Such were the arrangements and some of the ideas of this strong, ardent, and sanguine man.  Of criticisms upon his conduct, beyond the general consent that he was rather harsh and in too great a hurry, few are articulate.  The native paper of complaints was particularly childish.  Out of twenty-three counts, the first two refer to the private character of Brandeis and Tamasese.  Three complain that Samoan officials were kept in the dark as to the finances; one, of the tapa law; one, of the direct appointment of chiefs by Tamasese-Brandeis, the sort of mistake into which Europeans in the South Seas fall so readily; one, of the enforced labour of chiefs; one, of the taxes; and one, of the roads.  This I may give in full from the very lame translation in the American white book.  “The roads that were made were called the Government Roads; they were six fathoms wide.  Their making caused much damage to Samoa’s lands and what was planted on it.  The Samoans cried on account of their lands, which were taken high-handedly and abused.  They again cried on account of the loss of what they had planted, which was now thrown away in a high-handed way, without any regard being shown or question asked of the owner of the land, or any compensation offered for the damage done.  This was different with foreigners’ land; in their case permission was first asked to make the roads; the foreigners were paid for any destruction made.”  The sting of this count was, I fancy, in the last clause.  No less than six articles complain of the administration of the law; and I believe that was never satisfactory.  Brandeis told me himself he was never yet satisfied with any native judge.  And men say (and it seems to fit in well with his hasty and eager character) that he would legislate by word of mouth; sometimes forget what he had said; and, on the same question arising in another province, decide it perhaps otherwise.  I gather, on the whole, our artillery captain was not great in law.  Two articles refer to a matter I must deal with more at length, and rather from the point of view of the white residents.

The common charge against Brandeis was that of favouring the German firm.  Coming as he did, this was inevitable.  Weber had bought Steinberger with hard cash; that was matter of history.  The present government he did not even require to buy, having founded it by his intrigues, and introduced the premier to Samoa through the doors of his own office.  And the effect of the initial blunder was kept alive by the chatter of the clerks in bar-rooms, boasting themselves of the new government and prophesying annihilation to all rivals.  The time of raising a tax is the harvest of the merchants; it is the time when copra will be made, and must be sold; and the intention of the German firm, first in the time of Steinberger, and again in April and May, 1888, with Brandeis, was to seize and handle the whole operation.  Their chief rivals were the Messrs. MacArthur; and it seems