Samoa Under the Sailing Gods
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A son of Mr. Pritchard, the British Consul, reached Samoa in 1848. In this year war broke out, the first for many years, except for minor wars between the Christian and "Devil's" parties in extreme Eastern Samoa, recorded by Wilkes.
As a result of the last big war—that which had brought Malietoa to power—political supremacy was claimed by Manono, and the district of Tuamasaga. With the tiny island of Manono, the large island of Savaii was closely allied. Atua and Aana had the status of conquered districts. Both of these provinces, as well as Tuamasaga, are in Upolu. Political supremacy is called Le Malo.
Thus, explained Pritchard, Manono claimed the Malo, and plundered and oppressed Aana and Atua. Under the teachings of the missionaries, the Aana natives were outstripping their countrymen in an incipient "civilization." The dignity of the Malo could not brook these flourishing prospects of their conquered neighbours, and oppression was made more keen by repeated demands for property and for food. Still Aana, with its active missionaries, flourished. "There more coco-nut oil was made, more calico, more hatchets, more of all the white man's articles which a Samoan covets, were bartered than in all the other districts of the group together." The Malo resolved to put a stop to these innovations.
Believing the Malo to be preparing for an attack, Aana left their lands and settlements and fled in a body to Atua, in the east of Upolu, where they were welcomed. The deserted lands of Aana were then devastated by Manono, and the tenantless houses destroyed.
The invasion of Atua was then attempted. Manono, joined by Savaii and Tuamasaga, attacked Aana and Atua in the latter district, and were repulsed. They retreated to Tuamasaga, and selected Mulinuu, on the western point of the harbour of Apia, for head-quarters, which they duly fortified after native style. Again the Malo attacked the "rebels" and retired to Mulinuu.
Women who are related to opposing parties in Samoa, may pass in time of war from one camp to another, without let or hindrance: and "as is proverbially the case with the sex all the world over, they divulge the secrets of both parties." So when Atua and Aana were preparing to move their encampment from Atua to Matautu, which forms the eastern side of the harbour of Apia, and is where the Pilot Station now stands, the Manono party, who occupied Mulinuu, its western point, were duly notified by women from the Atua camp. But they took no measures to defeat the accomplishment of the design.
"This is a truly Samoan custom. A movement of this kind is allowed to be quietly executed. In fact, the custom seems to be for the party who moved or attacked last to leave the next move or attack to be initiated by the other party. One fine morning we woke up in Apia, the white man's settlement, and found one side of the harbour occupied by Aana and Atua, and the other side occupied by Manono and Savaii, each party having about 3,000 men."
The settlement being thus between two fires, old Mr. Pritchard, as British Consul, and at the request of the foreign residents, took such measures as he could to protect their persons when any fighting might be going on. The Consulate was barricaded with empty casks, three tiers deep and two high. Bullets penetrated the outer tier and expended themselves in the second. "Whenever a fight was about to take place—and there was generally timely warning—the whites and their families assembled in the Consulate, and there, under shelter of these old casks and the Union Jack, thought themselves out of harm's way."
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A Samoan War-Canoe
After various skirmishes the seat of war shifted to Mulifanua, the western extremity of Upolu and separated from Manono by a strait of three miles: the whole being encircled by a reef which gave the combatants smooth water and ample room for fighting in boats and canoes. Here an American—Eli Jennings—whose wife was related to some of the great Aana chiefs, built for the Aana party two boats, each over one hundred and twenty feet long, which he had fastened together by a deck, with the two hulls thirty-five feet apart.
"In the centre of this deck was a large paddle-wheel, turned by a crank, at which fifteen or twenty men worked at a time—propelling the boat at about four miles an hour in light winds. Around the deck a barricade of coco-nut logs and bamboos was erected, ten feet high, and partially covered in one head. To each of the four prows was fixed a piece of pointed iron, extending forwards six feet, just under water. The armament consisted of four nine-pounders and four cannonades."
This craft carried three hundred men. To cope with her the Manono party, aided by Tongan refugees from religious persecution, built three large double canoes after the Tongan model, capable of conveying one hundred and fifty men each, and on these were erected barricades of coco-nut logs and bamboos. The canoes also were armed with cannon. There were some sensational but inconclusive naval engagements.
This war, says Pritchard, was unpopular with the Samoans, for, as they observed, the victory was not won by the arm strongest in wielding the club or parrying the spear; a youth only just tattooed could, with a musket, shoot the most powerful and daring warrior. The war, none the less, dragged on sporadically for about nine years.
Pritchard, in one of the intervals of peace, saw two chiefs in single combat. In every village, he said, where there were two rival chiefs, if one took to the lotu, the other would generally give himself up to the opposite course—or attach himself to a rival religion. If one became a Protestant, the other would become a Roman Catholic, if he embraced any creed at all. The quarrel had its origin in this.