_Saturday_, 24_th_ (?) _June_.
MY DEAR COLVIN—Yesterday morning, after a day of absolute temperance, I
awoke to the worst headache I had had yet. Accordingly, temperance was
said farewell to, quinine instituted, and I believe my pains are soon to
be over. We wait, with a kind of sighing impatience, for war to be
declared, or to blow finally off, living in the meanwhile in a kind of
children’s hour of firelight and shadow and preposterous tales; the king
seen at night galloping up our road upon unknown errands and covering his
face as he passes our cook; Mataafa daily surrounded (when he awakes)
with fresh ‘white man’s boxes’ (query, ammunition?) and professing to be
quite ignorant of where they come from; marches of bodies of men across
the island; concealment of ditto in the bush; the coming on and off of
different chiefs; and such a mass of ravelment and rag-tag as the devil
himself could not unwind.
* * * * *
_Wednesday_, 28_th_ _June_.
Yesterday it rained with but little intermission, but I was jealous of
news. Graham and I got into the saddle about 1 o’clock and off down to
town. In town, there was nothing but rumours going; in the night drums
had been beat, the men had run to arms on Mulinuu from as far as Vaiala,
and the alarm proved false. There were no signs of any gathering in Apia
proper, and the Secretary of State had no news to give. I believed him,
too, for we are brither Scots. Then the temptation came upon me strong
to go on to the ford and see the Mataafa villages, where we heard there
was more afoot. Off we rode. When we came to Vaimusu, the houses were
very full of men, but all seemingly unarmed. Immediately beyond is that
river over which we passed in our scamper with Lady Jersey; it was all
solitary. Three hundred yards beyond is a second ford; and there—I came
face to face with war. Under the trees on the further bank sat a picket
of seven men with Winchesters; their faces bright, their eyes ardent. As
we came up, they did not speak or move; only their eyes followed us. The
horses drank, and we passed the ford. ‘Talofa!’ I said, and the
commandant of the picket said ‘Talofa’; and then, when we were almost by,
remembered himself and asked where we were going. ‘To Faamuina,’ I said,
and we rode on. Every house by the wayside was crowded with armed men.
There was the European house of a Chinaman on the right-hand side: a flag
of truce flying over the gate—indeed we saw three of these in what little
way we penetrated into Mataafa’s lines—all the foreigners trying to
protect their goods; and the Chinaman’s verandah overflowed with men and
girls and Winchesters. By the way we met a party of about ten or a dozen
marching with their guns and cartridge-belts, and the cheerful alacrity
and brightness of their looks set my head turning with envy and sympathy.
Arrived at Vaiusu, the houses about the _malae_ (village green) were
thronged with men, all armed. On the outside of the council-house (which
was all full within) there stood an orator; he had his back turned to his
audience, and seemed to address the world at large; all the time we were
there his strong voice continued unabated, and I heard snatches of
political wisdom rising and falling.
The house of Faamuina stands on a knoll in the _malae_. Thither we
mounted, a boy ran out and took our horses, and we went in. Faamuina was
there himself, his wife Pelepa, three other chiefs, and some attendants;
and here again was this exulting spectacle as of people on their marriage
day. Faamuina (when I last saw him) was an elderly, limping gentleman,
with much of the debility of age; it was a bright-eyed boy that greeted
me; the lady was no less excited; all had cartridge-belts. We stayed but
a little while to smoke a sului; I would not have kava made, as I thought
my escapade was already dangerous (perhaps even blameworthy) enough. On
the way back, we were much greeted, and on coming to the ford, the
commandant came and asked me if there were many on the other side. ‘Very
many,’ said I; not that I knew, but I would not lead them on the ice.
‘That is well!’ said he, and the little picket laughed aloud as we
splashed into the river. We returned to Apia, through Apia, and out to
windward as far as Vaiala, where the word went that the men of the
Vaimauga had assembled. We met two boys carrying pigs, and saw six young
men busy cooking in a cook-house; but no sign of an assembly; no arms, no
blackened faces. I forgot! As we turned to leave Faamuina’s, there ran
forward a man with his face blackened, and the back of his lava-lava
girded up so as to show his tattooed hips naked; he leaped before us, cut
a wonderful caper, and flung his knife high in the air, and caught it.
It was strangely savage and fantastic and high-spirited. I have seen a
child doing the same antics long before in a dance, so that it is plainly
an _accepted solemnity_. I should say that for weeks the children have
been playing with spears. Up by the plantation I took a short cut, which
shall never be repeated, through grass and weeds over the horses’ heads
and among rolling stones; I thought we should have left a horse there,
but fortune favoured us. So home, a little before six, in a dashing
squall of rain, to a bowl of kava and dinner. But the impression on our
minds was extraordinary; the sight of that picket at the ford, and those
ardent, happy faces whirls in my head; the old aboriginal awoke in both
of us and knickered like a stallion.
It is dreadful to think that I must sit apart here and do nothing; I do
not know if I can stand it out. But you see, I may be of use to these
poor people, if I keep quiet, and if I threw myself in, I should have a
bad job of it to save myself. There; I have written this to you; and it
is still but 7.30 in the day, and the sun only about one hour up; can I
go back to my old grandpapa, and men sitting with Winchesters in my
mind’s eye? No; war is a huge _entraînement_; there is no other
temptation to be compared to it, not one. We were all wet, we had been
about five hours in the saddle, mostly riding hard; and we came home like
schoolboys, with such a lightness of spirits, and I am sure such a
brightness of eye, as you could have lit a candle at!
* * * * *
_Thursday_ 29_th_.
I had two priests to luncheon yesterday: the Bishop and Père Rémy. They
were very pleasant, and quite clean too, which has been known sometimes
not to be—even with bishops. Monseigneur is not unimposing; with his
white beard and his violet girdle he looks splendidly episcopal, and when
our three waiting lads came up one after another and kneeled before him
in the big hall, and kissed his ring, it did me good for a piece of
pageantry. Rémy is very engaging; he is a little, nervous, eager man,
like a governess, and brimful of laughter and small jokes. So is the
bishop indeed, and our luncheon party went off merrily—far more merrily
than many a German spread, though with so much less liquor. One trait
was delicious. With a complete ignorance of the Protestant that I would
scarce have imagined, he related to us (as news) little stories from the
gospels, and got the names all wrong! His comments were delicious, and
to our ears a thought irreverent. ‘_Ah_! _il connaissait son monde_,
_allez_!’ ‘_Il était fin_, _notre Seigneur_!’ etc.
* * * * *
_Friday_.
Down with Fanny and Belle, to lunch at the International. Heard there
about the huge folly of the hour, all the Mulinuu ammunition having been
yesterday marched openly to vaults in Matafele; and this morning, on a
cry of protest from the whites, openly and humiliatingly disinterred and
marched back again. People spoke of it with a kind of shrill note that
did not quite satisfy me. They seemed not quite well at ease. Luncheon
over, we rode out on the Malie road. All was quiet in Vaiusu, and when
we got to the second ford, alas! there was no picket—which was just what
Belle had come to sketch. On through quite empty roads; the houses
deserted, never a gun to be seen; and at last a drum and a penny whistle
playing in Vaiusu, and a cricket match on the _malae_! Went up to
Faamuina’s; he is a trifle uneasy, though he gives us kava. I cannot see
what ails him, then it appears that he has an engagement with the Chief
Justice at half-past two to sell a piece of land. Is this the reason why
war has disappeared? We ride back, stopping to sketch here and there the
fords, a flag of truce, etc. I ride on to Public Hall Committee and pass
an hour with my committees very heavily. To the hotel to dinner, then to
the ball, and home by eleven, very tired. At the ball I heard some news,
of how the chief of Letonu said that I was the source of all this
trouble, and should be punished, and my family as well. This, and the
rudeness of the man at the ford of the Gase-gase, looks but ill; I should
have said that Faamuina, as he approached the first ford, was spoken to
by a girl, and immediately said goodbye and plunged into the bush; the
girl had told him there was a war party out from Mulinuu; and a little
further on, as we stopped to sketch a flag of truce, the beating of drums
and the sound of a bugle from that direction startled us. But we saw
nothing, and I believe Mulinuu is (at least at present) incapable of any
act of offence. One good job, these threats to my home and family take
away all my childish temptation to go out and fight. Our force must be
here, to protect ourselves. I see panic rising among the whites; I hear
the shrill note of it in their voices, and they talk already about a
refuge on the war ships. There are two here, both German; and the
_Orlando_ is expected presently.
* * * * *
_Sunday_ 9_th_ _July_.
Well, the war has at last begun. For four or five days, Apia has been
filled by these poor children with their faces blacked, and the red
handkerchief about their brows, that makes the Malietoa uniform, and the
boats have been coming in from the windward, some of them 50 strong, with
a drum and a bugle on board—the bugle always ill-played—and a sort of
jester leaping and capering on the sparred nose of the boat, and the
whole crew uttering from time to time a kind of menacing ululation.
Friday they marched out to the bush; and yesterday morning we heard that
some had returned to their houses for the night, as they found it ‘so
uncomfortable.’ After dinner a messenger came up to me with a note, that
the wounded were arriving at the Mission House. Fanny, Lloyd and I
saddled and rode off with a lantern; it was a fine starry night, though
pretty cold. We left the lantern at Tanuga-manono, and then down in the
starlight. I found Apia, and myself, in a strange state of flusteration;
my own excitement was gloomy and (I may say) truculent; others appeared
imbecile; some sullen. The best place in the whole town was the
hospital. A longish frame-house it was, with a big table in the middle
for operations, and ten Samoans, each with an average of four
sympathisers, stretched along the walls. Clarke was there, steady as a
die; Miss Large, little spectacled angel, showed herself a real trump;
the nice, clean, German orderlies in their white uniforms looked and
meant business. (I hear a fine story of Miss Large—a cast-iron
teetotaller—going to the public-house for a bottle of brandy.)
The doctors were not there when I arrived; but presently it was observed
that one of the men was going cold. He was a magnificent Samoan, very
dark, with a noble aquiline countenance, like an Arab, I suppose, and was
surrounded by seven people, fondling his limbs as he lay: he was shot
through both lungs. And an orderly was sent to the town for the (German
naval) doctors, who were dining there. Meantime I found an errand of my
own. Both Clarke and Miss Large expressed a wish to have the public
hall, of which I am chairman, and I set off down town, and woke people
out of their beds, and got a committee together, and (with a great deal
of difficulty from one man, whom we finally overwhelmed) got the public
hall for them. Bar the one man, the committee was splendid, and agreed
in a moment to share the expense if the shareholders object. Back to the
hospital about 11.30; found the German doctors there. Two men were going
now, one that was shot in the bowels—he was dying rather hard, in a
gloomy stupor of pain and laudanum, silent, with contorted face. The
chief, shot through the lungs, was lying on one side, awaiting the last
angel; his family held his hands and legs; they were all speechless, only
one woman suddenly clasped his knee, and ‘keened’ for the inside of five
seconds, and fell silent again. Went home, and to bed about two A.M.
What actually passed seems undiscoverable; but the Mataafas were surely
driven back out of Vaitele; that is a blow to them, and the resistance
was far greater than had been anticipated—which is a blow to the
Laupepas. All seems to indicate a long and bloody war.
Frank’s house in Mulinuu was likewise filled with wounded; many dead
bodies were brought in; I hear with certainty of five, wrapped in mats;
and a pastor goes to-morrow to the field to bring others. The Laupepas
brought in eleven heads to Mulinuu, and to the great horror and
consternation of the native mind, one proved to be a girl, and was
identified as that of a Taupou—or Maid of the Village—from Savaii. I
hear this morning, with great relief, that it has been returned to Malie,
wrapped in the most costly silk handkerchiefs, and with an apologetic
embassy. This could easily happen. The girl was of course attending on
her father with ammunition, and got shot; her hair was cut short to make
her father’s war head-dress—even as our own Sina’s is at this moment; and
the decollator was probably, in his red flurry of fight, wholly
unconscious of her sex. I am sorry for him in the future; he must make
up his mind to many bitter jests—perhaps to vengeance. But what an end
to one chosen for her beauty and, in the time of peace, watched over by
trusty crones and hunchbacks!
* * * * *
_Evening_.
Can I write or not? I played lawn tennis in the morning, and after lunch
down with Graham to Apia. Ulu, he that was shot in the lungs, still
lives; he that was shot in the bowels is gone to his fathers, poor,
fierce child! I was able to be of some very small help, and in the way
of helping myself to information, to prove myself a mere gazer at
meteors. But there seems no doubt the Mataafas for the time are
scattered; the most of our friends are involved in this disaster, and
Mataafa himself—who might have swept the islands a few months ago—for him
to fall so poorly, doubles my regret. They say the Taupou had a gun and
fired; probably an excuse manufactured _ex post facto_. I go down
to-morrow at 12, to stay the afternoon, and help Miss Large. In the
hospital to-day, when I first entered it, there were no attendants; only
the wounded and their friends, all equally sleeping and their heads
poised upon the wooden pillows. There is a pretty enough boy there,
slightly wounded, whose fate is to be envied: two girls, and one of the
most beautiful, with beaming eyes, tend him and sleep upon his pillow.
In the other corner, another young man, very patient and brave, lies
wholly deserted. Yet he seems to me far the better of the two; but not
so pretty! Heavens, what a difference that makes; in our not very well
proportioned bodies and our finely hideous faces, the 1-32nd—rather the
1-64th—this way or that! Sixteen heads in all at Mulinuu. I am so stiff
I can scarce move without a howl.
* * * * *
_Monday_, 10_th_.
Some news that Mataafa is gone to Savaii by way of Manono; this may mean
a great deal more warfaring, and no great issue. (When Sosimo came in
this morning with my breakfast he had to lift me up. It is no joke to
play lawn tennis after carrying your right arm in a sling so many years.)
What a hard, unjust business this is! On the 28th, if Mataafa had moved,
he could have still swept Mulinuu. He waited, and I fear he is now only
the stick of a rocket.
* * * * *
_Wednesday_, 12_th_.
No more political news; but many rumours. The government troops are off
to Manono; no word of Mataafa. O, there is a passage in my mother’s
letter which puzzles me as to a date. Is it next Christmas you are
coming? or the Christmas after? This is most important, and must be
understood at once. If it is next Christmas, I could not go to Ceylon,
for lack of gold, and you would have to adopt one of the following
alternatives: 1st, either come straight on here and pass a month with us;
’tis the rainy season, but we have often lovely weather. Or (2nd) come
to Hawaii and I will meet you there. Hawaii is only a week’s sail from
S. Francisco, making only about sixteen days on the heaving ocean; and
the steamers run once a fortnight, so that you could turn round; and you
could thus pass a day or two in the States—a fortnight even—and still see
me. But I have sworn to take no further excursions till I have money
saved to pay for them; and to go to Ceylon and back would be torture
unless I had a lot. You must answer this at once, please; so that I may
know what to do. We would dearly like you to come on here. I’ll tell
you how it can be done; I can come up and meet you at Hawaii, and if you
had at all got over your sea-sickness, I could just come on board and we
could return together to Samoa, and you could have a month of our life
here, which I believe you could not help liking. Our horses are the
devil, of course, miserable screws, and some of them a little vicious. I
had a dreadful fright—the passage in my mother’s letter is recrossed and
I see it says the end of /94: so much the better, then; but I would like
to submit to you my alternative plan. I could meet you at Hawaii, and
reconduct you to Hawaii, so that we could have a full six weeks together
and I believe a little over, and you would see this place of mine, and
have a sniff of native life, native foods, native houses—and perhaps be
in time to see the German flag raised, who knows?—and we could generally
yarn for all we were worth. I should like you to see Vailima; and I
should be curious to know how the climate affected you. It is quite hit
or miss; it suits me, it suits Graham, it suits all our family; others it
does not suit at all. It is either gold or poison. I rise at six, the
rest at seven; lunch is at 12; at five we go to lawn tennis till dinner
at six; and to roost early.
A man brought in a head to Mulinuu in great glory; they washed the black
paint off, and behold! it was his brother. When I last heard he was
sitting in his house, with the head upon his lap, and weeping. Barbarous
war is an ugly business; but I believe the civilised is fully uglier; but
Lord! what fun!
I should say we now have definite news that there are _three_ women’s
heads; it was difficult to get it out of the natives, who are all
ashamed, and the women all in terror of reprisals. Nothing has been done
to punish or disgrace these hateful innovators. It was a false report
that the head had been returned.
* * * * *
_Thursday_, 13_th_.
Mataafa driven away from Savaii. I cannot write about this, and do not
know what should be the end of it.
* * * * *
_Monday_, 17_th_.
Haggard and Ahrens (a German clerk) to lunch yesterday. There is no real
certain news yet: I must say, no man could _swear_ to any result; but the
sky looks horribly black for Mataafa and so many of our friends along
with him. The thing has an abominable, a beastly, nightmare interest.
But it’s wonderful generally how little one cares about the wounded;
hospital sights, etc.; things that used to murder me. I was far more
struck with the excellent way in which things were managed; as if it had
been a peep-show; I held some of the things at an operation, and did not
care a dump.
* * * * *
_Tuesday_, 18_th_.
Sunday came the _Katoomba_, Captain Bickford, C.M.G. Yesterday, Graham
and I went down to call, and find he has orders to suppress Mataafa at
once, and has to go down to-day before daybreak to Manono. He is a very
capable, energetic man; if he had only come ten days ago, all this would
have gone by; but now the questions are thick and difficult. (1) Will
Mataafa surrender? (2) Will his people allow themselves to be disarmed?
(3) What will happen to them if they do? (4) What will any of them
believe after former deceptions? The three consuls were scampering on
horseback to Leulumoega to the King; no Cusack-Smith, without whose
accession I could not send a letter to Mataafa. I rode up here, wrote my
letter in the sweat of the concordance and with the able-bodied help of
Lloyd—and dined. Then down in continual showers and pitchy darkness, and
to Cusack-Smith’s; not re-returned. Back to the inn for my horse, and to
C.-S.’s, when I find him just returned and he accepts my letter. Thence
home, by 12.30, jolly tired and wet. And to-day have been in a
crispation of energy and ill-temper, raking my wretched mail together.
It is a hateful business, waiting for the news; it may come to a fearful
massacre yet.—Yours ever,
R. L. S.