treacherous attack, demanded three hostages for the good conduct of the rest of the natives; and these were given him.

The war party now threatened to attack the British and American Consulates at Apia, which were promptly put into a state of defence. Field-pieces were landed and put into position, barricades formed, and trenches dug; but no attack was made, and the night passed away quietly.

Next day, the 14th of March, Mr. Coe, who is an American citizen, was brought to trial on eight counts before a Consular Court, consisting of the American Consul and four associates, all Americans. He was found guilty of seven of these (all in reference to his opposition to his own Consul), and was sentenced to be deported from the islands. He was then removed on board the Barracouta. The British and American Consuls now applied to the German Consul, Mr. Pöppe, to join with them in forbidding the sale of intoxicating liquors to the natives, it being reasonably feared that under the influence of drink fresh outrages would take place. But this Mr. Pöppe declined to do, for 'reasons of his own,' which he declined to give. Messrs. Godeffroy practically monopolise the imported liquor trade in Samoa.

On the 20th of March a letter was sent to Captain Stevens from all the English and American residents, deservedly thanking him for his action on their behalf. The general feeling of the resident whites, both British and American, was one of great bitterness against the authorities of Washington, for allowing Steinberger to come in a United States war-ship,

whose commander assisted him in every way, assuring the natives that he was a bonâ-fide commissioner from America, with powers to establish a form of government under American protection in Samoa. Moreover the reflection that the first shots fired in anger for many years by Samoans were those from United States rifles, brought down from San Francisco by Steinberger, did not diminish their resentment. How the so-called colonel got his passage in the Tuscarora, and the presents of rifles, will be seen. Mainly through the zealous efforts of Monseigneur Elloz, the Catholic Bishop of Samoa, peace was in great measure restored, Captain Stevens telling the natives that he had only sheltered Malietoa and his chiefs from bodily harm, with which they informed him they were threatened, and that of course the Samoans could appoint whoever they liked as king, but the foreign consulates and white residents must be protected.

The armed men rapidly dispersed, Malietoa and his chiefs peaceably left for their homes, pending a final settlement, and the field-guns were removed from the British Consulate and replaced on board the Barracouta. On the 30th of March, that ship sailed for Auckland, New Zealand, taking with her Messrs. Steinberger and Coe as prisoners, to be handed over to the American Consul. On the last day of March, 1876, the result of a large meeting of natives was notified to the Taimua, and Faipule, and Malietoa Laupeppa was restored to his throne.

CHAPTER VI.

MESSRS. GODEFFROY AND CO., THE SOUTH SEA

KINGS.

THE firm of the Messrs. Godeffroy, of Hamburg, has been in existence for about a century. Till 1857 they maintained a fleet of vessels, many of which traded in the Indian Sea, under the direction of an agent established at Cochin, while others made regular voyages to the Spanish main, Valparaiso being their rendezAt Cochin they maintained a large cocoa-nut oil-pressing establishment. At Valparaiso their captains took instructions from a general agent, whose subordinates resided at Coquimbo, Valdiria, Takuano, Guayaquil, San Jose de Guatemala, and elsewhere. Their trade was chiefly in saltpetre, copper, and cochineal.

vous.

At this time it was usual for Tahitian traders to dispose of their produce at Valparaiso, and to return to the Society Islands with cargoes of flour for the use of the French garrison. The attention of Mr. Anselm, the local agent of the Messrs. Godeffroy, was attracted to their operations, and he decided on visiting the islands. When there, he at once saw the great

profits made by the Messrs. Hort Brothers and Mr. John Brander, both in cocoa-nut oil and pearl shells, and he established an agency in the Tuamotu Group. Messrs. Hort and Brander had separately branch establishments in the Samoan Archipelago, which they used as an intermediate station between Tahiti and Sydney. Anselm, following their example, removed there, and, under instructions from his principals in Hamburg, made it the headquarters of their operations in the Pacific. Mr Anselm was lost at sea, but the establishment he founded flourished and soon assumed large proportions. To use Mr. Sterndale's own words: 'By the exercise of tact, and a show of liberality among the natives, he and his successor, Mr. Theodore Weber, in great measure swallowed up the trade of the Samoan Group, and in a manner thrust both Hort and Brander off their own ground.'

In 1872 the establishment of the Messrs. Godeffroy at Apia consisted of a superintendent, a cashier, eleven clerks, a harbour-master, two engineers, ten carpenters, two coopers, four plantation managers, a surgeon, and a land-surveyor. These were the permanent establishment, and were all Europeans, and, naturally enough, mostly Germans. In addition there were numerous supernumeraries of all nationalities, among whom may be counted half-breeds, Portugese, and Chinamen. They generally employed, as plantation labourers, about 400 Polynesians, imported from the Savage and Line Islands. Their property at that time, and it has immensely increased since then, comprised a commodious harbour, a building yard for small vessels, three plantations

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containing an aggregate of about 400 acres, under cultivation, and something like 25,000 acres of purchased land, of which it may be truthfully said that the greater proportion is not to be surpassed in fertility in any part of the tropics. Mr. Sterndale says: 'It was bought at a low rate, not upon an average exceeding 75 cents per acre, and paid for chiefly in ammunition, arms, or such articles of barter as are most in vogue among semi-barbarous people.' In September, 1879, about 4500 acres were under cotton cultivation, and 1000 Polynesian labourers were employed.

The land consists chiefly of alluvial valleys of astonishing richness and elevated plateaux of fertile volcanic soil, covered in many large tracts with valuable timber. Large streams intersect the estates, and these are not only made available for floating down logs, but afford water-power for driving mills. Onethird of the estate comprises ancient cultivations abandoned in consequence of civil wars.

During the progress of these internecine disturbances, Messrs. Godeffroy possessed exceptional advantages in dealing with the natives, as they had a manufactory of arms at Liège, in Belgium (the 'Birmingham of the Netherlands'), by means of which they could supply the instruments of fraternal murder-or war, if the term is to be preferred-at a cheap rate, with a 'reasonable profit.'

In the appendix to this volume, I give a statement of Samoan trade for the year 1875. I do not pretend that it is accurate in every detail; but it comes from an unexceptionable source, and confirms statistics given me in the islands by Mr. Williams, the acting