rs and
interests. The thought of the money sunk, the sight of these costly and
beautiful plantations, menaced yearly by the returning forest, and the
responsibility of administering with one hand so many conjunct fortunes,
might well nerve the manager of such a company for desperate and
questionable deeds. Upon this scale, commercial sharpness has an air of
patriotism; and I can imagine the man, so far from higgling over the
scourge for a few Solomon islanders, prepared to oppress rival firms,
overthrow inconvenient monarchs, and let loose the dogs of war. Whatever
he may decide, he will not want for backing. Every clerk will be eager
to be up and strike a blow; and most Germans in the group, whatever they
may babble of the firm over the walnuts and the wine, will rally round
the national concern at the approach of difficulty. They are so few--I am
ashamed to give their number, it were to challenge contradiction--they
are so few, and the amount of national capital buried at their feet is so
vast, that we must not wonder if they seem oppressed with greatness and
the sense of empire. Other whites take part in our brabbles, while temper
holds out, with a certain schoolboy entertainment. In the Germans alone,
no trace of humour is to be observed, and their solemnity is accompanied
by a touchiness often beyond belief. Patriotism flies in arms about a
hen; and if you comment upon the colour of a Dutch umbrella, you have
cast a stone against the German Emperor. I give one instance, typical
although extreme. One who had returned from Tutuila on the mail cutter
complained of the vermin with which she is infested. He was suddenly and
sharply brought to a stand. The ship of which he spoke, he was reminded,
was a German ship.

John Caesar Godeffroy himself had never visited the islands; his sons and
nephews came, indeed, but scarcely to reap laurels; and the mainspring
and headpiece of this great concern, until death took him, was a certain
remarkable man of the name of Theodor Weber. He was of an artful and
commanding character; in the smallest thing or the greatest, without
fear or scruple; equally able to affect, equally ready to adopt, the
most engaging politeness or the most imperious airs of domination. It
was he who did most damage to rival traders; it was he who most harried
the Samoans; and yet I never met any one, white or native, who did not
respect his memory. All felt it was a gallant battle, and the man a
great fighte