e even rigid. Lauati, the
pivot of Savaii, has recently repudiated his wife and taken a fairer;
and when I was last in Malie, Mataafa (with a strange superiority to his
own interests) had but just despatched a reprimand. In his immediate
circle, in spite of the smoothness of his ways, he is said to be more
respected than beloved; and his influence is the child rather of
authority than popularity. No Samoan grandee now living need have
attempted that which he has accomplished during the last twelve months
with unimpaired prestige, not only to withhold his followers from war,
but to send them to be judged in the camp of their enemies on Mulinuu.
And it is a matter of debate whether such a triumph of authority were
ever possible before. Speaking for myself, I have visited and dwelt in
almost every seat of the Polynesian race, and have met but one man who
gave me a stronger impression of character and parts.

About the situation, Mataafa expresses himself with unshaken peace. To
the chief justice he refers with some bitterness; to Laupepa, with a
smile, as "my poor brother." For himself, he stands upon the treaty, and
expects sooner or later an election in which he shall be raised to the
chief power. In the meanwhile, or for an alternative, he would willingly
embrace a compromise with Laupepa; to which he would probably add one
condition, that the joint government should remain seated at Malie, a
sensible but not inconvenient distance from white intrigues and white
officials. One circumstance in my last interview particularly pleased
me. The king's chief scribe, Esela, is an old employe under Tamasese,
and the talk ran some while upon the character of Brandeis. Loyalty in
this world is after all not thrown away; Brandeis was guilty, in Samoan
eyes, of many irritating errors, but he stood true to Tamasese; in the
course of time a sense of this virtue and of his general uprightness has
obliterated the memory of his mistakes; and it would have done his heart
good if he could have heard his old scribe and his old adversary join in
praising him. "Yes," concluded Mataafa, "I wish we had Planteisa back
again." _A quelque chose malheur est bon._ So strong is the impression
produced by the defects of Cedarcrantz and Baron Senfft, that I believe
Mataafa far from singular in this opinion, and that the return of the
upright Brandeis might be even welcome to many.

I must add a last touch to the picture of Malie and the pretender's
lif