A Footnote to History | Page 9

bad. A certain
number of the thralls, many of them wild negritos from the west, have
taken to the bush, harbour there in a state partly bestial, or creep into
the back quarters of the town to do a day's stealthy labour under the
nose of their proprietors. Twelve were arrested one morning in my own
boys' kitchen. Farther in the bush, huts, small patches of cultivation,
and smoking ovens, have been found by hunters. There are still three
runaways in the woods of Tutuila, whither they escaped upon a raft.
And the Samoans regard these dark-skinned rangers with extreme
alarm; the fourth refugee in Tutuila was shot down (as I was told in that
island) while carrying off the virgin of a village; and tales of
cannibalism run round the country, and the natives shudder about the
evening fire. For the Samoans are not cannibals, do not seem to
remember when they were, and regard the practice with a disfavour
equal to our own.
The firm is Gulliver among the Lilliputs; and it must not be forgotten,
that while the small, independent traders are fighting for their own hand,
and inflamed with the usual jealousy against corporations, the Germans
are inspired with a sense of the greatness of their affairs and interests.
The thought of the money sunk, the sight of these costly and beautiful
plantations, menaced yearly by the returning forest, and the

responsibility of administering with one hand so many conjunct
fortunes, might well nerve the manager of such a company for
desperate and questionable deeds. Upon this scale, commercial
sharpness has an air of patriotism; and I can imagine the man, so far
from haggling over the scourge for a few Solomon islanders, prepared
to oppress rival firms, overthrow inconvenient monarchs, and let loose
the dogs of war. Whatever he may decide, he will not want for backing.
Every clerk will be eager to be up and strike a blow; and most Germans
in the group, whatever they may babble of the firm over the walnuts
and the wine, will rally round the national concern at the approach of
difficulty. They are so few--I am ashamed to give their number, it were
to challenge contradiction--they are so few, and the amount of national
capital buried at their feet is so vast, that we must not wonder if they
seem oppressed with greatness and the sense of empire. Other whites
take part in our brabbles, while temper holds out, with a certain
schoolboy entertainment. In the Germans alone, no trace of humour is
to be observed, and their solemnity is accompanied by a touchiness
often beyond belief. Patriotism flies in arms about a hen; and if you
comment upon the colour of a Dutch umbrella, you have cast a stone
against the German Emperor. I give one instance, typical although
extreme. One who had returned from Tutuila on the mail cutter
complained of the vermin with which she is infested. He was suddenly
and sharply brought to a stand. The ship of which he spoke, he was
reminded, was a German ship.
John Caesar Godeffroy himself had never visited the islands; his sons
and nephews came, indeed, but scarcely to reap laurels; and the
mainspring and headpiece of this great concern, until death took him,
was a certain remarkable man of the name of Theodor Weber. He was
of an artful and commanding character; in the smallest thing or the
greatest, without fear or scruple; equally able to affect, equally ready to
adopt, the most engaging politeness or the most imperious airs of
domination. It was he who did most damage to rival traders; it was he
who most harried the Samoans; and yet I never met any one, white or
native, who did not respect his memory. All felt it was a gallant battle,
and the man a great fighter; and now when he is dead, and the war
seems to have gone against him, many can scarce remember, without a
kind of regret, how much devotion and audacity have been spent in

vain. His name still lives in the songs of Samoa. One, that I have heard,
tells of Misi Ueba and a biscuit-box--the suggesting incident being long
since forgotten. Another sings plaintively how all things, land and food
and property, pass progressively, as by a law of nature, into the hands
of Misi Ueba, and soon nothing will be left for Samoans. This is an
epitaph the man would have enjoyed.
At one period of his career, Weber combined the offices of director of
the firm and consul for the City of Hamburg. No question but he then
drove very hard. Germans admit that the combination was unfortunate;
and it was a German who procured its overthrow. Captain Zembsch
superseded him with an imperial appointment, one