weary of the name of Samoa, and desirous only to see peace established,
was prepared to wink hard during the process and to welcome the result of
any German settlement. It was an unpardonable fault in Becker to have
kicked and buffeted his ready-made allies into a state of jealousy,
anger, and suspicion. Knappe set himself at once to efface these
impressions, and the English officials rejoiced for the moment in the
change. Between Knappe and de Coetlogon there seems to have been mutual
sympathy; and, in considering the steps by which they were led at last
into an attitude of mutual defiance, it must be remembered that both the
men were sick,--Knappe from time to time prostrated with that formidable
complaint, New Guinea fever, and de Coetlogon throughout his whole stay
in the islands continually ailing.

Tamasese was still to be recognised, and, if possible, supported: such
was the German policy. Two days after his arrival, accordingly, Knappe
addressed to Mataafa a threatening despatch. The German plantation was
suffering from the proximity of his "war-party." He must withdraw from
Laulii at once, and, whithersoever he went, he must approach no German
property nor so much as any village where there was a German trader. By
five o'clock on the morrow, if he were not gone, Knappe would turn upon
him "the attention of the man-of-war" and inflict a fine. The same
evening, November 14th, Knappe went on board the _Adler_, which began to
get up steam.

Three months before, such direct intervention on the part of Germany
would have passed almost without protest; but the hour was now gone by.
Becker's conduct, equally timid and rash, equally inconclusive and
offensive, had forced the other nations into a strong feeling of common
interest with Mataafa. Even had the German demands been moderate, de
Coetlogon could not have forgotten the night of the _taumualua_, nor how