of the name of Scanlon. Him he sought to have
discharged, but was again baffled by his brother consuls. Where, in all
this, are we to find a corner of responsibility for the king of Samoa?
Scanlon, the alleged author of the outrage, was a half-white; as Becker
was to learn to his cost, he claimed to be an American subject; and he
was not even in the king's employment. Apia, the scene of the outrage,
was outside the king's jurisdiction by treaty; by the choice of Germany,
he was not so much as allowed to fly his flag there. And the denial of
justice (if justice were denied) rested with the consuls of Britain and
the States.

But when a dog is to be beaten, any stick will serve. In the meanwhile,
on the proposition of Mr. Bayard, the Washington conference on Samoan
affairs was adjourned till autumn, so that "the ministers of Germany and
Great Britain might submit the protocols to their respective
Governments." "You propose that the conference is to adjourn and not to
be broken up?" asked Sir Lionel West. "To adjourn for the reasons
stated," replied Bayard. This was on July 26th; and, twenty-nine days
later, by Wednesday the 24th of August, Germany had practically seized
Samoa. For this flagrant breach of faith one excuse is openly alleged;
another whispered. It is openly alleged that Bayard had shown himself
impracticable; it is whispered that the Hawaiian embassy was an
expression of American intrigue, and that the Germans only did as they
were done by. The sufficiency of these excuses may be left to the
discretion of the reader. But, however excused, the breach of faith was
public and express; it must have been deliberately predetermined; and it
was resented in the States as a deliberate insult.

By the middle of August 1887 there were five sail of German war-ships in
Apia bay: the _Bismarck_, of 3000 tons displacement; the _Carola_, the
_Sophie_, and the _Olga_, all considerable ships; and the beautiful
_Adler_, which lies there to this day, kanted on her beam, dismantled,
scarlet with rust, the day showing through her ribs. They waited
inactive, as a burglar waits till the patrol goes by. And on the 23rd,
when the mail had left for Sydney, when the eyes of the world were
withdrawn, and Samoa plunged again for a period of weeks into her
original island-obscurity, Becker opened his guns. The policy was too
cunning to seem dignified; it gave to conduct which would otherwise have
seemed bold and even brutally straightfo