THE UNITED STATES AND SAMOA 211 



beyond the native understanding, large tracts of land fell 

 to the company's portion, and these were industriously con- 

 verted into plantations of cocoanuts. The methods of Godef- 

 froy and Company, from a purely commercial point of view, 

 have been denounced as unscrupulous, but the testimony of 

 rivals should be carefully weighed. One must also bear in 

 mind that the honor line is exceedingly hard to trace in all 

 dealings of civilized with semi-civilized peoples. In course 

 of time rival American and English trading concerns sprang 

 into existence at Apia. Fierce competition between these 

 companies, where the volume of business could scarcely sup- 

 port one, often induced their zealous managers to adopt unfair 

 methods for the purpose of gaining native favor and trade. 

 The efforts of the three consuls, who were usually strongly 

 prepossessed in favor of their kinsmen, to protect the traders 

 of their own nationality, led to many official blunders. Sev- 

 eral hundred foreigners principally German, English, and 

 American resided at Apia. The jealous competition of the 

 traders reacted upon these, and each partisan faction espoused 

 with intense enthusiasm the cause of its own nationality. 

 Seemingly incapable of regulating their own affairs within the 

 municipality of Apia, the sterner interference of home govern- 

 ments was often invoked, for the purpose of restoring order 

 where chaos reigned. Commercial rivalry ripened into 

 national jealousy, and all within the confines of a mile of 

 ocean beach. When the situation at Apia became hopelessly 

 involved, and wholly beyond the possibility of local adjust- 

 ment, England, Germany and the United States took the 

 matter in hand. Therein lay the motive of Samoa's woes, 

 and the perplexing problem of her relief. Therein also lay 

 the causes of the United States' abandonment of her time- 

 honored policy of non-interference. 



The native Samoans are generous, emotional, amiable in 

 disposition, of pleasing and even courtly manners, and much 

 given to ceremony and merriment. There is much of good 

 and little of evil in them. They are willing to kill white 

 men only because white men kill them. Nature has so fully 

 responded to their simple wants that they are inclined to 



