第39章 THE SAMOAN CAMPS(2)

Americans supplied Mataafa with ammunition;English and Americans openly subscribed together and sent boat-loads of provisions to his camp.One such boat started from Apia on a day of rain;it was pulled by six oars,three being paid by Moors,three by the MacArthurs;Moors himself and a clerk of the MacArthurs'were in charge;and the load included not only beef and biscuit,but three or four thousand rounds of ammunition.They came ashore in Laulii,and carried the gift to Mataafa.While they were yet in his house a bullet passed overhead;and out of his door they could see the Tamasese pickets on the opposite hill.Thence they made their way to the left flank of the Mataafa position next the sea.A Tamasese barricade was visible across the stream.It rained,but the warriors crowded in their shanties,squatted in the mud,and maintained an excited conversation.Balls flew;either faction,both happy as lords,spotting for the other in chance shots,and missing.One point is characteristic of that war;experts in native feeling doubt if it will characterise the next.The two white visitors passed without and between the lines to a rocky point upon the beach.The person of Moors was well known;the purpose of their coming to Laulii must have been already bruited abroad;yet they were not fired upon.From the point they spied a crow's nest,or hanging fortification,higher up;and,judging it was a good position for a general view,obtained a guide.He led them up a steep side of the mountain,where they must climb by roots and tufts of grass;and coming to an open hill-top with some scattered trees,bade them wait,let him draw the fire,and then be swift to follow.Perhaps a dozen balls whistled about him ere he had crossed the dangerous passage and dropped on the farther side into the crow's-nest;the white men,briskly following,escaped unhurt.The crow's-nest was built like a bartizan on the precipitous front of the position.Across the ravine,perhaps at five hundred yards,heads were to be seen popping up and down in a fort of Tamesese's.On both sides the same enthusiasm without council,the same senseless vigilance,reigned.Some took aim;some blazed before them at a venture.Now -when a head showed on the other side -one would take a crack at it,remarking that it would never do to "miss a chance."Now they would all fire a volley and bob down;a return volley rang across the ravine,and was punctually answered:harmless as lawn-tennis.The whites expostulated in vain.The warriors,drunken with noise,made answer by a fresh general discharge and bade their visitors run while it was time.Upon their return to headquarters,men were covering the front with sheets of coral limestone,two balls having passed through the house in the interval.Mataafa sat within,over his kava bowl,unmoved.The picture is of a piece throughout:

excellent courage,super-excellent folly,a war of school-children;expensive guns and cartridges used like squibs or catherine-wheels on Guy Fawkes's Day.

On the 20th Mataafa changed his attack.Tamasese's front was seemingly impregnable.Something must be tried upon his rear.

There was his bread-basket;a small success in that direction would immediately curtail his resources;and it might be possible with energy to roll up his line along the beach and take the citadel in reverse.The scheme was carried out as might be expected from these childish soldiers.Mataafa,always uneasy about Apia,clung with a portion of his force to Laulii;and thus,had the foe been enterprising,exposed himself to disaster.The expedition fell successfully enough on Saluafata and drove out the Tamaseses with a loss of four heads;but so far from improving the advantage,yielded immediately to the weakness of the Samoan warrior,and ranged farther east through unarmed populations,bursting with shouts and blackened faces into villages terrified or admiring,making spoil of pigs,burning houses,and destroying gardens.The Tamasese had at first evacuated several beach towns in succession,and were still in retreat on Lotoanuu;finding themselves unpursued,they reoccupied them one after another,and re-established their lines to the very borders of Saluafata.Night fell;Mataafa had taken Saluafata,Tamasese had lost it;and that was all.But the day came near to have a different and very singular issue.The village was not long in the hands of the Mataafas,when a schooner,flying German colours,put into the bay and was immediately surrounded by their boats.It chanced that Brandeis was on board.Word of it had gone abroad,and the boats as they approached demanded him with threats.The late premier,alone,entirely unarmed,and a prey to natural and painful feelings,concealed himself below.The captain of the schooner remained on deck,pointed to the German colours,and defied approaching boats.Again the prestige of a great Power triumphed;the Samoans fell back before the bunting;the schooner worked out of the bay;Brandeis escaped.He himself apprehended the worst if he fell into Samoan hands;it is my diffident impression that his life would have been safe.

On the 22nd,a new German war-ship,the EBER,of tragic memory,came to Apia from the Gilberts,where she had been disarming turbulent islands.The rest of that day and all night she loaded stores from the firm,and on the morrow reached Saluafata bay.