第26章 THE BATTLE OF MATAUTU(1)

SEPTEMBER 1888

THE revolution had all the character of a popular movement.Many of the high chiefs were detained in Mulinuu;the commons trooped to the bush under inferior leaders.A camp was chosen near Faleula,threatening Mulinuu,well placed for the arrival of recruits and close to a German plantation from which the force could be subsisted.Manono came,all Tuamasanga,much of Savaii,and part of Aana,Tamasese's own government and titular seat.Both sides were arming.It was a brave day for the trader,though not so brave as some that followed,when a single cartridge is said to have been sold for twelve cents currency -between nine and ten cents gold.Yet even among the traders a strong party feeling reigned,and it was the common practice to ask a purchaser upon which side he meant to fight.

On September 5th,Brandeis published a letter:"To the chiefs of Tuamasanga,Manono,and Faasaleleanga in the Bush:Chiefs,by authority of his majesty Tamasese,the king of Samoa,I make known to you all that the German man-of-war is about to go together with a Samoan fleet for the purpose of burning Manono.After this island is all burnt,'tis good if the people return to Manono and live quiet.To the people of Faasaleleanga I say,return to your houses and stop there.The same to those belonging to Tuamasanga.

If you obey this instruction,then you will all be forgiven;if you do not obey,then all your villages will be burnt like Manono.

These instructions are made in truth in the sight of God in the Heaven."The same morning,accordingly,the ADLER steamed out of the bay with a force of Tamasese warriors and some native boats in tow,the Samoan fleet in question.Manono was shelled;the Tamasese warriors,under the conduct of a Manono traitor,who paid before many days the forfeit of his blood,landed and did some damage,but were driven away by the sight of a force returning from the mainland;no one was hurt,for the women and children,who alone remained on the island,found a refuge in the bush;and the ADLER and her acolytes returned the same evening.The letter had been energetic;the performance fell below the programme.The demonstration annoyed and yet re-assured the insurgents,and it fully disclosed to the Germans a new enemy.

Captain Yon Widersheim had been relieved.His successor,Captain Fritze,was an officer of a different stamp.I have nothing to say of him but good;he seems to have obeyed the consul's requisitions with secret distaste;his despatches were of admirable candour;but his habits were retired,he spoke little English,and was far indeed from inheriting von Widersheim's close relations with Commander Leary.It is believed by Germans that the American officer resented what he took to be neglect.I mention this,not because I believe it to depict Commander Leary,but because it is typical of a prevailing infirmity among Germans in Samoa.Touchy themselves,they read all history in the light of personal affronts and tiffs;and I find this weakness indicated by the big thumb of Bismarck,when he places "sensitiveness to small disrespects -EMPFINDLICHKEIT UEBER MANGEL AN RESPECT,"among the causes of the wild career of Knappe.Whatever the cause,at least,the natives had no sooner taken arms than Leary appeared with violence upon that side.As early as the 3rd,he had sent an obscure but menacing despatch to Brandeis.On the 6th,he fell on Fritze in the matter of the Manono bombardment."The revolutionists,"he wrote,"had an armed force in the field within a few miles of this harbour,when the vessels under your command transported the Tamasese troops to a neighbouring island with the avowed intention of making war on the isolated homes of the women and children of the enemy.Being the only other representative of a naval power now present in this harbour,for the sake of humanity I hereby respectfully and solemnly protest in the name of the United States of America and of the civilised world in general against the use of a national war-vessel for such services as were yesterday rendered by the German corvette ADLER."Fritze's reply,to the effect that he is under the orders of the consul and has no right of choice,reads even humble;perhaps he was not himself vain of the exploit,perhaps not prepared to see it thus described in words.From that moment Leary was in the front of the row.His name is diagnostic,but it was not required;on every step of his subsequent action in Samoa Irishman is writ large;over all his doings a malign spirit of humour presided.No malice was too small for him,if it were only funny.When night signals were made from Mulinuu,he would sit on his own poop and confound them with gratuitous rockets.He was at the pains to write a letter and address it to "the High Chief Tamasese"-a device as old at least as the wars of Robert Bruce -in order to bother the officials of the German post-office,in whose hands he persisted in leaving it,although the address was death to them and the distribution of letters in Samoa formed no part of their profession.His great masterwork of pleasantry,the Scanlon affair,must be narrated in its place.And he was no less bold than comical.The ADAMS was not supposed to be a match for the ADLER;there was no glory to be gained in beating her;and yet I have heard naval officers maintain she might have proved a dangerous antagonist in narrow waters and at short range.

Doubtless Leary thought so.He was continually daring Fritze to come on;and already,in a despatch of the 9th,I find Becker complaining of his language in the hearing of German officials,and how he had declared that,on the ADLER again interfering,he would interfere himself,"if he went to the bottom for it -UND WENN SEINSCHIFF DABEI ZU GRUNDE GINGE."Here is the style of opposition which has the merit of being frank,not that of being agreeable.