CHAPTER VI
LAST EXPLOITS OF BECKER
_September--November_ 1888
Brandeis had held all day by Mulinuu, expecting the reported realattack. He woke on the 13th to find himself cut off on that unwateredpromontory, and the Mataafa villagers parading Apia. The same day Fritzereceived a letter from Mataafa summoning him to withdraw his party fromthe isthmus; and Fritze, as if in answer, drew in his ship into thesmall harbour close to Mulinuu, and trained his port battery to assistin the defence. From a step so decisive, it might be thought the Germanplans were unaffected by the disastrous issue of the battle. I conceivenothing would be further from the truth. Here was Tamasese penned onMulinuu with his troops; Apia, from which alone these could besubsisted, in the hands of the enemy; a battle imminent, in which theGerman vessel must apparently take part with men and battery, and thebuildings of the German firm were apparently destined to be the firsttarget of fire. Unless Becker re-established that which he had so latelyand so artfully thrown down--the neutral territory--the firm would haveto suffer. If he re-established it, Tamasese must retire from Mulinuu.If Becker saved his goose, he lost his cabbage. Nothing so well depictsthe man's effrontery as that he should have conceived the design ofsaving both,--of re-establishing only so much of the neutral territoryas should hamper Mataafa, and leaving in abeyance all that couldincommode Tamasese. By drawing the boundary where he now proposed,across the isthmus, he protected the firm, drove back the Mataafas outof almost all that they had conquered, and, so far from disturbingTamasese, actually fortified him in his old position.
The real story of the negotiations that followed we shall perhaps neverlearn. But so much is plain: that while Becker was thus outwardlystraining decency in the interest of Tamasese, he was privatelyintriguing, or pretending to intrigue, with Mataafa. In his despatch ofthe 11th, he had given an extended criticism of that chieftain, whom hedepicts as very dark and artful; and while admitting that his assumptionof the name of Malietoa might raise him up followers, predicted that hecould not make an orderly government or support himself long in solepower "without very energetic foreign help." Of what help was the consulthinking? There was no helper in the field but Germany. On the 15th hehad an interview with the victor; told him that Tamasese's was the onlygovernment recognised by Germany, and that he must continue to recogniseit till he received "other instructions from his government, whom he wasnow advising of the late events"; refused, accordingly, to withdraw theguard from the isthmus; and desired Mataafa, "until the arrival of thesefresh instructions," to refrain from an attack on Mulinuu. One thing oftwo: either this language is extremely perfidious, or Becker waspreparing to change sides. The same detachment appears in his despatchof October 7th. He computes the losses of the German firm with an easycheerfulness. If Tamasese get up again _(gelingt die Wiederherstellungder Regierung Tamasese's)_, Tamasese will have to pay. If not, thenMataafa. This is not the language of a partisan. The tone ofindifference, the easy implication that the case of Tamasese was alreadydesperate, the hopes held secretly forth to Mataafa and secretlyreported to his government at home, trenchantly contrast with hisexternal conduct. At this very time he was feeding Tamasese; he hadGerman sailors mounting guard on Tamasese's battlements; the Germanwar-ship lay close in, whether to help or to destroy. If he meant todrop the cause of Tamasese, he had him in a corner, helpless, and couldstifle him without a sob. If he meant to rat, it was to be with everycondition of safety and every circumstance of infamy.
Was it conceivable, then, that he meant it? Speaking with a gentlemanwho 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 hechanged it? This excellent, if ignominious, idea once entertained, whywas it let drop? It is to be remembered there was another German in thefield, Brandeis, who had a respect, or rather, perhaps, an affection,for Tamasese, and who thought his own honour and that of his countryengaged in the support of that government which they had provoked andfounded. Becker described the captain to Laupepa as "a quiet, sensiblegentleman." If any word came to his ears of the intended manoeuvre,Brandeis would certainly show himself very sensible of the affront; butBecker might have been tempted to withdraw his former epithet of quiet.Some such passage, some such threatened change of front at theconsulate, opposed with outcry, would explain what seems otherwiseinexplicable, the bitter, indignant, almost hostile tone of a subsequentletter from Brandeis to Knappe--"Brandeis's inflammatory letter,"Bismarck calls it--the proximate cause of the German landing and reverseat Fangalii.
But whether the advances of Becker were sincere or not--whether hemeditated treachery against the old king or was practising treacheryupon the new, and the choice is between one or other--no doubt but hecontrived to gain his points with Mataafa, prevailing on him to changehis camp for the better protection of the German plantations, andpersuading him (long before he could persuade his brother consuls) toaccept that miraculous new neutral territory of his, with a piece cutout for the immediate needs of Tamasese.
During the rest of September, Tamasese continued to decline. On the 19thone village and half of another deserted him; on the 22nd two more. Onthe 21st the Mataafas burned his town of Leulumoenga, his own splendidhouse flaming with the rest; and there are few things of which a nativethinks more, or has more reason to think well, than of a fine Samoanhouse. Tamasese women and children were marched up the same day fromAtua, and handed over with their sleeping-mats to Mulinuu: a mostunwelcome addition to a party already suffering from want. By the 20th,they were being watered from the _Adler_. On the 24th the Manono fleetof sixteen large boats, fortified and rendered unmanageable with tons offirewood, passed to windward to intercept supplies from Atua. By the27th the hungry garrison flocked in great numbers to draw rations at theGerman firm. On the 28th the same business was repeated with a differentissue. Mataafas crowded to look on; words were exchanged, blowsfollowed; sticks, stones, and bottles were caught up; the detestedBrandeis, at great risk, threw himself between the lines andexpostulated with the Mataafas--his only personal appearance in thewars, if this could be called war. The same afternoon, the Tamaseseboats got in with provisions, having passed to seaward of the lumberingManono fleet; and from that day on, whether from a high degree ofenterprise on the one side or a great lack of capacity on the other,supplies were maintained from the sea with regularity. Thus thespectacle of battle, or at least of riot, at the doors of the Germanfirm was not repeated. But the memory must have hung heavy on thehearts, not of the Germans only, but of all Apia. The Samoans are agentle race, gentler than any in Europe; we are often enough reminded ofthe circumstance, not always by their friends. But a mob is a mob, anda drunken mob is a drunken mob, and a drunken mob with weapons in itshands is a drunken mob with weapons in its hands, all the world over:elementary propositions, which some of us upon these islands might doworse than get by rote, but which must have been evident enough toBecker. And I am amazed by the man's constancy, that, even while blowswere going at the door of that German firm which he was in Samoa toprotect, he should have stuck to his demands. Ten days before, Blacklockhad offered to recognise the old territory, including Mulinuu, andBecker had refused, and still in the midst of these "alarums andexcursions," 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 torecognise the government of Tamasese, I believe in error. And at leastthe day for that was quite gone by; and he arrived not to salute theking's accession, but to arbitrate on his remains. A conference of theconsuls and commanders met on board the _Calliope_, October 4th, Fritzealone being absent, although twice invited: the affair touched politics,his consul was to be there; and even if he came to the meeting (so heexplained to Fairfax) he would have no voice in its
deliberations. Theparties were plainly marked out: Blacklock and Leary maintaining theiroffer of the old neutral territory, and probably willing to expand or tocontract it to any conceivable extent, so long as Mulinuu was stillincluded; Knappe offered (if the others liked) to include "the wholeeastern end of the island," but quite fixed upon the one point thatMulinuu should be left out; the English willing to meet either view, andsingly desirous that Apia should be neutralised. The conclusion wasforegone. Becker held a trump card in the consent of Mataafa; Blacklockand Leary stood alone, spoke with an ill grace, and could not long holdout. Becker had his way; and the neutral boundary was chosen just wherehe desired: across the isthmus, the firm within, Mulinuu without. He didnot 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 acomplaint. The Scanlon house stood on the hither side of the Tamasesebreastwork, just inside the newly accepted territory, and within easyrange of the firm. Armed men, to the number of a hundred, had issuedfrom Mulinuu, had "taken charge" of the house, had pointed a gun atScanlon's head, and had twice "threatened to kill" his pigs. I hearelsewhere of some effects (_Gegenstaende_) removed. At the best a verypale atrocity, though we shall find the word employed. Germans declarebesides that Scanlon was no American subject; they declare the point hadbeen decided by court-martial in 1875; that Blacklock had the decisionin the consular archives; and that this was his reason for handing theaffair to Leary. It is not necessary to suppose so. It is plain hethought little of the business; thought indeed nothing of it; except inso far as armed men had entered the neutral territory from Mulinuu; andit was on this ground alone, and the implied breach of Becker'sengagement at the conference, that he invited Leary's attention to thetale. The impish ingenuity of the commander perceived in it hugepossibilities of mischief. He took up the Scanlon outrage, the atrocityof the threatened pigs; and with that poor instrument--I am sure, to hisown wonder--drove Tamasese out of Mulinuu. It was "an intrigue," Beckercomplains. To be sure it was; but who was Becker to be complaining ofintrigue?
On the 7th Leary laid before Fritze the following conundrum "As thenatives of Mulinuu appear to be under the protection of the ImperialGerman naval guard belonging to the vessel under your command, I havethe honour to request you to inform me whether or not they are undersuch protection? Amicable relations," pursued the humorist, "amicablerelations exist between the government of the United States and HisImperial German Majesty's government, but we do not recognise Tamasese'sgovernment, and I am desirous of locating the responsibility forviolations of American rights." Becker and Fritze lost no time inexplanation or denial, but went straight to the root of the matter andsought to buy off Scanlon. Becker declares that every reparation wasoffered. Scanlon takes a pride to recapitulate the leases and thesituations he refused, and the long interviews in which he was temptedand plied with drink by Becker or Beckmann of the firm. No doubt, inshort, that he was offered reparation in reason and out of reason, and,being thoroughly primed, refused it all. Meantime some answer must bemade to Leary; and Fritze repeated on the 8th his oft-repeatedassurances that he was not authorised to deal with politics. The sameday Leary retorted: "The question is not one of diplomacy nor ofpolitics. It is strictly one of military jurisdiction andresponsibility. Under the shadow of the German fort at Mulinuu,"continued the hyperbolical commander, "atrocities have beencommitted.... And I again have the honour respectfully to request to beinformed whether or not the armed natives at Mulinuu are under theprotection of the Imperial German naval guard belonging to the vesselunder your command." To this no answer was vouchsafed till the 11th, andthen in the old terms; and meanwhile, on the 10th, Leary got into hisgaiters--the sure sign, as was both said and sung aboard his vessel, ofsome desperate or some amusing service--and was set ashore at theScanlons' house. Of this he took possession at the head of an old womanand a mop, and was seen from the Tamasese breastwork directingoperations and plainly preparing to install himself there in a militaryposture. So much he meant to be understood; so much he meant to carryout, and an armed party from the _Adams_ was to have garrisoned on themorrow the scene of the atrocity. But there is no doubt he managed toconvey more. No doubt he was a master in the art of loose speaking, andcould always manage to be overheard when he wanted; and by this, or someother equally unofficial means, he spread the rumour that on the morrowhe was to bombard.
The proposed post, from its position, and from Leary's well-establishedcharacter as an artist in mischief, must have been regarded by theGermans with uneasiness. In the bombardment we can scarce suppose themto have believed. But Tamasese must have both believed and trembled. Theprestige of the European Powers was still unbroken. No native would thenhave dreamed of defying these colossal ships, worked by mysteriouspowers, and laden with outlandish instruments of death. None would havedreamed of resisting those strange but quite unrealised Great Powers,understood (with difficulty) to be larger than Tonga and Samoa puttogether, and known to be prolific of prints, knives, hard biscuit,picture-books, and other luxuries, as well as of overbearing men andinconsistent orders. Laupepa had fallen in ill-blood with one of them;his only idea of defence had been to throw himself in the arms ofanother; his name, his rank, and his great following had not been ableto preserve him; and he had vanished from the eyes of men--as the Samoanthinks of it, beyond the sky. Asi, Maunga, Tuiletu-funga, had followedhim in that new path of doom. We have seen how carefully Mataafa stillwalked, how he dared not set foot on the neutral territory till assuredit was no longer sacred, how he withdrew from it again as soon as itssacredness had been restored, and at the bare word of a consul (howevergilded with ambiguous promises) paused in his course of victory and lefthis rival unassailed in Mulinuu. And now it was the rival's turn.Hitherto happy in the continued support of one of the white Powers, henow found himself--or thought himself--threatened with war by no lessthan two others.
Tamasese boats as they passed Matautu were in the habit of firing on theshore, as like as not without particular aim, and more in high spiritsthan hostility. One of these shots pierced the house of a Britishsubject 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 excusesand engagements for the future. He was told his explanations weresatisfactory so far as they went, but that the admiral's message was toTamasese, the _de facto_ king. Brandeis, not very well assured of hispuppet's courage, attempted in vain to excuse him from appearing. No _defacto_ king, no message, he was told: produce your _de facto_ king. AndTamasese 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 anyfurther firing from boats, the signalman was to notify the _Lizard_ andshe to fire one gun, on which all boats must lower sail and comealongside for examination and the detection of the guilty; and that, "inthe event of the boats not obeying the gun, the admiral would not beresponsible for the consequences." It was listened to by Brandeis andTamasese "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 gratitudeas though he meant it, declaring his own hands would be thusstrengthened for the maintenance of discipline. But I have yet to learnof any gratitude on the part of Tamasese. Consider the case of the poorowlish man hearing for the first time our diplomatic commonplaces. Theadmiral would not be answerable for the consequences. Think of it! Adevil 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 bythe hands of an old woman, and proffering strange threats of bloodshed.Scanlon and his pigs, the admiral and his gun, Leary and hisbombardment,--what a kettle of fish!
I dwell on the effect on Tamasese. Whatever the faults of Becker, he wasnot timid; he had already braved so much fo
r Mulinuu that I cannot butthink he might have continued to hold up his head even after the outrageof the pigs, and that the weakness now shown originated with the king.Late in the night, Blacklock was wakened to receive a despatch addressedto 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 yourprotection, has been threatened by my soldiers. As your Excellency hasforbidden the man to accept any satisfaction, and as I do not wish tomake war against the United States, I shall remove my government fromMulinuu to another place." It was signed by Tamasese, but I think moreheads than his had wagged over the direct and able letter. On themorning of the 11th, accordingly, Mulinuu the much defended lay desert.Tamasese and Brandeis had slipped to sea in a schooner; their troops hadfollowed them in boats; the German sailors and their war-flag hadreturned on board the _Adler;_ and only the German merchant flag blewthere for Weber's land-claim. Mulinuu, for which Becker had intrigued solong and so often, for which he had overthrown the municipality, forwhich he had abrogated and refused and invented successive schemes ofneutral territory, was now no more to the Germans than a veryunattractive, barren peninsula and a very much disputed land-claim ofMr. Weber's. It will scarcely be believed that the tale of the Scanlonoutrages was not yet finished. Leary had gained his point, but Scanlonhad lost his compensation. And it was months later, and this time in theshape of a threat of bombardment in black and white, that Tamasese heardthe 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 atVaiala beyond Matautu to the mission at the Mulivai. He was sometimesescorted by as many as six guards in uniform, who displayed theirproficiency in drill by perpetually shifting arms as they marched.Himself, meanwhile, paced in front, bareheaded and barefoot, a staff inhis hand, in the customary chief's dress of white kilt, shirt, andjacket, and with a conspicuous rosary about his neck. Tall but notheavy, with eager eyes and a marked appearance of courage and capacity,Mataafa makes an admirable figure in the eyes of Europeans; to those ofhis countrymen, he may seem not always to preserve that quiescence ofmanner which is thought becoming in the great. On the morning of October16th he reached the mission before day with two attendants, heard mass,had coffee with the fathers, and left again in safety. The smallness ofhis 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 inperson seeking him.
The failure of this attempt doubtless still further exasperated theconsul, and he began to deal as in an enemy's country. He had marinesfrom the _Adler_ to stand sentry over the consulate and parade thestreets by threes and fours. The bridge of the Vaisingano, which cuts inhalf the English and American quarters, he closed by proclamation andadvertised for tenders to demolish it. On the 17th Leary and Pellylanded carpenters and repaired it in his teeth. Leary, besides, hadmarines under arms, ready to land them if it should be necessary toprotect the work. But Becker looked on without interference, perhapsglad enough to have the bridge repaired; for even Becker may not alwayshave offended intentionally. Such was now the distracted posture of thelittle town: all government extinct, the German consul patrolling itwith armed men and issuing proclamations like a ruler, the two otherPowers defying his commands, and at least one of them prepared to useforce 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 anarmy in a fairy tale, restrained by the air-drawn boundary of theneutral ground.
I have had occasion to refer to the strange appearance in these islandsof an American adventurer with a battery of cannon. The adventurer waslong since gone, but his guns remained, and one of them was now to makefresh history. It had been cast overboard by Brandeis on the outer reefin the course of this retreat; and word of it coming to the ears of theMataafas, they thought it natural that they should serve themselves theheirs of Tamasese. On the 23rd a Manono boat of the kind called_taumualua_ dropped down the coast from Mataafa's camp, called in broadday at the German quarter of the town for guides, and proceeded to thereef. Here, diving with a rope, they got the gun aboard; and the nightbeing then come, returned by the same route in the shallow water alongshore, singing a boat-song. It will be seen with what childlike reliancethey had accepted the neutrality of Apia bay; they came for the gunwithout concealment, laboriously dived for it in broad day under theeyes of the town and shipping, and returned with it, singing as theywent. On Grevsmuehl's wharf, a light showed them a crowd of Germanblue-jackets clustered, and a hail was heard. "Stop the singing so thatwe 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 thegun"; and the natives report themselves to have replied in theaffirmative, and declare that they had begun to back the boat. It isperhaps not needful to believe them. A volley at least was fired fromthe wharf, at about fifty yards' range and with a very ill direction,one bullet whistling over Pelly's head on board the _Lizard_. Thenatives jumped overboard; and swimming under the lee of the _taumualua_(where they escaped a second volley) dragged her towards the east. Assoon 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 Mataututhey were hailed from the seaward by one of the _Adler's_ boats, whichhad been suddenly despatched on the sound of the firing or had stoodready all evening to secure the gun. The hail was in German; the Samoansknew not what it meant, but took the precaution to jump overboard andswim for land. Two volleys and some dropping shot were poured upon themin the water; but they dived, scattered, and came to land unhurt indifferent quarters of Matautu. The volleys, fired inshore, raked thehighway, a British house was again pierced by numerous bullets, andthese sudden sounds of war scattered consternation through the town.
Two British subjects, Hetherington-Carruthers, a solicitor, and Maben, aland-surveyor--the first being in particular a man well versed in thenative mind and language--hastened at once to their consul; assured himthe Mataafas would be roused to fury by this onslaught in the neutralzone, that the German quarter would be certainly attacked, and the restof the town and white inhabitants exposed to a peril very difficult ofestimation; and prevailed upon him to intrust them with a mission to theking. By the time they reached headquarters, the warriors were alreadytaking post round Matafele, and the agitation of Mataafa himself wasbetrayed in the fact that he spoke with the deputation standing and gunin hand: a breach of high-chief dignity perhaps unparalleled. The usualresult, however, followed: the whites persuaded the Samoan; and theattack was countermanded, to the benefit of all concerned, and not leastof Mataafa. To the benefit of all, I say; for I do not think theGermans were that evening in a posture to resist; the liquor-cellars ofthe firm must have fallen into the power of the insurgents; and I willrepeat 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 withweapons 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, theair of the neutral territory had once more whistled with bullets. And itwas clear the incident must have diplomatic consequences. Leary andPelly both protested to Fritze. Leary announced he should report theaffair to his government "as a gross violation of the principles ofinternational law, and as a breach of the neutrality." "I positivelydecline the protest," replied Fritze, "and cannot fail to express myastonishment at the tone of your last letter." This was trenchant. Itmay be said, however, that Leary was already out of court; that, afterthe night signals and the Scanlon incident, and so many other acts ofpractical if humorous hostility, his position as a neutral was no betterthan a doubtful jest. T
he case with Pelly was entirely different; andwith Pelly, Fritze was less well inspired. In his first note, he was onthe old guard; announced that he had acted on the requisition of hisconsul, who was alone responsible on "the legal side"; and declinedaccordingly to discuss "whether the lives of British subjects were indanger, and to what extent armed intervention was necessary." Pellyreplied judiciously that he had nothing to do with political matters,being only responsible for the safety of Her Majesty's ships under hiscommand and for the lives and property of British subjects; that he hadconsidered his protest a purely naval one; and as the matter stood couldonly report the case to the admiral on the station. "I have the honour,"replied Fritze, "to refuse to entertain the protest concerning thesafety of Her Britannic Majesty's ship _Lizard_ as being a navalmatter. The safety of Her Majesty's ship _Lizard_ was never in the leastendangered. This was guaranteed by the disciplined fire of a few shotsunder the direction of two officers." This offensive note, in view ofFritze's careful and honest bearing among so many other complications,may be attributed to some misunderstanding. His small knowledge ofEnglish perhaps failed him. But I cannot pass it by without remarkinghow far too much it is the custom of German officials to fall into thisstyle. It may be witty, I am sure it is not wise. It may be sometimesnecessary to offend for a definite object, it can never be diplomatic tooffend gratuitously.
Becker was more explicit, although scarce less curt. And his defence maybe divided into two statements: first, that the _taumualua_ wasproceeding to land with a hostile purpose on Mulinuu; second, that theshots complained of were fired by the Samoans. The second may bedismissed with a laugh. Human nature has laws. And no men hithertodiscovered, on being suddenly challenged from the sea, would have turnedtheir backs upon the challenger and poured volleys on the friendlyshore. The first is not extremely credible, but merits examination. Thestory of the recovered gun seems straightforward; it is supported bymuch testimony, the diving operations on the reef seem to have beenwatched from shore with curiosity; it is hard to suppose that it doesnot roughly represent the fact. And yet if any part of it be true, thewhole of Becker's explanation falls to the ground. A boat which hadskirted the whole eastern coast of Mulinuu, and was already opposite awharf in Matafele, and still going west, might have been guilty on athousand points--there was one on which she was necessarily innocent;she was necessarily innocent of proceeding on Mulinuu. Or suppose thediving operations, and the native testimony, and Pelly's chart of theboat's course, and the boat itself, to be all stages of some epidemichallucination or steps in a conspiracy--suppose even a second_taumualua_ to have entered Apia bay after nightfall, and to have beenfired upon from Grevsmuehl's wharf in the full career of hostilitiesagainst Mulinuu--suppose all this, and Becker is not helped. At the timeof the first fire, the boat was off Grevsmuehl's wharf. At the time ofthe second (and that is the one complained of) she was off Carruthers'swharf in Matautu. Was she still proceeding on Mulinuu? I trow not. Thedanger to German property was no longer imminent, the shots had beenfired upon a very trifling provocation, the spirit implied was that ofdesigned disregard to the neutrality. Such was the impression here onthe spot; such in plain terms the statement of Count Hatzfeldt to LordSalisbury at home: that the neutrality of Apia was only "to prevent thenatives from fighting," not the Germans; and that whatever Becker mighthave promised at the conference, he could not "restrict Germanwar-vessels in their freedom of action."
There was nothing to surprise in this discovery; and had events beenguided at the same time with a steady and discreet hand, it might havepassed with less observation. But the policy of Becker was felt to benot only reckless, it was felt to be absurd also. Sudden nocturnalonfalls upon native boats could lead, it was felt, to no good endwhether of peace or war; they could but exasperate; they might prove, ina moment, and when least expected, ruinous. To those who knew how nearlyit had come to fighting, and who considered the probable result, thefuture looked ominous. And fear was mingled with annoyance in the mindsof the Anglo-Saxon colony. On the 24th, a public meeting appealed to theBritish and American consuls. At half-past seven in the evening guardswere landed at the consulates. On the morrow they were each fortifiedwith sand-bags; and the subjects informed by proclamation that theseasylums stood open to them on any alarm, and at any hour of the day ornight. The social bond in Apia was dissolved. The consuls, like baronsof old, dwelt each in his armed citadel. The rank and file of the whitenationalities dared each other, and sometimes fell to on the street likerival clansmen. And the little town, not by any fault of theinhabitants, rather by the act of Becker, had fallen back incivilisation about a thousand years.
There falls one more incident to be narrated, and then I can close withthis ungracious chapter. I have mentioned the name of the new Englishconsul. It is already familiar to English readers; for the gentleman whowas fated to undergo some strange experiences in Apia was the same deCoetlogon who covered Hicks's flank at the time of the disaster in thedesert, and bade farewell to Gordon in Khartoum before the investment.The colonel was abrupt and testy; Mrs. de Coetlogon was too exclusivefor society like that of Apia; but whatever their superficialdisabilities, it is strange they should have left, in such an odour ofunpopularity, a place where they set so shining an example of thesterling virtues. The colonel was perhaps no diplomatist; he wascertainly no lawyer; but he discharged the duties of his office with theconstancy and courage of an old soldier, and these were foundsufficient. He and his wife had no ambition to be the leaders ofsociety; the consulate was in their time no house of feasting; but theymade of it that house of mourning to which the preacher tells us it isbetter we should go. At an early date after the battle of Matautu, itwas opened as a hospital for the wounded. The English and Americanssubscribed what was required for its support. Pelly of the _Lizard_strained every nerve to help, and set up tents on the lawn to be ashelter for the patients. The doctors of the English and American ships,and in particular Dr. Oakley of the _Lizard_, showed themselvesindefatigable. But it was on the de Coetlogons that the distress fell.For nearly half a year, their lawn, their verandah, sometimes theirrooms, were cumbered with the sick and dying, their ears were filledwith the complaints of suffering humanity, their time was too short forthe multiplicity of pitiful duties. In Mrs. de Coetlogon, and herhelper, Miss Taylor, the merit of this endurance was perhaps to belooked for; in a man of the colonel's temper, himself painfullysuffering, 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 andpatience, and in the success that waited on their efforts. Out of ahundred cases treated, only five died. They were all well-behaved,though full of childish wiles. One old gentleman, a high chief, wasseized with alarming symptoms of belly-ache whenever Mrs. de Coetlogonwent her rounds at night: he was after brandy. Others were insatiablefor morphine or opium. A chief woman had her foot amputated underchloroform. "Let me see my foot! Why does it not hurt?" she cried. "Ithurt so badly before I went to sleep." Siteoni, whose name has beenalready mentioned, had his shoulder-blade excised, lay the longest ofany, perhaps behaved the worst, and was on all these grounds thefavourite. At times he was furiously irritable, and would rail upon hisfamily and rise in bed until he swooned with pain. Once on the balconyhe was thought to be dying, his family keeping round his mat, his fatherexhorting him to be prepared, when Mrs. de Coetlogon brought him roundagain with brandy and smelling-salts. After discharge, he returned upona visit of gratitude; and it was observed, that instead of comingstraight to the door, he went and stood long under his umbrella on thatspot of ground where his mat had been stretched and he had endured painso many months. Similar visits were the rule, I believe withoutexception; and the grateful patients loaded Mrs. de Coetlogon with giftswhich (had that been possible in Polynesia) she would willingly havedeclined, for they were often of value to the givers.
The tissue of my story is one of rapacity, intrigue, and the triumphsof temper; the hospital a
t the consulate stands out almost alone as anepisode of human beauty, and I dwell on it with satisfaction. But it wasnot regarded at the time with universal favour; and even to-day itsinstitution is thought by many to have been impolitic. It was opened, itstood open, for the wounded of either party. As a matter of fact it wasnever used but by the Mataafas, and the Tamaseses were cared forexclusively by German doctors. In the progressive decivilisation of thetown, these duties of humanity became thus a ground of quarrel. When theMataafa hurt were first brought together after the battle of Matautu,and some more or less amateur surgeons were dressing wounds on a greenby the wayside, one from the German consulate went by in the road. "Whydon'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 theextreme expression of this spirit. On November 7th hostilities beganagain between the Samoan armies, and an inconclusive skirmish sent afresh crop of wounded to the de Coetlogons. Next door to the consulate,some native houses and a chapel (now ruinous) stood on a green. Chapeland houses were certainly Samoan, but the ground was under a land-claimof the German firm; and de Coetlogon wrote to Becker requestingpermission (in case it should prove necessary) to use these structuresfor his wounded. Before an answer came, the hospital was startled by theappearance of a case of gangrene, and the patient was hastily removedinto the chapel. A rebel laid on German ground--here was an atrocity!The day before his own relief, November 11th, Becker ordered the man'sinstant removal. By his aggressive carriage and singular mixture ofviolence and cunning, he had already largely brought about the fall ofBrandeis, and forced into an attitude of hostility the whole non-Germanpopulation of the islands. Now, in his last hour of office, by thiswanton buffet to his English colleague, he prepared a continuance ofevil days for his successor. If the object of diplomacy be theorganisation of failure in the midst of hate, he was a greatdiplomatist. And amongst a certain party on the beach he is still namedas the ideal consul.
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 17 Page 7