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@@ -0,0 +1,5811 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Footnote to History, by Robert Louis +Stevenson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: A Footnote to History + Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa + + +Author: Robert Louis Stevenson + +Release Date: April 26, 2005 [eBook #536] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY*** + + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1912 Swanston edition by David Price, email +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY +EIGHT YEARS OF TROUBLE IN SAMOA +by Robert Louis Stevenson + + + + +PREFACE + + +An affair which might be deemed worthy of a note of a few lines in any +general history has been here expanded to the size of a volume or large +pamphlet. The smallness of the scale, and the singularity of the manners +and events and many of the characters, considered, it is hoped that, in +spite of its outlandish subject, the sketch may find readers. It has +been a task of difficulty. Speed was essential, or it might come too +late to be of any service to a distracted country. Truth, in the midst +of conflicting rumours and in the dearth of printed material, was often +hard to ascertain, and since most of those engaged were of my personal +acquaintance, it was often more than delicate to express. I must +certainly have erred often and much; it is not for want of trouble taken +nor of an impartial temper. And if my plain speaking shall cost me any +of the friends that I still count, I shall be sorry, but I need not be +ashamed. + +In one particular the spelling of Samoan words has been altered; and the +characteristic nasal _n_ of the language written throughout _ng_ instead +of _g_. Thus I put Pango-Pango, instead of Pago-Pago; the sound being +that of soft _ng_ in English, as in _singer_, not as in _finger_. + +R. L. S. +VAILIMA, +UPOLU, +SAMOA. + + + + +CHAPTER I--THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: NATIVE + + +The story I have to tell is still going on as I write; the characters are +alive and active; it is a piece of contemporary history in the most exact +sense. And yet, for all its actuality and the part played in it by mails +and telegraphs and iron war-ships, the ideas and the manners of the +native actors date back before the Roman Empire. They are Christians, +church-goers, singers of hymns at family worship, hardy cricketers; their +books are printed in London by Spottiswoode, Trubner, or the Tract +Society; but in most other points they are the contemporaries of our +tattooed ancestors who drove their chariots on the wrong side of the +Roman wall. We have passed the feudal system; they are not yet clear of +the patriarchal. We are in the thick of the age of finance; they are in +a period of communism. And this makes them hard to understand. + +To us, with our feudal ideas, Samoa has the first appearance of a land of +despotism. An elaborate courtliness marks the race alone among +Polynesians; terms of ceremony fly thick as oaths on board a ship; +commoners my-lord each other when they meet--and urchins as they play +marbles. And for the real noble a whole private dialect is set apart. +The common names for an axe, for blood, for bamboo, a bamboo knife, a +pig, food, entrails, and an oven are taboo in his presence, as the common +names for a bug and for many offices and members of the body are taboo in +the drawing-rooms of English ladies. Special words are set apart for his +leg, his face, his hair, his belly, his eyelids, his son, his daughter, +his wife, his wife's pregnancy, his wife's adultery, adultery with his +wife, his dwelling, his spear, his comb, his sleep, his dreams, his +anger, the mutual anger of several chiefs, his food, his pleasure in +eating, the food and eating of his pigeons, his ulcers, his cough, his +sickness, his recovery, his death, his being carried on a bier, the +exhumation of his bones, and his skull after death. To address these +demigods is quite a branch of knowledge, and he who goes to visit a high +chief does well to make sure of the competence of his interpreter. To +complete the picture, the same word signifies the watching of a virgin +and the warding of a chief; and the same word means to cherish a chief +and to fondle a favourite child. + +Men like us, full of memories of feudalism, hear of a man so addressed, +so flattered, and we leap at once to the conclusion that he is hereditary +and absolute. Hereditary he is; born of a great family, he must always +be a man of mark; but yet his office is elective and (in a weak sense) is +held on good behaviour. Compare the case of a Highland chief: born one +of the great ones of his clan, he was sometimes appointed its chief +officer and conventional father; was loved, and respected, and served, +and fed, and died for implicitly, if he gave loyalty a chance; and yet if +he sufficiently outraged clan sentiment, was liable to deposition. As to +authority, the parallel is not so close. Doubtless the Samoan chief, if +he be popular, wields a great influence; but it is limited. Important +matters are debated in a fono, or native parliament, with its feasting +and parade, its endless speeches and polite genealogical allusions. +Debated, I say--not decided; for even a small minority will often strike +a clan or a province impotent. In the midst of these ineffective +councils the chief sits usually silent: a kind of a gagged audience for +village orators. And the deliverance of the fono seems (for the moment) +to be final. The absolute chiefs of Tahiti and Hawaii were addressed as +plain John and Thomas; the chiefs of Samoa are surfeited with lip-honour, +but the seat and extent of their actual authority is hard to find. + +It is so in the members of the state, and worse in the belly. The idea +of a sovereign pervades the air; the name we have; the thing we are not +so sure of. And the process of election to the chief power is a mystery. +Certain provinces have in their gift certain high titles, or _names_, as +they are called. These can only be attributed to the descendants of +particular lines. Once granted, each name conveys at once the +principality (whatever that be worth) of the province which bestows it, +and counts as one suffrage towards the general sovereignty of Samoa. To +be indubitable king, they say, or some of them say,--I find few in +perfect harmony,--a man should resume five of these names in his own +person. But the case is purely hypothetical; local jealousy forbids its +occurrence. There are rival provinces, far more concerned in the +prosecution of their rivalry than in the choice of a right man for king. +If one of these shall have bestowed its name on competitor A, it will be +the signal and the sufficient reason for the other to bestow its name on +competitor B or C. The majority of Savaii and that of Aana are thus in +perennial opposition. Nor is this all. In 1881, Laupepa, the present +king, held the three names of Malietoa, Natoaitele, and Tamasoalii; +Tamasese held that of Tuiaana; and Mataafa that of Tuiatua. Laupepa had +thus a majority of suffrages; he held perhaps as high a proportion as can +be hoped in these distracted islands; and he counted among the number the +preponderant name of Malietoa. Here, if ever, was an election. Here, if +a king were at all possible, was the king. And yet the natives were not +satisfied. Laupepa was crowned, March 19th; and next month, the +provinces of Aana and Atua met in joint parliament, and elected their own +two princes, Tamasese and Mataafa, to an alternate monarchy, Tamasese +taking the first trick of two years. War was imminent, when the consuls +interfered, and any war were preferable to the terms of the peace which +they procured. By the Lackawanna treaty, Laupepa was confirmed king, and +Tamasese set by his side in the nondescript office of vice-king. The +compromise was not, I am told, without precedent; but it lacked all +appearance of success. To the constitution of Samoa, which was already +all wheels and no horses, the consuls had added a fifth wheel. In +addition to the old conundrum, "Who is the king?" they had supplied a new +one, "What is the vice-king?" + +Two royal lines; some cloudy idea of alternation between the two; an +electorate in which the vote of each province is immediately effectual, +as regards itself, so that every candidate who attains one name becomes a +perpetual and dangerous competitor for the other four: such are a few of +the more trenchant absurdities. Many argue that the whole idea of +sovereignty is modern and imported; but it seems impossible that anything +so foolish should have been suddenly devised, and the constitution bears +on its front the marks of dotage. + +But the king, once elected and nominated, what does he become? It may be +said he remains precisely as he was. Election to one of the five names +is significant; it brings not only dignity but power, and the holder is +secure, from that moment, of a certain following in war. But I cannot +find that the further step of election to the kingship implies anything +worth mention. The successful candidate is now the _Tupu o Samoa_--much +good may it do him! He can so sign himself on proclamations, which it +does not follow that any one will heed. He can summon parliaments; it +does not follow they will assemble. If he be too flagrantly disobeyed, +he can go to war. But so he could before, when he was only the chief of +certain provinces. His own provinces will support him, the provinces of +his rivals will take the field upon the other part; just as before. In +so far as he is the holder of any of the five _names_, in short, he is a +man to be reckoned with; in so far as he is king of Samoa, I cannot find +but what the president of a college debating society is a far more +formidable officer. And unfortunately, although the credit side of the +account proves thus imaginary, the debit side is actual and heavy. For +he is now set up to be the mark of consuls; he will be badgered to raise +taxes, to make roads, to punish crime, to quell rebellion: and how he is +to do it is not asked. + +If I am in the least right in my presentation of this obscure matter, no +one need be surprised to hear that the land is full of war and rumours of +war. Scarce a year goes by but what some province is in arms, or sits +sulky and menacing, holding parliaments, disregarding the king's +proclamations and planting food in the bush, the first step of military +preparation. The religious sentiment of the people is indeed for peace +at any price; no pastor can bear arms; and even the layman who does so is +denied the sacraments. In the last war the college of Malua, where the +picked youth are prepared for the ministry, lost but a single student; +the rest, in the bosom of a bleeding country, and deaf to the voices of +vanity and honour, peacefully pursued their studies. But if the church +looks askance on war, the warrior in no extremity of need or passion +forgets his consideration for the church. The houses and gardens of her +ministers stand safe in the midst of armies; a way is reserved for +themselves along the beach, where they may be seen in their white kilts +and jackets openly passing the lines, while not a hundred yards behind +the skirmishers will be exchanging the useless volleys of barbaric +warfare. Women are also respected; they are not fired upon; and they are +suffered to pass between the hostile camps, exchanging gossip, spreading +rumour, and divulging to either army the secret councils of the other. +This is plainly no savage war; it has all the punctilio of the barbarian, +and all his parade; feasts precede battles, fine dresses and songs +decorate and enliven the field; and the young soldier comes to camp +burning (on the one hand) to distinguish himself by acts of valour, and +(on the other) to display his acquaintance with field etiquette. Thus +after Mataafa became involved in hostilities against the Germans, and had +another code to observe beside his own, he was always asking his white +advisers if "things were done correctly." Let us try to be as wise as +Mataafa, and to conceive that etiquette and morals differ in one country +and another. We shall be the less surprised to find Samoan war defaced +with some unpalatable customs. The childish destruction of fruit-trees +in an enemy's country cripples the resources of Samoa; and the habit of +head-hunting not only revolts foreigners, but has begun to exercise the +minds of the natives themselves. Soon after the German heads were taken, +Mr. Carne, Wesleyan missionary, had occasion to visit Mataafa's camp, and +spoke of the practice with abhorrence. "Misi Kane," said one chief, "we +have just been puzzling ourselves to guess where that custom came from. +But, Misi, is it not so that when David killed Goliath, he cut off his +head and carried it before the king?" + +With the civil life of the inhabitants we have far less to do; and yet +even here a word of preparation is inevitable. They are easy, merry, and +pleasure-loving; the gayest, though by far from either the most capable +or the most beautiful of Polynesians. Fine dress is a passion, and makes +a Samoan festival a thing of beauty. Song is almost ceaseless. The +boatman sings at the oar, the family at evening worship, the girls at +night in the guest-house, sometimes the workman at his toil. No occasion +is too small for the poets and musicians; a death, a visit, the day's +news, the day's pleasantry, will be set to rhyme and harmony. Even half- +grown girls, the occasion arising, fashion words and train choruses of +children for its celebration. Song, as with all Pacific islanders, goes +hand in hand with the dance, and both shade into the drama. Some of the +performances are indecent and ugly, some only dull; others are pretty, +funny, and attractive. Games are popular. Cricket-matches, where a +hundred played upon a side, endured at times for weeks, and ate up the +country like the presence of an army. Fishing, the daily bath, +flirtation; courtship, which is gone upon by proxy; conversation, which +is largely political; and the delights of public oratory, fill in the +long hours. + +But the special delight of the Samoan is the _malanga_. When people form +a party and go from village to village, junketing and gossiping, they are +said to go on a _malanga_. Their songs have announced their approach ere +they arrive; the guest-house is prepared for their reception; the virgins +of the village attend to prepare the kava bowl and entertain them with +the dance; time flies in the enjoyment of every pleasure which an +islander conceives; and when the _malanga_ sets forth, the same welcome +and the same joys expect them beyond the next cape, where the nearest +village nestles in its grove of palms. To the visitors it is all golden; +for the hosts, it has another side. In one or two words of the language +the fact peeps slyly out. The same word (_afemoeina_) expresses "a long +call" and "to come as a calamity"; the same word (_lesolosolou_) +signifies "to have no intermission of pain" and "to have no cessation, as +in the arrival of visitors"; and _soua_, used of epidemics, bears the +sense of being overcome as with "fire, flood, or visitors." But the gem +of the dictionary is the verb _alovao_, which illustrates its pages like +a humorous woodcut. It is used in the sense of "to avoid visitors," but +it means literally "hide in the wood." So, by the sure hand of popular +speech, we have the picture of the house deserted, the _malanga_ +disappointed, and the host that should have been quaking in the bush. + +We are thus brought to the beginning of a series of traits of manners, +highly curious in themselves, and essential to an understanding of the +war. In Samoa authority sits on the one hand entranced; on the other, +property stands bound in the midst of chartered marauders. What property +exists is vested in the family, not in the individual; and of the loose +communism in which a family dwells, the dictionary may yet again help us +to some idea. I find a string of verbs with the following senses: to +deal leniently with, as in helping oneself from a family plantation; to +give away without consulting other members of the family; to go to +strangers for help instead of to relatives; to take from relatives +without permission; to steal from relatives; to have plantations robbed +by relatives. The ideal of conduct in the family, and some of its +depravations, appear here very plainly. The man who (in a native word of +praise) is _mata-ainga_, a race-regarder, has his hand always open to his +kindred; the man who is not (in a native term of contempt) _noa_, knows +always where to turn in any pinch of want or extremity of laziness. +Beggary within the family--and by the less self-respecting, without +it--has thus grown into a custom and a scourge, and the dictionary teems +with evidence of its abuse. Special words signify the begging of food, +of uncooked food, of fish, of pigs, of pigs for travellers, of pigs for +stock, of taro, of taro-tops, of taro-tops for planting, of tools, of +flyhooks, of implements for netting pigeons, and of mats. It is true the +beggar was supposed in time to make a return, somewhat as by the Roman +contract of _mutuum_. But the obligation was only moral; it could not +be, or was not, enforced; as a matter of fact, it was disregarded. The +language had recently to borrow from the Tahitians a word for debt; while +by a significant excidence, it possessed a native expression for the +failure to pay--"to omit to make a return for property begged." Conceive +now the position of the householder besieged by harpies, and all defence +denied him by the laws of honour. The sacramental gesture of refusal, +his last and single resource, was supposed to signify "my house is +destitute." Until that point was reached, in other words, the conduct +prescribed for a Samoan was to give and to continue giving. But it does +not appear he was at all expected to give with a good grace. The +dictionary is well stocked with expressions standing ready, like +missiles, to be discharged upon the locusts--"troop of shamefaced ones," +"you draw in your head like a tern," "you make your voice small like a +whistle-pipe," "you beg like one delirious"; and the verb _pongitai_, "to +look cross," is equipped with the pregnant rider, "as at the sight of +beggars." + +This insolence of beggars and the weakness of proprietors can only be +illustrated by examples. We have a girl in our service to whom we had +given some finery, that she might wait at table, and (at her own request) +some warm clothing against the cold mornings of the bush. She went on a +visit to her family, and returned in an old tablecloth, her whole +wardrobe having been divided out among relatives in the course of twenty- +four hours. A pastor in the province of Atua, being a handy, busy man, +bought a boat for a hundred dollars, fifty of which he paid down. +Presently after, relatives came to him upon a visit and took a fancy to +his new possession. "We have long been wanting a boat," said they. "Give +us this one." So, when the visit was done, they departed in the boat. +The pastor, meanwhile, travelled into Savaii the best way he could, sold +a parcel of land, and begged mats among his other relatives, to pay the +remainder of the price of the boat which was no longer his. You might +think this was enough; but some months later, the harpies, having broken +a thwart, brought back the boat to be repaired and repainted by the +original owner. + +Such customs, it might be argued, being double-edged, will ultimately +right themselves. But it is otherwise in practice. Such folk as the +pastor's harpy relatives will generally have a boat, and will never have +paid for it; such men as the pastor may have sometimes paid for a boat, +but they will never have one. It is there as it is with us at home: the +measure of the abuse of either system is the blackness of the individual +heart. The same man, who would drive his poor relatives from his own +door in England, would besiege in Samoa the doors of the rich; and the +essence of the dishonesty in either case is to pursue one's own advantage +and to be indifferent to the losses of one's neighbour. But the +particular drawback of the Polynesian system is to depress and stagger +industry. To work more is there only to be more pillaged; to save is +impossible. The family has then made a good day of it when all are +filled and nothing remains over for the crew of free-booters; and the +injustice of the system begins to be recognised even in Samoa. One +native is said to have amassed a certain fortune; two clever lads have +individually expressed to us their discontent with a system which taxes +industry to pamper idleness; and I hear that in one village of Savaii a +law has been passed forbidding gifts under the penalty of a sharp fine. + +Under this economic regimen, the unpopularity of taxes, which strike all +at the same time, which expose the industrious to a perfect siege of +mendicancy, and the lazy to be actually condemned to a day's labour, may +be imagined without words. It is more important to note the concurrent +relaxation of all sense of property. From applying for help to kinsmen +who are scarce permitted to refuse, it is but a step to taking from them +(in the dictionary phrase) "without permission"; from that to theft at +large is but a hair's-breadth. + + + + +CHAPTER II--THE ELEMENTS OF DISCORD: FOREIGN + + +The huge majority of Samoans, like other God-fearing folk in other +countries, are perfectly content with their own manners. And upon one +condition, it is plain they might enjoy themselves far beyond the average +of man. Seated in islands very rich in food, the idleness of the many +idle would scarce matter; and the provinces might continue to bestow +their names among rival pretenders, and fall into war and enjoy that a +while, and drop into peace and enjoy that, in a manner highly to be +envied. But the condition--that they should be let alone--is now no +longer possible. More than a hundred years ago, and following closely on +the heels of Cook, an irregular invasion of adventurers began to swarm +about the isles of the Pacific. The seven sleepers of Polynesia stand, +still but half aroused, in the midst of the century of competition. And +the island races, comparable to a shopful of crockery launched upon the +stream of time, now fall to make their desperate voyage among pots of +brass and adamant. + +Apia, the port and mart, is the seat of the political sickness of Samoa. +At the foot of a peaked, woody mountain, the coast makes a deep indent, +roughly semicircular. In front the barrier reef is broken by the fresh +water of the streams; if the swell be from the north, it enters almost +without diminution; and the war-ships roll dizzily at their moorings, and +along the fringing coral which follows the configuration of the beach, +the surf breaks with a continuous uproar. In wild weather, as the world +knows, the roads are untenable. Along the whole shore, which is +everywhere green and level and overlooked by inland mountain-tops, the +town lies drawn out in strings and clusters. The western horn is +Mulinuu, the eastern, Matautu; and from one to the other of these +extremes, I ask the reader to walk. He will find more of the history of +Samoa spread before his eyes in that excursion, than has yet been +collected in the blue-books or the white-books of the world. Mulinuu +(where the walk is to begin) is a flat, wind-swept promontory, planted +with palms, backed against a swamp of mangroves, and occupied by a rather +miserable village. The reader is informed that this is the proper +residence of the Samoan kings; he will be the more surprised to observe a +board set up, and to read that this historic village is the property of +the German firm. But these boards, which are among the commonest +features of the landscape, may be rather taken to imply that the claim +has been disputed. A little farther east he skirts the stores, offices, +and barracks of the firm itself. Thence he will pass through Matafele, +the one really town-like portion of this long string of villages, by +German bars and stores and the German consulate; and reach the Catholic +mission and cathedral standing by the mouth of a small river. The bridge +which crosses here (bridge of Mulivai) is a frontier; behind is Matafele; +beyond, Apia proper; behind, Germans are supreme; beyond, with but few +exceptions, all is Anglo-Saxon. Here the reader will go forward past the +stores of Mr. Moors (American) and Messrs. MacArthur (English); past the +English mission, the office of the English newspaper, the English church, +and the old American consulate, till he reaches the mouth of a larger +river, the Vaisingano. Beyond, in Matautu, his way takes him in the +shade of many trees and by scattered dwellings, and presently brings him +beside a great range of offices, the place and the monument of a German +who fought the German firm during his life. His house (now he is dead) +remains pointed like a discharged cannon at the citadel of his old +enemies. Fitly enough, it is at present leased and occupied by +Englishmen. A little farther, and the reader gains the eastern flanking +angle of the bay, where stands the pilot-house and signal-post, and +whence he can see, on the line of the main coast of the island, the +British and the new American consulates. + +The course of his walk will have been enlivened by a considerable to and +fro of pleasure and business. He will have encountered many varieties of +whites,--sailors, merchants, clerks, priests, Protestant missionaries in +their pith helmets, and the nondescript hangers-on of any island beach. +And the sailors are sometimes in considerable force; but not the +residents. He will think at times there are more signboards than men to +own them. It may chance it is a full day in the harbour; he will then +have seen all manner of ships, from men-of-war and deep-sea packets to +the labour vessels of the German firm and the cockboat island schooner; +and if he be of an arithmetical turn, he may calculate that there are +more whites afloat in Apia bay than whites ashore in the whole +Archipelago. On the other hand, he will have encountered all ranks of +natives, chiefs and pastors in their scrupulous white clothes; perhaps +the king himself, attended by guards in uniform; smiling policemen with +their pewter stars; girls, women, crowds of cheerful children. And he +will have asked himself with some surprise where these reside. Here and +there, in the back yards of European establishments, he may have had a +glimpse of a native house elbowed in a corner; but since he left Mulinuu, +none on the beach where islanders prefer to live, scarce one on the line +of street. The handful of whites have everything; the natives walk in a +foreign town. A year ago, on a knoll behind a bar-room, he might have +observed a native house guarded by sentries and flown over by the +standard of Samoa. He would then have been told it was the seat of +government, driven (as I have to relate) over the Mulivai and from beyond +the German town into the Anglo-Saxon. To-day, he will learn it has been +carted back again to its old quarters. And he will think it significant +that the king of the islands should be thus shuttled to and fro in his +chief city at the nod of aliens. And then he will observe a feature more +significant still: a house with some concourse of affairs, policemen and +idlers hanging by, a man at a bank-counter overhauling manifests, perhaps +a trial proceeding in the front verandah, or perhaps the council breaking +up in knots after a stormy sitting. And he will remember that he is in +the _Eleele Sa_, the "Forbidden Soil," or Neutral Territory of the +treaties; that the magistrate whom he has just seen trying native +criminals is no officer of the native king's; and that this, the only +port and place of business in the kingdom, collects and administers its +own revenue for its own behoof by the hands of white councillors and +under the supervision of white consuls. Let him go further afield. He +will find the roads almost everywhere to cease or to be made impassable +by native pig-fences, bridges to be quite unknown, and houses of the +whites to become at once a rare exception. Set aside the German +plantations, and the frontier is sharp. At the boundary of the _Eleele +Sa_, Europe ends, Samoa begins. Here, then, is a singular state of +affairs: all the money, luxury, and business of the kingdom centred in +one place; that place excepted from the native government and +administered by whites for whites; and the whites themselves holding it +not in common but in hostile camps, so that it lies between them like a +bone between two dogs, each growling, each clutching his own end. + +Should Apia ever choose a coat of arms, I have a motto ready: "Enter +Rumour painted full of tongues." The majority of the natives do +extremely little; the majority of the whites are merchants with some four +mails in the month, shopkeepers with some ten or twenty customers a day, +and gossip is the common resource of all. The town hums to the day's +news, and the bars are crowded with amateur politicians. Some are office- +seekers, and earwig king and consul, and compass the fall of officials, +with an eye to salary. Some are humorists, delighted with the pleasure +of faction for itself. "I never saw so good a place as this Apia," said +one of these; "you can be in a new conspiracy every day!" Many, on the +other hand, are sincerely concerned for the future of the country. The +quarters are so close and the scale is so small, that perhaps not any one +can be trusted always to preserve his temper. Every one tells everything +he knows; that is our country sickness. Nearly every one has been +betrayed at times, and told a trifle more; the way our sickness takes the +predisposed. And the news flies, and the tongues wag, and fists are +shaken. Pot boil and caldron bubble! + +Within the memory of man, the white people of Apia lay in the worst +squalor of degradation. They are now unspeakably improved, both men and +women. To-day they must be called a more than fairly respectable +population, and a much more than fairly intelligent. The whole would +probably not fill the ranks of even an English half-battalion, yet there +are a surprising number above the average in sense, knowledge, and +manners. The trouble (for Samoa) is that they are all here after a +livelihood. Some are sharp practitioners, some are famous (justly or +not) for foul play in business. Tales fly. One merchant warns you +against his neighbour; the neighbour on the first occasion is found to +return the compliment: each with a good circumstantial story to the +proof. There is so much copra in the islands, and no more; a man's share +of it is his share of bread; and commerce, like politics, is here +narrowed to a focus, shows its ugly side, and becomes as personal as +fisticuffs. Close at their elbows, in all this contention, stands the +native looking on. Like a child, his true analogue, he observes, +apprehends, misapprehends, and is usually silent. As in a child, a +considerable intemperance of speech is accompanied by some power of +secrecy. News he publishes; his thoughts have often to be dug for. He +looks on at the rude career of the dollar-hunt, and wonders. He sees +these men rolling in a luxury beyond the ambition of native kings; he +hears them accused by each other of the meanest trickery; he knows some +of them to be guilty; and what is he to think? He is strongly conscious +of his own position as the common milk-cow; and what is he to do? "Surely +these white men on the beach are not great chiefs?" is a common question, +perhaps asked with some design of flattering the person questioned. And +one, stung by the last incident into an unusual flow of English, remarked +to me: "I begin to be weary of white men on the beach." + +But the true centre of trouble, the head of the boil of which Samoa +languishes, is the German firm. From the conditions of business, a great +island house must ever be an inheritance of care; and it chances that the +greatest still afoot has its chief seat in Apia bay, and has sunk the +main part of its capital in the island of Upolu. When its founder, John +Caesar Godeffroy, went bankrupt over Russian paper and Westphalian iron, +his most considerable asset was found to be the South Sea business. This +passed (I understand) through the hands of Baring Brothers in London, and +is now run by a company rejoicing in the Gargantuan name of the _Deutsche +Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft fur Sud-See Inseln zu Hamburg_. This +piece of literature is (in practice) shortened to the D. H. and P. G., +the Old Firm, the German Firm, the Firm, and (among humorists) the Long +Handle Firm. Even from the deck of an approaching ship, the island is +seen to bear its signature--zones of cultivation showing in a more vivid +tint of green on the dark vest of forest. The total area in use is near +ten thousand acres. Hedges of fragrant lime enclose, broad avenues +intersect them. You shall walk for hours in parks of palm-tree alleys, +regular, like soldiers on parade; in the recesses of the hills you may +stumble on a mill-house, toiling and trembling there, fathoms deep in +superincumbent forest. On the carpet of clean sward, troops of horses +and herds of handsome cattle may be seen to browse; and to one accustomed +to the rough luxuriance of the tropics, the appearance is of fairyland. +The managers, many of them German sea-captains, are enthusiastic in their +new employment. Experiment is continually afoot: coffee and cacao, both +of excellent quality, are among the more recent outputs; and from one +plantation quantities of pineapples are sent at a particular season to +the Sydney markets. A hundred and fifty thousand pounds of English +money, perhaps two hundred thousand, lie sunk in these magnificent +estates. In estimating the expense of maintenance quite a fleet of ships +must be remembered, and a strong staff of captains, supercargoes, +overseers, and clerks. These last mess together at a liberal board; the +wages are high, and the staff is inspired with a strong and pleasing +sentiment of loyalty to their employers. + +Seven or eight hundred imported men and women toil for the company on +contracts of three or of five years, and at a hypothetical wage of a few +dollars in the month. I am now on a burning question: the labour +traffic; and I shall ask permission in this place only to touch it with +the tongs. Suffice it to say that in Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, +and Hawaii it has been either suppressed or placed under close public +supervision. In Samoa, where it still flourishes, there is no regulation +of which the public receives any evidence; and the dirty linen of the +firm, if there be any dirty, and if it be ever washed at all, is washed +in private. This is unfortunate, if Germans would believe it. But they +have no idea of publicity, keep their business to themselves, rather +affect to "move in a mysterious way," and are naturally incensed by +criticisms, which they consider hypocritical, from men who would import +"labour" for themselves, if they could afford it, and would probably +maltreat them if they dared. It is said the whip is very busy on some of +the plantations; it is said that punitive extra-labour, by which the +thrall's term of service is extended, has grown to be an abuse; and it is +complained that, even where that term is out, much irregularity occurs in +the repatriation of the discharged. To all this I can say nothing, good +or bad. A certain number of the thralls, many of them wild negritos from +the west, have taken to the bush, harbour there in a state partly +bestial, or creep into the back quarters of the town to do a day's +stealthy labour under the nose of their proprietors. Twelve were +arrested one morning in my own boys' kitchen. Farther in the bush, huts, +small patches of cultivation, and smoking ovens, have been found by +hunters. There are still three runaways in the woods of Tutuila, whither +they escaped upon a raft. And the Samoans regard these dark-skinned +rangers with extreme alarm; the fourth refugee in Tutuila was shot down +(as I was told in that island) while carrying off the virgin of a +village; and tales of cannibalism run round the country, and the natives +shudder about the evening fire. For the Samoans are not cannibals, do +not seem to remember when they were, and regard the practice with a +disfavour equal to our own. + +The firm is Gulliver among the Lilliputs; and it must not be forgotten, +that while the small, independent traders are fighting for their own +hand, and inflamed with the usual jealousy against corporations, the +Germans are inspired with a sense of the greatness of their affairs and +interests. The thought of the money sunk, the sight of these costly and +beautiful plantations, menaced yearly by the returning forest, and the +responsibility of administering with one hand so many conjunct fortunes, +might well nerve the manager of such a company for desperate and +questionable deeds. Upon this scale, commercial sharpness has an air of +patriotism; and I can imagine the man, so far from haggling over the +scourge for a few Solomon islanders, prepared to oppress rival firms, +overthrow inconvenient monarchs, and let loose the dogs of war. Whatever +he may decide, he will not want for backing. Every clerk will be eager +to be up and strike a blow; and most Germans in the group, whatever they +may babble of the firm over the walnuts and the wine, will rally round +the national concern at the approach of difficulty. They are so few--I +am ashamed to give their number, it were to challenge contradiction--they +are so few, and the amount of national capital buried at their feet is so +vast, that we must not wonder if they seem oppressed with greatness and +the sense of empire. Other whites take part in our brabbles, while +temper holds out, with a certain schoolboy entertainment. In the Germans +alone, no trace of humour is to be observed, and their solemnity is +accompanied by a touchiness often beyond belief. Patriotism flies in +arms about a hen; and if you comment upon the colour of a Dutch umbrella, +you have cast a stone against the German Emperor. I give one instance, +typical although extreme. One who had returned from Tutuila on the mail +cutter complained of the vermin with which she is infested. He was +suddenly and sharply brought to a stand. The ship of which he spoke, he +was reminded, was a German ship. + +John Caesar Godeffroy himself had never visited the islands; his sons and +nephews came, indeed, but scarcely to reap laurels; and the mainspring +and headpiece of this great concern, until death took him, was a certain +remarkable man of the name of Theodor Weber. He was of an artful and +commanding character; in the smallest thing or the greatest, without fear +or scruple; equally able to affect, equally ready to adopt, the most +engaging politeness or the most imperious airs of domination. It was he +who did most damage to rival traders; it was he who most harried the +Samoans; and yet I never met any one, white or native, who did not +respect his memory. All felt it was a gallant battle, and the man a +great fighter; and now when he is dead, and the war seems to have gone +against him, many can scarce remember, without a kind of regret, how much +devotion and audacity have been spent in vain. His name still lives in +the songs of Samoa. One, that I have heard, tells of _Misi Ueba_ and a +biscuit-box--the suggesting incident being long since forgotten. Another +sings plaintively how all things, land and food and property, pass +progressively, as by a law of nature, into the hands of _Misi Ueba_, and +soon nothing will be left for Samoans. This is an epitaph the man would +have enjoyed. + +At one period of his career, Weber combined the offices of director of +the firm and consul for the City of Hamburg. No question but he then +drove very hard. Germans admit that the combination was unfortunate; and +it was a German who procured its overthrow. Captain Zembsch superseded +him with an imperial appointment, one still remembered in Samoa as "the +gentleman who acted justly." There was no house to be found, and the new +consul must take up his quarters at first under the same roof with Weber. +On several questions, in which the firm was vitally interested, Zembsch +embraced the contrary opinion. Riding one day with an Englishman in +Vailele plantation, he was startled by a burst of screaming, leaped from +the saddle, ran round a house, and found an overseer beating one of the +thralls. He punished the overseer, and, being a kindly and perhaps not a +very diplomatic man, talked high of what he felt and what he might +consider it his duty to forbid or to enforce. The firm began to look +askance at such a consul; and worse was behind. A number of deeds being +brought to the consulate for registration, Zembsch detected certain +transfers of land in which the date, the boundaries, the measure, and the +consideration were all blank. He refused them with an indignation which +he does not seem to have been able to keep to himself; and, whether or +not by his fault, some of these unfortunate documents became public. It +was plain that the relations between the two flanks of the German +invasion, the diplomatic and the commercial, were strained to bursting. +But Weber was a man ill to conquer. Zembsch was recalled; and from that +time forth, whether through influence at home, or by the solicitations of +Weber on the spot, the German consulate has shown itself very apt to play +the game of the German firm. That game, we may say, was twofold,--the +first part even praiseworthy, the second at least natural. On the one +part, they desired an efficient native administration, to open up the +country and punish crime; they wished, on the other, to extend their own +provinces and to curtail the dealings of their rivals. In the first, +they had the jealous and diffident sympathy of all whites; in the second, +they had all whites banded together against them for their lives and +livelihoods. It was thus a game of _Beggar my Neighbour_ between a large +merchant and some small ones. Had it so remained, it would still have +been a cut-throat quarrel. But when the consulate appeared to be +concerned, when the war-ships of the German Empire were thought to fetch +and carry for the firm, the rage of the independent traders broke beyond +restraint. And, largely from the national touchiness and the intemperate +speech of German clerks, this scramble among dollar-hunters assumed the +appearance of an inter-racial war. + +The firm, with the indomitable Weber at its head and the consulate at its +back--there has been the chief enemy at Samoa. No English reader can +fail to be reminded of John Company; and if the Germans appear to have +been not so successful, we can only wonder that our own blunders and +brutalities were less severely punished. Even on the field of Samoa, +though German faults and aggressors make up the burthen of my story, they +have been nowise alone. Three nations were engaged in this infinitesimal +affray, and not one appears with credit. They figure but as the three +ruffians of the elder play-wrights. The United States have the cleanest +hands, and even theirs are not immaculate. It was an ambiguous business +when a private American adventurer was landed with his pieces of +artillery from an American war-ship, and became prime minister to the +king. It is true (even if he were ever really supported) that he was +soon dropped and had soon sold himself for money to the German firm. I +will leave it to the reader whether this trait dignifies or not the +wretched story. And the end of it spattered the credit alike of England +and the States, when this man (the premier of a friendly sovereign) was +kidnapped and deported, on the requisition of an American consul, by the +captain of an English war-ship. I shall have to tell, as I proceed, of +villages shelled on very trifling grounds by Germans; the like has been +done of late years, though in a better quarrel, by ourselves of England. +I shall have to tell how the Germans landed and shed blood at Fangalii; +it was only in 1876 that we British had our own misconceived little +massacre at Mulinuu. I shall have to tell how the Germans bludgeoned +Malietoa with a sudden call for money; it was something of the suddenest +that Sir Arthur Gordon himself, smarting under a sensible public affront, +made and enforced a somewhat similar demand. + + + + +CHAPTER III--THE SORROWS OF LAUPEPA, 1883 TO 1887 + + +You ride in a German plantation and see no bush, no soul stirring; only +acres of empty sward, miles of cocoa-nut alley: a desert of food. In the +eyes of the Samoan the place has the attraction of a park for the holiday +schoolboy, of a granary for mice. We must add the yet more lively +allurement of a haunted house, for over these empty and silent miles +there broods the fear of the negrito cannibal. For the Samoan besides, +there is something barbaric, unhandsome, and absurd in the idea of thus +growing food only to send it from the land and sell it. A man at home +who should turn all Yorkshire into one wheatfield, and annually burn his +harvest on the altar of Mumbo-Jumbo, might impress ourselves not much +otherwise. And the firm which does these things is quite extraneous, a +wen that might be excised to-morrow without loss but to itself; few +natives drawing from it so much as day's wages; and the rest beholding in +it only the occupier of their acres. The nearest villages have suffered +most; they see over the hedge the lands of their ancestors waving with +useless cocoa-palms; and the sales were often questionable, and must +still more often appear so to regretful natives, spinning and improving +yarns about the evening lamp. At the worst, then, to help oneself from +the plantation will seem to a Samoan very like orchard-breaking to the +British schoolboy; at the best, it will be thought a gallant +Robin-Hoodish readjustment of a public wrong. + +And there is more behind. Not only is theft from the plantations +regarded rather as a lark and peccadillo, the idea of theft in itself is +not very clearly present to these communists; and as to the punishment of +crime in general, a great gulf of opinion divides the natives from +ourselves. Indigenous punishments were short and sharp. Death, +deportation by the primitive method of setting the criminal to sea in a +canoe, fines, and in Samoa itself the penalty of publicly biting a hot, +ill-smelling root, comparable to a rough forfeit in a children's +game--these are approved. The offender is killed, or punished and +forgiven. We, on the other hand, harbour malice for a period of years: +continuous shame attaches to the criminal; even when he is doing his +best--even when he is submitting to the worst form of torture, regular +work--he is to stand aside from life and from his family in dreadful +isolation. These ideas most Polynesians have accepted in appearance, as +they accept other ideas of the whites; in practice, they reduce it to a +farce. I have heard the French resident in the Marquesas in talk with +the French gaoler of Tai-o-hae: "_Eh bien, ou sont vos prisonnieres_?--_Je +crois, mon commandant, qu'elles sont allees quelque part faire une +visite_." And the ladies would be welcome. This is to take the most +savage of Polynesians; take some of the most civilised. In Honolulu, +convicts labour on the highways in piebald clothing, gruesome and +ridiculous; and it is a common sight to see the family of such an one +troop out, about the dinner hour, wreathed with flowers and in their +holiday best, to picnic with their kinsman on the public wayside. The +application of these outlandish penalties, in fact, transfers the +sympathy to the offender. Remember, besides, that the clan system, and +that imperfect idea of justice which is its worst feature, are still +lively in Samoa; that it is held the duty of a judge to favour kinsmen, +of a king to protect his vassals; and the difficulty of getting a +plantation thief first caught, then convicted, and last of all punished, +will appear. + +During the early 'eighties, the Germans looked upon this system with +growing irritation. They might see their convict thrust in gaol by the +front door; they could never tell how soon he was enfranchised by the +back; and they need not be the least surprised if they met him, a few +days after, enjoying the delights of a _malanga_. It was a banded +conspiracy, from the king and the vice-king downward, to evade the law +and deprive the Germans of their profits. In 1883, accordingly, the +consul, Dr. Stuebel, extorted a convention on the subject, in terms of +which Samoans convicted of offences against German subjects were to be +confined in a private gaol belonging to the German firm. To Dr. Stuebel +it seemed simple enough: the offenders were to be effectually punished, +the sufferers partially indemnified. To the Samoans, the thing appeared +no less simple, but quite different: "Malietoa was selling Samoans to +Misi Ueba." What else could be expected? Here was a private corporation +engaged in making money; to it was delegated, upon a question of profit +and loss, one of the functions of the Samoan crown; and those who make +anomalies must look for comments. Public feeling ran unanimous and high. +Prisoners who escaped from the private gaol were not recaptured or not +returned and Malietoa hastened to build a new prison of his own, whither +he conveyed, or pretended to convey, the fugitives. In October 1885 a +trenchant state paper issued from the German consulate. Twenty +prisoners, the consul wrote, had now been at large for eight months from +Weber's prison. It was pretended they had since then completed their +term of punishment elsewhere. Dr. Stuebel did not seek to conceal his +incredulity; but he took ground beyond; he declared the point irrelevant. +The law was to be enforced. The men were condemned to a certain period +in Weber's prison; they had run away; they must now be brought back and +(whatever had become of them in the interval) work out the sentence. +Doubtless Dr. Stuebel's demands were substantially just; but doubtless +also they bore from the outside a great appearance of harshness; and when +the king submitted, the murmurs of the people increased. + +But Weber was not yet content. The law had to be enforced; property, or +at least the property of the firm, must be respected. And during an +absence of the consul's, he seems to have drawn up with his own hand, and +certainly first showed to the king, in his own house, a new convention. +Weber here and Weber there. As an able man, he was perhaps in the right +to prepare and propose conventions. As the head of a trading company, he +seems far out of his part to be communicating state papers to a +sovereign. The administration of justice was the colour, and I am +willing to believe the purpose, of the new paper; but its effect was to +depose the existing government. A council of two Germans and two Samoans +were to be invested with the right to make laws and impose taxes as might +be "desirable for the common interest of the Samoan government and the +German residents." The provisions of this council the king and vice-king +were to sign blindfold. And by a last hardship, the Germans, who +received all the benefit, reserved a right to recede from the agreement +on six months' notice; the Samoans, who suffered all the loss, were bound +by it in perpetuity. I can never believe that my friend Dr. Stuebel had +a hand in drafting these proposals; I am only surprised he should have +been a party to enforcing them, perhaps the chief error in these islands +of a man who has made few. And they were enforced with a rigour that +seems injudicious. The Samoans (according to their own account) were +denied a copy of the document; they were certainly rated and threatened; +their deliberation was treated as contumacy; two German war-ships lay in +port, and it was hinted that these would shortly intervene. + +Succeed in frightening a child, and he takes refuge in duplicity. +"Malietoa," one of the chiefs had written, "we know well we are in +bondage to the great governments." It was now thought one tyrant might +be better than three, and any one preferable to Germany. On the 5th +November 1885, accordingly, Laupepa, Tamasese, and forty-eight high +chiefs met in secret, and the supremacy of Samoa was secretly offered to +Great Britain for the second time in history. Laupepa and Tamasese still +figured as king and vice-king in the eyes of Dr. Stuebel; in their own, +they had secretly abdicated, were become private persons, and might do +what they pleased without binding or dishonouring their country. On the +morrow, accordingly, they did public humiliation in the dust before the +consulate, and five days later signed the convention. The last was done, +it is claimed, upon an impulse. The humiliation, which it appeared to +the Samoans so great a thing to offer, to the practical mind of Dr. +Stuebel seemed a trifle to receive; and the pressure was continued and +increased. Laupepa and Tamasese were both heavy, well-meaning, +inconclusive men. Laupepa, educated for the ministry, still bears some +marks of it in character and appearance; Tamasese was in private of an +amorous and sentimental turn, but no one would have guessed it from his +solemn and dull countenance. Impossible to conceive two less dashing +champions for a threatened race; and there is no doubt they were reduced +to the extremity of muddlement and childish fear. It was drawing towards +night on the 10th, when this luckless pair and a chief of the name of +Tuiatafu, set out for the German consulate, still minded to temporise. As +they went, they discussed their case with agitation. They could see the +lights of the German war-ships as they walked--an eloquent reminder. And +it was then that Tamasese proposed to sign the convention. "It will give +us peace for the day," said Laupepa, "and afterwards Great Britain must +decide."--"Better fight Germany than that!" cried Tuiatafu, speaking +words of wisdom, and departed in anger. But the two others proceeded on +their fatal errand; signed the convention, writing themselves king and +vice-king, as they now believed themselves to be no longer; and with +childish perfidy took part in a scene of "reconciliation" at the German +consulate. + +Malietoa supposed himself betrayed by Tamasese. Consul Churchward states +with precision that the document was sold by a scribe for thirty-six +dollars. Twelve days later at least, November 22nd, the text of the +address to Great Britain came into the hands of Dr. Stuebel. The Germans +may have been wrong before; they were now in the right to be angry. They +had been publicly, solemnly, and elaborately fooled; the treaty and the +reconciliation were both fraudulent, with the broad, farcical fraudulency +of children and barbarians. This history is much from the outside; it is +the digested report of eye-witnesses; it can be rarely corrected from +state papers; and as to what consuls felt and thought, or what +instructions they acted under, I must still be silent or proceed by +guess. It is my guess that Stuebel now decided Malietoa Laupepa to be a +man impossible to trust and unworthy to be dealt with. And it is certain +that the business of his deposition was put in hand at once. The +position of Weber, with his knowledge of things native, his prestige, and +his enterprising intellect, must have always made him influential with +the consul: at this juncture he was indispensable. Here was the deed to +be done; here the man of action. "Mr. Weber rested not," says Laupepa. +It was "like the old days of his own consulate," writes Churchward. His +messengers filled the isle; his house was thronged with chiefs and +orators; he sat close over his loom, delightedly weaving the future. +There was one thing requisite to the intrigue,--a native pretender; and +the very man, you would have said, stood waiting: Mataafa, titular of +Atua, descended from both the royal lines, late joint king with Tamasese, +fobbed off with nothing in the time of the Lackawanna treaty, probably +mortified by the circumstance, a chief with a strong following, and in +character and capacity high above the native average. Yet when Weber's +spiriting was done, and the curtain rose on the set scene of the +coronation, Mataafa was absent, and Tamasese stood in his place. Malietoa +was to be deposed for a piece of solemn and offensive trickery, and the +man selected to replace him was his sole partner and accomplice in the +act. For so strange a choice, good ground must have existed; but it +remains conjectural: some supposing Mataafa scratched as too independent; +others that Tamasese had indeed betrayed Laupepa, and his new advancement +was the price of his treachery. + +So these two chiefs began to change places like the scales of a balance, +one down, the other up. Tamasese raised his flag (Jan. 28th, 1886) in +Leulumoenga, chief place of his own province of Aana, usurped the style +of king, and began to collect and arm a force. Weber, by the admission +of Stuebel, was in the market supplying him with weapons; so were the +Americans; so, but for our salutary British law, would have been the +British; for wherever there is a sound of battle, there will the traders +be gathered together selling arms. A little longer, and we find Tamasese +visited and addressed as king and majesty by a German commodore. +Meanwhile, for the unhappy Malietoa, the road led downward. He was +refused a bodyguard. He was turned out of Mulinuu, the seat of his +royalty, on a land claim of Weber's, fled across the Mulivai, and "had +the coolness" (German expression) to hoist his flag in Apia. He was +asked "in the most polite manner," says the same account--"in the most +delicate manner in the world," a reader of Marryat might be tempted to +amend the phrase,--to strike his flag in his own capital; and on his +"refusal to accede to this request," Dr. Stuebel appeared himself with +ten men and an officer from the cruiser _Albatross_; a sailor climbed +into the tree and brought down the flag of Samoa, which was carefully +folded, and sent, "in the most polite manner," to its owner. The consuls +of England and the States were there (the excellent gentlemen!) to +protest. Last, and yet more explicit, the German commodore who visited +the be-titled Tamasese, addressed the king--we may surely say the late +king--as "the High Chief Malietoa." + +Had he no party, then? At that time, it is probable, he might have +called some five-sevenths of Samoa to his standard. And yet he sat +there, helpless monarch, like a fowl trussed for roasting. The blame +lies with himself, because he was a helpless creature; it lies also with +England and the States. Their agents on the spot preached peace (where +there was no peace, and no pretence of it) with eloquence and iteration. +Secretary Bayard seems to have felt a call to join personally in the +solemn farce, and was at the expense of a telegram in which he assured +the sinking monarch it was "for the higher interests of Samoa" he should +do nothing. There was no man better at doing that; the advice came +straight home, and was devoutly followed. And to be just to the great +Powers, something was done in Europe; a conference was called, it was +agreed to send commissioners to Samoa, and the decks had to be hastily +cleared against their visit. Dr. Stuebel had attached the municipality +of Apia and hoisted the German war-flag over Mulinuu; the American consul +(in a sudden access of good service) had flown the stars and stripes over +Samoan colours; on either side these steps were solemnly retracted. The +Germans expressly disowned Tamasese; and the islands fell into a period +of suspense, of some twelve months' duration, during which the seat of +the history was transferred to other countries and escapes my purview. +Here on the spot, I select three incidents: the arrival on the scene of a +new actor, the visit of the Hawaiian embassy, and the riot on the +Emperor's birthday. The rest shall be silence; only it must be borne in +view that Tamasese all the while continued to strengthen himself in +Leulumoenga, and Laupepa sat inactive listening to the song of consuls. + +_Captain Brandeis_. The new actor was Brandeis, a Bavarian captain of +artillery, of a romantic and adventurous character. He had served with +credit in war; but soon wearied of garrison life, resigned his battery, +came to the States, found employment as a civil engineer, visited Cuba, +took a sub-contract on the Panama canal, caught the fever, and came (for +the sake of the sea voyage) to Australia. He had that natural love for +the tropics which lies so often latent in persons of a northern birth; +difficulty and danger attracted him; and when he was picked out for +secret duty, to be the hand of Germany in Samoa, there is no doubt but he +accepted the post with exhilaration. It is doubtful if a better choice +could have been made. He had courage, integrity, ideas of his own, and +loved the employment, the people, and the place. Yet there was a fly in +the ointment. The double error of unnecessary stealth and of the +immixture of a trading company in political affairs, has vitiated, and in +the end defeated, much German policy. And Brandeis was introduced to the +islands as a clerk, and sent down to Leulumoenga (where he was soon +drilling the troops and fortifying the position of the rebel king) as an +agent of the German firm. What this mystification cost in the end I +shall tell in another place; and even in the beginning, it deceived no +one. Brandeis is a man of notable personal appearance; he looks the part +allotted him; and the military clerk was soon the centre of observation +and rumour. Malietoa wrote and complained of his presence to Becker, who +had succeeded Dr. Stuebel in the consulate. Becker replied, "I have +nothing to do with the gentleman Brandeis. Be it well known that the +gentleman Brandeis has no appointment in a military character, but +resides peaceably assisting the government of Leulumoenga in their work, +for Brandeis is a quiet, sensible gentleman." And then he promised to +send the vice-consul to "get information of the captain's doings": surely +supererogation of deceit. + +_The Hawaiian Embassy_. The prime minister of the Hawaiian kingdom was, +at this period, an adventurer of the name of Gibson. He claimed, on the +strength of a romantic story, to be the heir of a great English house. He +had played a part in a revolt in Java, had languished in Dutch fetters, +and had risen to be a trusted agent of Brigham Young, the Utah president. +It was in this character of a Mormon emissary that he first came to the +islands of Hawaii, where he collected a large sum of money for the Church +of the Latter Day Saints. At a given moment, he dropped his saintship +and appeared as a Christian and the owner of a part of the island of +Lanai. The steps of the transformation are obscure; they seem, at least, +to have been ill-received at Salt Lake; and there is evidence to the +effect that he was followed to the islands by Mormon assassins. His +first attempt on politics was made under the auspices of what is called +the missionary party, and the canvass conducted largely (it is said with +tears) on the platform at prayer-meetings. It resulted in defeat. +Without any decency of delay he changed his colours, abjured the errors +of reform, and, with the support of the Catholics, rose to the chief +power. In a very brief interval he had thus run through the gamut of +religions in the South Seas. It does not appear that he was any more +particular in politics, but he was careful to consult the character and +prejudices of the late king, Kalakaua. That amiable, far from +unaccomplished, but too convivial sovereign, had a continued use for +money: Gibson was observant to keep him well supplied. Kalakaua (one of +the most theoretical of men) was filled with visionary schemes for the +protection and development of the Polynesian race: Gibson fell in step +with him; it is even thought he may have shared in his illusions. The +king and minister at least conceived between them a scheme of island +confederation--the most obvious fault of which was that it came too +late--and armed and fitted out the cruiser _Kaimiloa_, nest-egg of the +future navy of Hawaii. Samoa, the most important group still +independent, and one immediately threatened with aggression, was chosen +for the scene of action. The Hon. John E. Bush, a half-caste Hawaiian, +sailed (December 1887) for Apia as minister-plenipotentiary, accompanied +by a secretary of legation, Henry F. Poor; and as soon as she was ready +for sea, the war-ship followed in support. The expedition was futile in +its course, almost tragic in result. The _Kaimiloa_ was from the first a +scene of disaster and dilapidation: the stores were sold; the crew +revolted; for a great part of a night she was in the hands of mutineers, +and the secretary lay bound upon the deck. The mission, installing +itself at first with extravagance in Matautu, was helped at last out of +the island by the advances of a private citizen. And they returned from +dreams of Polynesian independence to find their own city in the hands of +a clique of white shopkeepers, and the great Gibson once again in gaol. +Yet the farce had not been quite without effect. It had encouraged the +natives for the moment, and it seems to have ruffled permanently the +temper of the Germans. So might a fly irritate Caesar. + +The arrival of a mission from Hawaii would scarce affect the composure of +the courts of Europe. But in the eyes of Polynesians the little kingdom +occupies a place apart. It is there alone that men of their race enjoy +most of the advantages and all the pomp of independence; news of Hawaii +and descriptions of Honolulu are grateful topics in all parts of the +South Seas; and there is no better introduction than a photograph in +which the bearer shall be represented in company with Kalakaua. Laupepa +was, besides, sunk to the point at which an unfortunate begins to clutch +at straws, and he received the mission with delight. Letters were +exchanged between him and Kalakaua; a deed of confederation was signed, +17th February 1887, and the signature celebrated in the new house of the +Hawaiian embassy with some original ceremonies. Malietoa Laupepa came, +attended by his ministry, several hundred chiefs, two guards, and six +policemen. Always decent, he withdrew at an early hour; by those that +remained, all decency appears to have been forgotten; high chiefs were +seen to dance; and day found the house carpeted with slumbering grandees, +who must be roused, doctored with coffee, and sent home. As a first +chapter in the history of Polynesian Confederation, it was hardly +cheering, and Laupepa remarked to one of the embassy, with equal dignity +and sense: "If you have come here to teach my people to drink, I wish you +had stayed away." + +The Germans looked on from the first with natural irritation that a power +of the powerlessness of Hawaii should thus profit by its undeniable +footing in the family of nations, and send embassies, and make believe to +have a navy, and bark and snap at the heels of the great German Empire. +But Becker could not prevent the hunted Laupepa from taking refuge in any +hole that offered, and he could afford to smile at the fantastic orgie in +the embassy. It was another matter when the Hawaiians approached the +intractable Mataafa, sitting still in his Atua government like Achilles +in his tent, helping neither side, and (as the Germans suspected) keeping +the eggs warm for himself. When the _Kaimiloa_ steamed out of Apia on +this visit, the German war-ship _Adler_ followed at her heels; and +Mataafa was no sooner set down with the embassy than he was summoned and +ordered on board by two German officers. The step is one of those +triumphs of temper which can only be admired. Mataafa is entertaining +the plenipotentiary of a sovereign power in treaty with his own king, and +the captain of a German corvette orders him to quit his guests. + +But there was worse to come. I gather that Tamasese was at the time in +the sulks. He had doubtless been promised prompt aid and a prompt +success; he had seen himself surreptitiously helped, privately ordered +about, and publicly disowned; and he was still the king of nothing more +than his own province, and already the second in command of Captain +Brandeis. With the adhesion of some part of his native cabinet, and +behind the back of his white minister, he found means to communicate with +the Hawaiians. A passage on the _Kaimiloa_, a pension, and a home in +Honolulu were the bribes proposed; and he seems to have been tempted. A +day was set for a secret interview. Poor, the Hawaiian secretary, and J. +D. Strong, an American painter attached to the embassy in the surprising +quality of "Government Artist," landed with a Samoan boat's-crew in Aana; +and while the secretary hid himself, according to agreement, in the +outlying home of an English settler, the artist (ostensibly bent on +photography) entered the headquarters of the rebel king. It was a great +day in Leulumoenga; three hundred recruits had come in, a feast was +cooking; and the photographer, in view of the native love of being +photographed, was made entirely welcome. But beneath the friendly +surface all were on the alert. The secret had leaked out: Weber beheld +his plans threatened in the root; Brandeis trembled for the possession of +his slave and sovereign; and the German vice-consul, Mr. Sonnenschein, +had been sent or summoned to the scene of danger. + +It was after dark, prayers had been said and the hymns sung through all +the village, and Strong and the German sat together on the mats in the +house of Tamasese, when the events began. Strong speaks German freely, a +fact which he had not disclosed, and he was scarce more amused than +embarrassed to be able to follow all the evening the dissension and the +changing counsels of his neighbours. First the king himself was missing, +and there was a false alarm that he had escaped and was already closeted +with Poor. Next came certain intelligence that some of the ministry had +run the blockade, and were on their way to the house of the English +settler. Thereupon, in spite of some protests from Tamasese, who tried +to defend the independence of his cabinet, Brandeis gathered a posse of +warriors, marched out of the village, brought back the fugitives, and +clapped them in the corrugated iron shanty which served as gaol. Along +with these he seems to have seized Billy Coe, interpreter to the +Hawaiians; and Poor, seeing his conspiracy public, burst with his boat's- +crew into the town, made his way to the house of the native prime +minister, and demanded Coe's release. Brandeis hastened to the spot, +with Strong at his heels; and the two principals being both incensed, and +Strong seriously alarmed for his friend's safety, there began among them +a scene of great intemperance. At one point, when Strong suddenly +disclosed his acquaintance with German, it attained a high style of +comedy; at another, when a pistol was most foolishly drawn, it bordered +on drama; and it may be said to have ended in a mixed genus, when Poor +was finally packed into the corrugated iron gaol along with the forfeited +ministers. Meanwhile the captain of his boat, Siteoni, of whom I shall +have to tell again, had cleverly withdrawn the boat's-crew at an early +stage of the quarrel. Among the population beyond Tamasese's marches, he +collected a body of armed men, returned before dawn to Leulumoenga, +demolished the corrugated iron gaol, and liberated the Hawaiian secretary +and the rump of the rebel cabinet. No opposition was shown; and +doubtless the rescue was connived at by Brandeis, who had gained his +point. Poor had the face to complain the next day to Becker; but to +compete with Becker in effrontery was labour lost. "You have been +repeatedly warned, Mr. Poor, not to expose yourself among these savages," +said he. + +Not long after, the presence of the _Kaimiloa_ was made _a casus belli_ +by the Germans; and the rough-and-tumble embassy withdrew, on borrowed +money, to find their own government in hot water to the neck. + +* * * * * + +_The Emperor's Birthday_. It is possible, and it is alleged, that the +Germans entered into the conference with hope. But it is certain they +were resolved to remain prepared for either fate. And I take the liberty +of believing that Laupepa was not forgiven his duplicity; that, during +this interval, he stood marked like a tree for felling; and that his +conduct was daily scrutinised for further pretexts of offence. On the +evening of the Emperor's birthday, March 22nd, 1887, certain Germans were +congregated in a public bar. The season and the place considered, it is +scarce cynical to assume they had been drinking; nor, so much being +granted, can it be thought exorbitant to suppose them possibly in fault +for the squabble that took place. A squabble, I say; but I am willing to +call it a riot. And this was the new fault of Laupepa; this it is that +was described by a German commodore as "the trampling upon by Malietoa of +the German Emperor." I pass the rhetoric by to examine the point of +liability. Four natives were brought to trial for this horrid fact: not +before a native judge, but before the German magistrate of the tripartite +municipality of Apia. One was acquitted, one condemned for theft, and +two for assault. On appeal, not to Malietoa, but to the three consuls, +the case was by a majority of two to one returned to the magistrate and +(as far as I can learn) was then allowed to drop. Consul Becker himself +laid the chief blame on one of the policemen of the municipality, a half- +white of the name of Scanlon. Him he sought to have discharged, but was +again baffled by his brother consuls. Where, in all this, are we to find +a corner of responsibility for the king of Samoa? Scanlon, the alleged +author of the outrage, was a half-white; as Becker was to learn to his +cost, he claimed to be an American subject; and he was not even in the +king's employment. Apia, the scene of the outrage, was outside the +king's jurisdiction by treaty; by the choice of Germany, he was not so +much as allowed to fly his flag there. And the denial of justice (if +justice were denied) rested with the consuls of Britain and the States. + +But when a dog is to be beaten, any stick will serve. In the meanwhile, +on the proposition of Mr. Bayard, the Washington conference on Samoan +affairs was adjourned till autumn, so that "the ministers of Germany and +Great Britain might submit the protocols to their respective +Governments." "You propose that the conference is to adjourn and not to +be broken up?" asked Sir Lionel West. "To adjourn for the reasons +stated," replied Bayard. This was on July 26th; and, twenty-nine days +later, by Wednesday the 24th of August, Germany had practically seized +Samoa. For this flagrant breach of faith one excuse is openly alleged; +another whispered. It is openly alleged that Bayard had shown himself +impracticable; it is whispered that the Hawaiian embassy was an +expression of American intrigue, and that the Germans only did as they +were done by. The sufficiency of these excuses may be left to the +discretion of the reader. But, however excused, the breach of faith was +public and express; it must have been deliberately predetermined and it +was resented in the States as a deliberate insult. + +By the middle of August 1887 there were five sail of German war-ships in +Apia bay: the _Bismarck_, of 3000 tons displacement; the _Carola_, the +_Sophie_, and the _Olga_, all considerable ships; and the beautiful +_Adler_, which lies there to this day, kanted on her beam, dismantled, +scarlet with rust, the day showing through her ribs. They waited +inactive, as a burglar waits till the patrol goes by. And on the 23rd, +when the mail had left for Sydney, when the eyes of the world were +withdrawn, and Samoa plunged again for a period of weeks into her +original island-obscurity, Becker opened his guns. The policy was too +cunning to seem dignified; it gave to conduct which would otherwise have +seemed bold and even brutally straightforward, the appearance of a timid +ambuscade; and helped to shake men's reliance on the word of Germany. On +the day named, an ultimatum reached Malietoa at Afenga, whither he had +retired months before to avoid friction. A fine of one thousand dollars +and an _ifo_, or public humiliation, were demanded for the affair of the +Emperor's birthday. Twelve thousand dollars were to be "paid quickly" +for thefts from German plantations in the course of the last four years. +"It is my opinion that there is nothing just or correct in Samoa while +you are at the head of the government," concluded Becker. "I shall be at +Afenga in the morning of to-morrow, Wednesday, at 11 A.M." The blow fell +on Laupepa (in his own expression) "out of the bush"; the dilatory fellow +had seen things hang over so long, he had perhaps begun to suppose they +might hang over for ever; and here was ruin at the door. He rode at once +to Apia, and summoned his chiefs. The council lasted all night long. +Many voices were for defiance. But Laupepa had grown inured to a policy +of procrastination; and the answer ultimately drawn only begged for delay +till Saturday, the 27th. So soon as it was signed, the king took horse +and fled in the early morning to Afenga; the council hastily dispersed; +and only three chiefs, Selu, Seumanu, and Le Mamea, remained by the +government building, tremulously expectant of the result. + +By seven the letter was received. By 7.30 Becker arrived in person, +inquired for Laupepa, was evasively answered, and declared war on the +spot. Before eight, the Germans (seven hundred men and six guns) came +ashore and seized and hoisted German colours on the government building. +The three chiefs had made good haste to escape; but a considerable booty +was made of government papers, fire-arms, and some seventeen thousand +cartridges. Then followed a scene which long rankled in the minds of the +white inhabitants, when the German marines raided the town in search of +Malietoa, burst into private houses, and were accused (I am willing to +believe on slender grounds) of violence to private persons. + +On the morrow, the 25th, one of the German war-ships, which had been +despatched to Leulumoenga over night re-entered the bay, flying the +Tamasese colours at the fore. The new king was given a royal salute of +twenty-one guns, marched through the town by the commodore and a German +guard of honour, and established on Mulinuu with two or three hundred +warriors. Becker announced his recognition to the other consuls. These +replied by proclaiming Malietoa, and in the usual mealy-mouthed manner +advised Samoans to do nothing. On the 27th martial law was declared; and +on the 1st September the German squadron dispersed about the group, +bearing along with them the proclamations of the new king. Tamasese was +now a great man, to have five iron war-ships for his post-runners. But +the moment was critical. The revolution had to be explained, the chiefs +persuaded to assemble at a fono summoned for the 15th; and the ships +carried not only a store of printed documents, but a squad of Tamasese +orators upon their round. + +Such was the German _coup d'etat_. They had declared war with a squadron +of five ships upon a single man; that man, late king of the group, was in +hiding on the mountains; and their own nominee, backed by German guns and +bayonets, sat in his stead in Mulinuu. + +One of the first acts of Malietoa, on fleeing to the bush, was to send +for Mataafa twice: "I am alone in the bush; if you do not come quickly +you will find me bound." It is to be understood the men were near +kinsmen, and had (if they had nothing else) a common jealousy. At the +urgent cry, Mataafa set forth from Falefa, and came to Mulinuu to +Tamasese. "What is this that you and the German commodore have decided +on doing?" he inquired. "I am going to obey the German consul," replied +Tamasese, "whose wish it is that I should be the king and that all Samoa +should assemble here." "Do not pursue in wrath against Malietoa," said +Mataafa "but try to bring about a compromise, and form a united +government." "Very well," said Tamasese, "leave it to me, and I will +try." From Mulinuu, Mataafa went on board the _Bismarck_, and was +graciously received. "Probably," said the commodore, "we shall bring +about a reconciliation of all Samoa through you"; and then asked his +visitor if he bore any affection to Malietoa. "Yes," said Mataafa. "And +to Tamasese?" "To him also; and if you desire the weal of Samoa, you +will allow either him or me to bring about a reconciliation." "If it +were my will," said the commodore, "I would do as you say. But I have no +will in the matter. I have instructions from the Kaiser, and I cannot go +back again from what I have been sent to do." "I thought you would be +commanded," said Mataafa, "if you brought about the weal of Samoa." "I +will tell you," said the commodore. "All shall go quietly. But there is +one thing that must be done: Malietoa must be deposed. I will do nothing +to him beyond; he will only be kept on board for a couple of months and +be well treated, just as we Germans did to the French chief [Napoleon +III.] some time ago, whom we kept a while and cared for well." Becker +was no less explicit: war, he told Sewall, should not cease till the +Germans had custody of Malietoa and Tamasese should be recognised. + +Meantime, in the Malietoa provinces, a profound impression was received. +People trooped to their fugitive sovereign in the bush. Many natives in +Apia brought their treasures, and stored them in the houses of white +friends. The Tamasese orators were sometimes ill received. Over in +Savaii, they found the village of Satupaitea deserted, save for a few +lads at cricket. These they harangued, and were rewarded with ironical +applause; and the proclamation, as soon as they had departed, was torn +down. For this offence the village was ultimately burned by German +sailors, in a very decent and orderly style, on the 3rd September. This +was the dinner-bell of the fono on the 15th. The threat conveyed in the +terms of the summons--"If any government district does not quickly obey +this direction, I will make war on that government district"--was thus +commented on and reinforced. And the meeting was in consequence well +attended by chiefs of all parties. They found themselves unarmed among +the armed warriors of Tamasese and the marines of the German squadron, +and under the guns of five strong ships. Brandeis rose; it was his first +open appearance, the German firm signing its revolutionary work. His +words were few and uncompromising: "Great are my thanks that the chiefs +and heads of families of the whole of Samoa are assembled here this day. +It is strictly forbidden that any discussion should take place as to +whether it is good or not that Tamasese is king of Samoa, whether at this +fono or at any future fono. I place for your signature the following: +'_We inform all the people of Samoa of what follows: (1) The government +of Samoa has been assumed by King Tuiaana Tamasese. (2) By order of the +king, it was directed that a fono should take place to-day, composed of +the chiefs and heads of families, and we have obeyed the summons. We +have signed our names under this, 15th September_ 1887." Needs must +under all these guns; and the paper was signed, but not without open +sullenness. The bearing of Mataafa in particular was long remembered +against him by the Germans. "Do you not see the king?" said the +commodore reprovingly. "His father was no king," was the bold answer. A +bolder still has been printed, but this is Mataafa's own recollection of +the passage. On the next day, the chiefs were all ordered back to shake +hands with Tamasese. Again they obeyed; but again their attitude was +menacing, and some, it is said, audibly murmured as they gave their +hands. + +It is time to follow the poor Sheet of Paper (literal meaning of +_Laupepa_), who was now to be blown so broadly over the face of earth. As +soon as news reached him of the declaration of war, he fled from Afenga +to Tanungamanono, a hamlet in the bush, about a mile and a half behind +Apia, where he lurked some days. On the 24th, Selu, his secretary, +despatched to the American consul an anxious appeal, his majesty's "cry +and prayer" in behalf of "this weak people." By August 30th, the Germans +had word of his lurking-place, surrounded the hamlet under cloud of +night, and in the early morning burst with a force of sailors on the +houses. The people fled on all sides, and were fired upon. One boy was +shot in the hand, the first blood of the war. But the king was nowhere +to be found; he had wandered farther, over the woody mountains, the +backbone of the land, towards Siumu and Safata. Here, in a safe place, +he built himself a town in the forest, where he received a continual +stream of visitors and messengers. Day after day the German blue-jackets +were employed in the hopeless enterprise of beating the forests for the +fugitive; day after day they were suffered to pass unhurt under the guns +of ambushed Samoans; day after day they returned, exhausted and +disappointed, to Apia. Seumanu Tafa, high chief of Apia, was known to be +in the forest with the king; his wife, Fatuila, was seized, imprisoned in +the German hospital, and when it was thought her spirit was sufficiently +reduced, brought up for cross-examination. The wise lady confined +herself in answer to a single word. "Is your husband near Apia?" "Yes." +"Is he far from Apia?" "Yes." "Is he with the king?" "Yes." "Are he +and the king in different places?" "Yes." Whereupon the witness was +discharged. About the 10th of September, Laupepa was secretly in Apia at +the American consulate with two companions. The German pickets were +close set and visited by a strong patrol; and on his return, his party +was observed and hailed and fired on by a sentry. They ran away on all +fours in the dark, and so doing plumped upon another sentry, whom Laupepa +grappled and flung in a ditch; for the Sheet of Paper, although infirm of +character, is, like most Samoans, of an able body. The second sentry +(like the first) fired after his assailants at random in the dark; and +the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia. On the afternoon of the 16th, +the day of the hand-shakings, Suatele, a high chief, despatched two boys +across the island with a letter. They were most of the night upon the +road; it was near three in the morning before the sentries in the camp of +Malietoa beheld their lantern drawing near out of the wood; but the king +was at once awakened. The news was decisive and the letter peremptory; +if Malietoa did not give himself up before ten on the morrow, he was told +that great sorrows must befall his country. I have not been able to draw +Laupepa as a hero; but he is a man of certain virtues, which the Germans +had now given him an occasion to display. Without hesitation he +sacrificed himself, penned his touching farewell to Samoa, and making +more expedition than the messengers, passed early behind Apia to the +banks of the Vaisingano. As he passed, he detached a messenger to +Mataafa at the Catholic mission. Mataafa followed by the same road, and +the pair met at the river-side and went and sat together in a house. All +present were in tears. "Do not let us weep," said the talking man, +Lauati. "We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but +to the invincible strangers." The departing king bequeathed the care of +his country to Mataafa; and when the latter sought to console him with +the commodore's promises, he shook his head, and declared his assurance +that he was going to a life of exile, and perhaps to death. About two +o'clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa returned to the Catholic mission by +the back of the town; and Malietoa proceeded by the beach road to the +German naval hospital, where he was received (as he owns, with perfect +civility) by Brandeis. About three, Becker brought him forth again. As +they went to the wharf, the people wept and clung to their departing +monarch. A boat carried him on board the _Bismarck_, and he vanished +from his countrymen. Yet it was long rumoured that he still lay in the +harbour; and so late as October 7th, a boy, who had been paddling round +the _Carola_, professed to have seen and spoken with him. Here again the +needless mystery affected by the Germans bitterly disserved them. The +uncertainty which thus hung over Laupepa's fate, kept his name +continually in men's mouths. The words of his farewell rang in their +ears: "To all Samoa: On account of my great love to my country and my +great affection to all Samoa, this is the reason that I deliver up my +body to the German government. That government may do as they wish to +me. The reason of this is, because I do not desire that the blood of +Samoa shall be spilt for me again. But I do not know what is my offence +which has caused their anger to me and to my country." And then, +apostrophising the different provinces: "Tuamasanga, farewell! Manono +and family, farewell! So, also, Salafai, Tutuila, Aana, and Atua, +farewell! If we do not again see one another in this world, pray that we +may be again together above." So the sheep departed with the halo of a +saint, and men thought of him as of some King Arthur snatched into +Avilion. + +On board the _Bismarck_, the commodore shook hands with him, told him he +was to be "taken away from all the chiefs with whom he had been +accustomed," and had him taken to the wardroom under guard. The next day +he was sent to sea in the _Adler_. There went with him his brother Moli, +one Meisake, and one Alualu, half-caste German, to interpret. He was +respectfully used; he dined in the stern with the officers, but the boys +dined "near where the fire was." They come to a "newly-formed place" in +Australia, where the _Albatross_ was lying, and a British ship, which he +knew to be a man-of-war "because the officers were nicely dressed and +wore epaulettes." Here he was transhipped, "in a boat with a screen," +which he supposed was to conceal him from the British ship; and on board +the _Albatross_ was sent below and told he must stay there till they had +sailed. Later, however, he was allowed to come on deck, where he found +they had rigged a screen (perhaps an awning) under which he walked, +looking at "the newly-formed settlement," and admiring a big house "where +he was sure the governor lived." From Australia, they sailed some time, +and reached an anchorage where a consul-general came on board, and where +Laupepa was only allowed on deck at night. He could then see the lights +of a town with wharves; he supposes Cape Town. Off the Cameroons they +anchored or lay-to, far at sea, and sent a boat ashore to see (he +supposes) that there was no British man-of-war. It was the next morning +before the boat returned, when the _Albatross_ stood in and came to +anchor near another German ship. Here Alualu came to him on deck and +told him this was the place. "That is an astonishing thing," said he. "I +thought I was to go to Germany, I do not know what this means; I do not +know what will be the end of it; my heart is troubled." Whereupon Alualu +burst into tears. A little after, Laupepa was called below to the +captain and the governor. The last addressed him: "This is my own place, +a good place, a warm place. My house is not yet finished, but when it +is, you shall live in one of my rooms until I can make a house for you." +Then he was taken ashore and brought to a tall, iron house. "This house +is regulated," said the governor; "there is no fire allowed to burn in +it." In one part of this house, weapons of the government were hung up; +there was a passage, and on the other side of the passage, fifty +criminals were chained together, two and two, by the ankles. The windows +were out of reach; and there was only one door, which was opened at six +in the morning and shut again at six at night. All day he had his +liberty, went to the Baptist Mission, and walked about viewing the +negroes, who were "like the sand on the seashore" for number. At six +they were called into the house and shut in for the night without beds or +lights. "Although they gave me no light," said he, with a smile, "I +could see I was in a prison." Good food was given him: biscuits, "tea +made with warm water," beef, etc.; all excellent. Once, in their walks, +they spied a breadfruit tree bearing in the garden of an English +merchant, ran back to the prison to get a shilling, and came and offered +to purchase. "I am not going to sell breadfruit to you people," said the +merchant; "come and take what you like." Here Malietoa interrupted +himself to say it was the only tree bearing in the Cameroons. "The +governor had none, or he would have given it to me." On the passage from +the Cameroons to Germany, he had great delight to see the cliffs of +England. He saw "the rocks shining in the sun, and three hours later was +surprised to find them sunk in the heavens." He saw also wharves and +immense buildings; perhaps Dover and its castle. In Hamburg, after +breakfast, Mr. Weber, who had now finally "ceased from troubling" Samoa, +came on board, and carried him ashore "suitably" in a steam launch to "a +large house of the government," where he stayed till noon. At noon Weber +told him he was going to "the place where ships are anchored that go to +Samoa," and led him to "a very magnificent house, with carriages inside +and a wonderful roof of glass"; to wit, the railway station. They were +benighted on the train, and then went in "something with a house, drawn +by horses, which had windows and many decks"; plainly an omnibus. Here +(at Bremen or Bremerhaven, I believe) they stayed some while in "a house +of five hundred rooms"; then were got on board the _Nurnberg_ (as they +understood) for Samoa, anchored in England on a Sunday, were joined _en +route_ by the famous Dr. Knappe, passed through "a narrow passage where +they went very slow and which was just like a river," and beheld with +exhilarated curiosity that Red Sea of which they had learned so much in +their Bibles. At last, "at the hour when the fires burn red," they came +to a place where was a German man-of-war. Laupepa was called, with one +of the boys, on deck, when he found a German officer awaiting him, and a +steam launch alongside, and was told he must now leave his brother and go +elsewhere. "I cannot go like this," he cried. "You must let me see my +brother and the other old men"--a term of courtesy. Knappe, who seems +always to have been good-natured, revised his orders, and consented not +only to an interview, but to allow Moli to continue to accompany the +king. So these two were carried to the man-of-war, and sailed many a +day, still supposing themselves bound for Samoa; and lo! she came to a +country the like of which they had never dreamed of, and cast anchor in +the great lagoon of Jaluit; and upon that narrow land the exiles were set +on shore. This was the part of his captivity on which he looked back +with the most bitterness. It was the last, for one thing, and he was +worn down with the long suspense, and terror, and deception. He could +not bear the brackish water; and though "the Germans were still good to +him, and gave him beef and biscuit and tea," he suffered from the lack of +vegetable food. + +Such is the narrative of this simple exile. I have not sought to correct +it by extraneous testimony. It is not so much the facts that are +historical, as the man's attitude. No one could hear this tale as he +originally told it in my hearing--I think none can read it as here +condensed and unadorned--without admiring the fairness and simplicity of +the Samoan; and wondering at the want of heart--or want of humour--in so +many successive civilised Germans, that they should have continued to +surround this infant with the secrecy of state. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--BRANDEIS + + +_September '87 to August '88_ + +So Tamasese was on the throne, and Brandeis behind it; and I have now to +deal with their brief and luckless reign. That it was the reign of +Brandeis needs not to be argued: the policy is throughout that of an +able, over-hasty white, with eyes and ideas. But it should be borne in +mind that he had a double task, and must first lead his sovereign, before +he could begin to drive their common subjects. Meanwhile, he himself was +exposed (if all tales be true) to much dictation and interference, and to +some "cumbrous aid," from the consulate and the firm. And to one of +these aids, the suppression of the municipality, I am inclined to +attribute his ultimate failure. + +The white enemies of the new regimen were of two classes. In the first +stood Moors and the employes of MacArthur, the two chief rivals of the +firm, who saw with jealousy a clerk (or a so-called clerk) of their +competitors advanced to the chief power. The second class, that of the +officials, numbered at first exactly one. Wilson, the English acting +consul, is understood to have held strict orders to help Germany. +Commander Leary, of the _Adams_, the American captain, when he arrived, +on the 16th October, and for some time after, seemed devoted to the +German interest, and spent his days with a German officer, Captain Von +Widersheim, who was deservedly beloved by all who knew him. There +remains the American consul-general, Harold Marsh Sewall, a young man of +high spirit and a generous disposition. He had obeyed the orders of his +government with a grudge; and looked back on his past action with regret +almost to be called repentance. From the moment of the declaration of +war against Laupepa, we find him standing forth in bold, consistent, and +sometimes rather captious opposition, stirring up his government at home +with clear and forcible despatches, and on the spot grasping at every +opportunity to thrust a stick into the German wheels. For some while, he +and Moors fought their difficult battle in conjunction; in the course of +which, first one, and then the other, paid a visit home to reason with +the authorities at Washington; and during the consul's absence, there was +found an American clerk in Apia, William Blacklock, to perform the duties +of the office with remarkable ability and courage. The three names just +brought together, Sewall, Moors, and Blacklock, make the head and front +of the opposition; if Tamasese fell, if Brandeis was driven forth, if the +treaty of Berlin was signed, theirs is the blame or the credit. + +To understand the feelings of self-reproach and bitterness with which +Sewall took the field, the reader must see Laupepa's letter of farewell +to the consuls of England and America. It is singular that this far from +brilliant or dignified monarch, writing in the forest, in heaviness of +spirit and under pressure for time, should have left behind him not only +one, but two remarkable and most effective documents. The farewell to +his people was touching; the farewell to the consuls, for a man of the +character of Sewall, must have cut like a whip. "When the chief Tamasese +and others first moved the present troubles," he wrote, "it was my wish +to punish them and put an end to the rebellion; but I yielded to the +advice of the British and American consuls. Assistance and protection +was repeatedly promised to me and my government, if I abstained from +bringing war upon my country. Relying upon these promises, I did not put +down the rebellion. Now I find that war has been made upon me by the +Emperor of Germany, and Tamasese has been proclaimed king of Samoa. I +desire to remind you of the promises so frequently made by your +government, and trust that you will so far redeem them as to cause the +lives and liberties of my chiefs and people to be respected." + +Sewall's immediate adversary was, of course, Becker. I have formed an +opinion of this gentleman, largely from his printed despatches, which I +am at a loss to put in words. Astute, ingenious, capable, at moments +almost witty with a kind of glacial wit in action, he displayed in the +course of this affair every description of capacity but that which is +alone useful and which springs from a knowledge of men's natures. It +chanced that one of Sewall's early moves played into his hands, and he +was swift to seize and to improve the advantage. The neutral territory +and the tripartite municipality of Apia were eyesores to the German +consulate and Brandeis. By landing Tamasese's two or three hundred +warriors at Mulinuu, as Becker himself owns, they had infringed the +treaties, and Sewall entered protest twice. There were two ways of +escaping this dilemma: one was to withdraw the warriors; the other, by +some hocus-pocus, to abrogate the neutrality. And the second had +subsidiary advantages: it would restore the taxes of the richest district +in the islands to the Samoan king; and it would enable them to substitute +over the royal seat the flag of Germany for the new flag of Tamasese. It +is true (and it was the subject of much remark) that these two could +hardly be distinguished by the naked eye; but their effects were +different. To seat the puppet king on German land and under German +colours, so that any rebellion was constructive war on Germany, was a +trick apparently invented by Becker, and which we shall find was repeated +and persevered in till the end. + +Otto Martin was at this time magistrate in the municipality. The post +was held in turn by the three nationalities; Martin had served far beyond +his term, and should have been succeeded months before by an American. To +make the change it was necessary to hold a meeting of the municipal +board, consisting of the three consuls, each backed by an assessor. And +for some time these meetings had been evaded or refused by the German +consul. As long as it was agreed to continue Martin, Becker had attended +regularly; as soon as Sewall indicated a wish for his removal, Becker +tacitly suspended the municipality by refusing to appear. This policy +was now the more necessary; for if the whole existence of the +municipality were a check on the freedom of the new government, it was +plainly less so when the power to enforce and punish lay in German hands. +For some while back the Malietoa flag had been flown on the municipal +building: Becker denies this; I am sorry; my information obliges me to +suppose he is in error. Sewall, with post-mortem loyalty to the past, +insisted that this flag should be continued. And Becker immediately made +his point. He declared, justly enough, that the proposal was hostile, +and argued that it was impossible he should attend a meeting under a flag +with which his sovereign was at war. Upon one occasion of urgency, he +was invited to meet the two other consuls at the British consulate; even +this he refused; and for four months the municipality slumbered, Martin +still in office. In the month of October, in consequence, the British +and American ratepayers announced they would refuse to pay. Becker +doubtless rubbed his hands. On Saturday, the 10th, the chief Tamaseu, a +Malietoa man of substance and good character, was arrested on a charge of +theft believed to be vexatious, and cast by Martin into the municipal +prison. He sent to Moors, who was his tenant and owed him money at the +time, for bail. Moors applied to Sewall, ranking consul. After some +search, Martin was found and refused to consider bail before the Monday +morning. Whereupon Sewall demanded the keys from the gaoler, accepted +Moors's verbal recognisances, and set Tamaseu free. + +Things were now at a deadlock; and Becker astonished every one by +agreeing to a meeting on the 14th. It seems he knew what to expect. +Writing on the 13th at least, he prophesies that the meeting will be held +in vain, that the municipality must lapse, and the government of Tamasese +step in. On the 14th, Sewall left his consulate in time, and walked some +part of the way to the place of meeting in company with Wilson, the +English pro-consul. But he had forgotten a paper, and in an evil hour +returned for it alone. Wilson arrived without him, and Becker broke up +the meeting for want of a quorum. There was some unedifying disputation +as to whether he had waited ten or twenty minutes, whether he had been +officially or unofficially informed by Wilson that Sewall was on the way, +whether the statement had been made to himself or to Weber {1} in answer +to a question, and whether he had heard Wilson's answer or only Weber's +question: all otiose; if he heard the question, he was bound to have +waited for the answer; if he heard it not, he should have put it himself; +and it was the manifest truth that he rejoiced in his occasion. "Sir," +he wrote to Sewall, "I have the honour to inform you that, to my regret, +I am obliged to consider the municipal government to be provisionally in +abeyance since you have withdrawn your consent to the continuation of Mr. +Martin in his position as magistrate, and since you have refused to take +part in the meeting of the municipal board agreed to for the purpose of +electing a magistrate. The government of the town and district of the +municipality rests, as long as the municipality is in abeyance, with the +Samoan government. The Samoan government has taken over the +administration, and has applied to the commander of the imperial German +squadron for assistance in the preservation of good order." This letter +was not delivered until 4 P.M. By three, sailors had been landed. +Already German colours flew over Tamasese's headquarters at Mulinuu, and +German guards had occupied the hospital, the German consulate, and the +municipal gaol and court-house, where they stood to arms under the flag +of Tamasese. The same day Sewall wrote to protest. Receiving no reply, +he issued on the morrow a proclamation bidding all Americans look to +himself alone. On the 26th, he wrote again to Becker, and on the 27th +received this genial reply: "Sir, your high favour of the 26th of this +month, I give myself the honour of acknowledging. At the same time I +acknowledge the receipt of your high favour of the 14th October in reply +to my communication of the same date, which contained the information of +the suspension of the arrangements for the municipal government." There +the correspondence ceased. And on the 18th January came the last step of +this irritating intrigue when Tamasese appointed a judge--and the judge +proved to be Martin. + +Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir Becker the +chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, all passed into the +hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was secured upon the bench; and the +German flag might wave over her puppet unquestioned. But there is a law +of human nature which diplomatists should be taught at school, and it +seems they are not; that men can tolerate bare injustice, but not the +combination of injustice and subterfuge. Hence the chequered career of +the thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been seized by open force, +there might have been complaint, it would not have aroused the same +lasting grudge. + +This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble enough +in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported by the guns +of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien's work, highly needful +for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all Samoans. The law to be +enforced, causes of dispute between white and brown to be eliminated, +taxes to be raised, a central power created, the country opened up, the +native race taught industry: all these were detestable to the natives, +and to all of these he must set his hand. The more I learn of his brief +term of rule, the more I learn to admire him, and to wish we had his +like. + +In the face of bitter native opposition, he got some roads accomplished. +He set up beacons. The taxes he enforced with necessary vigour. By the +6th of January, Aua and Fangatonga, districts in Tutuila, having made a +difficulty, Brandeis is down at the island in a schooner, with the +_Adler_ at his heels, seizes the chief Maunga, fines the recalcitrant +districts in three hundred dollars for expenses, and orders all to be in +by April 20th, which if it is not, "not one thing will be done," he +proclaimed, "but war declared against you, and the principal chiefs taken +to a distant island." He forbade mortgages of copra, a frequent source +of trickery and quarrel; and to clear off those already contracted, +passed a severe but salutary law. Each individual or family was first to +pay off its own obligation; that settled, the free man was to pay for the +indebted village, the free village for the indebted province, and one +island for another. Samoa, he declared, should be free of debt within a +year. Had he given it three years, and gone more gently, I believe it +might have been accomplished. To make it the more possible, he sought to +interdict the natives from buying cotton stuffs and to oblige them to +dress (at least for the time) in their own tapa. He laid the beginnings +of a royal territorial army. The first draft was in his hands drilling. +But it was not so much on drill that he depended; it was his hope to +kindle in these men an _esprit de corps_, which should weaken the old +local jealousies and bonds, and found a central or national party in the +islands. Looking far before, and with a wisdom beyond that of many +merchants, he had condemned the single dependence placed on copra for the +national livelihood. His recruits, even as they drilled, were taught to +plant cacao. Each, his term of active service finished, should return to +his own land and plant and cultivate a stipulated area. Thus, as the +young men continued to pass through the army, habits of discipline and +industry, a central sentiment, the principles of the new culture, and +actual gardens of cacao, should be concurrently spread over the face of +the islands. + +Tamasese received, including his household expenses, 1960 dollars a year; +Brandeis, 2400. All such disproportions are regrettable, but this is not +extreme: we have seen horses of a different colour since then. And the +Tamaseseites, with true Samoan ostentation, offered to increase the +salary of their white premier: an offer he had the wisdom and good +feeling to refuse. A European chief of police received twelve hundred. +There were eight head judges, one to each province, and appeal lay from +the district judge to the provincial, thence to Mulinuu. From all +salaries (I gather) a small monthly guarantee was withheld. The army was +to cost from three to four thousand, Apia (many whites refusing to pay +taxes since the suppression of the municipality) might cost three +thousand more: Sir Becker's high feat of arms coming expensive (it will +be noticed) even in money. The whole outlay was estimated at +twenty-seven thousand; and the revenue forty thousand: a sum Samoa is +well able to pay. + +Such were the arrangements and some of the ideas of this strong, ardent, +and sanguine man. Of criticisms upon his conduct, beyond the general +consent that he was rather harsh and in too great a hurry, few are +articulate. The native paper of complaints was particularly childish. +Out of twenty-three counts, the first two refer to the private character +of Brandeis and Tamasese. Three complain that Samoan officials were kept +in the dark as to the finances; one, of the tapa law; one, of the direct +appointment of chiefs by Tamasese-Brandeis, the sort of mistake into +which Europeans in the South Seas fall so readily; one, of the enforced +labour of chiefs; one, of the taxes; and one, of the roads. This I may +give in full from the very lame translation in the American white book. +"The roads that were made were called the Government Roads; they were six +fathoms wide. Their making caused much damage to Samoa's lands and what +was planted on it. The Samoans cried on account of their lands, which +were taken high-handedly and abused. They again cried on account of the +loss of what they had planted, which was now thrown away in a high-handed +way, without any regard being shown or question asked of the owner of the +land, or any compensation offered for the damage done. This was +different with foreigners' land; in their case permission was first asked +to make the roads; the foreigners were paid for any destruction made." +The sting of this count was, I fancy, in the last clause. No less than +six articles complain of the administration of the law; and I believe +that was never satisfactory. Brandeis told me himself he was never yet +satisfied with any native judge. And men say (and it seems to fit in +well with his hasty and eager character) that he would legislate by word +of mouth; sometimes forget what he had said; and, on the same question +arising in another province, decide it perhaps otherwise. I gather, on +the whole, our artillery captain was not great in law. Two articles +refer to a matter I must deal with more at length, and rather from the +point of view of the white residents. + +The common charge against Brandeis was that of favouring the German firm. +Coming as he did, this was inevitable. Weber had bought Steinberger with +hard cash; that was matter of history. The present government he did not +even require to buy, having founded it by his intrigues, and introduced +the premier to Samoa through the doors of his own office. And the effect +of the initial blunder was kept alive by the chatter of the clerks in bar- +rooms, boasting themselves of the new government and prophesying +annihilation to all rivals. The time of raising a tax is the harvest of +the merchants; it is the time when copra will be made, and must be sold; +and the intention of the German firm, first in the time of Steinberger, +and again in April and May, 1888, with Brandeis, was to seize and handle +the whole operation. Their chief rivals were the Messrs. MacArthur; and +it seems beyond question that provincial governors more than once issued +orders forbidding Samoans to take money from "the New Zealand firm." +These, when they were brought to his notice, Brandeis disowned, and he is +entitled to be heard. No man can live long in Samoa and not have his +honesty impugned. But the accusations against Brandeis's veracity are +both few and obscure. I believe he was as straight as his sword. The +governors doubtless issued these orders, but there were plenty besides +Brandeis to suggest them. Every wandering clerk from the firm's office, +every plantation manager, would be dinning the same story in the native +ear. And here again the initial blunder hung about the neck of Brandeis, +a ton's weight. The natives, as well as the whites, had seen their +premier masquerading on a stool in the office; in the eyes of the +natives, as well as in those of the whites, he must always have retained +the mark of servitude from that ill-judged passage; and they would be +inclined to look behind and above him, to the great house of _Misi Ueba_. +The government was like a vista of puppets. People did not trouble with +Tamasese, if they got speech with Brandeis; in the same way, they might +not always trouble to ask Brandeis, if they had a hint direct from _Misi +Ueba_. In only one case, though it seems to have had many developments, +do I find the premier personally committed. The MacArthurs claimed the +copra of Fasitotai on a district mortgage of three hundred dollars. The +German firm accepted a mortgage of the whole province of Aana, claimed +the copra of Fasitotai as that of a part of Aana, and were supported by +the government. Here Brandeis was false to his own principle, that +personal and village debts should come before provincial. But the case +occurred before the promulgation of the law, and was, as a matter of +fact, the cause of it; so the most we can say is that he changed his +mind, and changed it for the better. If the history of his government be +considered--how it originated in an intrigue between the firm and the +consulate, and was (for the firm's sake alone) supported by the consulate +with foreign bayonets--the existence of the least doubt on the man's +action must seem marvellous. We should have looked to find him playing +openly and wholly into their hands; that he did not, implies great +independence and much secret friction; and I believe (if the truth were +known) the firm would be found to have been disgusted with the +stubbornness of its intended tool, and Brandeis often impatient of the +demands of his creators. + +But I may seem to exaggerate the degree of white opposition. And it is +true that before fate overtook the Brandeis government, it appeared to +enjoy the fruits of victory in Apia; and one dissident, the unconquerable +Moors, stood out alone to refuse his taxes. But the victory was in +appearance only; the opposition was latent; it found vent in talk, and +thus reacted on the natives; upon the least excuse, it was ready to flame +forth again. And this is the more singular because some were far from +out of sympathy with the native policy pursued. When I met Captain +Brandeis, he was amazed at my attitude. "Whom did you find in Apia to +tell you so much good of me?" he asked. I named one of my informants. +"He?" he cried. "If he thought all that, why did he not help me?" I +told him as well as I was able. The man was a merchant. He beheld in +the government of Brandeis a government created by and for the firm who +were his rivals. If Brandeis were minded to deal fairly, where was the +probability that he would be allowed? If Brandeis insisted and were +strong enough to prevail, what guarantee that, as soon as the government +were fairly accepted, Brandeis might not be removed? Here was the +attitude of the hour; and I am glad to find it clearly set forth in a +despatch of Sewall's, June 18th, 1888, when he commends the law against +mortgages, and goes on: "Whether the author of this law will carry out +the good intentions which he professes--whether he will be allowed to do +so, if he desires, against the opposition of those who placed him in +power and protect him in the possession of it--may well be doubted." +Brandeis had come to Apia in the firm's livery. Even while he promised +neutrality in commerce, the clerks were prating a different story in the +bar-rooms; and the late high feat of the knight-errant, Becker, had +killed all confidence in Germans at the root. By these three impolicies, +the German adventure in Samoa was defeated. + +I imply that the handful of whites were the true obstacle, not the +thousands of malcontent Samoans; for had the whites frankly accepted +Brandeis, the path of Germany was clear, and the end of their policy, +however troublesome might be its course, was obvious. But this is not to +say that the natives were content. In a sense, indeed, their opposition +was continuous. There will always be opposition in Samoa when taxes are +imposed; and the deportation of Malietoa stuck in men's throats. Tuiatua +Mataafa refused to act under the new government from the beginning, and +Tamasese usurped his place and title. As early as February, I find him +signing himself "Tuiaana _Tuiatua_ Tamasese," the first step on a +dangerous path. Asi, like Mataafa, disclaimed his chiefship and declared +himself a private person; but he was more rudely dealt with. German +sailors surrounded his house in the night, burst in, and dragged the +women out of the mosquito nets--an offence against Samoan manners. No +Asi was to be found; but at last they were shown his fishing-lights on +the reef, rowed out, took him as he was, and carried him on board a man- +of-war, where he was detained some while between-decks. At last, January +16th, after a farewell interview over the ship's side with his wife, he +was discharged into a ketch, and along with two other chiefs, Maunga and +Tuiletu-funga, deported to the Marshalls. The blow struck fear upon all +sides. Le Mamea (a very able chief) was secretly among the malcontents. +His family and followers murmured at his weakness; but he continued, +throughout the duration of the government, to serve Brandeis with +trembling. A circus coming to Apia, he seized at the pretext for escape, +and asked leave to accept an engagement in the company. "I will not +allow you to make a monkey of yourself," said Brandeis; and the phrase +had a success throughout the islands, pungent expressions being so much +admired by the natives that they cannot refrain from repeating them, even +when they have been levelled at themselves. The assumption of the Atua +_name_ spread discontent in that province; many chiefs from thence were +convicted of disaffection, and condemned to labour with their hands upon +the roads--a great shock to the Samoan sense of the becoming, which was +rendered the more sensible by the death of one of the number at his task. +Mataafa was involved in the same trouble. His disaffected speech at a +meeting of Atua chiefs was betrayed by the girls that made the kava, and +the man of the future was called to Apia on safe-conduct, but, after an +interview, suffered to return to his lair. The peculiarly tender +treatment of Mataafa must be explained by his relationship to Tamasese. +Laupepa was of Malietoa blood. The hereditary retainers of the Tupua +would see him exiled even with some complacency. But Mataafa was Tupua +himself; and Tupua men would probably have murmured, and would perhaps +have mutinied, had he been harshly dealt with. + +The native opposition, I say, was in a sense continuous. And it kept +continuously growing. The sphere of Brandeis was limited to Mulinuu and +the north central quarters of Upolu--practically what is shown upon the +map opposite. There the taxes were expanded; in the out-districts, men +paid their money and saw no return. Here the eye and hand of the +dictator were ready to correct the scales of justice; in the +out-districts, all things lay at the mercy of the native magistrates, and +their oppressions increased with the course of time and the experience of +impunity. In the spring of the year, a very intelligent observer had +occasion to visit many places in the island of Savaii. "Our lives are +not worth living," was the burthen of the popular complaint. "We are +groaning under the oppression of these men. We would rather die than +continue to endure it." On his return to Apia, he made haste to +communicate his impressions to Brandeis. Brandeis replied in an epigram: +"Where there has been anarchy in a country, there must be oppression for +a time." But unfortunately the terms of the epigram may be reversed; and +personal supervision would have been more in season than wit. The same +observer who conveyed to him this warning thinks that, if Brandeis had +himself visited the districts and inquired into complaints, the blow +might yet have been averted and the government saved. At last, upon a +certain unconstitutional act of Tamasese, the discontent took life and +fire. The act was of his own conception; the dull dog was ambitious. +Brandeis declares he would not be dissuaded; perhaps his adviser did not +seriously try, perhaps did not dream that in that welter of +contradictions, the Samoan constitution, any one point would be +considered sacred. I have told how Tamasese assumed the title of +Tuiatua. In August 1888 a year after his installation, he took a more +formidable step and assumed that of Malietoa. This name, as I have said, +is of peculiar honour; it had been given to, it had never been taken +from, the exiled Laupepa; those in whose grant it lay, stood punctilious +upon their rights; and Tamasese, as the representative of their natural +opponents, the Tupua line, was the last who should have had it. And +there was yet more, though I almost despair to make it thinkable by +Europeans. Certain old mats are handed down, and set huge store by; they +may be compared to coats of arms or heirlooms among ourselves; and to the +horror of more than one-half of Samoa, Tamasese, the head of the Tupua, +began collecting Malietoa mats. It was felt that the cup was full, and +men began to prepare secretly for rebellion. The history of the month of +August is unknown to whites; it passed altogether in the covert of the +woods or in the stealthy councils of Samoans. One ominous sign was to be +noted; arms and ammunition began to be purchased or inquired about; and +the more wary traders ordered fresh consignments of material of war. But +the rest was silence; the government slept in security; and Brandeis was +summoned at last from a public dinner, to find rebellion organised, the +woods behind Apia full of insurgents, and a plan prepared, and in the +very article of execution, to surprise and seize Mulinuu. The timely +discovery averted all; and the leaders hastily withdrew towards the south +side of the island, leaving in the bush a rear-guard under a young man of +the name of Saifaleupolu. According to some accounts, it scarce numbered +forty; the leader was no great chief, but a handsome, industrious lad who +seems to have been much beloved. And upon this obstacle Brandeis fell. +It is the man's fault to be too impatient of results; his public +intention to free Samoa of all debt within the year, depicts him; and +instead of continuing to temporise and let his enemies weary and +disperse, he judged it politic to strike a blow. He struck it, with what +seemed to be success, and the sound of it roused Samoa to rebellion. + +About two in the morning of August 31st, Apia was wakened by men +marching. Day came, and Brandeis and his war-party were already long +disappeared in the woods. All morning belated Tamaseseites were still to +be seen running with their guns. All morning shots were listened for in +vain; but over the top of the forest, far up the mountain, smoke was for +some time observed to hang. About ten a dead man was carried in, lashed +under a pole like a dead pig, his rosary (for he was a Catholic) hanging +nearly to the ground. Next came a young fellow wounded, sitting in a +rope swung from a pole; two fellows bearing him, two running behind for a +relief. At last about eleven, three or four heavy volleys and a great +shouting were heard from the bush town Tanungamanono; the affair was +over, the victorious force, on the march back, was there celebrating its +victory by the way. Presently after, it marched through Apia, five or +six hundred strong, in tolerable order and strutting with the ludicrous +assumption of the triumphant islander. Women who had been buying bread +ran and gave them loaves. At the tail end came Brandeis himself, smoking +a cigar, deadly pale, and with perhaps an increase of his usual nervous +manner. One spoke to him by the way. He expressed his sorrow the action +had been forced on him. "Poor people, it's all the worse for them!" he +said. "It'll have to be done another way now." And it was supposed by +his hearer that he referred to intervention from the German war-ships. He +meant, he said, to put a stop to head-hunting; his men had taken two that +day, he added, but he had not suffered them to bring them in, and they +had been left in Tanungamanono. Thither my informant rode, was attracted +by the sound of wailing, and saw in a house the two heads washed and +combed, and the sister of one of the dead lamenting in the island fashion +and kissing the cold face. Soon after, a small grave was dug, the heads +were buried in a beef box, and the pastor read the service. The body of +Saifaleupolu himself was recovered unmutilated, brought down from the +forest, and buried behind Apia. + +The same afternoon, the men of Vaimaunga were ordered to report in +Mulinuu, where Tamasese's flag was half-masted for the death of a chief +in the skirmish. Vaimaunga is that district of Taumasanga which includes +the bay and the foothills behind Apia; and both province and district are +strong Malietoa. Not one man, it is said, obeyed the summons. Night +came, and the town lay in unusual silence; no one abroad; the blinds down +around the native houses, the men within sleeping on their arms; the old +women keeping watch in pairs. And in the course of the two following +days all Vaimaunga was gone into the bush, the very gaoler setting free +his prisoners and joining them in their escape. Hear the words of the +chiefs in the 23rd article of their complaint: "Some of the chiefs fled +to the bush from fear of being reported, fear of German men-of-war, +constantly being accused, etc., and Brandeis commanded that they were to +be shot on sight. This act was carried out by Brandeis on the 31st day +of August, 1888. After this we evaded these laws; we could not stand +them; our patience was worn out with the constant wickedness of Tamasese +and Brandeis. We were tired out and could stand no longer the acts of +these two men." + +So through an ill-timed skirmish, two severed heads, and a dead body, the +rule of Brandeis came to a sudden end. We shall see him a while longer +fighting for existence in a losing battle; but his government--take it +for all in all, the most promising that has ever been in these unlucky +islands--was from that hour a piece of history. + + + + +CHAPTER V--THE BATTLE OF MATAUTU + + +_September 1888_ + +The revolution had all the character of a popular movement. Many of the +high chiefs were detained in Mulinuu; the commons trooped to the bush +under inferior leaders. A camp was chosen near Faleula, threatening +Mulinuu, well placed for the arrival of recruits and close to a German +plantation from which the force could be subsisted. Manono came, all +Tuamasanga, much of Savaii, and part of Aana, Tamasese's own government +and titular seat. Both sides were arming. It was a brave day for the +trader, though not so brave as some that followed, when a single +cartridge is said to have been sold for twelve cents currency--between +nine and ten cents gold. Yet even among the traders a strong party +feeling reigned, and it was the common practice to ask a purchaser upon +which side he meant to fight. + +On September 5th, Brandeis published a letter: "To the chiefs of +Tuamasanga, Manono, and Faasaleleanga in the Bush: Chiefs, by authority +of his majesty Tamasese, the king of Samoa, I make known to you all that +the German man-of-war is about to go together with a Samoan fleet for the +purpose of burning Manono. After this island is all burnt, 'tis good if +the people return to Manono and live quiet. To the people of +Faasaleleanga I say, return to your houses and stop there. The same to +those belonging to Tuamasanga. If you obey this instruction, then you +will all be forgiven; if you do not obey, then all your villages will be +burnt like Manono. These instructions are made in truth in the sight of +God in the Heaven." The same morning, accordingly, the _Adler_ steamed +out of the bay with a force of Tamasese warriors and some native boats in +tow, the Samoan fleet in question. Manono was shelled; the Tamasese +warriors, under the conduct of a Manono traitor, who paid before many +days the forfeit of his blood, landed and did some damage, but were +driven away by the sight of a force returning from the mainland; no one +was hurt, for the women and children, who alone remained on the island, +found a refuge in the bush; and the _Adler_ and her acolytes returned the +same evening. The letter had been energetic; the performance fell below +the programme. The demonstration annoyed and yet re-assured the +insurgents, and it fully disclosed to the Germans a new enemy. + +Captain Yon Widersheim had been relieved. His successor, Captain Fritze, +was an officer of a different stamp. I have nothing to say of him but +good; he seems to have obeyed the consul's requisitions with secret +distaste; his despatches were of admirable candour; but his habits were +retired, he spoke little English, and was far indeed from inheriting von +Widersheim's close relations with Commander Leary. It is believed by +Germans that the American officer resented what he took to be neglect. I +mention this, not because I believe it to depict Commander Leary, but +because it is typical of a prevailing infirmity among Germans in Samoa. +Touchy themselves, they read all history in the light of personal +affronts and tiffs; and I find this weakness indicated by the big thumb +of Bismarck, when he places "sensitiveness to small +disrespects--_Empfindlichkeit ueber Mangel an Respect_," among the causes +of the wild career of Knappe. Whatever the cause, at least, the natives +had no sooner taken arms than Leary appeared with violence upon that +side. As early as the 3rd, he had sent an obscure but menacing despatch +to Brandeis. On the 6th, he fell on Fritze in the matter of the Manono +bombardment. "The revolutionists," he wrote, "had an armed force in the +field within a few miles of this harbour, when the vessels under your +command transported the Tamasese troops to a neighbouring island with the +avowed intention of making war on the isolated homes of the women and +children of the enemy. Being the only other representative of a naval +power now present in this harbour, for the sake of humanity I hereby +respectfully and solemnly protest in the name of the United States of +America and of the civilised world in general against the use of a +national war-vessel for such services as were yesterday rendered by the +German corvette _Adler_." Fritze's reply, to the effect that he is under +the orders of the consul and has no right of choice, reads even humble; +perhaps he was not himself vain of the exploit, perhaps not prepared to +see it thus described in words. From that moment Leary was in the front +of the row. His name is diagnostic, but it was not required; on every +step of his subsequent action in Samoa Irishman is writ large; over all +his doings a malign spirit of humour presided. No malice was too small +for him, if it were only funny. When night signals were made from +Mulinuu, he would sit on his own poop and confound them with gratuitous +rockets. He was at the pains to write a letter and address it to "the +High Chief Tamasese"--a device as old at least as the wars of Robert +Bruce--in order to bother the officials of the German post-office, in +whose hands he persisted in leaving it, although the address was death to +them and the distribution of letters in Samoa formed no part of their +profession. His great masterwork of pleasantry, the Scanlon affair, must +be narrated in its place. And he was no less bold than comical. The +_Adams_ was not supposed to be a match for the _Adler_; there was no +glory to be gained in beating her; and yet I have heard naval officers +maintain she might have proved a dangerous antagonist in narrow waters +and at short range. Doubtless Leary thought so. He was continually +daring Fritze to come on; and already, in a despatch of the 9th, I find +Becker complaining of his language in the hearing of German officials, +and how he had declared that, on the _Adler_ again interfering, he would +interfere himself, "if he went to the bottom for it--_und wenn sein +Schiff dabei zu Grunde ginge_." Here is the style of opposition which +has the merit of being frank, not that of being agreeable. Becker was +annoying, Leary infuriating; there is no doubt that the tempers in the +German consulate were highly ulcerated; and if war between the two +countries did not follow, we must set down the praise to the forbearance +of the German navy. This is not the last time that I shall have to +salute the merits of that service. + +The defeat and death of Saifaleupolu and the burning of Manono had thus +passed off without the least advantage to Tamasese. But he still held +the significant position of Mulinuu, and Brandeis was strenuous to make +it good. The whole peninsula was surrounded with a breastwork; across +the isthmus it was six feet high and strengthened with a ditch; and the +beach was staked against landing. Weber's land claim--the same that now +broods over the village in the form of a signboard--then appeared in a +more military guise; the German flag was hoisted, and German sailors +manned the breastwork at the isthmus--"to protect German property" and +its trifling parenthesis, the king of Samoa. Much vigilance reigned and, +in the island fashion, much wild firing. And in spite of all, desertion +was for a long time daily. The detained high chiefs would go to the +beach on the pretext of a natural occasion, plunge in the sea, and +swimming across a broad, shallow bay of the lagoon, join the rebels on +the Faleula side. Whole bodies of warriors, sometimes hundreds strong, +departed with their arms and ammunition. On the 7th of September, for +instance, the day after Leary's letter, Too and Mataia left with their +contingents, and the whole Aana people returned home in a body to hold a +parliament. Ten days later, it is true, a part of them returned to their +duty; but another part branched off by the way and carried their +services, and Tamasese's dear-bought guns, to Faleula. + +On the 8th, there was a defection of a different kind, but yet sensible. +The High Chief Seumanu had been still detained in Mulinuu under anxious +observation. His people murmured at his absence, threatened to "take +away his name," and had already attempted a rescue. The adventure was +now taken in hand by his wife Faatulia, a woman of much sense and spirit +and a strong partisan; and by her contrivance, Seumanu gave his guardians +the slip and rejoined his clan at Faleula. This process of winnowing was +of course counterbalanced by another of recruitment. But the harshness +of European and military rule had made Brandeis detested and Tamasese +unpopular with many; and the force on Mulinuu is thought to have done +little more than hold its own. Mataafa sympathisers set it down at about +two or three thousand. I have no estimate from the other side; but +Becker admits they were not strong enough to keep the field in the open. + +The political significance of Mulinuu was great, but in a military sense +the position had defects. If it was difficult to carry, it was easy to +blockade: and to be hemmed in on that narrow finger of land were an +inglorious posture for the monarch of Samoa. The peninsula, besides, was +scant of food and destitute of water. Pressed by these considerations, +Brandeis extended his lines till he had occupied the whole foreshore of +Apia bay and the opposite point, Matautu. His men were thus drawn out +along some three nautical miles of irregular beach, everywhere with their +backs to the sea, and without means of communication or mutual support +except by water. The extension led to fresh sorrows. The Tamasese men +quartered themselves in the houses of the absent men of the Vaimaunga. +Disputes arose with English and Americans. Leary interposed in a loud +voice of menace. It was said the firm profited by the confusion to +buttress up imperfect land claims; I am sure the other whites would not +be far behind the firm. Properties were fenced in, fences and houses +were torn down, scuffles ensued. The German example at Mulinuu was +followed with laughable unanimity; wherever an Englishman or an American +conceived himself to have a claim, he set up the emblem of his country; +and the beach twinkled with the flags of nations. + +All this, it will be observed, was going forward in that neutral +territory, sanctified by treaty against the presence of armed Samoans. +The insurgents themselves looked on in wonder: on the 4th, trembling to +transgress against the great Powers, they had written for a delimitation +of the _Eleele Sa_; and Becker, in conversation with the British consul, +replied that he recognised none. So long as Tamasese held the ground, +this was expedient. But suppose Tamasese worsted, it might prove awkward +for the stores, mills, and offices of a great German firm, thus bared of +shelter by the act of their own consul. + +On the morning of the 9th September, just ten days after the death of +Saifaleupolu, Mataafa, under the name of Malietoa To'oa Mataafa, was +crowned king at Faleula. On the 11th he wrote to the British and +American consuls: "Gentlemen, I write this letter to you two very humbly +and entreatingly, on account of this difficulty that has come before me. +I desire to know from you two gentlemen the truth where the boundaries of +the neutral territory are. You will observe that I am now at Vaimoso [a +step nearer the enemy], and I have stopped here until I knew what you say +regarding the neutral territory. I wish to know where I can go, and +where the forbidden ground is, for I do not wish to go on any neutral +territory, or on any foreigner's property. I do not want to offend any +of the great Powers. Another thing I would like. Would it be possible +for you three consuls to make Tamasese remove from German property? for I +am in awe of going on German land." He must have received a reply +embodying Becker's renunciation of the principle, at once; for he broke +camp the same day, and marched eastward through the bush behind Apia. + +Brandeis, expecting attack, sought to improve his indefensible position. +He reformed his centre by the simple expedient of suppressing it. Apia +was evacuated. The two flanks, Mulinuu and Matautu, were still held and +fortified, Mulinuu (as I have said) to the isthmus, Matautu on a line +from the bayside to the little river Fuisa. The centre was represented +by the trajectory of a boat across the bay from one flank to another, and +was held (we may say) by the German war-ship. Mataafa decided (I am +assured) to make a feint on Matautu, induce Brandeis to deplete Mulinuu +in support, and then fall upon and carry that. And there is no doubt in +my mind that such a plan was bruited abroad, for nothing but a belief in +it could explain the behaviour of Brandeis on the 12th. That it was +seriously entertained by Mataafa I stoutly disbelieve; the German flag +and sailors forbidding the enterprise in Mulinuu. So that we may call +this false intelligence the beginning and the end of Mataafa's strategy. + +The whites who sympathised with the revolt were uneasy and impatient. +They will still tell you, though the dates are there to show them wrong, +that Mataafa, even after his coronation, delayed extremely: a proof of +how long two days may seem to last when men anticipate events. On the +evening of the 11th, while the new king was already on the march, one of +these walked into Matautu. The moon was bright. By the way he observed +the native houses dark and silent; the men had been about a fortnight in +the bush, but now the women and children were gone also; at which he +wondered. On the sea-beach, in the camp of the Tamaseses, the solitude +was near as great; he saw three or four men smoking before the British +consulate, perhaps a dozen in all; the rest were behind in the bush upon +their line of forts. About the midst he sat down, and here a woman drew +near to him. The moon shone in her face, and he knew her for a +householder near by, and a partisan of Mataafa's. She looked about her +as she came, and asked him, trembling, what he did in the camp of +Tamasese. He was there after news, he told her. She took him by the +hand. "You must not stay here, you will get killed," she said. "The +bush is full of our people, the others are watching them, fighting may +begin at any moment, and we are both here too long." So they set off +together; and she told him by the way that she had came to the hostile +camp with a present of bananas, so that the Tamasese men might spare her +house. By the Vaisingano they met an old man, a woman, and a child; and +these also she warned and turned back. Such is the strange part played +by women among the scenes of Samoan warfare, such were the liberties then +permitted to the whites, that these two could pass the lines, talk +together in Tamasese's camp on the eve of an engagement, and pass forth +again bearing intelligence, like privileged spies. And before a few +hours the white man was in direct communication with the opposing +general. The next morning he was accosted "about breakfast-time" by two +natives who stood leaning against the pickets of a public-house, where +the Siumu road strikes in at right angles to the main street of Apia. +They told him battle was imminent, and begged him to pass a little way +inland and speak with Mataafa. The road is at this point broad and +fairly good, running between thick groves of cocoa-palm and breadfruit. A +few hundred yards along this the white man passed a picket of four armed +warriors, with red handkerchiefs and their faces blackened in the form of +a full beard, the Mataafa rallying signs for the day; a little farther +on, some fifty; farther still, a hundred; and at last a quarter of a mile +of them sitting by the wayside armed and blacked. + +Near by, in the verandah of a house on a knoll, he found Mataafa seated +in white clothes, a Winchester across his knees. His men, he said, were +still arriving from behind, and there was a turning movement in operation +beyond the Fuisa, so that the Tamaseses should be assailed at the same +moment from the south and east. And this is another indication that the +attack on Matautu was the true attack; had any design on Mulinuu been in +the wind, not even a Samoan general would have detached these troops upon +the other side. While they still spoke, five Tamasese women were brought +in with their hands bound; they had been stealing "our" bananas. + +All morning the town was strangely deserted, the very children gone. A +sense of expectation reigned, and sympathy for the attack was expressed +publicly. Some men with unblacked faces came to Moors's store for +biscuit. A native woman, who was there marketing, inquired after the +news, and, hearing that the battle was now near at hand, "Give them two +more tins," said she; "and don't put them down to my husband--he would +growl; put them down to me." Between twelve and one, two white men +walked toward Matautu, finding as they went no sign of war until they had +passed the Vaisingano and come to the corner of a by-path leading to the +bush. Here were four blackened warriors on guard,--the extreme left wing +of the Mataafa force, where it touched the waters of the bay. Thence the +line (which the white men followed) stretched inland among bush and +marsh, facing the forts of the Tamaseses. The warriors lay as yet +inactive behind trees; but all the young boys and harlots of Apia toiled +in the front upon a trench, digging with knives and cocoa-shells; and a +continuous stream of children brought them water. The young sappers +worked crouching; from the outside only an occasional head, or a hand +emptying a shell of earth, was visible; and their enemies looked on inert +from the line of the opposing forts. The lists were not yet prepared, +the tournament was not yet open; and the attacking force was suffered to +throw up works under the silent guns of the defence. But there is an end +even to the delay of islanders. As the white men stood and looked, the +Tamasese line thundered into a volley; it was answered; the crowd of +silent workers broke forth in laughter and cheers; and the battle had +begun. + +Thenceforward, all day and most of the next night, volley followed +volley; and pounds of lead and pounds sterling of money continued to be +blown into the air without cessation and almost without result. Colonel +de Coetlogon, an old soldier, described the noise as deafening. The +harbour was all struck with shots; a man was knocked over on the German +war-ship; half Apia was under fire; and a house was pierced beyond the +Mulivai. All along the two lines of breastwork, the entrenched enemies +exchanged this hail of balls; and away on the east of the battle the +fusillade was maintained, with equal spirit, across the narrow barrier of +the Fuisa. The whole rear of the Tamaseses was enfiladed by this flank +fire; and I have seen a house there, by the river brink, that was riddled +with bullets like a piece of worm-eaten wreck-wood. At this point of the +field befell a trait of Samoan warfare worth recording. Taiese (brother +to Siteoni already mentioned) shot a Tamasese man. He saw him fall, and, +inflamed with the lust of glory, passed the river single-handed in that +storm of missiles to secure the head. On the farther bank, as was but +natural, he fell himself; he who had gone to take a trophy remained to +afford one; and the Mataafas, who had looked on exulting in the prospect +of a triumph, saw themselves exposed instead to a disgrace. Then rose +one Vingi, passed the deadly water, swung the body of Taiese on his back, +and returned unscathed to his own side, the head saved, the corpse filled +with useless bullets. + +At this rate of practice, the ammunition soon began to run low, and from +an early hour of the afternoon, the Malietoa stores were visited by +customers in search of more. An elderly man came leaping and cheering, +his gun in one hand, a basket of three heads in the other. A fellow came +shot through the forearm. "It doesn't hurt now," he said, as he bought +his cartridges; "but it will hurt to-morrow, and I want to fight while I +can." A third followed, a mere boy, with the end of his nose shot off: +"Have you any painkiller? give it me quick, so that I can get back to +fight." On either side, there was the same delight in sound and smoke +and schoolboy cheering, the same unsophisticated ardour of battle; and +the misdirected skirmish proceeded with a din, and was illustrated with +traits of bravery that would have fitted a Waterloo or a Sedan. + +I have said how little I regard the alleged plan of battle. At least it +was now all gone to water. The whole forces of Mataafa had leaked out, +man by man, village by village, on the so-called false attack. They were +all pounding for their lives on the front and the left flank of Matautu. +About half-past three they enveloped the right flank also. The defenders +were driven back along the beach road as far as the pilot station at the +turn of the land. From this also they were dislodged, stubbornly +fighting. One, it is told, retreated to his middle in the lagoon; stood +there, loading and firing, till he fell; and his body was found on the +morrow pierced with four mortal wounds. The Tamasese force was now +enveloped on three sides; it was besides almost cut off from the sea; and +across its whole rear and only way of retreat a fire of hostile bullets +crossed from east and west, in the midst of which men were surprised to +observe the birds continuing to sing, and a cow grazed all afternoon +unhurt. Doubtless here was the defence in a poor way; but then the +attack was in irons. For the Mataafas about the pilot house could +scarcely advance beyond without coming under the fire of their own men +from the other side of the Fuisa; and there was not enough organisation, +perhaps not enough authority, to divert or to arrest that fire. + +The progress of the fight along the beach road was visible from Mulinuu, +and Brandeis despatched ten boats of reinforcements. They crossed the +harbour, paused for a while beside the _Adler_--it is supposed for +ammunition--and drew near the Matautu shore. The Mataafa men lay close +among the shore-side bushes, expecting their arrival; when a silly lad, +in mere lightness of heart, fired a shot in the air. My native friend, +Mrs. Mary Hamilton, ran out of her house and gave the culprit a good +shaking: an episode in the midst of battle as incongruous as the grazing +cow. But his sillier comrades followed his example; a harmless volley +warned the boats what they might expect; and they drew back and passed +outside the reef for the passage of the Fuisa. Here they came under the +fire of the right wing of the Mataafas on the river-bank. The beach, +raked east and west, appeared to them no place to land on. And they hung +off in the deep water of the lagoon inside the barrier reef, feebly +fusillading the pilot house. + +Between four and five, the Fabeata regiment (or folk of that village) on +the Mataafa left, which had been under arms all day, fell to be withdrawn +for rest and food; the Siumu regiment, which should have relieved it, was +not ready or not notified in time; and the Tamaseses, gallantly profiting +by the mismanagement, recovered the most of the ground in their proper +right. It was not for long. They lost it again, yard by yard and from +house to house, till the pilot station was once more in the hands of the +Mataafas. This is the last definite incident in the battle. The +vicissitudes along the line of the entrenchments remain concealed from us +under the cover of the forest. Some part of the Tamasese position there +appears to have been carried, but what part, or at what hour, or whether +the advantage was maintained, I have never learned. Night and rain, but +not silence, closed upon the field. The trenches were deep in mud; but +the younger folk wrecked the houses in the neighbourhood, carried the +roofs to the front, and lay under them, men and women together, through a +long night of furious squalls and furious and useless volleys. Meanwhile +the older folk trailed back into Apia in the rain; they talked as they +went of who had fallen and what heads had been taken upon either +side--they seemed to know by name the losses upon both; and drenched with +wet and broken with excitement and fatigue, they crawled into the +verandahs of the town to eat and sleep. The morrow broke grey and +drizzly, but as so often happens in the islands, cleared up into a +glorious day. During the night, the majority of the defenders had taken +advantage of the rain and darkness and stolen from their forts +unobserved. The rallying sign of the Tamaseses had been a white +handkerchief. With the dawn, the de Coetlogons from the English +consulate beheld the ground strewn with these badges discarded; and close +by the house, a belated turncoat was still changing white for red. +Matautu was lost; Tamasese was confined to Mulinuu; and by nine o'clock +two Mataafa villages paraded the streets of Apia, taking possession. The +cost of this respectable success in ammunition must have been enormous; +in life it was but small. Some compute forty killed on either side, +others forty on both, three or four being women and one a white man, +master of a schooner from Fiji. Nor was the number even of the wounded +at all proportionate to the surprising din and fury of the affair while +it lasted. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--LAST EXPLOITS OF BECKER + + +_September-November_ 1888 + +Brandeis had held all day by Mulinuu, expecting the reported real attack. +He woke on the 13th to find himself cut off on that unwatered promontory, +and the Mataafa villagers parading Apia. The same day Fritze received a +letter from Mataafa summoning him to withdraw his party from the isthmus; +and Fritze, as if in answer, drew in his ship into the small harbour +close to Mulinuu, and trained his port battery to assist in the defence. +From a step so decisive, it might be thought the German plans were +unaffected by the disastrous issue of the battle. I conceive nothing +would be further from the truth. Here was Tamasese penned on Mulinuu +with his troops; Apia, from which alone these could be subsisted, in the +hands of the enemy; a battle imminent, in which the German vessel must +apparently take part with men and battery, and the buildings of the +German firm were apparently destined to be the first target of fire. +Unless Becker re-established that which he had so lately and so artfully +thrown down--the neutral territory--the firm would have to suffer. If he +re-established it, Tamasese must retire from Mulinuu. If Becker saved +his goose, he lost his cabbage. Nothing so well depicts the man's +effrontery as that he should have conceived the design of saving both,--of +re-establishing only so much of the neutral territory as should hamper +Mataafa, and leaving in abeyance all that could incommode Tamasese. By +drawing the boundary where he now proposed, across the isthmus, he +protected the firm, drove back the Mataafas out of almost all that they +had conquered, and, so far from disturbing Tamasese, actually fortified +him in his old position. + +The real story of the negotiations that followed we shall perhaps never +learn. But so much is plain: that while Becker was thus outwardly +straining decency in the interest of Tamasese, he was privately +intriguing, or pretending to intrigue, with Mataafa. In his despatch of +the 11th, he had given an extended criticism of that chieftain, whom he +depicts as very dark and artful; and while admitting that his assumption +of the name of Malietoa might raise him up followers, predicted that he +could not make an orderly government or support himself long in sole +power "without very energetic foreign help." Of what help was the consul +thinking? There was no helper in the field but Germany. On the 15th he +had an interview with the victor; told him that Tamasese's was the only +government recognised by Germany, and that he must continue to recognise +it till he received "other instructions from his government, whom he was +now advising of the late events"; refused, accordingly, to withdraw the +guard from the isthmus; and desired Mataafa, "until the arrival of these +fresh instructions," to refrain from an attack on Mulinuu. One thing of +two: either this language is extremely perfidious, or Becker was +preparing to change sides. The same detachment appears in his despatch +of October 7th. He computes the losses of the German firm with an easy +cheerfulness. If Tamasese get up again (_gelingt die Wiederherstellung +der Regierung Tamasese's_), Tamasese will have to pay. If not, then +Mataafa. This is not the language of a partisan. The tone of +indifference, the easy implication that the case of Tamasese was already +desperate, the hopes held secretly forth to Mataafa and secretly reported +to his government at home, trenchantly contrast with his external +conduct. At this very time he was feeding Tamasese; he had German +sailors mounting guard on Tamasese's battlements; the German war-ship lay +close in, whether to help or to destroy. If he meant to drop the cause +of Tamasese, he had him in a corner, helpless, and could stifle him +without a sob. If he meant to rat, it was to be with every condition of +safety and every circumstance of infamy. + +Was it conceivable, then, that he meant it? Speaking with a gentleman +who was in the confidence of Dr. Knappe: "Was it not a pity," I asked, +"that Knappe did not stick to Becker's policy of supporting Mataafa?" +"You are quite wrong there; that was not Knappe's doing," was the reply. +"Becker had changed his mind before Knappe came." Why, then, had he +changed it? This excellent, if ignominious, idea once entertained, why +was it let drop? It is to be remembered there was another German in the +field, Brandeis, who had a respect, or rather, perhaps, an affection, for +Tamasese, and who thought his own honour and that of his country engaged +in the support of that government which they had provoked and founded. +Becker described the captain to Laupepa as "a quiet, sensible gentleman." +If any word came to his ears of the intended manoeuvre, Brandeis would +certainly show himself very sensible of the affront; but Becker might +have been tempted to withdraw his former epithet of quiet. Some such +passage, some such threatened change of front at the consulate, opposed +with outcry, would explain what seems otherwise inexplicable, the bitter, +indignant, almost hostile tone of a subsequent letter from Brandeis to +Knappe--"Brandeis's inflammatory letter," Bismarck calls it--the +proximate cause of the German landing and reverse at Fangalii. + +But whether the advances of Becker were sincere or not--whether he +meditated treachery against the old king or was practising treachery upon +the new, and the choice is between one or other--no doubt but he +contrived to gain his points with Mataafa, prevailing on him to change +his camp for the better protection of the German plantations, and +persuading him (long before he could persuade his brother consuls) to +accept that miraculous new neutral territory of his, with a piece cut out +for the immediate needs of Tamasese. + +During the rest of September, Tamasese continued to decline. On the 19th +one village and half of another deserted him; on the 22nd two more. On +the 21st the Mataafas burned his town of Leulumoenga, his own splendid +house flaming with the rest; and there are few things of which a native +thinks more, or has more reason to think well, than of a fine Samoan +house. Tamasese women and children were marched up the same day from +Atua, and handed over with their sleeping-mats to Mulinuu: a most +unwelcome addition to a party already suffering from want. By the 20th, +they were being watered from the _Adler_. On the 24th the Manono fleet +of sixteen large boats, fortified and rendered unmanageable with tons of +firewood, passed to windward to intercept supplies from Atua. By the +27th the hungry garrison flocked in great numbers to draw rations at the +German firm. On the 28th the same business was repeated with a different +issue. Mataafas crowded to look on; words were exchanged, blows +followed; sticks, stones, and bottles were caught up; the detested +Brandeis, at great risk, threw himself between the lines and expostulated +with the Mataafas--his only personal appearance in the wars, if this +could be called war. The same afternoon, the Tamasese boats got in with +provisions, having passed to seaward of the lumbering Manono fleet; and +from that day on, whether from a high degree of enterprise on the one +side or a great lack of capacity on the other, supplies were maintained +from the sea with regularity. Thus the spectacle of battle, or at least +of riot, at the doors of the German firm was not repeated. But the +memory must have hung heavy on the hearts, not of the Germans only, but +of all Apia. The Samoans are a gentle race, gentler than any in Europe; +we are often enough reminded of the circumstance, not always by their +friends. But a mob is a mob, and a drunken mob is a drunken mob, and a +drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a drunken mob with weapons in +its hands, all the world over: elementary propositions, which some of us +upon these islands might do worse than get by rote, but which must have +been evident enough to Becker. And I am amazed by the man's constancy, +that, even while blows were going at the door of that German firm which +he was in Samoa to protect, he should have stuck to his demands. Ten +days before, Blacklock had offered to recognise the old territory, +including Mulinuu, and Becker had refused, and still in the midst of +these "alarums and excursions," he continued to refuse it. + +On October 2nd, anchored in Apia bay H.B.M.S. _Calliope_, Captain Kane, +carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Fairfax, and the gunboat _Lizard_, +Lieutenant-Commander Pelly. It was rumoured the admiral had come to +recognise the government of Tamasese, I believe in error. And at least +the day for that was quite gone by; and he arrived not to salute the +king's accession, but to arbitrate on his remains. A conference of the +consuls and commanders met on board the _Calliope_, October 4th, Fritze +alone being absent, although twice invited: the affair touched politics, +his consul was to be there; and even if he came to the meeting (so he +explained to Fairfax) he would have no voice in its deliberations. The +parties were plainly marked out: Blacklock and Leary maintaining their +offer of the old neutral territory, and probably willing to expand or to +contract it to any conceivable extent, so long as Mulinuu was still +included; Knappe offered (if the others liked) to include "the whole +eastern end of the island," but quite fixed upon the one point that +Mulinuu should be left out; the English willing to meet either view, and +singly desirous that Apia should be neutralised. The conclusion was +foregone. Becker held a trump card in the consent of Mataafa; Blacklock +and Leary stood alone, spoke with all ill grace, and could not long hold +out. Becker had his way; and the neutral boundary was chosen just where +he desired: across the isthmus, the firm within, Mulinuu without. He did +not long enjoy the fruits of victory. + +On the 7th, three days after the meeting, one of the Scanlons (well-known +and intelligent half-castes) came to Blacklock with a complaint. The +Scanlon house stood on the hither side of the Tamasese breastwork, just +inside the newly accepted territory, and within easy range of the firm. +Armed men, to the number of a hundred, had issued from Mulinuu, had +"taken charge" of the house, had pointed a gun at Scanlon's head, and had +twice "threatened to kill" his pigs. I hear elsewhere of some effects +(_Gegenstande_) removed. At the best a very pale atrocity, though we +shall find the word employed. Germans declare besides that Scanlon was +no American subject; they declare the point had been decided by court- +martial in 1875; that Blacklock had the decision in the consular +archives; and that this was his reason for handing the affair to Leary. +It is not necessary to suppose so. It is plain he thought little of the +business; thought indeed nothing of it; except in so far as armed men had +entered the neutral territory from Mulinuu; and it was on this ground +alone, and the implied breach of Becker's engagement at the conference, +that he invited Leary's attention to the tale. The impish ingenuity of +the commander perceived in it huge possibilities of mischief. He took up +the Scanlon outrage, the atrocity of the threatened pigs; and with that +poor instrument--I am sure, to his own wonder--drove Tamasese out of +Mulinuu. It was "an intrigue," Becker complains. To be sure it was; but +who was Becker to be complaining of intrigue? + +On the 7th Leary laid before Fritze the following conundrum: "As the +natives of Mulinuu appear to be under the protection of the Imperial +German naval guard belonging to the vessel under your command, I have the +honour to request you to inform me whether or not they are under such +protection? Amicable relations," pursued the humorist, "amicable +relations exist between the government of the United States and His +Imperial German Majesty's government, but we do not recognise Tamasese's +government, and I am desirous of locating the responsibility for +violations of American rights." Becker and Fritze lost no time in +explanation or denial, but went straight to the root of the matter and +sought to buy off Scanlon. Becker declares that every reparation was +offered. Scanlon takes a pride to recapitulate the leases and the +situations he refused, and the long interviews in which he was tempted +and plied with drink by Becker or Beckmann of the firm. No doubt, in +short, that he was offered reparation in reason and out of reason, and, +being thoroughly primed, refused it all. Meantime some answer must be +made to Leary; and Fritze repeated on the 8th his oft-repeated assurances +that he was not authorised to deal with politics. The same day Leary +retorted: "The question is not one of diplomacy nor of politics. It is +strictly one of military jurisdiction and responsibility. Under the +shadow of the German fort at Mulinuu," continued the hyperbolical +commander, "atrocities have been committed. . . . And I again have the +honour respectfully to request to be informed whether or not the armed +natives at Mulinuu are under the protection of the Imperial German naval +guard belonging to the vessel under your command." To this no answer was +vouchsafed till the 11th, and then in the old terms; and meanwhile, on +the 10th, Leary got into his gaiters--the sure sign, as was both said and +sung aboard his vessel, of some desperate or some amusing service--and +was set ashore at the Scanlons' house. Of this he took possession at the +head of an old woman and a mop, and was seen from the Tamasese breastwork +directing operations and plainly preparing to install himself there in a +military posture. So much he meant to be understood; so much he meant to +carry out, and an armed party from the _Adams_ was to have garrisoned on +the morrow the scene of the atrocity. But there is no doubt he managed +to convey more. No doubt he was a master in the art of loose speaking, +and could always manage to be overheard when he wanted; and by this, or +some other equally unofficial means, he spread the rumour that on the +morrow he was to bombard. + +The proposed post, from its position, and from Leary's well-established +character as an artist in mischief, must have been regarded by the +Germans with uneasiness. In the bombardment we can scarce suppose them +to have believed. But Tamasese must have both believed and trembled. The +prestige of the European Powers was still unbroken. No native would then +have dreamed of defying these colossal ships, worked by mysterious +powers, and laden with outlandish instruments of death. None would have +dreamed of resisting those strange but quite unrealised Great Powers, +understood (with difficulty) to be larger than Tonga and Samoa put +together, and known to be prolific of prints, knives, hard biscuit, +picture-books, and other luxuries, as well as of overbearing men and +inconsistent orders. Laupepa had fallen in ill-blood with one of them; +his only idea of defence had been to throw himself in the arms of +another; his name, his rank, and his great following had not been able to +preserve him; and he had vanished from the eyes of men--as the Samoan +thinks of it, beyond the sky. Asi, Maunga, Tuiletu-funga, had followed +him in that new path of doom. We have seen how carefully Mataafa still +walked, how he dared not set foot on the neutral territory till assured +it was no longer sacred, how he withdrew from it again as soon as its +sacredness had been restored, and at the bare word of a consul (however +gilded with ambiguous promises) paused in his course of victory and left +his rival unassailed in Mulinuu. And now it was the rival's turn. +Hitherto happy in the continued support of one of the white Powers, he +now found himself--or thought himself--threatened with war by no less +than two others. + +Tamasese boats as they passed Matautu were in the habit of firing on the +shore, as like as not without particular aim, and more in high spirits +than hostility. One of these shots pierced the house of a British +subject near the consulate; the consul reported to Admiral Fairfax; and, +on the morning of the 10th, the admiral despatched Captain Kane of the +_Calliope_ to Mulinuu. Brandeis met the messenger with voluble excuses +and engagements for the future. He was told his explanations were +satisfactory so far as they went, but that the admiral's message was to +Tamasese, the _de facto_ king. Brandeis, not very well assured of his +puppet's courage, attempted in vain to excuse him from appearing. No _de +facto_ king, no message, he was told: produce your _de facto_ king. And +Tamasese had at last to be produced. To him Kane delivered his errand: +that the _Lizard_ was to remain for the protection of British subjects; +that a signalman was to be stationed at the consulate; that, on any +further firing from boats, the signalman was to notify the _Lizard_ and +she to fire one gun, on which all boats must lower sail and come +alongside for examination and the detection of the guilty; and that, "in +the event of the boats not obeying the gun, the admiral would not be +responsible for the consequences." It was listened to by Brandeis and +Tamasese "with the greatest attention." Brandeis, when it was done, +desired his thanks to the admiral for the moderate terms of his message, +and, as Kane went to his boat, repeated the expression of his gratitude +as though he meant it, declaring his own hands would be thus strengthened +for the maintenance of discipline. But I have yet to learn of any +gratitude on the part of Tamasese. Consider the case of the poor owlish +man hearing for the first time our diplomatic commonplaces. The admiral +would not be answerable for the consequences. Think of it! A devil of a +position for a _de facto_ king. And here, the same afternoon, was Leary +in the Scanlon house, mopping it out for unknown designs by the hands of +an old woman, and proffering strange threats of bloodshed. Scanlon and +his pigs, the admiral and his gun, Leary and his bombardment,--what a +kettle of fish! + +I dwell on the effect on Tamasese. Whatever the faults of Becker, he was +not timid; he had already braved so much for Mulinuu that I cannot but +think he might have continued to hold up his head even after the outrage +of the pigs, and that the weakness now shown originated with the king. +Late in the night, Blacklock was wakened to receive a despatch addressed +to Leary. "You have asked that I and my government go away from Mulinuu, +because you pretend a man who lives near Mulinuu and who is under your +protection, has been threatened by my soldiers. As your Excellency has +forbidden the man to accept any satisfaction, and as I do not wish to +make war against the United States, I shall remove my government from +Mulinuu to another place." It was signed by Tamasese, but I think more +heads than his had wagged over the direct and able letter. On the +morning of the 11th, accordingly, Mulinuu the much defended lay desert. +Tamasese and Brandeis had slipped to sea in a schooner; their troops had +followed them in boats; the German sailors and their war-flag had +returned on board the _Adler_; and only the German merchant flag blew +there for Weber's land-claim. Mulinuu, for which Becker had intrigued so +long and so often, for which he had overthrown the municipality, for +which he had abrogated and refused and invented successive schemes of +neutral territory, was now no more to the Germans than a very +unattractive, barren peninsula and a very much disputed land-claim of Mr. +Weber's. It will scarcely be believed that the tale of the Scanlon +outrages was not yet finished. Leary had gained his point, but Scanlon +had lost his compensation. And it was months later, and this time in the +shape of a threat of bombardment in black and white, that Tamasese heard +the last of the absurd affair. Scanlon had both his fun and his money, +and Leary's practical joke was brought to an artistic end. + +Becker sought and missed an instant revenge. Mataafa, a devout Catholic, +was in the habit of walking every morning to mass from his camp at Vaiala +beyond Matautu to the mission at the Mulivai. He was sometimes escorted +by as many as six guards in uniform, who displayed their proficiency in +drill by perpetually shifting arms as they marched. Himself, meanwhile, +paced in front, bareheaded and barefoot, a staff in his hand, in the +customary chief's dress of white kilt, shirt, and jacket, and with a +conspicuous rosary about his neck. Tall but not heavy, with eager eyes +and a marked appearance of courage and capacity, Mataafa makes an +admirable figure in the eyes of Europeans; to those of his countrymen, he +may seem not always to preserve that quiescence of manner which is +thought becoming in the great. On the morning of October 16th he reached +the mission before day with two attendants, heard mass, had coffee with +the fathers, and left again in safety. The smallness of his following we +may suppose to have been reported. He was scarce gone, at least, before +Becker had armed men at the mission gate and came in person seeking him. + +The failure of this attempt doubtless still further exasperated the +consul, and he began to deal as in an enemy's country. He had marines +from the _Adler_ to stand sentry over the consulate and parade the +streets by threes and fours. The bridge of the Vaisingano, which cuts in +half the English and American quarters, he closed by proclamation and +advertised for tenders to demolish it. On the 17th Leary and Pelly +landed carpenters and repaired it in his teeth. Leary, besides, had +marines under arms, ready to land them if it should be necessary to +protect the work. But Becker looked on without interference, perhaps +glad enough to have the bridge repaired; for even Becker may not always +have offended intentionally. Such was now the distracted posture of the +little town: all government extinct, the German consul patrolling it with +armed men and issuing proclamations like a ruler, the two other Powers +defying his commands, and at least one of them prepared to use force in +the defiance. Close on its skirts sat the warriors of Mataafa, perhaps +four thousand strong, highly incensed against the Germans, having all to +gain in the seizure of the town and firm, and, like an army in a fairy +tale, restrained by the air-drawn boundary of the neutral ground. + +I have had occasion to refer to the strange appearance in these islands +of an American adventurer with a battery of cannon. The adventurer was +long since gone, but his guns remained, and one of them was now to make +fresh history. It had been cast overboard by Brandeis on the outer reef +in the course of this retreat; and word of it coming to the ears of the +Mataafas, they thought it natural that they should serve themselves the +heirs of Tamasese. On the 23rd a Manono boat of the kind called +_taumualua_ dropped down the coast from Mataafa's camp, called in broad +day at the German quarter of the town for guides, and proceeded to the +reef. Here, diving with a rope, they got the gun aboard; and the night +being then come, returned by the same route in the shallow water along +shore, singing a boat-song. It will be seen with what childlike reliance +they had accepted the neutrality of Apia bay; they came for the gun +without concealment, laboriously dived for it in broad day under the eyes +of the town and shipping, and returned with it, singing as they went. On +Grevsmuhl's wharf, a light showed them a crowd of German blue-jackets +clustered, and a hail was heard. "Stop the singing so that we may hear +what is said," said one of the chiefs in the _taumualua_. The song +ceased; the hail was heard again, "_Au mai le fana_--bring the gun"; and +the natives report themselves to have replied in the affirmative, and +declare that they had begun to back the boat. It is perhaps not needful +to believe them. A volley at least was fired from the wharf, at about +fifty yards' range and with a very ill direction, one bullet whistling +over Pelly's head on board the _Lizard_. The natives jumped overboard; +and swimming under the lee of the _taumualua_ (where they escaped a +second volley) dragged her towards the east. As soon as they were out of +range and past the Mulivai, the German border, they got on board and +(again singing--though perhaps a different song) continued their return +along the English and American shore. Off Matautu they were hailed from +the seaward by one of the _Adler's_ boats, which had been suddenly +despatched on the sound of the firing or had stood ready all evening to +secure the gun. The hail was in German; the Samoans knew not what it +meant, but took the precaution to jump overboard and swim for land. Two +volleys and some dropping shot were poured upon them in the water; but +they dived, scattered, and came to land unhurt in different quarters of +Matautu. The volleys, fired inshore, raked the highway, a British house +was again pierced by numerous bullets, and these sudden sounds of war +scattered consternation through the town. + +Two British subjects, Hetherington-Carruthers, a solicitor, and Maben, a +land-surveyor--the first being in particular a man well versed in the +native mind and language--hastened at once to their consul; assured him +the Mataafas would be roused to fury by this onslaught in the neutral +zone, that the German quarter would be certainly attacked, and the rest +of the town and white inhabitants exposed to a peril very difficult of +estimation; and prevailed upon him to intrust them with a mission to the +king. By the time they reached headquarters, the warriors were already +taking post round Matafele, and the agitation of Mataafa himself was +betrayed in the fact that he spoke with the deputation standing and gun +in hand: a breach of high-chief dignity perhaps unparalleled. The usual +result, however, followed: the whites persuaded the Samoan; and the +attack was countermanded, to the benefit of all concerned, and not least +of Mataafa. To the benefit of all, I say; for I do not think the Germans +were that evening in a posture to resist; the liquor-cellars of the firm +must have fallen into the power of the insurgents; and I will repeat my +formula that a mob is a mob, a drunken mob is a drunken mob, and a +drunken mob with weapons in its hands is a drunken mob with weapons in +its hands, all the world over. + +In the opinion of some, then, the town had narrowly escaped destruction, +or at least the miseries of a drunken sack. To the knowledge of all, the +air of the neutral territory had once more whistled with bullets. And it +was clear the incident must have diplomatic consequences. Leary and +Pelly both protested to Fritze. Leary announced he should report the +affair to his government "as a gross violation of the principles of +international law, and as a breach of the neutrality." "I positively +decline the protest," replied Fritze, "and cannot fail to express my +astonishment at the tone of your last letter." This was trenchant. It +may be said, however, that Leary was already out of court; that, after +the night signals and the Scanlon incident, and so many other acts of +practical if humorous hostility, his position as a neutral was no better +than a doubtful jest. The case with Pelly was entirely different; and +with Pelly, Fritze was less well inspired. In his first note, he was on +the old guard; announced that he had acted on the requisition of his +consul, who was alone responsible on "the legal side"; and declined +accordingly to discuss "whether the lives of British subjects were in +danger, and to what extent armed intervention was necessary." Pelly +replied judiciously that he had nothing to do with political matters, +being only responsible for the safety of Her Majesty's ships under his +command and for the lives and property of British subjects; that he had +considered his protest a purely naval one; and as the matter stood could +only report the case to the admiral on the station. "I have the honour," +replied Fritze, "to refuse to entertain the protest concerning the safety +of Her Britannic Majesty's ship _Lizard_ as being a naval matter. The +safety of Her Majesty's ship _Lizard_ was never in the least endangered. +This was guaranteed by the disciplined fire of a few shots under the +direction of two officers." This offensive note, in view of Fritze's +careful and honest bearing among so many other complications, may be +attributed to some misunderstanding. His small knowledge of English +perhaps failed him. But I cannot pass it by without remarking how far +too much it is the custom of German officials to fall into this style. It +may be witty, I am sure it is not wise. It may be sometimes necessary to +offend for a definite object, it can never be diplomatic to offend +gratuitously. + +Becker was more explicit, although scarce less curt. And his defence may +be divided into two statements: first, that the _taumualua_ was +proceeding to land with a hostile purpose on Mulinuu; second, that the +shots complained of were fired by the Samoans. The second may be +dismissed with a laugh. Human nature has laws. And no men hitherto +discovered, on being suddenly challenged from the sea, would have turned +their backs upon the challenger and poured volleys on the friendly shore. +The first is not extremely credible, but merits examination. The story +of the recovered gun seems straightforward; it is supported by much +testimony, the diving operations on the reef seem to have been watched +from shore with curiosity; it is hard to suppose that it does not roughly +represent the fact. And yet if any part of it be true, the whole of +Becker's explanation falls to the ground. A boat which had skirted the +whole eastern coast of Mulinuu, and was already opposite a wharf in +Matafele, and still going west, might have been guilty on a thousand +points--there was one on which she was necessarily innocent; she was +necessarily innocent of proceeding on Mulinuu. Or suppose the diving +operations, and the native testimony, and Pelly's chart of the boat's +course, and the boat itself, to be all stages of some epidemic +hallucination or steps in a conspiracy--suppose even a second _taumualua_ +to have entered Apia bay after nightfall, and to have been fired upon +from Grevsmuhl's wharf in the full career of hostilities against +Mulinuu--suppose all this, and Becker is not helped. At the time of the +first fire, the boat was off Grevsmuhl's wharf. At the time of the +second (and that is the one complained of) she was off Carruthers's wharf +in Matautu. Was she still proceeding on Mulinuu? I trow not. The +danger to German property was no longer imminent, the shots had been +fired upon a very trifling provocation, the spirit implied was that of +designed disregard to the neutrality. Such was the impression here on +the spot; such in plain terms the statement of Count Hatzfeldt to Lord +Salisbury at home: that the neutrality of Apia was only "to prevent the +natives from fighting," not the Germans; and that whatever Becker might +have promised at the conference, he could not "restrict German +war-vessels in their freedom of action." + +There was nothing to surprise in this discovery; and had events been +guided at the same time with a steady and discreet hand, it might have +passed with less observation. But the policy of Becker was felt to be +not only reckless, it was felt to be absurd also. Sudden nocturnal +onfalls upon native boats could lead, it was felt, to no good end whether +of peace or war; they could but exasperate; they might prove, in a +moment, and when least expected, ruinous. To those who knew how nearly +it had come to fighting, and who considered the probable result, the +future looked ominous. And fear was mingled with annoyance in the minds +of the Anglo-Saxon colony. On the 24th, a public meeting appealed to the +British and American consuls. At half-past seven in the evening guards +were landed at the consulates. On the morrow they were each fortified +with sand-bags; and the subjects informed by proclamation that these +asylums stood open to them on any alarm, and at any hour of the day or +night. The social bond in Apia was dissolved. The consuls, like barons +of old, dwelt each in his armed citadel. The rank and file of the white +nationalities dared each other, and sometimes fell to on the street like +rival clansmen. And the little town, not by any fault of the +inhabitants, rather by the act of Becker, had fallen back in civilisation +about a thousand years. + +There falls one more incident to be narrated, and then I can close with +this ungracious chapter. I have mentioned the name of the new English +consul. It is already familiar to English readers; for the gentleman who +was fated to undergo some strange experiences in Apia was the same de +Coetlogon who covered Hicks's flank at the time of the disaster in the +desert, and bade farewell to Gordon in Khartoum before the investment. +The colonel was abrupt and testy; Mrs. de Coetlogon was too exclusive for +society like that of Apia; but whatever their superficial disabilities, +it is strange they should have left, in such an odour of unpopularity, a +place where they set so shining an example of the sterling virtues. The +colonel was perhaps no diplomatist; he was certainly no lawyer; but he +discharged the duties of his office with the constancy and courage of an +old soldier, and these were found sufficient. He and his wife had no +ambition to be the leaders of society; the consulate was in their time no +house of feasting; but they made of it that house of mourning to which +the preacher tells us it is better we should go. At an early date after +the battle of Matautu, it was opened as a hospital for the wounded. The +English and Americans subscribed what was required for its support. Pelly +of the _Lizard_ strained every nerve to help, and set up tents on the +lawn to be a shelter for the patients. The doctors of the English and +American ships, and in particular Dr. Oakley of the _Lizard_, showed +themselves indefatigable. But it was on the de Coetlogons that the +distress fell. For nearly half a year, their lawn, their verandah, +sometimes their rooms, were cumbered with the sick and dying, their ears +were filled with the complaints of suffering humanity, their time was too +short for the multiplicity of pitiful duties. In Mrs. de Coetlogon, and +her helper, Miss Taylor, the merit of this endurance was perhaps to be +looked for; in a man of the colonel's temper, himself painfully +suffering, it was viewed with more surprise, if with no more admiration. +Doubtless all had their reward in a sense of duty done; doubtless, also, +as the days passed, in the spectacle of many traits of gratitude and +patience, and in the success that waited on their efforts. Out of a +hundred cases treated, only five died. They were all well-behaved, +though full of childish wiles. One old gentleman, a high chief, was +seized with alarming symptoms of belly-ache whenever Mrs. de Coetlogon +went her rounds at night: he was after brandy. Others were insatiable +for morphine or opium. A chief woman had her foot amputated under +chloroform. "Let me see my foot! Why does it not hurt?" she cried. "It +hurt so badly before I went to sleep." Siteoni, whose name has been +already mentioned, had his shoulder-blade excised, lay the longest of +any, perhaps behaved the worst, and was on all these grounds the +favourite. At times he was furiously irritable, and would rail upon his +family and rise in bed until he swooned with pain. Once on the balcony +he was thought to be dying, his family keeping round his mat, his father +exhorting him to be prepared, when Mrs. de Coetlogon brought him round +again with brandy and smelling-salts. After discharge, he returned upon +a visit of gratitude; and it was observed, that instead of coming +straight to the door, he went and stood long under his umbrella on that +spot of ground where his mat had been stretched and he had endured pain +so many months. Similar visits were the rule, I believe without +exception; and the grateful patients loaded Mrs. de Coetlogon with gifts +which (had that been possible in Polynesia) she would willingly have +declined, for they were often of value to the givers. + +The tissue of my story is one of rapacity, intrigue, and the triumphs of +temper; the hospital at the consulate stands out almost alone as an +episode of human beauty, and I dwell on it with satisfaction. But it was +not regarded at the time with universal favour; and even to-day its +institution is thought by many to have been impolitic. It was opened, it +stood open, for the wounded of either party. As a matter of fact it was +never used but by the Mataafas, and the Tamaseses were cared for +exclusively by German doctors. In the progressive decivilisation of the +town, these duties of humanity became thus a ground of quarrel. When the +Mataafa hurt were first brought together after the battle of Matautu, and +some more or less amateur surgeons were dressing wounds on a green by the +wayside, one from the German consulate went by in the road. "Why don't +you let the dogs die?" he asked. "Go to hell," was the rejoinder. Such +were the amenities of Apia. But Becker reserved for himself the extreme +expression of this spirit. On November 7th hostilities began again +between the Samoan armies, and an inconclusive skirmish sent a fresh crop +of wounded to the de Coetlogons. Next door to the consulate, some native +houses and a chapel (now ruinous) stood on a green. Chapel and houses +were certainly Samoan, but the ground was under a land-claim of the +German firm; and de Coetlogon wrote to Becker requesting permission (in +case it should prove necessary) to use these structures for his wounded. +Before an answer came, the hospital was startled by the appearance of a +case of gangrene, and the patient was hastily removed into the chapel. A +rebel laid on German ground--here was an atrocity! The day before his +own relief, November 11th, Becker ordered the man's instant removal. By +his aggressive carriage and singular mixture of violence and cunning, he +had already largely brought about the fall of Brandeis, and forced into +an attitude of hostility the whole non-German population of the islands. +Now, in his last hour of office, by this wanton buffet to his English +colleague, he prepared a continuance of evil days for his successor. If +the object of diplomacy be the organisation of failure in the midst of +hate, he was a great diplomatist. And amongst a certain party on the +beach he is still named as the ideal consul. + + + + +CHAPTER VII--THE SAMOAN CAMPS + + +_November_ 1888 + +When Brandeis and Tamasese fled by night from Mulinuu, they carried their +wandering government some six miles to windward, to a position above +Lotoanuu. For some three miles to the eastward of Apia, the shores of +Upolu are low and the ground rises with a gentle acclivity, much of which +waves with German plantations. A barrier reef encloses a lagoon passable +for boats: and the traveller skims there, on smooth, many-tinted +shallows, between the wall of the breakers on the one hand, and on the +other a succession of palm-tree capes and cheerful beach-side villages. +Beyond the great plantation of Vailele, the character of the coast is +changed. The barrier reef abruptly ceases, the surf beats direct upon +the shore; and the mountains and untenanted forest of the interior +descend sheer into the sea. The first mountain promontory is Letongo. +The bay beyond is called Laulii, and became the headquarters of Mataafa. +And on the next projection, on steep, intricate ground, veiled in forest +and cut up by gorges and defiles, Tamasese fortified his lines. This +greenwood citadel, which proved impregnable by Samoan arms, may be +regarded as his front; the sea covered his right; and his rear extended +along the coast as far as Saluafata, and thus commanded and drew upon a +rich country, including the plain of Falefa. + +He was left in peace from 11th October till November 6th. But his +adversary is not wholly to be blamed for this delay, which depended upon +island etiquette. His Savaii contingent had not yet come in, and to have +moved again without waiting for them would have been surely to offend, +perhaps to lose them. With the month of November they began to arrive: +on the 2nd twenty boats, on the 3rd twenty-nine, on the 5th seventeen. On +the 6th the position Mataafa had so long occupied on the skirts of Apia +was deserted; all that day and night his force kept streaming eastward to +Laulii; and on the 7th the siege of Lotoanuu was opened with a brisk +skirmish. + +Each side built forts, facing across the gorge of a brook. An endless +fusillade and shouting maintained the spirit of the warriors; and at +night, even if the firing slackened, the pickets continued to exchange +from either side volleys of songs and pungent pleasantries. Nearer +hostilities were rendered difficult by the nature of the ground, where +men must thread dense bush and clamber on the face of precipices. Apia +was near enough; a man, if he had a dollar or two, could walk in before a +battle and array himself in silk or velvet. Casualties were not common; +there was nothing to cast gloom upon the camps, and no more danger than +was required to give a spice to the perpetual firing. For the young +warriors it was a period of admirable enjoyment. But the anxiety of +Mataafa must have been great and growing. His force was now +considerable. It was scarce likely he should ever have more. That he +should be long able to supply them with ammunition seemed incredible; at +the rates then or soon after current, hundreds of pounds sterling might +be easily blown into the air by the skirmishers in the course of a few +days. And in the meanwhile, on the mountain opposite, his outnumbered +adversary held his ground unshaken. + +By this time the partisanship of the whites was unconcealed. Americans +supplied Mataafa with ammunition; English and Americans openly subscribed +together and sent boat-loads of provisions to his camp. One such boat +started from Apia on a day of rain; it was pulled by six oars, three +being paid by Moors, three by the MacArthurs; Moors himself and a clerk +of the MacArthurs' were in charge; and the load included not only beef +and biscuit, but three or four thousand rounds of ammunition. They came +ashore in Laulii, and carried the gift to Mataafa. While they were yet +in his house a bullet passed overhead; and out of his door they could see +the Tamasese pickets on the opposite hill. Thence they made their way to +the left flank of the Mataafa position next the sea. A Tamasese +barricade was visible across the stream. It rained, but the warriors +crowded in their shanties, squatted in the mud, and maintained an excited +conversation. Balls flew; either faction, both happy as lords, spotting +for the other in chance shots, and missing. One point is characteristic +of that war; experts in native feeling doubt if it will characterise the +next. The two white visitors passed without and between the lines to a +rocky point upon the beach. The person of Moors was well known; the +purpose of their coming to Laulii must have been already bruited abroad; +yet they were not fired upon. From the point they spied a crow's nest, +or hanging fortification, higher up; and, judging it was a good position +for a general view, obtained a guide. He led them up a steep side of the +mountain, where they must climb by roots and tufts of grass; and coming +to an open hill-top with some scattered trees, bade them wait, let him +draw the fire, and then be swift to follow. Perhaps a dozen balls +whistled about him ere he had crossed the dangerous passage and dropped +on the farther side into the crow's-nest; the white men, briskly +following, escaped unhurt. The crow's-nest was built like a bartizan on +the precipitous front of the position. Across the ravine, perhaps at +five hundred yards, heads were to be seen popping up and down in a fort +of Tamesese's. On both sides the same enthusiasm without council, the +same senseless vigilance, reigned. Some took aim; some blazed before +them at a venture. Now--when a head showed on the other side--one would +take a crack at it, remarking that it would never do to "miss a chance." +Now they would all fire a volley and bob down; a return volley rang +across the ravine, and was punctually answered: harmless as lawn-tennis. +The whites expostulated in vain. The warriors, drunken with noise, made +answer by a fresh general discharge and bade their visitors run while it +was time. Upon their return to headquarters, men were covering the front +with sheets of coral limestone, two balls having passed through the house +in the interval. Mataafa sat within, over his kava bowl, unmoved. The +picture is of a piece throughout: excellent courage, super-excellent +folly, a war of school-children; expensive guns and cartridges used like +squibs or catherine-wheels on Guy Fawkes's Day. + +On the 20th Mataafa changed his attack. Tamasese's front was seemingly +impregnable. Something must be tried upon his rear. There was his bread- +basket; a small success in that direction would immediately curtail his +resources; and it might be possible with energy to roll up his line along +the beach and take the citadel in reverse. The scheme was carried out as +might be expected from these childish soldiers. Mataafa, always uneasy +about Apia, clung with a portion of his force to Laulii; and thus, had +the foe been enterprising, exposed himself to disaster. The expedition +fell successfully enough on Saluafata and drove out the Tamaseses with a +loss of four heads; but so far from improving the advantage, yielded +immediately to the weakness of the Samoan warrior, and ranged farther +east through unarmed populations, bursting with shouts and blackened +faces into villages terrified or admiring, making spoil of pigs, burning +houses, and destroying gardens. The Tamasese had at first evacuated +several beach towns in succession, and were still in retreat on Lotoanuu; +finding themselves unpursued, they reoccupied them one after another, and +re-established their lines to the very borders of Saluafata. Night fell; +Mataafa had taken Saluafata, Tamasese had lost it; and that was all. But +the day came near to have a different and very singular issue. The +village was not long in the hands of the Mataafas, when a schooner, +flying German colours, put into the bay and was immediately surrounded by +their boats. It chanced that Brandeis was on board. Word of it had gone +abroad, and the boats as they approached demanded him with threats. The +late premier, alone, entirely unarmed, and a prey to natural and painful +feelings, concealed himself below. The captain of the schooner remained +on deck, pointed to the German colours, and defied approaching boats. +Again the prestige of a great Power triumphed; the Samoans fell back +before the bunting; the schooner worked out of the bay; Brandeis escaped. +He himself apprehended the worst if he fell into Samoan hands; it is my +diffident impression that his life would have been safe. + +On the 22nd, a new German war-ship, the _Eber_, of tragic memory, came to +Apia from the Gilberts, where she had been disarming turbulent islands. +The rest of that day and all night she loaded stores from the firm, and +on the morrow reached Saluafata bay. Thanks to the misconduct of the +Mataafas, the most of the foreshore was still in the hands of the +Tamaseses; and they were thus able to receive from the _Eber_ both the +stores and weapons. The weapons had been sold long since to Tarawa, +Apaiang, and Pleasant Island; places unheard of by the general reader, +where obscure inhabitants paid for these instruments of death in money or +in labour, misused them as it was known they would be misused, and had +been disarmed by force. The _Eber_ had brought back the guns to a German +counter, whence many must have been originally sold; and was here +engaged, like a shopboy, in their distribution to fresh purchasers. Such +is the vicious circle of the traffic in weapons of war. Another aid of a +more metaphysical nature was ministered by the _Eber_ to Tamasese, in the +shape of uncountable German flags. The full history of this epidemic of +bunting falls to be told in the next chapter. But the fact has to be +chronicled here, for I believe it was to these flags that we owe the +visit of the _Adams_, and my next and best authentic glance into a native +camp. The _Adams_ arrived in Saluafata on the 26th. On the morrow Leary +and Moors landed at the village. It was still occupied by Mataafas, +mostly from Manono and Savaii, few in number, high in spirit. The +Tamasese pickets were meanwhile within musket range; there was maintained +a steady sputtering of shots; and yet a party of Tamasese women were here +on a visit to the women of Manono, with whom they sat talking and +smoking, under the fire of their own relatives. It was reported that +Leary took part in a council of war, and promised to join with his +broadside in the next attack. It is certain he did nothing of the sort: +equally certain that, in Tamasese circles, he was firmly credited with +having done so. And this heightens the extraordinary character of what I +have now to tell. Prudence and delicacy alike ought to have forbid the +camp of Tamasese to the feet of either Leary or Moors. Moors was the +original--there was a time when he had been the only--opponent of the +puppet king. Leary had driven him from the seat of government; it was +but a week or two since he had threatened to bombard him in his present +refuge. Both were in close and daily council with his adversary, and it +was no secret that Moors was supplying the latter with food. They were +partisans; it lacked but a hair that they should be called belligerents; +it were idle to try to deny they were the most dangerous of spies. And +yet these two now sailed across the bay and landed inside the Tamasese +lines at Salelesi. On the very beach they had another glimpse of the +artlessness of Samoan war. Hitherto the Tamasese fleet, being hardy and +unencumbered, had made a fool of the huge floating forts upon the other +side; and here they were toiling, not to produce another boat on their +own pattern in which they had always enjoyed the advantage, but to make a +new one the type of their enemies', of which they had now proved the +uselessness for months. It came on to rain as the Americans landed; and +though none offered to oppose their coming ashore, none invited them to +take shelter. They were nowise abashed, entered a house unbidden, and +were made welcome with obvious reserve. The rain clearing off, they set +forth westward, deeper into the heart of the enemies' position. Three or +four young men ran some way before them, doubtless to give warning; and +Leary, with his indomitable taste for mischief, kept inquiring as he went +after "the high chief" Tamasese. The line of the beach was one +continuous breastwork; some thirty odd iron cannon of all sizes and +patterns stood mounted in embrasures; plenty grape and canister lay +ready; and at every hundred yards or so the German flag was flying. The +numbers of the guns and flags I give as I received them, though they test +my faith. At the house of Brandeis--a little, weatherboard house, +crammed at the time with natives, men, women, and squalling +children--Leary and Moors again asked for "the high chief," and, were +again assured that he was farther on. A little beyond, the road ran in +one place somewhat inland, the two Americans had gone down to the line of +the beach to continue their inspection of the breastwork, when Brandeis +himself, in his shirt-sleeves and accompanied by several German officers, +passed them by the line of the road. The two parties saluted in silence. +Beyond Eva Point there was an observable change for the worse in the +reception of the Americans; some whom they met began to mutter at Moors; +and the adventurers, with tardy but commendable prudence, desisted from +their search after the high chief, and began to retrace their steps. On +the return, Suatele and some chiefs were drinking kava in a "big house," +and called them in to join--their only invitation. But the night was +closing, the rain had begun again: they stayed but for civility, and +returned on board the _Adams_, wet and hungry, and I believe delighted +with their expedition. It was perhaps the last as it was certainly one +of the most extreme examples of that divinity which once hedged the white +in Samoa. The feeling was already different in the camp of Mataafa, +where the safety of a German loiterer had been a matter of extreme +concern. Ten days later, three commissioners, an Englishman, an +American, and a German, approached a post of Mataafas, were challenged by +an old man with a gun, and mentioned in answer what they were. "_Ifea +Siamani_? Which is the German?" cried the old gentleman, dancing, and +with his finger on the trigger; and the commissioners stood somewhile in +a very anxious posture, till they were released by the opportune arrival +of a chief. It was November the 27th when Leary and Moors completed +their absurd excursion; in about three weeks an event was to befall which +changed at once, and probably for ever, the relations of the natives and +the whites. + +By the 28th Tamasese had collected seventeen hundred men in the trenches +before Saluafata, thinking to attack next day. But the Mataafas +evacuated the place in the night. At half-past five on the morning of +the 29th a signal-gun was fired in the trenches at Laulii, and the +Tamasese citadel was assaulted and defended with a fury new among +Samoans. When the battle ended on the following day, one or more +outworks remained in the possession of Mataafa. Another had been taken +and lost as many as four times. Carried originally by a mixed force from +Savaii and Tuamasanga, the victors, instead of completing fresh defences +or pursuing their advantage, fell to eat and smoke and celebrate their +victory with impromptu songs. In this humour a rally of the Tamaseses +smote them, drove them out pell-mell, and tumbled them into the ravine, +where many broke their heads and legs. Again the work was taken, again +lost. Ammunition failed the belligerents; and they fought hand to hand +in the contested fort with axes, clubs, and clubbed rifles. The +sustained ardour of the engagement surprised even those who were engaged; +and the butcher's bill was counted extraordinary by Samoans. On December +1st the women of either side collected the headless bodies of the dead, +each easily identified by the name tattooed on his forearm. Mataafa is +thought to have lost sixty killed; and the de Coetlogons' hospital +received three women and forty men. The casualties on the Tamasese side +cannot be accepted, but they were presumably much less. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--AFFAIRS OF LAULII AND FANGALII + + +_November-December_ 1888 + +For Becker I have not been able to conceal my distaste, for he seems to +me both false and foolish. But of his successor, the unfortunately +famous Dr. Knappe, we may think as of a good enough fellow driven +distraught. Fond of Samoa and the Samoans, he thought to bring peace and +enjoy popularity among the islanders; of a genial, amiable, and sanguine +temper, he made no doubt but he could repair the breach with the English +consul. Hope told a flattering tale. He awoke to find himself +exchanging defiances with de Coetlogon, beaten in the field by Mataafa, +surrounded on the spot by general exasperation, and disowned from home by +his own government. The history of his administration leaves on the mind +of the student a sentiment of pity scarcely mingled. + +On Blacklock he did not call, and, in view of Leary's attitude, may be +excused. But the English consul was in a different category. England, +weary of the name of Samoa, and desirous only to see peace established, +was prepared to wink hard during the process and to welcome the result of +any German settlement. It was an unpardonable fault in Becker to have +kicked and buffeted his ready-made allies into a state of jealousy, +anger, and suspicion. Knappe set himself at once to efface these +impressions, and the English officials rejoiced for the moment in the +change. Between Knappe and de Coetlogon there seems to have been mutual +sympathy; and, in considering the steps by which they were led at last +into an attitude of mutual defiance, it must be remembered that both the +men were sick,--Knappe from time to time prostrated with that formidable +complaint, New Guinea fever, and de Coetlogon throughout his whole stay +in the islands continually ailing. + +Tamasese was still to be recognised, and, if possible, supported: such +was the German policy. Two days after his arrival, accordingly, Knappe +addressed to Mataafa a threatening despatch. The German plantation was +suffering from the proximity of his "war-party." He must withdraw from +Laulii at once, and, whithersoever he went, he must approach no German +property nor so much as any village where there was a German trader. By +five o'clock on the morrow, if he were not gone, Knappe would turn upon +him "the attention of the man-of-war" and inflict a fine. The same +evening, November 14th, Knappe went on board the _Adler_, which began to +get up steam. + +Three months before, such direct intervention on the part of Germany +would have passed almost without protest; but the hour was now gone by. +Becker's conduct, equally timid and rash, equally inconclusive and +offensive, had forced the other nations into a strong feeling of common +interest with Mataafa. Even had the German demands been moderate, de +Coetlogon could not have forgotten the night of the _taumualua_, nor how +Mataafa had relinquished, at his request, the attack upon the German +quarter. Blacklock, with his driver of a captain at his elbow, was not +likely to lag behind. And Mataafa having communicated Knappe's letter, +the example of the Germans was on all hands exactly followed; the consuls +hastened on board their respective war-ships, and these began to get up +steam. About midnight, in a pouring rain, Pelly communicated to Fritze +his intention to follow him and protect British interests; and Knappe +replied that he would come on board the _Lizard_ and see de Coetlogon +personally. It was deep in the small hours, and de Coetlogon had been +long asleep, when he was wakened to receive his colleague; but he started +up with an old soldier's readiness. The conference was long. De +Coetlogon protested, as he did afterwards in writing, against Knappe's +claim: the Samoans were in a state of war; they had territorial rights; +it was monstrous to prevent them from entering one of their own villages +because a German trader kept the store; and in case property suffered, a +claim for compensation was the proper remedy. Knappe argued that this +was a question between Germans and Samoans, in which de Coetlogon had +nothing to see; and that he must protect German property according to his +instructions. To which de Coetlogon replied that he was himself in the +same attitude to the property of the British; that he understood Knappe +to be intending hostilities against Laulii; that Laulii was mortgaged to +the MacArthurs; that its crops were accordingly British property; and +that, while he was ever willing to recognise the territorial rights of +the Samoans, he must prevent that property from being molested "by any +other nation." "But if a German man-of-war does it?" asked Knappe.--"We +shall prevent it to the best of our ability," replied the colonel. It is +to the credit of both men that this trying interview should have been +conducted and concluded without heat; but Knappe must have returned to +the _Adler_ with darker anticipations. + +At sunrise on the morning of the 15th, the three ships, each loaded with +its consul, put to sea. It is hard to exaggerate the peril of the +forenoon that followed, as they lay off Laulii. Nobody desired a +collision, save perhaps the reckless Leary; but peace and war trembled in +the balance; and when the _Adler_, at one period, lowered her gun ports, +war appeared to preponderate. It proved, however, to be a last--and +therefore surely an unwise--extremity. Knappe contented himself with +visiting the rival kings, and the three ships returned to Apia before +noon. Beyond a doubt, coming after Knappe's decisive letter of the day +before, this impotent conclusion shook the credit of Germany among the +natives of both sides; the Tamaseses fearing they were deserted, the +Mataafas (with secret delight) hoping they were feared. And it gave an +impetus to that ridiculous business which might have earned for the whole +episode the name of the war of flags. British and American flags had +been planted the night before, and were seen that morning flying over +what they claimed about Laulii. British and American passengers, on the +way up and down, pointed out from the decks of the war-ships, with +generous vagueness, the boundaries of problematical estates. Ten days +later, the beach of Saluafata bay fluttered (as I have told in the last +chapter) with the flag of Germany. The Americans riposted with a claim +to Tamasese's camp, some small part of which (says Knappe) did really +belong to "an American nigger." The disease spread, the flags were +multiplied, the operations of war became an egg-dance among miniature +neutral territories; and though all men took a hand in these proceedings, +all men in turn were struck with their absurdity. Mullan, Leary's +successor, warned Knappe, in an emphatic despatch, not to squander and +discredit the solemnity of that emblem which was all he had to be a +defence to his own consulate. And Knappe himself, in his despatch of +March 21st, 1889, castigates the practice with much sense. But this was +after the tragicomic culmination had been reached, and the burnt rags of +one of these too-frequently mendacious signals gone on a progress to +Washington, like Caesar's body, arousing indignation where it came. To +such results are nations conducted by the patent artifices of a Becker. + +The discussion of the morning, the silent menace and defiance of the +voyage to Laulii, might have set the best-natured by the ears. But +Knappe and de Coetlogon took their difference in excellent part. On the +morrow, November 16th, they sat down together with Blacklock in +conference. The English consul introduced his colleagues, who shook +hands. If Knappe were dead-weighted with the inheritance of Becker, +Blacklock was handicapped by reminiscences of Leary; it is the more to +the credit of this inexperienced man that he should have maintained in +the future so excellent an attitude of firmness and moderation, and that +when the crash came, Knappe and de Coetlogon, not Knappe and Blacklock, +were found to be the protagonists of the drama. The conference was +futile. The English and American consuls admitted but one cure of the +evils of the time: that the farce of the Tamasese monarchy should cease. +It was one which the German refused to consider. And the agents +separated without reaching any result, save that diplomatic relations had +been restored between the States and Germany, and that all three were +convinced of their fundamental differences. + +Knappe and de Coetlogon were still friends; they had disputed and +differed and come within a finger's breadth of war, and they were still +friends. But an event was at hand which was to separate them for ever. +On December 4th came the _Royalist_, Captain Hand, to relieve the +_Lizard_. Pelly of course had to take his canvas from the consulate +hospital; but he had in charge certain awnings belonging to the +_Royalist_, and with these they made shift to cover the wounded, at that +time (after the fight at Laulii) more than usually numerous. A +lieutenant came to the consulate, and delivered (as I have received it) +the following message: "Captain Hand's compliments, and he says you must +get rid of these niggers at once, and he will help you to do it." +Doubtless the reply was no more civil than the message. The promised +"help," at least, followed promptly. A boat's crew landed and the +awnings were stripped from the wounded, Hand himself standing on the +colonel's verandah to direct operations. It were fruitless to discuss +this passage from the humanitarian point of view, or from that of formal +courtesy. The mind of the new captain was plainly not directed to these +objects. But it is understood that he considered the existence of a +hospital a source of irritation to Germans and a fault in policy. His +own rude act proved in the result far more impolitic. The hospital had +now been open some two months, and de Coetlogon was still on friendly +terms with Knappe, and he and his wife were engaged to dine with him that +day. By the morrow that was practically ended. For the rape of the +awnings had two results: one, which was the fault of de Coetlogon, not at +all of Hand, who could not have foreseen it; the other which it was his +duty to have seen and prevented. The first was this: the de Coetlogons +found themselves left with their wounded exposed to the inclemencies of +the season; they must all be transported into the house and verandah; in +the distress and pressure of this task, the dinner engagement was too +long forgotten; and a note of excuse did not reach the German consulate +before the table was set, and Knappe dressed to receive his visitors. The +second consequence was inevitable. Captain Hand was scarce landed ere it +became public (was "_sofort bekannt_," writes Knappe) that he and the +consul were in opposition. All that had been gained by the demonstration +at Laulii was thus immediately cast away; de Coetlogon's prestige was +lessened; and it must be said plainly that Hand did less than nothing to +restore it. Twice indeed he interfered, both times with success; and +once, when his own person had been endangered, with vehemence; but during +all the strange doings I have to narrate, he remained in close intimacy +with the German consulate, and on one occasion may be said to have acted +as its marshal. After the worst is over, after Bismarck has told Knappe +that "the protests of his English colleague were grounded," that his own +conduct "has not been good," and that in any dispute which may arise he +"will find himself in the wrong," Knappe can still plead in his defence +that Captain Hand "has always maintained friendly intercourse with the +German authorities." Singular epitaph for an English sailor. In this +complicity on the part of Hand we may find the reason--and I had almost +said, the excuse--of much that was excessive in the bearing of the +unfortunate Knappe. + +On the 11th December, Mataafa received twenty-eight thousand cartridges, +brought into the country in salt-beef kegs by the British ship +_Richmond_. This not only sharpened the animosity between whites; +following so closely on the German fizzle at Laulii, it raised a +convulsion in the camp of Tamasese. On the 13th Brandeis addressed to +Knappe his famous and fatal letter. I may not describe it as a letter of +burning words, but it is plainly dictated by a burning heart. Tamasese +and his chiefs, he announces, are now sick of the business, and ready to +make peace with Mataafa. They began the war relying upon German help; +they now see and say that "_e faaalo Siamani i Peritania ma America_, +that Germany is subservient to England and the States." It is grimly +given to be understood that the despatch is an ultimatum, and a last +chance is being offered for the recreant ally to fulfil her pledge. To +make it more plain, the document goes on with a kind of bilious irony: +"The two German war-ships now in Samoa are here for the protection of +German property alone; and when the _Olga_ shall have arrived" [she +arrived on the morrow] "the German war-ships will continue to do against +the insurgents precisely as little as they have done heretofore." Plant +flags, in fact. + +Here was Knappe's opportunity, could he have stooped to seize it. I find +it difficult to blame him that he could not. Far from being so +inglorious as the treachery once contemplated by Becker, the acceptance +of this ultimatum would have been still in the nature of a disgrace. +Brandeis's letter, written by a German, was hard to swallow. It would +have been hard to accept that solution which Knappe had so recently and +so peremptorily refused to his brother consuls. And he was tempted, on +the other hand, by recent changes. There was no Pelly to support de +Coetlogon, who might now be disregarded. Mullan, Leary's successor, even +if he were not precisely a Hand, was at least no Leary; and even if +Mullan should show fight, Knappe had now three ships and could defy or +sink him without danger. Many small circumstances moved him in the same +direction. The looting of German plantations continued; the whole force +of Mataafa was to a large extent subsisted from the crops of Vailele; and +armed men were to be seen openly plundering bananas, breadfruit, and +cocoa-nuts under the walls of the plantation building. On the night of +the 13th the consulate stable had been broken into and a horse removed. +On the 16th there was a riot in Apia between half-castes and sailors from +the new ship _Olga_, each side claiming that the other was the worse of +drink, both (for a wager) justly. The multiplication of flags and little +neutral territories had, besides, begun to irritate the Samoans. The +protests of German settlers had been received uncivilly. On the 16th the +Mataafas had again sought to land in Saluafata bay, with the manifest +intention to attack the Tamaseses, or (in other words) "to trespass on +German lands, covered, as your Excellency knows, with flags." I quote +from his requisition to Fritze, December 17th. Upon all these +considerations, he goes on, it is necessary to bring the fighting to an +end. Both parties are to be disarmed and returned to their +villages--Mataafa first. And in case of any attempt upon Apia, the roads +thither are to be held by a strong landing-party. Mataafa was to be +disarmed first, perhaps rightly enough in his character of the last +insurgent. Then was to have come the turn of Tamasese; but it does not +appear the disarming would have had the same import or have been gone +about in the same way. Germany was bound to Tamasese. No honest man +would dream of blaming Knappe because he sought to redeem his country's +word. The path he chose was doubtless that of honour, so far as honour +was still left. But it proved to be the road to ruin. + +Fritze, ranking German officer, is understood to have opposed the +measure. His attitude earned him at the time unpopularity among his +country-people on the spot, and should now redound to his credit. It is +to be hoped he extended his opposition to some of the details. If it +were possible to disarm Mataafa at all, it must be done rather by +prestige than force. A party of blue-jackets landed in Samoan bush, and +expected to hold against Samoans a multiplicity of forest paths, had +their work cut out for them. And it was plain they should be landed in +the light of day, with a discouraging openness, and even with parade. To +sneak ashore by night was to increase the danger of resistance and to +minimise the authority of the attack. The thing was a bluff, and it is +impossible to bluff with stealth. Yet this was what was tried. A +landing-party was to leave the _Olga_ in Apia bay at two in the morning; +the landing was to be at four on two parts of the foreshore of Vailele. +At eight they were to be joined by a second landing-party from the +_Eber_. By nine the Olgas were to be on the crest of Letongo Mountain, +and the Ebers to be moving round the promontory by the seaward paths, +"with measures of precaution," disarming all whom they encountered. There +was to be no firing unless fired upon. At the appointed hour (or perhaps +later) on the morning of the 19th, this unpromising business was put in +hand, and there moved off from the _Olga_ two boats with some fifty blue- +jackets between them, and a _praam_ or punt containing ninety,--the boats +and the whole expedition under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Jaeckel, +the praam under Lieutenant Spengler. The men had each forty rounds, one +day's provisions, and their flasks filled. + +In the meanwhile, Mataafa sympathisers about Apia were on the alert. +Knappe had informed the consuls that the ships were to put to sea next +day for the protection of German property; but the Tamaseses had been +less discreet. "To-morrow at the hour of seven," they had cried to their +adversaries, "you will know of a difficulty, and our guns shall be made +good in broken bones." An accident had pointed expectation towards Apia. +The wife of Le Mamea washed for the German ships--a perquisite, I +suppose, for her husband's unwilling fidelity. She sent a man with linen +on board the _Adler_, where he was surprised to see Le Mamea in person, +and to be himself ordered instantly on shore. The news spread. If Mamea +were brought down from Lotoanuu, others might have come at the same time. +Tamasese himself and half his army might perhaps lie concealed on board +the German ships. And a watch was accordingly set and warriors collected +along the line of the shore. One detachment lay in some rifle-pits by +the mouth of the Fuisa. They were commanded by Seumanu; and with his +party, probably as the most contiguous to Apia, was the +war-correspondent, John Klein. Of English birth, but naturalised +American, this gentleman had been for some time representing the _New +York World_ in a very effective manner, always in the front, living in +the field with the Samoans, and in all vicissitudes of weather, toiling +to and fro with his despatches. His wisdom was perhaps not equal to his +energy. He made himself conspicuous, going about armed to the teeth in a +boat under the stars and stripes; and on one occasion, when he supposed +himself fired upon by the Tamaseses, had the petulance to empty his +revolver in the direction of their camp. By the light of the moon, which +was then nearly down, this party observed the _Olga's_ two boats and the +praam, which they described as "almost sinking with men," the boats +keeping well out towards the reef, the praam at the moment apparently +heading for the shore. An extreme agitation seems to have reigned in the +rifle-pits. What were the newcomers? What was their errand? Were they +Germans or Tamaseses? Had they a mind to attack? The praam was hailed +in Samoan and did not answer. It was proposed to fire upon her ere she +drew near. And at last, whether on his own suggestion or that of +Seumanu, Klein hailed her in English, and in terms of unnecessary +melodrama. "Do not try to land here," he cried. "If you do, your blood +will be upon your head." Spengler, who had never the least intention to +touch at the Fuisa, put up the head of the praam to her true course and +continued to move up the lagoon with an offing of some seventy or eighty +yards. Along all the irregularities and obstructions of the beach, +across the mouth of the Vaivasa, and through the startled village of +Matafangatele, Seumanu, Klein, and seven or eight others raced to keep +up, spreading the alarm and rousing reinforcements as they went. +Presently a man on horse-back made his appearance on the opposite beach +of Fangalii. Klein and the natives distinctly saw him signal with a +lantern; which is the more strange, as the horseman (Captain Hufnagel, +plantation manager of Vailele) had never a lantern to signal with. The +praam kept in. Many men in white were seen to stand up, step overboard, +and wade to shore. At the same time the eye of panic descried a +breastwork of "foreign stone" (brick) upon the beach. Samoans are +prepared to-day to swear to its existence, I believe conscientiously, +although no such thing was ever made or ever intended in that place. The +hour is doubtful. "It was the hour when the streak of dawn is seen, the +hour known in the warfare of heathen times as the hour of the night +attack," says the Mataafa official account. A native whom I met on the +field declared it was at cock-crow. Captain Hufnagel, on the other hand, +is sure it was long before the day. It was dark at least, and the moon +down. Darkness made the Samoans bold; uncertainty as to the composition +and purpose of the landing-party made them desperate. Fire was opened on +the Germans, one of whom was here killed. The Germans returned it, and +effected a lodgment on the beach; and the skirmish died again to silence. +It was at this time, if not earlier, that Klein returned to Apia. + +Here, then, were Spengler and the ninety men of the praam, landed on the +beach in no very enviable posture, the woods in front filled with +unnumbered enemies, but for the time successful. Meanwhile, Jaeckel and +the boats had gone outside the reef, and were to land on the other side +of the Vailele promontory, at Sunga, by the buildings of the plantation. +It was Hufnagel's part to go and meet them. His way led straight into +the woods and through the midst of the Samoans, who had but now ceased +firing. He went in the saddle and at a foot's pace, feeling speed and +concealment to be equally helpless, and that if he were to fall at all, +he had best fall with dignity. Not a shot was fired at him; no effort +made to arrest him on his errand. As he went, he spoke and even jested +with the Samoans, and they answered in good part. One fellow was +leaping, yelling, and tossing his axe in the air, after the way of an +excited islander. "_Faimalosi_! go it!" said Hufnagel, and the fellow +laughed and redoubled his exertions. As soon as the boats entered the +lagoon, fire was again opened from the woods. The fifty blue-jackets +jumped overboard, hove down the boats to be a shield, and dragged them +towards the landing-place. In this way, their rations, and (what was +more unfortunate) some of their miserable provision of forty rounds got +wetted; but the men came to shore and garrisoned the plantation house +without a casualty. Meanwhile the sound of the firing from Sunga +immediately renewed the hostilities at Fangalii. The civilians on shore +decided that Spengler must be at once guided to the house, and Haideln, +the surveyor, accepted the dangerous errand. Like Hufnagel, he was +suffered to pass without question through the midst of these platonic +enemies. He found Spengler some way inland on a knoll, disastrously +engaged, the woods around him filled with Samoans, who were continuously +reinforced. In three successive charges, cheering as they ran, the blue- +jackets burst through their scattered opponents, and made good their +junction with Jaeckel. Four men only remained upon the field, the other +wounded being helped by their comrades or dragging themselves painfully +along. + +The force was now concentrated in the house and its immediate patch of +garden. Their rear, to the seaward, was unmolested; but on three sides +they were beleaguered. On the left, the Samoans occupied and fired from +some of the plantation offices. In front, a long rising crest of land in +the horse-pasture commanded the house, and was lined with the assailants. +And on the right, the hedge of the same paddock afforded them a dangerous +cover. It was in this place that a Samoan sharpshooter was knocked over +by Jaeckel with his own hand. The fire was maintained by the Samoans in +the usual wasteful style. The roof was made a sieve; the balls passed +clean through the house; Lieutenant Sieger, as he lay, already dying, on +Hufnagel's bed, was despatched with a fresh wound. The Samoans showed +themselves extremely enterprising: pushed their lines forward, ventured +beyond cover, and continually threatened to envelop the garden. Thrice, +at least, it was necessary to repel them by a sally. The men were +brought into the house from the rear, the front doors were thrown +suddenly open, and the gallant blue-jackets issued cheering: necessary, +successful, but extremely costly sorties. Neither could these be pushed +far. The foes were undaunted; so soon as the sailors advanced at all +deep in the horse-pasture, the Samoans began to close in upon both +flanks; and the sally had to be recalled. To add to the dangers of the +German situation, ammunition began to run low; and the cartridge-boxes of +the wounded and the dead had been already brought into use before, at +about eight o'clock, the _Eber_ steamed into the bay. Her commander, +Wallis, threw some shells into Letongo, one of which killed five men +about their cooking-pot. The Samoans began immediately to withdraw; +their movements were hastened by a sortie, and the remains of the landing- +party brought on board. This was an unfortunate movement; it gave an +irremediable air of defeat to what might have been else claimed for a +moderate success. The blue-jackets numbered a hundred and forty all +told; they were engaged separately and fought under the worst conditions, +in the dark and among woods; their position in the house was scarce +tenable; they lost in killed and wounded fifty-six,--forty per cent.; and +their spirit to the end was above question. Whether we think of the poor +sailor lads, always so pleasantly behaved in times of peace, or whether +we call to mind the behaviour of the two civilians, Haideln and Hufnagel, +we can only regret that brave men should stand to be exposed upon so poor +a quarrel, or lives cast away upon an enterprise so hopeless. + +News of the affair reached Apia early, and Moors, always curious of these +spectacles of war, was immediately in the saddle. Near Matafangatele he +met a Manono chief, whom he asked if there were any German dead. "I +think there are about thirty of them knocked over," said he. "Have you +taken their heads?" asked Moors. "Yes," said the chief. "Some foolish +people did it, but I have stopped them. We ought not to cut off their +heads when they do not cut off ours." He was asked what had been done +with the heads. "Two have gone to Mataafa," he replied, "and one is +buried right under where your horse is standing, in a basket wrapped in +tapa." This was afterwards dug up, and I am told on native authority +that, besides the three heads, two ears were taken. Moors next asked the +Manono man how he came to be going away. "The man-of-war is throwing +shells," said he. "When they stopped firing out of the house, we stopped +firing also; so it was as well to scatter when the shells began. We +could have killed all the white men. I wish they had been Tamaseses." +This is an _ex parte_ statement, and I give it for such; but the course +of the affair, and in particular the adventures of Haideln and Hufnagel, +testify to a surprising lack of animosity against the Germans. About the +same time or but a little earlier than this conversation, the same spirit +was being displayed. Hufnagel, with a party of labour, had gone out to +bring in the German dead, when he was surprised to be suddenly fired on +from the wood. The boys he had with him were not negritos, but +Polynesians from the Gilbert Islands; and he suddenly remembered that +these might be easily mistaken for a detachment of Tamaseses. Bidding +his boys conceal themselves in a thicket, this brave man walked into the +open. So soon as he was recognised, the firing ceased, and the labourers +followed him in safety. This is chivalrous war; but there was a side to +it less chivalrous. As Moors drew nearer to Vailele, he began to meet +Samoans with hats, guns, and even shirts, taken from the German sailors. +With one of these who had a hat and a gun he stopped and spoke. The hat +was handed up for him to look at; it had the late owner's name on the +inside. "Where is he?" asked Moors. "He is dead; I cut his head off." +"You shot him?" "No, somebody else shot him in the hip. When I came, he +put up his hands, and cried: 'Don't kill me; I am a Malietoa man.' I did +not believe him, and I cut his head off...... Have you any ammunition to +fit that gun?" "I do not know." "What has become of the +cartridge-belt?" "Another fellow grabbed that and the cartridges, and he +won't give them to me." A dreadful and silly picture of barbaric war. +The words of the German sailor must be regarded as imaginary: how was the +poor lad to speak native, or the Samoan to understand German? When Moors +came as far as Sunga, the _Eber_ was yet in the bay, the smoke of battle +still lingered among the trees, which were themselves marked with a +thousand bullet-wounds. But the affair was over, the combatants, German +and Samoan, were all gone, and only a couple of negrito labour boys +lurked on the scene. The village of Letongo beyond was equally silent; +part of it was wrecked by the shells of the _Eber_, and still smoked; the +inhabitants had fled. On the beach were the native boats, perhaps five +thousand dollars' worth, deserted by the Mataafas and overlooked by the +Germans, in their common hurry to escape. Still Moors held eastward by +the sea-paths. It was his hope to get a view from the other side of the +promontory, towards Laulii. In the way he found a house hidden in the +wood and among rocks, where an aged and sick woman was being tended by +her elderly daughter. Last lingerers in that deserted piece of coast, +they seemed indifferent to the events which had thus left them solitary, +and, as the daughter said, did not know where Mataafa was, nor where +Tamasese. + +It is the official Samoan pretension that the Germans fired first at +Fangalii. In view of all German and some native testimony, the text of +Fritze's orders, and the probabilities of the case, no honest mind will +believe it for a moment. Certainly the Samoans fired first. As +certainly they were betrayed into the engagement in the agitation of the +moment, and it was not till afterwards that they understood what they had +done. Then, indeed, all Samoa drew a breath of wonder and delight. The +invincible had fallen; the men of the vaunted war-ships had been met in +the field by the braves of Mataafa: a superstition was no more. Conceive +this people steadily as schoolboys; and conceive the elation in any +school if the head boy should suddenly arise and drive the rector from +the schoolhouse. I have received one instance of the feeling instantly +aroused. There lay at the time in the consular hospital an old chief who +was a pet of the colonel's. News reached him of the glorious event; he +was sick, he thought himself sinking, sent for the colonel, and gave him +his gun. "Don't let the Germans get it," said the old gentleman, and +having received a promise, was at peace. + + + + +CHAPTER IX--"FUROR CONSULARIS" + + +_December_ 1888 _to March_ 1889 + +Knappe, in the _Adler_, with a flag of truce at the fore, was entering +Laulii Bay when the _Eber_ brought him the news of the night's reverse. +His heart was doubtless wrung for his young countrymen who had been +butchered and mutilated in the dark woods, or now lay suffering, and some +of them dying, on the ship. And he must have been startled as he +recognised his own position. He had gone too far; he had stumbled into +war, and, what was worse, into defeat; he had thrown away German lives +for less than nothing, and now saw himself condemned either to accept +defeat, or to kick and pummel his failure into something like success; +either to accept defeat, or take frenzy for a counsellor. Yesterday, in +cold blood, he had judged it necessary to have the woods to the westward +guarded lest the evacuation of Laulii should prove only the peril of +Apia. To-day, in the irritation and alarm of failure, he forgot or +despised his previous reasoning, and, though his detachment was beat back +to the ships, proceeded with the remainder of his maimed design. The +only change he made was to haul down the flag of truce. He had now no +wish to meet with Mataafa. Words were out of season, shells must speak. + +At this moment an incident befell him which must have been trying to his +self-command. The new American ship _Nipsic_ entered Laulii Bay; her +commander, Mullan, boarded the _Adler_ to protest, succeeded in wresting +from Knappe a period of delay in order that the women might be spared, +and sent a lieutenant to Mataafa with a warning. The camp was already +excited by the news and the trophies of Fangalii. Already Tamasese and +Lotoanuu seemed secondary objectives to the Germans and Apia. Mullan's +message put an end to hesitation. Laulii was evacuated. The troops +streamed westward by the mountain side, and took up the same day a strong +position about Tanungamanono and Mangiangi, some two miles behind Apia, +which they threatened with the one hand, while with the other they +continued to draw their supplies from the devoted plantations of the +German firm. Laulii, when it was shelled, was empty. The British flags +were, of course, fired upon; and I hear that one of them was struck down, +but I think every one must be privately of the mind that it was fired +upon and fell, in a place where it had little business to be shown. + +Such was the military epilogue to the ill-judged adventure of Fangalii; +it was difficult for failure to be more complete. But the other +consequences were of a darker colour and brought the whites immediately +face to face in a spirit of ill-favoured animosity. Knappe was mourning +the defeat and death of his country-folk, he was standing aghast over the +ruin of his own career, when Mullan boarded him. The successor of Leary +served himself, in that bitter moment, heir to Leary's part. And in +Mullan, Knappe saw more even than the successor of Leary,--he saw in him +the representative of Klein. Klein had hailed the praam from the rifle- +pits; he had there uttered ill-chosen words, unhappily prophetic; it is +even likely that he was present at the time of the first fire. To accuse +him of the design and conduct of the whole attack was but a step forward; +his own vapouring served to corroborate the accusation; and it was not +long before the German consulate was in possession of sworn native +testimony in support. The worth of native testimony is small, the worth +of white testimony not overwhelming; and I am in the painful position of +not being able to subscribe either to Klein's own account of the affair +or to that of his accusers. Klein was extremely flurried; his interest +as a reporter must have tempted him at first to make the most of his +share in the exploit, the immediate peril in which he soon found himself +to stand must have at least suggested to him the idea of minimising it; +one way and another, he is not a good witness. As for the natives, they +were no doubt cross-examined in that hall of terror, the German +consulate, where they might be trusted to lie like schoolboys, or (if the +reader prefer it) like Samoans. By outside white testimony, it remains +established for me that Klein returned to Apia either before or +immediately after the first shots. That he ever sought or was ever +allowed a share in the command may be denied peremptorily; but it is more +than likely that he expressed himself in an excited manner and with a +highly inflammatory effect upon his hearers. He was, at least, severely +punished. The Germans, enraged by his provocative behaviour and what +they thought to be his German birth, demanded him to be tried before +court-martial; he had to skulk inside the sentries of the American +consulate, to be smuggled on board a war-ship, and to be carried almost +by stealth out of the island; and what with the agitations of his mind, +and the results of a marsh fever contracted in the lines of Mataafa, +reached Honolulu a very proper object of commiseration. Nor was Klein +the only accused: de Coetlogon was himself involved. As the boats passed +Matautu, Knappe declares a signal was made from the British consulate. +Perhaps we should rather read "from its neighbourhood"; since, in the +general warding of the coast, the point of Matautu could scarce have been +neglected. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the Samoans, in the +anxiety of that night of watching and fighting, crowded to the friendly +consul for advice. Late in the night, the wounded Siteoni, lying on the +colonel's verandah, one corner of which had been blinded down that he +might sleep, heard the coming and going of bare feet and the voices of +eager consultation. And long after, a man who had been discharged from +the colonel's employment took upon himself to swear an affidavit as to +the nature of the advice then given, and to carry the document to the +German consul. It was an act of private revenge; it fell long out of +date in the good days of Dr. Stuebel, and had no result but to discredit +the gentleman who volunteered it. Colonel de Coetlogon had his faults, +but they did not touch his honour; his bare word would always outweigh a +waggon-load of such denunciations; and he declares his behaviour on that +night to have been blameless. The question was besides inquired into on +the spot by Sir John Thurston, and the colonel honourably acquitted. But +during the weeks that were now to follow, Knappe believed the contrary; +he believed not only that Moors and others had supplied ammunition and +Klein commanded in the field, but that de Coetlogon had made the signal +of attack; that though his blue-jackets had bled and fallen against the +arms of Samoans, these were supplied, inspired, and marshalled by +Americans and English. + +The legend was the more easily believed because it embraced and was +founded upon so much truth. Germans lay dead, the German wounded groaned +in their cots; and the cartridges by which they fell had been sold by an +American and brought into the country in a British bottom. Had the +transaction been entirely mercenary, it would already have been hard to +swallow; but it was notoriously not so. British and Americans were +notoriously the partisans of Mataafa. They rejoiced in the result of +Fangalii, and so far from seeking to conceal their rejoicing, paraded and +displayed it. Calumny ran high. Before the dead were buried, while the +wounded yet lay in pain and fever, cowardly accusations of cowardice were +levelled at the German blue-jackets. It was said they had broken and run +before their enemies, and that they had huddled helpless like sheep in +the plantation house. Small wonder if they had; small wonder had they +been utterly destroyed. But the fact was heroically otherwise; and these +dastard calumnies cut to the blood. They are not forgotten; perhaps they +will never be forgiven. + +In the meanwhile, events were pressing towards a still more trenchant +opposition. On the 20th, the three consuls met and parted without +agreement, Knappe announcing that he had lost men and must take the +matter in his own hands to avenge their death. On the 21st the _Olga_ +came before Matafangatele, ordered the delivery of all arms within the +hour, and at the end of that period, none being brought, shelled and +burned the village. The shells fell for the most part innocuous; an +eyewitness saw children at play beside the flaming houses; not a soul was +injured; and the one noteworthy event was the mutilation of Captain +Hamilton's American flag. In one sense an incident too small to be +chronicled, in another this was of historic interest and import. These +rags of tattered bunting occasioned the display of a new sentiment in the +United States; and the republic of the West, hitherto so apathetic and +unwieldy, but already stung by German nonchalance, leaped to its feet for +the first time at the news of this fresh insult. As though to make the +inefficiency of the war-ships more apparent, three shells were thrown +inland at Mangiangi; they flew high over the Mataafa camp, where the +natives could "hear them singing" as they flew, and fell behind in the +deep romantic valley of the Vaisingano. Mataafa had been already +summoned on board the _Adler_; his life promised if he came, declared "in +danger" if he came not; and he had declined in silence the unattractive +invitation. These fresh hostile acts showed him that the worst had come. +He was in strength, his force posted along the whole front of the +mountain behind Apia, Matautu occupied, the Siumu road lined up to the +houses of the town with warriors passionate for war. The occasion was +unique, and there is no doubt that he designed to seize it. The same day +of this bombardment, he sent word bidding all English and Americans wear +a black band upon their arm, so that his men should recognise and spare +them. The hint was taken, and the band worn for a continuance of days. +To have refused would have been insane; but to consent was unhappily to +feed the resentment of the Germans by a fresh sign of intelligence with +their enemies, and to widen the breach between the races by a fresh and a +scarce pardonable mark of their division. The same day again the Germans +repeated one of their earlier offences by firing on a boat within the +harbour. Times were changed; they were now at war and in peril, the +rigour of military advantage might well be seized by them and pardoned by +others; but it so chanced that the bullets flew about the ears of Captain +Hand, and that commander is said to have been insatiable of apologies. +The affair, besides, had a deplorable effect on the inhabitants. A black +band (they saw) might protect them from the Mataafas, not from +undiscriminating shots. Panic ensued. The war-ships were open to +receive the fugitives, and the gentlemen who had made merry over Fangalii +were seen to thrust each other from the wharves in their eagerness to +flee Apia. I willingly drop the curtain on the shameful picture. + +Meanwhile, on the German side of the bay, a more manly spirit was +exhibited in circumstances of alarming weakness. The plantation managers +and overseers had all retreated to Matafele, only one (I understand) +remaining at his post. The whole German colony was thus collected in one +spot, and could count and wonder at its scanty numbers. Knappe declares +(to my surprise) that the war-ships could not spare him more than fifty +men a day. The great extension of the German quarter, he goes on, did +not "allow a full occupation of the outer line"; hence they had shrunk +into the western end by the firm buildings, and the inhabitants were +warned to fall back on this position, in the case of an alert. So that +he who had set forth, a day or so before, to disarm the Mataafas in the +open field, now found his resources scarce adequate to garrison the +buildings of the firm. But Knappe seemed unteachable by fate. It is +probable he thought he had + + "Already waded in so deep, + Returning were as tedious as go o'er"; + +it is certain that he continued, on the scene of his defeat and in the +midst of his weakness, to bluster and menace like a conqueror. Active +war, which he lacked the means of attempting, was continually threatened. +On the 22nd he sought the aid of his brother consuls to maintain the +neutral territory against Mataafa; and at the same time, as though +meditating instant deeds of prowess, refused to be bound by it himself. +This singular proposition was of course refused: Blacklock remarking that +he had no fear of the natives, if these were let alone; de Coetlogon +refusing in the circumstances to recognise any neutral territory at all. +In vain Knappe amended and baited his proposal with the offer of forty- +eight or ninety-six hours' notice, according as his objective should be +near or within the boundary of the _Eleele Sa_. It was rejected; and he +learned that he must accept war with all its consequences--and not that +which he desired--war with the immunities of peace. + +This monstrous exigence illustrates the man's frame of mind. It has been +still further illuminated in the German white-book by printing alongside +of his despatches those of the unimpassioned Fritze. On January 8th the +consulate was destroyed by fire. Knappe says it was the work of +incendiaries, "without doubt"; Fritze admits that "everything seems to +show" it was an accident. "Tamasese's people fit to bear arms," writes +Knappe, "are certainly for the moment equal to Mataafa's," though +restrained from battle by the lack of ammunition. "As for Tamasese," +says Fritze of the same date, "he is now but a phantom--_dient er nur als +Gespenst_. His party, for practical purposes, is no longer large. They +pretend ammunition to be lacking, but what they lack most is good-will. +Captain Brandeis, whose influence is now small, declares they can no +longer sustain a serious engagement, and is himself in the intention of +leaving Samoa by the _Lubeck_ of the 5th February." And Knappe, in the +same despatch, confutes himself and confirms the testimony of his naval +colleague, by the admission that "the re-establishment of Tamasese's +government is, under present circumstances, not to be thought of." +Plainly, then, he was not so much seeking to deceive others, as he was +himself possessed; and we must regard the whole series of his acts and +despatches as the agitations of a fever. + +The British steamer _Richmond_ returned to Apia, January 15th. On the +last voyage she had brought the ammunition already so frequently referred +to; as a matter of fact, she was again bringing contraband of war. It is +necessary to be explicit upon this, which served as spark to so great a +flame of scandal. Knappe was justified in interfering; he would have +been worthy of all condemnation if he had neglected, in his posture of +semi-investment, a precaution so elementary; and the manner in which he +set about attempting it was conciliatory and almost timid. He applied to +Captain Hand, and begged him to accept himself the duty of "controlling" +the discharge of the _Richmond's_ cargo. Hand was unable to move without +his consul; and at night an armed boat from the Germans boarded, +searched, and kept possession of, the suspected ship. The next day, as +by an after-thought, war and martial law were proclaimed for the Samoan +Islands, the introduction of contraband of war forbidden, and ships and +boats declared liable to search. "All support of the rebels will be +punished by martial law," continued the proclamation, "no matter to what +nationality the person [_Thater_] may belong." + +Hand, it has been seen, declined to act in the matter of the _Richmond_ +without the concurrence of his consul; but I have found no evidence that +either Hand or Knappe communicated with de Coetlogon, with whom they were +both at daggers drawn. First the seizure and next the proclamation seem +to have burst on the English consul from a clear sky; and he wrote on the +same day, throwing doubt on Knappe's authority to declare war. Knappe +replied on the 20th that the Imperial German Government had been at war +as a matter of fact since December 19th, and that it was only for the +convenience of the subjects of other states that he had been empowered to +make a formal declaration. "From that moment," he added, "martial law +prevails in Samoa." De Coetlogon instantly retorted, declining martial +law for British subjects, and announcing a proclamation in that sense. +Instantly, again, came that astonishing document, Knappe's rejoinder, +without pause, without reflection--the pens screeching on the paper, the +messengers (you would think) running from consulate to consulate: "I have +had the honour to receive your Excellency's [_Hochwohlgeboren_] agreeable +communication of to-day. Since, on the ground of received instructions, +martial law has been declared in Samoa, British subjects as well as +others fall under its application. I warn you therefore to abstain from +such a proclamation as you announce in your letter. It will be such a +piece of business as shall make yourself answerable under martial law. +Besides, your proclamation will be disregarded." De Coetlogon of course +issued his proclamation at once, Knappe retorted with another, and night +closed on the first stage of this insane collision. I hear the German +consul was on this day prostrated with fever; charity at least must +suppose him hardly answerable for his language. + +Early on the 21st, Mr. Mansfield Gallien, a passing traveller, was seized +in his berth on board the _Richmond_, and carried, half-dressed, on board +a German war-ship. His offence was, in the circumstances and after the +proclamation, substantial. He had gone the day before, in the spirit of +a tourist to Mataafa's camp, had spoken with the king, and had even +recommended him an appeal to Sir George Grey. Fritze, I gather, had been +long uneasy; this arrest on board a British ship fitted the measure. +Doubtless, as he had written long before, the consul alone was +responsible "on the legal side"; but the captain began to ask himself, +"What next?"--telegraphed direct home for instructions, "Is arrest of +foreigners on foreign vessels legal?"--and was ready, at a word from +Captain Hand, to discharge his dangerous prisoner. The word in question +(so the story goes) was not without a kind of wit. "I wish you would set +that man ashore," Hand is reported to have said, indicating Gallien; "I +wish you would set that man ashore, to save me the trouble." The same +day de Coetlogon published a proclamation requesting captains to submit +to search for contraband of war. + +On the 22nd the _Samoa Times and South Sea Advertiser_ was suppressed by +order of Fritze. I have hitherto refrained from mentioning the single +paper of our islands, that I might deal with it once for all. It is of +course a tiny sheet; but I have often had occasion to wonder at the +ability of its articles, and almost always at the decency of its tone. +Officials may at times be a little roughly, and at times a little +captiously, criticised; private persons are habitually respected; and +there are many papers in England, and still more in the States, even of +leading organs in chief cities, that might envy, and would do well to +imitate, the courtesy and discretion of the _Samoa Times_. Yet the +editor, Cusack, is only an amateur in journalism, and a carpenter by +trade. His chief fault is one perhaps inevitable in so small a +place--that he seems a little in the leading of a clique; but his +interest in the public weal is genuine and generous. One man's meat is +another man's poison: Anglo-Saxons and Germans have been differently +brought up. To our galled experience the paper appears moderate; to their +untried sensations it seems violent. We think a public man fair game; we +think it a part of his duty, and I am told he finds it a part of his +reward, to be continually canvassed by the press. For the Germans, on +the other hand, an official wears a certain sacredness; when he is called +over the coals, they are shocked, and (if the official be a German) feel +that Germany itself has been insulted. The _Samoa Times_ had been long a +mountain of offence. Brandeis had imported from the colonies another +printer of the name of Jones, to deprive Cusack of the government +printing. German sailors had come ashore one day, wild with offended +patriotism, to punish the editor with stripes, and the result was +delightfully amusing. The champions asked for the English printer. They +were shown the wrong man, and the blows intended for Cusack had hailed on +the shoulders of his rival Jones. On the 12th, Cusack had reprinted an +article from a San Francisco paper; the Germans had complained; and de +Coetlogon, in a moment of weakness, had fined the editor twenty pounds. +The judgment was afterwards reversed in Fiji; but even at the time it had +not satisfied the Germans. And so now, on the third day of martial law, +the paper was suppressed. Here we have another of these international +obscurities. To Fritze the step seemed natural and obvious; for Anglo- +Saxons it was a hand laid upon the altar; and the month was scarce out +before the voice of Senator Frye announced to his colleagues that free +speech had been suppressed in Samoa. + +Perhaps we must seek some similar explanation for Fritze's short-lived +code, published and withdrawn the next day, the 23rd. Fritze himself was +in no humour for extremities. He was much in the position of a +lieutenant who should perceive his captain urging the ship upon the +rocks. It is plain he had lost all confidence in his commanding officer +"upon the legal side"; and we find him writing home with anxious candour. +He had understood that martial law implied military possession; he was in +military possession of nothing but his ship, and shrewdly suspected that +his martial jurisdiction should be confined within the same limits. "As +a matter of fact," he writes, "we do not occupy the territory, and cannot +give foreigners the necessary protection, because Mataafa and his people +can at any moment forcibly interrupt me in my jurisdiction." Yet in the +eyes of Anglo-Saxons the severity of his code appeared burlesque. I give +but three of its provisions. The crime of inciting German troops "by any +means, as, for instance, informing them of proclamations by the enemy," +was punishable with death; that of "publishing or secretly distributing +anything, whether printed or written, bearing on the war," with prison or +deportation; and that of calling or attending a public meeting, unless +permitted, with the same. Such were the tender mercies of Knappe, +lurking in the western end of the German quarter, where Mataafa could "at +any moment" interrupt his jurisdiction. + +On the 22nd (day of the suppression of the _Times_) de Coetlogon wrote to +inquire if hostilities were intended against Great Britain, which Knappe +on the same day denied. On the 23rd de Coetlogon sent a complaint of +hostile acts, such as the armed and forcible entry of the _Richmond_ +before the declaration and arrest of Gallien. In his reply, dated the +24th, Knappe took occasion to repeat, although now with more +self-command, his former threat against de Coetlogon. "I am still of the +opinion," he writes, "that even foreign consuls are liable to the +application of martial law, if they are guilty of offences against the +belligerent state." The same day (24th) de Coetlogon complained that +Fletcher, manager for Messrs. MacArthur, had been summoned by Fritze. In +answer, Knappe had "the honour to inform your Excellency that since the +declaration of the state of war, British subjects are liable to martial +law, and Mr. Fletcher will be arrested if he does not appear." Here, +then, was the gauntlet thrown down, and de Coetlogon was burning to +accept it. Fletcher's offence was this. Upon the 22nd a steamer had +come in from Wellington, specially chartered to bring German despatches +to Apia. The rumour came along with her from New Zealand that in these +despatches Knappe would find himself rebuked, and Fletcher was accused of +having "interested himself in the spreading of this rumour." His arrest +was actually ordered, when Hand succeeded in persuading him to surrender. +At the German court, the case was dismissed "_wegen Nichtigkeit_"; and +the acute stage of these distempers may be said to have ended. Blessed +are the peacemakers. Hand had perhaps averted a collision. What is more +certain, he had offered to the world a perfectly original reading of the +part of British seaman. + +Hand may have averted a collision, I say; but I am tempted to believe +otherwise. I am tempted to believe the threat to arrest Fletcher was the +last mutter of the declining tempest and a mere sop to Knappe's +self-respect. I am tempted to believe the rumour in question was +substantially correct, and the steamer from Wellington had really brought +the German consul grounds for hesitation, if not orders to retreat. I +believe the unhappy man to have awakened from a dream, and to have read +ominous writing on the wall. An enthusiastic popularity surrounded him +among the Germans. It was natural. Consul and colony had passed through +an hour of serious peril, and the consul had set the example of undaunted +courage. He was entertained at dinner. Fritze, who was known to have +secretly opposed him, was scorned and avoided. But the clerks of the +German firm were one thing, Prince Bismarck was another; and on a cold +review of these events, it is not improbable that Knappe may have envied +the position of his naval colleague. It is certain, at least, that he +set himself to shuffle and capitulate; and when the blow fell, he was +able to reply that the martial law business had in the meanwhile come +right; that the English and American consular courts stood open for +ordinary cases and that in different conversations with Captain Hand, +"who has always maintained friendly intercourse with the German +authorities," it had been repeatedly explained that only the supply of +weapons and ammunition, or similar aid and support, was to come under +German martial law. Was it weapons or ammunition that Fletcher had +supplied? But it is unfair to criticise these wrigglings of an +unfortunate in a false position. + +In a despatch of the 23rd, which has not been printed, Knappe had told +his story: how he had declared war, subjected foreigners to martial law, +and been received with a counter-proclamation by the English consul; and +how (in an interview with Mataafa chiefs at the plantation house of +Motuotua, of which I cannot find the date) he had demanded the cession of +arms and of ringleaders for punishment, and proposed to assume the +government of the islands. On February 12th he received Bismarck's +answer: "You had no right to take foreigners from the jurisdiction of +their consuls. The protest of your English colleague is grounded. In +disputes which may arise from this cause you will find yourself in the +wrong. The demand formulated by you, as to the assumption of the +government of Samoa by Germany, lay outside of your instructions and of +our design. Take it immediately back. If your telegram is here rightly +understood, I cannot call your conduct good." It must be a hard heart +that does not sympathise with Knappe in the hour when he received this +document. Yet it may be said that his troubles were still in the +beginning. Men had contended against him, and he had not prevailed; he +was now to be at war with the elements, and find his name identified with +an immense disaster. + +One more date, however, must be given first. It was on February 27th +that Fritze formally announced martial law to be suspended, and himself +to have relinquished the control of the police. + + + + +CHAPTER X--THE HURRICANE + + +_March_ 1889 + +The so-called harbour of Apia is formed in part by a recess of the coast- +line at Matautu, in part by the slim peninsula of Mulinuu, and in part by +the fresh waters of the Mulivai and Vaisingano. The barrier reef--that +singular breakwater that makes so much of the circuit of Pacific +islands--is carried far to sea at Matautu and Mulinuu; inside of these +two horns it runs sharply landward, and between them it is burst or +dissolved by the fresh water. The shape of the enclosed anchorage may be +compared to a high-shouldered jar or bottle with a funnel mouth. Its +sides are almost everywhere of coral; for the reef not only bounds it to +seaward and forms the neck and mouth, but skirting about the beach, it +forms the bottom also. As in the bottle of commerce, the bottom is re- +entrant, and the shore-reef runs prominently forth into the basin and +makes a dangerous cape opposite the fairway of the entrance. Danger is, +therefore, on all hands. The entrance gapes three cables wide at the +narrowest, and the formidable surf of the Pacific thunders both outside +and in. There are days when speech is difficult in the chambers of shore- +side houses; days when no boat can land, and when men are broken by +stroke of sea against the wharves. As I write these words, three miles +in the mountains, and with the land-breeze still blowing from the island +summit, the sound of that vexed harbour hums in my ears. Such a creek in +my native coast of Scotland would scarce be dignified with the mark of an +anchor in the chart; but in the favoured climate of Samoa, and with the +mechanical regularity of the winds in the Pacific, it forms, for ten or +eleven months out of the twelve, a safe if hardly a commodious port. The +ill-found island traders ride there with their insufficient moorings the +year through, and discharge, and are loaded, without apprehension. Of +danger, when it comes, the glass gives timely warning; and that any +modern war-ship, furnished with the power of steam, should have been lost +in Apia, belongs not so much to nautical as to political history. + +The weather throughout all that winter (the turbulent summer of the +islands) was unusually fine, and the circumstance had been commented on +as providential, when so many Samoans were lying on their weapons in the +bush. By February it began to break in occasional gales. On February +10th a German brigantine was driven ashore. On the 14th the same +misfortune befell an American brigantine and a schooner. On both these +days, and again on the 7th March, the men-of-war must steam to their +anchors. And it was in this last month, the most dangerous of the +twelve, that man's animosities crowded that indentation of the reef with +costly, populous, and vulnerable ships. + +I have shown, perhaps already at too great a length, how violently +passion ran upon the spot; how high this series of blunders and mishaps +had heated the resentment of the Germans against all other nationalities +and of all other nationalities against the Germans. But there was one +country beyond the borders of Samoa where the question had aroused a +scarce less angry sentiment. The breach of the Washington Congress, the +evidence of Sewall before a sub-committee on foreign relations, the +proposal to try Klein before a military court, and the rags of Captain +Hamilton's flag, had combined to stir the people of the States to an +unwonted fervour. Germany was for the time the abhorred of nations. +Germans in America publicly disowned the country of their birth. In +Honolulu, so near the scene of action, German and American young men fell +to blows in the street. In the same city, from no traceable source, and +upon no possible authority, there arose a rumour of tragic news to arrive +by the next occasion, that the _Nipsic_ had opened fire on the _Adler_, +and the _Adler_ had sunk her on the first reply. Punctually on the day +appointed, the news came; and the two nations, instead of being plunged +into war, could only mingle tears over the loss of heroes. + +By the second week in March three American ships were in Apia bay,--the +_Nipsic_, the _Vandalia_, and the _Trenton_, carrying the flag of Rear- +Admiral Kimberley; three German,--the _Adler_, the _Eber_, and the +_Olga_; and one British,--the _Calliope_, Captain Kane. Six merchant- +men, ranging from twenty-five up to five hundred tons, and a number of +small craft, further encumbered the anchorage. Its capacity is estimated +by Captain Kane at four large ships; and the latest arrivals, the +_Vandalia_ and _Trenton_, were in consequence excluded, and lay without +in the passage. Of the seven war-ships, the seaworthiness of two was +questionable: the _Trenton's_, from an original defect in her +construction, often reported, never remedied--her hawse-pipes leading in +on the berth-deck; the _Eber's_, from an injury to her screw in the blow +of February 14th. In this overcrowding of ships in an open entry of the +reef, even the eye of the landsman could spy danger; and +Captain-Lieutenant Wallis of the _Eber_ openly blamed and lamented, not +many hours before the catastrophe, their helpless posture. Temper once +more triumphed. The army of Mataafa still hung imminent behind the town; +the German quarter was still daily garrisoned with fifty sailors from the +squadron; what was yet more influential, Germany and the States, at least +in Apia bay, were on the brink of war, viewed each other with looks of +hatred, and scarce observed the letter of civility. On the day of the +admiral's arrival, Knappe failed to call on him, and on the morrow called +on him while he was on shore. The slight was remarked and resented, and +the two squadrons clung more obstinately to their dangerous station. + +On the 15th the barometer fell to 29.11 in. by 2 P.M. This was the +moment when every sail in port should have escaped. Kimberley, who flew +the only broad pennant, should certainly have led the way: he clung, +instead, to his moorings, and the Germans doggedly followed his example: +semi-belligerents, daring each other and the violence of heaven. Kane, +less immediately involved, was led in error by the report of residents +and a fallacious rise in the glass; he stayed with the others, a +misjudgment that was like to cost him dear. All were moored, as is the +custom in Apia, with two anchors practically east and west, clear hawse +to the north, and a kedge astern. Topmasts were struck, and the ships +made snug. The night closed black, with sheets of rain. By midnight it +blew a gale; and by the morning watch, a tempest. Through what remained +of darkness, the captains impatiently expected day, doubtful if they were +dragging, steaming gingerly to their moorings, and afraid to steam too +much. + +Day came about six, and presented to those on shore a seizing and +terrific spectacle. In the pressure of the squalls the bay was obscured +as if by midnight, but between them a great part of it was clearly if +darkly visible amid driving mist and rain. The wind blew into the +harbour mouth. Naval authorities describe it as of hurricane force. It +had, however, few or none of the effects on shore suggested by that +ominous word, and was successfully withstood by trees and buildings. The +agitation of the sea, on the other hand, surpassed experience and +description. Seas that might have awakened surprise and terror in the +midst of the Atlantic ranged bodily and (it seemed to observers) almost +without diminution into the belly of that flask-shaped harbour; and the +war-ships were alternately buried from view in the trough, or seen +standing on end against the breast of billows. + +The _Trenton_ at daylight still maintained her position in the neck of +the bottle. But five of the remaining ships tossed, already close to the +bottom, in a perilous and helpless crowd; threatening ruin to each other +as they tossed; threatened with a common and imminent destruction on the +reefs. Three had been already in collision: the _Olga_ was injured in +the quarter, the _Adler_ had lost her bowsprit; the _Nipsic_ had lost her +smoke-stack, and was making steam with difficulty, maintaining her fire +with barrels of pork, and the smoke and sparks pouring along the level of +the deck. For the seventh war-ship the day had come too late; the _Eber_ +had finished her last cruise; she was to be seen no more save by the eyes +of divers. A coral reef is not only an instrument of destruction, but a +place of sepulchre; the submarine cliff is profoundly undercut, and +presents the mouth of a huge antre in which the bodies of men and the +hulls of ships are alike hurled down and buried. The _Eber_ had dragged +anchors with the rest; her injured screw disabled her from steaming +vigorously up; and a little before day she had struck the front of the +coral, come off, struck again, and gone down stern foremost, oversetting +as she went, into the gaping hollow of the reef. Of her whole complement +of nearly eighty, four souls were cast alive on the beach; and the bodies +of the remainder were, by the voluminous outpouring of the flooded +streams, scoured at last from the harbour, and strewed naked on the +seaboard of the island. + +Five ships were immediately menaced with the same destruction. The +_Eber_ vanished--the four poor survivors on shore--read a dreadful +commentary on their danger; which was swelled out of all proportion by +the violence of their own movements as they leaped and fell among the +billows. By seven the _Nipsic_ was so fortunate as to avoid the reef and +beach upon a space of sand; where she was immediately deserted by her +crew, with the assistance of Samoans, not without loss of life. By about +eight it was the turn of the _Adler_. She was close down upon the reef; +doomed herself, it might yet be possible to save a portion of her crew; +and for this end Captain Fritze placed his reliance on the very hugeness +of the seas that threatened him. The moment was watched for with the +anxiety of despair, but the coolness of disciplined courage. As she rose +on the fatal wave, her moorings were simultaneously slipped; she broached +to in rising; and the sea heaved her bodily upward and cast her down with +a concussion on the summit of the reef, where she lay on her beam-ends, +her back broken, buried in breaching seas, but safe. Conceive a table: +the _Eber_ in the darkness had been smashed against the rim and flung +below; the _Adler_, cast free in the nick of opportunity, had been thrown +upon the top. Many were injured in the concussion; many tossed into the +water; twenty perished. The survivors crept again on board their ship, +as it now lay, and as it still remains, keel to the waves, a monument of +the sea's potency. In still weather, under a cloudless sky, in those +seasons when that ill-named ocean, the Pacific, suffers its vexed shores +to rest, she lies high and dry, the spray scarce touching her--the hugest +structure of man's hands within a circuit of a thousand miles--tossed up +there like a schoolboy's cap upon a shelf; broken like an egg; a thing to +dream of. + +The unfriendly consuls of Germany and Britain were both that morning in +Matautu, and both displayed their nobler qualities. De Coetlogon, the +grim old soldier, collected his family and kneeled with them in an agony +of prayer for those exposed. Knappe, more fortunate in that he was +called to a more active service, must, upon the striking of the _Adler_, +pass to his own consulate. From this he was divided by the Vaisingano, +now a raging torrent, impetuously charioting the trunks of trees. A +kelpie might have dreaded to attempt the passage; we may conceive this +brave but unfortunate and now ruined man to have found a natural joy in +the exposure of his life; and twice that day, coming and going, he braved +the fury of the river. It was possible, in spite of the darkness of the +hurricane and the continual breaching of the seas, to remark human +movements on the _Adler_; and by the help of Samoans, always nobly +forward in the work, whether for friend or enemy, Knappe sought long to +get a line conveyed from shore, and was for long defeated. The shore +guard of fifty men stood to their arms the while upon the beach, useless +themselves, and a great deterrent of Samoan usefulness. It was perhaps +impossible that this mistake should be avoided. What more natural, to +the mind of a European, than that the Mataafas should fall upon the +Germans in this hour of their disadvantage? But they had no other +thought than to assist; and those who now rallied beside Knappe braved +(as they supposed) in doing so a double danger, from the fury of the sea +and the weapons of their enemies. About nine, a quarter-master swam +ashore, and reported all the officers and some sixty men alive but in +pitiable case; some with broken limbs, others insensible from the +drenching of the breakers. Later in the forenoon, certain valorous +Samoans succeeded in reaching the wreck and returning with a line; but it +was speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts proved unavailing, the +strongest adventurers being cast back again by the bursting seas. +Thenceforth, all through that day and night, the deafened survivors must +continue to endure their martyrdom; and one officer died, it was supposed +from agony of mind, in his inverted cabin. + +Three ships still hung on the next margin of destruction, steaming +desperately to their moorings, dashed helplessly together. The +_Calliope_ was the nearest in; she had the _Vandalia_ close on her port +side and a little ahead, the _Olga_ close a-starboard, the reef under her +heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the unhappy ship fenced +with her three dangers. About a quarter to nine she carried away the +_Vandalia's_ quarter gallery with her jib-boom; a moment later, the +_Olga_ had near rammed her from the other side. By nine the _Vandalia_ +dropped down on her too fast to be avoided, and clapped her stern under +the bowsprit of the English ship, the fastenings of which were burst +asunder as she rose. To avoid cutting her down, it was necessary for the +_Calliope_ to stop and even to reverse her engines; and her rudder was at +the moment--or it seemed so to the eyes of those on board--within ten +feet of the reef. "Between the _Vandalia_ and the reef" (writes Kane, in +his excellent report) "it was destruction." To repeat Fritze's manoeuvre +with the _Adler_ was impossible; the _Calliope_ was too heavy. The one +possibility of escape was to go out. If the engines should stand, if +they should have power to drive the ship against wind and sea, if she +should answer the helm, if the wheel, rudder, and gear should hold out, +and if they were favoured with a clear blink of weather in which to see +and avoid the outer reef--there, and there only, were safety. Upon this +catalogue of "ifs" Kane staked his all. He signalled to the engineer for +every pound of steam--and at that moment (I am told) much of the +machinery was already red-hot. The ship was sheered well to starboard of +the _Vandalia_, the last remaining cable slipped. For a time--and there +was no onlooker so cold-blooded as to offer a guess at its duration--the +_Calliope_ lay stationary; then gradually drew ahead. The highest speed +claimed for her that day is of one sea-mile an hour. The question of +times and seasons, throughout all this roaring business, is obscured by a +dozen contradictions; I have but chosen what appeared to be the most +consistent; but if I am to pay any attention to the time named by Admiral +Kimberley, the _Calliope_, in this first stage of her escape, must have +taken more than two hours to cover less than four cables. As she thus +crept seaward, she buried bow and stem alternately under the billows. + +In the fairway of the entrance the flagship _Trenton_ still held on. Her +rudder was broken, her wheel carried away; within she was flooded with +water from the peccant hawse-pipes; she had just made the signal "fires +extinguished," and lay helpless, awaiting the inevitable end. Between +this melancholy hulk and the external reef Kane must find a path. +Steering within fifty yards of the reef (for which she was actually +headed) and her foreyard passing on the other hand over the _Trenton's_ +quarter as she rolled, the _Calliope_ sheered between the rival dangers, +came to the wind triumphantly, and was once more pointed for the sea and +safety. Not often in naval history was there a moment of more sickening +peril, and it was dignified by one of those incidents that reconcile the +chronicler with his otherwise abhorrent task. From the doomed flagship +the Americans hailed the success of the English with a cheer. It was led +by the old admiral in person, rang out over the storm with holiday +vigour, and was answered by the Calliopes with an emotion easily +conceived. This ship of their kinsfolk was almost the last external +object seen from the _Calliope_ for hours; immediately after, the mists +closed about her till the morrow. She was safe at sea again--_una de +multis_--with a damaged foreyard, and a loss of all the ornamental work +about her bow and stern, three anchors, one kedge-anchor, fourteen +lengths of chain, four boats, the jib-boom, bobstay, and bands and +fastenings of the bowsprit. + +Shortly after Kane had slipped his cable, Captain Schoonmaker, despairing +of the _Vandalia_, succeeded in passing astern of the _Olga_, in the hope +to beach his ship beside the _Nipsic_. At a quarter to eleven her stern +took the reef, her hand swung to starboard, and she began to fill and +settle. Many lives of brave men were sacrificed in the attempt to get a +line ashore; the captain, exhausted by his exertions, was swept from deck +by a sea; and the rail being soon awash, the survivors took refuge in the +tops. + +Out of thirteen that had lain there the day before, there were now but +two ships afloat in Apia harbour, and one of these was doomed to be the +bane of the other. About 3 P.M. the _Trenton_ parted one cable, and +shortly after a second. It was sought to keep her head to wind with +storm-sails and by the ingenious expedient of filling the rigging with +seamen; but in the fury of the gale, and in that sea, perturbed alike by +the gigantic billows and the volleying discharges of the rivers, the +rudderless ship drove down stern foremost into the inner basin; ranging, +plunging, and striking like a frightened horse; drifting on destruction +for herself and bringing it to others. Twice the _Olga_ (still well +under command) avoided her impact by the skilful use of helm and engines. +But about four the vigilance of the Germans was deceived, and the ships +collided; the _Olga_ cutting into the _Trenton's_ quarters, first from +one side, then from the other, and losing at the same time two of her own +cables. Captain von Ehrhardt instantly slipped the remainder of his +moorings, and setting fore and aft canvas, and going full steam ahead, +succeeded in beaching his ship in Matautu; whither Knappe, recalled by +this new disaster, had returned. The berth was perhaps the best in the +harbour, and von Ehrhardt signalled that ship and crew were in security. + +The _Trenton_, guided apparently by an under-tow or eddy from the +discharge of the Vaisingano, followed in the course of the _Nipsic_ and +_Vandalia_, and skirted south-eastward along the front of the shore reef, +which her keel was at times almost touching. Hitherto she had brought +disaster to her foes; now she was bringing it to friends. She had +already proved the ruin of the _Olga_, the one ship that had rid out the +hurricane in safety; now she beheld across her course the submerged +_Vandalia_, the tops filled with exhausted seamen. Happily the approach +of the _Trenton_ was gradual, and the time employed to advantage. Rockets +and lines were thrown into the tops of the friendly wreck; the approach +of danger was transformed into a means of safety; and before the ships +struck, the men from the _Vandalia's_ main and mizzen masts, which went +immediately by the board in the collision, were already mustered on the +_Trenton's_ decks. Those from the foremast were next rescued; and the +flagship settled gradually into a position alongside her neighbour, +against which she beat all night with violence. Out of the crew of the +_Vandalia_ forty-three had perished; of the four hundred and fifty on +board the _Trenton_, only one. + +The night of the 16th was still notable for a howling tempest and +extraordinary floods of rain. It was feared the wreck could scarce +continue to endure the breaching of the seas; among the Germans, the fate +of those on board the _Adler_ awoke keen anxiety; and Knappe, on the +beach of Matautu, and the other officers of his consulate on that of +Matafele, watched all night. The morning of the 17th displayed a scene +of devastation rarely equalled: the _Adler_ high and dry, the _Olga_ and +_Nipsic_ beached, the _Trenton_ partly piled on the _Vandalia_ and +herself sunk to the gun-deck; no sail afloat; and the beach heaped high +with the _debris_ of ships and the wreck of mountain forests. Already, +before the day, Seumanu, the chief of Apia, had gallantly ventured forth +by boat through the subsiding fury of the seas, and had succeeded in +communicating with the admiral; already, or as soon after as the dawn +permitted, rescue lines were rigged, and the survivors were with +difficulty and danger begun to be brought to shore. And soon the +cheerful spirit of the admiral added a new feature to the scene. +Surrounded as he was by the crews of two wrecked ships, he paraded the +band of the _Trenton_, and the bay was suddenly enlivened with the +strains of "Hail Columbia." + +During a great part of the day the work of rescue was continued, with +many instances of courage and devotion; and for a long time succeeding, +the almost inexhaustible harvest of the beach was to be reaped. In the +first employment, the Samoans earned the gratitude of friend and foe; in +the second, they surprised all by an unexpected virtue, that of honesty. +The greatness of the disaster, and the magnitude of the treasure now +rolling at their feet, may perhaps have roused in their bosoms an emotion +too serious for the rule of greed, or perhaps that greed was for the +moment satiated. Sails that twelve strong Samoans could scarce drag from +the water, great guns (one of which was rolled by the sea on the body of +a man, the only native slain in all the hurricane), an infinite wealth of +rope and wood, of tools and weapons, tossed upon the beach. Yet I have +never heard that much was stolen; and beyond question, much was very +honestly returned. On both accounts, for the saving of life and the +restoration of property, the government of the United States showed +themselves generous in reward. A fine boat was fitly presented to +Seumanu; and rings, watches, and money were lavished on all who had +assisted. The Germans also gave money at the rate (as I receive the +tale) of three dollars a head for every German saved. The obligation was +in this instance incommensurably deep, those with whom they were at war +had saved the German blue-jackets at the venture of their lives; Knappe +was, besides, far from ungenerous; and I can only explain the niggard +figure by supposing it was paid from his own pocket. In one case, at +least, it was refused. "I have saved three Germans," said the rescuer; +"I will make you a present of the three." + +The crews of the American and German squadrons were now cast, still in a +bellicose temper, together on the beach. The discipline of the Americans +was notoriously loose; the crew of the _Nipsic_ had earned a character +for lawlessness in other ports; and recourse was had to stringent and +indeed extraordinary measures. The town was divided in two camps, to +which the different nationalities were confined. Kimberley had his +quarter sentinelled and patrolled. Any seaman disregarding a challenge +was to be shot dead; any tavern-keeper who sold spirits to an American +sailor was to have his tavern broken and his stock destroyed. Many of +the publicans were German; and Knappe, having narrated these rigorous but +necessary dispositions, wonders (grinning to himself over his despatch) +how far these Americans will go in their assumption of jurisdiction over +Germans. Such as they were, the measures were successful. The +incongruous mass of castaways was kept in peace, and at last shipped in +peace out of the islands. + +Kane returned to Apia on the 19th, to find the _Calliope_ the sole +survivor of thirteen sail. He thanked his men, and in particular the +engineers, in a speech of unusual feeling and beauty, of which one who +was present remarked to another, as they left the ship, "This has been a +means of grace." Nor did he forget to thank and compliment the admiral; +and I cannot deny myself the pleasure of transcribing from Kimberley's +reply some generous and engaging words. "My dear captain," he wrote, +"your kind note received. You went out splendidly, and we all felt from +our hearts for you, and our cheers came with sincerity and admiration for +the able manner in which you handled your ship. We could not have been +gladder if it had been one of our ships, for in a time like that I can +truly say with old Admiral Josiah Latnall, 'that blood is thicker than +water.'" One more trait will serve to build up the image of this typical +sea-officer. A tiny schooner, the _Equator_, Captain Edwin Reid, dear to +myself from the memories of a six months' cruise, lived out upon the high +seas the fury of that tempest which had piled with wrecks the harbour of +Apia, found a refuge in Pango-Pango, and arrived at last in the desolated +port with a welcome and lucrative cargo of pigs. The admiral was glad to +have the pigs; but what most delighted the man's noble and childish soul, +was to see once more afloat the colours of his country. + +Thus, in what seemed the very article of war, and within the duration of +a single day, the sword-arm of each of the two angry Powers was broken; +their formidable ships reduced to junk; their disciplined hundreds to a +horde of castaways, fed with difficulty, and the fear of whose misconduct +marred the sleep of their commanders. Both paused aghast; both had time +to recognise that not the whole Samoan Archipelago was worth the loss in +men and costly ships already suffered. The so-called hurricane of March +16th made thus a marking epoch in world-history; directly, and at once, +it brought about the congress and treaty of Berlin; indirectly, and by a +process still continuing, it founded the modern navy of the States. +Coming years and other historians will declare the influence of that. + + + + +CHAPTER XI--LAUPEPA AND MATAAFA + + +1889-1892 + +With the hurricane, the broken war-ships, and the stranded sailors, I am +at an end of violence, and my tale flows henceforth among carpet +incidents. The blue-jackets on Apia beach were still jealously held +apart by sentries, when the powers at home were already seeking a +peaceable solution. It was agreed, so far as might be, to obliterate two +years of blundering; and to resume in 1889, and at Berlin, those +negotiations which had been so unhappily broken off at Washington in +1887. The example thus offered by Germany is rare in history; in the +career of Prince Bismarck, so far as I am instructed, it should stand +unique. On a review of these two years of blundering, bullying, and +failure in a little isle of the Pacific, he seems magnanimously to have +owned his policy was in the wrong. He left Fangalii unexpiated; suffered +that house of cards, the Tamasese government, to fall by its own frailty +and without remark or lamentation; left the Samoan question openly and +fairly to the conference: and in the meanwhile, to allay the local heats +engendered by Becker and Knappe, he sent to Apia that invaluable public +servant, Dr. Stuebel. I should be a dishonest man if I did not bear +testimony to the loyalty since shown by Germans in Samoa. Their position +was painful; they had talked big in the old days, now they had to sing +small. Even Stuebel returned to the islands under the prejudice of an +unfortunate record. To the minds of the Samoans his name represented the +beginning of their sorrows; and in his first term of office he had +unquestionably driven hard. The greater his merit in the surprising +success of the second. So long as he stayed, the current of affairs +moved smoothly; he left behind him on his departure all men at peace; and +whether by fortune, or for the want of that wise hand of guidance, he was +scarce gone before the clouds began to gather once more on our horizon. + +Before the first convention, Germany and the States hauled down their +flags. It was so done again before the second; and Germany, by a still +more emphatic step of retrogression, returned the exile Laupepa to his +native shores. For two years the unfortunate man had trembled and +suffered in the Cameroons, in Germany, in the rainy Marshalls. When he +left (September 1887) Tamasese was king, served by five iron war-ships; +his right to rule (like a dogma of the Church) was placed outside +dispute; the Germans were still, as they were called at that last tearful +interview in the house by the river, "the invincible strangers"; the +thought of resistance, far less the hope of success, had not yet dawned +on the Samoan mind. He returned (November 1889) to a changed world. The +Tupua party was reduced to sue for peace, Brandeis was withdrawn, +Tamasese was dying obscurely of a broken heart; the German flag no longer +waved over the capital; and over all the islands one figure stood +supreme. During Laupepa's absence this man had succeeded him in all his +honours and titles, in tenfold more than all his power and popularity. He +was the idol of the whole nation but the rump of the Tamaseses, and of +these he was already the secret admiration. In his position there was +but one weak point,--that he had even been tacitly excluded by the +Germans. Becker, indeed, once coquetted with the thought of patronising +him; but the project had no sequel, and it stands alone. In every other +juncture of history the German attitude has been the same. Choose whom +you will to be king; when he has failed, choose whom you please to +succeed him; when the second fails also, replace the first: upon the one +condition, that Mataafa be excluded. "_Pourvu qu'il sache signer_!"--an +official is said to have thus summed up the qualifications necessary in a +Samoan king. And it was perhaps feared that Mataafa could do no more and +might not always do so much. But this original diffidence was heightened +by late events to something verging upon animosity. Fangalii was +unavenged: the arms of Mataafa were + + _Nondum inexpiatis uncta cruoribus_, + Still soiled with the unexpiated blood + +of German sailors; and though the chief was not present in the field, nor +could have heard of the affair till it was over, he had reaped from it +credit with his countrymen and dislike from the Germans. + +I may not say that trouble was hoped. I must say--if it were not feared, +the practice of diplomacy must teach a very hopeful view of human nature. +Mataafa and Laupepa, by the sudden repatriation of the last, found +themselves face to face in conditions of exasperating rivalry. The one +returned from the dead of exile to find himself replaced and excelled. +The other, at the end of a long, anxious, and successful struggle, beheld +his only possible competitor resuscitated from the grave. The qualities +of both, in this difficult moment, shone out nobly. I feel I seem always +less than partial to the lovable Laupepa; his virtues are perhaps not +those which chiefly please me, and are certainly not royal; but he found +on his return an opportunity to display the admirable sweetness of his +nature. The two entered into a competition of generosity, for which I +can recall no parallel in history, each waiving the throne for himself, +each pressing it upon his rival; and they embraced at last a compromise +the terms of which seem to have been always obscure and are now disputed. +Laupepa at least resumed his style of King of Samoa; Mataafa retained +much of the conduct of affairs, and continued to receive much of the +attendance and respect befitting royalty; and the two Malietoas, with so +many causes of disunion, dwelt and met together in the same town like +kinsmen. It was so, that I first saw them; so, in a house set about with +sentries--for there was still a haunting fear of Germany,--that I heard +them relate their various experience in the past; heard Laupepa tell with +touching candour of the sorrows of his exile, and Mataafa with mirthful +simplicity of his resources and anxieties in the war. The relation was +perhaps too beautiful to last; it was perhaps impossible but the titular +king should grow at last uneasily conscious of the _maire de palais_ at +his side, or the king-maker be at last offended by some shadow of +distrust or assumption in his creature. I repeat the words king-maker +and creature; it is so that Mataafa himself conceives of their relation: +surely not without justice; for, had he not contended and prevailed, and +been helped by the folly of consuls and the fury of the storm, Laupepa +must have died in exile. + +Foreigners in these islands know little of the course of native intrigue. +Partly the Samoans cannot explain, partly they will not tell. Ask how +much a master can follow of the puerile politics in any school; so much +and no more we may understand of the events which surround and menace us +with their results. The missions may perhaps have been to blame. +Missionaries are perhaps apt to meddle overmuch outside their discipline; +it is a fault which should be judged with mercy; the problem is sometimes +so insidiously presented that even a moderate and able man is betrayed +beyond his own intention; and the missionary in such a land as Samoa is +something else besides a minister of mere religion; he represents +civilisation, he is condemned to be an organ of reform, he could scarce +evade (even if he desired) a certain influence in political affairs. And +it is believed, besides, by those who fancy they know, that the effective +force of division between Mataafa and Laupepa came from the natives +rather than from whites. Before the end of 1890, at least, it began to +be rumoured that there was dispeace between the two Malietoas; and +doubtless this had an unsettling influence throughout the islands. But +there was another ingredient of anxiety. The Berlin convention had long +closed its sittings; the text of the Act had been long in our hands; +commissioners were announced to right the wrongs of the land question, +and two high officials, a chief justice and a president, to guide policy +and administer law in Samoa. Their coming was expected with an +impatience, with a childishness of trust, that can hardly be exaggerated. +Months passed, these angel-deliverers still delayed to arrive, and the +impatience of the natives became changed to an ominous irritation. They +have had much experience of being deceived, and they began to think they +were deceived again. A sudden crop of superstitious stories buzzed about +the islands. Rivers had come down red; unknown fishes had been taken on +the reef and found to be marked with menacing runes; a headless lizard +crawled among chiefs in council; the gods of Upolu and Savaii made war by +night, they swam the straits to battle, and, defaced by dreadful wounds, +they had besieged the house of a medical missionary. Readers will +remember the portents in mediaeval chronicles, or those in _Julius Caesar_ +when + + "Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds + In ranks and squadrons." + +And doubtless such fabrications are, in simple societies, a natural +expression of discontent; and those who forge, and even those who spread +them, work towards a conscious purpose. + +Early in January 1891 this period of expectancy was brought to an end by +the arrival of Conrad Cedarcrantz, chief justice of Samoa. The event was +hailed with acclamation, and there was much about the new official to +increase the hopes already entertained. He was seen to be a man of +culture and ability; in public, of an excellent presence--in private, of +a most engaging cordiality. But there was one point, I scarce know +whether to say of his character or policy, which immediately and +disastrously affected public feeling in the islands. He had an aversion, +part judicial, part perhaps constitutional, to haste; and he announced +that, until he should have well satisfied his own mind, he should do +nothing; that he would rather delay all than do aught amiss. It was +impossible to hear this without academical approval; impossible to hear +it without practical alarm. The natives desired to see activity; they +desired to see many fair speeches taken on a body of deeds and works of +benefit. Fired by the event of the war, filled with impossible hopes, +they might have welcomed in that hour a ruler of the stamp of Brandeis, +breathing hurry, perhaps dealing blows. And the chief justice, +unconscious of the fleeting opportunity, ripened his opinions +deliberately in Mulinuu; and had been already the better part of half a +year in the islands before he went through the form of opening his court. +The curtain had risen; there was no play. A reaction, a chill sense of +disappointment, passed about the island; and intrigue, one moment +suspended, was resumed. + +In the Berlin Act, the three Powers recognise, on the threshold, "the +independence of the Samoan government, and the free right of the natives +to elect their chief or king and choose their form of government." True, +the text continues that, "in view of the difficulties that surround an +election in the present disordered condition of the government," Malietoa +Laupepa shall be recognised as king, "unless the three Powers shall by +common accord otherwise declare." But perhaps few natives have followed +it so far, and even those who have, were possibly all cast abroad again +by the next clause: "and his successor shall be duly elected according to +the laws and customs of Samoa." The right to elect, freely given in one +sentence, was suspended in the next, and a line or so further on appeared +to be reconveyed by a side-wind. The reason offered for suspension was +ludicrously false; in May 1889, when Sir Edward Malet moved the matter in +the conference, the election of Mataafa was not only certain to have been +peaceful, it could not have been opposed; and behind the English puppet +it was easy to suspect the hand of Germany. No one is more swift to +smell trickery than a Samoan; and the thought, that, under the long, +bland, benevolent sentences of the Berlin Act, some trickery lay lurking, +filled him with the breath of opposition. Laupepa seems never to have +been a popular king. Mataafa, on the other hand, holds an unrivalled +position in the eyes of his fellow-countrymen; he was the hero of the +war, he had lain with them in the bush, he had borne the heat and burthen +of the day; they began to claim that he should enjoy more largely the +fruits of victory; his exclusion was believed to be a stroke of German +vengeance, his elevation to the kingship was looked for as the fitting +crown and copestone of the Samoan triumph; and but a little after the +coming of the chief justice, an ominous cry for Mataafa began to arise in +the islands. It is difficult to see what that official could have done +but what he did. He was loyal, as in duty bound, to the treaty and to +Laupepa; and when the orators of the important and unruly islet of Manono +demanded to his face a change of kings, he had no choice but to refuse +them, and (his reproof being unheeded) to suspend the meeting. Whether +by any neglect of his own or the mere force of circumstance, he failed, +however, to secure the sympathy, failed even to gain the confidence, of +Mataafa. The latter is not without a sense of his own abilities or of +the great service he has rendered to his native land. He felt himself +neglected; at the very moment when the cry for his elevation rang +throughout the group he thought himself made little of on Mulinuu; and he +began to weary of his part. In this humour, he was exposed to a +temptation which I must try to explain, as best I may be able, to +Europeans. + +The bestowal of the great name, Malietoa, is in the power of the district +of Malie, some seven miles to the westward of Apia. The most noisy and +conspicuous supporters of that party are the inhabitants of Manono. Hence +in the elaborate, allusive oratory of Samoa, Malie is always referred to +by the name of _Pule_ (authority) as having the power of the name, and +Manono by that of _Ainga_ (clan, sept, or household) as forming the +immediate family of the chief. But these, though so important, are only +small communities; and perhaps the chief numerical force of the Malietoas +inhabits the island of Savaii. Savaii has no royal name to bestow, all +the five being in the gift of different districts of Upolu; but she has +the weight of numbers, and in these latter days has acquired a certain +force by the preponderance in her councils of a single man, the orator +Lauati. The reader will now understand the peculiar significance of a +deputation which should embrace Lauati and the orators of both Malie and +Manono, how it would represent all that is most effective on the Malietoa +side, and all that is most considerable in Samoan politics, except the +opposite feudal party of the Tupua. And in the temptation brought to +bear on Mataafa, even the Tupua was conjoined. Tamasese was dead. His +followers had conceived a not unnatural aversion to all Germans, from +which only the loyal Brandeis is excepted; and a not unnatural admiration +for their late successful adversary. Men of his own blood and clan, men +whom he had fought in the field, whom he had driven from Matautu, who had +smitten him back time and again from before the rustic bulwarks of +Lotoanuu, they approached him hand in hand with their ancestral enemies +and concurred in the same prayer. The treaty (they argued) was not +carried out. The right to elect their king had been granted them; or if +that were denied or suspended, then the right to elect "his successor." +They were dissatisfied with Laupepa, and claimed, "according to the laws +and customs of Samoa," duly to appoint another. The orators of Malie +declared with irritation that their second appointment was alone valid +and Mataafa the sole Malietoa; the whole body of malcontents named him as +their choice for king; and they requested him in consequence to leave +Apia and take up his dwelling in Malie, the name-place of Malietoa; a +step which may be described, to European ears, as placing before the +country his candidacy for the crown. + +I do not know when the proposal was first made. Doubtless the +disaffection grew slowly, every trifle adding to its force; doubtless +there lingered for long a willingness to give the new government a trial. +The chief justice at least had been nearly five months in the country, +and the president, Baron Senfft von Pilsach, rather more than a month +before the mine was sprung. On May 31, 1891, the house of Mataafa was +found empty, he and his chiefs had vanished from Apia, and, what was +worse, three prisoners, liberated from the gaol, had accompanied them in +their secession; two being political offenders, and the third (accused of +murder) having been perhaps set free by accident. Although the step had +been discussed in certain quarters, it took all men by surprise. The +inhabitants at large expected instant war. The officials awakened from a +dream to recognise the value of that which they had lost. Mataafa at +Vaiala, where he was the pledge of peace, had perhaps not always been +deemed worthy of particular attention; Mataafa at Malie was seen, twelve +hours too late, to be an altogether different quantity. With excess of +zeal on the other side, the officials trooped to their boats and +proceeded almost in a body to Malie, where they seem to have employed +every artifice of flattery and every resource of eloquence upon the +fugitive high chief. These courtesies, perhaps excessive in themselves, +had the unpardonable fault of being offered when too late. Mataafa +showed himself facile on small issues, inflexible on the main; he +restored the prisoners, he returned with the consuls to Apia on a flying +visit; he gave his word that peace should be preserved--a pledge in which +perhaps no one believed at the moment, but which he has since nobly +redeemed. On the rest he was immovable; he had cast the die, he had +declared his candidacy, he had gone to Malie. Thither, after his visit +to Apia, he returned again; there he has practically since resided. + +Thus was created in the islands a situation, strange in the beginning, +and which, as its inner significance is developed, becomes daily stranger +to observe. On the one hand, Mataafa sits in Malie, assumes a regal +state, receives deputations, heads his letters "Government of Samoa," +tacitly treats the king as a co-ordinate; and yet declares himself, and +in many ways conducts himself, as a law-abiding citizen. On the other, +the white officials in Mulinuu stand contemplating the phenomenon with +eyes of growing stupefaction; now with symptoms of collapse, now with +accesses of violence. For long, even those well versed in island manners +and the island character daily expected war, and heard imaginary drums +beat in the forest. But for now close upon a year, and against every +stress of persuasion and temptation, Mataafa has been the bulwark of our +peace. Apia lay open to be seized, he had the power in his hand, his +followers cried to be led on, his enemies marshalled him the same way by +impotent examples; and he has never faltered. Early in the day, a white +man was sent from the government of Mulinuu to examine and report upon +his actions: I saw the spy on his return; "It was only our rebel that +saved us," he said, with a laugh. There is now no honest man in the +islands but is well aware of it; none but knows that, if we have enjoyed +during the past eleven months the conveniences of peace, it is due to the +forbearance of "our rebel." Nor does this part of his conduct stand +alone. He calls his party at Malie the government,--"our +government,"--but he pays his taxes to the government at Mulinuu. He +takes ground like a king; he has steadily and blandly refused to obey all +orders as to his own movements or behaviour; but upon requisition he +sends offenders to be tried under the chief justice. + +We have here a problem of conduct, and what seems an image of +inconsistency, very hard at the first sight to be solved by any European. +Plainly Mataafa does not act at random. Plainly, in the depths of his +Samoan mind, he regards his attitude as regular and constitutional. It +may be unexpected, it may be inauspicious, it may be undesirable; but he +thinks it--and perhaps it is--in full accordance with those "laws and +customs of Samoa" ignorantly invoked by the draughtsmen of the Berlin +Act. The point is worth an effort of comprehension; a man's life may yet +depend upon it. Let us conceive, in the first place, that there are five +separate kingships in Samoa, though not always five different kings; and +that though one man, by holding the five royal names, might become king +in _all parts_ of Samoa, there is perhaps no such matter as a kingship of +all Samoa. He who holds one royal name would be, upon this view, as much +a sovereign person as he who should chance to hold the other four; he +would have less territory and fewer subjects, but the like independence +and an equal royalty. Now Mataafa, even if all debatable points were +decided against him, is still Tuiatua, and as such, on this hypothesis, a +sovereign prince. In the second place, the draughtsmen of the Act, +waxing exceeding bold, employed the word "election," and implicitly +justified all precedented steps towards the kingship according with the +"customs of Samoa." I am not asking what was intended by the gentlemen +who sat and debated very benignly and, on the whole, wisely in Berlin; I +am asking what will be understood by a Samoan studying their literary +work, the Berlin Act; I am asking what is the result of taking a word out +of one state of society, and applying it to another, of which the writers +know less than nothing, and no European knows much. Several interpreters +and several days were employed last September in the fruitless attempt to +convey to the mind of Laupepa the sense of the word "resignation." What +can a Samoan gather from the words, _election_? _election of a king_? +_election of a king according to the laws and customs of Samoa_? What +are the electoral measures, what is the method of canvassing, likely to +be employed by two, three, four, or five, more or less absolute +princelings, eager to evince each other? And who is to distinguish such +a process from the state of war? In such international--or, I should +say, interparochial--differences, the nearest we can come towards +understanding is to appreciate the cloud of ambiguity in which all +parties grope-- + + "Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, + Half flying." + +Now, in one part of Mataafa's behaviour his purpose is beyond mistake. +Towards the provisions of the Berlin Act, his desire to be formally +obedient is manifest. The Act imposed the tax. He has paid his taxes, +although he thus contributes to the ways and means of his immediate +rival. The Act decreed the supreme court, and he sends his partisans to +be tried at Mulinuu, although he thus places them (as I shall have +occasion to show) in a position far from wholly safe. From this literal +conformity, in matters regulated, to the terms of the Berlin +plenipotentiaries, we may plausibly infer, in regard to the rest, a no +less exact observance of the famous and obscure "laws and customs of +Samoa." + +But though it may be possible to attain, in the study, to some such +adumbration of an understanding, it were plainly unfair to expect it of +officials in the hurry of events. Our two white officers have +accordingly been no more perspicacious than was to be looked for, and I +think they have sometimes been less wise. It was not wise in the +president to proclaim Mataafa and his followers rebels and their estates +confiscated. Such words are not respectable till they repose on force; +on the lips of an angry white man, standing alone on a small promontory, +they were both dangerous and absurd; they might have provoked ruin; +thanks to the character of Mataafa, they only raised a smile and damaged +the authority of government. And again it is not wise in the government +of Mulinuu to have twice attempted to precipitate hostilities, once in +Savaii, once here in the Tuamasanga. The fate of the Savaii attempt I +never heard; it seems to have been stillborn. The other passed under my +eyes. A war-party was armed in Apia, and despatched across the island +against Mataafa villages, where it was to seize the women and children. +It was absent for some days, engaged in feasting with those whom it went +out to fight; and returned at last, innocuous and replete. In this +fortunate though undignified ending we may read the fact that the natives +on Laupepa's side are sometimes more wise than their advisers. Indeed, +for our last twelve months of miraculous peace under what seem to be two +rival kings, the credit is due first of all to Mataafa, and second to the +half-heartedness, or the forbearance, or both, of the natives in the +other camp. The voice of the two whites has ever been for war. They +have published at least one incendiary proclamation; they have armed and +sent into the field at least one Samoan war-party; they have continually +besieged captains of war-ships to attack Malie, and the captains of the +war-ships have religiously refused. Thus in the last twelve months our +European rulers have drawn a picture of themselves, as bearded like the +pard, full of strange oaths, and gesticulating like semaphores; while +over against them Mataafa reposes smilingly obstinate, and their own +retainers surround them, frowningly inert. Into the question of motive I +refuse to enter; but if we come to war in these islands, and with no +fresh occasion, it will be a manufactured war, and one that has been +manufactured, against the grain of opinion, by two foreigners. + +For the last and worst of the mistakes on the Laupepa side it would be +unfair to blame any but the king himself. Capable both of virtuous +resolutions and of fits of apathetic obstinacy, His Majesty is usually +the whip-top of competitive advisers; and his conduct is so unstable as +to wear at times an appearance of treachery which would surprise himself +if he could see it. Take, for example, the experience of Lieutenant +Ulfsparre, late chief of police, and (so to speak) commander of the +forces. His men were under orders for a certain hour; he found himself +almost alone at the place of muster, and learned the king had sent the +soldiery on errands. He sought an audience, explained that he was here +to implant discipline, that (with this purpose in view) his men could +only receive orders through himself, and if that condition were not +agreed to and faithfully observed, he must send in his papers. The king +was as usual easily persuaded, the interview passed and ended to the +satisfaction of all parties engaged--and the bargain was kept for one +day. On the day after, the troops were again dispersed as post-runners, +and their commander resigned. With such a sovereign, I repeat, it would +be unfair to blame any individual minister for any specific fault. And +yet the policy of our two whites against Mataafa has appeared uniformly +so excessive and implacable, that the blame of the last scandal is laid +generally at their doors. It is yet fresh. Lauati, towards the end of +last year, became deeply concerned about the situation; and by great +personal exertions and the charms of oratory brought Savaii and Manono +into agreement upon certain terms of compromise: Laupepa still to be +king, Mataafa to accept a high executive office comparable to that of our +own prime minister, and the two governments to coalesce. Intractable +Manono was a party. Malie was said to view the proposal with +resignation, if not relief. Peace was thought secure. The night before +the king was to receive Lauati, I met one of his company,--the family +chief, Iina,--and we shook hands over the unexpected issue of our +troubles. What no one dreamed was that Laupepa would refuse. And he +did. He refused undisputed royalty for himself and peace for these +unhappy islands; and the two whites on Mulinuu rightly or wrongly got the +blame of it. + +But their policy has another and a more awkward side. About the time of +the secession to Malie, many ugly things were said; I will not repeat +that which I hope and believe the speakers did not wholly mean; let it +suffice that, if rumour carried to Mataafa the language I have heard used +in my own house and before my own native servants, he would be highly +justified in keeping clear of Apia and the whites. One gentleman whose +opinion I respect, and am so bold as to hope I may in some points modify, +will understand the allusion and appreciate my reserve. About the same +time there occurred an incident, upon which I must be more particular. +_A_ was a gentleman who had long been an intimate of Mataafa's, and had +recently (upon account, indeed, of the secession to Malie) more or less +wholly broken off relations. To him came one whom I shall call _B_ with +a dastardly proposition. It may have been _B_'s own, in which case he +were the more unpardonable; but from the closeness of his intercourse +with the chief justice, as well as from the terms used in the interview, +men judged otherwise. It was proposed that _A_ should simulate a renewal +of the friendship, decoy Mataafa to a suitable place, and have him there +arrested. What should follow in those days of violent speech was at the +least disputable; and the proposal was of course refused. "You do not +understand," was the base rejoinder. "_You_ will have no discredit. The +Germans are to take the blame of the arrest." Of course, upon the +testimony of a gentleman so depraved, it were unfair to hang a dog; and +both the Germans and the chief justice must be held innocent. But the +chief justice has shown that he can himself be led, by his animosity +against Mataafa, into questionable acts. Certain natives of Malie were +accused of stealing pigs; the chief justice summoned them through +Mataafa; several were sent, and along with them a written promise that, +if others were required, these also should be forthcoming upon +requisition. Such as came were duly tried and acquitted; and Mataafa's +offer was communicated to the chief justice, who made a formal answer, +and the same day (in pursuance of his constant design to have Malie +attacked by war-ships) reported to one of the consuls that his warrant +would not run in the country and that certain of the accused had been +withheld. At least, this is not fair dealing; and the next instance I +have to give is possibly worse. For one blunder the chief justice is +only so far responsible, in that he was not present where it seems he +should have been, when it was made. He had nothing to do with the silly +proscription of the Mataafas; he has always disliked the measure; and it +occurred to him at last that he might get rid of this dangerous absurdity +and at the same time reap a further advantage. Let Mataafa leave Malie +for any other district in Samoa; it should be construed as an act of +submission and the confiscation and proscription instantly recalled. This +was certainly well devised; the government escaped from their own false +position, and by the same stroke lowered the prestige of their +adversaries. But unhappily the chief justice did not put all his eggs in +one basket. Concurrently with these negotiations he began again to move +the captain of one of the war-ships to shell the rebel village; the +captain, conceiving the extremity wholly unjustified, not only refused +these instances, but more or less publicly complained of their being +made; the matter came to the knowledge of the white resident who was at +that time playing the part of intermediary with Malie; and he, in natural +anger and disgust, withdrew from the negotiation. These duplicities, +always deplorable when discovered, are never more fatal than with men +imperfectly civilised. Almost incapable of truth themselves, they +cherish a particular score of the same fault in whites. And Mataafa is +besides an exceptional native. I would scarce dare say of any Samoan +that he is truthful, though I seem to have encountered the phenomenon; +but I must say of Mataafa that he seems distinctly and consistently +averse to lying. + +For the affair of the Manono prisoners, the chief justice is only again +in so far answerable as he was at the moment absent from the seat of his +duties; and the blame falls on Baron Senfft von Pilsach, president of the +municipal council. There were in Manono certain dissidents, loyal to +Laupepa. Being Manono people, I daresay they were very annoying to their +neighbours; the majority, as they belonged to the same island, were the +more impatient; and one fine day fell upon and destroyed the houses and +harvests of the dissidents "according to the laws and customs of Samoa." +The president went down to the unruly island in a war-ship and was landed +alone upon the beach. To one so much a stranger to the mansuetude of +Polynesians, this must have seemed an act of desperation; and the baron's +gallantry met with a deserved success. The six ringleaders, acting in +Mataafa's interest, had been guilty of a delict; with Mataafa's approval, +they delivered themselves over to be tried. On Friday, September 4, +1891, they were convicted before a native magistrate and sentenced to six +months' imprisonment; or, I should rather say, detention; for it was +expressly directed that they were to be used as gentlemen and not as +prisoners, that the door was to stand open, and that all their wishes +should be gratified. This extraordinary sentence fell upon the accused +like a thunderbolt. There is no need to suppose perfidy, where a +careless interpreter suffices to explain all; but the six chiefs claim to +have understood their coming to Apia as an act of submission merely +formal, that they came in fact under an implied indemnity, and that the +president stood pledged to see them scatheless. Already, on their way +from the court-house, they were tumultuously surrounded by friends and +clansmen, who pressed and cried upon them to escape; Lieutenant Ulfsparre +must order his men to load; and with that the momentary effervescence +died away. Next day, Saturday, 5th, the chief justice took his departure +from the islands--a step never yet explained and (in view of the doings +of the day before and the remonstrances of other officials) hard to +justify. The president, an amiable and brave young man of singular +inexperience, was thus left to face the growing difficulty by himself. +The clansmen of the prisoners, to the number of near upon a hundred, lay +in Vaiusu, a village half way between Apia and Malie; there they talked +big, thence sent menacing messages; the gaol should be broken in the +night, they said, and the six martyrs rescued. Allowance is to be made +for the character of the people of Manono, turbulent fellows, boastful of +tongue, but of late days not thought to be answerably bold in person. Yet +the moment was anxious. The government of Mulinuu had gained an +important moral victory by the surrender and condemnation of the chiefs; +and it was needful the victory should be maintained. The guard upon the +gaol was accordingly strengthened; a war-party was sent to watch the +Vaiusu road under Asi; and the chiefs of the Vaimaunga were notified to +arm and assemble their men. It must be supposed the president was +doubtful of the loyalty of these assistants. He turned at least to the +war-ships, where it seems he was rebuffed; thence he fled into the arms +of the wrecker gang, where he was unhappily more successful. The +government of Washington had presented to the Samoan king the wrecks of +the _Trenton_ and the _Vandalia_; an American syndicate had been formed +to break them up; an experienced gang was in consequence settled in Apia +and the report of submarine explosions had long grown familiar in the +ears of residents. From these artificers the president obtained a supply +of dynamite, the needful mechanism, and the loan of a mechanic; the gaol +was mined, and the Manono people in Vaiusu were advertised of the fact in +a letter signed by Laupepa. Partly by the indiscretion of the mechanic, +who had sought to embolden himself (like Lady Macbeth) with liquor for +his somewhat dreadful task, the story leaked immediately out and raised a +very general, or I might say almost universal, reprobation. Some blamed +the proposed deed because it was barbarous and a foul example to set +before a race half barbarous itself; others because it was illegal; +others again because, in the face of so weak an enemy, it appeared +pitifully pusillanimous; almost all because it tended to precipitate and +embitter war. In the midst of the turmoil he had raised, and under the +immediate pressure of certain indignant white residents, the baron fell +back upon a new expedient, certainly less barbarous, perhaps no more +legal; and on Monday afternoon, September 7th, packed his six prisoners +on board the cutter _Lancashire Lass_, and deported them to the +neighbouring low-island group of the Tokelaus. We watched her put to sea +with mingled feelings. Anything were better than dynamite, but this was +not good. The men had been summoned in the name of law; they had +surrendered; the law had uttered its voice; they were under one sentence +duly delivered; and now the president, by no right with which we were +acquainted, had exchanged it for another. It was perhaps no less +fortunate, though it was more pardonable in a stranger, that he had +increased the punishment to that which, in the eyes of Samoans, ranks +next to death,--exile from their native land and friends. And the +_Lancashire Lass_ appeared to carry away with her into the uttermost +parts of the sea the honour of the administration and the prestige of the +supreme court. + +The policy of the government towards Mataafa has thus been of a piece +throughout; always would-be violent, it has been almost always defaced +with some appearance of perfidy or unfairness. The policy of Mataafa +(though extremely bewildering to any white) appears everywhere consistent +with itself, and the man's bearing has always been calm. But to +represent the fulness of the contrast, it is necessary that I should give +some description of the two capitals, or the two camps, and the ways and +means of the regular and irregular government. + +_Mulinuu_. Mulinuu, the reader may remember, is a narrow finger of land +planted in cocoa-palms, which runs forth into the lagoon perhaps three +quarters of a mile. To the east is the bay of Apia. To the west, there +is, first of all, a mangrove swamp, the mangroves excellently green, the +mud ink-black, and its face crawled upon by countless insects and black +and scarlet crabs. Beyond the swamp is a wide and shallow bay of the +lagoon, bounded to the west by Faleula Point. Faleula is the next +village to Malie; so that from the top of some tall palm in Malie it +should be possible to descry against the eastern heavens the palms of +Mulinuu. The trade wind sweeps over the low peninsula and cleanses it +from the contagion of the swamp. Samoans have a quaint phrase in their +language; when out of health, they seek exposed places on the shore "to +eat the wind," say they; and there can be few better places for such a +diet than the point of Mulinuu. + +Two European houses stand conspicuous on the harbour side; in Europe they +would seem poor enough, but they are fine houses for Samoa. One is new; +it was built the other day under the apologetic title of a Government +House, to be the residence of Baron Senfft. The other is historical; it +was built by Brandeis on a mortgage, and is now occupied by the chief +justice on conditions never understood, the rumour going uncontradicted +that he sits rent free. I do not say it is true, I say it goes +uncontradicted; and there is one peculiarity of our officials in a +nutshell,--their remarkable indifference to their own character. From +the one house to the other extends a scattering village for the Faipule +or native parliament men. In the days of Tamasese this was a brave +place, both his own house and those of the Faipule good, and the whole +excellently ordered and approached by a sanded way. It is now like a +neglected bush-town, and speaks of apathy in all concerned. But the +chief scandal of Mulinuu is elsewhere. The house of the president stands +just to seaward of the isthmus, where the watch is set nightly, and armed +men guard the uneasy slumbers of the government. On the landward side +there stands a monument to the poor German lads who fell at Fangalii, +just beyond which the passer-by may chance to observe a little house +standing back-ward from the road. It is such a house as a commoner might +use in a bush village; none could dream that it gave shelter even to a +family chief; yet this is the palace of Malietoa-Natoaitele-Tamasoalii +Laupepa, king of Samoa. As you sit in his company under this humble +shelter, you shall see, between the posts, the new house of the +president. His Majesty himself beholds it daily, and the tenor of his +thoughts may be divined. The fine house of a Samoan chief is his +appropriate attribute; yet, after seventeen months, the government (well +housed themselves) have not yet found--have not yet sought--a roof-tree +for their sovereign. And the lodging is typical. I take up the +president's financial statement of September 8, 1891. I find the king's +allowance to figure at seventy-five dollars a month; and I find that he +is further (though somewhat obscurely) debited with the salaries of +either two or three clerks. Take the outside figure, and the sum +expended on or for His Majesty amounts to ninety-five dollars in the +month. Lieutenant Ulfsparre and Dr. Hagberg (the chief justice's Swedish +friends) drew in the same period one hundred and forty and one hundred +dollars respectively on account of salary alone. And it should be +observed that Dr. Hagberg was employed, or at least paid, from government +funds, in the face of His Majesty's express and reiterated protest. In +another column of the statement, one hundred and seventy-five dollars and +seventy-five cents are debited for the chief justice's travelling +expenses. I am of the opinion that if His Majesty desired (or dared) to +take an outing, he would be asked to bear the charge from his allowance. +But although I think the chief justice had done more nobly to pay for +himself, I am far from denying that his excursions were well meant; he +should indeed be praised for having made them; and I leave the charge out +of consideration in the following statement. + + ON THE ONE HAND + + Salary of Chief Justice Cedarkrantz $500 + Salary of President Baron Senfft von Pilsach (about) 415 + Salary of Lieutenant Ulfsparre, Chief of Police 140 + Salary of Dr. Hagberg, Private Secretary to the Chief Justice 100 + + Total monthly salary to four whites, one of them paid against His + Majesty's protest $1155 + + ON THE OTHER HAND + + Total monthly payments to and for His Majesty the King, including + allowance and hire of three clerks, one of these placed under the + rubric of extraordinary expenses $95 + +This looks strange enough and mean enough already. But we have ground of +comparison in the practice of Brandeis. + + Brandeis, white prime minister $200 + Tamasese (about) 160 + White Chief of Police 100 + +Under Brandeis, in other words, the king received the second highest +allowance on the sheet; and it was a good second, and the third was a bad +third. And it must be borne in mind that Tamasese himself was pointed +and laughed at among natives. Judge, then, what is muttered of Laupepa, +housed in his shanty before the president's doors like Lazarus before the +doors of Dives; receiving not so much of his own taxes as the private +secretary of the law officer; and (in actual salary) little more than +half as much as his own chief of police. It is known besides that he has +protested in vain against the charge for Dr. Hagberg; it is known that he +has himself applied for an advance and been refused. Money is certainly +a grave subject on Mulinuu; but respect costs nothing, and thrifty +officials might have judged it wise to make up in extra politeness for +what they curtailed of pomp or comfort. One instance may suffice. +Laupepa appeared last summer on a public occasion; the president was +there and not even the president rose to greet the entrance of the +sovereign. Since about the same period, besides, the monarch must be +described as in a state of sequestration. A white man, an Irishman, the +true type of all that is most gallant, humorous, and reckless in his +country, chose to visit His Majesty and give him some excellent advice +(to make up his difference with Mataafa) couched unhappily in vivid and +figurative language. The adviser now sleeps in the Pacific, but the evil +that he chanced to do lives after him. His Majesty was greatly (and I +must say justly) offended by the freedom of the expressions used; he +appealed to his white advisers; and these, whether from want of thought +or by design, issued an ignominious proclamation. Intending visitors to +the palace must appear before their consuls and justify their business. +The majesty of buried Samoa was henceforth only to be viewed (like a +private collection) under special permit; and was thus at once cut off +from the company and opinions of the self respecting. To retain any +dignity in such an abject state would require a man of very different +virtues from those claimed by the not unvirtuous Laupepa. He is not +designed to ride the whirlwind or direct the storm, rather to be the +ornament of private life. He is kind, gentle, patient as Job, +conspicuously well-intentioned, of charming manners; and when he pleases, +he has one accomplishment in which he now begins to be alone--I mean that +he can pronounce correctly his own beautiful language. + +The government of Brandeis accomplished a good deal and was continually +and heroically attempting more. The government of our two whites has +confined itself almost wholly to paying and receiving salaries. They +have built, indeed, a house for the president; they are believed (if that +be a merit) to have bought the local newspaper with government funds; and +their rule has been enlivened by a number of scandals, into which I feel +with relief that it is unnecessary I should enter. Even if the three +Powers do not remove these gentlemen, their absurd and disastrous +government must perish by itself of inanition. Native taxes (except +perhaps from Mataafa, true to his own private policy) have long been +beyond hope. And only the other day (May 6th, 1892), on the expressed +ground that there was no guarantee as to how the funds would be expended, +and that the president consistently refused to allow the verification of +his cash balances, the municipal council has negatived the proposal to +call up further taxes from the whites. All is well that ends even ill, +so that it end; and we believe that with the last dollar we shall see the +last of the last functionary. Now when it is so nearly over, we can +afford to smile at this extraordinary passage, though we must still sigh +over the occasion lost. + +* * * * * + +_Malie_. The way to Malie lies round the shores of Faleula bay and +through a succession of pleasant groves and villages. The road, one of +the works of Brandeis, is now cut up by pig fences. Eight times you must +leap a barrier of cocoa posts; the take-off and the landing both in a +patch of mire planted with big stones, and the stones sometimes reddened +with the blood of horses that have gone before. To make these obstacles +more annoying, you have sometimes to wait while a black boar clambers +sedately over the so-called pig fence. Nothing can more thoroughly +depict the worst side of the Samoan character than these useless barriers +which deface their only road. It was one of the first orders issued by +the government of Mulinuu after the coming of the chief justice, to have +the passage cleared. It is the disgrace of Mataafa that the thing is not +yet done. + +The village of Malie is the scene of prosperity and peace. In a very +good account of a visit there, published in the _Australasian_, the +writer describes it to be fortified; she must have been deceived by the +appearance of some pig walls on the shore. There is no fortification, no +parade of war. I understand that from one to five hundred fighting men +are always within reach; but I have never seen more than five together +under arms, and these were the king's guard of honour. A Sabbath quiet +broods over the well-weeded green, the picketed horses, the troops of +pigs, the round or oval native dwellings. Of these there are a +surprising number, very fine of their sort: yet more are in the building; +and in the midst a tall house of assembly, by far the greatest Samoan +structure now in these islands, stands about half finished and already +makes a figure in the landscape. No bustle is to be observed, but the +work accomplished testifies to a still activity. + +The centre-piece of all is the high chief himself, +Malietoa-Tuiatua-Tuiaana Mataafa, king--or not king--or king-claimant--of +Samoa. All goes to him, all comes from him. Native deputations bring +him gifts and are feasted in return. White travellers, to their +indescribable irritation, are (on his approach) waved from his path by +his armed guards. He summons his dancers by the note of a bugle. He +sits nightly at home before a semicircle of talking-men from many +quarters of the islands, delivering and hearing those ornate and elegant +orations in which the Samoan heart delights. About himself and all his +surroundings there breathes a striking sense of order, tranquillity, and +native plenty. He is of a tall and powerful person, sixty years of age, +white-haired and with a white moustache; his eyes bright and quiet; his +jaw perceptibly underhung, which gives him something of the expression of +a benevolent mastiff; his manners dignified and a thought insinuating, +with an air of a Catholic prelate. He was never married, and a natural +daughter attends upon his guests. Long since he made a vow of +chastity,--"to live as our Lord lived on this earth" and Polynesians +report with bated breath that he has kept it. On all such points, true +to his Catholic training, he is inclined to be even rigid. Lauati, the +pivot of Savaii, has recently repudiated his wife and taken a fairer; and +when I was last in Malie, Mataafa (with a strange superiority to his own +interests) had but just despatched a reprimand. In his immediate circle, +in spite of the smoothness of his ways, he is said to be more respected +than beloved; and his influence is the child rather of authority than +popularity. No Samoan grandee now living need have attempted that which +he has accomplished during the last twelve months with unimpaired +prestige, not only to withhold his followers from war, but to send them +to be judged in the camp of their enemies on Mulinuu. And it is a matter +of debate whether such a triumph of authority were ever possible before. +Speaking for myself, I have visited and dwelt in almost every seat of the +Polynesian race, and have met but one man who gave me a stronger +impression of character and parts. + +About the situation, Mataafa expresses himself with unshaken peace. To +the chief justice he refers with some bitterness; to Laupepa, with a +smile, as "my poor brother." For himself, he stands upon the treaty, and +expects sooner or later an election in which he shall be raised to the +chief power. In the meanwhile, or for an alternative, he would willingly +embrace a compromise with Laupepa; to which he would probably add one +condition, that the joint government should remain seated at Malie, a +sensible but not inconvenient distance from white intrigues and white +officials. One circumstance in my last interview particularly pleased +me. The king's chief scribe, Esela, is an old employe under Tamasese, +and the talk ran some while upon the character of Brandeis. Loyalty in +this world is after all not thrown away; Brandeis was guilty, in Samoan +eyes, of many irritating errors, but he stood true to Tamasese; in the +course of time a sense of this virtue and of his general uprightness has +obliterated the memory of his mistakes; and it would have done his heart +good if he could have heard his old scribe and his old adversary join in +praising him. "Yes," concluded Mataafa, "I wish we had Planteisa back +again." _A quelque chose malheur est bon_. So strong is the impression +produced by the defects of Cedarcrantz and Baron Senfft, that I believe +Mataafa far from singular in this opinion, and that the return of the +upright Brandeis might be even welcome to many. + +I must add a last touch to the picture of Malie and the pretender's life. +About four in the morning, the visitor in his house will be awakened by +the note of a pipe, blown without, very softly and to a soothing melody. +This is Mataafa's private luxury to lead on pleasant dreams. We have a +bird here in Samoa that about the same hour of darkness sings in the +bush. The father of Mataafa, while he lived, was a great friend and +protector to all living creatures, and passed under the by-name of _the +King of Birds_. It may be it was among the woodland clients of the sire +that the son acquired his fancy for this morning music. + +* * * * * + +I have now sought to render without extenuation the impressions received: +of dignity, plenty, and peace at Malie, of bankruptcy and distraction at +Mulinuu. And I wish I might here bring to an end ungrateful labours. But +I am sensible that there remain two points on which it would be improper +to be silent. I should be blamed if I did not indicate a practical +conclusion; and I should blame myself if I did not do a little justice to +that tried company of the Land Commissioners. + +The Land Commission has been in many senses unfortunate. The original +German member, a gentleman of the name of Eggert, fell early into +precarious health; his work was from the first interrupted, he was at +last (to the regret of all that knew him) invalided home; and his +successor had but just arrived. In like manner, the first American +commissioner, Henry C. Ide, a man of character and intelligence, was +recalled (I believe by private affairs) when he was but just settling +into the spirit of the work; and though his place was promptly filled by +ex-Governor Ormsbee, a worthy successor, distinguished by strong and +vivacious common sense, the break was again sensible. The English +commissioner, my friend Bazett Michael Haggard, is thus the only one who +has continued at his post since the beginning. And yet, in spite of +these unusual changes, the Commission has a record perhaps unrivalled +among international commissions. It has been unanimous practically from +the first until the last; and out of some four hundred cases disposed of, +there is but one on which the members were divided. It was the more +unfortunate they should have early fallen in a difficulty with the chief +justice. The original ground of this is supposed to be a difference of +opinion as to the import of the Berlin Act, on which, as a layman, it +would be unbecoming if I were to offer an opinion. But it must always +seem as if the chief justice had suffered himself to be irritated beyond +the bounds of discretion. It must always seem as if his original attempt +to deprive the commissioners of the services of a secretary and the use +of a safe were even senseless; and his step in printing and posting a +proclamation denying their jurisdiction were equally impolitic and +undignified. The dispute had a secondary result worse than itself. The +gentleman appointed to be Natives' Advocate shared the chief justice's +opinion, was his close intimate, advised with him almost daily, and +drifted at last into an attitude of opposition to his colleagues. He +suffered himself besides (being a layman in law) to embrace the interest +of his clients with something of the warmth of a partisan. Disagreeable +scenes occurred in court; the advocate was more than once reproved, he +was warned that his consultations with the judge of appeal tended to +damage his own character and to lower the credit of the appellate court. +Having lost some cases on which he set importance, it should seem that he +spoke unwisely among natives. A sudden cry of colour prejudice went up; +and Samoans were heard to assure each other that it was useless to appear +before the Land Commission, which was sworn to support the whites. + +This deplorable state of affairs was brought to an end by the departure +from Samoa of the Natives' Advocate. He was succeeded _pro tempore_ by a +young New Zealander, E. W. Gurr, not much more versed in law than +himself, and very much less so in Samoan. Whether by more skill or +better fortune, Gurr has been able in the course of a few weeks to +recover for the natives several important tracts of land; and the +prejudice against the Commission seems to be abating as fast as it arose. +I should not omit to say that, in the eagerness of the original advocate, +there was much that was amiable; nor must I fail to point out how much +there was of blindness. Fired by the ardour of pursuit, he seems to have +regarded his immediate clients as the only natives extant and the epitome +and emblem of the Samoan race. Thus, in the case that was the most +exclaimed against as "an injustice to natives," his client, Puaauli, was +certainly nonsuited. But in that intricate affair who lost the money? +The German firm. And who got the land? Other natives. To twist such a +decision into evidence, either of a prejudice against Samoans or a +partiality to whites, is to keep one eye shut and have the other +bandaged. + +And lastly, one word as to the future. Laupepa and Mataafa stand over +against each other, rivals with no third competitor. They may be said to +hold the great name of Malietoa in commission; each has borne the style, +each exercised the authority, of a Samoan king; one is secure of the +small but compact and fervent following of the Catholics, the other has +the sympathies of a large part of the Protestant majority, and upon any +sign of Catholic aggression would have more. With men so nearly +balanced, it may be asked whether a prolonged successful exercise of +power be possible for either. In the case of the feeble Laupepa, it is +certainly not; we have the proof before us. Nor do I think we should +judge, from what we see to-day, that it would be possible, or would +continue to be possible, even for the kingly Mataafa. It is always the +easier game to be in opposition. The tale of David and Saul would +infallibly be re-enacted; once more we shall have two kings in the +land,--the latent and the patent; and the house of the first will become +once more the resort of "every one that is in distress, and every one +that is in debt, and every one that is discontented." Against such odds +it is my fear that Mataafa might contend in vain; it is beyond the bounds +of my imagination that Laupepa should contend at all. Foreign ships and +bayonets is the cure proposed in Mulinuu. And certainly, if people at +home desire that money should be thrown away and blood shed in Samoa, an +effect of a kind, and for the time, may be produced. Its nature and +prospective durability I will ask readers of this volume to forecast for +themselves. There is one way to peace and unity: that Laupepa and +Mataafa should be again conjoined on the best terms procurable. There +may be other ways, although I cannot see them; but not even malevolence, +not even stupidity, can deny that this is one. It seems, indeed, so +obvious, and sure, and easy, that men look about with amazement and +suspicion, seeking some hidden motive why it should not be adopted. + +To Laupepa's opposition, as shown in the case of the Lauati scheme, no +dweller in Samoa will give weight, for they know him to be as putty in +the hands of his advisers. It may be right, it may be wrong, but we are +many of us driven to the conclusion that the stumbling-block is Fangalii, +and that the memorial of that affair shadows appropriately the house of a +king who reigns in right of it. If this be all, it should not trouble us +long. Germany has shown she can be generous; it now remains for her only +to forget a natural but certainly ill-grounded prejudice, and allow to +him, who was sole king before the plenipotentiaries assembled, and who +would be sole king to-morrow if the Berlin Act could be rescinded, a +fitting share of rule. The future of Samoa should lie thus in the hands +of a single man, on whom the eyes of Europe are already fixed. Great +concerns press on his attention; the Samoan group, in his view, is but as +a grain of dust; and the country where he reigns has bled on too many +august scenes of victory to remember for ever a blundering skirmish in +the plantation of Vailele. It is to him--to the sovereign of the wise +Stuebel and the loyal Brandeis,--that I make my appeal. + +_May_ 25, 1892. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +{1} Brother and successor of Theodor. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY*** + + +******* This file should be named 536.txt or 536.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/3/536 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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