here can be no war_. Do I then
prefer a famine to a war? you ask. Not always, but just now. I am sure
the natives do not want a war; I am sure a war would benefit no one but
the white officials, and I believe we can easily meet the famine--or at
least that it can be met. That would give our officials a legitimate
opportunity to cover their past errors.

_Jan. 2nd._--I woke this morning to find the blow quite ended. The
heaven was all a mottled grey; even the east quite colourless; the
downward slope of the island veiled in wafts of vapour, blue like smoke;
not a leaf stirred on the tallest tree; only, three miles away below me
on the barrier reef, I could see the individual breakers curl and fall,
and hear their conjunct roaring rise, as it still rises at 1 P.M., like
the roar of a thoroughfare close by. I did a good morning's work,
correcting and clarifying my draft, and have now finished for press
eight chapters, ninety-one pages, of this piece of journalism. Four more
chapters, say fifty pages, remain to be done; I should gain my wager and
finish this volume in three months, that is to say, the end should leave
me per February mail; I cannot receive it back till the mail of April.
Yes, it can be out in time; pray God that it be in time to help.

How do journalists fetch up their drivel? I aim only at clearness and
the most obvious finish, positively at no higher degree of merit, not
even at brevity--I am sure it could have been all done, with double the
time, in two-thirds of the space. And yet it has taken me two months to
write 45,500 words; and, be damned to my wicked prowess, I am proud of
the exploit! The real journalist must be a man not of brass only, but
bronze. Chapter IX. gapes for me, but I shrink on the margin, and go on
chattering to you. This last part will be much less offensive (strange
to say) to the Germans. It is Becker they will never forgive me for;
Knappe I pity and do not dislike; Becker I scorn and abominate. Here is
the tableau. I. Elements of Discord: Native. II. Elements of Discord:
Foreign. III. The Sorrows of Laupepa. IV. Brandeis. V. The Battle of
Matautu. VI. Last Exploits of Becker. VII. The Samoan Camps. VIII.
Affairs of Lautii and Fangalii. IX. "_Furor Consularis_." X. The
Hurricane. XI. Stuebel Recluse. XII. The Present Government. I estimate
the whole roughly at 70,000 words. Should anybody ever dream of reading
it, it would be found amusing. 70000/300 = 233 printed pages; a
respe