se. No honest man
would dream of blaming Knappe because he sought to redeem his country's
word. The path he chose was doubtless that of honour, so far as honour
was still left. But it proved to be the road to ruin.

Fritze, ranking German officer, is understood to have opposed the
measure. His attitude earned him at the time unpopularity among his
country-people on the spot, and should now redound to his credit. It is
to be hoped he extended his opposition to some of the details. If it
were possible to disarm Mataafa at all, it must be done rather by
prestige than force. A party of blue-jackets landed in Samoan bush, and
expected to hold against Samoans a multiplicity of forest paths, had
their work cut out for them. And it was plain they should be landed in
the light of day, with a discouraging openness, and even with parade. To
sneak ashore by night was to increase the danger of resistance and to
minimise the authority of the attack. The thing was a bluff, and it is
impossible to bluff with stealth. Yet this was what was tried. A
landing-party was to leave the _Olga_ in Apia bay at two in the morning;
the landing was to be at four on two parts of the foreshore of Vailele.
At eight they were to be joined by a second landing-party from the
_Eber_. By nine the Olgas were to be on the crest of Letongo Mountain,
and the Ebers to be moving round the promontory by the seaward paths,
"with measures of precaution," disarming all whom they encountered.
There was to be no firing unless fired upon. At the appointed hour (or
perhaps later) on the morning of the 19th, this unpromising business was
put in hand, and there moved off from the _Olga_ two boats with some
fifty blue-jackets between them, and a _praam_ or punt containing
ninety,--the boats and the whole expedition under the command of
Captain-Lieutenant Jaeckel, the praam under Lieutenant Spengler. The men
had each forty rounds, one day's provisions, and their flasks filled.

In the meanwhile, Mataafa sympathisers about Apia were on the alert.
Knappe had informed the consuls that the ships were to put to sea next
day for the protection of German property; but the Tamaseses had been
less discreet. "To-morrow at the hour of seven," they had cried to their
adversaries, "you will know of a difficulty, and our guns shall be made
good in broken bones." An accident had pointed expectation towards Apia.
The wife of Le Mamea washed for the German ships--a perquisite, I
suppose, fo