ed led him to cover his design. That he carried a gun himself,
and himself fired, will not seem to European ears a very important
alleviation. Tamasese received heads, sitting as a King, under whatever
name; Mataafa had forbidden the taking of heads--of his own accord, and
before Mr. Ide had taken office. Tamasese began with threats against the
white population; Mataafa never ceased to reassure them and to extend an
effectual protection to their property. What is the difference between
their cases? That Mataafa was an old man, already famous, who had served
his country well, had been appointed King of Samoa, had served in the
office, and had been set aside--not, indeed, in the text, but in the
protocols of the Berlin Act, by name? I do not grudge his good fortune
to Tamasese, who is an amiable, spirited, and handsome young man; and
who made a barbarous war, indeed, since heads were taken after the old
Samoan practice, but who made it without any of the savagery which we
have had reason to comment upon in the camp of his adversaries. I do not
grudge the invidious fate that has befallen my old friend and his
followers. At first I believed these judgments to be the expression of a
severe but equal justice. I find them, on further experience, to be mere
measures of the degree of panic in the Consuls, varying directly as the
distance of the nearest war-ship. The judgments under which they fell
have now no sanctity; they form no longer a precedent; they may
perfectly well be followed by a pardon, or a partial pardon, as the
authorities shall please. The crime of Mataafa is to have read strictly
the first article of the Berlin Act, and not to have read at all (as how
should he when it has never been translated?) the insidious protocol
which contains its significance; the crime of his followers is to have
practised clan fidelity, and to have in consequence raised an _imperium
in imperio_, and fought against the Government. Their punishment is to
be sent to a coral atoll and detained there prisoners. It does not sound
much; it is a great deal. Taken from a mountain island, they must
inhabit a narrow strip of reef sunk to the gunwale in the ocean. Sand,
stone, and cocoa-nuts, stone, sand, and pandanus, make the scenery.
There is no grass. Here these men, used to the cool, bright mountain
rivers of Samoa, must drink with loathing the brackish water of the
coral. The food upon such islands is distressing even to the omnivorous
white.