chief, and began to retrace their steps. On
the return, Suatele and some chiefs were drinking kava in a "big house,"
and called them in to join--their only invitation. But the night was
closing, the rain had begun again: they stayed but for civility, and
returned on board the _Adams_, wet and hungry, and I believe delighted
with their expedition. It was perhaps the last as it was certainly one
of the most extreme examples of that divinity which once hedged the white
in Samoa. The feeling was already different in the camp of Mataafa,
where the safety of a German loiterer had been a matter of extreme
concern. Ten days later, three commissioners, an Englishman, an
American, and a German, approached a post of Mataafas, were challenged by
an old man with a gun, and mentioned in answer what they were. "_Ifea
Siamani_? Which is the German?" cried the old gentleman, dancing, and
with his finger on the trigger; and the commissioners stood somewhile in
a very anxious posture, till they were released by the opportune arrival
of a chief. It was November the 27th when Leary and Moors completed
their absurd excursion; in about three weeks an event was to befall which
changed at once, and probably for ever, the relations of the natives and
the whites.

By the 28th Tamasese had collected seventeen hundred men in the trenches
before Saluafata, thinking to attack next day. But the Mataafas
evacuated the place in the night. At half-past five on the morning of
the 29th a signal-gun was fired in the trenches at Laulii, and the
Tamasese citadel was assaulted and defended with a fury new among
Samoans. When the battle ended on the following day, one or more
outworks remained in the possession of Mataafa. Another had been taken
and lost as many as four times. Carried originally by a mixed force from
Savaii and Tuamasanga, the victors, instead of completing fresh defences
or pursuing their advantage, fell to eat and smoke and celebrate their
victory with impromptu songs. In this humour a rally of the Tamaseses
smote them, drove them out pell-mell, and tumbled them into the ravine,
where many broke their heads and legs. Again the work was taken, again
lost. Ammunition failed the belligerents; and they fought hand to hand
in the contested fort with axes, clubs, and clubbed rifles. The
sustained ardour of the engagement surprised even those who were engaged;
and the butcher's bill was counted extraordinary by Samoans. On December