710 



SAMOA. 



property account to 46,880. The trade depart- 

 ment showed receipts of 164,833 and a net 

 profit of 4,437. The balance sheet accounted 

 for 700,405, and a net balance remained in 

 bank of 1,336. 



SAMOA, a monarchy in the Pacific Ocean, de- 

 clared independent and neutral at the Samoan 

 Conference held in Berlin in June, 1889, by pleni- 

 potentiaries of the United States, Germany, and 

 Great Britain, who signed a general act provid- 

 ing for the neutrality and autonomous govern- 

 ment of the islands. The King is Malietoa Lau- 

 pepa, who was restored and proclaimed King 

 again, after two years of exile, by the American, 

 German, and British consuls on Dec. 10, 1889. 

 The Superior Judge appointed under the tripar- 

 tite treaty is H. Me. 



The area of the Samoan Islands is 1,700 square 

 miles. The native population was 35,565 in 1887. 

 There are about 450 whites and 1,000 Polynesian 

 laborers from other islands. 



The foreign trade is conducted chiefly by Ger- 

 mans. The staple articles are copra, cotton, cof- 

 fee, and fresh fruits. 



The imports in 1893 were valued at 1,386,811 

 marks, and the exports at 642,621 marks. Dur- 

 ing 1893 there were 81 vessels, of 74,955 tons, 

 entered at the port of Apia. There are 2 Amer- 

 ican ocean liners and 1 British steamer from New 

 Zealand, in which most of the imports are 

 brought, and there was a German steamship, 

 which was taken off during the year. The Ger- 

 man Trading and Plantation Company has the 

 whole trade in copra, which constituted 80 per 

 cent, of the exports, and most of the export trade 

 in other products. This company, which has 

 large plantations, has given up the cultivation of 

 coffee and the ginning of cotton. Of the imports, 

 more than half come from Great Britain and 

 British colonies, mostly on German account. 



The revenue for 1893 was 5,995 sterling, of 

 which 4,189 were derived from the native head 

 tax. 77 from the taxes paid by natives to the 

 Samoan Government on boats, firearms, dwelling 

 houses and business premises, traders' stores, and 

 licenses for professions and trades, 523 from the 

 same taxes paid by Germans both to the munici- 

 pality of Apia and to the Samoan Government, 

 484 from the same taxes paid by British sub- 

 jects, 137 from the same taxes paid by Amer- 

 icans, 152 from other nationalities, and 433 

 from the tax on colored laborers paid by the 

 German Trading and Plantation Company.' 



Rebellion of Tamasese. Malietoa is one of 

 several chiefs of clans, and can rely only on the 

 obedience and support of his own people, the 

 Tuamasaga and a part of Savaii. The Samoans 

 generally have refused to acknowledge his rule 

 or to pay taxes to the Government, regarding it 

 as a while men's Government, and the King as a 

 mere puppet in their hands. The King and the 

 Faipule, his council, have been constrained to act 

 at the dictation not of the Chief Justice and the 

 president of the Municipal Council of Apia, who 

 are his official advisers umier the treaty, but of 

 the consuls of the 3 powers, who can call for the 

 interference of war ships, and who are ruled only 

 by regard for the commercial interests and for 

 the personal security of their compatriots. The 

 Samoans, who look with contempt upon the ideas 

 and customs of white people and despise their 



inferior physique, are ready to accept any king 

 who will rebel against European interference 

 and encroachment. Moreover, they have the 

 habit of engaging in clan feuds, with the con- 

 comitants of head-hunting and other barbarities. 

 Hence the rise of a new pretender to the throne 

 every little while, who is supported by his own 

 and allied clans in a fierce conflict with the 

 tribesmen of the King and the savages of Savaii, 

 who delight in slaughter and rapine. In Janu- 

 ary, 1894, only a few months after Mataafa and 

 a dozen of his chiefs had been exiled to the coral 

 island of Taluit, in the Marshall group, and 

 while 27 others were still expiating in prison their 

 part in the last rebellion, the Tupuas rose to 

 place the younger Tamasese upon the throne, to 

 rule the Samoans in their sole interest, with 

 native counselors only. Tamasese, a brave, stal- 

 wart, intelligent young man, did not venture to 

 raise the standard of a pretender, though he went 

 into the war with his people and voiced their 

 complaints against the King and the whites, 

 whom he threatened to drive from the islands. 

 One half of the Tupuas, the inhabitants of the 

 province of Atua, did not join in the revolt, but 

 engaged only in empty declamation and fruitless 

 embassies. Against the people of Aana, who did 

 rise, the cruel troops of Savaii were let loose to 

 cut down the fruit trees, outrage the women, 

 burn the houses, and kill horses, pigs, and dogs. 



The rebellious disposition of the natives of 

 Aana had been intensified by the action of the 

 Chief Justice in fining and imprisoning certain 

 chiefs, and the outbreak had been precipitated 

 by the act of the Government, which, at the in- 

 stigation of the whites, sent troops into the dis- 

 trict for the purpose of disarming the natives. 



As soon as the rebellion broke out Mr. Ide, at 

 the suggestion of Robert L. Stevenson, had an 

 ordinance passed by the Faipule inflicting severe 

 penalties on any one who took heads. When the 

 troops marched to the front he explained the 

 terms of the new law to the chiefs, and said that 

 it would unfailingly be executed. Nevertheless 

 heads were taken, not only by the warriors of 

 Tamasese, who accepted their presentation, but 

 by the Savaii men, from whom Malietoa refused 

 to accept one offered as a trophy. One third of 

 the King's troops, the Tuamasaga, obeyed the 

 letter of the law, contenting themselves with 

 cutting off the ears of the fallen enemies. Chief- 

 Justice Ide was unable to proceed against the 

 violators of the law, because they were included 

 in the general amnesty arranged by the consuls 

 without his concurrence. The excuse of the con- 

 suls was that there was danger of a massacre of 

 the whites in Apia if the war continued. 



During March a series of sharp skirmishes took 

 place in which the Savaiians were generally suc- 

 cessful, driving their adversaries from their for- 

 tified camps into the inaccessible forests on the 

 mountains and ravaging their country. The loss 

 on the Government side was 60 killed and 

 wounded, while on the side of the rebels hundreds 

 were killed, wounded, and taken prisoners. 



The consuls went to Aana and finally suc- 

 ceeded in arranging an armistice between the 

 contending parties and the preliminaries of a 

 peace whereby full pardon was to be granted to 

 the rebels on condition that they should surren- 

 der 50 rifles, make 20 miles of road, and pay the 



