annot be wrong about the vile attitude I put myself
in if I blow the gaff on Cedercrantz behind his back.

_Tuesday._--One more word about the _South Seas_, in answer to a
question I observed I have forgotten to answer. The Tahiti part has
never turned up, because it has never been written. As for telling you
where I went or when, or anything about Honolulu, I would rather die;
that is fair and plain. How can anybody care when or how I left
Honolulu? A man of upwards of forty cannot waste his time in
communicating matter of that indifference. The letters, it appears, are
tedious; they would be more tedious still if I wasted my time upon such
infantile and sucking-bottle details. If ever I put in any such detail,
it is because it leads into something or serves as a transition. To
tell it for its own sake, never! The mistake is all through that I have
told too much; I had not sufficient confidence in the reader, and have
overfed him; and here are you anxious to learn how I--O Colvin! Suppose
it had made a book, all such information is given to one glance of an
eye by a map with a little dotted line upon it. But let us forget this
unfortunate affair.

_Wednesday._--Yesterday I went down to consult Clarke, who took the view
of delay. Has he changed his mind already? I wonder: here at least is
the news. Some little while back some men of Manono--what is Manono?--a
Samoan rotten borough, a small isle of huge political importance, heaven
knows why, where a handful of chiefs make half the trouble in the
country. Some men of Manono (which is strong Mataafa) burned down the
houses and destroyed the crops of some Malietoa neighbours. The
President went there the other day and landed alone on the island, which
(to give him his due) was plucky. Moreover, he succeeded in persuading
the folks to come up and be judged on a particular day in Apia. That day
they did not come; but did come the next, and, to their vast surprise,
were given six months' imprisonment and clapped in gaol. Those who had
accompanied them cried to them on the streets as they were marched to
prison, "Shall we rescue you?" The condemned, marching in the hands of
thirty men with loaded rifles, cried out "No"! And the trick was done.
But it was ardently believed a rescue would be attempted; the gaol was
laid about with armed men day and night; but there was some question of
their loyalty, and the commandant of the forces, a very nice young
beardless Swede, became ne