d by Sa Luia to the wife of Frank Chesson, a
white trader then living on the Santa Cruz Islands, in which the Swallow
Group is included. Chesson himself had lived in Samoa, and spoke the
language well, and the four people remained in his house for many months
as welcome guests. A strong and lasting friendship was formed, and
resulted in the trader, his wife and family, and the four Samoans
removing to the little island of Fenua-loa, and there founding what
is now a colony of Polynesians with language, customs and mode of life
generally entirely distinct from their Melanesian neighbours.

* * * * *

I am Sa Luia. I come from Mulifanua, at the lee end of Upolu in Samoa.
My father was not only the chief of Mulifanua, but has great lands in
the Atua district on the north side of Upolu--lands which came to him
through my mother, who died when I was but a week old--and from these
lands he had his name, Pule-o-Vaitafe (Lord of many Rivers).

Now it is not well for a daughter to speak unkindly of her father; but
this what I now say is true. My father, though he was so rich a man, was
very cruel to those who crossed his path, and though he was a brave man
in battle, his heart was shrunken up by reason of his avarice and
his desire to grow richer, and all Samoa, from Manna in the east to
Falealupo in the west, spoke of him as Pule-lima-vale--"Pule the
close-fisted"--or Pule fata-ma'a--"Pule the stony-hearted." Yet all this
gave him no concern.

"What does it matter to me?" he said to his brother Patiole one day,
when Patiole, who was a chief of Manono, reproached him for his meanness
in sending away some visitors from Tutuila with such scanty presents
that all the people of Mulifanua were ashamed. "What does it matter to
me what people say of me? This _malaga_ (party of visitors) from Tutuila
are eaten up with poverty. Why should I give them fine mats, and muskets
and powder and bullets? Am I a fool? What return can they make to me?"

"They came to do thee honour," said my uncle, putting his hand across
his eyes out of respect to my father, who was of higher rank than he,
and speaking softly. "They are thy dead wife's relatives, and are of
good blood. And thou hast shamed them--and thyself as well--by sending
them away empty-handed."

My father laughed scornfully. "What care I for my dead wife's relatives!
I have no need of them, and want them not. When I took the daughter of
Mauga to wife, Mauga was a great man. Now he and