The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-05-16
A SAMOAN IDYL.

The following sad story was told by
the Captain of the Tropic Breeze, recently
returned from Samoa, to reporter of
the San Francisco Examiner; "Some three
miles back of tho village of Mlagagi,
which itself lies about two miles from
Apia, and has been the scene of some of
the hardest fighting, there is plantation
of considerable extent, owned by the
Hamburg Planting and Trading Com
pany. The work on this plantation, like
most of the others, is done mainly by
slaves--for the system of contract labor
is little better than slavery-imported
from the Gilbert Islands and others of the
South Sea groups. The superintendent,
or oversecr, of this plantation had for
clerk and general assistant young Ger
man, Fritz Eberlein by name. Fritz was
of the finest type of Tcutonic manhood.
Tall, we'll formed and athletic, with curly
blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and not
more than six and twenty years of age,
it was small wonder that he was not only
looked upon with favor by the resident
European maidens of Apia, but by their
duskv sisters of the interior of the island
as well. Nor is it great wonder that dur
ing the brief course of the year that he
had been absent from his native land
young Eberlem, as his duties did not
permit of his visiting the European settle
mcnts as frequently as he might have de-
sired, had cast his eyes upon fair feminine
objects nearer home upon whom to lavish
the wealth of his youthful affections.
"Now it so CHANGED that in the little
neighboring hamlet of Ugogo there dwelt
a chieftain of the second rank called
Matautele, who has since been strongly
identified the with legitimist party of Ma
taafa. This chief had an only daughter,
Luauna by name, still in her teens, whose
attractions of form and feature, supple
mented as they were by such articles of
European fnery as the purse of her father
could afford or her feminine fancy could
suggest, rendered her an object of envy
to the female portion of the community
and of admiration to the male. The
course of his duties sometimes carried
Fritz to the hamlet of Ugogo, which lay
on the outskirts of the plantation,
powered in the tropical verdure of bread
trees, mangoes and cocoanut palms. Dur
ing one of these visits his eyes fell on
the fair Luauna as she sat in circle of
native maidens before her fathers hut,
weaving that wonderful paper-like tissue
from the inrer bark of the mulberry tree,
for which the Samoans are famous, and
which, when colored by pigments OBJ
tanned by grinding the many-hued and
friable pebbles on the beach, constitutes
the main portion of the apparel of the
islanders. Luauna, too, cast her eyes
upon the well-knit and handsome figure
OF the young German as he passed, and
on the natural principle that beings of
diverse compilations and characteristics
attracts each other, reciprocal Sentiment
sprang up simultaneously in the breasts
of both. From that time it became
noticeable that his duties called Fritz
more frequently to the hamlet of Ugogo
than was apparently necessary in the in
terests of the plantation, and frequently
OF an evening, when the cares of the day
were over, the dulcet tones of his flute
might be heard, borne by the tropical
zephyrs that famed the outrageous
foliage around the hut of the Chieftain
Matautele.
'But it must not be supposed that
Fritz had it all his own way in the court
ship of the dusky object of his affections.
Maidens of the rank and beauty of the
fair Luauna never lack retinue of ad-
mirers, and prominent among these, in
this instance, was a young Samoan of the
name of Nanomo. Prior to the advent of
Fritz, Nanomo had been the chosen of
Luauna's heart, and it is easy to under
stand the fierce jealousy and intense ha-
tired which ranked in the young barbar-
ian's heart as he witnessed the success of
his rival in weaving away the object of
his early love. Whenever Fritz made his
appearance at the hut of Matautele he
would lind Nanomo there, and when Fritz
was welcomed, as he always was, by the
enchanting smile and the disclosure of the
pearly teeth of the Samoan beauty. Ma
mono would get up from his recumbent
posture at her feet, and, with ominous
mutterings and grinding teeth, would
vanish swiftly into the thicket. Fritz,
at the same time, seemed utterly uncon-
scious of the sentiments with which he
was regarded, and he no doubt was really
ignorant of the relations formerly exist
ing between the couple. Thus matters
went on for two or three months, till
things finally came to head in a very
tragical, if not altogether unexpected
manner.
About the middle of December last the
hostilities which had been hitherto pretty
well confined, so far as the Germans were
concerned, to the coast and the more
immediate neighborhood of Apia, began
to spread into the interior. The Chief
tain Matautele was, like the more con-
sentative class of the Samoans, a stanch
adherent of the exiled Malietoa, and
naturally lent his support to the cause of
Mataafa as against the rebel pretender,
Tamasese, who was the protege of the
Germans. One day detachment of Ger
man marines appeared at the plantation,
accompanied by considerable force of
the insurgent natives, report having
been circulated to the effect that Ma
taafa's followers were massing in force in
the vicinity of Ugogo. A stockade was
thrown up and preparations made for
defensive and offensive fighting, if the
latter were deemed advisable. Of course
Fritz Eberiein, having been trained, like
all his countrymen, in the profession Of
arms, took an active part in the prepare
tons, and was assigned to subordinate
command. he now found himself in the
unpleasant predicament of being arrayed
in hostile fashion against the followers Of
Matautele, with whom he had always
hitherto been upon the friendIest terms
and of being called upon, lat any moment
to fight against the people of the girl hi
loved. Duty, however, called him, ant
there was no course but to answer tn,
call. t5.4r
1.-TWO days after this the neighborhoot
of the plantation and the hamlet of Ugo
80 was the scene of one of those barba
rous and deadly conflicts between tn
rival native forces, in which quarter i