iven; if you do not obey, then all your villages will
be burnt like Manono. These instructions are made in truth in the sight
of God in the Heaven." The same morning, accordingly, the _Adler_
steamed out of the bay with a force of Tamasese warriors and some native
boats in tow, the Samoan fleet in question. Manono was shelled; the
Tamasese warriors, under the conduct of a Manono traitor, who paid
before many days the forfeit of his blood, landed and did some damage,
but were driven away by the sight of a force returning from the
mainland; no one was hurt, for the women and children, who alone
remained on the island, found a refuge in the bush; and the _Adler_ and
her acolytes returned the same evening. The letter had been energetic;
the performance fell below the programme. The demonstration annoyed and
yet re-assured the insurgents, and it fully disclosed to the Germans a
new enemy.

Captain von Widersheim had been relieved. His successor, Captain
Fritze, was an officer of a different stamp. I have nothing to say of
him but good; he seems to have obeyed the consul's requisitions with
secret distaste; his despatches were of admirable candour; but his
habits were retired, he spoke little English, and was far indeed from
inheriting von Widersheim's close relations with Commander Leary. It is
believed by Germans that the American officer resented what he took to
be neglect. I mention this, not because I believe it to depict
Commander Leary, but because it is typical of a prevailing infirmity
among Germans in Samoa. Touchy themselves, they read all history in the
light of personal affronts and tiffs; and I find this weakness
indicated by the big thumb of Bismarck, when he places "sensitiveness
to small disrespects--_Empfindlichkeit ueber Mangel an Respect_," among
the causes of the wild career of Knappe. Whatever the cause, at least,
the natives had no sooner taken arms than Leary appeared with violence
upon that side. As early as the 3rd, he had sent an obscure but
menacing despatch to Brandeis. On the 6th, he fell on Fritze in the
matter of the Manono bombardment. "The revolutionists," he wrote, "had
an armed force in the field within a few miles of this harbour, when
the vessels under your command transported the Tamasese troops to a
neighbouring island with the avowed intention of making war on the
isolated homes of the women and children of the enemy. Being the only
other representative of a naval power now present in