THE UNITED STATES AND SAMOA 217 



American Samoa, became alarmed by the evidences of Ger- 

 man intrigue, and he decided it to be his duty to thwart 

 Teutonic ambition in the island. The breach between the 

 United States and Germany in Samoa was thus begun, and 

 English subjects in Apia took sides with the Americans 

 against the greater rival. 



' Civil dissensions between various native factions continued 

 unabated throughout the year 1878. The followers of 

 Malietoa Telavu and the adherents to the old regime of the 

 " Councils of the Chiefs " took to the bush, Samoan fashion, 

 to glare at each other over their rude fortifications, to brandish 

 fiercely their arms and to fill the forests with their war- 

 cries. It was during this long period of strife that the 

 foreigners in Apia for their own safety obtained from both 

 warring factions the recognition of a strip of territory, in- 

 cluding the municipality of Apia, as neutral and sacred from 

 all hostile attack. Over this tract of land the three nations, 

 which were in treaty relations with Samoa, were authorized 

 to exercise the rights of extra-territoriality. In regard to 

 the native wars, the three consuls in Apia proclaimed of- 

 ficially the strictest neutrality; but notwithstanding their 

 determination to hold aloof from any participation in the 

 troubled affairs of Samoa, their languishing trade interests 

 compelled them to intervene. In the light of later Samoan 

 history, it is not a little remarkable that all three consuls, 

 backed by the concurrent opinions of several naval captains 

 in the harbor, were enabled to unite in the selection of 

 Malietoa Telavu as the ruler of Samoa. They thereupon 

 threw the weight of their influence in his favor. Desultory 

 fighting continued, nevertheless, for over a year, when peace 

 was finally restored only by the interposition of Captain 



Deinhart of the German cruiser Bismarck. 



Though peace had been accomplished by no less vigorous 

 measures than a bombardment of native villages, Samoan 

 politics continued in a most unsettled condition. The three 



onsuls decided to take a still more active part in the man- 

 agement of local affairs, if for nothing more than to insure 

 the stability of the government they had united in establish- 



