News of the affair reached Apia early, and Moors, always curious of these
spectacles of war, was immediately in the saddle. Near Matafangatele he
met a Manono chief, whom he asked if there were any German dead. "I
think there are about thirty of them knocked over," said he. "Have you
taken their heads?" asked Moors. "Yes," said the chief. "Some foolish
people did it, but I have stopped them. We ought not to cut off their
heads when they do not cut off ours." He was asked what had been done
with the heads. "Two have gone to Mataafa," he replied, "and one is
buried right under where your horse is standing, in a basket wrapped in
tapa." This was afterwards dug up, and I am told on native authority
that, besides the three heads, two ears were taken. Moors next asked the
Manono man how he came to be going away. "The man-of-war is throwing
shells," said he. "When they stopped firing out of the house, we stopped
firing also; so it was as well to scatter when the shells began. We
could have killed all the white men. I wish they had been Tamaseses."
This is an _ex parte_ statement, and I give it for such; but the course
of the affair, and in particular the adventures of Haideln and Hufnagel,
testify to a surprising lack of animosity against the Germans.
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