were
surprised to observe the birds continuing to sing, and a cow grazed all
afternoon unhurt. Doubtless here was the defence in a poor way; but then
the attack was in irons. For the Mataafas about the pilot house could
scarcely advance beyond without coming under the fire of their own men
from the other side of the Fuisa; and there was not enough organisation,
perhaps not enough authority, to divert or to arrest that fire.

The progress of the fight along the beach road was visible from Mulinuu,
and Brandeis despatched ten boats of reinforcements. They crossed the
harbour, paused for a while beside the _Adler_--it is supposed for
ammunition--and drew near the Matautu shore. The Mataafa men lay close
among the shore-side bushes, expecting their arrival; when a silly lad,
in mere lightness of heart, fired a shot in the air. My native friend,
Mrs. Mary Hamilton, ran out of her house and gave the culprit a good
shaking: an episode in the midst of battle as incongruous as the grazing
cow. But his sillier comrades followed his example; a harmless volley
warned the boats what they might expect; and they drew back and passed
outside the reef for the passage of the Fuisa. Here they came under the
fire of the right wing of the Mataafas on the river-bank. The beach,
raked east and west, appeared to them no place to land on. And they hung
off in the deep water of the lagoon inside the barrier reef, feebly
fusillading the pilot house.

Between four and five, the Fabeata regiment (or folk of that village) on
the Mataafa left, which had been under arms all day, fell to be
withdrawn for rest and food; the Siumu regiment, which should have
relieved it, was not ready or not notified in time; and the Tamaseses,
gallantly profiting by the mismanagement, recovered the most of the
ground in their proper right. It was not for long. They lost it again,
yard by yard and from house to house, till the pilot station was once
more in the hands of the Mataafas. This is the last definite incident in
the battle. The vicissitudes along the line of the entrenchments remain
concealed from us under the cover of the forest. Some part of the
Tamasese position there appears to have been carried, but what part, or
at what hour, or whether the advantage was maintained, I have never
learned. Night and rain, but not silence, closed upon the field. The
trenches were deep in mud; but the younger folk wrecked the houses in
the neighbourhood, carried the roofs to