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In 1872 an American naval officer made an agreement with the local chieftain of Tutuila, one of the Samoan Islands, for the use of Pago Pago, which was the best harbor in that part of the ocean. The United States drifted into more intimate relationship with the natives until in 1878 it made a treaty with the Samoan king allowing Americans to use Pago Pago as a coaling station.
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. 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.
Stevenson suggested that they might sell Skerryvore in England, and thus turn the one house directly into the other. As Skerryvore had been a gift to her from her father-in-law, Louis said, "But this money is yours," and he then said he would make it all right by leaving her the Samoan place in his will, which he did, "with all that it contained."
Now just listen to what I have written in my own private log." He stepped along to the deck-house, entered his cabin, and came back with the private log aforesaid. "Here, listen to this: "'Vavau, Tonga Islands, May 3, 1889. This evening Captain Hendry and Mr. Chard, the supercargo, came on board at six o'clock, accompanied by several white men and a number of loose Samoan women.
Not business alone which was, of course, only to be expected, what with the civil war being just over and the Kanakas driven to eat their cocoanuts instead of selling them to traders in the form of copra but, socially speaking, the little capital of the Samoan group had been next door to dead.
"Half the trouble is the stupidity of the whites," said Roberts, pausing to take a swig from his glass and to curse the Samoan bar-boy in affectionate terms. "If the white man would lay himself out a bit to understand the workings of the black man's mind, most of the messes would be avoided."
He was named the Right-arm-of-Atua, and took the lead in the village as body-guard of the king. Aumua and Oloatua are the names of two divisions of the settlement, separated by the wall. These were the names of two attendants of a lady called Manu, who had several Samoan suitors but rejected them all, and went to Tonga. Two Tongan kings made proposals to her.
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.
Civil perturbations in the Samoan Islands have during the past few years been a source of considerable embarrassment to the three Governments-Germany, Great Britain, and the United States whose relations and extraterritorial rights in that important group are guaranteed by treaties.
Manuma began to plead, half in Samoan and half in English. It was a sing-song whine, with the quavering intonations of a beggar, and it filled Mackintosh with disgust. It outraged him that the man should let himself be so crushed. He was a pitiful object. "I can do nothing," said Mackintosh irritably. "You know that Mr Walker is master here." Manuma was silent again. He still stood in the doorway.
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