eady
makes a figure in the landscape. No bustle is to be observed, but the
work accomplished testifies to a still activity.

The centre-piece of all is the high chief himself,
Malietoa-Tuiatua-Tuiaana Mataafa, king--or not king--or king-claimant--of
Samoa. All goes to him, all comes from him. Native deputations bring
him gifts and are feasted in return. White travellers, to their
indescribable irritation, are (on his approach) waved from his path by
his armed guards. He summons his dancers by the note of a bugle. He
sits nightly at home before a semicircle of talking-men from many
quarters of the islands, delivering and hearing those ornate and elegant
orations in which the Samoan heart delights. About himself and all his
surroundings there breathes a striking sense of order, tranquillity, and
native plenty. He is of a tall and powerful person, sixty years of age,
white-haired and with a white moustache; his eyes bright and quiet; his
jaw perceptibly underhung, which gives him something of the expression of
a benevolent mastiff; his manners dignified and a thought insinuating,
with an air of a Catholic prelate. He was never married, and a natural
daughter attends upon his guests. Long since he made a vow of
chastity,--"to live as our Lord lived on this earth" and Polynesians
report with bated breath that he has kept it. On all such points, true
to his Catholic training, he is inclined to be even rigid. Lauati, the
pivot of Savaii, has recently repudiated his wife and taken a fairer; and
when I was last in Malie, Mataafa (with a strange superiority to his own
interests) had but just despatched a reprimand. In his immediate circle,
in spite of the smoothness of his ways, he is said to be more respected
than beloved; and his influence is the child rather of authority than
popularity. No Samoan grandee now living need have attempted that which
he has accomplished during the last twelve months with unimpaired
prestige, not only to withhold his followers from war, but to send them
to be judged in the camp of their enemies on Mulinuu. And it is a matter
of debate whether such a triumph of authority were ever possible before.
Speaking for myself, I have visited and dwelt in almost every seat of the
Polynesian race, and have met but one man who gave me a stronger
impression of character and parts.

About the situation, Mataafa expresses himself with unshaken peace. To
the chief justice he refers with some bitter