New-York tribune., 1900-12-23
REQ.
A NAPOLEON OF SAMOAN FINANCE.

A NAPOLEON OF SAMOAN FINANCE.
Louis Becke in The Pail Mall Gazette
REQ was a short. squat Malay, with a face like
skate, barring his eyes, which were long, mar
row sliis. apparently expressing nothing but in =
difference to the world in general. But they
would light up sometimes with merry twinkle.
when the old rogue would narrate some of his
past Villanies
He came to Samoa in the old days. long before
treaties and Imperial Commissioners and other
gilded vanities were dreamt OF by us poor. hard
working traders. He seemed to have dropped
from the sky when one afternoon, as Tom Den
lson and some of his friends sat on Charley the
russians veranda drinking lager. he marched
up to them, sat down on the steps and said
Good evening"
Hello" said SchIuter, the skipper of the Anna
Goddefroy. Who are you? Where do you
come frOm?''
He waved a short, stumpy and black clay pipe
10 ana FRO, and replied vaguely. "Oh, from some
where
Some one laughed surmising, correctly enough.
that he had run away from ship Then they
remembered that no vessel had even touched at
Apia for a month. Later on he told DenisOn that
he had jumped overheard from Bakers Island
guanoman as she was running down the coast
and swan ashore, landing at point twenty
miles distant from Apia. The natives in the
various villages had given him food so when he
reached the town he was not hungry.
What do you want. anyway" asked SchIuter.
some tobacco please And dollar or two. l
can pay you back"
'When?' said Hamilton, the pilot incredu-
lously
The pipe described semicircle "Oh. to-mor-
row night; before perhaps"
They gave him some tobacco and matches and
four Bolivian iron half dollars He got up and
went across to VOlkner's combined store and
grOS Shanty over the way.
He's gone to buy a bottle of square face -
said Hamilton.
He deserves it," said DenisOn gloOmily. "A
man of his age who could jump overheard and
swim ashore to this rotten country should be
presented with of sin-and a knife to cut
his throat with after he has finished it,"
fcD inr1TaG old faJTo o,,t
or EolkneTs store, carrying two three stout
fishing lines. several packets of hooks and half
dozen ship biscuits. He grinned as he passed
the group on the Veranda. and then. Squatting
down on the sward near by. began TO uncoiI the
lines and bend on the hooks. Denison was in
terested. went over to him. and watched the
swift. skilful manner in which the thin brown
fingers worked.
Where are you going to fish," he inquired.
The broad. fiat face lit up. "Outsi1e in the
dam deep Water-siXty, eighty, fa'am-'
Denison left him. and went aboard the ancient
cockroach infested craft of which he the
heartbroken supercargO. Half an hour later
REQ padded past the schooner in a wretched
old canoe, whose outrgger was so insecurely
fastened that ii threatened to come adrift every
instant The cid man grinned he recognized
Denlson; then, pipe in mouth, he went boldly
out through the passage between the lines of
roaring surf into the tumbling blue beyond
At 10 o'clock just the supercargO and the
skipper were taking their last nip before turn
ing in. the ancient slipped quietly alongside in
his canoe and clambered on deck. In his right
about twenty pounds. Laying it down the
deck he pointed TO it.
Plenty more in canoe like that You want
some more?''
Denison went to the side and looked over
The canoe was lOa ed down to the gunwale with
the weight of fsh-fsh that the lazy loafing
Apian natives caught but rarely. The old man
passed up two or three more. took glass of
grog and padded ashore
Next morning he repaid the borrowed money
and showed Denison S15-the result of his first
nights work in Samoa. The saloonkeepers and
other white people said he was treasure. Fish
in Apia were dear and hard TO get.
on the following Sunday a marriage process
sion entered the Rarotongan Chapel in Mata-
fele. and TarreO (OtherWise 'ReO) was united tO
one Of the pTettiest and least dsreputabIe native
girls in the town. whose parents recognized
that REQ was likely to prove an eminently
lucrative and squeezable son-in-law. Denison
was best man, and gave the bride a fve-dollar
gold piece (haVing previously made a private
arrangement with the bridegroom that he was
TO receive value for it IN fish.
'Reo's wife's relatives built the newly married
couple house on Matautu Point and REQ spent
SD in giving the brides local connections a
feast. Then the news spread and cousins and