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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. 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