01 i; POSSESSION [N Si MOA. 



r,3 



SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS OF SAMOA. 



Not all the people of the United States are aware of 

 the fact that the beautiful island of Tutuila of the 

 Samoan archipelago is one of our ocean possessions, and 

 very few know how it was acquired. In making in- 

 quiries among officers and passengers of the Sierra re- 

 garding this subject I became satisfied how little there 

 is known about it. The history of Samoa, especially 



Fig. 14. — Tutuila, Samoa, U. S. Naval Station. 



the recent part of it, leading up to the time Tutuila 

 was ceded to the United States, is a very interesting 

 one, and does not reflect much credit on some of the 

 foreign powers, especially Germany. The extent to 

 which Germany meddled with Samoan affairs and the 

 fact that she now owns the two largest islands, Savaii 

 and Upolu, are matters difficult to explain. The recent 

 history of Samoa is a tangle difficult to unravel without 

 losing the thread, owing to the rapidity of succession of 



