734 



SAMOA. 



Civil War. Mataafa, a near relative of Ma- 

 lietoa, was the chief of the loyalist party, and 

 its candidate for the throne as the legitimate 

 successor of the exiled King. The enemies of 

 Tamasese were supplied with arms by Ameri- 

 can and English traders. The crisis was pre- 

 cipitated by a conflict, on August 31, between 

 Tamasese's people and five chiefs of the Tua- 

 masanga district, which occurred on the occa- 

 sion ot a division of mats. The chiefs were 

 summoned on the following day to appear be- 

 fore the royal court of justice at Matianu. Re- 

 fusing to obey, they raised the flag of revolt, 

 and called on Mataafa, who was chief of Fale- 

 ula, fifteen miles from Apia, to lead them 

 against Tamasese. The King gathered his mili- 

 tary forces, fortified Matianu, a point of land 

 jutting into the Bay of Apia, where the kings 

 had from ancient times held their court, and 

 occupied two forts at Matantu. Warriors from 

 Upolti and Savaii streamed into Mataafa's camp 

 at Faleula. On Sept. 9 the representative of 

 the old dynasty proclaimed himself King of 

 all Samoa, nnder the title Mataafa Malietoa IF. 

 On Sept. 12 Mataafa led his forces around 

 Apia to the neighborhood of Matantu, where a 

 battle took place that lasted from noon till even- 

 ing. There were about two thousand combat- 

 ants on either side, Tamasese's men having the 

 greater number of breech-loading rifles. Ac- 

 cording to their wont, the Samoans fired with- 

 out aim, discharging about thirty thousand 

 shots, many of which passed through the houses 

 of Europeans arid struck the shipping, killing 

 Capt. Bisset, of an English merchant-schoon- 

 er, who was in the English consulate, and 

 wounding a sailor on the " Adler." The killed 

 on neither side numbered more than half a 

 dozen ; but after the battle many heads were 

 cut off from the wounded as trophies of victory. 

 Conquered by noise and the consciousness of a 

 failing cause, the soldiers of Tamasese fled from 

 their forts, and escaped by swimming to Matia- 

 nu, while Mataafa took up liis position in Ma- 

 tantu. On the morning after the battle an offi- 

 cer of the " Adler," with forty men, occupied 

 the strip of land giving access to Matianu, to 

 prevent the victors from attacking Tainasese^s 

 demoralized army. 



At the proposal of the German and English 

 consuls, Mataafa declared the neutrality of 

 Apia. The conqueror was elected King in 

 meetings that were held all over the country, 

 and was proclaimed as such in Apia, where he 

 took possession of the Government property. 

 The English and American consuls were anx- 

 ious to have the foreign parts of the district of 

 Apia declared neutral, but the German consul 

 insisted on extending neutrality to all German 

 land throughout the island, including the prom- 

 ontory where Tamasese's army lay encamped, 

 and similar places of refuge everywhere, in 

 which he could gather his forces and prepare 

 his attacks without molestation. Mataafa 

 would not agree to this, and, in order to remove 

 the scene of conflict from the vicinity of the 



Europeans, Tamasese established himself at 

 Saluafata, where he was supplied with arms 

 and ammunition by a German schooner which 

 made many trips between Apia and his camp. 

 Brandeis, who had served in the German artil- 

 lery, became his military adviser. An English 

 merchant named McArthur and an American 

 named Moores supplied Mataafa with munitions 

 of war. Mataafa's authority as King was ac- 

 knowledged all over the islands, except in a 

 few villages. The American vice-consul, Black- 

 lock, in replying to the notification of Mataafa's 

 election by the people, said that he thought 

 it was in accordance with the wishes of the 

 three powers. The English consul simply in- 

 formed Mataafa that the party of Tamasese, as 

 he was assured by the German consul, would 

 respect the territory declared neutral if Mataafa 

 would also do so. 



Mataafa gathered together an army of five 

 thousand men, while Tamasese's force at Sal- 

 uafata did not exceed seventeen hundred war- 

 riors from the Ituatane district of Savaii and 

 the Aana and Atua tribes. The main body of 

 all these tribes, with the Tumasasas and the 

 Mononos who fight in canoes joined Mataafa's 

 standard. On Nov. 5 Mataafa moved from the 

 village of Laulii on the formidable works at 

 Saluafata. These consisted of stockades in the 

 forest, parapets on the mountain-side leading 

 up to the fort, from which the timber had been 

 cleared to afford a free rifle-range, and the big 

 fort built of stones and baskets filled with sand, 

 in three sections, with narrow passage-ways 

 between them. The fort stood on a hill at the 

 eastern extremity of the Bay of Apia. Mata- 

 afa's position was likewise fortified. The fight- 

 ing lasted many days. About one hundred and 

 twenty men were killed, and one hundred and 

 fifty wounded. Both parties took the heads of 

 their enemies. Tamasese's outposts in the bush 

 were driven from their principal stockade on 

 Nov. 6, and retreated up the side of a steep 

 hill, where they hastily made a clearing and 

 threw up a stockade. The Tumasaga warriors 

 of Mataafa's army stormed the height, pulling 

 themselves up by bushes in the face of the ene- 

 my's fire, drove the Tamasesans from the stock- 

 ade, and forced them to retire farther up the 

 mountain, where they made another stand. By 

 Nov. 9 the Tumasaga men had fought their 

 way to a good position in the mountains, and 

 built a stockade within twenty-five yards of a 

 Tamasese stockade. The wounded of Mataafn's 

 army were taken to Apia, where they were 

 bandaged by the surjreons of the "Adams" 

 and " Lizard," and cared for under the direc- 

 tions of Col. fi. de Coetlogon, the British con- 

 sul, Vice-Consul Blacklock, and the command- 

 ers of the American and British men-of-war. 

 The German naval surgeons dressed the wounds 

 of Tamasese's men. On Nov. 10 the German 

 steamer "Lubeck" arrived with Dr. Knappe, 

 who relieved Consul Becker. 



The new German consul, on the arrival of 

 the " Adler," ordered Mataafa to leave his en- 



