ds lay off Apia, having come with the purpose of
gaining possession of Samoa either by diplomacy or gunpowder. The
pretext made use of was oppression of German citizens on the part of the
native government! Unfortunately the natives were in a state of partial
anarchy, quarrelling among themselves, there being two parties desiring
to control the throne. The Germans incited a revolution among them a
year ago, favoring one of these aspirants in order to take advantage of
such a condition of affairs as would grow out of a pronounced
revolution. An Englishman who took passage on our ship at the islands
was full of indignation at the arrogance of the Germans, and infused a
similar feeling among us by relating in detail the course pursued by
these interlopers during the past twelvemonth, especially at Apia. The
natives, as this gentleman represented them, are generally an
inoffensive, frugal people, having few vices, most of which have been
taught them by the whites. They are remarkably slow to anger, and bear
the oppression of these foreign invaders very humbly.

There are some cotton plantations on the islands conducted by American
and English enterprise. Cocoanut oil and arrowroot are also exported,
being gathered by enterprising foreigners who employ the natives. The
group contains a little less than three thousand square miles of
territory. Statistics show that even here in their comparative
isolation, the native race is rapidly dying out, there being now twenty
thousand less than were estimated to exist on the several islands so
late as 1848, when a census was taken as correctly as was possible among
a savage and superstitious people. There are not more than three hundred
foreigners all told, and these consist about equally of Americans,
English, and Germans.

From the seemingly careless manner of life which prevails among the
native race, one would hardly infer that any fixed form of government
exists among the Samoans, but the contrary is the fact. They have a
paternal system of government, which is scrupulously upheld by the
several tribes, all the villages being united by the same customs and
language, and amenable to the same code of traditional laws. The usages
and customs of the fathers have an unfailing influence over their
descendants, and though free intercourse with the whites has led to the
adoption of certain foreign rules and laws of trade and land-tenure, yet
these are feeble in effect compared with the f