gone. A
sense of expectation reigned, and sympathy for the attack was expressed
publicly. Some men with unblacked faces came to Moors's store for
biscuit. A native woman, who was there marketing, inquired after the
news, and, hearing that the battle was now near at hand, "Give them two
more tins," said she; "and don't put them down to my husband--he would
growl; put them down to me." Between twelve and one, two white men
walked toward Matautu, finding as they went no sign of war until they
had passed the Vaisingano and come to the corner of a by-path leading to
the bush. Here were four blackened warriors on guard,--the extreme left
wing of the Mataafa force, where it touched the waters of the bay.
Thence the line (which the white men followed) stretched inland among
bush and marsh, facing the forts of the Tamaseses. The warriors lay as
yet inactive behind trees; but all the young boys and harlots of Apia
toiled in the front upon a trench, digging with knives and cocoa-shells;
and a continuous stream of children brought them water. The young
sappers worked crouching; from the outside only an occasional head, or a
hand emptying a shell of earth, was visible; and their enemies looked on
inert from the line of the opposing forts. The lists were not yet
prepared, the tournament was not yet open; and the attacking force was
suffered to throw up works under the silent guns of the defence. But
there is an end even to the delay of islanders. As the white men stood
and looked, the Tamasese line thundered into a volley; it was answered;
the crowd of silent workers broke forth in laughter and cheers; and the
battle had begun.

Thenceforward, all day and most of the next night, volley followed
volley; and pounds of lead and pounds sterling of money continued to be
blown into the air without cessation and almost without result. Colonel
de Coetlogon, an old soldier, described the noise as deafening. The
harbour was all struck with shots; a man was knocked over on the German
war-ship; half Apia was under fire; and a house was pierced beyond the
Mulivai. All along the two lines of breastwork, the entrenched enemies
exchanged this hail of balls; and away on the east of the battle the
fusillade was maintained, with equal spirit, across the narrow barrier
of the Fuisa. The whole rear of the Tamaseses was enfiladed by this
flank fire; and I have seen a house there, by the river brink, that was
riddled with bullets like a piece of worm-eaten