ereupon the witness was
discharged. About the 10th of September, Laupepa was secretly in Apia at
the American consulate with two companions. The German pickets were
close set and visited by a strong patrol; and on his return, his party
was observed and hailed and fired on by a sentry. They ran away on all
fours in the dark, and so doing plumped upon another sentry, whom Laupepa
grappled and flung in a ditch; for the Sheet of Paper, although infirm of
character, is, like most Samoans, of an able body. The second sentry
(like the first) fired after his assailants at random in the dark; and
the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia. On the afternoon of the 16th,
the day of the hand-shakings, Suatele, a high chief, despatched two boys
across the island with a letter. They were most of the night upon the
road; it was near three in the morning before the sentries in the camp of
Malietoa beheld their lantern drawing near out of the wood; but the king
was at once awakened. The news was decisive and the letter peremptory;
if Malietoa did not give himself up before ten on the morrow, he was told
that great sorrows must befall his country. I have not been able to draw
Laupepa as a hero; but he is a man of certain virtues, which the Germans
had now given him an occasion to display. Without hesitation he
sacrificed himself, penned his touching farewell to Samoa, and making
more expedition than the messengers, passed early behind Apia to the
banks of the Vaisingano. As he passed, he detached a messenger to
Mataafa at the Catholic mission. Mataafa followed by the same road, and
the pair met at the river-side and went and sat together in a house. All
present were in tears. "Do not let us weep," said the talking man,
Lauati. "We have no cause for shame. We do not yield to Tamasese, but
to the invincible strangers." The departing king bequeathed the care of
his country to Mataafa; and when the latter sought to console him with
the commodore's promises, he shook his head, and declared his assurance
that he was going to a life of exile, and perhaps to death. About two
o'clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa returned to the Catholic mission by
the back of the town; and Malietoa proceeded by the beach road to the
German naval hospital, where he was received (as he owns, with perfect
civility) by Brandeis. About three, Becker brought him forth again. As
they went to the wharf, the people wept and clung to their departing
monarc