r own Sina's is at
this moment; and the decollator was probably, in his red flurry of
fight, wholly unconscious of her sex. I am sorry for him in the future;
he must make up his mind to many bitter jests--perhaps to vengeance. But
what an end to one chosen for her beauty and, in the time of peace,
watched over by trusty crones and hunchbacks!

_Evening._--Can I write or not? I played lawn tennis in the morning, and
after lunch down with Graham to Apia. Ulu, he that was shot in the
lungs, still lives; he that was shot in the bowels is gone to his
fathers, poor, fierce child! I was able to be of some very small help,
and in the way of helping myself to information, to prove myself a mere
gazer at meteors. But there seems no doubt the Mataafas for the time are
scattered; the most of our friends are involved in this disaster, and
Mataafa himself--who might have swept the islands a few months ago--for
him to fall so poorly, doubles my regret. They say the Taupou had a gun
and fired; probably an excuse manufactured _ex post facto_. I go down
to-morrow at 12, to stay the afternoon, and help Miss Large. In the
hospital to-day, when I first entered it, there were no attendants; only
the wounded and their friends, all equally sleeping and their heads
poised upon the wooden pillows. There is a pretty enough boy there,
slightly wounded, whose fate is to be envied: two girls, and one of the
most beautiful, with beaming eyes, tend him and sleep upon his pillow.
In the other corner, another young man, very patient and brave, lies
wholly deserted. Yet he seems to me far the better of the two; but not
so pretty! Heavens, what a difference that makes; in our not very well
proportioned bodies and our finely hideous faces, the 1-32nd--rather the
1-64th--this way or that! Sixteen heads in all at Mulinuu. I am so stiff
I can scarce move without a howl.

_Monday, 10th._--Some news that Mataafa is gone to Savaii by way of
Manono: this may mean a great deal more warfaring, and no great issue.
(When Sosimo came in this morning with my breakfast he had to lift me
up. It is no joke to play lawn tennis after carrying your right arm in a
sling so many years.) What a hard, unjust business this is! On the 28th,
if Mataafa had moved, he could have still swept Mulinuu. He waited, and
I fear he is now only the stick of a rocket.

_Wednesday, 12th._--No more political news; but many rumours. The
government troops are off to Manono; no word of Mataafa. O