262 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



through the crisis. The revolution, after a series of skir- 

 mishes, and a vast deal of parleying, came to a close in Sep- 

 tember. This revolt was led by young Tamasese, the son of 

 the former king, and a new candidate for royal honors. Its 

 object was the overthrow of Malietoa : because " he has done 

 much evil"; because "it is now more than twenty years 

 since he has become king and he has done nothing for these 

 islands " ; and because " Samoa is completely drained by the 

 payment of taxes." The latter reason was perhaps the urgent 

 one, for according to most reliable authorities, any tax at all 

 is too much for the Samoan natives. This rebellion was 

 suppressed with a severity which called from Robert Louis 

 Stevenson, then residing at Vailima, the bitterest reproaches 

 upon the three powers. Still another of those distressing 

 man-of-war episodes took place, in which native villages 

 were shelled and defenceless women and children killed. 

 The ferocity of white men seems at times to be little less 

 than that of more primitive people. 



IX 



After a period of a few years the " autonomous govern- 

 ment" of Samoa, as provided by the Berlin treaty, was 

 found to be a failure. At first the evident friction between 

 parts of the governmental machine had been charitably 

 overlooked, as the result of newness, and it was hoped, when 

 once the pace was set, the system would prove satisfactory. 

 As time progressed, all who were in a position to know became 

 convinced that the scheme adopted for the islands was not 

 only ineffective but actually pernicious. The discord which 

 seemed inevitable among the various heads of that triple 

 dominion soon became manifest. The authority of the chief 

 justice and that of the president of the municipality came 

 into more or less conflict. The land commission toiled 

 faithfully, but with exasperating interruptions, while its 

 decrees bred dissensions as they displeased this or that fac- 

 tion in Apia. The three consuls and the numerous officials 

 of different nationalities interpreted the provisions of the 



