Omaha daily bee., 1888-12-08
oTHERIFNDS THAN orRs

which was formerly known as Navigators'
Islands, the chief one being Tutuila, which
has an excellent harbor called Pango Paugo
by the Samoans. In 1872 the chiefs of TIT
tuila requested the United States through
Commodore Mead to assume the protcctorate
over this island aAd harbor, which the United
States consented 70 do, and sent an agent to
confer with the chiefs of all the islands and
show them the hecessity of extending the
prOtectorate over the whole group This
was in 1915. But the Polynesian natives
with the frvolity and changeableness of
their race had in the meantime determined
TO elect king. and the special agent of the
United States became his prime minister. 1t
is quite clean that the American nation can
not insist upon a pr6tectorate which the
Samoans desire to abrogate. The Germans
have stepped in, and have assumed the pro-
tectoratc but they are conquerlng people
which we are not, and will not be. Some
very silly attempts have been made to de.
fend Secretary Bayard, who has blundered
as usual, for he like all southerners is always
agog for foreign conquest and the nation will
not hear of them. The Dominican republic
is eager for United States protectors ate, but
we have persistently refused. That indeed
should be most valuable acquisition, but
we do not want to enlarge our border. We
have no ground of complaint against the Ger.
mans, who have treated Americans in Samoa
with more than courtesy. with real friendli-
ness, and 1t is out of the power of any south
ern demagogue to make ANY political capital
out of Samoa.
To the average American reader the one
great port of Japan is Yokohama, but there
is another port which has become more or
less familiar, and that is Kobe, from which
various shipments of coal have been made to
San Francisco during the recent coal famine.
An American Journal published in Japan
the Japan Herald-has been studying the
statistics of the two ports; and has come to
the conclusion that Kobe will be in the
future the great port of the F'lowery King
dom. In ten years its foreign trade has
grown more than 100 per cent, while the
foreign trade of Yokohama has only grown
80 per cent. But the comparisons for the
last year are still more striking, for the total
trade of Yokohama for eight months of 1883
is about two-thirds the amount for the whole
year of 1885, showing no gains, whilst that
of Kobe for the same period is greater tnan
the total for the whole year of 1887, showing
gam in single year of 33 per cent. Kobe
has already diverted from Yokohama much
some of the silk business. If, in addition,
there should be developed a traffic between
Tacoma and Kobe of coal and petroleum,
Kobe furnishing the Pacific slope with coal
and Tacoma furnishing Japan with oil from
the wells of Wyoming, Kobe would at once
far outstrlp Yokohama, in spite of its vicinity
to the capital Toxic. Kobe is, so to sneak,
the port for the great cities of Osaka and
Kioto, and,commands the trade of central
Japan, so that it is well situated for the
petroleum business.
Signor Lanciani who has been for years
the director of excavations at Rome for the
Italian government and the city authorities,
is profound archHologist, and therefore his
book entitled "Ancient Rome has been re-
ceived by the Italians with great applause.
1t IS an account of his labors, explaining
fully and clearly the importance of the re-
suits, some of which were wholly unlocked
for. Hitherto nothing has been really found |
prior to the time at which Servus Tullius, |
the first of of the Etruscan kings of Rome is |
supposed to have lived. Such of the archaic |
as have been unearthed from |
time to time have been ascribed to him,
though perhaps he never existed, for it is ad-
mitted that the earlier books of Lvy and par
everything relating to the Etruscan |
dynasty in Rome, are all to be regarded with |
the utmost suspicion. Signor Lanciani has |
new archaeological stratum, to- |
tally unknown before and antedating all the |
monuments ascribed to Servius Tullius. THIS |
is a metropolis or cemetery, from which have |
been taken some 5000 archaic specimens III |
bronze, amber, stone and terra Gotta AS |
this bronze is made not of copper and tin, |
but of copper, lead, zinc and antimony, it is |
certain that 1t was of Etruscan manufacture,
since the secret of making hard bronze and |
more particularly bronze with cutting edge |
was unknown to every nation save the pre- |
historic Ph9nlcians who sold cutlery of this |
kind to the Egyptians of Memphis.
~
During the present week the blockade es- |
tablished by the English and German ma |
tions along the coast of Zanzibar goes into
force. This, of course, is aimed at the Bel |
gian and Portuguese traders who have been |
supplying the coast people with arms and re-
ceiving slaves in payment. OF these prac-
tices, there is now no doubt whatever The |
position of the German government is
mixed. A liberal in the reichstag
declared emphaticaly that he was opposed
to negro slavery, but that he would oppose
all measures for putting down slavery in
Central Africa until slavery is abolished
along the coast aud under the very shadow
Of the German flag. When questioned as to |
his meaning, he declared that he had infor-
nation with regard to the German colonists
near the coast which reflected disgrace upon
the German nation, IL true. He was cred |
IDLY informed that the colonists reduced
their hired servants to u condition of abject |
slavery, claiming them at nighttime to pre-
vent them from escaping or from joining in !
the revolt against the Germans. It seems
that this vile inhumanity was the cause of
|
of German property III the differ
emit stations and in the ports along the In
dian ocean. The two fortified harbors of |
Minengani and Tunghi We're abandoned by
The Germans and have since been burned by |
the natives, and the whole country is dis
Lurbed. The English bishop of Equatorial
Africa has officially recommended that all |
English missionaries be withdrawn, which
looks as ii the potentate of Ugunda had
really joined hands with the mahds sue
ceSSor.
~
The English are in peck of trouble over
,he situation in Egypt. There is now no
onger any doubt that the Mahdi has done
to the Nile which has essentially
lowered its stream, so that not only has there
ocen no inundation, but the great irrigating
litches have remained dry. Sir Samuel
Baker is of opinion that the great tributary,
Atbara, which rises in Western Abyssinia,
las been turned. He says that it could easily
DO done, and that the government at Khar-
oum knows enough to do it, and has In the
Soudanese abundance of strong arms that
would accomplish anything he ordered
Other travellers III Eastern Africa support
Sir Samuel Bakers hypothesis, and one
lsserts that the probable point where the de-
lection has been made is near Kassala,