their difficult battle in conjunction; in the course of
which, first one, and then the other, paid a visit home to reason with
the authorities at Washington; and during the consul's absence, there was
found an American clerk in Apia, William Blacklock, to perform the duties
of the office with remarkable ability and courage. The three names just
brought together, Sewall, Moors, and Blacklock, make the head and front
of the opposition; if Tamasese fell, if Brandeis was driven forth, if the
treaty of Berlin was signed, theirs is the blame or the credit.

To understand the feelings of self-reproach and bitterness with which
Sewall took the field, the reader must see Laupepa's letter of farewell
to the consuls of England and America. It is singular that this far from
brilliant or dignified monarch, writing in the forest, in heaviness of
spirit and under pressure for time, should have left behind him not only
one, but two remarkable and most effective documents. The farewell to
his people was touching; the farewell to the consuls, for a man of the
character of Sewall, must have cut like a whip. "When the chief Tamasese
and others first moved the present troubles," he wrote, "it was my wish
to punish them and put an end to the rebellion; but I yielded to the
advice of the British and American consuls. Assistance and protection
was repeatedly promised to me and my government, if I abstained from
bringing war upon my country. Relying upon these promises, I did not put
down the rebellion. Now I find that war has been made upon me by the
Emperor of Germany, and Tamasese has been proclaimed king of Samoa. I
desire to remind you of the promises so frequently made by your
government, and trust that you will so far redeem them as to cause the
lives and liberties of my chiefs and people to be respected."

Sewall's immediate adversary was, of course, Becker. I have formed an
opinion of this gentleman, largely from his printed despatches, which I
am at a loss to put in words. Astute, ingenious, capable, at moments
almost witty with a kind of glacial wit in action, he displayed in the
course of this affair every description of capacity but that which is
alone useful and which springs from a knowledge of men's natures. It
chanced that one of Sewall's early moves played into his hands, and he
was swift to seize and to improve the advantage. The neutral territory
and the tripartite municipality of Apia were eyesores to the German