ible but the titular king should
grow at last uneasily conscious of the _maire de palais_ at his side, or
the king-maker be at last offended by some shadow of distrust or
assumption in his creature. I repeat the words king-maker and creature;
it is so that Mataafa himself conceives of their relation: surely not
without justice; for, had he not contended and prevailed, and been
helped by the folly of consuls and the fury of the storm, Laupepa must
have died in exile.

Foreigners in these islands know little of the course of native
intrigue. Partly the Samoans cannot explain, partly they will not tell.
Ask how much a master can follow of the puerile politics in any school;
so much and no more we may understand of the events which surround and
menace us with their results. The missions may perhaps have been to
blame. Missionaries are perhaps apt to meddle overmuch outside their
discipline; it is a fault which should be judged with mercy; the problem
is sometimes so insidiously presented that even a moderate and able man
is betrayed beyond his own intention; and the missionary in such a land
as Samoa is something else besides a minister of mere religion; he
represents civilisation, he is condemned to be an organ of reform, he
could scarce evade (even if he desired) a certain influence in political
affairs. And it is believed, besides, by those who fancy they know, that
the effective force of division between Mataafa and Laupepa came from
the natives rather than from whites. Before the end of 1890, at least,
it began to be rumoured that there was dispeace between the two
Malietoas; and doubtless this had an unsettling influence throughout the
islands. But there was another ingredient of anxiety. The Berlin
convention had long closed its sittings; the text of the Act had been
long in our hands; commissioners were announced to right the wrongs of
the land question, and two high officials, a chief justice and a
president, to guide policy and administer law in Samoa. Their coming was
expected with an impatience, with a childishness of trust, that can
hardly be exaggerated. Months passed, these angel-deliverers still
delayed to arrive, and the impatience of the natives became changed to
an ominous irritation. They have had much experience of being deceived,
and they began to think they were deceived again. A sudden crop of
superstitious stories buzzed about the islands. Rivers had come down
red; unknown fishes had been taken on t