第63章 LAUPEPA AND MATAAFA(5)

We have here a problem of conduct,and what seems an image of inconsistency,very hard at the first sight to be solved by any European.Plainly Mataafa does not act at random.Plainly,in the depths of his Samoan mind,he regards his attitude as regular and constitutional.It may be unexpected,it may be inauspicious,it may be undesirable;but he thinks it -and perhaps it is -in full accordance with those "laws and customs of Samoa"ignorantly invoked by the draughtsmen of the Berlin Act.The point is worth an effort of comprehension;a man's life may yet depend upon it.

Let us conceive,in the first place,that there are five separate kingships in Samoa,though not always five different kings;and that though one man,by holding the five royal names,might become king in ALL PARTS of Samoa,there is perhaps no such matter as a kingship of all Samoa.He who holds one royal name would be,upon this view,as much a sovereign person as he who should chance to hold the other four;he would have less territory and fewer subjects,but the like independence and an equal royalty.Now Mataafa,even if all debatable points were decided against him,is still Tuiatua,and as such,on this hypothesis,a sovereign prince.

In the second place,the draughtsmen of the Act,waxing exceeding bold,employed the word "election,"and implicitly justified all precedented steps towards the kingship according with the "customs of Samoa."I am not asking what was intended by the gentlemen who sat and debated very benignly and,on the whole,wisely in Berlin;I am asking what will be understood by a Samoan studying their literary work,the Berlin Act;I am asking what is the result of taking a word out of one state of society,and applying it to another,of which the writers know less than nothing,and no European knows much.Several interpreters and several days were employed last September in the fruitless attempt to convey to the mind of Laupepa the sense of the word "resignation."What can a Samoan gather from the words,ELECTION?ELECTION OF A KING?

ELECTION OF A KING ACCORDING TO THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF SAMOA?

What are the electoral measures,what is the method of canvassing,likely to be employed by two,three,four,or five,more or less absolute princelings,eager to evince each other?And who is to distinguish such a process from the state of war?In such international -or,I should say,interparochial -differences,the nearest we can come towards understanding is to appreciate the cloud of ambiguity in which all parties grope -"Treading the crude consistence,half on foot,Half flying."Now,in one part of Mataafa's behaviour his purpose is beyond mistake.Towards the provisions of the Berlin Act,his desire to be formally obedient is manifest.The Act imposed the tax.He has paid his taxes,although he thus contributes to the ways and means of his immediate rival.The Act decreed the supreme court,and he sends his partisans to be tried at Mulinuu,although he thus places them (as I shall have occasion to show)in a position far from wholly safe.From this literal conformity,in matters regulated,to the terms of the Berlin plenipotentiaries,we may plausibly infer,in regard to the rest,a no less exact observance of the famous and obscure "laws and customs of Samoa."But though it may be possible to attain,in the study,to some such adumbration of an understanding,it were plainly unfair to expect it of officials in the hurry of events.Our two white officers have accordingly been no more perspicacious than was to be looked for,and I think they have sometimes been less wise.It was not wise in the president to proclaim Mataafa and his followers rebels and their estates confiscated.Such words are not respectable till they repose on force;on the lips of an angry white man,standing alone on a small promontory,they were both dangerous and absurd;they might have provoked ruin;thanks to the character of Mataafa,they only raised a smile and damaged the authority of government.

And again it is not wise in the government of Mulinuu to have twice attempted to precipitate hostilities,once in Savaii,once here in the Tuamasanga.The fate of the Savaii attempt I never heard;it seems to have been stillborn.The other passed under my eyes.Awar-party was armed in Apia,and despatched across the island against Mataafa villages,where it was to seize the women and children.It was absent for some days,engaged in feasting with those whom it went out to fight;and returned at last,innocuous and replete.In this fortunate though undignified ending we may read the fact that the natives on Laupepa's side are sometimes more wise than their advisers.Indeed,for our last twelve months of miraculous peace under what seem to be two rival kings,the credit is due first of all to Mataafa,and second to the half-heartedness,or the forbearance,or both,of the natives in the other camp.The voice of the two whites has ever been for war.They have published at least one incendiary proclamation;they have armed and sent into the field at least one Samoan war-party;they have continually besieged captains of war-ships to attack Malie,and the captains of the war-ships have religiously refused.Thus in the last twelve months our European rulers have drawn a picture of themselves,as bearded like the pard,full of strange oaths,and gesticulating like semaphores;while over against them Mataafa reposes smilingly obstinate,and their own retainers surround them,frowningly inert.

Into the question of motive I refuse to enter;but if we come to war in these islands,and with no fresh occasion,it will be a manufactured war,and one that has been manufactured,against the grain of opinion,by two foreigners.