It was thus a game of _Beggar my Neighbour_ between a large
merchant and some small ones. Had it so remained, it would still have
been a cut-throat quarrel. But when the consulate appeared to be
concerned, when the war-ships of the German Empire were thought to fetch
and carry for the firm, the rage of the independent traders broke beyond
restraint. And, largely from the national touchiness and the intemperate
speech of German clerks, this scramble among dollar-hunters assumed the
appearance of an inter-racial war.
The firm, with the indomitable Weber at its head and the consulate at its
back--there has been the chief enemy at Samoa. No English reader can
fail to be reminded of John Company; and if the Germans appear to have
been not so successful, we can only wonder that our own blunders and
brutalities were less severely punished. Even on the field of Samoa,
though German faults and aggressors make up the burthen of my story, they
have been nowise alone. Three nations were engaged in this infinitesimal
affray, and not one appears with credit. They figure but as the three
ruffians of the elder play-wrights. The United States have the cleanest
hands, and even theirs are not immaculate. It was an ambiguous business
when a private American adventurer was landed with his pieces of
artillery from an American war-ship, and became prime minister to the
king.
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