_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 court-house, 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.