Part 32 (1/2)

DEAR SIR:

Your letter of 26th March has been forwarded to me from Samoa. I relinquished the Administration when Civil Government was established there.

The Chief whose funeral you saw was TAMASESE, a son of the late King Tamasese.... MATAAFA, the son of King Mataafa, died in the influenza epidemic in 1918 and I dug his grave with my own hands, everyone working hard to avoid a pestilence.

The Chief TAMASESE was made much of by the Germans when they were in Samoa, was taken a trip to Berlin but was not allowed to visit England.

He remained pro-German to the end; one of the few Samoans who did so.

On his death-bed Tamasese remembered a promise made to his deceased father (he said the spirit of his father appeared to him and reproached him) that he would bring the late King's bones to the family burying place and he could not die in peace until this was done. I was approached in the matter and at once sent a Government launch with the family party to get the bones, and they were put in a coffin and buried in the family ground. This done, Tamasese pa.s.sed away in peace in a very short time.

You are probably aware that when Tamasese's body was lying in state the hair was sprinkled with gold dust and a German crown made of white flowers was placed on the coffin. The widow had a Samoan house built alongside the tomb on the Mulinuu peninsula and lived in it for some months in spite of the stench which came from the tomb. She died in the influenza epidemic in 1918, having in the meantime named one of the native Samoan judges.

I am sorry the information I can give you is so meagre, but I have not my records here as yet.

Yours faithfully, ROBERT LOGAN, Colonel.

Weycroft, Axminster, Devon, England, 13th July, 1921.

B

DEAR MR. GREENBIE:

Your letter of Feb. 20th was forwarded on to me here, and reached me yesterday.

I regret that I cannot tell you definitely as to the celebration held in Samoa in 1915, in honor of the late ”King”; I returned to Samoa in 1917 after an absence of some years, and heard nothing of it. I think, however, that the celebration must have been for Mataafa, as the natives told you that the deceased Chief had been the favorite of Mataafa.

Stevenson rather despised Laupepa who although an amiable man and the rightful King, was of feeble character, and when broken up by the suffering and indignity of his deportation by the Germans, weakly ceded the throne to Mataafa out of grat.i.tude for the stand taken by the latter on his behalf during the years of his exile.

My own conviction is that, had R. L. S. lived a few years longer, he would have realized that his champions.h.i.+p of Mataafa was a mistake, and precipitated the very event he wished to avoid--the German rule in Samoa.

Very sincerely yours, ----------

C

Apia, Samoa, October 5th, 1904.

A. M. Sutherland, Esq., San Francisco, U.S.A.

DEAR SIR:

The kind invitation extended to me by the members of the ”Stevenson Fellows.h.i.+p” through your welcome letter or the 17th August, 1904, has been received by me with great delight. I thank you and the Committee from the bottom of my heart for remembering me, and for including my name in the long list of friends whom Tusitala has left behind to mourn his irreparable loss. I would have very much liked to be present and meet you all on this fitting occasion, but the fact is, my health and old age will not permit me to cross the vast waters over to America. So I send you many greetings wis.h.i.+ng the ”Stevenson Fellows.h.i.+p” every success on the 13th November next. And whilst you are celebrating this memorable day in America, we shall even celebrate it in Samoa. It is true that I, like yourselves, revere the memory of Tusitala. Though the strong hand of Death has removed him from our midst, yet the remembrance of his many humane acts, let alone his literary career, will never be forgotten. That household name, Tusitala, is as euphonious to our Samoan ears as much as the name Stevenson is pleasing to all other European friends and admirers. Tusitala was born a hero, and he died a hero among men. He was a man of his word, but a man of deeds not words. When first I saw Tusitala he addressed me and said: ”Samoa is a beautiful country.