CHAPTER II.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN SAMOA.

APIA has the appearance of a long straggling village on the water's edge. There are a little more than two hundred houses the property of Europeans, including the large establishment of the Messrs. Godeffroy of Hamburg, the South Sea kings as they were called; English, American, and German consulates, and a Catholic cathedral of stone, with a spire and clock, at the back of which, on the hill-side, is the residence of the bishop.

There are a number of Catholic priests, mostly French, in the various islands. A large and most excellently conducted school exists, which is superintended by Sisters of Mercy; and there is a convent of Samoan nuns. There is also an extensive English mission, of which I give the most recent statistics. In Tutuila there is an English missionary and twentyfive native pastors. In Upolu there are four English ministers and ninety-six native pastors, and in Savaii two English and fifty-four native pastors or teachers. The London Missionary Society claim, as the result of their labours, nearly 29,000 adherents in Samoa-some of them are, I am afraid, very nominal adherents indeed,

Christianity was first introduced into Samoa in August 1830, by the late Rev. J. Williams, who landed a number of native missionaries from Tahiti. A few years afterwards, about 1836, some ministers belonging to the London Missionary Society, landed on the islands, and from that time to the present several Congregational missionaries have been constantly resident on the group. The Samoans make good missionary teachers, and numbers of them have gone to spread Christianity among the natives of the Ellice and Gilbert Groups in the North Pacific.

There are in Apia two or three hotels, a few groggeries, and numerous stores of all sorts; a billiard saloon, three bakeries, two smithies, and some steam cotton-gins.

Apia has its weekly paper, the Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, which is issued at a shilling per copy. At present I hear it only enjoys a very modest circulation, but Samoa has a great future before it, and its journal will increase with the times. There has been a Samoa Times postage stamp issued since I was in the Pacific, and newspapers now reach Europe with the first attempts of the far-off Navigators' Islands to follow in the steps of the late lamented Rowland Hill. The currency is all in dollars and cents, and of a very degraded character. In 1870 (according to Mr. Sterndale's report to the New Zealand Government), the Messrs. Godeffroy succeeded in introducing to the group large quantities of what is called in the Pacific iron money,' or Bolivian silver coin. This coinage received the most determined opposition of the English Consul

and missionaries, and most of the English traders refuse to take it, the reason being that the Messrs. Godeffroy got this money mostly in half-dollar pieces at a reduced rate, and circulated them at fifty cents each, while two of these half-dollar pieces will rarely fetch more than seventy-five cents. However, the natives took the money, and thus the trade of Samoa has practically been in the hands of the Messrs. Godeffroy for years past. Whether their recent stupendous failure for one million sterling will affect their Samoan monopoly is another question. The natives of the Tonga Group accept this money, but in a much smaller degree, the King having stipulated that not more than one half of the coin circulated by the great German house should be Bolivian.

As an instance of the great quantity of specie with which Tonga was inundated, we have it on the authority of the New Zealand Government bluebooks that in the year 1870, the employés of Messrs. Godeffroy obtained from the Friendly or Tonga Islands some seven hundred tons of copra, and in the following year more than double that quantity, the greater part of which they paid for in silver coin; a large percentage of which, however, immediately returned to their hands in the shape of payment for European goods, upon which their profits were very great.

Lager beer and 'square gin' are the great drinks of Samoa, the latter being much cheaper than in Fiji, owing to the absence of any duty. It may be truthfully said that life and property are tolerably safe in the group; but until Samoa finds rest and peace

under the shelter of the British Empire, it would be rash to counsel Englishmen or others to invest very much in land there, unless they can put the question of title beyond all cavil.

The Samoan race is immensely superior to the average Fijian. They are tall, handsome men, of a light brown colour, many of them not being so dark as some Italians or Spaniards. They are docile, truthful, hospitable, and very lively; and in conversation among themselves, or in their dealings with foreigners, they are exceedingly courteous. They have different styles of salutation corresponding with the social rank of the person addressed. For instance, in addressing the chiefs or distinguished strangers, they use the expression Lau Afio, or your Majesty. In speaking to chiefs of lower rank, they address them as Lau Susunga, as we would use the words, your Lordship. To chiefs of yet lower degree, the term Ali Atala is used; and to common people the salutation is Sau in the singular, or Omar in the plural, simply meaning, 'You have arrived,' or, 'You are here.' Differing from the Fijians, the men only tattoo; not on their faces, as is the case with the Maories of New Zealand, but on their bodies from the waist to the knee, which are entirely black for the most part, except where relieved by some gracefully executed stripes and patterns. Of these they are very proud. At a little distance you would think they wore black knee-breeches. The clothing of both sexes is, as in Fiji, a piece of calico or native cloth wound round the waist and reaching to the knees. The women generally adopt a pair of coloured handker

chiefs for their breasts and shoulders. When at work on plantations, or in the bush, or fishing, they wear a kilt of the long, handsome leaves of the Ti (Dracæna terminalis-Cordyline). If there is one thing about which the Samoans boast, it is their mats; and they are really fine specimens of art; in fact, they esteem their mats more highly than any article of European manufacture, and the older they are, the more they are regarded. Some of them have names known all over the group. The oldest is called Moe-e-fui-fui, or being interpreted, 'The mat that slept among the creepers.' It got this title from its being hidden away for years among the creeping convolvulus that grows wild along the sea-shore. It is known to be two hundred years old, as the names of its owners during that long time can be traced down. The possession of one of these old mats gives the owner great power over families and land; in fact, it is a title-deed to rank and money. It is no matter if the mat is tattered and worn out; its antiquity is its value, and $500 would be scornfully refused for some of the most cherished of these instruments.

The Samoans, like the Fijians, spend much time in dressing their hair, which, by the aid of lime, they get to a reddish kind of hue; and both men and women wear flowers in their hair, often blossoms of the beautiful scarlet hybiscus, which is generally to be found growing near their houses.

In common with other races. whom nature has blessed with such an abundant supply of food growing wild at their very doors, they are not intuitively inclined for hard work, but I should certainly not