BRANDEIS
_September_ '87 _to August_ '88
So Tamasese was on the throne, and Brandeis behind it; and I have now to
deal with their brief and luckless reign. That it was the reign of
Brandeis needs not to be argued: the policy is throughout that of an
able, over-hasty white, with eyes and ideas. But it should be borne in
mind that he had a double task, and must first lead his sovereign,
before he could begin to drive their common subjects. Meanwhile, he
himself was exposed (if all tales be true) to much dictation and
interference, and to some "cumbrous aid," from the consulate and the
firm. And to one of these aids, the suppression of the municipality, I
am inclined to attribute his ultimate failure.
The white enemies of the new regimen were of two classes. In the first
stood Moors and the employes of MacArthur, the two chief rivals of the
firm, who saw with jealousy a clerk (or a so-called clerk) of their
competitors advanced to the chief power. The second class, that of the
officials, numbered at first exactly one. Wilson, the English acting
consul, is understood to have held strict orders to help Germany.
Commander Leary, of the _Adams_, the American captain, when he arrived,
on the 16th October, and for some time after, seemed devoted to the
German interest, and spent his days with a German officer, Captain Von
Widersheim, who was deservedly beloved by all who knew him. There
remains the American consul-general, Harold Marsh Sewall, a young man of
high spirit and a generous disposition. He had obeyed the orders of his
government with a grudge; and looked back on his past action with regret
almost to be called repentance. From the moment of the declaration of
war against Laupepa, we find him standing forth in bold, consistent, and
sometimes rather captious opposition, stirring up his government at home
with clear and forcible despatches, and on the spot grasping at every
opportunity to thrust a stick into the German wheels. For some while, he
and Moors fought their difficult battle in conjunction; in the course of
which, first one, and then the other, paid a visit home to reason with
the authorities at Washington; and during the consul's absence, there
was found an American clerk in Apia, William Blacklock, to perform the
duties of the office with remarkable ability and courage. The three
names just brought together, Sewall, Moors, and Blacklock, make the head
and front of the opposition; if Tamasese fell, if Brandeis was driven
forth, if the treaty of Berlin was signed, theirs is the blame or the
credit.
To understand the feelings of self-reproach and bitterness with which
Sewall took the field, the reader must see Laupepa's letter of farewell
to the consuls of England and America. It is singular that this far from
brilliant or dignified monarch, writing in the forest, in heaviness of
spirit and under pressure for time, should have left behind him not only
one, but two remarkable and most effective documents. The farewell to
his people was touching; the farewell to the consuls, for a man of the
character of Sewall, must have cut like a whip. "When the chief Tamasese
and others first moved the present troubles," he wrote, "it was my wish
to punish them and put an end to the rebellion; but I yielded to the
advice of the British and American consuls. Assistance and protection
was repeatedly promised to me and my government, if I abstained from
bringing war upon my country. Relying upon these promises, I did not put
down the rebellion. Now I find that war has been made upon me by the
Emperor of Germany, and Tamasese has been proclaimed king of Samoa. I
desire to remind you of the promises so frequently made by your
government, and trust that you will so far redeem them as to cause the
lives and liberties of my chiefs and people to be respected."
Sewall's immediate adversary was, of course, Becker. I have formed an
opinion of this gentleman, largely from his printed despatches, which I
am at a loss to put in words. Astute, ingenious, capable, at moments
almost witty with a kind of glacial wit in action, he displayed in the
course of this affair every description of capacity but that which is
alone useful and which springs from a knowledge of men's natures. It
chanced that one of Sewall's early moves played into his hands, and he
was swift to seize and to improve the advantage. The neutral territory
and the tripartite municipality of Apia were eyesores to the German
consulate and Brandeis. By landing Tamasese's two or three hundred
warriors at Mulinuu, as Becker himself owns, they had infringed the
treaties, and Sewall entered protest twice. There were two ways of
escaping this dilemma: one was to withdraw the warriors; the other, by
some hocus-pocus, to abrogate the neutrality. And the second had
subsidiary advantages: it would restore the taxes of the richest
district in the islands to the Samoan king; and it would enable them to
substitute over the royal seat the flag of Germany for the new flag of
Tamasese. It is true (and it was the subject of much remark) that these
two could hardly be distinguished by the naked eye; but their effects
were different. To seat the puppet king on German land and under German
colours, so that any rebellion was constructive war on Germany, was a
trick apparently invented by Becker, and which we shall find was
repeated and persevered in till the end.
Otto Martin was at this time magistrate in the municipality. The post
was held in turn by the three nationalities; Martin had served far
beyond his term, and should have been succeeded months before by an
American. To make the change it was necessary to hold a meeting of the
municipal board, consisting of the three consuls, each backed by an
assessor. And for some time these meetings had been evaded or refused by
the German consul. As long as it was agreed to continue Martin, Becker
had attended regularly; as soon as Sewall indicated a wish for his
removal, Becker tacitly suspended the municipality by refusing to
appear. This policy was now the more necessary; for if the whole
existence of the municipality were a check on the freedom of the new
government, it was plainly less so when the power to enforce and punish
lay in German hands. For some while back the Malietoa flag had been
flown on the municipal building: Becker denies this; I am sorry; my
information obliges me to suppose he is in error. Sewall, with
post-mortem loyalty to the past, insisted that this flag should be
continued. And Becker immediately made his point. He declared, justly
enough, that the proposal was hostile, and argued that it was impossible
he should attend a meeting under a flag with which his sovereign was at
war. Upon one occasion of urgency, he was invited to meet the two other
consuls at the British consulate; even this he refused; and for four
months the municipality slumbered, Martin still in office. In the month
of October, in consequence, the British and American ratepayers
announced they would refuse to pay. Becker doubtless rubbed his hands.
On Saturday, the 10th, the chief Tamaseu, a Malietoa man of substance
and good character, was arrested on a charge of theft believed to be
vexatious, and cast by Martin into the municipal prison. He sent to
Moors, who was his tenant and owed him money at the time, for bail.
Moors applied to Sewall, ranking consul. After some search, Martin was
found and refused to consider bail before the Monday morning. Whereupon
Sewall demanded the keys from the gaoler, accepted Moors's verbal
recognisances, and set Tamaseu free.
Things were now at a deadlock; and Becker astonished every one by
agreeing to a meeting on the 14th. It seems he knew what to expect.
Writing on the 13th at least, he prophesies that the meeting will be
held in vain, that the municipality must lapse, and the government of
Tamasese step in. On the 14th, Sewall left his consulate in time, and
walked some part of the way to the place of meeting in company with
Wilson, the English pro-consul. But he had forgotten a paper, and in an
evil hour returned for it alone. Wilson arrived without him, and Becker
broke up the meeting for want of a quorum. There was some unedifying
disputation as to whether he had waited ten or twenty minutes, whether
he had been officially or unofficially informed by Wilson that Sewall
was on the way, whether the statement had been made to himself or to
Weber[1] in answer to a question, and whether he had heard Wilson's
answer or only Weber's question: all otiose; if he heard the question,
he was bound to have waited for the answer; if he heard it not, he
should have put it himself; and it was the manifest truth that he
rejoiced in his occasion. "Sir," he wrote to Sewall, "I have the honour
to inform you that, to my regret, I am obliged to consider the municipal
government to be provisionally in abeyance since you have withdrawn your
consent to the continuation of Mr. Martin in his position as magistrate,
and since you have refused to take part in the meeting of the municipal
board agreed to for the purpose of electing a magistrate. The government
of the town and district of the municipality rests, as long as the
municipality is in abeyance, with the Samoan government. The Samoan
government has taken over the administration, and has applied to the
commander of the imperial German squadron for assistance in the
preservation of good order." This letter was not delivered until 4 P.M.
By three, sailors had been landed. Already German colours flew over
Tamasese's headquarters at Mulinuu, and German guards had occupied the
hospital, the German consulate, and the municipal gaol and courthouse,
where they stood to arms under the flag of Tamasese. The same day Sewall
wrote to protest. Receiving no reply, he issued on the morrow a
proclamation bidding all Americans look to himself alone. On the 26th,
he wrote again to Becker, and on the 27th received this genial reply:
"Sir, your high favour of the 26th of this month, I give myself the
honour of acknowledging. At the same time I acknowledge the receipt of
your high favour of the 14th October in reply to my communication of the
same date, which contained the information of the suspension of the
arrangements for the municipal government." There the correspondence
ceased. And on the 18th January came the last step of this irritating
intrigue when Tamasese appointed a judge--and the judge proved to be
Martin.
Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir Becker
the chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, all passed into
the hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was secured upon the bench; and
the German flag might wave over her puppet unquestioned. But there is a
law of human nature which diplomatists should be taught at school, and
it seems they are not; that men can tolerate bare injustice, but not the
combination of injustice and subterfuge. Hence the chequered career of
the thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been seized by open force,
there might have been complaint, it would not have aroused the same
lasting grudge.
This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble enough
in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported by the guns
of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien's work, highly needful
for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all Samoans. The law to be
enforced, causes of dispute between white and brown to be eliminated,
taxes to be raised, a central power created, the country opened up, the
native race taught industry: all these were detestable to the natives,
and to all of these he must set his hand. The more I learn of his brief
term of rule, the more I learn to admire him, and to wish we had his
like.
In the face of bitter native opposition, he got some roads accomplished.
He set up beacons. The taxes he enforced with necessary vigour. By the
6th of January, Aua and Fangatonga, districts in Tutuila, having made a
difficulty, Brandeis is down at the island in a schooner, with the
_Adler_ at his heels, seizes the chief Maunga, fines the recalcitrant
districts in three hundred dollars for expenses, and orders all to be in
by April 20th, which if it is not, "not one thing will be done," he
proclaimed, "but war declared against you, and the principal chiefs
taken to a distant island." He forbade mortgages of copra, a frequent
source of trickery and quarrel; and to clear off those already
contracted, passed a severe but salutary law. Each individual or family
was first to pay off its own obligation; that settled, the free man was
to pay for the indebted village, the free village for the indebted
province, and one island for another. Samoa, he declared, should be free
of debt within a year. Had he given it three years, and gone more
gently, I believe it might have been accomplished. To make it the more
possible, he sought to interdict the natives from buying cotton stuffs
and to oblige them to dress (at least for the time) in their own tapa.
He laid the beginnings of a royal territorial army. The first draft was
in his hands drilling. But it was not so much on drill that he depended;
it was his hope to kindle in these men an _esprit de corps_, which
should weaken the old local jealousies and bonds, and found a central or
national party in the islands. Looking far before, and with a wisdom
beyond that of many merchants, he had condemned the single dependence
placed on copra for the national livelihood. His recruits, even as they
drilled, were taught to plant cacao. Each, his term of active service
finished, should return to his own land and plant and cultivate a
stipulated area. Thus, as the young men continued to pass through the
army, habits of discipline and industry, a central sentiment, the
principles of the new culture, and actual gardens of cacao, should be
concurrently spread over the face of the islands.
Tamasese received, including his household expenses, 1960 dollars a
year; Brandeis, 2400. All such disproportions are regrettable, but this
is not extreme: we have seen horses of a different colour since then.
And the Tamaseseites, with true Samoan ostentation, offered to increase
the salary of their white premier: an offer he had the wisdom and good
feeling to refuse. A European chief of police received twelve hundred.
There were eight head judges, one to each province, and appeal lay from
the district judge to the provincial, thence to Mulinuu. From all
salaries (I gather) a small monthly guarantee was withheld. The army was
to cost from three to four thousand, Apia (many whites refusing to pay
taxes since the suppression of the municipality) might cost three
thousand more: Sir Becker's high feat of arms coming expensive (it will
be noticed) even in money. The whole outlay was estimated at
twenty-seven thousand; and the revenue forty thousand: a sum Samoa is
well able to pay.
Such were the arrangements and some of the ideas of this strong, ardent,
and sanguine man. Of criticisms upon his conduct, beyond the general
consent that he was rather harsh and in too great a hurry, few are
articulate. The native paper of complaints was particularly childish.
Out of twenty-three counts, the first two refer to the private character
of Brandeis and Tamasese. Three complain that Samoan officials were kept
in the dark as to the finances; one, of the tapa law; one, of the direct
appointment of chiefs by Tamasese-Brandeis, the sort of mistake into
which Europeans in the South Seas fall so readily; one, of the enforced
labour of chiefs; one, of the taxes; and one, of the roads. This I may
give in full from the very lame translation in the American white book.
"The roads that were made were called the Government Roads; they were
six fathoms wide. Their making caused much damage to Samoa's lands and
what was planted on it. The Samoans cried on account of their lands,
which were taken high-handedly and abused. They again cried on account
of the loss of what they had planted, which was now thrown away in a
high-handed way, without any regard being shown or question asked of the
owner of the land, or any compensation offered for the damage done. This
was different with foreigners' land; in their case permission was first
asked to make the roads; the foreigners were paid for any destruction
made." The sting of this count was, I fancy, in the last clause. No less
than six articles complain of the administration of the law; and I
believe that was never satisfactory. Brandeis told me himself he was
never yet satisfied with any native judge. And men say (and it seems to
fit in well with his hasty and eager character) that he would legislate
by word of mouth; sometimes forget what he had said; and, on the same
question arising in another province, decide it perhaps otherwise. I
gather, on the whole, our artillery captain was not great in law. Two
articles refer to a matter I must deal with more at length, and rather
from the point of view of the white residents.
The common charge against Brandeis was that of favouring the German
firm. Coming as he did, this was inevitable. Weber had bought
Steinberger with hard cash; that was matter of history. The present
government he did not even require to buy, having founded it by his
intrigues, and introduced the premier to Samoa through the doors of his
own office. And the effect of the initial blunder was kept alive by the
chatter of the clerks in bar-rooms, boasting themselves of the new
government and prophesying annihilation to all rivals. The time of
raising a tax is the harvest of the merchants; it is the time when copra
will be made, and must be sold; and the intention of the German firm,
first in the time of Steinberger, and again in April and May, 1888, with
Brandeis, was to seize and handle the whole operation. Their chief
rivals were the Messrs. MacArthur; and it seems beyond question that
provincial governors more than once issued orders forbidding Samoans to
take money from "the New Zealand firm." These, when they were brought to
his notice, Brandeis disowned, and he is entitled to be heard. No man
can live long in Samoa and not have his honesty impugned. But the
accusations against Brandeis's veracity are both few and obscure. I
believe he was as straight as his sword. The governors doubtless issued
these orders, but there were plenty besides Brandeis to suggest them.
Every wandering clerk from the firm's office, every plantation manager,
would be dinning the same story in the native ear. And here again the
initial blunder hung about the neck of Brandeis, a ton's weight. The
natives, as well as the whites, had seen their premier masquerading on a
stool in the office; in the eyes of the natives, as well as in those of
the whites, he must always have retained the mark of servitude from that
ill-judged passage; and they would be inclined to look behind and above
him, to the great house of _Misi Ueba_. The government was like a vista
of puppets. People did not trouble with Tamasese, if they got speech
with Brandeis; in the same way, they might not always trouble to ask
Brandeis, if they had a hint direct from _Misi Ueba_. In only one case,
though it seems to have had many developments, do I find the premier
personally committed. The MacArthurs claimed the copra of Fasitotai on a
district mortgage of three hundred dollars. The German firm accepted a
mortgage of the whole province of Aana, claimed the copra of Fasitotai
as that of a part of Aana, and were supported by the government. Here
Brandeis was false to his own principle, that personal and village debts
should come before provincial. But the case occurred before the
promulgation of the law, and was, as a matter of fact, the cause of it;
so the most we can say is that he changed his mind, and changed it for
the better. If the history of his government be considered--how it
originated in an intrigue between the firm and the consulate, and was
(for the firm's sake alone) supported by the consulate with foreign
bayonets--the existence of the least doubt on the man's action must seem
marvellous. We should have looked to find him playing openly and wholly
into their hands; that he did not, implies great independence and much
secret friction; and I believe (if the truth were known) the firm would
be found to have been disgusted with the stubbornness of its intended
tool, and Brandeis often impatient of the demands of his creators.
But I may seem to exaggerate the degree of white opposition. And it is
true that before fate overtook the Brandeis government, it appeared to
enjoy the fruits of victory in Apia; and one dissident, the
unconquerable Moors, stood out alone to refuse his taxes. But the
victory was in appearance only; the opposition was latent; it found vent
in talk, and thus reacted on the natives; upon the least excuse, it was
ready to flame forth again. And this is the more singular because some
were far from out of sympathy with the native policy pursued. When I met
Captain Brandeis, he was amazed at my attitude. "Whom did you find in
Apia to tell you so much good of me?" he asked. I named one of my
informants. "He?" he cried. "If he thought all that, why did he not help
me?" I told him as well as I was able. The man was a merchant. He beheld
in the government of Brandeis a government created by and for the firm
who were his rivals. If Brandeis were minded to deal fairly, where was
the probability that he would be allowed? If Brandeis insisted and were
strong enough to prevail, what guarantee that, as soon as the government
were fairly accepted, Brandeis might not be removed? Here was the
attitude of the hour; and I am glad to find it clearly set forth in a
despatch of Sewall's, June 18th, 1888, when he commends the law against
mortgages, and goes on: "Whether the author of this law will carry out
the good intentions which he professes--whether he will be allowed to do
so, if he desires, against the opposition of those who placed him in
power and protect him in the possession of it--may well be doubted."
Brandeis had come to Apia in the firm's livery. Even while he promised
neutrality in commerce, the clerks were prating a different story in the
bar-rooms; and the late high feat of the knight-errant, Becker, had
killed all confidence in Germans at the root. By these three impolicies,
the German adventure in Samoa was defeated.
I imply that the handful of whites were the true obstacle, not the
thousands of malcontent Samoans; for had the whites frankly accepted
Brandeis, the path of Germany was clear, and the end of their policy,
however troublesome might be its course, was obvious. But this is not to
say that the natives were content. In a sense, indeed, their opposition
was continuous. There will always be opposition in Samoa when taxes are
imposed; and the deportation of Malietoa stuck in men's throats. Tuiatua
Mataafa refused to act under the new government from the beginning, and
Tamasese usurped his place and title. As early as February, I find him
signing himself "Tuiaana _Tuiatua_ Tamasese," the first step on a
dangerous path. Asi, like Mataafa, disclaimed his chiefship and declared
himself a private person; but he was more rudely dealt with. German
sailors surrounded his house in the night, burst in, and dragged the
women out of the mosquito nets--an offence against Samoan manners. No
Asi was to be found; but at last they were shown his fishing-lights on
the reef, rowed out, took him as he was, and carried him on board a
man-of-war, where he was detained some while between-decks. At last,
January 16th, after a farewell interview over the ship's side with his
wife, he was discharged into a ketch, and along with two other chiefs,
Maunga and Tuiletu-funga, deported to the Marshalls. The blow struck fear
upon all sides. Le Mamea (a very able chief) was secretly among the
malcontents. His family and followers murmured at his weakness; but he
continued, throughout the duration of the government, to serve Brandeis
with trembling. A circus coming to Apia, he seized at the pretext for
escape, and asked leave to accept an engagement in the company. "I will
not allow you to make a monkey of yourself," said Brandeis; and the
phrase had a success throughout the islands, pungent expressions being
so much admired by the natives that they cannot refrain from repeating
them, even when they have been levelled at themselves. The assumption of
the Atua _name_ spread discontent in that province; many chiefs from
thence were convicted of disaffection, and condemned to labour with
their hands upon the roads--a great shock to the Samoan sense of the
becoming, which was rendered the more sensible by the death of one of
the number at his task. Mataafa was involved in the same trouble. His
disaffected speech at a meeting of Atua chiefs was betrayed by the girls
that made the kava, and the man of the future was called to Apia on
safe-conduct, but, after an interview, suffered to return to his lair.
The peculiarly tender treatment of Mataafa must be explained by his
relationship to Tamasese. Laupepa was of Malietoa blood. The hereditary
retainers of the Tupua would see him exiled even with some complacency.
But Mataafa was Tupua himself; and Tupua men would probably have
murmured, and would perhaps have mutinied, had he been harshly dealt
with.
The native opposition, I say, was in a sense continuous. And it kept
continuously growing. The sphere of Brandeis was limited to Mulinuu and
the north central quarters of Upolu--practically what is shown upon the
map opposite. There the taxes were expanded; in the out-districts, men
paid their money and saw no return. Here the eye and hand of the
dictator were ready to correct the scales of justice; in the
out-districts, all things lay at the mercy of the native magistrates,
and their oppressions increased with the course of time and the
experience of impunity. In the spring of the year, a very intelligent
observer had occasion to visit many places in the island of Savaii.
"Our lives are not worth living," was the burthen of the popular
complaint. "We are groaning under the oppression of these men. We would
rather die than continue to endure it." On his return to Apia, he made
haste to communicate his impressions to Brandeis. Brandeis replied in an
epigram: "Where there has been anarchy in a country, there must be
oppression for a time." But unfortunately the terms of the epigram may
be reversed; and personal supervision would have been more in season
than wit. The same observer who conveyed to him this warning thinks
that, if Brandeis had himself visited the districts and inquired into
complaints, the blow might yet have been averted and the government
saved. At last, upon a certain unconstitutional act of Tamasese, the
discontent took life and fire. The act was of his own conception; the
dull dog was ambitious. Brandeis declares he would not be dissuaded;
perhaps his adviser did not seriously try, perhaps did not dream that in
that welter of contradictions, the Samoan constitution, any one point
would be considered sacred. I have told how Tamasese assumed the title
of Tuiatua. In August 1888 a year after his installation, he took a more
formidable step and assumed that of Malietoa. This name, as I have said,
is of peculiar honour; it had been given to, it had never been taken
from, the exiled Laupepa; those in whose grant it lay, stood punctilious
upon their rights; and Tamasese, as the representative of their natural
opponents, the Tupua line, was the last who should have had it. And
there was yet more, though I almost despair to make it thinkable by
Europeans. Certain old mats are handed down, and set huge store by; they
may be compared to coats of arms or heirlooms among ourselves; and to
the horror of more than one-half of Samoa, Tamasese, the head of the
Tupua, began collecting Malietoa mats. It was felt that the cup was
full, and men began to prepare secretly for rebellion. The history of
the month of August is unknown to whites; it passed altogether in the
covert of the woods or in the stealthy councils of Samoans. One ominous
sign was to be noted; arms and ammunition began to be purchased or
inquired about; and the more wary traders ordered fresh consignments of
material of war. But the rest was silence; the government slept in
security; and Brandeis was summoned at last from a public dinner, to
find rebellion organised, the woods behind Apia full of insurgents, and
a plan prepared, and in the very article of execution, to surprise and
seize Mulinuu. The timely discovery averted all; and the leaders hastily
withdrew towards the south side of the island, leaving in the bush a
rear-guard under a young man of the name of Saifaleupolu. According to
some accounts, it scarce numbered forty; the leader was no great chief,
but a handsome, industrious lad who seems to have been much beloved. And
upon this obstacle Brandeis fell. It is the man's fault to be too
impatient of results; his public intention to free Samoa of all debt
within the year, depicts him; and instead of continuing to temporise and
let his enemies weary and disperse, he judged it politic to strike a
blow. He struck it, with what seemed to be success, and the sound of it
roused Samoa to rebellion.
About two in the morning of August 31st, Apia was wakened by men
marching. Day came, and Brandeis and his war-party were already long
disappeared in the woods. All morning belated Tamaseseites were still to
be seen running with their guns. All morning shots were listened for in
vain; but over the top of the forest, far up the mountain, smoke was for
some time observed to hang. About ten a dead man was carried in, lashed
under a pole like a dead pig, his rosary (for he was a Catholic) hanging
nearly to the ground. Next came a young fellow wounded, sitting in a
rope swung from a pole; two fellows bearing him, two running behind for
a relief. At last about eleven, three or four heavy volleys and a great
shouting were heard from the bush town Tanungamanono; the affair was
over, the victorious force, on the march back, was there celebrating
its victory by the way. Presently after, it marched through Apia, five
or six hundred strong, in tolerable order and strutting with the
ludicrous assumption of the triumphant islander. Women who had been
buying bread ran and gave them loaves. At the tail end came Brandeis
himself, smoking a cigar, deadly pale, and with perhaps an increase of
his usual nervous manner. One spoke to him by the way. He expressed his
sorrow the action had been forced on him. "Poor people, it's all the
worse for them!" he said. "It'll have to be done another way now." And
it was supposed by his hearer that he referred to intervention from the
German war-ships. He meant, he said, to put a stop to head-hunting; his
men had taken two that day, he added, but he had not suffered them to
bring them in, and they had been left in Tanungamanono. Thither my
informant rode, was attracted by the sound of wailing, and saw in a
house the two heads washed and combed, and the sister of one of the dead
lamenting in the island fashion and kissing the cold face. Soon after, a
small grave was dug, the heads were buried in a beef box, and the pastor
read the service. The body of Saifaleupolu himself was recovered
unmutilated, brought down from the forest, and buried behind Apia.
The same afternoon, the men of Vaimaunga were ordered to report in
Mulinuu, where Tamasese's flag was half-masted for the death of a chief
in the skirmish. Vaimaunga is that district of Taumasanga which includes
the bay and the foothills behind Apia; and both province and district
are strong Malietoa. Not one man, it is said, obeyed the summons. Night
came, and the town lay in unusual silence; no one abroad; the blinds
down around the native houses, the men within sleeping on their arms;
the old women keeping watch in pairs. And in the course of the two
following days all Vaimaunga was gone into the bush, the very gaoler
setting free his prisoners and joining them in their escape. Hear the
words of the chiefs in the 23rd article of their complaint: "Some of
the chiefs fled to the bush from fear of being reported, fear of German
men-of-war, constantly being accused, etc., and Brandeis commanded that
they were to be shot on sight. This act was carried out by Brandeis on
the 31st day of August, 1888. After this we evaded these laws; we could
not stand them; our patience was worn out with the constant wickedness
of Tamasese and Brandeis. We were tired out and could stand no longer
the acts of these two men."
So through an ill-timed skirmish, two severed heads, and a dead body,
the rule of Brandeis came to a sudden end. We shall see him a while
longer fighting for existence in a losing battle; but his
government--take it for all in all, the most promising that has ever
been in these unlucky islands--was from that hour a piece of history.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Brother and successor of Theodor.