The Days of a Man 1:1902 



Av^ar- extinct volcanic crater some three miles across from 

 '^^^ous ^-hich the island was once ejected in the form of lava. 

 ^"'^°' Into this enormous bowl the sea enters through only 

 a half-mile breach, while elsewhere the enclosmg walls 

 rise almost vertically from 1000 to 2500 feet. Within, 

 a reef lines the whole area, yet leaves enough middle ^ 

 space, not ''for all the navies of the world" but for 

 all the ships ever likely to touch there. 



The Sam.oan islands were long under the joint pro- 

 tectorate of Great Britain, Germany, and the United 

 grates __ an arrangement accompanied by no erid of 

 petty wrangling, "a new conspiracy every day," as 

 Con.en. Stevcusou put it.^ But lu 1891 Great Britain with- 

 lionai drew entirely, exchanging her claims for certain ad- 

 ■ ^°^'''" vantages elsewhere, and the group was divided 

 Upolu and Savaii being assigned to Germany, and 

 Tutuila with outlying Manua — sixty miles away, ten 

 miles across, and nearly circular — to the United 

 States This settlement was more acceptable to 

 Tutuila than to Upolu. Concerning it, Sir Thomas 

 Elliott, one of the British Commission of Adjustment, 

 said to'me (in substance) upon his return from Samoa: 



We have not settled this affair as Stevenson would have liked. 

 But I don't see why Englishmen living in out-of-the-way places 

 should meddle with international affairs. 



I should here add that relations between our coun- 

 try and its new charges were afterward temporarily 

 strained, for reasons to be presently discussed, and in 

 1899, also, a distressing episode in which we were 

 involved took place at Apia. At that time the 

 natives of Upolu were again engaged in "doing poli- 

 tics" in their usual noisy but good-natured fashion, 



iFor his excellent account of this situation, see "A Footnote to History." 



C 100 3 



