he had threatened to bombard him in his present refuge.
Both were in close and daily council with his adversary,
and it was no secret that Moors was supplying the
latter with food. They were partisans; it lacked
but a hair that they should be called belligerents;
it were idle to try to deny they were the most dangerous
of spies. And yet these two now sailed across
the bay and landed inside the Tamasese lines at Salelesi.
On the very beach they had another glimpse of the
artlessness of Samoan war. Hitherto the Tamasese
fleet, being hardy and unencumbered, had made a fool
of the huge floating forts upon the other side; and
here they were toiling, not to produce another boat
on their own pattern in which they had always enjoyed
the advantage, but to make a new one the type of their
enemies’, of which they had now proved the uselessness
for months. It came on to rain as the Americans
landed; and though none offered to oppose their coming
ashore, none invited them to take shelter. They
were nowise abashed, entered a house unbidden, and
were made welcome with obvious reserve. The rain
clearing off, they set forth westward, deeper into
the heart of the enemies’ position. Three
or four young men ran some way before them, doubtless
to give warning; and Leary, with his indomitable taste
for mischief, kept inquiring as he went after “the
high chief” Tamasese. The line of the beach
was one continuous breastwork; some thirty odd iron
cannon of all sizes and patterns stood mounted in
embrasures; plenty grape and canister lay ready; and
at every hundred yards or so the German flag was flying.
The numbers of the guns and flags I give as I received
them, though they test my faith. At the house
of Brandeis—a little, weatherboard house,
crammed at the time with natives, men, women, and squalling
children—Leary and Moors again asked for
“the high chief,” and, were again assured
that he was farther on. A little beyond, the
road ran in one place somewhat inland, the two Americans
had gone down to the line of the beach to continue
their inspection of the breastwork, when Brandeis
himself, in his shirt-sleeves and accompanied by several
German officers, passed them by the line of the road.
The two parties saluted in silence. Beyond Eva
Point there was an observable change for the worse
in the reception of the Americans; some whom they
met began to mutter at Moors; and the adventurers,
with tardy but commendable prudence, desisted from
their search after the high chief, and began to retrace
their steps. On the return, Suatele and some
chiefs were drinking kava in a “big house,”
and called them in to join—their only invitation.
But the night was closing, the rain had begun again:
they stayed but for civility, and returned on board
the Adams, wet and hungry, and I believe delighted
with their expedition. It was perhaps the last
as it was certainly one of the most extreme examples
of that divinity which once hedged the white in Samoa.