Old Samoan Days. 
207 
going back, as, although we left the ladies 
behind at the mission, we found awaiting us 
some twenty natives of both sexes, who begged 
to be allowed to join our party, as they had 
business in Apia. The more the merrier, we 
say ; and as we have already said farewell to 
the old chief and the principal people of the 
town, we now rub noses with the chief ladies 
thereof, and depart amidst a chorus of good 
wishes. 
But I must not forget. It was Gafalua’s 
intention to leave Vaitupu with some of her 
Safata relatives for a few weeks, and with 
tears of vexation dimming her eyes she had said 
farewell to us at the village. The girl had 
quite won our hearts by her amiable and 
pleasing manners, and so the doctor and I, 
joining forces, begged her father to let the 
“ little maid ” cross the island again, and see 
the fighting ship with its guns that “ loaded 
from behind.” 
“Only let me go with you,” she pleaded, 
“ and I shall be as silent as the dead. When 
we get to Apia, is not my cousin, Manumea, 
there ? And I can stay there with her while 
you, my father, go to the olo (forts) of the Tua 
