footing in the family of nations, and send embassies, and make believe to
have a navy, and bark and snap at the heels of the great German Empire.
But Becker could not prevent the hunted Laupepa from taking refuge in any
hole that offered, and he could afford to smile at the fantastic orgie in
the embassy. It was another matter when the Hawaiians approached the
intractable Mataafa, sitting still in his Atua government like Achilles
in his tent, helping neither side, and (as the Germans suspected) keeping
the eggs warm for himself. When the _Kaimiloa_ steamed out of Apia on
this visit, the German war-ship _Adler_ followed at her heels; and
Mataafa was no sooner set down with the embassy than he was summoned and
ordered on board by two German officers. The step is one of those
triumphs of temper which can only be admired. Mataafa is entertaining
the plenipotentiary of a sovereign power in treaty with his own king, and
the captain of a German corvette orders him to quit his guests.

But there was worse to come. I gather that Tamasese was at the time in
the sulks. He had doubtless been promised prompt aid and a prompt
success; he had seen himself surreptitiously helped, privately ordered
about, and publicly disowned; and he was still the king of nothing more
than his own province, and already the second in command of Captain
Brandeis. With the adhesion of some part of his native cabinet, and
behind the back of his white minister, he found means to communicate with
the Hawaiians. A passage on the _Kaimiloa_, a pension, and a home in
Honolulu were the bribes proposed; and he seems to have been tempted. A
day was set for a secret interview. Poor, the Hawaiian secretary, and J.
D. Strong, an American painter attached to the embassy in the surprising
quality of "Government Artist," landed with a Samoan boat's-crew in Aana;
and while the secretary hid himself, according to agreement, in the
outlying home of an English settler, the artist (ostensibly bent on
photography) entered the headquarters of the rebel king. It was a great