THE SORROWS OF LAUPEPA, 1883 TO 1887
You ride in a German plantation and see no bush, no soul stirring; only
acres of empty sward, miles of cocoa-nut alley: a desert of food. In the
eyes of the Samoan the place has the attraction of a park for the
holiday schoolboy, of a granary for mice. We must add the yet more
lively allurement of a haunted house, for over these empty and silent
miles there broods the fear of the negrito cannibal. For the Samoan
besides, there is something barbaric, unhandsome, and absurd in the idea
of thus growing food only to send it from the land and sell it. A man at
home who should turn all Yorkshire into one wheatfield, and annually
burn his harvest on the altar of Mumbo-Jumbo, might impress ourselves
not much otherwise. And the firm which does these things is quite
extraneous, a wen that might be excised to-morrow without loss but to
itself; few natives drawing from it so much as day's wages; and the rest
beholding in it only the occupier of their acres. The nearest villages
have suffered most; they see over the hedge the lands of their ancestors
waving with useless cocoa-palms; and the sales were often questionable,
and must still more often appear so to regretful natives, spinning and
improving yarns about the evening lamp. At the worst, then, to help
oneself from the plantation will seem to a Samoan very like
orchard-breaking to the British schoolboy; at the best, it will be
thought a gallant Robin-Hoodish readjustment of a public wrong.
And there is more behind. Not only is theft from the plantations
regarded rather as a lark and peccadillo, the idea of theft in itself is
not very clearly present to these communists; and as to the punishment
of crime in general, a great gulf of opinion divides the natives from
ourselves. Indigenous punishments were short and sharp. Death,
deportation by the primitive method of setting the criminal to sea in a
canoe, fines, and in Samoa itself the penalty of publicly biting a hot,
ill-smelling root, comparable to a rough forfeit in a children's
game--these are approved. The offender is killed, or punished and
forgiven. We, on the other hand, harbour malice for a period of years:
continuous shame attaches to the criminal; even when he is doing his
best--even when he is submitting to the worst form of torture, regular
work--he is to stand aside from life and from his family in dreadful
isolation. These ideas most Polynesians have accepted in appearance, as
they accept other ideas of the whites; in practice, they reduce it to a
farce. I have heard the French resident in the Marquesas in talk with
the French gaoler of Tai-o-hae: "_Eh bien, ou sont vos prisonnieres?--Je
crois, mon commandant, qu'elles sont allees quelque part faire une
visite_." And the ladies would be welcome. This is to take the most
savage of Polynesians; take some of the most civilised. In Honolulu,
convicts labour on the highways in piebald clothing, gruesome and
ridiculous; and it is a common sight to see the family of such an one
troop out, about the dinner hour, wreathed with flowers and in their
holiday best, to picnic with their kinsman on the public wayside. The
application of these outlandish penalties, in fact, transfers the
sympathy to the offender. Remember, besides, that the clan system, and
that imperfect idea of justice which is its worst feature, are still
lively in Samoa; that it is held the duty of a judge to favour kinsmen,
of a king to protect his vassals; and the difficulty of getting a
plantation thief first caught, then convicted, and last of all punished,
will appear.
During the early 'eighties, the Germans looked upon this system with
growing irritation. They might see their convict thrust in gaol by the
front door; they could never tell how soon he was enfranchised by the
back; and they need not be the least surprised if they met him, a few
days after, enjoying the delights of a _malanga_. It was a banded
conspiracy, from the king and the vice-king downward, to evade the law
and deprive the Germans of their profits. In 1883, accordingly, the
consul, Dr. Stuebel, extorted a convention on the subject, in terms of
which Samoans convicted of offences against German subjects were to be
confined in a private gaol belonging to the German firm. To Dr. Stuebel
it seemed simple enough: the offenders were to be effectually punished,
the sufferers partially indemnified. To the Samoans, the thing appeared
no less simple, but quite different: "Malietoa was selling Samoans to
Misi Ueba." What else could be expected? Here was a private corporation
engaged in making money; to it was delegated, upon a question of profit
and loss, one of the functions of the Samoan crown; and those who make
anomalies must look for comments. Public feeling ran unanimous and high.
Prisoners who escaped from the private gaol were not recaptured or not
returned, and Malietoa hastened to build a new prison of his own,
whither he conveyed, or pretended to convey, the fugitives. In October
1885 a trenchant state paper issued from the German consulate. Twenty
prisoners, the consul wrote, had now been at large for eight months from
Weber's prison. It was pretended they had since then completed their
term of punishment elsewhere. Dr. Stuebel did not seek to conceal his
incredulity; but he took ground beyond; he declared the point
irrelevant. The law was to be enforced. The men were condemned to a
certain period in Weber's prison; they had run away; they must now be
brought back and (whatever had become of them in the interval) work out
the sentence. Doubtless Dr. Stuebel's demands were substantially just;
but doubtless also they bore from the outside a great appearance of
harshness; and when the king submitted, the murmurs of the people
increased.
But Weber was not yet content. The law had to be enforced; property, or
at least the property of the firm, must be respected. And during an
absence of the consul's, he seems to have drawn up with his own hand,
and certainly first showed to the king, in his own house, a new
convention. Weber here and Weber there. As an able man, he was perhaps
in the right to prepare and propose conventions. As the head of a
trading company, he seems far out of his part to be communicating state
papers to a sovereign. The administration of justice was the colour, and
I am willing to believe the purpose, of the new paper; but its effect
was to depose the existing government. A council of two Germans and two
Samoans were to be invested with the right to make laws and impose taxes
as might be "desirable for the common interest of the Samoan government
and the German residents." The provisions of this council the king and
vice-king were to sign blindfold. And by a last hardship, the Germans,
who received all the benefit, reserved a right to recede from the
agreement on six months' notice; the Samoans, who suffered all the loss,
were bound by it in perpetuity. I can never believe that my friend Dr.
Stuebel had a hand in drafting these proposals; I am only surprised he
should have been a party to enforcing them, perhaps the chief error in
these islands of a man who has made few. And they were enforced with a
rigour that seems injudicious. The Samoans (according to their own
account) were denied a copy of the document; they were certainly rated
and threatened; their deliberation was treated as contumacy; two German
war-ships lay in port, and it was hinted that these would shortly
intervene.
Succeed in frightening a child, and he takes refuge in duplicity.
"Malietoa," one of the chiefs had written, "we know well we are in
bondage to the great governments." It was now thought one tyrant might
be better than three, and any one preferable to Germany. On the 5th
November 1885, accordingly, Laupepa, Tamasese, and forty-eight high
chiefs met in secret, and the supremacy of Samoa was secretly offered to
Great Britain for the second time in history. Laupepa and Tamasese still
figured as king and vice-king in the eyes of Dr. Stuebel; in their own,
they had secretly abdicated, were become private persons, and might do
what they pleased without binding or dishonouring their country. On the
morrow, accordingly, they did public humiliation in the dust before the
consulate, and five days later signed the convention. The last was done,
it is claimed, upon an impulse. The humiliation, which it appeared to
the Samoans so great a thing to offer, to the practical mind of Dr.
Stuebel seemed a trifle to receive; and the pressure was continued and
increased. Laupepa and Tamasese were both heavy, well-meaning,
inconclusive men. Laupepa, educated for the ministry, still bears some
marks of it in character and appearance; Tamasese was in private of an
amorous and sentimental turn, but no one would have guessed it from his
solemn and dull countenance. Impossible to conceive two less dashing
champions for a threatened race; and there is no doubt they were reduced
to the extremity of muddlement and childish fear. It was drawing towards
night on the 10th, when this luckless pair and a chief of the name of
Tuiatafu, set out for the German consulate, still minded to temporise.
As they went, they discussed their case with agitation. They could see
the lights of the German war-ships as they walked--an eloquent reminder.
And it was then that Tamasese proposed to sign the convention. "It will
give us peace for the day," said Laupepa, "and afterwards Great Britain
must decide."--"Better fight Germany than that!" cried Tuiatafu,
speaking words of wisdom, and departed in anger. But the two others
proceeded on their fatal errand; signed the convention, writing
themselves king and vice-king, as they now believed themselves to be no
longer; and with childish perfidy took part in a scene of
"reconciliation" at the German consulate.
Malietoa supposed himself betrayed by Tamasese. Consul Churchward states
with precision that the document was sold by a scribe for thirty-six
dollars. Twelve days later at least, November 22nd, the text of the
address to Great Britain came into the hands of Dr. Stuebel. The Germans
may have been wrong before; they were now in the right to be angry. They
had been publicly, solemnly, and elaborately fooled; the treaty and the
reconciliation were both fraudulent, with the broad, farcical
fraudulency of children and barbarians. This history is much from the
outside; it is the digested report of eye-witnesses; it can be rarely
corrected from state papers; and as to what consuls felt and thought, or
what instructions they acted under, I must still be silent or proceed by
guess. It is my guess that Stuebel now decided Malietoa Laupepa to be a
man impossible to trust and unworthy to be dealt with. And it is certain
that the business of his deposition was put in hand at once. The
position of Weber, with his knowledge of things native, his prestige,
and his enterprising intellect, must have always made him influential
with the consul: at this juncture he was indispensable. Here was the
deed to be done; here the man of action. "Mr. Weber rested not," says
Laupepa. It was "like the old days of his own consulate," writes
Churchward. His messengers filled the isle; his house was thronged with
chiefs and orators; he sat close over his loom, delightedly weaving the
future. There was one thing requisite to the intrigue,--a native
pretender; and the very man, you would have said, stood waiting:
Mataafa, titular of Atua, descended from both the royal lines, late
joint king with Tamasese, fobbed off with nothing in the time of the
Lackawanna treaty, probably mortified by the circumstance, a chief with
a strong following, and in character and capacity high above the native
average. Yet when Weber's spiriting was done, and the curtain rose on
the set scene of the coronation, Mataafa was absent, and Tamasese stood
in his place. Malietoa was to be deposed for a piece of solemn and
offensive trickery, and the man selected to replace him was his sole
partner and accomplice in the act. For so strange a choice, good ground
must have existed; but it remains conjectural: some supposing Mataafa
scratched as too independent; others that Tamasese had indeed betrayed
Laupepa, and his new advancement was the price of his treachery.
So these two chiefs began to change places like the scales of a balance,
one down, the other up. Tamasese raised his flag (Jan. 28th, 1886) in
Leulumoenga, chief place of his own province of Aana, usurped the style
of king, and began to collect and arm a force. Weber, by the admission
of Stuebel, was in the market supplying him with weapons; so were the
Americans; so, but for our salutary British law, would have been the
British; for wherever there is a sound of battle, there will the traders
be gathered together selling arms. A little longer, and we find Tamasese
visited and addressed as king and majesty by a German commodore.
Meanwhile, for the unhappy Malietoa, the road led downward. He was
refused a bodyguard. He was turned out of Mulinuu, the seat of his
royalty, on a land claim of Weber's, fled across the Mulivai, and "had
the coolness" (German expression) to hoist his flag in Apia. He was
asked "in the most polite manner," says the same account--"in the most
delicate manner in the world," a reader of Marryat might be tempted to
amend the phrase,--to strike his flag in his own capital; and on his
"refusal to accede to this request," Dr. Stuebel appeared himself with
ten men and an officer from the cruiser _Albatross_; a sailor climbed
into the tree and brought down the flag of Samoa, which was carefully
folded, and sent, "in the most polite manner," to its owner. The consuls
of England and the States were there (the excellent gentlemen!) to
protest. Last, and yet more explicit, the German commodore who visited
the be-titled Tamasese, addressed the king--we may surely say the late
king--as "the High Chief Malietoa."
Had he no party, then? At that time, it is probable, he might have
called some five-sevenths of Samoa to his standard. And yet he sat
there, helpless monarch, like a fowl trussed for roasting. The blame
lies with himself, because he was a helpless creature; it lies also with
England and the States. Their agents on the spot preached peace (where
there was no peace, and no pretence of it) with eloquence and iteration.
Secretary Bayard seems to have felt a call to join personally in the
solemn farce, and was at the expense of a telegram in which he assured
the sinking monarch it was "for the higher interests of Samoa" he should
do nothing. There was no man better at doing that; the advice came
straight home, and was devoutly followed. And to be just to the great
Powers, something was done in Europe; a conference was called, it was
agreed to send commissioners to Samoa, and the decks had to be hastily
cleared against their visit. Dr. Stuebel had attached the municipality
of Apia and hoisted the German war-flag over Mulinuu; the American
consul (in a sudden access of good service) had flown the stars and
stripes over Samoan colours; on either side these steps were solemnly
retracted. The Germans expressly disowned Tamasese; and the islands fell
into a period of suspense, of some twelve months' duration, during which
the seat of the history was transferred to other countries and escapes
my purview. Here on the spot, I select three incidents: the arrival on
the scene of a new actor, the visit of the Hawaiian embassy, and the
riot on the Emperor's birthday. The rest shall be silence; only it must
be borne in view that Tamasese all the while continued to strengthen
himself in Leulumoenga, and Laupepa sat inactive listening to the song
of consuls.
_Captain Brandeis_. The new actor was Brandeis, a Bavarian captain of
artillery, of a romantic and adventurous character. He had served with
credit in war; but soon wearied of garrison life, resigned his battery,
came to the States, found employment as a civil engineer, visited Cuba,
took a sub-contract on the Panama canal, caught the fever, and came (for
the sake of the sea voyage) to Australia. He had that natural love for
the tropics which lies so often latent in persons of a northern birth;
difficulty and danger attracted him; and when he was picked out for
secret duty, to be the hand of Germany in Samoa, there is no doubt but
he accepted the post with exhilaration. It is doubtful if a better
choice could have been made. He had courage, integrity, ideas of his
own, and loved the employment, the people, and the place. Yet there was
a fly in the ointment. The double error of unnecessary stealth and of
the immixture of a trading company in political affairs, has vitiated,
and in the end defeated, much German policy. And Brandeis was introduced
to the islands as a clerk, and sent down to Leulumoenga (where he was
soon drilling the troops and fortifying the position of the rebel king)
as an agent of the German firm. What this mystification cost in the end
I shall tell in another place; and even in the beginning, it deceived no
one. Brandeis is a man of notable personal appearance; he looks the part
allotted him; and the military clerk was soon the centre of observation
and rumour. Malietoa wrote and complained of his presence to Becker, who
had succeeded Dr. Stuebel in the consulate. Becker replied, "I have
nothing to do with the gentleman Brandeis. Be it well known that the
gentleman Brandeis has no appointment in a military character, but
resides peaceably assisting the government of Leulumoenga in their work,
for Brandeis is a quiet, sensible gentleman." And then he promised to
send the vice-consul to "get information of the captain's doings":
surely supererogation of deceit.
_The Hawaiian Embassy_. The prime minister of the Hawaiian kingdom was,
at this period, an adventurer of the name of Gibson. He claimed, on the
strength of a romantic story, to be the heir of a great English house.
He had played a part in a revolt in Java, had languished in Dutch
fetters, and had risen to be a trusted agent of Brigham Young, the Utah
president. It was in this character of a Mormon emissary that he first
came to the islands of Hawaii, where he collected a large sum of money
for the Church of the Latter Day Saints. At a given moment, he dropped
his saintship and appeared as a Christian and the owner of a part of the
island of Lanai. The steps of the transformation are obscure; they seem,
at least, to have been ill-received at Salt Lake; and there is evidence
to the effect that he was followed to the islands by Mormon assassins.
His first attempt on politics was made under the auspices of what is
called the missionary party, and the canvass conducted largely (it is
said with tears) on the platform at prayer-meetings. It resulted in
defeat. Without any decency of delay he changed his colours, abjured the
errors of reform, and, with the support of the Catholics, rose to the
chief power. In a very brief interval he had thus run through the gamut
of religions in the South Seas. It does not appear that he was any more
particular in politics, but he was careful to consult the character and
prejudices of the late king, Kalakaua. That amiable, far from
unaccomplished, but too convivial sovereign, had a continued use for
money: Gibson was observant to keep him well supplied. Kalakaua (one of
the most theoretical of men) was filled with visionary schemes for the
protection and development of the Polynesian race: Gibson fell in step
with him; it is even thought he may have shared in his illusions. The
king and minister at least conceived between them a scheme of island
confederation--the most obvious fault of which was that it came too
late--and armed and fitted out the cruiser _Kaimiloa_, nest-egg of the
future navy of Hawaii. Samoa, the most important group still
independent, and one immediately threatened with aggression, was chosen
for the scene of action. The Hon. John E. Bush, a half-caste Hawaiian,
sailed (December 1887) for Apia as minister-plenipotentiary, accompanied
by a secretary of legation, Henry F. Poor; and as soon as she was ready
for sea, the war-ship followed in support. The expedition was futile in
its course, almost tragic in result. The _Kaimiloa_ was from the first a
scene of disaster and dilapidation: the stores were sold; the crew
revolted; for a great part of a night she was in the hands of mutineers,
and the secretary lay bound upon the deck. The mission, installing
itself at first with extravagance in Matautu, was helped at last out of
the island by the advances of a private citizen. And they returned from
dreams of Polynesian independence to find their own city in the hands of
a clique of white shopkeepers, and the great Gibson once again in gaol.
Yet the farce had not been quite without effect. It had encouraged the
natives for the moment, and it seems to have ruffled permanently the
temper of the Germans. So might a fly irritate Caesar.
The arrival of a mission from Hawaii would scarce affect the composure
of the courts of Europe. But in the eyes of Polynesians the little
kingdom occupies a place apart. It is there alone that men of their race
enjoy most of the advantages and all the pomp of independence; news of
Hawaii and descriptions of Honolulu are grateful topics in all parts of
the South Seas; and there is no better introduction than a photograph in
which the bearer shall be represented in company with Kalakaua. Laupepa
was, besides, sunk to the point at which an unfortunate begins to clutch
at straws, and he received the mission with delight. Letters were
exchanged between him and Kalakaua; a deed of confederation was signed,
17th February 1887, and the signature celebrated in the new house of the
Hawaiian embassy with some original ceremonies. Malietoa Laupepa came,
attended by his ministry, several hundred chiefs, two guards, and six
policemen. Always decent, he withdrew at an early hour; by those that
remained, all decency appears to have been forgotten; high chiefs were
seen to dance; and day found the house carpeted with slumbering
grandees, who must be roused, doctored with coffee, and sent home. As a
first chapter in the history of Polynesian Confederation, it was hardly
cheering, and Laupepa remarked to one of the embassy, with equal dignity
and sense: "If you have come here to teach my people to drink, I wish
you had stayed away."
The Germans looked on from the first with natural irritation that a
power of the powerlessness of Hawaii should thus profit by its
undeniable footing in the family of nations, and send embassies, and
make believe to have a navy, and bark and snap at the heels of the great
German Empire. But Becker could not prevent the hunted Laupepa from
taking refuge in any hole that offered, and he could afford to smile at
the fantastic orgie in the embassy. It was another matter when the
Hawaiians approached the intractable Mataafa, sitting still in his Atua
government like Achilles in his tent, helping neither side, and (as the
Germans suspected) keeping the eggs warm for himself. When the
_Kaimiloa_ steamed out of Apia on this visit, the German war-ship
_Adler_ followed at her heels; and Mataafa was no sooner set down with
the embassy than he was summoned and ordered on board by two German
officers. The step is one of those triumphs of temper which can only be
admired. Mataafa is entertaining the plenipotentiary of a sovereign
power in treaty with his own king, and the captain of a German corvette
orders him to quit his guests.
But there was worse to come. I gather that Tamasese was at the time in
the sulks. He had doubtless been promised prompt aid and a prompt
success; he had seen himself surreptitiously helped, privately ordered
about, and publicly disowned; and he was still the king of nothing more
than his own province, and already the second in command of Captain
Brandeis. With the adhesion of some part of his native cabinet, and
behind the back of his white minister, he found means to communicate
with the Hawaiians. A passage on the _Kaimiloa_, a pension, and a home
in Honolulu were the bribes proposed; and he seems to have been tempted.
A day was set for a secret interview. Poor, the Hawaiian secretary, and
J. D. Strong, an American painter attached to the embassy in the
surprising quality of "Government Artist," landed with a Samoan
boat's-crew in Aana; and while the secretary hid himself, according to
agreement, in the outlying home of an English settler, the artist
(ostensibly bent on photography) entered the headquarters of the rebel
king. It was a great day in Leulumoenga; three hundred recruits had come
in, a feast was cooking; and the photographer, in view of the native
love of being photographed, was made entirely welcome. But beneath the
friendly surface all were on the alert. The secret had leaked out: Weber
beheld his plans threatened in the root; Brandeis trembled for the
possession of his slave and sovereign; and the German vice-consul, Mr.
Sonnenschein, had been sent or summoned to the scene of danger.
It was after dark, prayers had been said and the hymns sung through all
the village, and Strong and the German sat together on the mats in the
house of Tamasese, when the events began. Strong speaks German freely, a
fact which he had not disclosed, and he was scarce more amused than
embarrassed to be able to follow all the evening the dissension and the
changing counsels of his neighbours. First the king himself was missing,
and there was a false alarm that he had escaped and was already closeted
with Poor. Next came certain intelligence that some of the ministry had
run the blockade, and were on their way to the house of the English
settler. Thereupon, in spite of some protests from Tamasese, who tried
to defend the independence of his cabinet, Brandeis gathered a posse of
warriors, marched out of the village, brought back the fugitives, and
clapped them in the corrugated iron shanty which served as gaol. Along
with these he seems to have seized Billy Coe, interpreter to the
Hawaiians; and Poor, seeing his conspiracy public, burst with his
boat's-crew into the town, made his way to the house of the native prime
minister, and demanded Coe's release. Brandeis hastened to the spot,
with Strong at his heels; and the two principals being both incensed,
and Strong seriously alarmed for his friend's safety, there began among
them a scene of great intemperance. At one point, when Strong suddenly
disclosed his acquaintance with German, it attained a high style of
comedy; at another, when a pistol was most foolishly drawn, it bordered
on drama; and it may be said to have ended in a mixed genus, when Poor
was finally packed into the corrugated iron gaol along with the
forfeited ministers. Meanwhile the captain of his boat, Siteoni, of whom
I shall have to tell again, had cleverly withdrawn the boat's-crew at an
early stage of the quarrel. Among the population beyond Tamasese's
marches, he collected a body of armed men, returned before dawn to
Leulumoenga, demolished the corrugated iron gaol, and liberated the
Hawaiian secretary and the rump of the rebel cabinet. No opposition was
shown; and doubtless the rescue was connived at by Brandeis, who had
gained his point. Poor had the face to complain the next day to Becker;
but to compete with Becker in effrontery was labour lost. "You have been
repeatedly warned, Mr. Poor, not to expose yourself among these
savages," said he.
Not long after, the presence of the _Kaimiloa_ was made a _casus belli_
by the Germans; and the rough-and-tumble embassy withdrew, on borrowed
money, to find their own government in hot water to the neck.
* * * * *
_The Emperor's Birthday_. It is possible, and it is alleged, that the
Germans entered into the conference with hope. But it is certain they
were resolved to remain prepared for either fate. And I take the liberty
of believing that Laupepa was not forgiven his duplicity; that, during
this interval, he stood marked like a tree for felling; and that his
conduct was daily scrutinised for further pretexts of offence. On the
evening of the Emperor's birthday, March 22nd, 1887, certain Germans
were congregated in a public bar. The season and the place considered,
it is scarce cynical to assume they had been drinking; nor, so much
being granted, can it be thought exorbitant to suppose them possibly in
fault for the squabble that took place. A squabble, I say; but I am
willing to call it a riot. And this was the new fault of Laupepa; this
it is that was described by a German commodore as "the trampling upon by
Malietoa of the German Emperor." I pass the rhetoric by to examine the
point of liability. Four natives were brought to trial for this horrid
fact: not before a native judge, but before the German magistrate of the
tripartite municipality of Apia. One was acquitted, one condemned for
theft, and two for assault. On appeal, not to Malietoa, but to the three
consuls, the case was by a majority of two to one returned to the
magistrate and (as far as I can learn) was then allowed to drop. Consul
Becker himself laid the chief blame on one of the policemen of the
municipality, a half-white of the name of Scanlon. Him he sought to have
discharged, but was again baffled by his brother consuls. Where, in all
this, are we to find a corner of responsibility for the king of Samoa?
Scanlon, the alleged author of the outrage, was a half-white; as Becker
was to learn to his cost, he claimed to be an American subject; and he
was not even in the king's employment. Apia, the scene of the outrage,
was outside the king's jurisdiction by treaty; by the choice of Germany,
he was not so much as allowed to fly his flag there. And the denial of
justice (if justice were denied) rested with the consuls of Britain and
the States.
But when a dog is to be beaten, any stick will serve. In the meanwhile,
on the proposition of Mr. Bayard, the Washington conference on Samoan
affairs was adjourned till autumn, so that "the ministers of Germany and
Great Britain might submit the protocols to their respective
Governments." "You propose that the conference is to adjourn and not to
be broken up?" asked Sir Lionel West. "To adjourn for the reasons
stated," replied Bayard. This was on July 26th; and, twenty-nine days
later, by Wednesday the 24th of August, Germany had practically seized
Samoa. For this flagrant breach of faith one excuse is openly alleged;
another whispered. It is openly alleged that Bayard had shown himself
impracticable; it is whispered that the Hawaiian embassy was an
expression of American intrigue, and that the Germans only did as they
were done by. The sufficiency of these excuses may be left to the
discretion of the reader. But, however excused, the breach of faith was
public and express; it must have been deliberately predetermined; and it
was resented in the States as a deliberate insult.
By the middle of August 1887 there were five sail of German war-ships in
Apia bay: the _Bismarck_, of 3000 tons displacement; the _Carola_, the
_Sophie_, and the _Olga_, all considerable ships; and the beautiful
_Adler_, which lies there to this day, kanted on her beam, dismantled,
scarlet with rust, the day showing through her ribs. They waited
inactive, as a burglar waits till the patrol goes by. And on the 23rd,
when the mail had left for Sydney, when the eyes of the world were
withdrawn, and Samoa plunged again for a period of weeks into her
original island-obscurity, Becker opened his guns. The policy was too
cunning to seem dignified; it gave to conduct which would otherwise have
seemed bold and even brutally straightforward, the appearance of a timid
ambuscade; and helped to shake men's reliance on the word of Germany. On
the day named, an ultimatum reached Malietoa at Afenga, whither he had
retired months before to avoid friction. A fine of one thousand dollars
and an _ifo_, or public humiliation, were demanded for the affair of
the Emperor's birthday. Twelve thousand dollars were to be "paid
quickly" for thefts from German plantations in the course of the last
four years. "It is my opinion that there is nothing just or correct in
Samoa while you are at the head of the government," concluded Becker. "I
shall be at Afenga in the morning of to-morrow, Wednesday, at 11 A.M."
The blow fell on Laupepa (in his own expression) "out of the bush"; the
dilatory fellow had seen things hang over so long, he had perhaps begun
to suppose they might hang over for ever; and here was ruin at the door.
He rode at once to Apia, and summoned his chiefs. The council lasted all
night long. Many voices were for defiance. But Laupepa had grown inured
to a policy of procrastination; and the answer ultimately drawn only
begged for delay till Saturday, the 27th. So soon as it was signed, the
king took horse and fled in the early morning to Afenga; the council
hastily dispersed; and only three chiefs, Selu, Seumanu, and Le Mamea,
remained by the government building, tremulously expectant of the
result.
By seven the letter was received. By 7.30 Becker arrived in person,
inquired for Laupepa, was evasively answered, and declared war on the
spot. Before eight, the Germans (seven hundred men and six guns) came
ashore and seized and hoisted German colours on the government building.
The three chiefs had made good haste to escape; but a considerable booty
was made of government papers, fire-arms, and some seventeen thousand
cartridges. Then followed a scene which long rankled in the minds of the
white inhabitants, when the German marines raided the town in search of
Malietoa, burst into private houses, and were accused (I am willing to
believe on slender grounds) of violence to private persons.
On the morrow, the 25th, one of the German war-ships, which had been
despatched to Leulumoenga over night re-entered the bay, flying the
Tamasese colours at the fore. The new king was given a royal salute of
twenty-one guns, marched through the town by the commodore and a German
guard of honour, and established on Mulinuu with two or three hundred
warriors. Becker announced his recognition to the other consuls. These
replied by proclaiming Malietoa, and in the usual mealy-mouthed manner
advised Samoans to do nothing. On the 27th martial law was declared; and
on the 1st September the German squadron dispersed about the group,
bearing along with them the proclamations of the new king. Tamasese was
now a great man, to have five iron war-ships for his post-runners. But
the moment was critical. The revolution had to be explained, the chiefs
persuaded to assemble at a fono summoned for the 15th; and the ships
carried not only a store of printed documents, but a squad of Tamasese
orators upon their round.
Such was the German _coup d'etat_. They had declared war with a squadron
of five ships upon a single man; that man, late king of the group, was
in hiding on the mountains; and their own nominee, backed by German guns
and bayonets, sat in his stead in Mulinuu.
One of the first acts of Malietoa, on fleeing to the bush, was to send
for Mataafa twice: "I am alone in the bush; if you do not come quickly
you will find me bound." It is to be understood the men were near
kinsmen, and had (if they had nothing else) a common jealousy. At the
urgent cry, Mataafa set forth from Falefa, and came to Mulinuu to
Tamasese. "What is this that you and the German commodore have decided
on doing?" he inquired. "I am going to obey the German consul," replied
Tamasese, "whose wish it is that I should be the king and that all Samoa
should assemble here." "Do not pursue in wrath against Malietoa," said
Mataafa; "but try to bring about a compromise, and form a united
government." "Very well," said Tamasese, "leave it to me, and I will
try." From Mulinuu, Mataafa went on board the _Bismarck_, and was
graciously received. "Probably," said the commodore, "we shall bring
about a reconciliation of all Samoa through you"; and then asked his
visitor if he bore any affection to Malietoa. "Yes," said Mataafa. "And
to Tamasese?" "To him also; and if you desire the weal of Samoa, you
will allow either him or me to bring about a reconciliation." "If it
were my will," said the commodore, "I would do as you say. But I have no
will in the matter. I have instructions from the Kaiser, and I cannot go
back again from what I have been sent to do." "I thought you would be
commended," said Mataafa, "if you brought about the weal of Samoa." "I
will tell you," said the commodore. "All shall go quietly. But there is
one thing that must be done: Malietoa must be deposed. I will do nothing
to him beyond; he will only be kept on board for a couple of months and
be well treated, just as we Germans did to the French chief [Napoleon
III.] some time ago, whom we kept a while and cared for well." Becker
was no less explicit: war, he told Sewall, should not cease till the
Germans had custody of Malietoa and Tamasese should be recognised.
Meantime, in the Malietoa provinces, a profound impression was received.
People trooped to their fugitive sovereign in the bush. Many natives in
Apia brought their treasures, and stored them in the houses of white
friends. The Tamasese orators were sometimes ill received. Over in
Savaii, they found the village of Satupaitea deserted, save for a few
lads at cricket. These they harangued, and were rewarded with ironical
applause; and the proclamation, as soon as they had departed, was torn
down. For this offence the village was ultimately burned by German
sailors, in a very decent and orderly style, on the 3rd September. This
was the dinner-bell of the fono on the 15th. The threat conveyed in the
terms of the summons--"If any government district does not quickly obey
this direction, I will make war on that government district"--was thus
commented on and reinforced. And the meeting was in consequence well
attended by chiefs of all parties. They found themselves unarmed among
the armed warriors of Tamasese and the marines of the German squadron,
and under the guns of five strong ships. Brandeis rose; it was his first
open appearance, the German firm signing its revolutionary work. His
words were few and uncompromising: "Great are my thanks that the chiefs
and heads of families of the whole of Samoa are assembled here this day.
It is strictly forbidden that any discussion should take place as to
whether it is good or not that Tamasese is king of Samoa, whether at
this fono or at any future fono. I place for your signature the
following: _'We inform all the people of Samoa of what follows_: (1)
_The government of Samoa has been assumed by King Tuiaana Tamasese_. (2)
_By order of the king, it was directed that a fono should take place
to-day, composed of the chiefs and heads of families, and we have obeyed
the summons. We have signed our names under this, 15th September
1887._'" Needs must under all these guns; and the paper was signed, but
not without open sullenness. The bearing of Mataafa in particular was
long remembered against him by the Germans. "Do you not see the king?"
said the commodore reprovingly. "His father was no king," was the bold
answer. A bolder still has been printed, but this is Mataafa's own
recollection of the passage. On the next day, the chiefs were all
ordered back to shake hands with Tamasese. Again they obeyed; but again
their attitude was menacing, and some, it is said, audibly murmured as
they gave their hands.
It is time to follow the poor Sheet of Paper (literal meaning of
_Laupepa_), who was now to be blown so broadly over the face of earth.
As soon as news reached him of the declaration of war, he fled from
Afenga to Tanungamanono, a hamlet in the bush, about a mile and a half
behind Apia, where he lurked some days. On the 24th, Selu, his
secretary, despatched to the American consul an anxious appeal, his
majesty's "cry and prayer" in behalf of "this weak people." By August
30th, the Germans had word of his lurking-place, surrounded the hamlet
under cloud of night, and in the early morning burst with a force of
sailors on the houses. The people fled on all sides, and were fired
upon. One boy was shot in the hand, the first blood of the war. But the
king was nowhere to be found; he had wandered farther, over the woody
mountains, the backbone of the land, towards Siumu and Safata. Here, in
a safe place, he built himself a town in the forest, where he received a
continual stream of visitors and messengers. Day after day the German
blue-jackets were employed in the hopeless enterprise of beating the
forests for the fugitive; day after day they were suffered to pass
unhurt under the guns of ambushed Samoans; day after day they returned,
exhausted and disappointed, to Apia. Seumanu Tafa, high chief of Apia,
was known to be in the forest with the king; his wife, Fatuila, was
seized, imprisoned in the German hospital, and when it was thought her
spirit was sufficiently reduced, brought up for cross-examination. The
wise lady confined herself in answer to a single word. "Is your husband
near Apia?" "Yes." "Is he far from Apia?" "Yes." "Is he with the king?"
"Yes." "Are he and the king in different places?" "Yes." Whereupon the
witness was discharged. About the 10th of September, Laupepa was
secretly in Apia at the American consulate with two companions. The
German pickets were close set and visited by a strong patrol; and on his
return, his party was observed and hailed and fired on by a sentry. They
ran away on all fours in the dark, and so doing plumped upon another
sentry, whom Laupepa grappled and flung in a ditch; for the Sheet of
Paper, although infirm of character, is, like most Samoans, of an able
body. The second sentry (like the first) fired after his assailants at
random in the dark; and the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia. On
the afternoon of the 16th, the day of the hand-shakings, Suatele, a high
chief, despatched two boys across the island with a letter. They were
most of the night upon the road; it was near three in the morning before
the sentries in the camp of Malietoa beheld their lantern drawing near
out of the wood; but the king was at once awakened. The news was
decisive and the letter peremptory; if Malietoa did not give himself up
before ten on the morrow, he was told that great sorrows must befall his
country. I have not been able to draw Laupepa as a hero; but he is a man
of certain virtues, which the Germans had now given him an occasion to
display. Without hesitation he sacrificed himself, penned his touching
farewell to Samoa, and making more expedition than the messengers,
passed early behind Apia to the banks of the Vaisingano. As he passed,
he detached a messenger to Mataafa at the Catholic mission. Mataafa
followed by the same road, and the pair met at the river-side and went
and sat together in a house. All present were in tears. "Do not let us
weep," said the talking man, Lauati. "We have no cause for shame. We do
not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers." The departing
king bequeathed the care of his country to Mataafa; and when the latter
sought to console him with the commodore's promises, he shook his head,
and declared his assurance that he was going to a life of exile, and
perhaps to death. About two o'clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa
returned to the Catholic mission by the back of the town; and Malietoa
proceeded by the beach road to the German naval hospital, where he was
received (as he owns, with perfect civility) by Brandeis. About three,
Becker brought him forth again. As they went to the wharf, the people
wept and clung to their departing monarch. A boat carried him on board
the _Bismarck_, and he vanished from his countrymen. Yet it was long
rumoured that he still lay in the harbour; and so late as October 7th, a
boy, who had been paddling round the _Carola_, professed to have seen
and spoken with him. Here again the needless mystery affected by the
Germans bitterly disserved them. The uncertainty which thus hung over
Laupepa's fate, kept his name continually in men's mouths. The words of
his farewell rang in their ears: "To all Samoa: On account of my great
love to my country and my great affection to all Samoa, this is the
reason that I deliver up my body to the German government. That
government may do as they wish to me. The reason of this is, because I
do not desire that the blood of Samoa shall be spilt for me again. But I
do not know what is my offence which has caused their anger to me and to
my country." And then, apostrophising the different provinces:
"Tuamasanga, farewell! Manono and family, farewell! So, also, Salafai,
Tutuila, Aana, and Atua, farewell! If we do not again see one another in
this world, pray that we may be again together above." So the sheep
departed with the halo of a saint, and men thought of him as of some
King Arthur snatched into Avilion.
On board the _Bismarck_, the commodore shook hands with him, told him he
was to be "taken away from all the chiefs with whom he had been
accustomed," and had him taken to the wardroom under guard. The next day
he was sent to sea in the _Adler_. There went with him his brother Moli,
one Meisake, and one Alualu, half-caste German, to interpret. He was
respectfully used; he dined in the stern with the officers, but the boys
dined "near where the fire was." They came to a "newly-formed place" in
Australia, where the _Albatross_ was lying, and a British ship, which he
knew to be a man-of-war "because the officers were nicely dressed and
wore epaulettes." Here he was transhipped, "in a boat with a screen,"
which he supposed was to conceal him from the British ship; and on board
the _Albatross_ was sent below and told he must stay there till they had
sailed. Later, however, he was allowed to come on deck, where he found
they had rigged a screen (perhaps an awning) under which he walked,
looking at "the newly-formed settlement," and admiring a big house
"where he was sure the governor lived." From Australia, they sailed some
time, and reached an anchorage where a consul-general came on board, and
where Laupepa was only allowed on deck at night. He could then see the
lights of a town with wharves; he supposes Cape Town. Off the Cameroons
they anchored or lay-to, far at sea, and sent a boat ashore to see (he
supposes) that there was no British man-of-war. It was the next morning
before the boat returned, when the _Albatross_ stood in and came to
anchor near another German ship. Here Alualu came to him on deck and
told him this was the place. "That is an astonishing thing," said he. "I
thought I was to go to Germany, I do not know what this means; I do not
know what will be the end of it; my heart is troubled." Whereupon Alualu
burst into tears. A little after, Laupepa was called below to the
captain and the governor. The last addressed him: "This is my own place,
a good place, a warm place. My house is not yet finished, but when it
is, you shall live in one of my rooms until I can make a house for you."
Then he was taken ashore and brought to a tall, iron house. "This house
is regulated," said the governor; "there is no fire allowed to burn in
it." In one part of this house, weapons of the government were hung up;
there was a passage, and on the other side of the passage, fifty
criminals were chained together, two and two, by the ankles. The windows
were out of reach; and there was only one door, which was opened at six
in the morning and shut again at six at night. All day he had his
liberty, went to the Baptist Mission, and walked about viewing the
negroes, who were "like the sand on the seashore" for number. At six
they were called into the house and shut in for the night without beds
or lights. "Although they gave me no light," said he, with a smile, "I
could see I was in a prison." Good food was given him: biscuits, "tea
made with warm water," beef, etc.; all excellent. Once, in their walks,
they spied a breadfruit tree bearing in the garden of an English
merchant, ran back to the prison to get a shilling, and came and offered
to purchase. "I am not going to sell breadfruit to you people," said the
merchant; "come and take what you like." Here Malietoa interrupted
himself to say it was the only tree bearing in the Cameroons. "The
governor had none, or he would have given it to me." On the passage from
the Cameroons to Germany, he had great delight to see the cliffs of
England. He saw "the rocks shining in the sun, and three hours later was
surprised to find them sunk in the heavens." He saw also wharves and
immense buildings; perhaps Dover and its castle. In Hamburg, after
breakfast, Mr. Weber, who had now finally "ceased from troubling" Samoa,
came on board, and carried him ashore "suitably" in a steam launch to "a
large house of the government," where he stayed till noon. At noon Weber
told him he was going to "the place where ships are anchored that go to
Samoa," and led him to "a very magnificent house, with carriages inside
and a wonderful roof of glass"; to wit, the railway station. They were
benighted on the train, and then went in "something with a house, drawn
by horses, which had windows and many decks"; plainly an omnibus. Here
(at Bremen or Bremerhaven, I believe) they stayed some while in "a house
of five hundred rooms"; then were got on board the _Nuernberg_ (as they
understood) for Samoa, anchored in England on a Sunday, were joined _en
route_ by the famous Dr. Knappe, passed through "a narrow passage where
they went very slow and which was just like a river," and beheld with
exhilarated curiosity that Red Sea of which they had learned so much in
their Bibles. At last, "at the hour when the fires burn red," they came
to a place where was a German man-of-war. Laupepa was called, with one
of the boys, on deck, when he found a German officer awaiting him, and a
steam launch alongside, and was told he must now leave his brother and
go elsewhere. "I cannot go like this," he cried. "You must let me see my
brother and the other old men"--a term of courtesy. Knappe, who seems
always to have been good-natured, revised his orders, and consented not
only to an interview, but to allow Moli to continue to accompany the
king. So these two were carried to the man-of-war, and sailed many a
day, still supposing themselves bound for Samoa; and lo! she came to a
country the like of which they had never dreamed of, and cast anchor in
the great lagoon of Jaluit; and upon that narrow land the exiles were
set on shore. This was the part of his captivity on which he looked back
with the most bitterness. It was the last, for one thing, and he was
worn down with the long suspense, and terror, and deception. He could
not bear the brackish water; and though "the Germans were still good to
him, and gave him beef and biscuit and tea," he suffered from the lack
of vegetable food.
Such is the narrative of this simple exile. I have not sought to correct
it by extraneous testimony. It is not so much the facts that are
historical, as the man's attitude. No one could hear this tale as he
originally told it in my hearing--I think none can read it as here
condensed and unadorned--without admiring the fairness and simplicity of
the Samoan; and wondering at the want of heart--or want of humour--in so
many successive civilised Germans, that they should have continued to
surround this infant with the secrecy of state.