discussed in detail in other books, it is not my
purpose to touch upon it here except in so far as any phase of it
directly concerned Mrs. Stevenson herself. It is enough to say that
the family espoused the cause of Mataafa, and in the diary Mrs.
Stevenson describes a visit made by them to that monarch for the
purpose of attempting to reconcile the two parties.

"On the second of May," she writes, "Louis, Teuila[52] and I, taking
Talolo with us, went in a boat to Malie to visit King Mataafa. I took
a dark red silk _holaku_, trimmed with Persian embroidery, and Teuila
took a green silk one, in which to appear before royalty. Long before
we got to the village we could see the middle part of an immense
native house rising up like a church spire. Mataafa's own house was
the largest and finest I had ever seen, and there were others as
large. Louis tried in vain to get an interpreter, but was fain to put
up with Talolo, who nearly expired with fright and misery, for he
could not speak the high chief language and felt that every word he
uttered was an insult to Mataafa. We have been in the habit of
referring to the king as 'Charley over the water,' and toasting him by
waving our glasses over the water bottle. Talolo had some vague notion
of what this meant and now thought it a good time to do the same. To
our great amusement, he took his glass, waved it in the air, and cried
'Charley in the water!' which we felt to be a rather ominous toast.
His translations of 'Charley's' words came to little more than
'Mataafa very much surprised (pleased),' but Louis knew enough Samoan
to make a little guess at what was going on. The _kava_ bowl was in
the centre of the group, with the king's talking men beside it. _Kava_
was first given to the king and Louis simultaneously--a great honor
for Louis--then to Teuila and me. The king evidently supposed us both
to be wives of Louis, and was much puzzled as to which was the
superior in station, a dilemma which was finally neatly solved by
serving us both at the same moment. I had seen that it was chewed
_kava_,[53] but in my weariness after the long journey I forgot that
fact before it came my turn to drink. Before the bowl was offered to
the king a libation was poured out and fresh water from a cocoanut
shell was sprinkled first to the right and then to the left. The
talking man and the others made polite orations, one of them likening
Louis to Jesus Christ, at which Talolo manifested sighs of