be either to Klein's own account
of the affair or to that of his accusers. Klein was extremely flurried;
his interest as a reporter must have tempted him at first to make the
most of his share in the exploit, the immediate peril in which he soon
found himself to stand must have at least suggested to him the idea of
minimising it; one way and another, he is not a good witness. As for the
natives, they were no doubt cross-examined in that hall of terror, the
German consulate, where they might be trusted to lie like schoolboys, or
(if the reader prefer it) like Samoans. By outside white testimony, it
remains established for me that Klein returned to Apia either before or
immediately after the first shots. That he ever sought or was ever
allowed a share in the command may be denied peremptorily; but it is
more than likely that he expressed himself in an excited manner and with
a highly inflammatory effect upon his hearers. He was, at least,
severely punished. The Germans, enraged by his provocative behaviour and
what they thought to be his German birth, demanded him to be tried
before court-martial; he had to skulk inside the sentries of the
American consulate, to be smuggled on board a war-ship, and to be
carried almost by stealth out of the island; and what with the
agitations of his mind, and the results of a marsh fever contracted in
the lines of Mataafa, reached Honolulu a very proper object of
commiseration. Nor was Klein the only accused: de Coetlogon was himself
involved. As the boats passed Matautu, Knappe declares a signal was made
from the British consulate. Perhaps we should rather read "from its
neighbourhood"; since, in the general warding of the coast, the point of
Matautu could scarce have been neglected. On the other hand, there is no
doubt that the Samoans, in the anxiety of that night of watching and
fighting, crowded to the friendly consul for advice. Late in the night,
the wounded Siteoni, lying on the colonel's verandah, one corner of
which had been blinded down that he might sleep, heard the coming and
going of bare feet and the voices of eager consultation. And long after,
a man who had been discharged from the colonel's employment took upon
himself to swear an affidavit as to the nature of the advice then given,
and to carry the document to the German consul. It was an act of private
revenge; it fell long out of date in the good days of Dr. Stuebel, and
had no result but to discredit the gentleman who