Malietoa

“ To subdue the ardour of the more impetuous amongst his people, Malietoa issued the following proclamation to the Chiefs of Samoa:
"Chiefs,—I call upon you to keep quiet, and not to entertain foolish fears, for the English Consul, W. Powell, has assured me that in a short [Pg 141] time Samoa will be once more united under the Government of Malietoa, for England does not undertake anything which she does not carry through; and all that England undertakes she does carry through. What Germany does, on the other hand, is merely commenced, and is not concluded. ”

“ German residents there wanted control of trade, and stirred up a rebellion against the High Chief, or King, Malietoa. They took the side of Tamasese, a pretender to the throne. On a pretext that property belonging to Germans—some pigs and some cocoanuts—had been stolen by Malietoa's men, they declared war against him, and finally made him give himself up to them to save his people from slaughter. He was deported to Africa, and later to Germany. The Samoans would not have Tamasese for King, and practically the entire nation rallied around Mataafa, who succeeded Malietoa. ”

“ He was on the beach that night in the exercise of his profession. If he was with Malietoa’s men, which is the real gist of his offence, we who are not Germans may surely ask, Why not? On what ground is Malietoa a rebel? The Germans have not conquered Samoa that I ever heard of; they are there on treaty like their neighbours, and Dr. Knappe himself (in the eyes of justice) is no more than the one-sixth part of the town council of Apia. Lastly, Mr. Klein’s innocence stands very clearly proven by the openness with which he declared his presence. ”

“ When the district after that time united to raise war it was called the lifting of the Le'ale'a club of Malietoa; and all the Faasaleleanga people rose and followed wherever Malietoa and the club preceded.
(1.) Sapapalii is the name of the principal settlement of the Malietoa families, and had its origin in one of family heads called Papalii. The celebrated le'ale'a club disappeared about the time when this chief lived, but the deeds and dynasty passed on to posterity. ”

“ Malietoa was to be deposed for a piece of solemn and offensive trickery, and the man selected to replace him was his sole partner and accomplice in the act. For so strange a choice, good ground must have existed; but it remains conjectural: some supposing Mataafa scratched as too independent; others that Tamasese had indeed betrayed Laupepa, and his new advancement was the price of his treachery.
So these two chiefs began to change places like the scales of a balance, one down, the other up. ”

“ A convention was, indeed, signed at Berlin in 1889 under which the Samoan Islands were declared to be independent neutral territory, Great Britain, Germany, and the United States to have equal rights, and the King Malietoa, who was a strong opponent of German claims, was again recognised as King.
Matiafa, who had been stirred into insurrection for their own purposes by the Germans, now supported Malietoa, who received a vociferous welcome from the Samoans on his return to Apia in his regal capacity. ”

“ And the chief Malietoa, [22] coming into the presence of Mrs. Williams, cried:
"Alas, Williamu, Williamu, our father, our father! He has turned his face from us! We shall never see him more! He that brought us the good word of Salvation is gone! O cruel heathen, they know not what they did! How great a man they have destroyed!"
John Williams, the torch-bearer of the Pacific, whom the brown men loved, the great pioneer, who dared death on the grey beach of Erromanga, sounds a morning bugle-call to us, a Reveillè to our slumbering camps ”

“ Malietoa Tanu protested against this disposition of his kingdom, and also addressed a letter to the London "Times," in which he asserted that the civilization which had been introduced by the foreign governments into Polynesia was inferior to that which its inhabitants previously possessed. ”

“ I was then engaged in making a trip along the north coast, visiting almost every village, and making arrangements for the purchase of the coming crop of copra (dried coco-nut) . I was everywhere well received by both Malietoa's people and the rebels, but did but little business. The natives were too occupied in fighting to devote much time to husking and drying coco-nuts, except when they wanted to get money to buy arms and ammunition.
My boat's crew consisted of four natives of Savage Island (Niué) , many of whom are settled in Samoa, where they have ample employment as boatmen and seamen. ”

“ The German firm. And who got the land? Other natives. To twist such a decision into evidence, either of a prejudice against Samoans or a partiality to whites, is to keep one eye shut and have the other bandaged.
And lastly, one word as to the future. Laupepa and Mataafa stand over against each other, rivals with no third competitor. They may be said to hold the great name of Malietoa in commission; each has borne the style, each exercised the authority, of a Samoan king ”

“ But so much is plain: that while Becker was thus outwardly straining decency in the interest of Tamasese, he was privately intriguing, or pretending to intrigue, with Mataafa. In his despatch of the 11th, he had given an extended criticism of that chieftain, whom he depicts as very dark and artful; and while admitting that his assumption of the name of Malietoa might raise him up followers, predicted that he could not make an orderly government or support himself long in sole power “without very energetic foreign help.” Of what help was the consul thinking? ”

“ The friends had not to part at once. Tamate [Pg 87] stayed some days in the island, but he was so busy seeing people and speaking that there was not much time for story-telling. Twenty-four years before this, after the ship-wreck at Savage Island, he had landed at Samoa with nothing except the clothes he wore. He had made friends there as he always did, and now many of them, as well as others who had only heard of him before, wished to see him.
A great open-air meeting was held. Hundreds and hundreds of native men and women gathered to listen to him and to their own King Malietoa. ”

“ The most noisy and conspicuous supporters of that party are the inhabitants of Manono. Hence in the elaborate, allusive oratory of Samoa, Malie is always referred to by the name of Pule (authority) as having the power of the name, and Manono by that of Ainga (clan, sept, or household) as forming the immediate family of the chief. But these, though so important, are only small communities; and perhaps the chief numerical force of the Malietoas inhabits the island of Savaii. Savaii has no royal name to bestow, all the five being in the gift of different districts of Upolu ”

“ And the man? Felisi had visions on that score. Day by day she waited on tenterhooks for him to descend on the Royal bar—as she had learnt in her mekes (dances) that the hillsmen of old descended on the beach dwellers—and carry off Miss Smith in spite of herself, in spite of all, whatever that might be. But nothing of the sort happened in modern Malita. Instead, he was seen emerging from a low-down rival of the Royal's, and laughing a raucous farewell to his new-found friends as he mounted his Tongan pony unsteadily and cantered off into the darkness. ”

“ It was one of the first orders issued by the government of Mulinuu after the coming of the chief justice, to have the passage cleared. It is the disgrace of Mataafa that the thing is not yet done.
The village of Malie is the scene of prosperity and peace. In a very good account of a visit there, published in the Australasian, the writer describes it to be fortified; she must have been deceived by the appearance of some pig walls on the shore. There is no fortification, no parade of war. I understand that from one to five hundred fighting men are always within reach ”

“ The land is all part of Malietsie’s location, and patches of tillage and an occasional cluster of huts gave it a habitable air. The native girls wear thick rings of brass round their necks, which gives them a straight figure and a high carriage of the head, pleasant to see in a place where people slouch habitually. Malietsie’s is one of those Basuto tribes which are scattered over the North Transvaal—not the best type of native, for they are credulous and idle in their raw state, and when Christianised and dwelling near mission-stations, incorrigibly lazy and deceitful. ”

“ A Florida Vunagi kept order in his place, directed the common operations and industries, represented his people with strangers, presided at sacrifices and led in war. He inflicted fines, and would order any one to be put to death. At Saa in Malanta the chief, Maelaha, is such by virtue of descent, a remarkable difference existing in many points between this people and Melanesians generally; the people work in his gardens, plant for him, build a house or canoe for him at his word. He inflicts fines, and can order a man to be put to death. ”

“ From a ledge high up on the volcanic rock we looked down on our pygmy world—the bandbox bungalow, the pathetic square of black dots that had once been a banana patch, the landing like a centipede thrusting its body into the fair face of the Pacific. "It's not a bad old spot, you know," mused Tomlin sentimentally. His words echoed the thoughts in each one of our minds. Malita was very dear now that she was slipping from us.
"If we can only stick it out a day or two," Rands suggested, "we might be able to slip down in the night and vamose in the launch. ”

“ We coasted down the shore of Malaita, a great hulk of mountainous woods 110 miles long, beautiful and forbidding. When I had covered the Solomons in 1921 a convenient hurricane had beaten us away from the shore. This island held a horrid fascination. Twelve years ago no white man had dared the interior jungles, and there was still little knowledge of its wild hill tribes. The splendid black Malaitamen were good workers, when you could get them. ”

“ Presently the watchers heard Te Karearea's voice raised in a shout of savage triumph. 'Mataika! Mataika!' he yelled, and, grasping a young Arawa chief by the hair with his left hand, dashed out the man's brains with a single blow of the heavy club in his right. 'Mataika!' he yelled again. 'Ki au te Mataika!' and, brandishing the blood-stained mere, dashed into the midst of the foe.
'Is that his battle-cry?' called Terence from behind his tree.
'No. The first to be killed in a fight is called the Mataika,' explained George. ”

“ The northern and more Polynesian half of this double archipelago was matrilinear (inheriting through the mother) while the negroid folk of the south were patrilinear (inheriting from the father’s side) . Among the bearded natives of Malekula the wives were squaws, while their lords slept with rifles and bottles of toddy. Women were forbidden the men’s sacred enclosure. A true man cooked for himself and never let female hands defile his food.
Women had their value, however. On one island off Malekula I watched native boats every morning, being shoved off ”

“ The Matabili who had conducted them proved to be a chief, and if he gave any order, it was instantly obeyed; so that our travelers had no trouble with the natives except their begging and praying for snuff, which was incessant, both from the men and women. Neither did they fear any treachery from the Matabili king, as they were well armed, and the Griquas were brave men, and the superiority of their weapons made them a match for a large force. Every precaution, however, was taken when they halted at night, which they invariably did in the center of an open plain, to prevent any surprise ”

“ The launch left Malita the next morning, manned by its owner, Tomlin, and Rands, and, after waving it farewell from the landing, Webb and I returned to the bungalow in pensive silence. We both knew that we were a couple of old fools, who had been carried away in a weak moment by a full glass and the contagious enthusiasm of youth. We both knew that at that moment we would have cheerfully given what little we possessed to be able to hail the launch and cry off. Also, we both knew that it was too late. "How will they do it?" I ventured to suggest at lunch. "Force?" ”

“ He calls his party at Malie the government,—“our government,”—but he pays his taxes to the government at Mulinuu. He takes ground like a king; he has steadily and blandly refused to obey all orders as to his own movements or behaviour; but upon requisition he sends offenders to be tried under the chief justice.
We have here a problem of conduct, and what seems 166 an image of inconsistency, very hard at the first sight to be solved by any European. Plainly Mataafa does not act at random. ”

“ It has been said in Chapters V and VI that there is not known in these Islands of Melanesia any initiation or 'making of young men'; there is only the entrance into the various societies. The nearest approach to such initiation seems to be found at Saa. A chief's son in that part of Malanta goes early to the oha, canoe-house and public hall, while common children still eat and sleep at home ”

“ Early the next morning all the chiefs, mata- booles, and warriors of Neafoo, painted and de- corated themselves with streamers, and put on mats, in token of Finow's inferiority as a rela- tion to his aunt Toe Oomoo, chief of the for- tress of Felletoa. They took spears in their hands, and, thus equipped, marched out of Neafoo, two and two, with Finow at their head, carrying with them presents for their relations in the opposite garrison. In this order they entered Felletoa, and proceeded to the maldi, where all the chiefs and matabooles of Toe Oomoo were seated ready to receive them. ”