and have the
other bandaged.

And lastly, one word as to the future. Laupepa and Mataafa stand over
against each other, rivals with no third competitor. They may be said to
hold the great name of Malietoa in commission; each has borne the style,
each exercised the authority, of a Samoan king; one is secure of the
small but compact and fervent following of the Catholics, the other has
the sympathies of a large part of the Protestant majority, and upon any
sign of Catholic aggression would have more. With men so nearly
balanced, it may be asked whether a prolonged successful exercise of
power be possible for either. In the case of the feeble Laupepa, it is
certainly not; we have the proof before us. Nor do I think we should
judge, from what we see to-day, that it would be possible, or would
continue to be possible, even for the kingly Mataafa. It is always the
easier game to be in opposition. The tale of David and Saul would
infallibly be re-enacted; once more we shall have two kings in the
land,--the latent and the patent; and the house of the first will become
once more the resort of "every one that is in distress, and every one
that is in debt, and every one that is discontented." Against such odds
it is my fear that Mataafa might contend in vain; it is beyond the
bounds of my imagination that Laupepa should contend at all. Foreign
ships and bayonets is the cure proposed in Mulinuu. And certainly, if
people at home desire that money should be thrown away and blood shed
in Samoa, an effect of a kind, and for the time, may be produced. Its
nature and prospective durability I will ask readers of this volume to
forecast for themselves. There is one way to peace and unity: that
Laupepa and Mataafa should be again conjoined on the best terms
procurable. There may be other ways, although I cannot see them; but not
even malevolence, not even stupidity, can deny that this is one. It
seems, indeed, so obvious, and sure, and easy, that men look about with
amazement and suspicion, seeking some hidden motive why it should not be
adopted.

To Laupepa's opposition, as shown in the case of the Lauati scheme, no
dweller in Samoa will give weight, for they know him to be as putty in
the hands of his advisers. It may be right, it may be wrong, but we are
many of us driven to the conclusion that the stumbling-block is
Fangalii, and that the memorial of that affair shadows appropriately the
house of a king who reigns in right of it. If