THE ISLAND OF SAMOA"
IN 1881, after a sojourn in Sydney, which seems to have inspired him with a very unfavourable opinion of that city, and obliges him to represent it as offering a flagrant example of " loafing "
on a large scale, Mr. Churchward succeeded in obtaining a passage in a vessel bound to the Island of Samoa. He was about to fill the post of Acting British Consul there, and he had been regaled at Sydney with awful tales of the island, being told on every band that life in Samoa was one continued orgie, and that the chief aim of the community was to oppose the Consuls in their efforts to establish law and order, and that "no Britisher was worth his salt who did not defy the High Commissioner (Sir Arthur Gordon), and devote to per- dition the Deputy and all his works." The John Wesley,' with a small party of strangely various nationalities on board, stopped at Tongabatu, the chief island of the "Friendly" group, the author's" first Pacific Island," for eighteen days ; and concerning this experience he says little, but hints that "he could, an' if he would," say a great deal. The day after the ship sailed again, the author saw a strange sight, hitherto unrecorded, so far as we know. He says :—" We passed the Metis rock, an active volcano, starting abruptly from the water, covered all over with sulphur, and from whose sides were pouring clouds of steam and smoke. At night it presented a grand sight, the whole rock appearing dull red in colour, speckled all over with brighter spots of various densities of flame-colour." A long line of white foam—the barrier reef—a small dark spot through which entrance is found to the harbour, and beyond the shipping a lofty, dull mass of verdure, as dark in colour as a pine-forest,—such is the scene revealed by the first sight of Apia. In describing it, the author strikes the key-note of his work, for he particularises "the lofty spars of the ever-present German men-of-war." He found all things better than they had been represented, even the white and the half-caste inhabitants ; of the native race he formed at once a good opinion, which he never had occasion to change during his four years' Consulate. But the German influence, the steady, even, intelligent, self-interested, heartless grind and pressure of the German power, proved more paramount and all- pervading than he had anticipated. This is really the burden of the book,—a kindly, sympathetic, and interesting narrative
by a singularly fair-minded and observant man. The chapter in which he relates the whole course of the proceedings that have ended in the handing over of the island to the Germans, in spite of the misery and reluctance of the people, "who had long been threatened with its annexation, not only
as a punishment for commercial misdeeds, but also for having repeatedly dared to wish to be British, and to petition England in preference to the Fatherland," is very painful; but it also ought to be wholesome reading. The King's petition to Queen Victoria (sent in the extremity of his distress to the Governor of New Zealand, with a prayer that he would telegraph it to England, so that Malietoa might get an answer back quickly, while seeming to submit to the arbitrary and insulting German demands) is a remarkable document, and it deserved a better fate than neglect ; but the letter to the Queen by which it was accompanied is really pathetic. The British Consul was helpless—a fact which it was very hard to make the King of Samoa understand—and the arrival of a second German war-ship in their harbour had cowed him into signing, without discussion, an agreement which handed over the entire control of Samoan affairs to the Germans. The following are a few passages from Malietoa's letter :—
" We have informed your Majesty [in the petition] that painful anxiety has taken possession of our minds, because we are much afraid of Germany lest she should take our islands against our wills. Your Majesty, we are in distress on account of the Government of Germany lest they should take our islands. Therefore, we have accepted another treaty with Germany. I wish to make it clear to your Majesty that I have accepted that treaty against my will, like- wise against the will of my Government, but I have accepted it
• My Consulate in Samoa. By William B. Churchward, late Acting British Consul and Deputy Commissioner for the Western Pacific, late H.M.'s 14th Regi- ment. London : Bentley and Son.
on account of my fear. [The italics are ours. Was ever a more pathetic statement made by a little potentate to a great one ?] I have thought that should your Government be set up in these islands that treaty will be of no effect. I have entreated the English Consul here to make clear to your Majesty all the reasons of our fear, which have led us to accept the treaty ; and to make clear to your Majesty the meaning of that treaty, and our great desire to give our islands to the Government of your Majesty."
Poor Malietoa! It was "good fear for him." There was no powerful Colonial opinion and interest, not to be offended with impunity, such as saved the New Hebrides, to back up his plea ; and we know the rest. Mr. Churchward gives a shocking account of the means by which the so-called " rebellion " against the King was got up, and the persecution and indignities to which he was subjected by Mr. Weber, the German Consul, and incidentally records the following as a sample of the method in which the political instruction of the people was conducted, the German flag having been hoisted at Apia in January, 1885 :—
" In hoisting the German flag in the municipality, the German authorities wished to show the natives the superiority of their nationality over both British and American, a fact that had been dinned into their ears for a long time before. Another method of illustrating this was employed in the public office of the German Consulate, where a coloured cartoon from some English paper was prominently exposed on the wall, portraying Prince Bismarck sitting down in New Guinea, with his feet on the Union Jack, pointing con- temptuously over his shoulder to Lords Granville and Derby, who are being turned off the place—and every Samoan who came near was brought in to see this precious picture."
Before Mr. Churchward left the island in 1885, he witnessed the gross act of oppression by which the German Consul evicted Malietoa and his people from the seat of government, in spite of a price formerly agreed upon being offered for its redemption ; and when the poor King shifted his quarters, the Samoan flag that was hoisted there was again palled down by a party of armed Marines, headed by the German Consul in person. The story is so bad and sad, that it spoils our pleasure in reading about the interesting and amiable people whom England has left to be ground in the German mill, and who were supposed, until the notion was exploded by the first missionary, in 1830, to be bloodthirsty savages.
We must refer our readers to Mr. Charchward's graphic narrative for a view of the beautiful Samoan or Navigation group—which is, in reality, a line of extinct volcanoes, of whose beauty and fertility no one can form a true estimate without a personal visit—for their strange customs, their grotesque but harmless superstitions, their great institution of Kava-making, with the curious results of indulgence in that liquid, their im- memorial semi-mystical ceremony of the Talolo, the extra- ordinary beauty of the lagoons, and delight of cruising about the islands, the Samoan ballet, the manners and customs of the half-castes, the Samoan Parliament, the various missions and their respective work, the industries, the domesticity, the " ways " in general of the islands ; also for several amusing and interesting chapters embodying the personal experience of Mr. Churchward. His work is one of the most interesting, candid, and lively books of mingled travel and personal narrative which have been offered to the public for a long time.
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