The San Francisco call., 1899-07-01

. 4
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ntzed as the Provisional Government
by the three Consuls, were preserving
order among the natives and had ex-
pressed their willingness to do so pend
ing the settlement of their troubles by
the powers. Admiral Keutz however,
did not take this view, and this differ
ence Of opinion led to very bitter feel
ing between the two, which became
intensified to a marked degree when
the admiral began to ignore the Amer
lean and confer with the British COM
manders instead,
After several conferences between
the admiral, Captain Sturdee of the
Porpoise and the commander Of the
Royalist, in which British Consul
Maxse who has the credit Of being the
disturbing element here, usually took
part, letter was sent to Mataafa on
March Is, calling upon him to dis
perse his men or bOmbardment would
be commenced at / D. m. that day. No
notice, however. was given to the pub
lie, not even to the Consuls, and the at
tack when it came created a veritable
panic on shore
On receipt Of the admiraIs letter
Mataafa, ii is claimed, at once pre-
pared TO withdraw farther down the
coast, but after several of his boats had
put out to sea some distance to the
west Of Apia, the warships opened fire
on them, the Philadelphia leading off.
The Porpotse Immediately followed. In
explanation of this Anglo British alli-
ance, the naval men said that the
Mataafa party We're coming to attack
Mulinuu, but appearances indicate
that they We're going in an opposite di-
rectiOn. The Mataafans say that they
were withdrawing down the western
coast in compliance with the admiral's
letter, and this would seem most likely,
as no one can seriously claim that
half a dozen rowboats full of natives
would attack three warships and a
thousand or more armed men on shore
with machine guns. None of the ma
tive boats were struck at this time, and
the natives quickly put in TO shore and
vanished into the thick bush. The
boats, however, were destroyed by the
warships soon after they were aban-
dOned.
But the victory was not complete
Down at the east end of the harbOr a
guard was stationed at the American
Consulate. The American Consul did
not want a guard, being on friendly
terms with all Of the natives, but he
was protected in spite Of himself
When the firing commenced eight or
ten Mataafa men started down the road
from the east toward the Consulate to
inquire what all of the noise was about
Consul Osborn says they were friends
of his. We're not fighting men and he
was preparing to receive them, hav-
ing seen them at a distance coming
toward the Consulate. The Philadel-
phias gunners also saw them, and at
once shot and shell were whistling dan
gerously near to the Consul's residence
One shell exploded just behind the
building and came very near wrecking
it and killing everybody inside of it.
The rear veranda, on which the Con-
sui and his family take their meals and
which they had left but a short time
before, was literally torn to pieces, the
outbuildings were riddled with frag-
ments of shell and Private Nudge of
the United States marines. who was
stationed in the Consulate yard, was so
severely wounded that he died a few
days afterward. And right here it may
be stated as a somewhat curious fact
that several hundred shells were hurled
around among the frightened people of
Apia during the war and this marine
was the only person killed by any of
them. Not Mataafa man was hit.
The firing continued, and the shells
coming dangerously near to the Con-
sulate, Osborn procured a boat and got
his family out of danger. though they
all had narrow escapes. Consul Osborn
also assisted in getting the wounded
marine off TO one of the ships. as he
was fast bleeding to death The ma
tives, of course, scampered back into
the bush as soon as they saw that they
were being fired at. None Of them
fired a shot, and the sensational ac-
counts published at the time that these
men were about to attack the Amer
lean Consulate are pronounced here to
be ridiculous.
The efforts of Consul Osborn seem to
have been directed toward a peaceful
settlement of the troubles long before
Admiral Kautz arrived here. Before
Judge Chambers rendered his famous
protocol decision in the kingship case,
q proclamation was taken to Osborn by
Chambers, Sturdee and Maxse, which
they had prepared for his Endorsement,
but Osborn refused to sign it, claiming
that it was intended to precipitate a
war. and would undoubtedly do so if is
sued There was a very spirited argu-
ment had at this time over the procla-
nation and the issues at stake. The
Englishmen were anxious to fight, and
Lieutenant Cave of the Porpoise con-
temptuously remarked that he could
take twenty English bluejackets and
conquer the whole rebel force in
twenty-four hours. Osborn told him he
couldn't take two thousand English
bluejackets and conquer them in