238 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



In August, 1888, Mataafa suddenly became aggressive and 

 made an attack, though unsuccessful, upon Tamasese at 

 Mulinuu, and then retired to marshal his strength for another 

 assault. Instantly all the suppressed antipathies of the two 

 parties in the islands rekindled, the Tamaseses rallied 

 about the king at Mulinuu ; Brandeis dug trenches in active 

 preparation to meet the coming assaults. From neighboring 

 islands the sympathizers of Mataafa came in their canoes to 

 share in the threatened conflict. In Apia the price of arms 

 and ammunition reached a fabulous figure, and could only 

 then be bought by the natives upon a declaration showing on 

 which side they were to be used. 



To strike terror into the hearts of the " rebels," the Ger- 

 man warship Adler proceeded to bombard native villages 

 along the coast that were known to favor Mataafa. It was 

 then that Commander Leary of the U. S. S. Adams addressed 

 a letter to the German captain which was calculated to remove 

 all doubt as to which side in the coming contest he and the 

 American citizens in Apia had given their sympathies. He 

 said: "The revolutionists had an armed force in the field, 

 within a few miles of this harbor, when the vessels under your 

 command transported the Tamasese troops to a neighboring 

 island with the avowed intention of making war on the isolated 

 homes of the women and children of the enemy. Being the 

 only other representative of a naval power now present in 

 this harbor, for the sake of humanity, I hereby respectfully 

 and solemnly protest in the name of the United States of 

 America, and of the civilized world in general, against the 

 use of a national war vessel for services as were yesterday 

 rendered by the German corvette Adler." This well-directed 

 protest was followed by a series of thrusts on the part of Com- 

 mander Leary that stung the German Captain's temper. The 

 best of jokes may be pushed too far, and in this respect Com- 

 mander Leary probably transgressed. His final offence, by in- 

 viting through inference or implication, the commander of the 

 Adler to meet him in combat, in no way relieved the tension. 

 Upon this particular occasion the German man-of-war had 

 taken position to bombard a native village, and Leary 



