A Footnote to History | Page 8

a child,
his true analogue, he observes, apprehends, misapprehends, and is
usually silent. As in a child, a considerable intemperance of speech is
accompanied by some power of secrecy. News he publishes; his
thoughts have often to be dug for. He looks on at the rude career of the
dollar-hunt, and wonders. He sees these men rolling in a luxury beyond
the ambition of native kings; he hears them accused by each other of
the meanest trickery; he knows some of them to be guilty; and what is
he to think? He is strongly conscious of his own position as the
common milk-cow; and what is he to do? "Surely these white men on
the beach are not great chiefs?" is a common question, perhaps asked
with some design of flattering the person questioned. And one, stung
by the last incident into an unusual flow of English, remarked to me: "I

begin to be weary of white men on the beach."
But the true centre of trouble, the head of the boil of which Samoa
languishes, is the German firm. From the conditions of business, a great
island house must ever be an inheritance of care; and it chances that the
greatest still afoot has its chief seat in Apia bay, and has sunk the main
part of its capital in the island of Upolu. When its founder, John Caesar
Godeffroy, went bankrupt over Russian paper and Westphalian iron, his
most considerable asset was found to be the South Sea business. This
passed (I understand) through the hands of Baring Brothers in London,
and is now run by a company rejoicing in the Gargantuan name of the
Deutsche Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft fur Sud-See Inseln zu
Hamburg. This piece of literature is (in practice) shortened to the D. H.
and P. G., the Old Firm, the German Firm, the Firm, and (among
humorists) the Long Handle Firm. Even from the deck of an
approaching ship, the island is seen to bear its signature--zones of
cultivation showing in a more vivid tint of green on the dark vest of
forest. The total area in use is near ten thousand acres. Hedges of
fragrant lime enclose, broad avenues intersect them. You shall walk for
hours in parks of palm-tree alleys, regular, like soldiers on parade; in
the recesses of the hills you may stumble on a mill- house, tolling and
trembling there, fathoms deep in superincumbent forest. On the carpet
of clean sward, troops of horses and herds of handsome cattle may be
seen to browse; and to one accustomed to the rough luxuriance of the
tropics, the appearance is of fairyland. The managers, many of them
German sea-captains, are enthusiastic in their new employment.
Experiment is continually afoot: coffee and cacao, both of excellent
quality, are among the more recent outputs; and from one plantation
quantities of pineapples are sent at a particular season to the Sydney
markets. A hundred and fifty thousand pounds of English money,
perhaps two hundred thousand, lie sunk in these magnificent estates. In
estimating the expense of maintenance quite a fleet of ships must be
remembered, and a strong staff of captains, supercargoes, overseers,
and clerks. These last mess together at a liberal board; the wages are
high, and the staff is inspired with a strong and pleasing sentiment of
loyalty to their employers.
Seven or eight hundred imported men and women toil for the company
on contracts of three or of five years, and at a hypothetical wage of a

few dollars in the month. I am now on a burning question: the labour
traffic; and I shall ask permission in this place only to touch it with the
tongs. Suffice it to say that in Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, and
Hawaii it has been either suppressed or placed under close public
supervision. In Samoa, where it still flourishes, there is no regulation of
which the public receives any evidence; and the dirty linen of the firm,
if there be any dirty, and if it be ever washed at all, is washed in private.
This is unfortunate, if Germans would believe it. But they have no idea
of publicity, keep their business to themselves, rather affect to "move in
a mysterious way," and are naturally incensed by criticisms, which they
consider hypocritical, from men who would import "labour" for
themselves, if they could afford it, and would probably maltreat them if
they dared. It is said the whip is very busy on some of the plantations; it
is said that punitive extra- labour, by which the thrall's term of service
is extended, has grown to be an abuse; and it is complained that, even
where that term is out, much irregularity occurs in the repatriation of
the discharged. To all this I can say nothing, good or