finding themselves unpursued, they reoccupied them one after another, and
re-established their lines to the very borders of Saluafata. Night fell;
Mataafa had taken Saluafata, Tamasese had lost it; and that was all. But
the day came near to have a different and very singular issue. The
village was not long in the hands of the Mataafas, when a schooner,
flying German colours, put into the bay and was immediately surrounded by
their boats. It chanced that Brandeis was on board. Word of it had gone
abroad, and the boats as they approached demanded him with threats. The
late premier, alone, entirely unarmed, and a prey to natural and painful
feelings, concealed himself below. The captain of the schooner remained
on deck, pointed to the German colours, and defied approaching boats.
Again the prestige of a great Power triumphed; the Samoans fell back
before the bunting; the schooner worked out of the bay; Brandeis escaped.
He himself apprehended the worst if he fell into Samoan hands; it is my
diffident impression that his life would have been safe.

On the 22nd, a new German war-ship, the _Eber_, of tragic memory, came to
Apia from the Gilberts, where she had been disarming turbulent islands.
The rest of that day and all night she loaded stores from the firm, and
on the morrow reached Saluafata bay. Thanks to the misconduct of the
Mataafas, the most of the foreshore was still in the hands of the
Tamaseses; and they were thus able to receive from the _Eber_ both the
stores and weapons. The weapons had been sold long since to Tarawa,
Apaiang, and Pleasant Island; places unheard of by the general reader,
where obscure inhabitants paid for these instruments of death in money or
in labour, misused them as it was known they would be misused, and had
been disarmed by force. The _Eber_ had brought back the guns to a German
counter, whence many must have been originally sold; and was here
engaged, like a shopboy, in their distribution to fresh purchasers. Such
is the vicious circle of the traffic in weapons of war. Another aid of a