Mataafa had relinquished, at his request, the attack upon the German
quarter. Blacklock, with his driver of a captain at his elbow, was not
likely to lag behind. And Mataafa having communicated Knappe's letter,
the example of the Germans was on all hands exactly followed; the consuls
hastened on board their respective war-ships, and these began to get up
steam. About midnight, in a pouring rain, Pelly communicated to Fritze
his intention to follow him and protect British interests; and Knappe
replied that he would come on board the _Lizard_ and see de Coetlogon
personally. It was deep in the small hours, and de Coetlogon had been
long asleep, when he was wakened to receive his colleague; but he started
up with an old soldier's readiness. The conference was long. De
Coetlogon protested, as he did afterwards in writing, against Knappe's
claim: the Samoans were in a state of war; they had territorial rights;
it was monstrous to prevent them from entering one of their own villages
because a German trader kept the store; and in case property suffered, a
claim for compensation was the proper remedy. Knappe argued that this
was a question between Germans and Samoans, in which de Coetlogon had
nothing to see; and that he must protect German property according to his
instructions. To which de Coetlogon replied that he was himself in the
same attitude to the property of the British; that he understood Knappe
to be intending hostilities against Laulii; that Laulii was mortgaged to
the MacArthurs; that its crops were accordingly British property; and
that, while he was ever willing to recognise the territorial rights of
the Samoans, he must prevent that property from being molested "by any
other nation." "But if a German man-of-war does it?" asked Knappe.--"We
shall prevent it to the best of our ability," replied the colonel. It is
to the credit of both men that this trying interview should have been
conducted and concluded without heat; but Knappe must have returned to
the _Adler_ with darker anticipations.