l forces, who were supplied, _sub rosa_,
with all the arms and ammunition they desired by the German commercial
agents of Bismarck, who had impressed upon that statesman the necessity
of making Samoa the base of German trading enterprise in the South Seas
by stirring up rebellion throughout the group to such an extent that
Germany, under the plea of humanity, would intervene--buy out the
British and American interests, and force the natives to accept a German
protectorate.

At this time the white population of Apia numbered about two hundred,
of whom one half were Germans--the rest were principally English and
Americans. For two years past a very bitter feeling had existed between
the staff of the great German trading firm, and the British and American
community. The latter had their places of business in Apia, and the
suburb of Matautu, the Germans occupied the suburb of Matafele, and
although there was a business intercourse between the people of the
three nationalities, there was absolutely none of a social character.
The British and American traders and residents were supporters of
King Malietoa, the Germans backed up the rebel party, and the natives
themselves were equally divided into pro-British, and pro-Germans.

At this time--when the Man Who Knew Everything arrived in Samoa from New
Zealand--I was living on shore. The vessel in which I was employed as
"recruiter" in the Kanaka labour trade was laid up in Apia harbour. Two
months previously we had brought a cargo of native labourers from the
Gilbert Islands to be indentured to the cotton planters in Samoa, and
finding the country in such a disturbed state, with business paralysed,
and no further demand for a fresh cargo of Kanaka "recruits," we decided
to pay off most of the ship's company, and let the brigantine lie
up till the end of the rainy and bad weather season--from the end of
November till March, The skipper and a few of the native crew remained
on board, but I took up my quarters on shore, at a little Samoan village
named Lelepa--two miles from Apia. Here I was the "paying guest" of our
boatswain--a stalwart native of the island of Rarotonga. He had sailed
with me on several vessels during a period of some years; and on one of
our visits to Apia had married a Samoan girl of a good family.

Having much spare time on my hands I occupied it in deep-sea fishing and
shooting, and in making boat voyages along the coast, visiting a number
of native village