said the other day, on these we may reasonably suppose that we are not
far wrong. Now here is a point on which we shall directly counter. No
doubt but this will lessen the combined weight of our arguments where
they coincide. And to avoid this effect, it might seem worth while to
you to modify or cancel the last paragraph of your article.

III. But I now approach what seems to me by far the most important.
White man here, white man there, Samoa is to stand or fall (bar actual
seizure) on the Samoan question. And upon this my mind is now really
made up. I do not believe in Laupepa alone; I do not believe in Mataafa
alone. I know that their conjunction implies peace; I am persuaded that
their separation means either war or paralysis. It is the result of the
past, which we cannot change, but which we must accept and use or suffer
by. I have now made up my mind to do all that I may be able--little as
it is--to effect a reconciliation between these two men Laupepa and
Mataafa; persuaded as I am that there is the one door of hope. And it is
my intention before long to approach both in this sense. Now, from the
course of our interview, I was pleased to see that you were, if not
equally strong with myself, at least inclined to much the same opinion.
And in a carefully weighed paper, such as that you read me, I own I
should be pleased to have this cardinal matter touched upon. At home it
is not, it cannot be, understood: Mataafa is thought a rebel; the
Germans profit by the thought to pursue their career of vengeance for
Fagalii; the two men are perpetually offered as alternatives--they are
no such thing--they are complementary; authority, supposing them to
survive, will be impossible without both. They were once friends, fools
and meddlers set them at odds, they must be friends again or have so
much wisdom and public virtue as to pretend a friendship. There is my
policy for Samoa. And I wish you would at least touch upon that point, I
care not how; because, although I am far from supposing you feel it to
be necessary in the same sense or to the same degree as I do, I am well
aware that no man knows Samoa but must see its huge advantages. Excuse
this long and tedious lecture, which I see I have to mark private and
confidential, or I might get into deep water, and believe me, yours very
truly,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO CHARLES BAXTER

The maps herein bespoken do not adorn the ordinary editions of
_Catri