on all hands exactly followed; the
consuls hastened on board their respective war-ships, and these began to
get up steam. About midnight, in a pouring rain, Pelly communicated to
Fritze his intention to follow him and protect British interests; and
Knappe replied that he would come on board the _Lizard_ and see de
Coetlogon personally. It was deep in the small hours, and de Coetlogon
had been long asleep, when he was wakened to receive his colleague; but
he started up with an old soldier's readiness. The conference was long.
De Coetlogon protested, as he did afterwards in writing, against
Knappe's claim: the Samoans were in a state of war; they had territorial
rights; it was monstrous to prevent them from entering one of their own
villages because a German trader kept the store; and in case property
suffered, a claim for compensation was the proper remedy. Knappe argued
that this was a question between Germans and Samoans, in which de
Coetlogon had nothing to see; and that he must protect German property
according to his instructions. To which de Coetlogon replied that he was
himself in the same attitude to the property of the British; that he
understood Knappe to be intending hostilities against Laulii; that
Laulii was mortgaged to the MacArthurs; that its crops were accordingly
British property; and that, while he was ever willing to recognise the
territorial rights of the Samoans, he must prevent that property from
being molested "by any other nation." "But if a German man-of-war does
it?" asked Knappe.--"We shall prevent it to the best of our ability,"
replied the colonel. It is to the credit of both men that this trying
interview should have been conducted and concluded without heat; but
Knappe must have returned to the _Adler_ with darker anticipations.

At sunrise on the morning of the 15th, the three ships, each loaded with
its consul, put to sea. It is hard to exaggerate the peril of the
forenoon that followed, as they lay off Laulii. Nobody desired a
collision, save perhaps the reckless Leary; but peace and war trembled
in the balance; and when the _Adler_, at one period, lowered her gun
ports, war appeared to preponderate. It proved, however, to be a
last--and therefore surely an unwise--extremity. Knappe contented
himself with visiting the rival kings, and the three ships returned to
Apia before noon. Beyond a doubt, coming after Knappe's decisive letter
of the day before, this impotent conclusion shook the