scribed as "almost sinking with men," the boats
keeping well out towards the reef, the praam at the moment apparently
heading for the shore. An extreme agitation seems to have reigned in the
rifle-pits. What were the newcomers? What was their errand? Were they
Germans or Tamaseses? Had they a mind to attack? The praam was hailed
in Samoan and did not answer. It was proposed to fire upon her ere she
drew near. And at last, whether on his own suggestion or that of
Seumanu, Klein hailed her in English, and in terms of unnecessary
melodrama. "Do not try to land here," he cried. "If you do, your blood
will be upon your head." Spengler, who had never the least intention to
touch at the Fuisa, put up the head of the praam to her true course and
continued to move up the lagoon with an offing of some seventy or eighty
yards. Along all the irregularities and obstructions of the beach,
across the mouth of the Vaivasa, and through the startled village of
Matafangatele, Seumanu, Klein, and seven or eight others raced to keep
up, spreading the alarm and rousing reinforcements as they went.
Presently a man on horse-back made his appearance on the opposite beach
of Fangalii. Klein and the natives distinctly saw him signal with a
lantern; which is the more strange, as the horseman (Captain Hufnagel,
plantation manager of Vailele) had never a lantern to signal with. The
praam kept in. Many men in white were seen to stand up, step overboard,
and wade to shore. At the same time the eye of panic descried a
breastwork of "foreign stone" (brick) upon the beach. Samoans are
prepared to-day to swear to its existence, I believe conscientiously,
although no such thing was ever made or ever intended in that place. The
hour is doubtful. "It was the hour when the streak of dawn is seen, the
hour known in the warfare of heathen times as the hour of the night
attack," says the Mataafa official account. A native whom I met on the
field declared it was at cock-crow. Captain Hufnagel, on the other hand,
is sure it was long before the day. It was dark at least, and the moon
down. Darkness made the Samoans bold; uncertainty as to the composition
and purpose of the landing-party made them desperate. Fire was opened on
the Germans, one of whom was here killed. The Germans returned it, and
effected a lodgment on the beach; and the skirmish died again to silence.
It was at this time, if not earlier, that Klein returned to Apia.

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