Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
176 
I shook my head. How could I tell ? 1 
knew nothing of these things. “ Perhaps,” I 
suggested, “ she has but come into Saluafata 
Harbour to give the men liberty, for there is 
much sickness in Apia.” 
“ Aye,” said one man, with a sigh, “ ’tis like 
enough. But are we never to know whether 
America or England will put their hand over 
us, or are we all to be swallowed up by the 
Germans ? ” 
To this I could say nothing, only sympathise , 
and then I learned to my great pleasure that the 
man-of-war was a ship I knew, and her doctor 
was an old friend of mine whose acquaint¬ 
ance I had made in the Caroline Islands a year 
or two before, when I was making my first 
voyage as supercargo. So after smoking a 
cigarette with my friends I bade them goodbye, 
and set out again for Laulii. 
An hour later I reached the village, and was 
warmly greeted by some forty or fifty people of 
both sexes. Gafalua, they told me, had gone 
to Saluafata to visit the warship, yet if I would 
but send a message to him he would quickly 
hasten back to greet his white friend. And as 
they clustered around me, each one volunteering 
