ould
rather say, detention; for it was expressly directed that they were to
be used as gentlemen and not as prisoners, that the door was to stand
open, and that all their wishes should be gratified. This extraordinary
sentence fell upon the accused like a thunderbolt. There is no need to
suppose perfidy, where a careless interpreter suffices to explain all;
but the six chiefs claim to have understood their coming to Apia as an
act of submission merely formal, that they came in fact under an implied
indemnity, and that the president stood pledged to see them scatheless.
Already, on their way from the court-house, they were tumultuously
surrounded by friends and clansmen, who pressed and cried upon them to
escape; Lieutenant Ulfsparre must order his men to load; and with that
the momentary effervescence died away. Next day, Saturday, 5th, the
chief justice took his departure from the islands--a step never yet
explained and (in view of the doings of the day before and the
remonstrances of other officials) hard to justify. The president, an
amiable and brave young man of singular inexperience, was thus left to
face the growing difficulty by himself. The clansmen of the prisoners,
to the number of near upon a hundred, lay in Vaiusu, a village half way
between Apia and Malie; there they talked big, thence sent menacing
messages; the gaol should be broken in the night, they said, and the six
martyrs rescued. Allowance is to be made for the character of the people
of Manono, turbulent fellows, boastful of tongue, but of late days not
thought to be answerably bold in person. Yet the moment was anxious. The
government of Mulinuu had gained an important moral victory by the
surrender and condemnation of the chiefs; and it was needful the victory
should be maintained. The guard upon the gaol was accordingly
strengthened; a war-party was sent to watch the Vaiusu road under Asi;
and the chiefs of the Vaimaunga were notified to arm and assemble their
men. It must be supposed the president was doubtful of the loyalty of
these assistants. He turned at least to the war-ships, where it seems he
was rebuffed; thence he fled into the arms of the wrecker gang, where he
was unhappily more successful. The government of Washington had
presented to the Samoan king the wrecks of the _Trenton_ and the
_Vandalia_; an American syndicate had been formed to break them up; an
experienced gang was in consequence settled in Apia; and the report of
submari