accompanied by a lot of young women of
Manono, were to go off on board the barque in our boats, ostensibly to
pay their respects to the white lady on board, and invite her on shore,
so as to get her out of the way; then I was to pass the arms out of the
stern ports into some canoes which would be waiting just as it became
dark. About five o'clock they started off in one boat, leaving me and
the skipper to follow in another. I had sent a note off to the mate
telling him all about the little game, and to be mighty polite to the
two chief women, who were to be introduced to Miss Weidermann, give the
old devil some presents of mats, fruits, and such things, and ask her to
come ashore as Mataafa's guest.

"Well, something had gone wrong with the Weidermann's temper; for when
the women came on board she was sulking in her cabin, and refused to
show her vinegary face outside her state-room door. Thinking she would
get over her tantrum in a few minutes, the mate invited the two Samoan
ladies and their attendants down into the cabin, where they awaited her
appearance, behaving themselves, of course, very decorously, it being a
visit of ceremony.

"Presently Old Cat-face opened her door, and then, without giving the
native ladies time to utter a word, she launched out at them in her
bastard-mongrel Samoan-Tongan. The first thing she said was that she
knew the kind of women they were, and what had brought them on board!
How dared such brazen, shameless cattle come into the cabin! Into the
same cabin as a white lady! The bold, half-naked, disgraceful hussies,
etc., etc. And then she capped the thing by calling to the steward to
come and drive them out!

"Not one of the native women could answer her. They were all simply
dumbfounded at such a gross insult, and left the cabin in silence. The
mate tried to smooth things over, but one of the women--Mataafa's
niece--gave him a look that told him to say no more. In half an hour the
whole lot of them were back on the beach, and came up to the chiefs
house, where the skipper and myself were having a final drink of kava
with old Mataafa and his _faipule_.[16] The face of the elder of the two
women was blazing with anger, and then, pointing to the captain and
myself, she gave us such a tongue-lashing for sending her off to the
ship to be shamed and insulted, that made us blush. Old Mataafa waited
until she had finished, and then, with an ugly gleam in his eye but
speaking very quietly, as