_Vailima_,
_Jan._ 29_th_, 1894.
MY DEAR COLVIN,—I had fully intended for your education and moral health
to fob you off with the meanest possible letter this month, and
unfortunately I find I will have to treat you to a good long account of
matters here. I believe I have told you before about Tui-ma-le-alii-fano
and my taking him down to introduce him to the Chief Justice. Well, Tui
came back to Vailima one day in the blackest sort of spirits, saying the
war was decided, that he also must join in the fight, and that there was
no hope whatever of success. He must fight as a point of honour for his
family and country; and in his case, even if he escaped on the field of
battle, deportation was the least to be looked for. He said he had a
letter of complaint from the Great Council of A’ana which he wished to
lay before the Chief Justice; and he asked me to accompany him as if I
were his nurse. We went down about dinner time; and by the way received
from a lurking native the famous letter in an official blue envelope
gummed up to the edges. It proved to be a declaration of war, quite
formal, but with some variations that really made you bounce. White
residents were directly threatened, bidden to have nothing to do with the
King’s party, not to receive their goods in their houses, etc., under
pain of an accident. However, the Chief Justice took it very wisely and
mildly, and between us, he and I and Tui made up a plan which has proved
successful—so far. The war is over—fifteen chiefs are this morning
undergoing a curious double process of law, comparable to a court
martial; in which their complaints are to be considered, and if possible
righted, while their conduct is to be criticised, perhaps punished. Up
to now, therefore, it has been a most successful policy; but the danger
is before us. My own feeling would decidedly be that all would be
spoiled by a single execution. The great hope after all lies in the
knotless, rather flaccid character of the people. These are no Maoris.
All the powers that Cedarcrantz let go by disuse the new C. J. is
stealthily and boldly taking back again; perhaps some others also. He
has shamed the chiefs in Mulinuu into a law against taking heads, with a
punishment of six years’ imprisonment and, for a chief, degradation. To
him has been left the sole conduct of this anxious and decisive inquiry.
If the natives stand it, why, well! But I am nervous.