that _A_ should simulate a renewal
of the friendship, decoy Mataafa to a suitable place, and have him there
arrested. What should follow in those days of violent speech was at the
least disputable; and the proposal was of course refused. "You do not
understand," was the base rejoinder. "_You_ will have no discredit. The
Germans are to take the blame of the arrest." Of course, upon the
testimony of a gentleman so depraved, it were unfair to hang a dog; and
both the Germans and the chief justice must be held innocent. But the
chief justice has shown that he can himself be led, by his animosity
against Mataafa, into questionable acts. Certain natives of Malie were
accused of stealing pigs; the chief justice summoned them through
Mataafa; several were sent, and along with them a written promise that,
if others were required, these also should be forthcoming upon
requisition. Such as came were duly tried and acquitted; and Mataafa's
offer was communicated to the chief justice, who made a formal answer,
and the same day (in pursuance of his constant design to have Malie
attacked by war-ships) reported to one of the consuls that his warrant
would not run in the country and that certain of the accused had been
withheld. At least, this is not fair dealing; and the next instance I
have to give is possibly worse. For one blunder the chief justice is
only so far responsible, in that he was not present where it seems he
should have been, when it was made. He had nothing to do with the silly
proscription of the Mataafas; he has always disliked the measure; and it
occurred to him at last that he might get rid of this dangerous absurdity
and at the same time reap a further advantage. Let Mataafa leave Malie
for any other district in Samoa; it should be construed as an act of
submission and the confiscation and proscription instantly recalled. This
was certainly well devised; the government escaped from their own false
position, and by the same stroke lowered the prestige of their
adversaries. But unhappily the chief justice did not put all his eggs in
one basket. Concurrently with these negotiations he began again to move
the captain of one of the war-ships to shell the rebel village; the
captain, conceiving the extremity wholly unjustified, not only refused
these instances, but more or less publicly complained of their being
made; the matter came to the knowledge of the white resident who was at
that time playing the par