420 THE S AMD AN ISLANDS 



those secured by us, concluded treaties vvitli the Kingdom of Samoa, 

 by which the former obtained the right to establish a naval station 

 in the harbor of Saluafata, in Upolu, which should not be granted to 

 any other nation, and the latter the right to found a naval station 

 and coaling depot on the shores of a Samoan harbor, to be designated 

 by Her Majesty, there l)eing exce{)ted from this right the harbors of 

 Apia and Saluafata and that part of Pago-Pago which might there- 

 after be "selected by the Government of the United States as a sta- 

 tion." The selection was not made until some years later, when the 

 important strategic point of Goat Island, at the entrance of the inner 

 harbor, and a piece.of land between 15 and 16 acres in extent was 

 purchased of the native owners for the United States. Upon this 

 land a firm of American contractors is now erecting a coal shed and 

 a steel pier which is to extend 250 feet from shore to the edge of the 

 coral reef The cost of these improvements is to be a quarter of a 

 million dollars, and it is thouglit that the contractor will clear but an 

 insignificant sum b}'^ his undertaking, since the expense of bringing 

 materials from San Francisco and the high price of labor will absorb 

 the profit he might make were he engaged upon the same work at 

 home. 



A story is current that some years ago a shipload of coal, brought 

 from Norfolk at great expense, was dumped on to the beach. In the 

 belief that a sufficient quantit}' still remained to coal, or at least par- 

 tially coal, his flagship, an admiral of our nav}' recently visited Pago- 

 Pago, only to find that the last scuttleful had been carried off b}'- the 

 half-caste widow of a former United States consul, set to guard the pile 

 at the munificent salary of $10 a year. 



Commercially, the islands which have come to the United States, 

 either singly or in a group, are unimportant so far as their local pro- 

 duction and consumption are concerned, but in their relation to a 

 nation like ours, desiring to cultivate trans-Pacific commerce, they are 

 of the first importance. Mr Goward, an expert who examined them 

 under instructions from the State Department, reported that from a 

 naval point of view Pago-Pago was the key to Samoa, which, in its 

 turn, was the key to Central Polynesia by reason of its geographical 

 position — in the course of vessels from San Francisco to Auckland, 

 from Panama to S3^dney, and from Valparaiso to China and Japan — 

 and from being outside the hurricane track. 



Throughout the islands the cultivation of cotton was at one time 

 attempted, but the labor was found to be 'too great, and it has been 



