he child of his
loins? How if on the death of Tembaitake, the two stronger natures,
father and son, king and kingmaker, clashed, and Tembinok', when he
drove out his uncle, drove out the author of his days? Here is at least
a tragedy four-square.

The king took us on board in his own gig, dressed for the occasion in
the naval uniform. He had little to say, he refused refreshments, shook
us briefly by the hand, and went ashore again. That night the palm-tops
of Apemama had dipped behind the sea, and the schooner sailed solitary
under the stars.

LETTERS FROM SAMOA

LETTERS TO THE "TIMES," "PALL MALL GAZETTE," ETC.

I

TO THE EDITOR OF THE "TIMES"

_Yacht "Casco," Hawaiian Islands, Feb. 10, 1889._

Sir,--News from Polynesia is apt to come piecemeal, and thus fail of its
effect, the first step being forgotten before the second comes to hand.
For this reason I should like to be allowed to recapitulate a little of
the past before I go on to illustrate the present extraordinary state of
affairs in the Samoan Islands.

It is quite true that this group was largely opened up by German
enterprise, and that the port of Apia is much the creation of the
Godeffroys. So far the German case extends; no farther. Apia was
governed till lately by a tripartite municipality, the American,
English, and German Consuls, and one other representative of each of the
three nations making up the body. To both America and Germany a harbour
had been ceded. England, I believe, had no harbour, but that her
position was quite equal to that of her neighbours one fact eloquently
displays. Malietoa--then King of Samoa, now a prisoner on the Marshall
Islands--offered to accept the supremacy of England. Unhappily for
himself, his offer was refused, Her Majesty's Government declaring, I am
told, that they would prefer to see him independent. As he now wanders
the territory of his island prison, under the guns of an Imperial
war-ship, his independence (if it still exist) must be confined
entirely to his bosom.

Such was the former equal and pacific state of the three nations at
Apia. It would be curious to tell at length by what steps of
encroachment on the one side and weakness on the other the present reign
of terror has been brought about; but my time before the mail departs is
very short, your space is limited, and in such a history much must be
only matter of conjecture. Briefly and roughly, then, there came a
sudden change