refer to reply by word of mouth, a deputation will be ready
to wait upon you on Thursday, at any hour you may please to appoint.

Should you prefer to reply in writing, we are asked only to impress upon
you the extreme desire of the signatories that no time should be
unnecessarily lost.

Should you condescend in either of the ways suggested to set at rest our
anxiety, we need scarce assure you that the step will be received with
gratitude.--We have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servants,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
E. W. GURR.

II

(_Enclosed in No. I_.)

The attention of the President of the Municipal Council is respectfully
directed to the following rumours:--

1. That at his suggestion, or with his authority, dynamite was
purchased, or efforts were made to procure dynamite, and the use of an
electrical machine was secured, or attempted to be obtained.

2. That this was for the purpose of undermining, or pretending to
undermine, the gaol in which the Manono prisoners were confined.

3. That notification of this design was sent to the friends of the
prisoners.

4. That a threat of blowing up the gaol and the prisoners, in the event
of an attempted rescue, was made.

Upon all and upon each of these points severally the white residents
anxiously expect and respectfully beg information.

It is suggested for the President's consideration that rumours
unconnected or unexplained acquire almost the force of admitted truth.

That any want of confidence between the governed and the Government must
be fruitful in loss to both.

That the rumours in their present form tend to damage the white races in
the native mind, and to influence for the worse the manners of the
Samoans.

And that the President alone is in a position to deny, to explain, or to
correct these rumours.

Upon these grounds the undersigned ask to be excused for any informality
in their address, and they hope and humbly pray that the President will
accept the occasion here presented, and take early and effectual means
to inform and reassure the whites, and to relieve them from possible
misjudgment on the part of the Samoans.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.
E.W. GURR.

[_and nine other signatures_.]

III

_Apia, Sept. 30, 1891._

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, ESQ., E.W. GURR, ESQ.

Dear Sirs,--Thanking you for your kind letter dated 28th inst., which I
received yesterday, together with the address