The Days of a Man 1902 



A mar- extinct volcanic crater some three miles across, from 

 veious which 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 enclosing 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 Samoan islands were long under the joint pro- 

 tectorate of Great Britain, Germany, and the United 

 States an arrangement accompanied by no end of 

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

 Conven- Stevenson put it. 1 But in 1891 Great Britain with- 

 tionai drew entirely, exchanging her claims for certain ad- 



polltlCS 11 1- 1 1 



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, 



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



