66 AROUND THE WORLD VIA INDIA. 



twenty of his chiefs, where he remains at the present 

 time. On the return to power Laupepa abdicated in 

 favor of Mataafa, but European diplomacy again in- 

 terfered and he remained on the throne. After Lau- 

 pepa's death in 1888 came the contest between the ex- 

 iled Mataafa, who had the German influence, and Tana, 

 the son of the dead king. After a number of fierce con- 

 tests the matter was referred to Chief Justice Chambers, 

 who decided in favor of the heir to the throne. Finally 

 Admiral Kautz of the battleship Philadelphia interfered 

 and insisted that both contesting parties should lay 

 their claims aside. England now withdrew from the 

 contest, leaving the Germans and Americans in the 

 field to dispose of the islands. A satisfactory agree- 

 ment was reached by which, on Nov. 8, 1899, the two 

 largest islands, Savaii and Upolu, were ceded to Ger- 

 many, and Tutuila, with its magnificent harbor, be- 

 came the property of the United States. 



OUR SAMOAN ISLAND. 



Out of the internal dissensions and whirlpool of 

 foreign intervention arose for us, phoenix-like, Tutuila, 

 the most beautiful, and. from a strategic standpoint, the 

 most important of the Samoan Islands. Pago Pago 

 harbor is land-locked, with an average of thirty fathoms 

 in depth and sufficiently large to give protection to a 

 fleet of from six to eight of the largest men-of-war. 

 with a strip of land belonging to it amply large for gov- 

 ernment buildings, barracks and coal sheds. The har- 

 bor is hemmed in by mountains on all sides, from 1,500 

 to 2.500 feet high, except the narrow gateway commun- 

 icating with the ocean. These mountains form a safe- 

 guard against, any hurricane, no matter how severe it 

 miffht be. The entrance is so narrow that a few mines 

 and a battery on the high hills on each side could keep 

 the largest naval force at bay. The island is 19 miles 

 Ion"- and 230 in circumference. A number of islets 

 belonging to it and included in the treaty stretch along 



