omentary effervescence
died away. Next day, Saturday, 5th, the chief justice took his departure
from the islands--a step never yet explained and (in view of the doings
of the day before and the remonstrances of other officials) hard to
justify. The president, an amiable and brave young man of singular
inexperience, was thus left to face the growing difficulty by himself.
The clansmen of the prisoners, to the number of near upon a hundred, lay
in Vaiusu, a village half way between Apia and Malie; there they talked
big, thence sent menacing messages; the gaol should be broken in the
night, they said, and the six martyrs rescued. Allowance is to be made
for the character of the people of Manono, turbulent fellows, boastful of
tongue, but of late days not thought to be answerably bold in person. Yet
the moment was anxious. The government of Mulinuu had gained an
important moral victory by the surrender and condemnation of the chiefs;
and it was needful the victory should be maintained. The guard upon the
gaol was accordingly strengthened; a war-party was sent to watch the
Vaiusu road under Asi; and the chiefs of the Vaimaunga were notified to
arm and assemble their men. It must be supposed the president was
doubtful of the loyalty of these assistants. He turned at least to the
war-ships, where it seems he was rebuffed; thence he fled into the arms
of the wrecker gang, where he was unhappily more successful. The
government of Washington had presented to the Samoan king the wrecks of
the _Trenton_ and the _Vandalia_; an American syndicate had been formed
to break them up; an experienced gang was in consequence settled in Apia
and the report of submarine explosions had long grown familiar in the
ears of residents. From these artificers the president obtained a supply
of dynamite, the needful mechanism, and the loan of a mechanic; the gaol
was mined, and the Manono people in Vaiusu were advertised of the fact in
a letter signed by Laupepa. Partly by the indiscretion of the mechanic,
who had sought to embolden himself (like Lady Macbeth) with liquor for
his somewhat dreadful task, the story leaked immediately out and raised a
very general, or I might say almost universal, reprobation. Some blamed
the proposed deed because it was barbarous and a foul example to set
before a race half barbarous itself; others because it was illegal;
others again because, in the face of so weak an enemy, it appeared
pitifully pusillanimou