CHAPTER VIII
AFFAIRS OF LAULII AND FANGALII
_November--December_ 1888
For Becker I have not been able to conceal my distaste, for he seems tome both false and foolish. But of his successor, the unfortunatelyfamous Dr. Knappe, we may think as of a good enough fellow drivendistraught. Fond of Samoa and the Samoans, he thought to bring peace andenjoy popularity among the islanders; of a genial, amiable, and sanguinetemper, he made no doubt but he could repair the breach with the Englishconsul. Hope told a flattering tale. He awoke to find himself exchangingdefiances with de Coetlogon, beaten in the field by Mataafa, surroundedon the spot by general exasperation, and disowned from home by his owngovernment. The history of his administration leaves on the mind of thestudent a sentiment of pity scarcely mingled.
On Blacklock he did not call, and, in view of Leary's attitude, may beexcused. 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 resultof any German settlement. It was an unpardonable fault in Becker to havekicked and buffeted his ready-made allies into a state of jealousy,anger, and suspicion. Knappe set himself at once to efface theseimpressions, and the English officials rejoiced for the moment in thechange. Between Knappe and de Coetlogon there seems to have been mutualsympathy; and, in considering the steps by which they were led at lastinto an attitude of mutual defiance, it must be remembered that both themen were sick,--Knappe from time to time prostrated with that formidablecomplaint, New Guinea fever, and de Coetlogon throughout his whole stayin the islands continually ailing.
Tamasese was still to be recognised, and, if possible, supported: suchwas the German policy. Two days after his arrival, accordingly, Knappeaddressed to Mataafa a threatening despatch. The German plantation wassuffering from the proximity of his "war-party." He must withdraw fromLaulii at once, and, whithersoever he went, he must approach no Germanproperty nor so much as any village where there was a German trader. Byfive o'clock on the morrow, if he were not gone, Knappe would turn uponhim "the attention of the man-of-war" and inflict a fine. The sameevening, November 14th, Knappe went on board the _Adler_, which began toget up steam.
Three months before, such direct intervention on the part of Germanywould have passed almost without protest; but the hour was now gone by.Becker's conduct, equally timid and rash, equally inconclusive andoffensive, had forced the other nations into a strong feeling of commoninterest with Mataafa. Even had the German demands been moderate, deCoetlogon could not have forgotten the night of the _taumualua_, nor howMataafa had relinquished, at his request, the attack upon the Germanquarter. Blacklock, with his driver of a captain at his elbow, was notlikely to lag behind. And Mataafa having communicated Knappe's letter,the example of the Germans was on all hands exactly followed; theconsuls hastened on board their respective war-ships, and these began toget up steam. About midnight, in a pouring rain, Pelly communicated toFritze his intention to follow him and protect British interests; andKnappe replied that he would come on board the _Lizard_ and see deCoetlogon personally. It was deep in the small hours, and de Coetlogonhad been long asleep, when he was wakened to receive his colleague; buthe started up with an old soldier's readiness. The conference was long.De Coetlogon protested, as he did afterwards in writing, againstKnappe's claim: the Samoans were in a state of war; they had territorialrights; it was monstrous to prevent them from entering one of their ownvillages because a German trader kept the store; and in case propertysuffered, a claim for compensation was the proper remedy. Knappe arguedthat this was a question between Germans and Samoans, in which deCoetlogon had nothing to see; and that he must protect German propertyaccording to his instructions. To which de Coetlogon replied that he washimself in the same attitude to the property of the British; that heunderstood Knappe to be intending hostilities against Laulii; thatLaulii was mortgaged to the MacArthurs; that its crops were accordinglyBritish property; and that, while he was ever willing to recognise theterritorial rights of the Samoans, he must prevent that property frombeing molested "by any other nation." "But if a German man-of-war doesit?" 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 tryinginterview should have been conducted and concluded without heat; butKnappe must have returned to the _Adler_ with darker anticipations.
At sunrise on the morning of the 15th, the three ships, each loaded withits consul, put to sea. It is hard to exaggerate the peril of theforenoon that followed, as they lay off Laulii. Nobody desired acollision, save perhaps the reckless Leary; but peace and war trembledin the balance; and when the _Adler_, at one period, lowered her gunports, war appeared to preponderate. It proved, however, to be alast--and therefore surely an unwise--extremity. Knappe contentedhimself with visiting the rival kings, and the three ships returned toApia before noon. Beyond a doubt, coming after Knappe's decisive letterof the day before, this impotent conclusion shook the credit of Germanyamong the natives of both sides; the Tamaseses fearing they weredeserted, the Mataafas (with secret delight) hoping they were feared.And it gave an impetus to that ridiculous business which might haveearned for the whole episode the name of the war of flags. British andAmerican flags had been planted the night before, and were seen thatmorning flying over what they claimed about Laulii. British and Americanpassengers, on the way up and down, pointed out from the decks of thewar-ships, with generous vagueness, the boundaries of problematicalestates. Ten days later, the beach of Saluafata bay fluttered (as I havetold in the last chapter) with the flag of Germany. The Americansriposted with a claim to Tamasese's camp, some small part of which (saysKnappe) did really belong to "an American nigger." The disease spread,the flags were multiplied, the operations of war became an egg-danceamong miniature neutral territories; and though all men took a hand inthese proceedings, all men in turn were struck with their absurdity.Mullan, Leary's successor, warned Knappe, in an emphatic despatch, notto squander and discredit the solemnity of that emblem which was all hehad to be a defence to his own consulate. And Knappe himself, in hisdespatch of March 21st, 1889, castigates the practice with much sense.But this was after the tragi-comic culmination had been reached, and theburnt rags of one of these too-frequently mendacious signals gone on aprogress to Washington, like Caesar's body, arousing indignation where itcame. To such results are nations conducted by the patent artifices of aBecker.
The discussion of the morning, the silent menace and defiance of thevoyage to Laulii, might have set the best-natured by the ears. ButKnappe and de Coetlogon took their difference in excellent part. On themorrow, November 16th, they sat down together with Blacklock inconference. The English consul introduced his colleagues, who shookhands. If Knappe were dead-weighted with the inheritance of Becker,Blacklock was handicapped by reminiscences of Leary; it is the more tothe credit of this inexperienced man that he should have maintained inthe future so excellent an attitude of firmness and moderation, and thatwhen the crash came, Knappe and de Coetlogon, not Knappe and Blacklock,were found to be the protagonists of the drama. The conference wasfutile. The English and American consuls admitted but one cure of theevils of the time: that the farce of the Tamasese monarchy should cease.It was one which the German refused to consider. And the agentsseparated without reaching any result, save that diplomatic relationshad been restored between the States and Germany, and that all threewere convinced of their fundamental differences.
Knappe and de Coetlogon were still friends; they had disputed anddiffered and come within a finger's breadth of war, and they were stillfriends. 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 consulatehospital; but he had in charge certain awnings belonging to the_Royalist_, and with these they made shift to cover the wounded, at thattime (after the fight at Laulii) more than usually numerous. Alieutenant came to the
consulate, and delivered (as I have received it)the following message: "Captain Hand's compliments, and he says you mustget 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 theawnings were stripped from the wounded, Hand himself standing on thecolonel's verandah to direct operations. It were fruitless to discussthis passage from the humanitarian point of view, or from that of formalcourtesy. The mind of the new captain was plainly not directed to theseobjects. But it is understood that he considered the existence of ahospital a source of irritation to Germans and a fault in policy. Hisown rude act proved in the result far more impolitic. The hospital hadnow been open some two months, and de Coetlogon was still on friendlyterms with Knappe, and he and his wife were engaged to dine with himthat day. By the morrow that was practically ended. For the rape of theawnings had two results: one, which was the fault of de Coetlogon, notat all of Hand, who could not have foreseen it; the other which it washis duty to have seen and prevented. The first was this: the deCoetlogons found themselves left with their wounded exposed to theinclemencies of the season; they must all be transported into the houseand verandah; in the distress and pressure of this task, the dinnerengagement was too long forgotten; and a note of excuse did not reachthe German consulate before the table was set, and Knappe dressed toreceive his visitors. The second consequence was inevitable. CaptainHand was scarce landed ere it became public (was "_sofort bekannt_,"writes Knappe) that he and the consul were in opposition. All that hadbeen gained by the demonstration at Laulii was thus immediately castaway; de Coetlogon's prestige was lessened; and it must be said plainlythat Hand did less than nothing to restore it. Twice indeed heinterfered, both times with success; and once, when his own person hadbeen endangered, with vehemence; but during all the strange doings Ihave to narrate, he remained in close intimacy with the Germanconsulate, and on one occasion may be said to have acted as its marshal.After the worst is over, after Bismarck has told Knappe that "theprotests of his English colleague were grounded," that his own conduct"has not been good," and that in any dispute which may arise he "willfind himself in the wrong," Knappe can still plead in his defence thatCaptain Hand "has always maintained friendly intercourse with the Germanauthorities." Singular epitaph for an English sailor. In this complicityon the part of Hand we may find the reason--and I had almost said, theexcuse--of much that was excessive in the bearing of the unfortunateKnappe.
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 aconvulsion in the camp of Tamasese. On the 13th Brandeis addressed toKnappe his famous and fatal letter. I may not describe it as a letter ofburning words, but it is plainly dictated by a burning heart. Tamaseseand his chiefs, he announces, are now sick of the business, and ready tomake 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 grimlygiven to be understood that the despatch is an ultimatum, and a lastchance is being offered for the recreant ally to fulfil her pledge. Tomake 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 ofGerman property alone; and when the _Olga_ shall have arrived" [shearrived on the morrow] "the German war-ships will continue to do againstthe insurgents precisely as little as they have done heretofore." Plantflags, in fact.
Here was Knappe's opportunity, could he have stooped to seize it. I findit difficult to blame him that he could not. Far from being soinglorious as the treachery once contemplated by Becker, the acceptanceof this ultimatum would have been still in the nature of a disgrace.Brandeis's letter, written by a German, was hard to swallow. It wouldhave been hard to accept that solution which Knappe had so recently andso peremptorily refused to his brother consuls. And he was tempted, onthe other hand, by recent changes. There was no Pelly to support deCoetlogon, who might now be disregarded. Mullan, Leary's successor, evenif he were not precisely a Hand, was at least no Leary; and even ifMullan should show fight, Knappe had now three ships and could defy orsink him without danger. Many small circumstances moved him in the samedirection. The looting of German plantations continued; the whole forceof Mataafa was to a large extent subsisted from the crops of Vailele;and armed men were to be seen openly plundering bananas, bread-fruit,and cocoa-nuts under the walls of the plantation building. On the nightof the 13th the consulate stable had been broken into and a horseremoved. On the 16th there was a riot in Apia between half-castes andsailors from the new ship _Olga_, each side claiming that the other wasthe worse of drink, both (for a wager) justly. The multiplication offlags and little neutral territories had, besides, begun to irritate theSamoans. The protests of German settlers had been received uncivilly. Onthe 16th the Mataafas had again sought to land in Saluafata bay, withthe manifest intention to attack the Tamaseses, or (in other words) "totrespass on German lands, covered, as your Excellency knows, withflags." I quote from his requisition to Fritze, December 17th. Upon allthese considerations, he goes on, it is necessary to bring the fightingto an end. Both parties are to be disarmed and returned to theirvillages--Mataafa first. And in case of any attempt upon Apia, the roadsthither are to be held by a strong landing-party. Mataafa was to bedisarmed first, perhaps rightly enough in his character of the lastinsurgent. Then was to have come the turn of Tamasese; but it does notappear the disarming would have had the same import or have been goneabout in the same way. Germany was bound to Tamasese. No honest manwould dream of blaming Knappe because he sought to redeem his country'sword. The path he chose was doubtless that of honour, so far as honourwas still left. But it proved to be the road to ruin.
Fritze, ranking German officer, is understood to have opposed themeasure. His attitude earned him at the time unpopularity among hiscountry-people on the spot, and should now redound to his credit. It isto be hoped he extended his opposition to some of the details. If itwere possible to disarm Mataafa at all, it must be done rather byprestige than force. A party of blue-jackets landed in Samoan bush, andexpected to hold against Samoans a multiplicity of forest paths, hadtheir work cut out for them. And it was plain they should be landed inthe light of day, with a discouraging openness, and even with parade. Tosneak ashore by night was to increase the danger of resistance and tominimise the authority of the attack. The thing was a bluff, and it isimpossible to bluff with stealth. Yet this was what was tried. Alanding-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 (orperhaps later) on the morning of the 19th, this unpromising business wasput in hand, and there moved off from the _Olga_ two boats with somefifty blue-jackets between them, and a _praam_ or punt containingninety,--the boats and the whole expedition under the command ofCaptain-Lieutenant Jaeckel, the praam under Lieutenant Spengler. The menhad 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 nextday for the protection of German property; but the Tamaseses had beenless discreet. "To-morrow at the hour of seven," they had cried to theiradversaries, "you will know of a difficulty, and our guns shall be madegood in broken bones." An accident had pointed expectation towards Apia.The wife of Le Mamea washed for the German ships--a perquisite, Isuppose, for her husband's unwilling fidelity. She sent a man with linenon board the _Adler_, where he was surprised to se
e Le Mamea in person,and to be himself ordered instantly on shore. The news spread. If Mameawere brought down from Lotoanuu, others might have come at the sametime. Tamasese himself and half his army might perhaps lie concealed onboard the German ships. And a watch was accordingly set and warriorscollected along the line of the shore. One detachment lay in somerifle-pits by the mouth of the Fuisa. They were commanded by Seumanu;and with his party, probably as the most contiguous to Apia, was thewar-correspondent, John Klein. Of English birth, but naturalisedAmerican, this gentleman had been for some time representing the _NewYork World_ in a very effective manner, always in the front, living inthe field with the Samoans, and in all vicissitudes of weather, toilingto and fro with his despatches. His wisdom was perhaps not equal to hisenergy. He made himself conspicuous, going about armed to the teeth in aboat under the stars and stripes; and on one occasion, when he supposedhimself fired upon by the Tamaseses, had the petulance to empty hisrevolver in the direction of their camp. By the light of the moon, whichwas then nearly down, this party observed the _Olga's_ two boats and thepraam, which they described as "almost sinking with men," the boatskeeping well out towards the reef, the praam at the moment apparentlyheading for the shore. An extreme agitation seems to have reigned in therifle-pits. What were the new-comers? What was their errand? Were theyGermans or Tamaseses? Had they a mind to attack? The praam was hailed inSamoan and did not answer. It was proposed to fire upon her ere she drewnear. And at last, whether on his own suggestion or that of Seumanu,Klein hailed her in English, and in terms of unnecessary melodrama. "Donot try to land here," he cried. "If you do, your blood will be uponyour head." Spengler, who had never the least intention to touch at theFuisa, put up the head of the praam to her true course and continued tomove up the lagoon with an offing of some seventy or eighty yards. Alongall the irregularities and obstructions of the beach, across the mouthof the Vaivasa, and through the startled village of Matafangatele,Seumanu, Klein, and seven or eight others raced to keep up, spreadingthe alarm and rousing reinforcements as they went. Presently a man onhorseback made his appearance on the opposite beach of Fangalii. Kleinand the natives distinctly saw him signal with a lantern; which is themore strange, as the horseman (Captain Hufnagel, plantation manager ofVailele) had never a lantern to signal with. The praam kept in. Many menin white were seen to stand up, step overboard, and wade to shore. Atthe same time the eye of panic descried a breastwork of "foreign stone"(brick) upon the beach. Samoans are prepared to-day to swear to itsexistence, I believe conscientiously, although no such thing was evermade or ever intended in that place. The hour is doubtful. "It was thehour when the streak of dawn is seen, the hour known in the warfare ofheathen times as the hour of the night attack," says the Mataafaofficial account. A native whom I met on the field declared it was atcock-crow. Captain Hufnagel, on the other hand, is sure it was longbefore the day. It was dark at least, and the moon down. Darkness madethe Samoans bold; uncertainty as to the composition and purpose of thelanding-party made them desperate. Fire was opened on the Germans, oneof whom was here killed. The Germans returned it, and effected alodgment on the beach; and the skirmish died again to silence. It was atthis time, if not earlier, that Klein returned to Apia.
Here, then, were Spengler and the ninety men of the praam, landed on thebeach in no very enviable posture, the woods in front filled withunnumbered enemies, but for the time successful. Meanwhile, Jaeckel andthe boats had gone outside the reef, and were to land on the other sideof 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 intothe woods and through the midst of the Samoans, who had but now ceasedfiring. He went in the saddle and at a foot's pace, feeling speed andconcealment 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 effortmade to arrest him on his errand. As he went, he spoke and even jestedwith the Samoans, and they answered in good part. One fellow wasleaping, yelling, and tossing his axe in the air, after the way of anexcited islander. "_Faimalosi_! go it!" said Hufnagel, and the fellowlaughed and redoubled his exertions. As soon as the boats entered thelagoon, fire was again opened from the woods. The fifty blue-jacketsjumped overboard, hove down the boats to be a shield, and dragged themtowards the landing-place. In this way, their rations, and (what wasmore unfortunate) some of their miserable provision of forty rounds gotwetted; but the men came to shore and garrisoned the plantation housewithout a casualty. Meanwhile the sound of the firing from Sungaimmediately renewed the hostilities at Fangalii. The civilians on shoredecided that Spengler must be at once guided to the house, and Haideln,the surveyor, accepted the dangerous errand. Like Hufnagel, he wassuffered to pass without question through the midst of these platonicenemies. He found Spengler some way inland on a knoll, disastrouslyengaged, the woods around him filled with Samoans, who were continuouslyreinforced. In three successive charges, cheering as they ran, theblue-jackets burst through their scattered opponents, and made goodtheir junction with Jaeckel. Four men only remained upon the field, theother wounded being helped by their comrades or dragging themselvespainfully along.
The force was now concentrated in the house and its immediate patch ofgarden. Their rear, to the seaward, was unmolested; but on three sidesthey were beleaguered. On the left, the Samoans occupied and fired fromsome of the plantation offices. In front, a long rising crest of land inthe horse-pasture commanded the house, and was lined with theassailants. And on the right, the hedge of the same paddock affordedthem a dangerous cover. It was in this place that a Samoan sharpshooterwas knocked over by Jaeckel with his own hand. The fire was maintainedby 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. TheSamoans showed themselves extremely enterprising: pushed their linesforward, ventured beyond cover, and continually threatened to envelopthe 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 werethrown suddenly open, and the gallant blue-jackets issued cheering:necessary, successful, but extremely costly sorties. Neither could thesebe pushed far. The foes were undaunted; so soon as the sailors advancedat all deep in the horse-pasture, the Samoans began to close in uponboth flanks; and the sally had to be recalled. To add to the dangers ofthe German situation, ammunition began to run low; and thecartridge-boxes of the wounded and the dead had been already broughtinto use before, at about eight o'clock, the _Eber_ steamed into thebay. Her commander, Wallis, threw some shells into Letongo, one of whichkilled five men about their cooking-pot. The Samoans began immediatelyto withdraw; their movements were hastened by a sortie, and the remainsof the landing-party brought on board. This was an unfortunate movement;it gave an irremediable air of defeat to what might have been elseclaimed for a moderate success. The blue-jackets numbered a hundred andforty all told; they were engaged separately and fought under the worstconditions, in the dark and among woods; their position in the housewas scarce tenable; they lost in killed and wounded fifty-six,--fortyper cent.; and their spirit to the end was above question. Whether wethink of the poor sailor lads, always so pleasantly behaved in times ofpeace, or whether we call to mind the behaviour of the two civilians,Haideln and Hufnagel, we can only regret that brave men should stand tobe exposed upon so poor a quarrel, or lives cast away upon an enterpriseso hopeless.
News of the affair reached Apia early, and Moors, always curious ofthese spectacles of war, was immediately in the saddle. NearMatafangatele he met a Manono chief, whom he asked if there were anyGerman dead. "I think there are about thirty of them knocked over," saidhe. "Have you taken their heads?" asked Moors. "Yes," said the chief."Some foolish people did it, but I have stopped them. We ought not tocut off their heads when they do not cut off ours." He was asked whathad been done with the heads. "Two have gone to Mataafa," he replied,"and one is buried right under where your hors
e is standing, in a basketwrapped in tapa." This was afterwards dug up, and I am told on nativeauthority that, besides the three heads, two ears were taken. Moors nextasked the Manono man how he came to be going away. "The man-of-war isthrowing shells," said he. "When they stopped firing out of the house,we stopped firing also; so it was as well to scatter when the shellsbegan. We could have killed all the white men. I wish they had beenTamaseses." This is an _ex parte_ statement, and I give it for such; butthe course of the affair, and in particular the adventures of Haidelnand Hufnagel, testify to a surprising lack of animosity against theGermans. About the same time or but a little earlier than thisconversation, the same spirit was being displayed. Hufnagel, with aparty of labour, had gone out to bring in the German dead, when he wassurprised to be suddenly fired on from the wood. The boys he had withhim were not negritos, but Polynesians from the Gilbert Islands; and hesuddenly remembered that these might be easily mistaken for a detachmentof Tamaseses. Bidding his boys conceal themselves in a thicket, thisbrave man walked into the open. So soon as he was recognised, the firingceased, and the labourers followed him in safety. This is chivalrouswar; but there was a side to it less chivalrous. As Moors drew nearer toVailele, 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 gunhe stopped and spoke. The hat was handed up for him to look at; it hadthe late owner's name on the inside. "Where is he?" asked Moors. "He isdead; I cut his head off." "You shot him?" "No, somebody else shot himin 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 hasbecome of the cartridge-belt?" "Another fellow grabbed that and thecartridges, and he won't give them to me." A dreadful and silly pictureof barbaric war. The words of the German sailor must be regarded asimaginary: how was the poor lad to speak native, or the Samoan tounderstand German? When Moors came as far as Sunga, the _Eber_ was yetin the bay, the smoke of battle still lingered among the trees, whichwere themselves marked with a thousand bullet-wounds. But the affair wasover, the combatants, German and Samoan, were all gone, and only acouple of negrito labour boys lurked on the scene. The village ofLetongo beyond was equally silent; part of it was wrecked by the shellsof the _Eber_, and still smoked; the inhabitants had fled. On the beachwere the native boats, perhaps five thousand dollars' worth, deserted bythe Mataafas and overlooked by the Germans, in their common hurry toescape. Still Moors held eastward by the sea-paths. It was his hope toget a view from the other side of the promontory, towards Laulii. In theway he found a house hidden in the wood and among rocks, where an agedand sick woman was being tended by her elderly daughter. Last lingerersin that deserted piece of coast, they seemed indifferent to the eventswhich had thus left them solitary, and, as the daughter said, did notknow where Mataafa was, nor where Tamasese.
It is the official Samoan pretension that the Germans fired first atFangalii. In view of all German and some native testimony, the text ofFritze's orders, and the probabilities of the case, no honest mind willbelieve it for a moment. Certainly the Samoans fired first. As certainlythey 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. Theinvincible had fallen; the men of the vaunted war-ships had been met inthe field by the braves of Mataafa: a superstition was no more. Conceivethis people steadily as schoolboys; and conceive the elation in anyschool if the head boy should suddenly arise and drive the rector fromthe schoolhouse. I have received one instance of the feeling instantlyaroused. There lay at the time in the consular hospital an old chief whowas a pet of the colonel's. News reached him of the glorious event; hewas sick, he thought himself sinking, sent for the colonel, and gave himhis gun. "Don't let the Germans get it," said the old gentleman, andhaving received a promise, was at peace.
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