The proposed post, from its position, and from Leary's well-established
character as an artist in mischief, must have been regarded by the
Germans with uneasiness. In the bombardment we can scarce suppose them
to have believed. But Tamasese must have both believed and trembled. The
prestige of the European Powers was still unbroken. No native would then
have dreamed of defying these colossal ships, worked by mysterious
powers, and laden with outlandish instruments of death. None would have
dreamed of resisting those strange but quite unrealised Great Powers,
understood (with difficulty) to be larger than Tonga and Samoa put
together, and known to be prolific of prints, knives, hard biscuit,
picture-books, and other luxuries, as well as of overbearing men and
inconsistent orders. Laupepa had fallen in ill-blood with one of them;
his only idea of defence had been to throw himself in the arms of
another; his name, his rank, and his great following had not been able to
preserve him; and he had vanished from the eyes of men--as the Samoan
thinks of it, beyond the sky. Asi, Maunga, Tuiletu-funga, had followed
him in that new path of doom. We have seen how carefully Mataafa still
walked, how he dared not set foot on the neutral territory till assured
it was no longer sacred, how he withdrew from it again as soon as its
sacredness had been restored, and at the bare word of a consul (however
gilded with ambiguous promises) paused in his course of victory and left
his rival unassailed in Mulinuu. And now it was the rival's turn.
Hitherto happy in the continued support of one of the white Powers, he
now found himself--or thought himself--threatened with war by no less
than two others.

Tamasese boats as they passed Matautu were in the habit of firing on the
shore, as like as not without particular aim, and more in high spirits
than hostility. One of these shots pierced the house of a British
subject near the consulate; the consul reported to Admiral Fairfax; and,