rk makes no rows. I tell this
lightly, but it really was a heavy business; many were accused of
complicity, and Rafael was really very sorry. I had to hold beds of
justice--literally--seated in my bed and surrounded by lying Samoans
seated on the floor; and there were many picturesque and still
inexplicable passages. It is hard to reach the truth in these islands.

The next incident overlapped with this. S. and Fanny found three strange
horses in the paddock: for long now the boys have been forbidden to
leave their horses here one hour because our grass is over-grazed. S.
came up with the news, and I saw I must now strike a blow. "To the pound
with the lot," said I. He proposed taking the three himself, but I
thought that too dangerous an experiment, said I should go too, and
hurried into my boots so as to show decision taken, in the necessary
interviews. They came of course--the interviews--and I explained what I
was going to do at huge length, and stuck to my guns. I am glad to say
the natives, with their usual (purely speculative) sense of justice,
highly approved the step after reflection. Meanwhile off went S. and I
with the three _corpora delicti_; and a good job I went! Once, when our
circus began to kick, we thought all was up; but we got them down all
sound in wind and limb. I judged I was much fallen off from my Elliot
forefathers, who managed this class of business with neatness and
despatch.

As we got down to town, we met the mother and daughter of my friend
----, bathed in tears; they had left the house over a row, which I have
not time or spirits to describe. This matter dashed me a good deal, and
the first decent-looking day I mounted and set off to see if I could not
patch things up. Half-way down it came on to rain tropic style, and I
came back from my second outing drenched like a drowned man--I was
literally blinded as I came back among these sheets of water; and the
consequence was I was laid down with diarrhoea and threatenings of
Samoa colic for the inside of another week. Meanwhile up came
Laulii,[34] in whose house Mrs. and Miss ---- have taken refuge. One of
Mrs. ----'s grievances is that her son has married one of these
"pork-eaters and cannibals." (As a matter of fact there is no memory of
cannibalism in Samoa.) And a strange thing it was to hear the "cannibal"
Laulii describe her sorrows. She is singularly pretty and sweet, her
training reflects wonderful credit on her husband; and when she