These fresh hostile acts showed him that the worst had come.
He was in strength, his force posted along the whole front of the
mountain behind Apia, Matautu occupied, the Siumu road lined up to the
houses of the town with warriors passionate for war. The occasion was
unique, and there is no doubt that he designed to seize it. The same day
of this bombardment, he sent word bidding all English and Americans wear
a black band upon their arm, so that his men should recognise and spare
them. The hint was taken, and the band worn for a continuance of days.
To have refused would have been insane; but to consent was unhappily to
feed the resentment of the Germans by a fresh sign of intelligence with
their enemies, and to widen the breach between the races by a fresh and a
scarce pardonable mark of their division. The same day again the Germans
repeated one of their earlier offences by firing on a boat within the
harbour. Times were changed; they were now at war and in peril, the
rigour of military advantage might well be seized by them and pardoned by
others; but it so chanced that the bullets flew about the ears of Captain
Hand, and that commander is said to have been insatiable of apologies.
The affair, besides, had a deplorable effect on the inhabitants.
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