"Our lives are
not worth living," was the burthen of the popular complaint. "We are
groaning under the oppression of these men. We would rather die than
continue to endure it." On his return to Apia, he made haste to
communicate his impressions to Brandeis. Brandeis replied in an epigram:
"Where there has been anarchy in a country, there must be oppression for
a time." But unfortunately the terms of the epigram may be reversed; and
personal supervision would have been more in season than wit. The same
observer who conveyed to him this warning thinks that, if Brandeis had
himself visited the districts and inquired into complaints, the blow
might yet have been averted and the government saved. At last, upon a
certain unconstitutional act of Tamasese, the discontent took life and
fire. The act was of his own conception; the dull dog was ambitious.
Brandeis declares he would not be dissuaded; perhaps his adviser did not
seriously try, perhaps did not dream that in that welter of
contradictions, the Samoan constitution, any one point would be
considered sacred. I have told how Tamasese assumed the title of
Tuiatua. In August 1888 a year after his installation, he took a more
formidable step and assumed that of Malietoa.
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