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 Ishall 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 BELLIby 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.