ne explosions had long grown familiar in the ears of residents.
From these artificers the president obtained a supply of dynamite, the
needful mechanism, and the loan of a mechanic; the gaol was mined, and
the Manono people in Vaiusu were advertised of the fact in a letter
signed by Laupepa. Partly by the indiscretion of the mechanic, who had
sought to embolden himself (like Lady Macbeth) with liquor for his
somewhat dreadful task, the story leaked immediately out and raised a
very general, or I might say almost universal, reprobation. Some blamed
the proposed deed because it was barbarous and a foul example to set
before a race half barbarous itself; others because it was illegal;
others again because, in the face of so weak an enemy, it appeared
pitifully pusillanimous; almost all because it tended to precipitate
and embitter war. In the midst of the turmoil he had raised, and under
the immediate pressure of certain indignant white residents, the baron
fell back upon a new expedient, certainly less barbarous, perhaps no
more legal; and on Monday afternoon, September 7th, packed his six
prisoners on board the cutter _Lancashire Lass_, and deported them to
the neighbouring low-island group of the Tokelaus. We watched her put to
sea with mingled feelings. Anything were better than dynamite, but this
was not good. The men had been summoned in the name of law; they had
surrendered; the law had uttered its voice; they were under one sentence
duly delivered; and now the president, by no right with which we were
acquainted, had exchanged it for another. It was perhaps no less
fortunate, though it was more pardonable in a stranger, that he had
increased the punishment to that which, in the eyes of Samoans, ranks
next to death,--exile from their native land and friends. And the
_Lancashire Lass_ appeared to carry away with her into the uttermost
parts of the sea the honour of the administration and the prestige of
the supreme court.

The policy of the government towards Mataafa has thus been of a piece
throughout; always would-be violent, it has been almost always defaced
with some appearance of perfidy or unfairness. The policy of Mataafa
(though extremely bewildering to any white) appears everywhere
consistent with itself, and the man's bearing has always been calm. But
to represent the fulness of the contrast, it is necessary that I should
give some description of the two capitals, or the two camps, and the
ways and means of