222 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



ter, infested the place. The South Sea Islands appear to 

 furnish the conditions necessary to the development of an 

 unprincipled class of men who are always ready to breed 

 dissensions among native peoples, whom, by glibness of 

 tongue, they influence to evil. Thieves profit by confusion. 

 These adventurers, like stormy petrels scenting the tempest 

 from afar, were a constant menace to peace in the islands. 



King Malietoa Laupepa, installed in a shanty at Mulinuu, 

 gloomily contemplated the shadow of his slender authority. 

 He was thoroughly dependent upon the cooperation of the 

 consuls to repress the little rebellions that sprang up like 

 weeds in his garden. He was nevertheless much loved by 

 his people. Laupepa has often been described as a gentle, 

 lovable old man, of the most generous impulses, but pitifully 

 weak. Tamasese, the vice-king possessed no distinctive 

 qualities, either good or bad, and his popularity among his 

 people was but luke-warm. 



Out in the bush, a great chief and warrior, a man of high 

 courage and principle, of large and enthusiastic following, 

 Mataafa by name, rested upon his arms. He may be said to 

 have been at that moment in a quiescent state. He was 

 ambitious for the throne, disliked Tamasese and bore a strong 

 friendship for his kinsman, Malietoa Laupepa. 



Mataafa's personality was very striking, combining great 

 vigor with a kindly, generous nature. He possessed a clear 

 sense of justice, and was a good friend and a bad enemy. 

 From childhood a curse rested upon this ambitious warrior. 

 For some uncivil act he committed toward his elders he had 

 been denounced by a relative who, as a prophet of evil 

 fortune, cast upon him a future of great disappointment. 

 Never should he rule Samoa, yet never should he rest from 

 his vain efforts to reach the throne. 



IV 



During the earlier eighties the plantations of the German 

 firm in the vicinity of Apia had been subject to petty pilfer- 

 ings of the natives. The managers of the company had 

 made frequent complaints about these thefts; the German 



