Their chief rivals were the Messrs. MacArthur; and
it seems beyond question that provincial governors more than once issued
orders forbidding Samoans to take money from "the New Zealand firm."
These, when they were brought to his notice, Brandeis disowned, and he is
entitled to be heard. No man can live long in Samoa and not have his
honesty impugned. But the accusations against Brandeis's veracity are
both few and obscure. I believe he was as straight as his sword. The
governors doubtless issued these orders, but there were plenty besides
Brandeis to suggest them. Every wandering clerk from the firm's office,
every plantation manager, would be dinning the same story in the native
ear. And here again the initial blunder hung about the neck of Brandeis,
a ton's weight. The natives, as well as the whites, had seen their
premier masquerading on a stool in the office; in the eyes of the
natives, as well as in those of the whites, he must always have retained
the mark of servitude from that ill-judged passage; and they would be
inclined to look behind and above him, to the great house of _Misi Ueba_.
The government was like a vista of puppets. People did not trouble with
Tamasese, if they got speech with Brandeis; in the same way, they might
not always trouble to ask Brandeis, if they had a hint direct from _Misi
Ueba_.
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