GODEFFROY AND CO. 237 



tions in the presence of his mate. Furthermore, they shipped 



i? 



no man as mate who was not fully competent to fulfil the 

 duties of captain in case of need, and they did not insure their 

 ships. It has been a matter of conjecture with many what 

 could have been the object of Messrs. Godeffroy in purchasing- 

 such a vast tract of land as Samoa. I have enjoyed peculiar 

 facilities for knowing their exact intentions. Very much of 

 their land is so elevated as to possess a mild temperature well 

 suited to the European constitution. It consists of fertile 

 plateaux, anciently inhabited and cultivated. Their idea was 

 to subdivide it among German emigrants, to whom they would 

 lease it in small lots with the option of purchase, Godeffroy to 

 provide means of transport and all necessaries to begin with. 

 It was proposed that the settlers should cultivate corn, coffee, 

 tobacco, cinchona, and other produce which had been scienti- 

 fically and successfully experimented upon, while the low lands 

 in the vicinity of the sea-beach were to be devoted to the 

 growth of cocoa, palms, sugar-cane, rice, jute, etc., by the labour 

 of Chinese, who were intended to be brought over in families 

 and established as tenants on a small scale, so as to do away 

 entirely with the idea of servitude. The Franco-German war 

 prevented the realisation of this scheme at the time intended. 

 The results, there can be no doubt, would have been very great 

 and certainly beneficial to Messrs. Godeffroy, the white settlers, 

 and the influence of the German Empire. It is to be hoped 

 that the idea, which they have been compelled to abandon, 

 may be acted on by our own countrymen at no distant date. 



The Government of the then North German Confederation 

 regarded the matter with paternal interest, and several personal 

 interviews and a voluminous correspondence passed between 

 the senior partner of the house of Godeffroy and Herr (now 

 Prince) von Bismarck, who had been great friends in youth, 



