226 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



It might be presumed that Dr. Steubel needed rest after 

 such an effort, but those lacking in humor seem never to 

 tire ; besides, this was Dr. Steubel's busy day. To Malietoa, 

 he wrote : 



. . . Already, on the 4th of November [1884] your Highness 

 wrote to me that the prisoners who in February, last year, 

 escaped, in consequence of the order of your Government, out of 

 the German prisons, would be brought back. Subsequently I made 

 an agreement [the blindfold episode already referred to] with 

 your Highness' Government. I supposed that difficulties which 

 arose formerly would be removed thereby. Your Highness' Gov- 

 ernment, however, renewed the old inimical attitude towards Ger- 

 many. Not all the prisoners were brought back, and those who 

 were escaped again soon after, and your Highness' Government 

 did not think of taking the trouble to return the prisoners. In a 

 letter which your Highness wrote to me on the 20th of Novem- 

 ber you say that it is generally known that Samoa was to be 

 taken by force by the German Government. 



Since then the followers of your Highness . . . Seumanu and 

 Lauati have repeatedly, in meetings, designated Germany as a 

 robber land, and a country of slavery, and as a country without 

 religion. . . . Germany can no longer look upon this state of 

 affairs with equanimity. . . . 



Hence the German flag-raising over the municipality. To 

 the American and British consuls, who had at once protested 

 against Dr. Steubel's assumption of authority, he wrote that 

 by way of reprisal he had attached, in the name of the Impe- 

 rial German Government, all the territory forming the 

 municipality of Apia, as far as the rights of sovereignty of 

 King Malietoa and his government are concerned, and that 

 he would hold the same as security for the due fulfilment of 

 existing treaty obligations by the Samoan Government. 



Malietoa's apparent complacency in yielding to the impor- 

 tunities of the now cordially disliked Germans injured him 

 in the eyes of his subjects. Tamasese hoped to profit by his 

 disgrace, for ambition had flowered in his breast. The vice- 

 king suddenly announced his separation from Malietoa's 

 government, and he proceeded at once to set up his own 

 emblem of sovereignty in a near-by village. A German mil- 



