till they were released by the opportune arrival
of a chief. It was November the 27th when Leary and Moors completed
their absurd excursion; in about three weeks an event was to befall
which changed at once, and probably for ever, the relations of the
natives and the whites.

By the 28th Tamasese had collected seventeen hundred men in the trenches
before Saluafata, thinking to attack next day. But the Mataafas
evacuated the place in the night. At half-past five on the morning of
the 29th a signal-gun was fired in the trenches at Laulii, and the
Tamasese citadel was assaulted and defended with a fury new among
Samoans. When the battle ended on the following day, one or more
outworks remained in the possession of Mataafa. Another had been taken
and lost as many as four times. Carried originally by a mixed force from
Savaii and Tuamasanga, the victors, instead of completing fresh defences
or pursuing their advantage, fell to eat and smoke and celebrate their
victory with impromptu songs. In this humour a rally of the Tamaseses
smote them, drove them out pell-mell, and tumbled them into the ravine,
where many broke their heads and legs. Again the work was taken, again
lost. Ammunition failed the belligerents; and they fought hand to hand
in the contested fort with axes, clubs, and clubbed rifles. The
sustained ardour of the engagement surprised even those who were
engaged; and the butcher's bill was counted extraordinary by Samoans. On
December 1st the women of either side collected the headless bodies of
the dead, each easily identified by the name tattooed on his forearm.
Mataafa is thought to have lost sixty killed; and the de Coetlogons'
hospital received three women and forty men. The casualties on the
Tamasese side cannot be accepted, but they were presumably much less.

CHAPTER VIII

AFFAIRS OF LAULII AND FANGALII

_November--December_ 1888

For Becker I have not been able to conceal my distaste, for he seems to
me both false and foolish. But of his successor, the unfortunately
famous Dr. Knappe, we may think as of a good enough fellow driven
distraught. Fond of Samoa and the Samoans, he thought to bring peace and
enjoy popularity among the islanders; of a genial, amiable, and sanguine
temper, he made no doubt but he could repair the breach with the English
consul. Hope told a flattering tale. He awoke to find himself exchanging
defiances with de Coetlogon, beaten in the field by Mataafa, surrounded
on