s. But there was one
country beyond the borders of Samoa where the question had aroused a
scarce less angry sentiment. The breach of the Washington Congress, the
evidence of Sewall before a sub-committee on foreign relations, the
proposal to try Klein before a military court, and the rags of Captain
Hamilton's flag, had combined to stir the people of the States to an
unwonted fervour. Germany was for the time the abhorred of nations.
Germans in America publicly disowned the country of their birth. In
Honolulu, so near the scene of action, German and American young men
fell to blows in the street. In the same city, from no traceable source,
and upon no possible authority, there arose a rumour of tragic news to
arrive by the next occasion, that the _Nipsic_ had opened fire on the
_Adler_, and the _Adler_ had sunk her on the first reply. Punctually on
the day appointed, the news came; and the two nations, instead of being
plunged into war, could only mingle tears over the loss of heroes.

By the second week in March three American ships were in Apia bay,--the
_Nipsic_, the _Vandalia_, and the _Trenton_, carrying the flag of
Rear-Admiral Kimberley; three German,--the _Adler_, the _Eber_, and the
_Olga_; and one British,--the _Calliope_, Captain Kane. Six merchantmen,
ranging from twenty-five up to five hundred tons, and a number of small
craft, further encumbered the anchorage. Its capacity is estimated by
Captain Kane at four large ships; and the latest arrivals, the
_Vandalia_ and _Trenton_, were in consequence excluded, and lay without
in the passage. Of the seven war-ships, the seaworthiness of two was
questionable: the _Trenton's_, from an original defect in her
construction, often reported, never remedied--her hawse-pipes leading in
on the berth-deck; the _Eber's_, from an injury to her screw in the blow
of February 14th. In this overcrowding of ships in an open entry of the
reef, even the eye of the landsman could spy danger; and
Captain-Lieutenant Wallis of the _Eber_ openly blamed and lamented, not
many hours before the catastrophe, their helpless posture. Temper once
more triumphed. The army of Mataafa still hung imminent behind the town;
the German quarter was still daily garrisoned with fifty sailors from
the squadron; what was yet more influential, Germany and the States, at
least in Apia bay, were on the brink of war, viewed each other with
looks of hatred, and scarce observed the letter of civility. On the day