the dark, and so doing plumped upon another
sentry, whom Laupepa grappled and flung in a ditch; for the Sheet of
Paper, although infirm of character, is, like most Samoans, of an able
body. The second sentry (like the first) fired after his assailants at
random in the dark; and the two shots awoke the curiosity of Apia. On
the afternoon of the 16th, the day of the hand-shakings, Suatele, a high
chief, despatched two boys across the island with a letter. They were
most of the night upon the road; it was near three in the morning before
the sentries in the camp of Malietoa beheld their lantern drawing near
out of the wood; but the king was at once awakened. The news was
decisive and the letter peremptory; if Malietoa did not give himself up
before ten on the morrow, he was told that great sorrows must befall his
country. I have not been able to draw Laupepa as a hero; but he is a man
of certain virtues, which the Germans had now given him an occasion to
display. Without hesitation he sacrificed himself, penned his touching
farewell to Samoa, and making more expedition than the messengers,
passed early behind Apia to the banks of the Vaisingano. As he passed,
he detached a messenger to Mataafa at the Catholic mission. Mataafa
followed by the same road, and the pair met at the river-side and went
and sat together in a house. All present were in tears. "Do not let us
weep," said the talking man, Lauati. "We have no cause for shame. We do
not yield to Tamasese, but to the invincible strangers." The departing
king bequeathed the care of his country to Mataafa; and when the latter
sought to console him with the commodore's promises, he shook his head,
and declared his assurance that he was going to a life of exile, and
perhaps to death. About two o'clock the meeting broke up; Mataafa
returned to the Catholic mission by the back of the town; and Malietoa
proceeded by the beach road to the German naval hospital, where he was
received (as he owns, with perfect civility) by Brandeis. About three,
Becker brought him forth again. As they went to the wharf, the people
wept and clung to their departing monarch. A boat carried him on board
the _Bismarck_, and he vanished from his countrymen. Yet it was long
rumoured that he still lay in the harbour; and so late as October 7th, a
boy, who had been paddling round the _Carola_, professed to have seen
and spoken with him. Here again the needless mystery affected by the
Germans bitterly disse