s from his camp at Vaiala
beyond Matautu to the mission at the Mulivai. He was sometimes escorted
by as many as six guards in uniform, who displayed their proficiency in
drill by perpetually shifting arms as they marched. Himself, meanwhile,
paced in front, bareheaded and barefoot, a staff in his hand, in the
customary chief's dress of white kilt, shirt, and jacket, and with a
conspicuous rosary about his neck. Tall but not heavy, with eager eyes
and a marked appearance of courage and capacity, Mataafa makes an
admirable figure in the eyes of Europeans; to those of his countrymen, he
may seem not always to preserve that quiescence of manner which is
thought becoming in the great. On the morning of October 16th he reached
the mission before day with two attendants, heard mass, had coffee with
the fathers, and left again in safety. The smallness of his following we
may suppose to have been reported. He was scarce gone, at least, before
Becker had armed men at the mission gate and came in person seeking him.

The failure of this attempt doubtless still further exasperated the
consul, and he began to deal as in an enemy's country. He had marines
from the _Adler_ to stand sentry over the consulate and parade the
streets by threes and fours. The bridge of the Vaisingano, which cuts in
half the English and American quarters, he closed by proclamation and
advertised for tenders to demolish it. On the 17th Leary and Pelly
landed carpenters and repaired it in his teeth. Leary, besides, had
marines under arms, ready to land them if it should be necessary to
protect the work. But Becker looked on without interference, perhaps
glad enough to have the bridge repaired; for even Becker may not always
have offended intentionally. Such was now the distracted posture of the
little town: all government extinct, the German consul patrolling it with
armed men and issuing proclamations like a ruler, the two other Powers
defying his commands, and at least one of them prepared to use force in
the defiance. Close on its skirts sat the warriors of Mataafa, perhaps
four thousand strong, highly incensed against the Germans, having all to
gain in the seizure of the town and firm, and, like an army in a fairy
tale, restrained by the air-drawn boundary of the neutral ground.

I have had occasion to refer to the strange appearance in these islands
of an American adventurer with a battery of cannon. The adventurer was
long since gone, but