adron for assistance in the preservation of good order." This letter
was not delivered until 4 P.M. By three, sailors had been landed.
Already German colours flew over Tamasese's headquarters at Mulinuu, and
German guards had occupied the hospital, the German consulate, and the
municipal gaol and court-house, where they stood to arms under the flag
of Tamasese. The same day Sewall wrote to protest. Receiving no reply,
he issued on the morrow a proclamation bidding all Americans look to
himself alone. On the 26th, he wrote again to Becker, and on the 27th
received this genial reply: "Sir, your high favour of the 26th of this
month, I give myself the honour of acknowledging. At the same time I
acknowledge the receipt of your high favour of the 14th October in reply
to my communication of the same date, which contained the information of
the suspension of the arrangements for the municipal government." There
the correspondence ceased. And on the 18th January came the last step of
this irritating intrigue when Tamasese appointed a judge--and the judge
proved to be Martin.

Thus was the adventure of the Castle Municipal achieved by Sir Becker the
chivalrous. The taxes of Apia, the gaol, the police, all passed into the
hands of Tamasese-Brandeis; a German was secured upon the bench; and the
German flag might wave over her puppet unquestioned. But there is a law
of human nature which diplomatists should be taught at school, and it
seems they are not; that men can tolerate bare injustice, but not the
combination of injustice and subterfuge. Hence the chequered career of
the thimble-rigger. Had the municipality been seized by open force,
there might have been complaint, it would not have aroused the same
lasting grudge.

This grudge was an ill gift to bring to Brandeis, who had trouble enough
in front of him without. He was an alien, he was supported by the guns
of alien war-ships, and he had come to do an alien's work, highly needful
for Samoa, but essentially unpopular with all Samoans. The law to be
enforced, causes of dispute between white and brown to be eliminated,
taxes to be raised, a central power created, the country opened up, the
native race taught industry: all these were detestable to the natives,
and to all of these he must set his hand. The more I learn of his brief
term of rule, the more I learn to admire him, and to wish we had his
like.

In the face of bitter native opposition, he got some roa