they came for the gun without concealment, laboriously +dived for it in broad day under the eyes of the town and shipping, and +returned with it, singing as they went. On Grevsmühl’s +wharf, a light showed them a crowd of German blue-jackets clustered, +and a hail was heard. “Stop the singing so that we may hear +what is said,” said one of the chiefs in the <i>taumualua</i>. +The song ceased; the hail was heard again, “<i>Au mai le fana</i> +- bring the gun”; and the natives report themselves to have replied +in the affirmative, and declare that they had begun to back the boat. +It is perhaps not needful to believe them. A volley at least was +fired from the wharf, at about fifty yards’ range and with a very +ill direction, one bullet whistling over Pelly’s head on board +the <i>Lizard</i>. The natives jumped overboard; and swimming +under the lee of the <i>taumualua</i> (where they escaped a second volley) +dragged her towards the east. As soon as they were out of range +and past the Mulivai, the German border, they got on board and (again +singing - though perhaps a different song) continued their return along +the English and American shore. Off Matautu they were hailed from +the seaward by one of the <i>Adler’s</i> boats, which had been +suddenly despatched on the sound of the firing or had stood ready all +evening to secure the gun. The hail was in German; the Samoans +knew not what it meant, but took the precaution to jump overboard and +swim for land. Two volleys and some dropping shot were poured +upon them in the water; but they dived, scattered, and came to land +unhurt in different quarters of Matautu. The volleys, fired inshore, +raked the highway, a British house was again pierced by numerous bullets, +and these sudden sounds of war scattered consternation through the town.<br> +<br> +Two British subjects, Hetherington-Carruthers, a solicitor, and Maben, +a land-surveyor - the first being in particular a man well versed in +the native mind and language - hastened at once to their consul; assured +him the Mataafas would be roused to fury by this onslaught in the neutral +zone, that the German quarter would be certainly attacked, and the rest +of the town and white inhabitants exposed to a peril very difficult +of estimation; and prevailed upon him to intrust them with a mission +to the king. By the time they reached headquarters, the warriors +were already taking post round Matafele, and the agitation of Mataafa +himself was betrayed in the fact that he spoke with the deputation standing +and gun in hand: a breach of high-chief dignity perhaps unparalleled. +The usual result, however, followed: the whites persuaded the Samoan; +and the attack was countermanded, to the benefit of all concerned, and +not least of Mataafa. To the benefit of all, I say; for I do not +think the Germans were that evening in a posture to resist; the liquor-cellars +of the firm must have fallen into the power of the insurgents; and I +will repeat my formula that a mob is a mob, a drunken mob is a drunken +mob, and a drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a drunken mob with +weapons in its hands, all the world over.<br> +<br> +In the opinion of some, then, the town had narrowly escaped destruction, +or at least the miseries of a drunken sack. To the knowledge of +all, the air of the neutral territory had once more whistled with bullets. +And it was clear the incident must have diplomatic consequences. +Leary and Pelly both protested to Fritze. Leary announced he should +report the affair to his government “as a gross violation of the +principles of international law, and as a breach of the neutrality.” +“I positively decline the protest,” replied Fritze, “and +cannot fail to express my astonishment at the tone of your last letter.” +This was trenchant. It may be said, however, that Leary was already +out of court; that, after the night signals and the Scanlon incident, +and so many other acts of practical if humorous hostility, his position +as a neutral was no better than a doubtful jest. The case with +Pelly was entirely different; and with Pelly, Fritze was less well inspired. +In his first note, he was on the old guard; announced that he had acted +on the requisition of his consul, who was alone responsible on “the +legal side”; and declined accordingly to discuss “whether +the lives of British subjects were in danger, and to what extent armed +intervention was necessary.” Pelly replied judiciously that +he had nothing to do with political matters, being only responsible +for the safety of Her Majesty’s ships under his command and for +the lives and property of British subjects; that he had considered his +protest a purely naval one; and as the matter stood could only report +the case to the admiral on the station. “I have the honour,” +replied Fritze, “to refuse to entertain the protest concerning +the safety of Her Britannic Majesty’s ship <i>Lizard</i> as being +a naval matter. The safety of Her Majesty’s ship <i>Lizard</i> +was never in the least endangered. This was guaranteed by the +disciplined fire of a few shots under the direction of two officers.” +This offensive note, in view of Fritze’s careful and honest bearing +among so many other complications, may be attributed to some misunderstanding. +His small knowledge of English perhaps failed him. But I cannot +pass it by without remarking how far too much it is the custom of German +officials to fall into this style. It may be witty, I am sure +it is not wise. It may be sometimes necessary to offend for a +definite object, it can never be diplomatic to offend gratuitously.<br> +<br> +Becker was more explicit, although scarce less curt. And his defence +may be divided into two statements: first, that the <i>taumualua</i> +was proceeding to land with a hostile purpose on Mulinuu; second, that +the shots complained of were fired by the Samoans. The second +may be dismissed with a laugh. Human nature has laws. And +no men hitherto discovered, on being suddenly challenged from the sea, +would have turned their backs upon the challenger and poured volleys +on the friendly shore. The first is not extremely credible, but +merits examination. The story of the recovered gun seems straightforward; +it is supported by much testimony, the diving operations on the reef +seem to have been watched from shore with curiosity; it is hard to suppose +that it does not roughly represent the fact. And yet if any part +of it be true, the whole of Becker’s explanation falls to the +ground. A boat which had skirted the whole eastern coast of Mulinuu, +and was already opposite a wharf in Matafele, and still going west, +might have been guilty on a thousand points - there was one on which +she was necessarily innocent; she was necessarily innocent of proceeding +on Mulinuu. Or suppose the diving operations, and the native testimony, +and Pelly’s chart of the boat’s course, and the boat itself, +to be all stages of some epidemic hallucination or steps in a conspiracy +- suppose even a second <i>taumualua</i> to have entered Apia bay after +nightfall, and to have been fired upon from Grevsmühl’s wharf +in the full career of hostilities against Mulinuu - suppose all this, +and Becker is not helped. At the time of the first fire, the boat +was off Grevsmühl’s wharf. At the time of the second +(and that is the one complained of) she was off Carruthers’s wharf +in Matautu. Was she still proceeding on Mulinuu? I trow +not. The danger to German property was no longer imminent, the +shots had been fired upon a very trifling provocation, the spirit implied +was that of designed disregard to the neutrality. Such was the +impression here on the spot; such in plain terms the statement of Count +Hatzfeldt to Lord Salisbury at home: that the neutrality of Apia was +only “to prevent the natives from fighting,” not the Germans; +and that whatever Becker might have promised at the conference, he could +not “restrict German war-vessels in their freedom of action.”<br> +<br> +There was nothing to surprise in this discovery; and had events been +guided at the same time with a steady and discreet hand, it might have +passed with less observation. But the policy of Becker was felt +to be not only reckless, it was felt to be absurd also. Sudden +nocturnal onfalls upon native boats could lead, it was felt, to no good +end whether of peace or war; they could but exasperate; they might prove, +in a moment, and when least expected, ruinous. To those who knew +how nearly it had come to fighting, and who considered the probable +result, the future looked ominous. And fear was mingled with annoyance +in the minds of the Anglo-Saxon colony. On the 24th, a public +meeting appealed to the British and American consuls. At half-past +seven in the evening guards were landed at the consulates. On +the morrow they were each fortified with sand-bags; and the subjects +informed by proclamation that these asylums stood open to them on any +alarm, and at any hour of the day or night. The social bond in +Apia was dissolved. The consuls, like barons of old, dwelt each +in his armed citadel. The rank and file of the white nationalities +dared each other, and sometimes fell to on the street like rival clansmen. +And the little town, not by any fault of the inhabitants, rather by +the act of Becker, had fallen back in civilisation about a thousand +years.<br> +<br> +There falls one more incident to be narrated, and then I can close with +this ungracious chapter. I have mentioned the name of the new +English consul. It is already familiar to English readers; for +the gentleman who was fated to undergo some strange experiences in Apia +was the same de Coetlogon who covered Hicks’s flank at the time +of the disaster in the desert, and bade farewell to Gordon in Khartoum +before the investment. The colonel was abrupt and testy; Mrs. +de Coetlogon was too exclusive for society like that of Apia; but whatever +their superficial disabilities, it is strange they should have left, +in such an odour of unpopularity, a place where they set so shining +an example of the sterling virtues. The colonel was perhaps no +diplomatist; he was certainly no lawyer; but he discharged the duties +of his office with the constancy and courage of an old soldier, and +these were found sufficient. He and his wife had no ambition to +be the leaders of society; the consulate was in their time no house +of feasting; but they made of it that house of mourning to which the +preacher tells us it is better we should go. At an early date +after the battle of Matautu, it was opened as a hospital for the wounded. +The English and Americans subscribed what was required for its support. +Pelly of the <i>Lizard</i> strained every nerve to help, and set up +tents on the lawn to be a shelter for the patients. The doctors +of the English and American ships, and in particular Dr. Oakley of the +<i>Lizard</i>, showed themselves indefatigable. But it was on +the de Coetlogons that the distress fell. For nearly half a year, +their lawn, their verandah, sometimes their rooms, were cumbered with +the sick and dying, their ears were filled with the complaints of suffering +humanity, their time was too short for the multiplicity of pitiful duties. +In Mrs. de Coetlogon, and her helper, Miss Taylor, the merit of this +endurance was perhaps to be looked for; in a man of the colonel’s +temper, himself painfully suffering, it was viewed with more surprise, +if with no more admiration. Doubtless all had their reward in +a sense of duty done; doubtless, also, as the days passed, in the spectacle +of many traits of gratitude and patience, and in the success that waited +on their efforts. Out of a hundred cases treated, only five died. +They were all well-behaved, though full of childish wiles. One +old gentleman, a high chief, was seized with alarming symptoms of belly-ache +whenever Mrs. de Coetlogon went her rounds at night: he was after brandy. +Others were insatiable for morphine or opium. A chief woman had +her foot amputated under chloroform. “Let me see my foot! +Why does it not hurt?” she cried. “It hurt so badly +before I went to sleep.” Siteoni, whose name has been already +mentioned, had his shoulder-blade excised, lay the longest of any, perhaps +behaved the worst, and was on all these grounds the favourite. +At times he was furiously irritable, and would rail upon his family +and rise in bed until he swooned with pain. Once on the balcony +he was thought to be dying, his family keeping round his mat, his father +exhorting him to be prepared, when Mrs. de Coetlogon brought him round +again with brandy and smelling-salts. After discharge, he returned +upon a visit of gratitude; and it was observed, that instead of coming +straight to the door, he went and stood long under his umbrella on that +spot of ground where his mat had been stretched and he had endured pain +so many months. Similar visits were the rule, I believe without +exception; and the grateful patients loaded Mrs. de Coetlogon with gifts +which (had that been possible in Polynesia) she would willingly have +declined, for they were often of value to the givers.<br> +<br> +The tissue of my story is one of rapacity, intrigue, and the triumphs +of temper; the hospital at the consulate stands out almost alone as +an episode of human beauty, and I dwell on it with satisfaction. +But it was not regarded at the time with universal favour; and even +to-day its institution is thought by many to have been impolitic. +It was opened, it stood open, for the wounded of either party. +As a matter of fact it was never used but by the Mataafas, and the Tamaseses +were cared for exclusively by German doctors. In the progressive +decivilisation of the town, these duties of humanity became thus a ground +of quarrel. When the Mataafa hurt were first brought together +after the battle of Matautu, and some more or less amateur surgeons +were dressing wounds on a green by the wayside, one from the German +consulate went by in the road. “Why don’t you let +the dogs die?” he asked. “Go to hell,” was the +rejoinder. Such were the amenities of Apia. But Becker reserved +for himself the extreme expression of this spirit. On November +7th hostilities began again between the Samoan armies, and an inconclusive +skirmish sent a fresh crop of wounded to the de Coetlogons. Next +door to the consulate, some native houses and a chapel (now ruinous) +stood on a green. Chapel and houses were certainly Samoan, but +the ground was under a land-claim of the German firm; and de Coetlogon +wrote to Becker requesting permission (in case it should prove necessary) +to use these structures for his wounded. Before an answer came, +the hospital was startled by the appearance of a case of gangrene, and +the patient was hastily removed into the chapel. A rebel laid +on German ground - here was an atrocity! The day before his own +relief, November 11th, Becker ordered the man’s instant removal. +By his aggressive carriage and singular mixture of violence and cunning, +he had already largely brought about the fall of Brandeis, and forced +into an attitude of hostility the whole non-German population of the +islands. Now, in his last hour of office, by this wanton buffet +to his English colleague, he prepared a continuance of evil days for +his successor. If the object of diplomacy be the organisation +of failure in the midst of hate, he was a great diplomatist. And +amongst a certain party on the beach he is still named as the ideal +consul.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VII - THE SAMOAN CAMPS<br> +<i>November</i> 1888<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +When Brandeis and Tamasese fled by night from Mulinuu, they carried +their wandering government some six miles to windward, to a position +above Lotoanuu. For some three miles to the eastward of Apia, +the shores of Upolu are low and the ground rises with a gentle acclivity, +much of which waves with German plantations. A barrier reef encloses +a lagoon passable for boats: and the traveller skims there, on smooth, +many-tinted shallows, between the wall of the breakers on the one hand, +and on the other a succession of palm-tree capes and cheerful beach-side +villages. Beyond the great plantation of Vailele, the character +of the coast is changed. The barrier reef abruptly ceases, the +surf beats direct upon the shore; and the mountains and untenanted forest +of the interior descend sheer into the sea. The first mountain +promontory is Letongo. The bay beyond is called Laulii, and became +the headquarters of Mataafa. And on the next projection, on steep, +intricate ground, veiled in forest and cut up by gorges and defiles, +Tamasese fortified his lines. This greenwood citadel, which proved +impregnable by Samoan arms, may be regarded as his front; the sea covered +his right; and his rear extended along the coast as far as Saluafata, +and thus commanded and drew upon a rich country, including the plain +of Falefá.<br> +<br> +He was left in peace from 11th October till November 6th. But +his adversary is not wholly to be blamed for this delay, which depended +upon island etiquette. His Savaii contingent had not yet come +in, and to have moved again without waiting for them would have been +surely to offend, perhaps to lose them. With the month of November +they began to arrive: on the 2nd twenty boats, on the 3rd twenty-nine, +on the 5th seventeen. On the 6th the position Mataafa had so long +occupied on the skirts of Apia was deserted; all that day and night +his force kept streaming eastward to Laulii; and on the 7th the siege +of Lotoanuu was opened with a brisk skirmish.<br> +<br> +Each side built forts, facing across the gorge of a brook. An +endless fusillade and shouting maintained the spirit of the warriors; +and at night, even if the firing slackened, the pickets continued to +exchange from either side volleys of songs and pungent pleasantries. +Nearer hostilities were rendered difficult by the nature of the ground, +where men must thread dense bush and clamber on the face of precipices. +Apia was near enough; a man, if he had a dollar or two, could walk in +before a battle and array himself in silk or velvet. Casualties +were not common; there was nothing to cast gloom upon the camps, and +no more danger than was required to give a spice to the perpetual firing. +For the young warriors it was a period of admirable enjoyment. +But the anxiety of Mataafa must have been great and growing. His +force was now considerable. It was scarce likely he should ever +have more. That he should be long able to supply them with ammunition +seemed incredible; at the rates then or soon after current, hundreds +of pounds sterling might be easily blown into the air by the skirmishers +in the course of a few days. And in the meanwhile, on the mountain +opposite, his outnumbered adversary held his ground unshaken.<br> +<br> +By this time the partisanship of the whites was unconcealed. Americans +supplied Mataafa with ammunition; English and Americans openly subscribed +together and sent boat-loads of provisions to his camp. One such +boat started from Apia on a day of rain; it was pulled by six oars, +three being paid by Moors, three by the MacArthurs; Moors himself and +a clerk of the MacArthurs’ were in charge; and the load included +not only beef and biscuit, but three or four thousand rounds of ammunition. +They came ashore in Laulii, and carried the gift to Mataafa. While +they were yet in his house a bullet passed overhead; and out of his +door they could see the Tamasese pickets on the opposite hill. +Thence they made their way to the left flank of the Mataafa position +next the sea. A Tamasese barricade was visible across the stream. +It rained, but the warriors crowded in their shanties, squatted in the +mud, and maintained an excited conversation. Balls flew; either +faction, both happy as lords, spotting for the other in chance shots, +and missing. One point is characteristic of that war; experts +in native feeling doubt if it will characterise the next. The +two white visitors passed without and between the lines to a rocky point +upon the beach. The person of Moors was well known; the purpose +of their coming to Laulii must have been already bruited abroad; yet +they were not fired upon. From the point they spied a crow’s +nest, or hanging fortification, higher up; and, judging it was a good +position for a general view, obtained a guide. He led them up +a steep side of the mountain, where they must climb by roots and tufts +of grass; and coming to an open hill-top with some scattered trees, +bade them wait, let him draw the fire, and then be swift to follow. +Perhaps a dozen balls whistled about him ere he had crossed the dangerous +passage and dropped on the farther side into the crow’s-nest; +the white men, briskly following, escaped unhurt. The crow’s-nest +was built like a bartizan on the precipitous front of the position. +Across the ravine, perhaps at five hundred yards, heads were to be seen +popping up and down in a fort of Tamesese’s. On both sides +the same enthusiasm without council, the same senseless vigilance, reigned. +Some took aim; some blazed before them at a venture. Now - when +a head showed on the other side - one would take a crack at it, remarking +that it would never do to “miss a chance.” Now they +would all fire a volley and bob down; a return volley rang across the +ravine, and was punctually answered: harmless as lawn-tennis. +The whites expostulated in vain. The warriors, drunken with noise, +made answer by a fresh general discharge and bade their visitors run +while it was time. Upon their return to headquarters, men were +covering the front with sheets of coral limestone, two balls having +passed through the house in the interval. Mataafa sat within, +over his kava bowl, unmoved. The picture is of a piece throughout: +excellent courage, super-excellent folly, a war of school-children; +expensive guns and cartridges used like squibs or catherine-wheels on +Guy Fawkes’s Day.<br> +<br> +On the 20th Mataafa changed his attack. Tamasese’s front +was seemingly impregnable. Something must be tried upon his rear. +There was his bread-basket; a small success in that direction would +immediately curtail his resources; and it might be possible with energy +to roll up his line along the beach and take the citadel in reverse. +The scheme was carried out as might be expected from these childish +soldiers. Mataafa, always uneasy about Apia, clung with a portion +of his force to Laulii; and thus, had the foe been enterprising, exposed +himself to disaster. The expedition fell successfully enough on +Saluafata and drove out the Tamaseses with a loss of four heads; but +so far from improving the advantage, yielded immediately to the weakness +of the Samoan warrior, and ranged farther east through unarmed populations, +bursting with shouts and blackened faces into villages terrified or +admiring, making spoil of pigs, burning houses, and destroying gardens. +The Tamasese had at first evacuated several beach towns in succession, +and were still in retreat on Lotoanuu; finding themselves unpursued, +they reoccupied them one after another, and re-established their lines +to the very borders of Saluafata. Night fell; Mataafa had taken +Saluafata, Tamasese had lost it; and that was all. But the day +came near to have a different and very singular issue. The village +was not long in the hands of the Mataafas, when a schooner, flying German +colours, put into the bay and was immediately surrounded by their boats. +It chanced that Brandeis was on board. Word of it had gone abroad, +and the boats as they approached demanded him with threats. The +late premier, alone, entirely unarmed, and a prey to natural and painful +feelings, concealed himself below. The captain of the schooner +remained on deck, pointed to the German colours, and defied approaching +boats. Again the prestige of a great Power triumphed; the Samoans +fell back before the bunting; the schooner worked out of the bay; Brandeis +escaped. He himself apprehended the worst if he fell into Samoan +hands; it is my diffident impression that his life would have been safe.<br> +<br> +On the 22nd, a new German war-ship, the <i>Eber</i>, of tragic memory, +came to Apia from the Gilberts, where she had been disarming turbulent +islands. The rest of that day and all night she loaded stores +from the firm, and on the morrow reached Saluafata bay. Thanks +to the misconduct of the Mataafas, the most of the foreshore was still +in the hands of the Tamaseses; and they were thus able to receive from +the <i>Eber</i> both the stores and weapons. The weapons had been +sold long since to Tarawa, Apaiang, and Pleasant Island; places unheard +of by the general reader, where obscure inhabitants paid for these instruments +of death in money or in labour, misused them as it was known they would +be misused, and had been disarmed by force. The <i>Eber</i> had +brought back the guns to a German counter, whence many must have been +originally sold; and was here engaged, like a shopboy, in their distribution +to fresh purchasers. Such is the vicious circle of the traffic +in weapons of war. Another aid of a more metaphysical nature was +ministered by the <i>Eber</i> to Tamasese, in the shape of uncountable +German flags. The full history of this epidemic of bunting falls +to be told in the next chapter. But the fact has to be chronicled +here, for I believe it was to these flags that we owe the visit of the +<i>Adams</i>, and my next and best authentic glance into a native camp. +The<i> Adams</i> arrived in Saluafata on the 26th. On the morrow +Leary and Moors landed at the village. It was still occupied by +Mataafas, mostly from Manono and Savaii, few in number, high in spirit. +The Tamasese pickets were meanwhile within musket range; there was maintained +a steady sputtering of shots; and yet a party of Tamasese women were +here on a visit to the women of Manono, with whom they sat talking and +smoking, under the fire of their own relatives. It was reported +that Leary took part in a council of war, and promised to join with +his broadside in the next attack. It is certain he did nothing +of the sort: equally certain that, in Tamasese circles, he was firmly +credited with having done so. And this heightens the extraordinary +character of what I have now to tell. Prudence and delicacy alike +ought to have forbid the camp of Tamasese to the feet of either Leary +or Moors. Moors was the original - there was a time when he had +been the only - opponent of the puppet king. Leary had driven +him from the seat of government; it was but a week or two since he had +threatened to bombard him in his present refuge. Both were in +close and daily council with his adversary, and it was no secret that +Moors was supplying the latter with food. They were partisans; +it lacked but a hair that they should be called belligerents; it were +idle to try to deny they were the most dangerous of spies. And +yet these two now sailed across the bay and landed inside the Tamasese +lines at Salelesi. On the very beach they had another glimpse +of the artlessness of Samoan war. Hitherto the Tamasese fleet, +being hardy and unencumbered, had made a fool of the huge floating forts +upon the other side; and here they were tolling, not to produce another +boat on their own pattern in which they had always enjoyed the advantage, +but to make a new one the type of their enemies’, of which they +had now proved the uselessness for months. It came on to rain +as the Americans landed; and though none offered to oppose their coming +ashore, none invited them to take shelter. They were nowise abashed, +entered a house unbidden, and were made welcome with obvious reserve. +The rain clearing off, they set forth westward, deeper into the heart +of the enemies’ position. Three or four young men ran some +way before them, doubtless to give warning; and Leary, with his indomitable +taste for mischief, kept inquiring as he went after “the high +chief” Tamasese. The line of the beach was one continuous +breastwork; some thirty odd iron cannon of all sizes and patterns stood +mounted in embrasures; plenty grape and canister lay ready; and at every +hundred yards or so the German flag was flying. The numbers of +the guns and flags I give as I received them, though they test my faith. +At the house of Brandeis - a little, weatherboard house, crammed at +the time with natives, men, women, and squalling children - Leary and +Moors again asked for “the high chief,” and, were again +assured that he was farther on. A little beyond, the road ran +in one place somewhat inland, the two Americans had gone down to the +line of the beach to continue their inspection of the breastwork, when +Brandeis himself, in his shirt-sleeves and accompanied by several German +officers, passed them by the line of the road. The two parties +saluted in silence. Beyond Eva Point there was an observable change +for the worse in the reception of the Americans; some whom they met +began to mutter at Moors; and the adventurers, with tardy but commendable +prudence, desisted from their search after the high chief, and began +to retrace their steps. On the return, Suatele and some chiefs +were drinking kava in a “big house,” and called them in +to join - their only invitation. But the night was closing, the +rain had begun again: they stayed but for civility, and returned on +board the <i>Adams</i>, wet and hungry, and I believe delighted with +their expedition. It was perhaps the last as it was certainly +one of the most extreme examples of that divinity which once hedged +the white in Samoa. The feeling was already different in the camp +of Mataafa, where the safety of a German loiterer had been a matter +of extreme concern. Ten days later, three commissioners, an Englishman, +an American, and a German, approached a post of Mataafas, were challenged +by an old man with a gun, and mentioned in answer what they were. +“<i>Ifea Siamani</i>? Which is the German?” cried +the old gentleman, dancing, and with his finger on the trigger; and +the commissioners stood somewhile in a very anxious posture, till they +were released by the opportune arrival of a chief. It was November +the 27th when Leary and Moors completed their absurd excursion; in about +three weeks an event was to befall which changed at once, and probably +for ever, the relations of the natives and the whites.<br> +<br> +By the 28th Tamasese had collected seventeen hundred men in the trenches +before Saluafata, thinking to attack next day. But the Mataafas +evacuated the place in the night. At half-past five on the morning +of the 29th a signal-gun was fired in the trenches at Laulii, and the +Tamasese citadel was assaulted and defended with a fury new among Samoans. +When the battle ended on the following day, one or more outworks remained +in the possession of Mataafa. Another had been taken and lost +as many as four times. Carried originally by a mixed force from +Savaii and Tuamasanga, the victors, instead of completing fresh defences +or pursuing their advantage, fell to eat and smoke and celebrate their +victory with impromptu songs. In this humour a rally of the Tamaseses +smote them, drove them out pell-mell, and tumbled them into the ravine, +where many broke their heads and legs. Again the work was taken, +again lost. Ammunition failed the belligerents; and they fought +hand to hand in the contested fort with axes, clubs, and clubbed rifles. +The sustained ardour of the engagement surprised even those who were +engaged; and the butcher’s bill was counted extraordinary by Samoans. +On December 1st the women of either side collected the headless bodies +of the dead, each easily identified by the name tattooed on his forearm. +Mataafa is thought to have lost sixty killed; and the de Coetlogons’ +hospital received three women and forty men. The casualties on +the Tamasese side cannot be accepted, but they were presumably much +less.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER VIII - AFFAIRS OF LAULII AND FANGALII<br> +<i>November-December</i> 1888<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +For Becker I have not been able to conceal my distaste, for he seems +to me both false and foolish. But of his successor, the unfortunately +famous Dr. Knappe, we may think as of a good enough fellow driven distraught. +Fond of Samoa and the Samoans, he thought to bring peace and enjoy popularity +among the islanders; of a genial, amiable, and sanguine temper, he made +no doubt but he could repair the breach with the English consul. +Hope told a flattering tale. He awoke to find himself exchanging +defiances with de Coetlogon, beaten in the field by Mataafa, surrounded +on the spot by general exasperation, and disowned from home by his own +government. The history of his administration leaves on the mind +of the student a sentiment of pity scarcely mingled.<br> +<br> +On Blacklock he did not call, and, in view of Leary’s attitude, +may be excused. But the English consul was in a different category. +England, weary of the name of Samoa, and desirous only to see peace +established, was prepared to wink hard during the process and to welcome +the result of any German settlement. It was an unpardonable fault +in Becker to have kicked and buffeted his ready-made allies into a state +of jealousy, anger, and suspicion. Knappe set himself at once +to efface these impressions, and the English officials rejoiced for +the moment in the change. Between Knappe and de Coetlogon there +seems to have been mutual sympathy; and, in considering the steps by +which they were led at last into an attitude of mutual defiance, it +must be remembered that both the men were sick, - Knappe from time to +time prostrated with that formidable complaint, New Guinea fever, and +de Coetlogon throughout his whole stay in the islands continually ailing.<br> +<br> +Tamasese was still to be recognised, and, if possible, supported: such +was the German policy. Two days after his arrival, accordingly, +Knappe addressed to Mataafa a threatening despatch. The German +plantation was suffering from the proximity of his “war-party.” +He must withdraw from Laulii at once, and, whithersoever he went, he +must approach no German property nor so much as any village where there +was a German trader. By five o’clock on the morrow, if he +were not gone, Knappe would turn upon him “the attention of the +man-of-war” and inflict a fine. The same evening, November +14th, Knappe went on board the <i>Adler</i>, which began to get up steam.<br> +<br> +Three months before, such direct intervention on the part of Germany +would have passed almost without protest; but the hour was now gone +by. Becker’s conduct, equally timid and rash, equally inconclusive +and offensive, had forced the other nations into a strong feeling of +common interest with Mataafa. Even had the German demands been +moderate, de Coetlogon could not have forgotten the night of the <i>taumualua</i>, +nor how Mataafa had relinquished, at his request, the attack upon the +German quarter. Blacklock, with his driver of a captain at his +elbow, was not likely to lag behind. And Mataafa having communicated +Knappe’s letter, the example of the Germans was on all hands exactly +followed; the consuls hastened on board their respective war-ships, +and these began to get up steam. About midnight, in a pouring +rain, Pelly communicated to Fritze his intention to follow him and protect +British interests; and Knappe replied that he would come on board the +<i>Lizard</i> and see de Coetlogon personally. It was deep in +the small hours, and de Coetlogon had been long asleep, when he was +wakened to receive his colleague; but he started up with an old soldier’s +readiness. The conference was long. De Coetlogon protested, +as he did afterwards in writing, against Knappe’s claim: the Samoans +were in a state of war; they had territorial rights; it was monstrous +to prevent them from entering one of their own villages because a German +trader kept the store; and in case property suffered, a claim for compensation +was the proper remedy. Knappe argued that this was a question +between Germans and Samoans, in which de Coetlogon had nothing to see; +and that he must protect German property according to his instructions. +To which de Coetlogon replied that he was himself in the same attitude +to the property of the British; that he understood Knappe to be intending +hostilities against Laulii; that Laulii was mortgaged to the MacArthurs; +that its crops were accordingly British property; and that, while he +was ever willing to recognise the territorial rights of the Samoans, +he must prevent that property from being molested “by any other +nation.” “But if a German man-of-war does it?” +asked Knappe. - “We shall prevent it to the best of our ability,” +replied the colonel. It is to the credit of both men that this +trying interview should have been conducted and concluded without heat; +but Knappe must have returned to the <i>Adler</i> with darker anticipations.<br> +<br> +At sunrise on the morning of the 15th, the three ships, each loaded +with its consul, put to sea. It is hard to exaggerate the peril +of the forenoon that followed, as they lay off Laulii. Nobody +desired a collision, save perhaps the reckless Leary; but peace and +war trembled in the balance; and when the <i>Adler</i>, at one period, +lowered her gun ports, war appeared to preponderate. It proved, +however, to be a last - and therefore surely an unwise - extremity. +Knappe contented himself with visiting the rival kings, and the three +ships returned to Apia before noon. Beyond a doubt, coming after +Knappe’s decisive letter of the day before, this impotent conclusion +shook the credit of Germany among the natives of both sides; the Tamaseses +fearing they were deserted, the Mataafas (with secret delight) hoping +they were feared. And it gave an impetus to that ridiculous business +which might have earned for the whole episode the name of the war of +flags. British and American flags had been planted the night before, +and were seen that morning flying over what they claimed about Laulii. +British and American passengers, on the way up and down, pointed out +from the decks of the war-ships, with generous vagueness, the boundaries +of problematical estates. Ten days later, the beach of Saluafata +bay fluttered (as I have told in the last chapter) with the flag of +Germany. The Americans riposted with a claim to Tamasese’s +camp, some small part of which (says Knappe) did really belong to “an +American nigger.” The disease spread, the flags were multiplied, +the operations of war became an egg-dance among miniature neutral territories; +and though all men took a hand in these proceedings, all men in turn +were struck with their absurdity. Mullan, Leary’s successor, +warned Knappe, in an emphatic despatch, not to squander and discredit +the solemnity of that emblem which was all he had to be a defence to +his own consulate. And Knappe himself, in his despatch of March +21st, 1889, castigates the practice with much sense. But this +was after the tragicomic culmination had been reached, and the burnt +rags of one of these too-frequently mendacious signals gone on a progress +to Washington, like Caesar’s body, arousing indignation where +it came. To such results are nations conducted by the patent artifices +of a Becker.<br> +<br> +The discussion of the morning, the silent menace and defiance of the +voyage to Laulii, might have set the best-natured by the ears. +But Knappe and de Coetlogon took their difference in excellent part. +On the morrow, November 16th, they sat down together with Blacklock +in conference. The English consul introduced his colleagues, who +shook hands. If Knappe were dead-weighted with the inheritance +of Becker, Blacklock was handicapped by reminiscences of Leary; it is +the more to the credit of this inexperienced man that he should have +maintained in the future so excellent an attitude of firmness and moderation, +and that when the crash came, Knappe and de Coetlogon, not Knappe and +Blacklock, were found to be the protagonists of the drama. The +conference was futile. The English and American consuls admitted +but one cure of the evils of the time: that the farce of the Tamasese +monarchy should cease. It was one which the German refused to +consider. And the agents separated without reaching any result, +save that diplomatic relations had been restored between the States +and Germany, and that all three were convinced of their fundamental +differences.<br> +<br> +Knappe and de Coetlogon were still friends; they had disputed and differed +and come within a finger’s breadth of war, and they were still +friends. But an event was at hand which was to separate them for +ever. On December 4th came the <i>Royalist</i>, Captain Hand, +to relieve the <i>Lizard</i>. Pelly of course had to take his +canvas from the consulate hospital; but he had in charge certain awnings +belonging to the <i>Royalist</i>, and with these they made shift to +cover the wounded, at that time (after the fight at Laulii) more than +usually numerous. A lieutenant came to the consulate, and delivered +(as I have received it) the following message: “Captain Hand’s +compliments, and he says you must get rid of these niggers at once, +and he will help you to do it.” Doubtless the reply was +no more civil than the message. The promised “help,” +at least, followed promptly. A boat’s crew landed and the +awnings were stripped from the wounded, Hand himself standing on the +colonel’s verandah to direct operations. It were fruitless +to discuss this passage from the humanitarian point of view, or from +that of formal courtesy. The mind of the new captain was plainly +not directed to these objects. But it is understood that he considered +the existence of a hospital a source of irritation to Germans and a +fault in policy. His own rude act proved in the result far more +impolitic. The hospital had now been open some two months, and +de Coetlogon was still on friendly terms with Knappe, and he and his +wife were engaged to dine with him that day. By the morrow that +was practically ended. For the rape of the awnings had two results: +one, which was the fault of de Coetlogon, not at all of Hand, who could +not have foreseen it; the other which it was his duty to have seen and +prevented. The first was this: the de Coetlogons found themselves +left with their wounded exposed to the inclemencies of the season; they +must all be transported into the house and verandah; in the distress +and pressure of this task, the dinner engagement was too long forgotten; +and a note of excuse did not reach the German consulate before the table +was set, and Knappe dressed to receive his visitors. The second +consequence was inevitable. Captain Hand was scarce landed ere +it became public (was “<i>sofort bekannt</i>,” writes Knappe) +that he and the consul were in opposition. All that had been gained +by the demonstration at Laulii was thus immediately cast away; de Coetlogon’s +prestige was lessened; and it must be said plainly that Hand did less +than nothing to restore it. Twice indeed he interfered, both times +with success; and once, when his own person had been endangered, with +vehemence; but during all the strange doings I have to narrate, he remained +in close intimacy with the German consulate, and on one occasion may +be said to have acted as its marshal. After the worst is over, +after Bismarck has told Knappe that “the protests of his English +colleague were grounded,” that his own conduct “has not +been good,” and that in any dispute which may arise he “will +find himself in the wrong,” Knappe can still plead in his defence +that Captain Hand “has always maintained friendly intercourse +with the German authorities.” Singular epitaph for an English +sailor. In this complicity on the part of Hand we may find the +reason - and I had almost said, the excuse - of much that was excessive +in the bearing of the unfortunate Knappe.<br> +<br> +On the 11th December, Mataafa received twenty-eight thousand cartridges, +brought into the country in salt-beef kegs by the British ship <i>Richmond</i>. +This not only sharpened the animosity between whites; following so closely +on the German fizzle at Laulii, it raised a convulsion in the camp of +Tamasese. On the 13th Brandeis addressed to Knappe his famous +and fatal letter. I may not describe it as a letter of burning +words, but it is plainly dictated by a burning heart. Tamasese +and his chiefs, he announces, are now sick of the business, and ready +to make peace with Mataafa. They began the war relying upon German +help; they now see and say that “<i>e faaalo Siamani i Peritania</i> +<i>ma America</i>, that Germany is subservient to England and the States.” +It is grimly given to be understood that the despatch is an ultimatum, +and a last chance is being offered for the recreant ally to fulfil her +pledge. To make it more plain, the document goes on with a kind +of bilious irony: “The two German war-ships now in Samoa are here +for the protection of German property alone; and when the <i>Olga</i> +shall have arrived” [she arrived on the morrow] “the German +war-ships will continue to do against the insurgents precisely as little +as they have done heretofore.” Plant flags, in fact.<br> +<br> +Here was Knappe’s opportunity, could he have stooped to seize +it. I find it difficult to blame him that he could not. +Far from being so inglorious as the treachery once contemplated by Becker, +the acceptance of this ultimatum would have been still in the nature +of a disgrace. Brandeis’s letter, written by a German, was +hard to swallow. It would have been hard to accept that solution +which Knappe had so recently and so peremptorily refused to his brother +consuls. And he was tempted, on the other hand, by recent changes. +There was no Pelly to support de Coetlogon, who might now be disregarded. +Mullan, Leary’s successor, even if he were not precisely a Hand, +was at least no Leary; and even if Mullan should show fight, Knappe +had now three ships and could defy or sink him without danger. +Many small circumstances moved him in the same direction. The +looting of German plantations continued; the whole force of Mataafa +was to a large extent subsisted from the crops of Vailele; and armed +men were to be seen openly plundering bananas, breadfruit, and cocoa-nuts +under the walls of the plantation building. On the night of the +13th the consulate stable had been broken into and a horse removed. +On the 16th there was a riot in Apia between half-castes and sailors +from the new ship <i>Olga</i>, each side claiming that the other was +the worse of drink, both (for a wager) justly. The multiplication +of flags and little neutral territories had, besides, begun to irritate +the Samoans. The protests of German settlers had been received +uncivilly. On the 16th the Mataafas had again sought to land in +Saluafata bay, with the manifest intention to attack the Tamaseses, +or (in other words) “to trespass on German lands, covered, as +your Excellency knows, with flags.” I quote from his requisition +to Fritze, December 17th. Upon all these considerations, he goes +on, it is necessary to bring the fighting to an end. Both parties +are to be disarmed and returned to their villages - Mataafa first. +And in case of any attempt upon Apia, the roads thither are to be held +by a strong landing-party. Mataafa was to be disarmed first, perhaps +rightly enough in his character of the last insurgent. Then was +to have come the turn of Tamasese; but it does not appear the disarming +would have had the same import or have been gone about in the same way. +Germany was bound to Tamasese. No honest man would dream of blaming +Knappe because he sought to redeem his country’s word. The +path he chose was doubtless that of honour, so far as honour was still +left. But it proved to be the road to ruin.<br> +<br> +Fritze, ranking German officer, is understood to have opposed the measure. +His attitude earned him at the time unpopularity among his country-people +on the spot, and should now redound to his credit. It is to be +hoped he extended his opposition to some of the details. If it +were possible to disarm Mataafa at all, it must be done rather by prestige +than force. A party of blue-jackets landed in Samoan bush, and +expected to hold against Samoans a multiplicity of forest paths, had +their work cut out for them. And it was plain they should be landed +in the light of day, with a discouraging openness, and even with parade. +To sneak ashore by night was to increase the danger of resistance and +to minimise the authority of the attack. The thing was a bluff, +and it is impossible to bluff with stealth. Yet this was what +was tried. A landing-party was to leave the <i>Olga</i> in Apia +bay at two in the morning; the landing was to be at four on two parts +of the foreshore of Vailele. At eight they were to be joined by +a second landing-party from the<i> Eber</i>. By nine the Olgas +were to be on the crest of Letongo Mountain, and the Ebers to be moving +round the promontory by the seaward paths, “with measures of precaution,” +disarming all whom they encountered. There was to be no firing +unless fired upon. At the appointed hour (or perhaps later) on +the morning of the 19th, this unpromising business was put in hand, +and there moved off from the <i>Olga</i> two boats with some fifty blue-jackets +between them, and a <i>praam</i> or punt containing ninety, - the boats +and the whole expedition under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Jaeckel, +the praam under Lieutenant Spengler. The men had each forty rounds, +one day’s provisions, and their flasks filled.<br> +<br> +In the meanwhile, Mataafa sympathisers about Apia were on the alert. +Knappe had informed the consuls that the ships were to put to sea next +day for the protection of German property; but the Tamaseses had been +less discreet. “To-morrow at the hour of seven,” they +had cried to their adversaries, “you will know of a difficulty, +and our guns shall be made good in broken bones.” An accident +had pointed expectation towards Apia. The wife of Le Mãmea +washed for the German ships - a perquisite, I suppose, for her husband’s +unwilling fidelity. She sent a man with linen on board the <i>Adler</i>, +where he was surprised to see Le Mãmea in person, and to be himself +ordered instantly on shore. The news spread. If Mãmea +were brought down from Lotoanuu, others might have come at the same +time. Tamasese himself and half his army might perhaps lie concealed +on board the German ships. And a watch was accordingly set and +warriors collected along the line of the shore. One detachment +lay in some rifle-pits by the mouth of the Fuisá. They +were commanded by Seumanu; and with his party, probably as the most +contiguous to Apia, was the war-correspondent, John Klein. Of +English birth, but naturalised American, this gentleman had been for +some time representing the <i>New York World</i> in a very effective +manner, always in the front, living in the field with the Samoans, and +in all vicissitudes of weather, toiling to and fro with his despatches. +His wisdom was perhaps not equal to his energy. He made himself +conspicuous, going about armed to the teeth in a boat under the stars +and stripes; and on one occasion, when he supposed himself fired upon +by the Tamaseses, had the petulance to empty his revolver in the direction +of their camp. By the light of the moon, which was then nearly +down, this party observed the <i>Olga’s</i> two boats and the +praam, which they described as “almost sinking with men,” +the boats keeping well out towards the reef, the praam at the moment +apparently heading for the shore. An extreme agitation seems to +have reigned in the rifle-pits. What were the newcomers? +What was their errand? Were they Germans or Tamaseses? Had +they a mind to attack? The praam was hailed in Samoan and did +not answer. It was proposed to fire upon her ere she drew near. +And at last, whether on his own suggestion or that of Seumanu, Klein +hailed her in English, and in terms of unnecessary melodrama. +“Do not try to land here,” he cried. “If you +do, your blood will be upon your head.” Spengler, who had +never the least intention to touch at the Fuisá, put up the head +of the praam to her true course and continued to move up the lagoon +with an offing of some seventy or eighty yards. Along all the +irregularities and obstructions of the beach, across the mouth of the +Vaivasa, and through the startled village of Matafangatele, Seumanu, +Klein, and seven or eight others raced to keep up, spreading the alarm +and rousing reinforcements as they went. Presently a man on horse-back +made his appearance on the opposite beach of Fangalii. Klein and +the natives distinctly saw him signal with a lantern; which is the more +strange, as the horseman (Captain Hufnagel, plantation manager of Vailele) +had never a lantern to signal with. The praam kept in. Many +men in white were seen to stand up, step overboard, and wade to shore. +At the same time the eye of panic descried a breastwork of “foreign +stone” (brick) upon the beach. Samoans are prepared to-day +to swear to its existence, I believe conscientiously, although no such +thing was ever made or ever intended in that place. The hour is +doubtful. “It was the hour when the streak of dawn is seen, +the hour known in the warfare of heathen times as the hour of the night +attack,” says the Mataafa official account. A native whom +I met on the field declared it was at cock-crow. Captain Hufnagel, +on the other hand, is sure it was long before the day. It was +dark at least, and the moon down. Darkness made the Samoans bold; +uncertainty as to the composition and purpose of the landing-party made +them desperate. Fire was opened on the Germans, one of whom was +here killed. The Germans returned it, and effected a lodgment +on the beach; and the skirmish died again to silence. It was at +this time, if not earlier, that Klein returned to Apia.<br> +<br> +Here, then, were Spengler and the ninety men of the praam, landed on +the beach in no very enviable posture, the woods in front filled with +unnumbered enemies, but for the time successful. Meanwhile, Jaeckel +and the boats had gone outside the reef, and were to land on the other +side of the Vailele promontory, at Sunga, by the buildings of the plantation. +It was Hufnagel’s part to go and meet them. His way led +straight into the woods and through the midst of the Samoans, who had +but now ceased firing. He went in the saddle and at a foot’s +pace, feeling speed and concealment to be equally helpless, and that +if he were to fall at all, he had best fall with dignity. Not +a shot was fired at him; no effort made to arrest him on his errand. +As he went, he spoke and even jested with the Samoans, and they answered +in good part. One fellow was leaping, yelling, and tossing his +axe in the air, after the way of an excited islander. “<i>Faimalosi</i>! +go it!” said Hufnagel, and the fellow laughed and redoubled his +exertions. As soon as the boats entered the lagoon, fire was again +opened from the woods. The fifty blue-jackets jumped overboard, +hove down the boats to be a shield, and dragged them towards the landing-place. +In this way, their rations, and (what was more unfortunate) some of +their miserable provision of forty rounds got wetted; but the men came +to shore and garrisoned the plantation house without a casualty. +Meanwhile the sound of the firing from Sunga immediately renewed the +hostilities at Fangalii. The civilians on shore decided that Spengler +must be at once guided to the house, and Haideln, the surveyor, accepted +the dangerous errand. Like Hufnagel, he was suffered to pass without +question through the midst of these platonic enemies. He found +Spengler some way inland on a knoll, disastrously engaged, the woods +around him filled with Samoans, who were continuously reinforced. +In three successive charges, cheering as they ran, the blue-jackets +burst through their scattered opponents, and made good their junction +with Jaeckel. Four men only remained upon the field, the other +wounded being helped by their comrades or dragging themselves painfully +along.<br> +<br> +The force was now concentrated in the house and its immediate patch +of garden. Their rear, to the seaward, was unmolested; but on +three sides they were beleaguered. On the left, the Samoans occupied +and fired from some of the plantation offices. In front, a long +rising crest of land in the horse-pasture commanded the house, and was +lined with the assailants. And on the right, the hedge of the +same paddock afforded them a dangerous cover. It was in this place +that a Samoan sharpshooter was knocked over by Jaeckel with his own +hand. The fire was maintained by the Samoans in the usual wasteful +style. The roof was made a sieve; the balls passed clean through +the house; Lieutenant Sieger, as he lay, already dying, on Hufnagel’s +bed, was despatched with a fresh wound. The Samoans showed themselves +extremely enterprising: pushed their lines forward, ventured beyond +cover, and continually threatened to envelop the garden. Thrice, +at least, it was necessary to repel them by a sally. The men were +brought into the house from the rear, the front doors were thrown suddenly +open, and the gallant blue-jackets issued cheering: necessary, successful, +but extremely costly sorties. Neither could these be pushed far. +The foes were undaunted; so soon as the sailors advanced at all deep +in the horse-pasture, the Samoans began to close in upon both flanks; +and the sally had to be recalled. To add to the dangers of the +German situation, ammunition began to run low; and the cartridge-boxes +of the wounded and the dead had been already brought into use before, +at about eight o’clock, the <i>Eber</i> steamed into the bay. +Her commander, Wallis, threw some shells into Letongo, one of which +killed five men about their cooking-pot. The Samoans began immediately +to withdraw; their movements were hastened by a sortie, and the remains +of the landing-party brought on board. This was an unfortunate +movement; it gave an irremediable air of defeat to what might have been +else claimed for a moderate success. The blue-jackets numbered +a hundred and forty all told; they were engaged separately and fought +under the worst conditions, in the dark and among woods; their position +in the house was scarce tenable; they lost in killed and wounded fifty-six, +- forty per cent.; and their spirit to the end was above question. +Whether we think of the poor sailor lads, always so pleasantly behaved +in times of peace, or whether we call to mind the behaviour of the two +civilians, Haideln and Hufnagel, we can only regret that brave men should +stand to be exposed upon so poor a quarrel, or lives cast away upon +an enterprise so hopeless.<br> +<br> +News of the affair reached Apia early, and Moors, always curious of +these spectacles of war, was immediately in the saddle. Near Matafangatele +he met a Manono chief, whom he asked if there were any German dead. +“I think there are about thirty of them knocked over,” said +he. “Have you taken their heads?” asked Moors. +“Yes,” said the chief. “Some foolish people +did it, but I have stopped them. We ought not to cut off their +heads when they do not cut off ours.” He was asked what +had been done with the heads. “Two have gone to Mataafa,” +he replied, “and one is buried right under where your horse is +standing, in a basket wrapped in tapa.” This was afterwards +dug up, and I am told on native authority that, besides the three heads, +two ears were taken. Moors next asked the Manono man how he came +to be going away. “The man-of-war is throwing shells,” +said he. “When they stopped firing out of the house, we +stopped firing also; so it was as well to scatter when the shells began. +We could have killed all the white men. I wish they had been Tamaseses.” +This is an <i>ex parte</i> statement, and I give it for such; but the +course of the affair, and in particular the adventures of Haideln and +Hufnagel, testify to a surprising lack of animosity against the Germans. +About the same time or but a little earlier than this conversation, +the same spirit was being displayed. Hufnagel, with a party of +labour, had gone out to bring in the German dead, when he was surprised +to be suddenly fired on from the wood. The boys he had with him +were not negritos, but Polynesians from the Gilbert Islands; and he +suddenly remembered that these might be easily mistaken for a detachment +of Tamaseses. Bidding his boys conceal themselves in a thicket, +this brave man walked into the open. So soon as he was recognised, +the firing ceased, and the labourers followed him in safety. This +is chivalrous war; but there was a side to it less chivalrous. +As Moors drew nearer to Vailele, he began to meet Samoans with hats, +guns, and even shirts, taken from the German sailors. With one +of these who had a hat and a gun he stopped and spoke. The hat +was handed up for him to look at; it had the late owner’s name +on the inside. “Where is he?” asked Moors. “He +is dead; I cut his head off.” “You shot him?” +“No, somebody else shot him in the hip. When I came, he +put up his hands, and cried: ‘Don’t kill me; I am a Malietoa +man.’ I did not believe him, and I cut his head off...... +Have you any ammunition to fit that gun?” “I do not +know.” “What has become of the cartridge-belt?” +“Another fellow grabbed that and the cartridges, and he won’t +give them to me.” A dreadful and silly picture of barbaric +war. The words of the German sailor must be regarded as imaginary: +how was the poor lad to speak native, or the Samoan to understand German? +When Moors came as far as Sunga, the <i>Eber</i> was yet in the bay, +the smoke of battle still lingered among the trees, which were themselves +marked with a thousand bullet-wounds. But the affair was over, +the combatants, German and Samoan, were all gone, and only a couple +of negrito labour boys lurked on the scene. The village of Letongo +beyond was equally silent; part of it was wrecked by the shells of the +<i>Eber</i>, and still smoked; the inhabitants had fled. On the +beach were the native boats, perhaps five thousand dollars’ worth, +deserted by the Mataafas and overlooked by the Germans, in their common +hurry to escape. Still Moors held eastward by the sea-paths. +It was his hope to get a view from the other side of the promontory, +towards Laulii. In the way he found a house hidden in the wood +and among rocks, where an aged and sick woman was being tended by her +elderly daughter. Last lingerers in that deserted piece of coast, +they seemed indifferent to the events which had thus left them solitary, +and, as the daughter said, did not know where Mataafa was, nor where +Tamasese.<br> +<br> +It is the official Samoan pretension that the Germans fired first at +Fangalii. In view of all German and some native testimony, the +text of Fritze’s orders, and the probabilities of the case, no +honest mind will believe it for a moment. Certainly the Samoans +fired first. As certainly they were betrayed into the engagement +in the agitation of the moment, and it was not till afterwards that +they understood what they had done. Then, indeed, all Samoa drew +a breath of wonder and delight. The invincible had fallen; the +men of the vaunted war-ships had been met in the field by the braves +of Mataafa: a superstition was no more. Conceive this people steadily +as schoolboys; and conceive the elation in any school if the head boy +should suddenly arise and drive the rector from the schoolhouse. +I have received one instance of the feeling instantly aroused. +There lay at the time in the consular hospital an old chief who was +a pet of the colonel’s. News reached him of the glorious +event; he was sick, he thought himself sinking, sent for the colonel, +and gave him his gun. “Don’t let the Germans get it,” +said the old gentleman, and having received a promise, was at peace.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER IX - “FUROR CONSULARIS”<br> +<i>December</i> 1888<i> to March</i> 1889<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Knappe, in the <i>Adler</i>, with a flag of truce at the fore, was entering +Laulii Bay when the <i>Eber</i> brought him the news of the night’s +reverse. His heart was doubtless wrung for his young countrymen +who had been butchered and mutilated in the dark woods, or now lay suffering, +and some of them dying, on the ship. And he must have been startled +as he recognised his own position. He had gone too far; he had +stumbled into war, and, what was worse, into defeat; he had thrown away +German lives for less than nothing, and now saw himself condemned either +to accept defeat, or to kick and pummel his failure into something like +success; either to accept defeat, or take frenzy for a counsellor. +Yesterday, in cold blood, he had judged it necessary to have the woods +to the westward guarded lest the evacuation of Laulii should prove only +the peril of Apia. To-day, in the irritation and alarm of failure, +he forgot or despised his previous reasoning, and, though his detachment +was beat back to the ships, proceeded with the remainder of his maimed +design. The only change he made was to haul down the flag of truce. +He had now no wish to meet with Mataafa. Words were out of season, +shells must speak.<br> +<br> +At this moment an incident befell him which must have been trying to +his self-command. The new American ship <i>Nipsic</i> entered +Laulii Bay; her commander, Mullan, boarded the <i>Adler</i> to protest, +succeeded in wresting from Knappe a period of delay in order that the +women might be spared, and sent a lieutenant to Mataafa with a warning. +The camp was already excited by the news and the trophies of Fangalii. +Already Tamasese and Lotoanuu seemed secondary objectives to the Germans +and Apia. Mullan’s message put an end to hesitation. +Laulii was evacuated. The troops streamed westward by the mountain +side, and took up the same day a strong position about Tanungamanono +and Mangiangi, some two miles behind Apia, which they threatened with +the one hand, while with the other they continued to draw their supplies +from the devoted plantations of the German firm. Laulii, when +it was shelled, was empty. The British flags were, of course, +fired upon; and I hear that one of them was struck down, but I think +every one must be privately of the mind that it was fired upon and fell, +in a place where it had little business to be shown.<br> +<br> +Such was the military epilogue to the ill-judged adventure of Fangalii; +it was difficult for failure to be more complete. But the other +consequences were of a darker colour and brought the whites immediately +face to face in a spirit of ill-favoured animosity. Knappe was +mourning the defeat and death of his country-folk, he was standing aghast +over the ruin of his own career, when Mullan boarded him. The +successor of Leary served himself, in that bitter moment, heir to Leary’s +part. And in Mullan, Knappe saw more even than the successor of +Leary, - he saw in him the representative of Klein. Klein had +hailed the praam from the rifle-pits; he had there uttered ill-chosen +words, unhappily prophetic; it is even likely that he was present at +the time of the first fire. To accuse him of the design and conduct +of the whole attack was but a step forward; his own vapouring served +to corroborate the accusation; and it was not long before the German +consulate was in possession of sworn native testimony in support. +The worth of native testimony is small, the worth of white testimony +not overwhelming; and I am in the painful position of not being able +to subscribe either to Klein’s own account of the affair or to +that of his accusers. Klein was extremely flurried; his interest +as a reporter must have tempted him at first to make the most of his +share in the exploit, the immediate peril in which he soon found himself +to stand must have at least suggested to him the idea of minimising +it; one way and another, he is not a good witness. As for the +natives, they were no doubt cross-examined in that hall of terror, the +German consulate, where they might be trusted to lie like schoolboys, +or (if the reader prefer it) like Samoans. By outside white testimony, +it remains established for me that Klein returned to Apia either before +or immediately after the first shots. That he ever sought or was +ever allowed a share in the command may be denied peremptorily; but +it is more than likely that he expressed himself in an excited manner +and with a highly inflammatory effect upon his hearers. He was, +at least, severely punished. The Germans, enraged by his provocative +behaviour and what they thought to be his German birth, demanded him +to be tried before court-martial; he had to skulk inside the sentries +of the American consulate, to be smuggled on board a war-ship, and to +be carried almost by stealth out of the island; and what with the agitations +of his mind, and the results of a marsh fever contracted in the lines +of Mataafa, reached Honolulu a very proper object of commiseration. +Nor was Klein the only accused: de Coetlogon was himself involved. +As the boats passed Matautu, Knappe declares a signal was made from +the British consulate. Perhaps we should rather read “from +its neighbourhood”; since, in the general warding of the coast, +the point of Matautu could scarce have been neglected. On the +other hand, there is no doubt that the Samoans, in the anxiety of that +night of watching and fighting, crowded to the friendly consul for advice. +Late in the night, the wounded Siteoni, lying on the colonel’s +verandah, one corner of which had been blinded down that he might sleep, +heard the coming and going of bare feet and the voices of eager consultation. +And long after, a man who had been discharged from the colonel’s +employment took upon himself to swear an affidavit as to the nature +of the advice then given, and to carry the document to the German consul. +It was an act of private revenge; it fell long out of date in the good +days of Dr. Stuebel, and had no result but to discredit the gentleman +who volunteered it. Colonel de Coetlogon had his faults, but they +did not touch his honour; his bare word would always outweigh a waggon-load +of such denunciations; and he declares his behaviour on that night to +have been blameless. The question was besides inquired into on +the spot by Sir John Thurston, and the colonel honourably acquitted. +But during the weeks that were now to follow, Knappe believed the contrary; +he believed not only that Moors and others had supplied ammunition and +Klein commanded in the field, but that de Coetlogon had made the signal +of attack; that though his blue-jackets had bled and fallen against +the arms of Samoans, these were supplied, inspired, and marshalled by +Americans and English.<br> +<br> +The legend was the more easily believed because it embraced and was +founded upon so much truth. Germans lay dead, the German wounded +groaned in their cots; and the cartridges by which they fell had been +sold by an American and brought into the country in a British bottom. +Had the transaction been entirely mercenary, it would already have been +hard to swallow; but it was notoriously not so. British and Americans +were notoriously the partisans of Mataafa. They rejoiced in the +result of Fangalii, and so far from seeking to conceal their rejoicing, +paraded and displayed it. Calumny ran high. Before the dead +were buried, while the wounded yet lay in pain and fever, cowardly accusations +of cowardice were levelled at the German blue-jackets. It was +said they had broken and run before their enemies, and that they had +huddled helpless like sheep in the plantation house. Small wonder +if they had; small wonder had they been utterly destroyed. But +the fact was heroically otherwise; and these dastard calumnies cut to +the blood. They are not forgotten; perhaps they will never be +forgiven.<br> +<br> +In the meanwhile, events were pressing towards a still more trenchant +opposition. On the 20th, the three consuls met and parted without +agreement, Knappe announcing that he had lost men and must take the +matter in his own hands to avenge their death. On the 21st the +<i>Olga</i> came before Matafangatele, ordered the delivery of all arms +within the hour, and at the end of that period, none being brought, +shelled and burned the village. The shells fell for the most part +innocuous; an eyewitness saw children at play beside the flaming houses; +not a soul was injured; and the one noteworthy event was the mutilation +of Captain Hamilton’s American flag. In one sense an incident +too small to be chronicled, in another this was of historic interest +and import. These rags of tattered bunting occasioned the display +of a new sentiment in the United States; and the republic of the West, +hitherto so apathetic and unwieldy, but already stung by German nonchalance, +leaped to its feet for the first time at the news of this fresh insult. +As though to make the inefficiency of the war-ships more apparent, three +shells were thrown inland at Mangiangi; they flew high over the Mataafa +camp, where the natives could “hear them singing” as they +flew, and fell behind in the deep romantic valley of the Vaisingano. +Mataafa had been already summoned on board the <i>Adler</i>; his life +promised if he came, declared “in danger” if he came not; +and he had declined in silence the unattractive invitation. These +fresh hostile acts showed him that the worst had come. He was +in strength, his force posted along the whole front of the mountain +behind Apia, Matautu occupied, the Siumu road lined up to the houses +of the town with warriors passionate for war. The occasion was +unique, and there is no doubt that he designed to seize it. The +same day of this bombardment, he sent word bidding all English and Americans +wear a black band upon their arm, so that his men should recognise and +spare them. The hint was taken, and the band worn for a continuance +of days. To have refused would have been insane; but to consent +was unhappily to feed the resentment of the Germans by a fresh sign +of intelligence with their enemies, and to widen the breach between +the races by a fresh and a scarce pardonable mark of their division. +The same day again the Germans repeated one of their earlier offences +by firing on a boat within the harbour. Times were changed; they +were now at war and in peril, the rigour of military advantage might +well be seized by them and pardoned by others; but it so chanced that +the bullets flew about the ears of Captain Hand, and that commander +is said to have been insatiable of apologies. The affair, besides, +had a deplorable effect on the inhabitants. A black band (they +saw) might protect them from the Mataafas, not from undiscriminating +shots. Panic ensued. The war-ships were open to receive +the fugitives, and the gentlemen who had made merry over Fangalii were +seen to thrust each other from the wharves in their eagerness to flee +Apia. I willingly drop the curtain on the shameful picture.<br> +<br> +Meanwhile, on the German side of the bay, a more manly spirit was exhibited +in circumstances of alarming weakness. The plantation managers +and overseers had all retreated to Matafele, only one (I understand) +remaining at his post. The whole German colony was thus collected +in one spot, and could count and wonder at its scanty numbers. +Knappe declares (to my surprise) that the war-ships could not spare +him more than fifty men a day. The great extension of the German +quarter, he goes on, did not “allow a full occupation of the outer +line”; hence they had shrunk into the western end by the firm +buildings, and the inhabitants were warned to fall back on this position, +in the case of an alert. So that he who had set forth, a day or +so before, to disarm the Mataafas in the open field, now found his resources +scarce adequate to garrison the buildings of the firm. But Knappe +seemed unteachable by fate. It is probable he thought he had<br> +<br> +<br> +“Already waded in so deep,<br> +Returning were as tedious as go o’er”;<br> +<br> +<br> +it is certain that he continued, on the scene of his defeat and in the +midst of his weakness, to bluster and menace like a conqueror. +Active war, which he lacked the means of attempting, was continually +threatened. On the 22nd he sought the aid of his brother consuls +to maintain the neutral territory against Mataafa; and at the same time, +as though meditating instant deeds of prowess, refused to be bound by +it himself. This singular proposition was of course refused: Blacklock +remarking that he had no fear of the natives, if these were let alone; +de Coetlogon refusing in the circumstances to recognise any neutral +territory at all. In vain Knappe amended and baited his proposal +with the offer of forty-eight or ninety-six hours’ notice, according +as his objective should be near or within the boundary of the <i>Eleele</i> +<i>Sa</i>. It was rejected; and he learned that he must accept +war with all its consequences - and not that which he desired - war +with the immunities of peace.<br> +<br> +This monstrous exigence illustrates the man’s frame of mind. +It has been still further illuminated in the German white-book by printing +alongside of his despatches those of the unimpassioned Fritze. +On January 8th the consulate was destroyed by fire. Knappe says +it was the work of incendiaries, “without doubt”; Fritze +admits that “everything seems to show” it was an accident. +“Tamasese’s people fit to bear arms,” writes Knappe, +“are certainly for the moment equal to Mataafa’s,” +though restrained from battle by the lack of ammunition. “As +for Tamasese,” says Fritze of the same date, “he is now +but a phantom - <i>dient er nur als Gespenst</i>. His party, for +practical purposes, is no longer large. They pretend ammunition +to be lacking, but what they lack most is good-will. Captain Brandeis, +whose influence is now small, declares they can no longer sustain a +serious engagement, and is himself in the intention of leaving Samoa +by the <i>Lübeck</i> of the 5th February.” And Knappe, +in the same despatch, confutes himself and confirms the testimony of +his naval colleague, by the admission that “the re-establishment +of Tamasese’s government is, under present circumstances, not +to be thought of.” Plainly, then, he was not so much seeking +to deceive others, as he was himself possessed; and we must regard the +whole series of his acts and despatches as the agitations of a fever.<br> +<br> +The British steamer <i>Richmond</i> returned to Apia, January 15th. +On the last voyage she had brought the ammunition already so frequently +referred to; as a matter of fact, she was again bringing contraband +of war. It is necessary to be explicit upon this, which served +as spark to so great a flame of scandal. Knappe was justified +in interfering; he would have been worthy of all condemnation if he +had neglected, in his posture of semi-investment, a precaution so elementary; +and the manner in which he set about attempting it was conciliatory +and almost timid. He applied to Captain Hand, and begged him to +accept himself the duty of “controlling” the discharge of +the <i>Richmond’s</i> cargo. Hand was unable to move without +his consul; and at night an armed boat from the Germans boarded, searched, +and kept possession of, the suspected ship. The next day, as by +an after-thought, war and martial law were proclaimed for the Samoan +Islands, the introduction of contraband of war forbidden, and ships +and boats declared liable to search. “All support of the +rebels will be punished by martial law,” continued the proclamation, +“no matter to what nationality the person [<i>Thäter</i>] +may belong.”<br> +<br> +Hand, it has been seen, declined to act in the matter of the <i>Richmond</i> +without the concurrence of his consul; but I have found no evidence +that either Hand or Knappe communicated with de Coetlogon, with whom +they were both at daggers drawn. First the seizure and next the +proclamation seem to have burst on the English consul from a clear sky; +and he wrote on the same day, throwing doubt on Knappe’s authority +to declare war. Knappe replied on the 20th that the Imperial German +Government had been at war as a matter of fact since December 19th, +and that it was only for the convenience of the subjects of other states +that he had been empowered to make a formal declaration. “From +that moment,” he added, “martial law prevails in Samoa.” +De Coetlogon instantly retorted, declining martial law for British subjects, +and announcing a proclamation in that sense. Instantly, again, +came that astonishing document, Knappe’s rejoinder, without pause, +without reflection - the pens screeching on the paper, the messengers +(you would think) running from consulate to consulate: “I have +had the honour to receive your Excellency’s [<i>Hochwohlgeboren</i>] +agreeable communication of to-day. Since, on the ground of received +instructions, martial law has been declared in Samoa, British subjects +as well as others fall under its application. I warn you therefore +to abstain from such a proclamation as you announce in your letter. +It will be such a piece of business as shall make yourself answerable +under martial law. Besides, your proclamation will be disregarded.” +De Coetlogon of course issued his proclamation at once, Knappe retorted +with another, and night closed on the first stage of this insane collision. +I hear the German consul was on this day prostrated with fever; charity +at least must suppose him hardly answerable for his language.<br> +<br> +Early on the 21st, Mr. Mansfield Gallien, a passing traveller, was seized +in his berth on board the <i>Richmond</i>, and carried, half-dressed, +on board a German war-ship. His offence was, in the circumstances +and after the proclamation, substantial. He had gone the day before, +in the spirit of a tourist to Mataafa’s camp, had spoken with +the king, and had even recommended him an appeal to Sir George Grey. +Fritze, I gather, had been long uneasy; this arrest on board a British +ship fitted the measure. Doubtless, as he had written long before, +the consul alone was responsible “on the legal side”; but +the captain began to ask himself, “What next?” - telegraphed +direct home for instructions, “Is arrest of foreigners on foreign +vessels legal?” - and was ready, at a word from Captain Hand, +to discharge his dangerous prisoner. The word in question (so +the story goes) was not without a kind of wit. “I wish you +would set that man ashore,” Hand is reported to have said, indicating +Gallien; “I wish you would set that man ashore, to save me the +trouble.” The same day de Coetlogon published a proclamation +requesting captains to submit to search for contraband of war.<br> +<br> +On the 22nd the <i>Samoa Times and South Sea Advertiser</i> was suppressed +by order of Fritze. I have hitherto refrained from mentioning +the single paper of our islands, that I might deal with it once for +all. It is of course a tiny sheet; but I have often had occasion +to wonder at the ability of its articles, and almost always at the decency +of its tone. Officials may at times be a little roughly, and at +times a little captiously, criticised; private persons are habitually +respected; and there are many papers in England, and still more in the +States, even of leading organs in chief cities, that might envy, and +would do well to imitate, the courtesy and discretion of the <i>Samoa +Times</i>. Yet the editor, Cusack, is only an amateur in journalism, +and a carpenter by trade. His chief fault is one perhaps inevitable +in so small a place - that he seems a little in the leading of a clique; +but his interest in the public weal is genuine and generous. One +man’s meat is another man’s poison: Anglo-Saxons and Germans +have been differently brought up. To our galled experience the paper +appears moderate; to their untried sensations it seems violent. +We think a public man fair game; we think it a part of his duty, and +I am told he finds it a part of his reward, to be continually canvassed +by the press. For the Germans, on the other hand, an official +wears a certain sacredness; when he is called over the coals, they are +shocked, and (if the official be a German) feel that Germany itself +has been insulted. The <i>Samoa Times</i> had been long a mountain +of offence. Brandeis had imported from the colonies another printer +of the name of Jones, to deprive Cusack of the government printing. +German sailors had come ashore one day, wild with offended patriotism, +to punish the editor with stripes, and the result was delightfully amusing. +The champions asked for the English printer. They were shown the +wrong man, and the blows intended for Cusack had hailed on the shoulders +of his rival Jones. On the 12th, Cusack had reprinted an article +from a San Francisco paper; the Germans had complained; and de Coetlogon, +in a moment of weakness, had fined the editor twenty pounds. The +judgment was afterwards reversed in Fiji; but even at the time it had +not satisfied the Germans. And so now, on the third day of martial +law, the paper was suppressed. Here we have another of these international +obscurities. To Fritze the step seemed natural and obvious; for +Anglo-Saxons it was a hand laid upon the altar; and the month was scarce +out before the voice of Senator Frye announced to his colleagues that +free speech had been suppressed in Samoa.<br> +<br> +Perhaps we must seek some similar explanation for Fritze’s short-lived +code, published and withdrawn the next day, the 23rd. Fritze himself +was in no humour for extremities. He was much in the position +of a lieutenant who should perceive his captain urging the ship upon +the rocks. It is plain he had lost all confidence in his commanding +officer “upon the legal side”; and we find him writing home +with anxious candour. He had understood that martial law implied +military possession; he was in military possession of nothing but his +ship, and shrewdly suspected that his martial jurisdiction should be +confined within the same limits. “As a matter of fact,” +he writes, “we do not occupy the territory, and cannot give foreigners +the necessary protection, because Mataafa and his people can at any +moment forcibly interrupt me in my jurisdiction.” Yet in +the eyes of Anglo-Saxons the severity of his code appeared burlesque. +I give but three of its provisions. The crime of inciting German +troops “by any means, as, for instance, informing them of proclamations +by the enemy,” was punishable with death; that of “publishing +or secretly distributing anything, whether printed or written, bearing +on the war,” with prison or deportation; and that of calling or +attending a public meeting, unless permitted, with the same. Such +were the tender mercies of Knappe, lurking in the western end of the +German quarter, where Mataafa could “at any moment” interrupt +his jurisdiction.<br> +<br> +On the 22nd (day of the suppression of the <i>Times</i>) de Coetlogon +wrote to inquire if hostilities were intended against Great Britain, +which Knappe on the same day denied. On the 23rd de Coetlogon +sent a complaint of hostile acts, such as the armed and forcible entry +of the <i>Richmond</i> before the declaration and arrest of Gallien. +In his reply, dated the 24th, Knappe took occasion to repeat, although +now with more self-command, his former threat against de Coetlogon. +“I am still of the opinion,” he writes, “that even +foreign consuls are liable to the application of martial law, if they +are guilty of offences against the belligerent state.” The +same day (24th) de Coetlogon complained that Fletcher, manager for Messrs. +MacArthur, had been summoned by Fritze. In answer, Knappe had +“the honour to inform your Excellency that since the declaration +of the state of war, British subjects are liable to martial law, and +Mr. Fletcher will be arrested if he does not appear.” Here, +then, was the gauntlet thrown down, and de Coetlogon was burning to +accept it. Fletcher’s offence was this. Upon the 22nd +a steamer had come in from Wellington, specially chartered to bring +German despatches to Apia. The rumour came along with her from +New Zealand that in these despatches Knappe would find himself rebuked, +and Fletcher was accused of having “interested himself in the +spreading of this rumour.” His arrest was actually ordered, +when Hand succeeded in persuading him to surrender. At the German +court, the case was dismissed “<i>wegen Nichtigkeit</i>”; +and the acute stage of these distempers may be said to have ended. +Blessed are the peacemakers. Hand had perhaps averted a collision. +What is more certain, he had offered to the world a perfectly original +reading of the part of British seaman.<br> +<br> +Hand may have averted a collision, I say; but I am tempted to believe +otherwise. I am tempted to believe the threat to arrest Fletcher +was the last mutter of the declining tempest and a mere sop to Knappe’s +self-respect. I am tempted to believe the rumour in question was +substantially correct, and the steamer from Wellington had really brought +the German consul grounds for hesitation, if not orders to retreat. +I believe the unhappy man to have awakened from a dream, and to have +read ominous writing on the wall. An enthusiastic popularity surrounded +him among the Germans. It was natural. Consul and colony +had passed through an hour of serious peril, and the consul had set +the example of undaunted courage. He was entertained at dinner. +Fritze, who was known to have secretly opposed him, was scorned and +avoided. But the clerks of the German firm were one thing, Prince +Bismarck was another; and on a cold review of these events, it is not +improbable that Knappe may have envied the position of his naval colleague. +It is certain, at least, that he set himself to shuffle and capitulate; +and when the blow fell, he was able to reply that the martial law business +had in the meanwhile come right; that the English and American consular +courts stood open for ordinary cases and that in different conversations +with Captain Hand, “who has always maintained friendly intercourse +with the German authorities,” it had been repeatedly explained +that only the supply of weapons and ammunition, or similar aid and support, +was to come under German martial law. Was it weapons or ammunition +that Fletcher had supplied? But it is unfair to criticise these +wrigglings of an unfortunate in a false position.<br> +<br> +In a despatch of the 23rd, which has not been printed, Knappe had told +his story: how he had declared war, subjected foreigners to martial +law, and been received with a counter-proclamation by the English consul; +and how (in an interview with Mataafa chiefs at the plantation house +of Motuotua, of which I cannot find the date) he had demanded the cession +of arms and of ringleaders for punishment, and proposed to assume the +government of the islands. On February 12th he received Bismarck’s +answer: “You had no right to take foreigners from the jurisdiction +of their consuls. The protest of your English colleague is grounded. +In disputes which may arise from this cause you will find yourself in +the wrong. The demand formulated by you, as to the assumption +of the government of Samoa by Germany, lay outside of your instructions +and of our design. Take it immediately back. If your telegram +is here rightly understood, I cannot call your conduct good.” +It must be a hard heart that does not sympathise with Knappe in the +hour when he received this document. Yet it may be said that his +troubles were still in the beginning. Men had contended against +him, and he had not prevailed; he was now to be at war with the elements, +and find his name identified with an immense disaster.<br> +<br> +One more date, however, must be given first. It was on February +27th that Fritze formally announced martial law to be suspended, and +himself to have relinquished the control of the police.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER X - THE HURRICANE<br> +<i>March</i> 1889<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +The so-called harbour of Apia is formed in part by a recess of the coast-line +at Matautu, in part by the slim peninsula of Mulinuu, and in part by +the fresh waters of the Mulivai and Vaisingano. The barrier reef +- that singular breakwater that makes so much of the circuit of Pacific +islands - is carried far to sea at Matautu and Mulinuu; inside of these +two horns it runs sharply landward, and between them it is burst or +dissolved by the fresh water. The shape of the enclosed anchorage +may be compared to a high-shouldered jar or bottle with a funnel mouth. +Its sides are almost everywhere of coral; for the reef not only bounds +it to seaward and forms the neck and mouth, but skirting about the beach, +it forms the bottom also. As in the bottle of commerce, the bottom +is re-entrant, and the shore-reef runs prominently forth into the basin +and makes a dangerous cape opposite the fairway of the entrance. +Danger is, therefore, on all hands. The entrance gapes three cables +wide at the narrowest, and the formidable surf of the Pacific thunders +both outside and in. There are days when speech is difficult in +the chambers of shore-side houses; days when no boat can land, and when +men are broken by stroke of sea against the wharves. As I write +these words, three miles in the mountains, and with the land-breeze +still blowing from the island summit, the sound of that vexed harbour +hums in my ears. Such a creek in my native coast of Scotland would +scarce be dignified with the mark of an anchor in the chart; but in +the favoured climate of Samoa, and with the mechanical regularity of +the winds in the Pacific, it forms, for ten or eleven months out of +the twelve, a safe if hardly a commodious port. The ill-found +island traders ride there with their insufficient moorings the year +through, and discharge, and are loaded, without apprehension. +Of danger, when it comes, the glass gives timely warning; and that any +modern war-ship, furnished with the power of steam, should have been +lost in Apia, belongs not so much to nautical as to political history.<br> +<br> +The weather throughout all that winter (the turbulent summer of the +islands) was unusually fine, and the circumstance had been commented +on as providential, when so many Samoans were lying on their weapons +in the bush. By February it began to break in occasional gales. +On February 10th a German brigantine was driven ashore. On the +14th the same misfortune befell an American brigantine and a schooner. +On both these days, and again on the 7th March, the men-of-war must +steam to their anchors. And it was in this last month, the most +dangerous of the twelve, that man’s animosities crowded that indentation +of the reef with costly, populous, and vulnerable ships.<br> +<br> +I have shown, perhaps already at too great a length, how violently passion +ran upon the spot; how high this series of blunders and mishaps had +heated the resentment of the Germans against all other nationalities +and of all other nationalities against the Germans. But there +was one country beyond the borders of Samoa where the question had aroused +a scarce less angry sentiment. The breach of the Washington Congress, +the evidence of Sewall before a sub-committee on foreign relations, +the proposal to try Klein before a military court, and the rags of Captain +Hamilton’s flag, had combined to stir the people of the States +to an unwonted fervour. Germany was for the time the abhorred +of nations. Germans in America publicly disowned the country of +their birth. In Honolulu, so near the scene of action, German +and American young men fell to blows in the street. In the same +city, from no traceable source, and upon no possible authority, there +arose a rumour of tragic news to arrive by the next occasion, that the +<i>Nipsic</i> had opened fire on the <i>Adler</i>, and the <i>Adler</i> +had sunk her on the first reply. Punctually on the day appointed, +the news came; and the two nations, instead of being plunged into war, +could only mingle tears over the loss of heroes.<br> +<br> +By the second week in March three American ships were in Apia bay, - +the <i>Nipsic</i>, the<i> Vandalia</i>, and the <i>Trenton</i>, carrying +the flag of Rear-Admiral Kimberley; three German, - the <i>Adler</i>, +the<i> Eber</i>, and the <i>Olga</i>; and one British, - the <i>Calliope</i>, +Captain Kane. Six merchant-men, ranging from twenty-five up to +five hundred tons, and a number of small craft, further encumbered the +anchorage. Its capacity is estimated by Captain Kane at four large +ships; and the latest arrivals, the <i>Vandalia</i> and<i> Trenton</i>, +were in consequence excluded, and lay without in the passage. +Of the seven war-ships, the seaworthiness of two was questionable: the +<i>Trenton’s</i>, from an original defect in her construction, +often reported, never remedied - her hawse-pipes leading in on the berth-deck; +the <i>Eber’s</i>, from an injury to her screw in the blow of +February 14th. In this overcrowding of ships in an open entry +of the reef, even the eye of the landsman could spy danger; and Captain-Lieutenant +Wallis of the <i>Eber</i> openly blamed and lamented, not many hours +before the catastrophe, their helpless posture. Temper once more +triumphed. The army of Mataafa still hung imminent behind the +town; the German quarter was still daily garrisoned with fifty sailors +from the squadron; what was yet more influential, Germany and the States, +at least in Apia bay, were on the brink of war, viewed each other with +looks of hatred, and scarce observed the letter of civility. On +the day of the admiral’s arrival, Knappe failed to call on him, +and on the morrow called on him while he was on shore. The slight +was remarked and resented, and the two squadrons clung more obstinately +to their dangerous station.<br> +<br> +On the 15th the barometer fell to 29.11 in. by 2 P.M. This was +the moment when every sail in port should have escaped. Kimberley, +who flew the only broad pennant, should certainly have led the way: +he clung, instead, to his moorings, and the Germans doggedly followed +his example: semi-belligerents, daring each other and the violence of +heaven. Kane, less immediately involved, was led in error by the +report of residents and a fallacious rise in the glass; he stayed with +the others, a misjudgment that was like to cost him dear. All +were moored, as is the custom in Apia, with two anchors practically +east and west, clear hawse to the north, and a kedge astern. Topmasts +were struck, and the ships made snug. The night closed black, +with sheets of rain. By midnight it blew a gale; and by the morning +watch, a tempest. Through what remained of darkness, the captains +impatiently expected day, doubtful if they were dragging, steaming gingerly +to their moorings, and afraid to steam too much.<br> +<br> +Day came about six, and presented to those on shore a seizing and terrific +spectacle. In the pressure of the squalls the bay was obscured +as if by midnight, but between them a great part of it was clearly if +darkly visible amid driving mist and rain. The wind blew into +the harbour mouth. Naval authorities describe it as of hurricane +force. It had, however, few or none of the effects on shore suggested +by that ominous word, and was successfully withstood by trees and buildings. +The agitation of the sea, on the other hand, surpassed experience and +description. Seas that might have awakened surprise and terror +in the midst of the Atlantic ranged bodily and (it seemed to observers) +almost without diminution into the belly of that flask-shaped harbour; +and the war-ships were alternately buried from view in the trough, or +seen standing on end against the breast of billows.<br> +<br> +The <i>Trenton</i> at daylight still maintained her position in the +neck of the bottle. But five of the remaining ships tossed, already +close to the bottom, in a perilous and helpless crowd; threatening ruin +to each other as they tossed; threatened with a common and imminent +destruction on the reefs. Three had been already in collision: +the <i>Olga</i> was injured in the quarter, the <i>Adler</i> had lost +her bowsprit; the <i>Nipsic</i> had lost her smoke-stack, and was making +steam with difficulty, maintaining her fire with barrels of pork, and +the smoke and sparks pouring along the level of the deck. For +the seventh war-ship the day had come too late; the <i>Eber</i> had +finished her last cruise; she was to be seen no more save by the eyes +of divers. A coral reef is not only an instrument of destruction, +but a place of sepulchre; the submarine cliff is profoundly undercut, +and presents the mouth of a huge antre in which the bodies of men and +the hulls of ships are alike hurled down and buried. The <i>Eber</i> +had dragged anchors with the rest; her injured screw disabled her from +steaming vigorously up; and a little before day she had struck the front +of the coral, come off, struck again, and gone down stern foremost, +oversetting as she went, into the gaping hollow of the reef. Of +her whole complement of nearly eighty, four souls were cast alive on +the beach; and the bodies of the remainder were, by the voluminous outpouring +of the flooded streams, scoured at last from the harbour, and strewed +naked on the seaboard of the island.<br> +<br> +Five ships were immediately menaced with the same destruction. +The <i>Eber</i> vanished - the four poor survivors on shore - read a +dreadful commentary on their danger; which was swelled out of all proportion +by the violence of their own movements as they leaped and fell among +the billows. By seven the <i>Nipsic</i> was so fortunate as to +avoid the reef and beach upon a space of sand; where she was immediately +deserted by her crew, with the assistance of Samoans, not without loss +of life. By about eight it was the turn of the <i>Adler</i>. +She was close down upon the reef; doomed herself, it might yet be possible +to save a portion of her crew; and for this end Captain Fritze placed +his reliance on the very hugeness of the seas that threatened him. +The moment was watched for with the anxiety of despair, but the coolness +of disciplined courage. As she rose on the fatal wave, her moorings +were simultaneously slipped; she broached to in rising; and the sea +heaved her bodily upward and cast her down with a concussion on the +summit of the reef, where she lay on her beam-ends, her back broken, +buried in breaching seas, but safe. Conceive a table: the <i>Eber</i> +in the darkness had been smashed against the rim and flung below; the +<i>Adler</i>, cast free in the nick of opportunity, had been thrown +upon the top. Many were injured in the concussion; many tossed +into the water; twenty perished. The survivors crept again on +board their ship, as it now lay, and as it still remains, keel to the +waves, a monument of the sea’s potency. In still weather, +under a cloudless sky, in those seasons when that ill-named ocean, the +Pacific, suffers its vexed shores to rest, she lies high and dry, the +spray scarce touching her - the hugest structure of man’s hands +within a circuit of a thousand miles - tossed up there like a schoolboy’s +cap upon a shelf; broken like an egg; a thing to dream of.<br> +<br> +The unfriendly consuls of Germany and Britain were both that morning +in Matautu, and both displayed their nobler qualities. De Coetlogon, +the grim old soldier, collected his family and kneeled with them in +an agony of prayer for those exposed. Knappe, more fortunate in +that he was called to a more active service, must, upon the striking +of the <i>Adler</i>, pass to his own consulate. From this he was +divided by the Vaisingano, now a raging torrent, impetuously charioting +the trunks of trees. A kelpie might have dreaded to attempt the +passage; we may conceive this brave but unfortunate and now ruined man +to have found a natural joy in the exposure of his life; and twice that +day, coming and going, he braved the fury of the river. It was +possible, in spite of the darkness of the hurricane and the continual +breaching of the seas, to remark human movements on the <i>Adler</i>; +and by the help of Samoans, always nobly forward in the work, whether +for friend or enemy, Knappe sought long to get a line conveyed from +shore, and was for long defeated. The shore guard of fifty men +stood to their arms the while upon the beach, useless themselves, and +a great deterrent of Samoan usefulness. It was perhaps impossible +that this mistake should be avoided. What more natural, to the +mind of a European, than that the Mataafas should fall upon the Germans +in this hour of their disadvantage? But they had no other thought +than to assist; and those who now rallied beside Knappe braved (as they +supposed) in doing so a double danger, from the fury of the sea and +the weapons of their enemies. About nine, a quarter-master swam +ashore, and reported all the officers and some sixty men alive but in +pitiable case; some with broken limbs, others insensible from the drenching +of the breakers. Later in the forenoon, certain valorous Samoans +succeeded in reaching the wreck and returning with a line; but it was +speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts proved unavailing, the +strongest adventurers being cast back again by the bursting seas. +Thenceforth, all through that day and night, the deafened survivors +must continue to endure their martyrdom; and one officer died, it was +supposed from agony of mind, in his inverted cabin.<br> +<br> +Three ships still hung on the next margin of destruction, steaming desperately +to their moorings, dashed helplessly together. The <i>Calliope</i> +was the nearest in; she had the <i>Vandalia</i> close on her port side +and a little ahead, the <i>Olga</i> close a-starboard, the reef under +her heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the unhappy ship fenced +with her three dangers. About a quarter to nine she carried away +the <i>Vandalia’s</i> quarter gallery with her jib-boom; a moment +later, the <i>Olga</i> had near rammed her from the other side. +By nine the <i>Vandalia</i> dropped down on her too fast to be avoided, +and clapped her stern under the bowsprit of the English ship, the fastenings +of which were burst asunder as she rose. To avoid cutting her +down, it was necessary for the <i>Calliope</i> to stop and even to reverse +her engines; and her rudder was at the moment - or it seemed so to the +eyes of those on board - within ten feet of the reef. “Between +the <i>Vandalia</i> and the reef” (writes Kane, in his excellent +report) “it was destruction.” To repeat Fritze’s +manoeuvre with the <i>Adler</i> was impossible; the <i>Calliope</i> +was too heavy. The one possibility of escape was to go out. +If the engines should stand, if they should have power to drive the +ship against wind and sea, if she should answer the helm, if the wheel, +rudder, and gear should hold out, and if they were favoured with a clear +blink of weather in which to see and avoid the outer reef - there, and +there only, were safety. Upon this catalogue of “ifs” +Kane staked his all. He signalled to the engineer for every pound +of steam - and at that moment (I am told) much of the machinery was +already red-hot. The ship was sheered well to starboard of the +<i>Vandalia</i>, the last remaining cable slipped. For a time +- and there was no onlooker so cold-blooded as to offer a guess at its +duration - the <i>Calliope</i> lay stationary; then gradually drew ahead. +The highest speed claimed for her that day is of one sea-mile an hour. +The question of times and seasons, throughout all this roaring business, +is obscured by a dozen contradictions; I have but chosen what appeared +to be the most consistent; but if I am to pay any attention to the time +named by Admiral Kimberley, the <i>Calliope</i>, in this first stage +of her escape, must have taken more than two hours to cover less than +four cables. As she thus crept seaward, she buried bow and stem +alternately under the billows.<br> +<br> +In the fairway of the entrance the flagship <i>Trenton</i> still held +on. Her rudder was broken, her wheel carried away; within she +was flooded with water from the peccant hawse-pipes; she had just made +the signal “fires extinguished,” and lay helpless, awaiting +the inevitable end. Between this melancholy hulk and the external +reef Kane must find a path. Steering within fifty yards of the +reef (for which she was actually headed) and her foreyard passing on +the other hand over the <i>Trenton’s</i> quarter as she rolled, +the <i>Calliope</i> sheered between the rival dangers, came to the wind +triumphantly, and was once more pointed for the sea and safety. +Not often in naval history was there a moment of more sickening peril, +and it was dignified by one of those incidents that reconcile the chronicler +with his otherwise abhorrent task. From the doomed flagship the +Americans hailed the success of the English with a cheer. It was +led by the old admiral in person, rang out over the storm with holiday +vigour, and was answered by the Calliopes with an emotion easily conceived. +This ship of their kinsfolk was almost the last external object seen +from the <i>Calliope</i> for hours; immediately after, the mists closed +about her till the morrow. She was safe at sea again - <i>una +de multis</i> - with a damaged foreyard, and a loss of all the ornamental +work about her bow and stern, three anchors, one kedge-anchor, fourteen +lengths of chain, four boats, the jib-boom, bobstay, and bands and fastenings +of the bowsprit.<br> +<br> +Shortly after Kane had slipped his cable, Captain Schoonmaker, despairing +of the <i>Vandalia</i>, succeeded in passing astern of the <i>Olga</i>, +in the hope to beach his ship beside the <i>Nipsic</i>. At a quarter +to eleven her stern took the reef, her hand swung to starboard, and +she began to fill and settle. Many lives of brave men were sacrificed +in the attempt to get a line ashore; the captain, exhausted by his exertions, +was swept from deck by a sea; and the rail being soon awash, the survivors +took refuge in the tops.<br> +<br> +Out of thirteen that had lain there the day before, there were now but +two ships afloat in Apia harbour, and one of these was doomed to be +the bane of the other. About 3 P.M. the <i>Trenton</i> parted +one cable, and shortly after a second. It was sought to keep her +head to wind with storm-sails and by the ingenious expedient of filling +the rigging with seamen; but in the fury of the gale, and in that sea, +perturbed alike by the gigantic billows and the volleying discharges +of the rivers, the rudderless ship drove down stern foremost into the +inner basin; ranging, plunging, and striking like a frightened horse; +drifting on destruction for herself and bringing it to others. +Twice the <i>Olga</i> (still well under command) avoided her impact +by the skilful use of helm and engines. But about four the vigilance +of the Germans was deceived, and the ships collided; the <i>Olga</i> +cutting into the <i>Trenton’s</i> quarters, first from one side, +then from the other, and losing at the same time two of her own cables. +Captain von Ehrhardt instantly slipped the remainder of his moorings, +and setting fore and aft canvas, and going full steam ahead, succeeded +in beaching his ship in Matautu; whither Knappe, recalled by this new +disaster, had returned. The berth was perhaps the best in the +harbour, and von Ehrhardt signalled that ship and crew were in security.<br> +<br> +The <i>Trenton</i>, guided apparently by an under-tow or eddy from the +discharge of the Vaisingano, followed in the course of the <i>Nipsic</i> +and<i> Vandalia</i>, and skirted south-eastward along the front of the +shore reef, which her keel was at times almost touching. Hitherto +she had brought disaster to her foes; now she was bringing it to friends. +She had already proved the ruin of the <i>Olga</i>, the one ship that +had rid out the hurricane in safety; now she beheld across her course +the submerged <i>Vandalia</i>, the tops filled with exhausted seamen. +Happily the approach of the <i>Trenton</i> was gradual, and the time +employed to advantage. Rockets and lines were thrown into the +tops of the friendly wreck; the approach of danger was transformed into +a means of safety; and before the ships struck, the men from the <i>Vandalia’s</i> +main and mizzen masts, which went immediately by the board in the collision, +were already mustered on the <i>Trenton’s</i> decks. Those +from the foremast were next rescued; and the flagship settled gradually +into a position alongside her neighbour, against which she beat all +night with violence. Out of the crew of the <i>Vandalia</i> forty-three +had perished; of the four hundred and fifty on board the <i>Trenton</i>, +only one.<br> +<br> +The night of the 16th was still notable for a howling tempest and extraordinary +floods of rain. It was feared the wreck could scarce continue +to endure the breaching of the seas; among the Germans, the fate of +those on board the <i>Adler</i> awoke keen anxiety; and Knappe, on the +beach of Matautu, and the other officers of his consulate on that of +Matafele, watched all night. The morning of the 17th displayed +a scene of devastation rarely equalled: the <i>Adler</i> high and dry, +the <i>Olga</i> and <i>Nipsic</i> beached, the <i>Trenton</i> partly +piled on the <i>Vandalia</i> and herself sunk to the gun-deck; no sail +afloat; and the beach heaped high with the <i>débris</i> of ships +and the wreck of mountain forests. Already, before the day, Seumanu, +the chief of Apia, had gallantly ventured forth by boat through the +subsiding fury of the seas, and had succeeded in communicating with +the admiral; already, or as soon after as the dawn permitted, rescue +lines were rigged, and the survivors were with difficulty and danger +begun to be brought to shore. And soon the cheerful spirit of +the admiral added a new feature to the scene. Surrounded as he +was by the crews of two wrecked ships, he paraded the band of the <i>Trenton</i>, +and the bay was suddenly enlivened with the strains of “Hail Columbia.”<br> +<br> +During a great part of the day the work of rescue was continued, with +many instances of courage and devotion; and for a long time succeeding, +the almost inexhaustible harvest of the beach was to be reaped. +In the first employment, the Samoans earned the gratitude of friend +and foe; in the second, they surprised all by an unexpected virtue, +that of honesty. The greatness of the disaster, and the magnitude +of the treasure now rolling at their feet, may perhaps have roused in +their bosoms an emotion too serious for the rule of greed, or perhaps +that greed was for the moment satiated. Sails that twelve strong +Samoans could scarce drag from the water, great guns (one of which was +rolled by the sea on the body of a man, the only native slain in all +the hurricane), an infinite wealth of rope and wood, of tools and weapons, +tossed upon the beach. Yet I have never heard that much was stolen; +and beyond question, much was very honestly returned. On both +accounts, for the saving of life and the restoration of property, the +government of the United States showed themselves generous in reward. +A fine boat was fitly presented to Seumanu; and rings, watches, and +money were lavished on all who had assisted. The Germans also +gave money at the rate (as I receive the tale) of three dollars a head +for every German saved. The obligation was in this instance incommensurably +deep, those with whom they were at war had saved the German blue-jackets +at the venture of their lives; Knappe was, besides, far from ungenerous; +and I can only explain the niggard figure by supposing it was paid from +his own pocket. In one case, at least, it was refused. “I +have saved three Germans,” said the rescuer; “I will make +you a present of the three.”<br> +<br> +The crews of the American and German squadrons were now cast, still +in a bellicose temper, together on the beach. The discipline of +the Americans was notoriously loose; the crew of the <i>Nipsic</i> had +earned a character for lawlessness in other ports; and recourse was +had to stringent and indeed extraordinary measures. The town was +divided in two camps, to which the different nationalities were confined. +Kimberley had his quarter sentinelled and patrolled. Any seaman +disregarding a challenge was to be shot dead; any tavern-keeper who +sold spirits to an American sailor was to have his tavern broken and +his stock destroyed. Many of the publicans were German; and Knappe, +having narrated these rigorous but necessary dispositions, wonders (grinning +to himself over his despatch) how far these Americans will go in their +assumption of jurisdiction over Germans. Such as they were, the +measures were successful. The incongruous mass of castaways was +kept in peace, and at last shipped in peace out of the islands.<br> +<br> +Kane returned to Apia on the 19th, to find the <i>Calliope</i> the sole +survivor of thirteen sail. He thanked his men, and in particular +the engineers, in a speech of unusual feeling and beauty, of which one +who was present remarked to another, as they left the ship, “This +has been a means of grace.” Nor did he forget to thank and +compliment the admiral; and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of transcribing +from Kimberley’s reply some generous and engaging words. +“My dear captain,” he wrote, “your kind note received. +You went out splendidly, and we all felt from our hearts for you, and +our cheers came with sincerity and admiration for the able manner in +which you handled your ship. We could not have been gladder if +it had been one of our ships, for in a time like that I can truly say +with old Admiral Josiah Latnall, ‘that blood is thicker than water.’” +One more trait will serve to build up the image of this typical sea-officer. +A tiny schooner, the <i>Equator</i>, Captain Edwin Reid, dear to myself +from the memories of a six months’ cruise, lived out upon the +high seas the fury of that tempest which had piled with wrecks the harbour +of Apia, found a refuge in Pango-Pango, and arrived at last in the desolated +port with a welcome and lucrative cargo of pigs. The admiral was +glad to have the pigs; but what most delighted the man’s noble +and childish soul, was to see once more afloat the colours of his country.<br> +<br> +Thus, in what seemed the very article of war, and within the duration +of a single day, the sword-arm of each of the two angry Powers was broken; +their formidable ships reduced to junk; their disciplined hundreds to +a horde of castaways, fed with difficulty, and the fear of whose misconduct +marred the sleep of their commanders. Both paused aghast; both +had time to recognise that not the whole Samoan Archipelago was worth +the loss in men and costly ships already suffered. The so-called +hurricane of March 16th made thus a marking epoch in world-history; +directly, and at once, it brought about the congress and treaty of Berlin; +indirectly, and by a process still continuing, it founded the modern +navy of the States. Coming years and other historians will declare +the influence of that.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +CHAPTER XI - LAUPEPA AND MATAAFA<br> +1889-1892<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +With the hurricane, the broken war-ships, and the stranded sailors, +I am at an end of violence, and my tale flows henceforth among carpet +incidents. The blue-jackets on Apia beach were still jealously +held apart by sentries, when the powers at home were already seeking +a peaceable solution. It was agreed, so far as might be, to obliterate +two years of blundering; and to resume in 1889, and at Berlin, those +negotiations which had been so unhappily broken off at Washington in +1887. The example thus offered by Germany is rare in history; +in the career of Prince Bismarck, so far as I am instructed, it should +stand unique. On a review of these two years of blundering, bullying, +and failure in a little isle of the Pacific, he seems magnanimously +to have owned his policy was in the wrong. He left Fangalii unexpiated; +suffered that house of cards, the Tamasese government, to fall by its +own frailty and without remark or lamentation; left the Samoan question +openly and fairly to the conference: and in the meanwhile, to allay +the local heats engendered by Becker and Knappe, he sent to Apia that +invaluable public servant, Dr. Stuebel. I should be a dishonest +man if I did not bear testimony to the loyalty since shown by Germans +in Samoa. Their position was painful; they had talked big in the +old days, now they had to sing small. Even Stuebel returned to +the islands under the prejudice of an unfortunate record. To the +minds of the Samoans his name represented the beginning of their sorrows; +and in his first term of office he had unquestionably driven hard. +The greater his merit in the surprising success of the second. +So long as he stayed, the current of affairs moved smoothly; he left +behind him on his departure all men at peace; and whether by fortune, +or for the want of that wise hand of guidance, he was scarce gone before +the clouds began to gather once more on our horizon.<br> +<br> +Before the first convention, Germany and the States hauled down their +flags. It was so done again before the second; and Germany, by +a still more emphatic step of retrogression, returned the exile Laupepa +to his native shores. For two years the unfortunate man had trembled +and suffered in the Cameroons, in Germany, in the rainy Marshalls. +When he left (September 1887) Tamasese was king, served by five iron +war-ships; his right to rule (like a dogma of the Church) was placed +outside dispute; the Germans were still, as they were called at that +last tearful interview in the house by the river, “the invincible +strangers”; the thought of resistance, far less the hope of success, +had not yet dawned on the Samoan mind. He returned (November 1889) +to a changed world. The Tupua party was reduced to sue for peace, +Brandeis was withdrawn, Tamasese was dying obscurely of a broken heart; +the German flag no longer waved over the capital; and over all the islands +one figure stood supreme. During Laupepa’s absence this +man had succeeded him in all his honours and titles, in tenfold more +than all his power and popularity. He was the idol of the whole +nation but the rump of the Tamaseses, and of these he was already the +secret admiration. In his position there was but one weak point, +- that he had even been tacitly excluded by the Germans. Becker, +indeed, once coquetted with the thought of patronising him; but the +project had no sequel, and it stands alone. In every other juncture +of history the German attitude has been the same. Choose whom +you will to be king; when he has failed, choose whom you please to succeed +him; when the second fails also, replace the first: upon the one condition, +that Mataafa be excluded. “<i>Pourvu qu’il sache signer</i>!” +- an official is said to have thus summed up the qualifications necessary +in a Samoan king. And it was perhaps feared that Mataafa could +do no more and might not always do so much. But this original +diffidence was heightened by late events to something verging upon animosity. +Fangalii was unavenged: the arms of Mataafa were<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>Nondum inexpiatis uncta cruoribus,<br> +</i>Still soiled with the unexpiated blood<br> +<br> +<br> +of German sailors; and though the chief was not present in the field, +nor could have heard of the affair till it was over, he had reaped from +it credit with his countrymen and dislike from the Germans.<br> +<br> +I may not say that trouble was hoped. I must say - if it were +not feared, the practice of diplomacy must teach a very hopeful view +of human nature. Mataafa and Laupepa, by the sudden repatriation +of the last, found themselves face to face in conditions of exasperating +rivalry. The one returned from the dead of exile to find himself +replaced and excelled. The other, at the end of a long, anxious, +and successful struggle, beheld his only possible competitor resuscitated +from the grave. The qualities of both, in this difficult moment, +shone out nobly. I feel I seem always less than partial to the +lovable Laupepa; his virtues are perhaps not those which chiefly please +me, and are certainly not royal; but he found on his return an opportunity +to display the admirable sweetness of his nature. The two entered +into a competition of generosity, for which I can recall no parallel +in history, each waiving the throne for himself, each pressing it upon +his rival; and they embraced at last a compromise the terms of which +seem to have been always obscure and are now disputed. Laupepa +at least resumed his style of King of Samoa; Mataafa retained much of +the conduct of affairs, and continued to receive much of the attendance +and respect befitting royalty; and the two Malietoas, with so many causes +of disunion, dwelt and met together in the same town like kinsmen. +It was so, that I first saw them; so, in a house set about with sentries +- for there was still a haunting fear of Germany, - that I heard them +relate their various experience in the past; heard Laupepa tell with +touching candour of the sorrows of his exile, and Mataafa with mirthful +simplicity of his resources and anxieties in the war. The relation +was perhaps too beautiful to last; it was perhaps impossible but the +titular king should grow at last uneasily conscious of the <i>maire +de palais</i> at his side, or the king-maker be at last offended by +some shadow of distrust or assumption in his creature. I repeat +the words king-maker and creature; it is so that Mataafa himself conceives +of their relation: surely not without justice; for, had he not contended +and prevailed, and been helped by the folly of consuls and the fury +of the storm, Laupepa must have died in exile.<br> +<br> +Foreigners in these islands know little of the course of native intrigue. +Partly the Samoans cannot explain, partly they will not tell. +Ask how much a master can follow of the puerile politics in any school; +so much and no more we may understand of the events which surround and +menace us with their results. The missions may perhaps have been +to blame. Missionaries are perhaps apt to meddle overmuch outside +their discipline; it is a fault which should be judged with mercy; the +problem is sometimes so insidiously presented that even a moderate and +able man is betrayed beyond his own intention; and the missionary in +such a land as Samoa is something else besides a minister of mere religion; +he represents civilisation, he is condemned to be an organ of reform, +he could scarce evade (even if he desired) a certain influence in political +affairs. And it is believed, besides, by those who fancy they +know, that the effective force of division between Mataafa and Laupepa +came from the natives rather than from whites. Before the end +of 1890, at least, it began to be rumoured that there was dispeace between +the two Malietoas; and doubtless this had an unsettling influence throughout +the islands. But there was another ingredient of anxiety. +The Berlin convention had long closed its sittings; the text of the +Act had been long in our hands; commissioners were announced to right +the wrongs of the land question, and two high officials, a chief justice +and a president, to guide policy and administer law in Samoa. +Their coming was expected with an impatience, with a childishness of +trust, that can hardly be exaggerated. Months passed, these angel-deliverers +still delayed to arrive, and the impatience of the natives became changed +to an ominous irritation. They have had much experience of being +deceived, and they began to think they were deceived again. A +sudden crop of superstitious stories buzzed about the islands. +Rivers had come down red; unknown fishes had been taken on the reef +and found to be marked with menacing runes; a headless lizard crawled +among chiefs in council; the gods of Upolu and Savaii made war by night, +they swam the straits to battle, and, defaced by dreadful wounds, they +had besieged the house of a medical missionary. Readers will remember +the portents in mediaeval chronicles, or those in <i>Julius Caesar</i> +when<br> +<br> +<br> +“Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds<br> +In ranks and squadrons.”<br> +<br> +<br> +And doubtless such fabrications are, in simple societies, a natural +expression of discontent; and those who forge, and even those who spread +them, work towards a conscious purpose.<br> +<br> +Early in January 1891 this period of expectancy was brought to an end +by the arrival of Conrad Cedarcrantz, chief justice of Samoa. +The event was hailed with acclamation, and there was much about the +new official to increase the hopes already entertained. He was +seen to be a man of culture and ability; in public, of an excellent +presence - in private, of a most engaging cordiality. But there +was one point, I scarce know whether to say of his character or policy, +which immediately and disastrously affected public feeling in the islands. +He had an aversion, part judicial, part perhaps constitutional, to haste; +and he announced that, until he should have well satisfied his own mind, +he should do nothing; that he would rather delay all than do aught amiss. +It was impossible to hear this without academical approval; impossible +to hear it without practical alarm. The natives desired to see +activity; they desired to see many fair speeches taken on a body of +deeds and works of benefit. Fired by the event of the war, filled +with impossible hopes, they might have welcomed in that hour a ruler +of the stamp of Brandeis, breathing hurry, perhaps dealing blows. +And the chief justice, unconscious of the fleeting opportunity, ripened +his opinions deliberately in Mulinuu; and had been already the better +part of half a year in the islands before he went through the form of +opening his court. The curtain had risen; there was no play. +A reaction, a chill sense of disappointment, passed about the island; +and intrigue, one moment suspended, was resumed.<br> +<br> +In the Berlin Act, the three Powers recognise, on the threshold, “the +independence of the Samoan government, and the free right of the natives +to elect their chief or king and choose their form of government.” +True, the text continues that, “in view of the difficulties that +surround an election in the present disordered condition of the government,” +Malietoa Laupepa shall be recognised as king, “unless the three +Powers shall by common accord otherwise declare.” But perhaps +few natives have followed it so far, and even those who have, were possibly +all cast abroad again by the next clause: “and his successor shall +be duly elected according to the laws and customs of Samoa.” +The right to elect, freely given in one sentence, was suspended in the +next, and a line or so further on appeared to be reconveyed by a side-wind. +The reason offered for suspension was ludicrously false; in May 1889, +when Sir Edward Malet moved the matter in the conference, the election +of Mataafa was not only certain to have been peaceful, it could not +have been opposed; and behind the English puppet it was easy to suspect +the hand of Germany. No one is more swift to smell trickery than +a Samoan; and the thought, that, under the long, bland, benevolent sentences +of the Berlin Act, some trickery lay lurking, filled him with the breath +of opposition. Laupepa seems never to have been a popular king. +Mataafa, on the other hand, holds an unrivalled position in the eyes +of his fellow-countrymen; he was the hero of the war, he had lain with +them in the bush, he had borne the heat and burthen of the day; they +began to claim that he should enjoy more largely the fruits of victory; +his exclusion was believed to be a stroke of German vengeance, his elevation +to the kingship was looked for as the fitting crown and copestone of +the Samoan triumph; and but a little after the coming of the chief justice, +an ominous cry for Mataafa began to arise in the islands. It is +difficult to see what that official could have done but what he did. +He was loyal, as in duty bound, to the treaty and to Laupepa; and when +the orators of the important and unruly islet of Manono demanded to +his face a change of kings, he had no choice but to refuse them, and +(his reproof being unheeded) to suspend the meeting. Whether by +any neglect of his own or the mere force of circumstance, he failed, +however, to secure the sympathy, failed even to gain the confidence, +of Mataafa. The latter is not without a sense of his own abilities +or of the great service he has rendered to his native land. He +felt himself neglected; at the very moment when the cry for his elevation +rang throughout the group he thought himself made little of on Mulinuu; +and he began to weary of his part. In this humour, he was exposed +to a temptation which I must try to explain, as best I may be able, +to Europeans.<br> +<br> +The bestowal of the great name, Malietoa, is in the power of the district +of Malie, some seven miles to the westward of Apia. The most noisy +and conspicuous supporters of that party are the inhabitants of Manono. +Hence in the elaborate, allusive oratory of Samoa, Malie is always referred +to by the name of <i>Pule</i> (authority) as having the power of the +name, and Manono by that of <i>Ainga</i> (clan, sept, or household) +as forming the immediate family of the chief. But these, though +so important, are only small communities; and perhaps the chief numerical +force of the Malietoas inhabits the island of Savaii. Savaii has +no royal name to bestow, all the five being in the gift of different +districts of Upolu; but she has the weight of numbers, and in these +latter days has acquired a certain force by the preponderance in her +councils of a single man, the orator Lauati. The reader will now +understand the peculiar significance of a deputation which should embrace +Lauati and the orators of both Malie and Manono, how it would represent +all that is most effective on the Malietoa side, and all that is most +considerable in Samoan politics, except the opposite feudal party of +the Tupua. And in the temptation brought to bear on Mataafa, even +the Tupua was conjoined. Tamasese was dead. His followers +had conceived a not unnatural aversion to all Germans, from which only +the loyal Brandeis is excepted; and a not unnatural admiration for their +late successful adversary. Men of his own blood and clan, men +whom he had fought in the field, whom he had driven from Matautu, who +had smitten him back time and again from before the rustic bulwarks +of Lotoanuu, they approached him hand in hand with their ancestral enemies +and concurred in the same prayer. The treaty (they argued) was +not carried out. The right to elect their king had been granted +them; or if that were denied or suspended, then the right to elect “his +successor.” They were dissatisfied with Laupepa, and claimed, +“according to the laws and customs of Samoa,” duly to appoint +another. The orators of Malie declared with irritation that their +second appointment was alone valid and Mataafa the sole Malietoa; the +whole body of malcontents named him as their choice for king; and they +requested him in consequence to leave Apia and take up his dwelling +in Malie, the name-place of Malietoa; a step which may be described, +to European ears, as placing before the country his candidacy for the +crown.<br> +<br> +I do not know when the proposal was first made. Doubtless the +disaffection grew slowly, every trifle adding to its force; doubtless +there lingered for long a willingness to give the new government a trial. +The chief justice at least had been nearly five months in the country, +and the president, Baron Senfft von Pilsach, rather more than a month +before the mine was sprung. On May 31, 1891, the house of Mataafa +was found empty, he and his chiefs had vanished from Apia, and, what +was worse, three prisoners, liberated from the gaol, had accompanied +them in their secession; two being political offenders, and the third +(accused of murder) having been perhaps set free by accident. +Although the step had been discussed in certain quarters, it took all +men by surprise. The inhabitants at large expected instant war. +The officials awakened from a dream to recognise the value of that which +they had lost. Mataafa at Vaiala, where he was the pledge of peace, +had perhaps not always been deemed worthy of particular attention; Mataafa +at Malie was seen, twelve hours too late, to be an altogether different +quantity. With excess of zeal on the other side, the officials +trooped to their boats and proceeded almost in a body to Malie, where +they seem to have employed every artifice of flattery and every resource +of eloquence upon the fugitive high chief. These courtesies, perhaps +excessive in themselves, had the unpardonable fault of being offered +when too late. Mataafa showed himself facile on small issues, +inflexible on the main; he restored the prisoners, he returned with +the consuls to Apia on a flying visit; he gave his word that peace should +be preserved - a pledge in which perhaps no one believed at the moment, +but which he has since nobly redeemed. On the rest he was immovable; +he had cast the die, he had declared his candidacy, he had gone to Malie. +Thither, after his visit to Apia, he returned again; there he has practically +since resided.<br> +<br> +Thus was created in the islands a situation, strange in the beginning, +and which, as its inner significance is developed, becomes daily stranger +to observe. On the one hand, Mataafa sits in Malie, assumes a +regal state, receives deputations, heads his letters “Government +of Samoa,” tacitly treats the king as a co-ordinate; and yet declares +himself, and in many ways conducts himself, as a law-abiding citizen. +On the other, the white officials in Mulinuu stand contemplating the +phenomenon with eyes of growing stupefaction; now with symptoms of collapse, +now with accesses of violence. For long, even those well versed +in island manners and the island character daily expected war, and heard +imaginary drums beat in the forest. But for now close upon a year, +and against every stress of persuasion and temptation, Mataafa has been +the bulwark of our peace. Apia lay open to be seized, he had the +power in his hand, his followers cried to be led on, his enemies marshalled +him the same way by impotent examples; and he has never faltered. +Early in the day, a white man was sent from the government of Mulinuu +to examine and report upon his actions: I saw the spy on his return; +“It was only our rebel that saved us,” he said, with a laugh. +There is now no honest man in the islands but is well aware of it; none +but knows that, if we have enjoyed during the past eleven months the +conveniences of peace, it is due to the forbearance of “our rebel.” +Nor does this part of his conduct stand alone. He calls his party +at Malie the government, - “our government,” - but he pays +his taxes to the government at Mulinuu. He takes ground like a +king; he has steadily and blandly refused to obey all orders as to his +own movements or behaviour; but upon requisition he sends offenders +to be tried under the chief justice.<br> +<br> +We have here a problem of conduct, and what seems an image of inconsistency, +very hard at the first sight to be solved by any European. Plainly +Mataafa does not act at random. Plainly, in the depths of his +Samoan mind, he regards his attitude as regular and constitutional. +It may be unexpected, it may be inauspicious, it may be undesirable; +but he thinks it - and perhaps it is - in full accordance with those +“laws and customs of Samoa” ignorantly invoked by the draughtsmen +of the Berlin Act. The point is worth an effort of comprehension; +a man’s life may yet depend upon it. Let us conceive, in +the first place, that there are five separate kingships in Samoa, though +not always five different kings; and that though one man, by holding +the five royal names, might become king in <i>all parts</i> of Samoa, +there is perhaps no such matter as a kingship of all Samoa. He +who holds one royal name would be, upon this view, as much a sovereign +person as he who should chance to hold the other four; he would have +less territory and fewer subjects, but the like independence and an +equal royalty. Now Mataafa, even if all debatable points were +decided against him, is still Tuiatua, and as such, on this hypothesis, +a sovereign prince. In the second place, the draughtsmen of the +Act, waxing exceeding bold, employed the word “election,” +and implicitly justified all precedented steps towards the kingship +according with the “customs of Samoa.” I am not asking +what was intended by the gentlemen who sat and debated very benignly +and, on the whole, wisely in Berlin; I am asking what will be understood +by a Samoan studying their literary work, the Berlin Act; I am asking +what is the result of taking a word out of one state of society, and +applying it to another, of which the writers know less than nothing, +and no European knows much. Several interpreters and several days +were employed last September in the fruitless attempt to convey to the +mind of Laupepa the sense of the word “resignation.” +What can a Samoan gather from the words, <i>election? election of a +king? election of a king</i> <i>according to the laws and customs of +Samoa</i>? What are the electoral measures, what is the method +of canvassing, likely to be employed by two, three, four, or five, more +or less absolute princelings, eager to evince each other? And +who is to distinguish such a process from the state of war? In +such international - or, I should say, interparochial - differences, +the nearest we can come towards understanding is to appreciate the cloud +of ambiguity in which all parties grope -<br> +<br> +<br> +“Treading the crude consistence, half on foot,<br> +Half flying.”<br> +<br> +<br> +Now, in one part of Mataafa’s behaviour his purpose is beyond +mistake. Towards the provisions of the Berlin Act, his desire +to be formally obedient is manifest. The Act imposed the tax. +He has paid his taxes, although he thus contributes to the ways and +means of his immediate rival. The Act decreed the supreme court, +and he sends his partisans to be tried at Mulinuu, although he thus +places them (as I shall have occasion to show) in a position far from +wholly safe. From this literal conformity, in matters regulated, +to the terms of the Berlin plenipotentiaries, we may plausibly infer, +in regard to the rest, a no less exact observance of the famous and +obscure “laws and customs of Samoa.”<br> +<br> +But though it may be possible to attain, in the study, to some such +adumbration of an understanding, it were plainly unfair to expect it +of officials in the hurry of events. Our two white officers have +accordingly been no more perspicacious than was to be looked for, and +I think they have sometimes been less wise. It was not wise in +the president to proclaim Mataafa and his followers rebels and their +estates confiscated. Such words are not respectable till they +repose on force; on the lips of an angry white man, standing alone on +a small promontory, they were both dangerous and absurd; they might +have provoked ruin; thanks to the character of Mataafa, they only raised +a smile and damaged the authority of government. And again it +is not wise in the government of Mulinuu to have twice attempted to +precipitate hostilities, once in Savaii, once here in the Tuamasanga. +The fate of the Savaii attempt I never heard; it seems to have been +stillborn. The other passed under my eyes. A war-party was +armed in Apia, and despatched across the island against Mataafa villages, +where it was to seize the women and children. It was absent for +some days, engaged in feasting with those whom it went out to fight; +and returned at last, innocuous and replete. In this fortunate +though undignified ending we may read the fact that the natives on Laupepa’s +side are sometimes more wise than their advisers. Indeed, for +our last twelve months of miraculous peace under what seem to be two +rival kings, the credit is due first of all to Mataafa, and second to +the half-heartedness, or the forbearance, or both, of the natives in +the other camp. The voice of the two whites has ever been for +war. They have published at least one incendiary proclamation; +they have armed and sent into the field at least one Samoan war-party; +they have continually besieged captains of war-ships to attack Malie, +and the captains of the war-ships have religiously refused. Thus +in the last twelve months our European rulers have drawn a picture of +themselves, as bearded like the pard, full of strange oaths, and gesticulating +like semaphores; while over against them Mataafa reposes smilingly obstinate, +and their own retainers surround them, frowningly inert. Into +the question of motive I refuse to enter; but if we come to war in these +islands, and with no fresh occasion, it will be a manufactured war, +and one that has been manufactured, against the grain of opinion, by +two foreigners.<br> +<br> +For the last and worst of the mistakes on the Laupepa side it would +be unfair to blame any but the king himself. Capable both of virtuous +resolutions and of fits of apathetic obstinacy, His Majesty is usually +the whip-top of competitive advisers; and his conduct is so unstable +as to wear at times an appearance of treachery which would surprise +himself if he could see it. Take, for example, the experience +of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, late chief of police, and (so to speak) commander +of the forces. His men were under orders for a certain hour; he +found himself almost alone at the place of muster, and learned the king +had sent the soldiery on errands. He sought an audience, explained +that he was here to implant discipline, that (with this purpose in view) +his men could only receive orders through himself, and if that condition +were not agreed to and faithfully observed, he must send in his papers. +The king was as usual easily persuaded, the interview passed and ended +to the satisfaction of all parties engaged - and the bargain was kept +for one day. On the day after, the troops were again dispersed +as post-runners, and their commander resigned. With such a sovereign, +I repeat, it would be unfair to blame any individual minister for any +specific fault. And yet the policy of our two whites against Mataafa +has appeared uniformly so excessive and implacable, that the blame of +the last scandal is laid generally at their doors. It is yet fresh. +Lauati, towards the end of last year, became deeply concerned about +the situation; and by great personal exertions and the charms of oratory +brought Savaii and Manono into agreement upon certain terms of compromise: +Laupepa still to be king, Mataafa to accept a high executive office +comparable to that of our own prime minister, and the two governments +to coalesce. Intractable Manono was a party. Malie was said +to view the proposal with resignation, if not relief. Peace was +thought secure. The night before the king was to receive Lauati, +I met one of his company, - the family chief, Iina, - and we shook hands +over the unexpected issue of our troubles. What no one dreamed +was that Laupepa would refuse. And he did. He refused undisputed +royalty for himself and peace for these unhappy islands; and the two +whites on Mulinuu rightly or wrongly got the blame of it.<br> +<br> +But their policy has another and a more awkward side. About the +time of the secession to Malie, many ugly things were said; I will not +repeat that which I hope and believe the speakers did not wholly mean; +let it suffice that, if rumour carried to Mataafa the language I have +heard used in my own house and before my own native servants, he would +be highly justified in keeping clear of Apia and the whites. One +gentleman whose opinion I respect, and am so bold as to hope I may in +some points modify, will understand the allusion and appreciate my reserve. +About the same time there occurred an incident, upon which I must be +more particular. <i>A</i> was a gentleman who had long been an +intimate of Mataafa’s, and had recently (upon account, indeed, +of the secession to Malie) more or less wholly broken off relations. +To him came one whom I shall call <i>B</i> with a dastardly proposition. +It may have been <i>B</i>’s own, in which case he were the more +unpardonable; but from the closeness of his intercourse with the chief +justice, as well as from the terms used in the interview, men judged +otherwise. It was proposed that <i>A</i> should simulate a renewal +of the friendship, decoy Mataafa to a suitable place, and have him there +arrested. What should follow in those days of violent speech was +at the least disputable; and the proposal was of course refused. +“You do not understand,” was the base rejoinder. “<i>You</i> +will have no discredit. The Germans are to take the blame of the +arrest.” Of course, upon the testimony of a gentleman so depraved, +it were unfair to hang a dog; and both the Germans and the chief justice +must be held innocent. But the chief justice has shown that he +can himself be led, by his animosity against Mataafa, into questionable +acts. Certain natives of Malie were accused of stealing pigs; +the chief justice summoned them through Mataafa; several were sent, +and along with them a written promise that, if others were required, +these also should be forthcoming upon requisition. Such as came +were duly tried and acquitted; and Mataafa’s offer was communicated +to the chief justice, who made a formal answer, and the same day (in +pursuance of his constant design to have Malie attacked by war-ships) +reported to one of the consuls that his warrant would not run in the +country and that certain of the accused had been withheld. At +least, this is not fair dealing; and the next instance I have to give +is possibly worse. For one blunder the chief justice is only so +far responsible, in that he was not present where it seems he should +have been, when it was made. He had nothing to do with the silly +proscription of the Mataafas; he has always disliked the measure; and +it occurred to him at last that he might get rid of this dangerous absurdity +and at the same time reap a further advantage. Let Mataafa leave +Malie for any other district in Samoa; it should be construed as an +act of submission and the confiscation and proscription instantly recalled. +This was certainly well devised; the government escaped from their own +false position, and by the same stroke lowered the prestige of their +adversaries. But unhappily the chief justice did not put all his +eggs in one basket. Concurrently with these negotiations he began +again to move the captain of one of the war-ships to shell the rebel +village; the captain, conceiving the extremity wholly unjustified, not +only refused these instances, but more or less publicly complained of +their being made; the matter came to the knowledge of the white resident +who was at that time playing the part of intermediary with Malie; and +he, in natural anger and disgust, withdrew from the negotiation. +These duplicities, always deplorable when discovered, are never more +fatal than with men imperfectly civilised. Almost incapable of +truth themselves, they cherish a particular score of the same fault +in whites. And Mataafa is besides an exceptional native. +I would scarce dare say of any Samoan that he is truthful, though I +seem to have encountered the phenomenon; but I must say of Mataafa that +he seems distinctly and consistently averse to lying.<br> +<br> +For the affair of the Manono prisoners, the chief justice is only again +in so far answerable as he was at the moment absent from the seat of +his duties; and the blame falls on Baron Senfft von Pilsach, president +of the municipal council. There were in Manono certain dissidents, +loyal to Laupepa. Being Manono people, I daresay they were very +annoying to their neighbours; the majority, as they belonged to the +same island, were the more impatient; and one fine day fell upon and +destroyed the houses and harvests of the dissidents “according +to the laws and customs of Samoa.” The president went down +to the unruly island in a war-ship and was landed alone upon the beach. +To one so much a stranger to the mansuetude of Polynesians, this must +have seemed an act of desperation; and the baron’s gallantry met +with a deserved success. The six ringleaders, acting in Mataafa’s +interest, had been guilty of a delict; with Mataafa’s approval, +they delivered themselves over to be tried. On Friday, September +4, 1891, they were convicted before a native magistrate and sentenced +to six months’ imprisonment; or, I should rather say, detention; +for it was expressly directed that they were to be used as gentlemen +and not as prisoners, that the door was to stand open, and that all +their wishes should be gratified. This extraordinary sentence +fell upon the accused like a thunderbolt. There is no need to +suppose perfidy, where a careless interpreter suffices to explain all; +but the six chiefs claim to have understood their coming to Apia as +an act of submission merely formal, that they came in fact under an +implied indemnity, and that the president stood pledged to see them +scatheless. Already, on their way from the court-house, they were +tumultuously surrounded by friends and clansmen, who pressed and cried +upon them to escape; Lieutenant Ulfsparre must order his men to load; +and with that the momentary effervescence died away. Next day, +Saturday, 5th, the chief justice took his departure from the islands +- a step never yet explained and (in view of the doings of the day before +and the remonstrances of other officials) hard to justify. The +president, an amiable and brave young man of singular inexperience, +was thus left to face the growing difficulty by himself. The clansmen +of the prisoners, to the number of near upon a hundred, lay in Vaiusu, +a village half way between Apia and Malie; there they talked big, thence +sent menacing messages; the gaol should be broken in the night, they +said, and the six martyrs rescued. Allowance is to be made for +the character of the people of Manono, turbulent fellows, boastful of +tongue, but of late days not thought to be answerably bold in person. +Yet the moment was anxious. The government of Mulinuu had gained +an important moral victory by the surrender and condemnation of the +chiefs; and it was needful the victory should be maintained. The +guard upon the gaol was accordingly strengthened; a war-party was sent +to watch the Vaiusu road under Asi; and the chiefs of the Vaimaunga +were notified to arm and assemble their men. It must be supposed +the president was doubtful of the loyalty of these assistants. +He turned at least to the war-ships, where it seems he was rebuffed; +thence he fled into the arms of the wrecker gang, where he was unhappily +more successful. The government of Washington had presented to +the Samoan king the wrecks of the <i>Trenton</i> and the <i>Vandalia</i>; +an American syndicate had been formed to break them up; an experienced +gang was in consequence settled in Apia and the report of submarine +explosions had long grown familiar in the ears of residents. From +these artificers the president obtained a supply of dynamite, the needful +mechanism, and the loan of a mechanic; the gaol was mined, and the Manono +people in Vaiusu were advertised of the fact in a letter signed by Laupepa. +Partly by the indiscretion of the mechanic, who had sought to embolden +himself (like Lady Macbeth) with liquor for his somewhat dreadful task, +the story leaked immediately out and raised a very general, or I might +say almost universal, reprobation. Some blamed the proposed deed +because it was barbarous and a foul example to set before a race half +barbarous itself; others because it was illegal; others again because, +in the face of so weak an enemy, it appeared pitifully pusillanimous; +almost all because it tended to precipitate and embitter war. +In the midst of the turmoil he had raised, and under the immediate pressure +of certain indignant white residents, the baron fell back upon a new +expedient, certainly less barbarous, perhaps no more legal; and on Monday +afternoon, September 7th, packed his six prisoners on board the cutter +<i>Lancashire Lass</i>, and deported them to the neighbouring low-island +group of the Tokelaus. We watched her put to sea with mingled +feelings. Anything were better than dynamite, but this was not +good. The men had been summoned in the name of law; they had surrendered; +the law had uttered its voice; they were under one sentence duly delivered; +and now the president, by no right with which we were acquainted, had +exchanged it for another. It was perhaps no less fortunate, though +it was more pardonable in a stranger, that he had increased the punishment +to that which, in the eyes of Samoans, ranks next to death, - exile +from their native land and friends. And the <i>Lancashire Lass</i> +appeared to carry away with her into the uttermost parts of the sea +the honour of the administration and the prestige of the supreme court.<br> +<br> +The policy of the government towards Mataafa has thus been of a piece +throughout; always would-be violent, it has been almost always defaced +with some appearance of perfidy or unfairness. The policy of Mataafa +(though extremely bewildering to any white) appears everywhere consistent +with itself, and the man’s bearing has always been calm. +But to represent the fulness of the contrast, it is necessary that I +should give some description of the two capitals, or the two camps, +and the ways and means of the regular and irregular government.<br> +<br> +<i>Mulinuu</i>. Mulinuu, the reader may remember, is a narrow +finger of land planted in cocoa-palms, which runs forth into the lagoon +perhaps three quarters of a mile. To the east is the bay of Apia. +To the west, there is, first of all, a mangrove swamp, the mangroves +excellently green, the mud ink-black, and its face crawled upon by countless +insects and black and scarlet crabs. Beyond the swamp is a wide +and shallow bay of the lagoon, bounded to the west by Faleula Point. +Faleula is the next village to Malie; so that from the top of some tall +palm in Malie it should be possible to descry against the eastern heavens +the palms of Mulinuu. The trade wind sweeps over the low peninsula +and cleanses it from the contagion of the swamp. Samoans have +a quaint phrase in their language; when out of health, they seek exposed +places on the shore “to eat the wind,” say they; and there +can be few better places for such a diet than the point of Mulinuu.<br> +<br> +Two European houses stand conspicuous on the harbour side; in Europe +they would seem poor enough, but they are fine houses for Samoa. +One is new; it was built the other day under the apologetic title of +a Government House, to be the residence of Baron Senfft. The other +is historical; it was built by Brandeis on a mortgage, and is now occupied +by the chief justice on conditions never understood, the rumour going +uncontradicted that he sits rent free. I do not say it is true, +I say it goes uncontradicted; and there is one peculiarity of our officials +in a nutshell, - their remarkable indifference to their own character. +From the one house to the other extends a scattering village for the +Faipule or native parliament men. In the days of Tamasese this +was a brave place, both his own house and those of the Faipule good, +and the whole excellently ordered and approached by a sanded way. +It is now like a neglected bush-town, and speaks of apathy in all concerned. +But the chief scandal of Mulinuu is elsewhere. The house of the +president stands just to seaward of the isthmus, where the watch is +set nightly, and armed men guard the uneasy slumbers of the government. +On the landward side there stands a monument to the poor German lads +who fell at Fangalii, just beyond which the passer-by may chance to +observe a little house standing back-ward from the road. It is +such a house as a commoner might use in a bush village; none could dream +that it gave shelter even to a family chief; yet this is the palace +of Malietoa-Natoaitele-Tamasoalii Laupepa, king of Samoa. As you +sit in his company under this humble shelter, you shall see, between +the posts, the new house of the president. His Majesty himself +beholds it daily, and the tenor of his thoughts may be divined. +The fine house of a Samoan chief is his appropriate attribute; yet, +after seventeen months, the government (well housed themselves) have +not yet found - have not yet sought - a roof-tree for their sovereign. +And the lodging is typical. I take up the president’s financial +statement of September 8, 1891. I find the king’s allowance +to figure at seventy-five dollars a month; and I find that he is further +(though somewhat obscurely) debited with the salaries of either two +or three clerks. Take the outside figure, and the sum expended +on or for His Majesty amounts to ninety-five dollars in the month. +Lieutenant Ulfsparre and Dr. Hagberg (the chief justice’s Swedish +friends) drew in the same period one hundred and forty and one hundred +dollars respectively on account of salary alone. And it should +be observed that Dr. Hagberg was employed, or at least paid, from government +funds, in the face of His Majesty’s express and reiterated protest. +In another column of the statement, one hundred and seventy-five dollars +and seventy-five cents are debited for the chief justice’s travelling +expenses. I am of the opinion that if His Majesty desired (or +dared) to take an outing, he would be asked to bear the charge from +his allowance. But although I think the chief justice had done +more nobly to pay for himself, I am far from denying that his excursions +were well meant; he should indeed be praised for having made them; and +I leave the charge out of consideration in the following statement.<br> +<br> +<br> +ON THE ONE HAND<br> +<br> +Salary of Chief Justice Cedarkrantz $500<br> +Salary of President Baron Senfft von Pilsach (about) 415<br> +Salary of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, Chief of Police 140<br> +Salary of Dr. Hagberg, Private Secretary to the Chief Justice 100<br> +<br> +Total monthly salary to four whites, one of them paid against His Majesty’s +protest $1155<br> +<br> +ON THE OTHER HAND<br> +<br> +Total monthly payments to and for His Majesty the King, including allowance +and hire of three clerks, one of these placed under the rubric of extraordinary +expenses $95<br> +<br> +<br> +This looks strange enough and mean enough already. But we have +ground of comparison in the practice of Brandeis.<br> +<br> +<br> +Brandeis, white prime minister $200<br> +Tamasese (about) 160<br> +White Chief of Police 100<br> +<br> +<br> +Under Brandeis, in other words, the king received the second highest +allowance on the sheet; and it was a good second, and the third was +a bad third. And it must be borne in mind that Tamasese himself +was pointed and laughed at among natives. Judge, then, what is +muttered of Laupepa, housed in his shanty before the president’s +doors like Lazarus before the doors of Dives; receiving not so much +of his own taxes as the private secretary of the law officer; and (in +actual salary) little more than half as much as his own chief of police. +It is known besides that he has protested in vain against the charge +for Dr. Hagberg; it is known that he has himself applied for an advance +and been refused. Money is certainly a grave subject on Mulinuu; +but respect costs nothing, and thrifty officials might have judged it +wise to make up in extra politeness for what they curtailed of pomp +or comfort. One instance may suffice. Laupepa appeared last +summer on a public occasion; the president was there and not even the +president rose to greet the entrance of the sovereign. Since about +the same period, besides, the monarch must be described as in a state +of sequestration. A white man, an Irishman, the true type of all +that is most gallant, humorous, and reckless in his country, chose to +visit His Majesty and give him some excellent advice (to make up his +difference with Mataafa) couched unhappily in vivid and figurative language. +The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific, but the evil that he chanced +to do lives after him. His Majesty was greatly (and I must say +justly) offended by the freedom of the expressions used; he appealed +to his white advisers; and these, whether from want of thought or by +design, issued an ignominious proclamation. Intending visitors +to the palace must appear before their consuls and justify their business. +The majesty of buried Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a +private collection) under special permit; and was thus at once cut off +from the company and opinions of the self respecting. To retain +any dignity in such an abject state would require a man of very different +virtues from those claimed by the not unvirtuous Laupepa. He is +not designed to ride the whirlwind or direct the storm, rather to be +the ornament of private life. He is kind, gentle, patient as Job, +conspicuously well-intentioned, of charming manners; and when he pleases, +he has one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone - I mean +that he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language.<br> +<br> +The government of Brandeis accomplished a good deal and was continually +and heroically attempting more. The government of our two whites +has confined itself almost wholly to paying and receiving salaries. +They have built, indeed, a house for the president; they are believed +(if that be a merit) to have bought the local newspaper with government +funds; and their rule has been enlivened by a number of scandals, into +which I feel with relief that it is unnecessary I should enter. +Even if the three Powers do not remove these gentlemen, their absurd +and disastrous government must perish by itself of inanition. +Native taxes (except perhaps from Mataafa, true to his own private policy) +have long been beyond hope. And only the other day (May 6th, 1892), +on the expressed ground that there was no guarantee as to how the funds +would be expended, and that the president consistently refused to allow +the verification of his cash balances, the municipal council has negatived +the proposal to call up further taxes from the whites. All is +well that ends even ill, so that it end; and we believe that with the +last dollar we shall see the last of the last functionary. Now +when it is so nearly over, we can afford to smile at this extraordinary +passage, though we must still sigh over the occasion lost.<br> +<br> +<br> +<i>Malie</i>. The way to Malie lies round the shores of Faleula +bay and through a succession of pleasant groves and villages. +The road, one of the works of Brandeis, is now cut up by pig fences. +Eight times you must leap a barrier of cocoa posts; the take-off and +the landing both in a patch of mire planted with big stones, and the +stones sometimes reddened with the blood of horses that have gone before. +To make these obstacles more annoying, you have sometimes to wait while +a black boar clambers sedately over the so-called pig fence. Nothing +can more thoroughly depict the worst side of the Samoan character than +these useless barriers which deface their only road. It was one +of the first orders issued by the government of Mulinuu after the coming +of the chief justice, to have the passage cleared. It is the disgrace +of Mataafa that the thing is not yet done.<br> +<br> +The village of Malie is the scene of prosperity and peace. In +a very good account of a visit there, published in the <i>Australasian</i>, +the writer describes it to be fortified; she must have been deceived +by the appearance of some pig walls on the shore. There is no +fortification, no parade of war. I understand that from one to +five hundred fighting men are always within reach; but I have never +seen more than five together under arms, and these were the king’s +guard of honour. A Sabbath quiet broods over the well-weeded green, +the picketed horses, the troops of pigs, the round or oval native dwellings. +Of these there are a surprising number, very fine of their sort: yet +more are in the building; and in the midst a tall house of assembly, +by far the greatest Samoan structure now in these islands, stands about +half finished and already makes a figure in the landscape. No +bustle is to be observed, but the work accomplished testifies to a still +activity.<br> +<br> +The centre-piece of all is the high chief himself, Malietoa-Tuiatua-Tuiaana +Mataafa, king - or not king - or king-claimant - of Samoa. All +goes to him, all comes from him. Native deputations bring him +gifts and are feasted in return. White travellers, to their indescribable +irritation, are (on his approach) waved from his path by his armed guards. +He summons his dancers by the note of a bugle. He sits nightly +at home before a semicircle of talking-men from many quarters of the +islands, delivering and hearing those ornate and elegant orations in +which the Samoan heart delights. About himself and all his surroundings +there breathes a striking sense of order, tranquillity, and native plenty. +He is of a tall and powerful person, sixty years of age, white-haired +and with a white moustache; his eyes bright and quiet; his jaw perceptibly +underhung, which gives him something of the expression of a benevolent +mastiff; his manners dignified and a thought insinuating, with an air +of a Catholic prelate. He was never married, and a natural daughter +attends upon his guests. Long since he made a vow of chastity, +- “to live as our Lord lived on this earth” and Polynesians +report with bated breath that he has kept it. On all such points, +true to his Catholic training, he is inclined to be even rigid. +Lauati, the pivot of Savaii, has recently repudiated his wife and taken +a fairer; and when I was last in Malie, Mataafa (with a strange superiority +to his own interests) had but just despatched a reprimand. In +his immediate circle, in spite of the smoothness of his ways, he is +said to be more respected than beloved; and his influence is the child +rather of authority than popularity. No Samoan grandee now living +need have attempted that which he has accomplished during the last twelve +months with unimpaired prestige, not only to withhold his followers +from war, but to send them to be judged in the camp of their enemies +on Mulinuu. And it is a matter of debate whether such a triumph +of authority were ever possible before. Speaking for myself, I +have visited and dwelt in almost every seat of the Polynesian race, +and have met but one man who gave me a stronger impression of character +and parts.<br> +<br> +About the situation, Mataafa expresses himself with unshaken peace. +To the chief justice he refers with some bitterness; to Laupepa, with +a smile, as “my poor brother.” For himself, he stands +upon the treaty, and expects sooner or later an election in which he +shall be raised to the chief power. In the meanwhile, or for an +alternative, he would willingly embrace a compromise with Laupepa; to +which he would probably add one condition, that the joint government +should remain seated at Malie, a sensible but not inconvenient distance +from white intrigues and white officials. One circumstance in +my last interview particularly pleased me. The king’s chief +scribe, Esela, is an old employé under Tamasese, and the talk +ran some while upon the character of Brandeis. Loyalty in this +world is after all not thrown away; Brandeis was guilty, in Samoan eyes, +of many irritating errors, but he stood true to Tamasese; in the course +of time a sense of this virtue and of his general uprightness has obliterated +the memory of his mistakes; and it would have done his heart good if +he could have heard his old scribe and his old adversary join in praising +him. “Yes,” concluded Mataafa, “I wish we had +Planteisa back again.” <i>A quelque chose</i> <i>malheur +est bon</i>. So strong is the impression produced by the defects +of Cedarcrantz and Baron Senfft, that I believe Mataafa far from singular +in this opinion, and that the return of the upright Brandeis might be +even welcome to many.<br> +<br> +I must add a last touch to the picture of Malie and the pretender’s +life. About four in the morning, the visitor in his house will +be awakened by the note of a pipe, blown without, very softly and to +a soothing melody. This is Mataafa’s private luxury to lead +on pleasant dreams. We have a bird here in Samoa that about the +same hour of darkness sings in the bush. The father of Mataafa, +while he lived, was a great friend and protector to all living creatures, +and passed under the by-name of <i>the King of</i> <i>Birds</i>. +It may be it was among the woodland clients of the sire that the son +acquired his fancy for this morning music.<br> +<br> +<br> +I have now sought to render without extenuation the impressions received: +of dignity, plenty, and peace at Malie, of bankruptcy and distraction +at Mulinuu. And I wish I might here bring to an end ungrateful +labours. But I am sensible that there remain two points on which +it would be improper to be silent. I should be blamed if I did +not indicate a practical conclusion; and I should blame myself if I +did not do a little justice to that tried company of the Land Commissioners.<br> +<br> +The Land Commission has been in many senses unfortunate. The original +German member, a gentleman of the name of Eggert, fell early into precarious +health; his work was from the first interrupted, he was at last (to +the regret of all that knew him) invalided home; and his successor had +but just arrived. In like manner, the first American commissioner, +Henry C. Ide, a man of character and intelligence, was recalled (I believe +by private affairs) when he was but just settling into the spirit of +the work; and though his place was promptly filled by ex-Governor Ormsbee, +a worthy successor, distinguished by strong and vivacious common sense, +the break was again sensible. The English commissioner, my friend +Bazett Michael Haggard, is thus the only one who has continued at his +post since the beginning. And yet, in spite of these unusual changes, +the Commission has a record perhaps unrivalled among international commissions. +It has been unanimous practically from the first until the last; and +out of some four hundred cases disposed of, there is but one on which +the members were divided. It was the more unfortunate they should +have early fallen in a difficulty with the chief justice. The +original ground of this is supposed to be a difference of opinion as +to the import of the Berlin Act, on which, as a layman, it would be +unbecoming if I were to offer an opinion. But it must always seem +as if the chief justice had suffered himself to be irritated beyond +the bounds of discretion. It must always seem as if his original +attempt to deprive the commissioners of the services of a secretary +and the use of a safe were even senseless; and his step in printing +and posting a proclamation denying their jurisdiction were equally impolitic +and undignified. The dispute had a secondary result worse than +itself. The gentleman appointed to be Natives’ Advocate +shared the chief justice’s opinion, was his close intimate, advised +with him almost daily, and drifted at last into an attitude of opposition +to his colleagues. He suffered himself besides (being a layman +in law) to embrace the interest of his clients with something of the +warmth of a partisan. Disagreeable scenes occurred in court; the +advocate was more than once reproved, he was warned that his consultations +with the judge of appeal tended to damage his own character and to lower +the credit of the appellate court. Having lost some cases on which +he set importance, it should seem that he spoke unwisely among natives. +A sudden cry of colour prejudice went up; and Samoans were heard to +assure each other that it was useless to appear before the Land Commission, +which was sworn to support the whites.<br> +<br> +This deplorable state of affairs was brought to an end by the departure +from Samoa of the Natives’ Advocate. He was succeeded <i>pro +tempore</i> by a young New Zealander, E. W. Gurr, not much more versed +in law than himself, and very much less so in Samoan. Whether +by more skill or better fortune, Gurr has been able in the course of +a few weeks to recover for the natives several important tracts of land; +and the prejudice against the Commission seems to be abating as fast +as it arose. I should not omit to say that, in the eagerness of +the original advocate, there was much that was amiable; nor must I fail +to point out how much there was of blindness. Fired by the ardour +of pursuit, he seems to have regarded his immediate clients as the only +natives extant and the epitome and emblem of the Samoan race. +Thus, in the case that was the most exclaimed against as “an injustice +to natives,” his client, Puaauli, was certainly nonsuited. +But in that intricate affair who lost the money? The German firm. +And who got the land? Other natives. To twist such a decision +into evidence, either of a prejudice against Samoans or a partiality +to whites, is to keep one eye shut and have the other bandaged.<br> +<br> +And lastly, one word as to the future. Laupepa and Mataafa stand +over against each other, rivals with no third competitor. They +may be said to hold the great name of Malietoa in commission; each has +borne the style, each exercised the authority, of a Samoan king; one +is secure of the small but compact and fervent following of the Catholics, +the other has the sympathies of a large part of the Protestant majority, +and upon any sign of Catholic aggression would have more. With +men so nearly balanced, it may be asked whether a prolonged successful +exercise of power be possible for either. In the case of the feeble +Laupepa, it is certainly not; we have the proof before us. Nor +do I think we should judge, from what we see to-day, that it would be +possible, or would continue to be possible, even for the kingly Mataafa. +It is always the easier game to be in opposition. The tale of +David and Saul would infallibly be re-enacted; once more we shall have +two kings in the land, - the latent and the patent; and the house of +the first will become once more the resort of “every one that +is in distress, and every one that is in debt, and every one that is +discontented.” Against such odds it is my fear that Mataafa +might contend in vain; it is beyond the bounds of my imagination that +Laupepa should contend at all. Foreign ships and bayonets is the +cure proposed in Mulinuu. And certainly, if people at home desire +that money should be thrown away and blood shed in Samoa, an effect +of a kind, and for the time, may be produced. Its nature and prospective +durability I will ask readers of this volume to forecast for themselves. +There is one way to peace and unity: that Laupepa and Mataafa should +be again conjoined on the best terms procurable. There may be +other ways, although I cannot see them; but not even malevolence, not +even stupidity, can deny that this is one. It seems, indeed, so +obvious, and sure, and easy, that men look about with amazement and +suspicion, seeking some hidden motive why it should not be adopted.<br> +<br> +To Laupepa’s opposition, as shown in the case of the Lauati scheme, +no dweller in Samoa will give weight, for they know him to be as putty +in the hands of his advisers. It may be right, it may be wrong, +but we are many of us driven to the conclusion that the stumbling-block +is Fangalii, and that the memorial of that affair shadows appropriately +the house of a king who reigns in right of it. If this be all, +it should not trouble us long. Germany has shown she can be generous; +it now remains for her only to forget a natural but certainly ill-grounded +prejudice, and allow to him, who was sole king before the plenipotentiaries +assembled, and who would be sole king to-morrow if the Berlin Act could +be rescinded, a fitting share of rule. The future of Samoa should +lie thus in the hands of a single man, on whom the eyes of Europe are +already fixed. Great concerns press on his attention; the Samoan +group, in his view, is but as a grain of dust; and the country where +he reigns has bled on too many august scenes of victory to remember +for ever a blundering skirmish in the plantation of Vailele. It +is to him - to the sovereign of the wise Stuebel and the loyal Brandeis, +- that I make my appeal.<br> +<br> +<i>May</i> 25, 1892.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +Footnotes:<br> +<br> +<a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1">{1}</a> Brother and successor +of Theodor.<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY ***<br> +<pre> + +******This file should be named fnhst10h.htm or fnhst10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, fnhst11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, fnhst10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our Web sites at: +http://gutenberg.net or +http://promo.net/pg + +These Web sites include award-winning information about Project +Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new +eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!). + + +Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement +can get to them as follows, and just download by date. This is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext04 or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext04 + +Or /etext03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. Our +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If the value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text +files per month: 1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+ +We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002 +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks! +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated): + +eBooks Year Month + + 1 1971 July + 10 1991 January + 100 1994 January + 1000 1997 August + 1500 1998 October + 2000 1999 December + 2500 2000 December + 3000 2001 November + 4000 2001 October/November + 6000 2002 December* + 9000 2003 November* +10000 2004 January* + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people +and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, +Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, +Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, +Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New +Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, +Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South +Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West +Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list +will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states. +Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally +request donations in all 50 states. If your state is not listed and +you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have, +just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are +not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting +donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to +donate. + +International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about +how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made +deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are +ways. + +Donations by check or money order may be sent to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + +Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment +method other than by check or money order. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by +the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN +[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154. Donations are +tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. As fund-raising +requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be +made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information online at: + +http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart hart@pobox.com + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this eBook, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + eBook or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the eBook (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only +when distributed free of all fees. Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by +Michael S. Hart. Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be +used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be +they hardware or software or any other related product without +express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* +</pre></body> +</html> diff --git a/old/fnhst10h.zip b/old/fnhst10h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..28f8465 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/fnhst10h.zip |