At least, this is not fair dealing; and the next instance I
have to give is possibly worse. For one blunder the chief justice is
only so far responsible, in that he was not present where it seems he
should have been, when it was made. He had nothing to do with the silly
proscription of the Mataafas; he has always disliked the measure; and it
occurred to him at last that he might get rid of this dangerous absurdity
and at the same time reap a further advantage. Let Mataafa leave Malie
for any other district in Samoa; it should be construed as an act of
submission and the confiscation and proscription instantly recalled. This
was certainly well devised; the government escaped from their own false
position, and by the same stroke lowered the prestige of their
adversaries. But unhappily the chief justice did not put all his eggs in
one basket. Concurrently with these negotiations he began again to move
the captain of one of the war-ships to shell the rebel village; the
captain, conceiving the extremity wholly unjustified, not only refused
these instances, but more or less publicly complained of their being
made; the matter came to the knowledge of the white resident who was at
that time playing the part of intermediary with Malie; and he, in natural
anger and disgust, withdrew from the negotiation.
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