A Footnote to History | Page 6

that a while, and drop into peace and enjoy that, in a manner highly to
be envied. But the condition--that they should be let alone--is now no
longer possible. More than a hundred years ago, and following closely
on the heels of Cook, an irregular invasion of adventurers began to
swarm about the isles of the Pacific. The seven sleepers of Polynesia
stand, still but half aroused, in the midst of the century of competition.
And the island races, comparable to a shopful of crockery launched
upon the stream of time, now fall to make their desperate voyage
among pots of brass and adamant.
Apia, the port and mart, is the seat of the political sickness of Samoa.
At the foot of a peaked, woody mountain, the coast makes a deep
indent, roughly semicircular. In front the barrier reef is broken by the
fresh water of the streams; if the swell be from the north, it enters
almost without diminution; and the war-ships roll dizzily at their
moorings, and along the fringing coral which follows the configuration
of the beach, the surf breaks with a continuous uproar. In wild weather,
as the world knows, the roads are untenable. Along the whole shore,
which is everywhere green and level and overlooked by inland
mountain-tops, the town lies drawn out in strings and clusters. The
western horn is Mulinuu, the eastern, Matautu; and from one to the
other of these extremes, I ask the reader to walk. He will find more of
the history of Samoa spread before his eyes in that excursion, than has
yet been collected in the blue-books or the white-books of the world.
Mulinuu (where the walk is to begin) is a flat, wind-swept promontory,
planted with palms, backed against a swamp of mangroves, and
occupied by a rather miserable village. The reader is informed that this
is the proper residence of the Samoan kings; he will be the more
surprised to observe a board set up, and to read that this historic village
is the property of the German firm. But these boards, which are among
the commonest features of the landscape, may be rather taken to imply
that the claim has been disputed. A little farther east he skirts the stores,
offices, and barracks of the firm itself. Thence he will pass through
Matafele, the one really town-like portion of this long string of villages,

by German bars and stores and the German consulate; and reach the
Catholic mission and cathedral standing by the mouth of a small river.
The bridge which crosses here (bridge of Mulivai) is a frontier; behind
is Matafele; beyond, Apia proper; behind, Germans are supreme;
beyond, with but few exceptions, all is Anglo-Saxon. Here the reader
will go forward past the stores of Mr. Moors (American) and Messrs.
MacArthur (English); past the English mission, the office of the
English newspaper, the English church, and the old American consulate,
till he reaches the mouth of a larger river, the Vaisingano. Beyond, in
Matautu, his way takes him in the shade of many trees and by scattered
dwellings, and presently brings him beside a great range of offices, the
place and the monument of a German who fought the German firm
during his life. His house (now he is dead) remains pointed like a
discharged cannon at the citadel of his old enemies. Fitly enough, it is
at present leased and occupied by Englishmen. A little farther, and the
reader gains the eastern flanking angle of the bay, where stands the
pilot-house and signal-post, and whence he can see, on the line of the
main coast of the island, the British and the new American consulates.
The course of his walk will have been enlivened by a considerable to
and fro of pleasure and business. He will have encountered many
varieties of whites,--sailors, merchants, clerks, priests, Protestant
missionaries in their pith helmets, and the nondescript hangers-on of
any island beach. And the sailors are sometimes in considerable force;
but not the residents. He will think at times there are more signboards
than men to own them. It may chance it is a full day in the harbour; he
will then have seen all manner of ships, from men-of-war and deep-sea
packets to the labour vessels of the German firm and the cockboat
island schooner; and if he be of an arithmetical turn, he may calculate
that there are more whites afloat in Apia bay than whites ashore in the
whole Archipelago. On the other hand, he will have encountered all
ranks of natives, chiefs and pastors in their scrupulous white clothes;
perhaps the king himself, attended by guards in uniform; smiling
policemen with their pewter stars; girls, women, crowds of cheerful
children. And he will have asked himself with some surprise where
these reside.