The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-02-21


"Cook and eat me if it please you. when
/ the defeated warrior had been dstin-
guished for cruelty he was pretty sure to
he roasted. One is reminded of the plays
de COckdyae in Rabelais, where roasted
turkeys ran around with knives and
forks sticking in their back.
The Samoans formerly had the tabu
and other usages, many of them cruel,
of the old Polynesian religion; but they
are all numinally converted, some thirty
thousand of them protesting Protestan-
tism, while the Catholics have gathered
in the remainder, II will hardly do to
inquire too closely into the character of
the conversions, says the critics of mis-
sions; but the same remark may be made
of more civilized churches. Il do not
want any more church-members," cried
a good Connecticut parson; 81 want a
great deal better ones"
The civiIizing and Christianizing of
the Samoan people have produced their
usual effect upon the race, and this, 1
need not remind my reader, is not a con
servative one. For the Poly there
is absolutely no middle term between
ChristiaDiz alton and extinction, The
decay OF the people is the uniform result
in every group in which the experiment
has been tried and this result is the more
complete in proportion as the Christian
izatlon is the more thorough. | have
myself seen the Hawaiian population
decline some twenty per cent, within
as many years, under the best Influences
nf schools and churches, and this was
not mainly from disease, but from the
''infertility due to changed conditions,
OF which Darwin has investigated so
thoroughly. In Samoa the decline of
the race is Just now being more rapidly
preciDitated than evel by war, which is
essenli Ally, if not professedly. one of in
vasion.
For twenty years the commercial in-
terest of the group were mainly center
| ed in the hands of a German trading
Company. the GOdeffroys, of Hamburg,
| formerly called 1.-The South Sea Kings.
1t is thronght tbeir. influence that the pro-
| ia It of the German acquisition of Samoa.
| a favorite scheme with Bismark twenty
years ago, has so nearly attained its ac-
complishment. The Godeffroys traded
for many years with eight or ten of the
remote Pacific groups, as far to the West
as the Carolines and the New Hebrides,
and had almost monopoly over an
ocean area equal to the whole of North
and South America together. lt is cur
ious to discover in New Zealand blue
book, printed by authority at yelling
ton, some details of the way in which
these shrewd traders managed their bust
ness in SimOa and elsewhere in 4 Z
Pacific, Their manager employed foI
the most part English or American
agents and sailors who have ran wild IN
those seas for years; and before employ
ing them he put the following questions;
1 "Can you speak the languger 2. Can
you live among the natives without quar-
reing with them?' "Can you keeT
your mouth shut?' / e. concerning
your employers business when you are
among white mem; and 4. Have you a
woman of your own, no matter from
what island; for a trader without a
woman is in eternal hot water" These
questions satisfactorily answered, the
candidate falls into his place as an ami
mated cog il the vast machine of the
Godeffroy commerce. Their head-quar-
ters. ship yard, chief plantations, and
ther commodious harbOr are still n
Samoa, on the island Apia. They send
their vessels to sea with sealed orders,
40 that no one on board knows
whittier they are bound until, in pre-.
scribed latitude, the captain breaks open
his Instructions in the presence OF his
mate. They impose this further cOpdi
tions upon all their traders: GIVE nc
assistance to missionaries, either by
word or deed, beyond what common hu-
manity demands; but on the contrary,
where ever you may find them, use your
best influence with the natives to OBJ
struct and to exclude them" The ex-
plantations of this is, that in many parts
of the Pacific the natives are still con-
tent to sell their goods "for blue beads,
tomahawks and tobacco but the mis-
sionaries instruct them to demand pay
ment in clothing and in coin. Thus,
during the past thirty years, an intense
jealousy has existed between the mis-
sionaries and the ''kings of The Pacific. "
The commercial element is slowly, how
ever, gaining mastery in Samoa, In spite
of the failure of the GOdeffroys, few
years ago, for not less than five million
dollars.
1t is no small prize that German COM
merce, in conjunction with German po-
litical ambition, is bent upon grasping,
Samoa has been called "the gem OF the
Pacifc;" but any one who. like myself,
has seen more than one of those enchant-
ing groups, will not readily decide be-
tween the rival claims of these regions
The South Sea Island remind one of the
estate which was thus described by the
famous and poetic George Robinson:
There are but two drawbacks to this
delightful property the litter of the
rose leaves and the noise of the nightin-
gales" 1t must, however, be admitted
that flies and mosquitoes are trouble
some in Samoa. The romantic valleys
are filled with the most fertil soil, in
which all of the leading tropical pro-
ducts can be proftably cultivated, and
the harbor of Pago.Pago is one OF the
finest land-locked harbors in the Pacific
Ocean or in the world. The climate is
delicious, its only fault being that it is
little too warm during Ojtober, Novem-
her and December, the summer months.
In this respect it fails to compare, as,in-
deed, every other tropical climate fails
to compare, with the unequaled temper
atures of the Hawaiian Islands, where it
is never nearly so hot as hot day In
July or August with us, and of course,
never 80 cold. But Samoa, like the
other South Sea Islands, is one of the
healthiesl of places.
The patriotic Samoan, however, must
feel about his country in her present
crisis as the poet felt when he sang:
"what care how fair she be,
If she be not fair for me!'
The existing troubles in Samoa, what.
ever may be their immediate result, can
not fail to hasten the extinction OF
most interesting people.-1itus Nun
son Codn, IN NeiC York Independent.