with a staff.
But both parties were still intermingled between the lines, and the
chiefs on either side were conversing, and even embracing, at the
moment, when an accidental, or perhaps a treacherous, shot precipitated
the engagement. I cannot find there was any decisive difference in the
numbers actually under fire; but the Mataafas appear to have been ill
posted and ill led. Twice their flank was turned, their line enfiladed,
and themselves driven with the loss of about thirty, from two successive
cattle walls. A third wall afforded them a more effectual shelter, and
night closed on the field of battle without further advantage. All night
the Royal troops hailed volleys of bullets at this obstacle. With the
earliest light, a charge proved it to be quite deserted, and from
further down the coast smoke was seen rising from the houses of Malie.
Mataafa had precipitately fled, destroying behind him the village,
which, for two years, he had been raising and beautifying.

So much was accomplished: what was to follow? Mataafa took refuge in
Manono, and cast up forts. His enemies, far from following up this
advantage, held _fonos_ and made speeches and found fault. I believe the
majority of the King's army had marched in a state of continuous
indecision, and maintaining an attitude of impartiality more to be
admired in the cabinet of the philosopher than in the field of war. It
is certain at least that only one province has as yet fired a shot for
Malietoa Laupepa. The valour of the Tuamasaga was sufficient and
prevailed. But Atua was in the rear, and has as yet done nothing. As for
the men of Crana, so far from carrying out the plan agreed upon, and
blocking the men of Malie, on the morning of the 8th, they were
entertaining an embassy from Mataafa, and they suffered his fleet of
boats to escape without a shot through certain dangerous narrows of the
lagoon, and the chief himself to pass on foot and unmolested along the
whole foreshore of their province. No adequate excuse has been made for
this half-heartedness--or treachery. It was a piece of the whole which
was a specimen. There are too many strings in a Samoan intrigue for the
merely European mind to follow, and the desire to serve upon both sides,
and keep a door open for reconciliation, was manifest almost throughout.
A week passed in these divided counsels. Savaii had refused to receive
Mataafa--it is said they now hesitated to rise for the King, and
demanded instead