f
the island, ruin. If they fraternised with Mataafa's chieftains they
must have been singularly inconsistent, for, the next we learn of the
two parties, they were beating, spitting upon, and insulting them along
the highway. The next morning in Apia I asked the same Consul if there
had not been some houses burned. He told me no. I repeated the question,
alleging the evidence of officers on board the _Katoomba_ who had seen
the flames increase and multiply as they steamed away; whereupon he had
this remarkable reply--"O! huts, huts, huts! There isn't a house, a
frame house, on the island." The case to plain men stands thus:--The
people of Manono were insulted, their food-trees cut down, themselves
left houseless; not more than ten houses--I beg the Consul's pardon,
huts--escaped the rancour of their enemies; and to this day they may be
seen to dwell in shanties on the site of their former residences, the
pride of the Samoan heart. The ejaculation of the Consul was thus at
least prophetic; and the traveller who revisits to-day the shores of
the "Garden Island" may well exclaim in his turn, "Huts, huts, huts!"

The same measure was served out, in the mere wantonness of clan hatred,
to Apolima, a nearly inaccessible islet in the straits of the same name;
almost the only property saved there (it is amusing to remember) being a
framed portrait of Lady Jersey, which its custodian escaped with into
the bush, as it were the palladium and chief treasure of the
inhabitants. The solemn promise passed by Consuls and captains in the
name of the three Powers was thus broken; the troops employed were
allowed their bellyful of barbarous outrage. And again there was no
punishment, there was no inquiry, there was no protest, there was not a
word said to disown the act or disengage the honour of the three Powers.
I do not say the Consuls desired to be disobeyed, though the case looks
black against one gentleman, and even he is perhaps only to be accused
of levity and divided interest; it was doubtless important for him to be
early in Apia, where he combines with his diplomatic functions the
management of a thriving business as commission agent and auctioneer. I
do say of all of them that they took a very nonchalant view of their
duty.

I told myself that this was the government of the Consular Triumvirate.
When the new officials came it would cease; it would pass away like a
dream in the night; and the solid _Pax Romana_, of the Berlin G