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Samoa Under the Sailing Gods

I

I

It is probably for little more than two centuries that Samoa has known us sailing gods. The first ship ever seen, was off the coast of Upolu. From the horizon one day she emerged—square-rigged we may assume—and gleaming sail after gleaming sail mounted above the rim of blue.

For those aboard—whoever they were—the island must have appeared very much as it does to-day. A somewhat narrow mountainous mass about forty-five miles in length and rising to heights of between three and four thousand feet, covered with dense bush running down to the sea, that has been well described as lending the appearance of "a rough green carpet thrown over the whole surface—a carpet fringed with white surf on reef or iron-bound coast." Then, as now, the brown, humped, dark-interiored houses of the natives would have grouped in loose clusters beneath the fringe of spindly palms that denotes the occupied land along the seaboard; only then there would have been no occasional trading-stations interspersed among them. But of this we have no account.

Of what happened ashore, however, legend has taken record. It was assumed, perhaps rightly, that a cataclysm had befallen. "Papalangi!" cried the onlookers in dismay, as the bellying sails continued to approach. "Papalangi!"—"The clouds are broken! The clouds are broken!" And papalangi—or the heaven-burster—is the white man called to this day in Samoa.

The new-comers—the discoverers of a kingdom, whoever they may have been—came not ashore, but stood on and off for awhile; and the wondering crowd who now lined the beach, page 10or who to obtain a better view climbed the tall coconut-palms, watched, it is said, with intense interest the motions of the mysterious ship as she remained sailing about at some little distance from the land.

"'What can it be? Whence does it come? What does the strange thing contain?' were among the many questions asked … as they looked on in astonishment upon the strange visitor before them. It was generally felt that it must be an arrival from the spirit-land, and that it would be well to propitiate the gods supposed to be on board by offerings of food. Such were speedily placed along the beach, in the shape of O le Matini, or offerings to the gods, and petitions offered, praying the supposed spiritual visitors to be satisfied with the offerings presented; but, if they had come to take away men for food or sacrifice, that they would mercifully spare them, and go further to other settlements, where the population was greater."1

After a time, some of the more courageous among the Samoans ventured off to the ship in their canoes; and great was their astonishment at the masts so tall and straight, the caverns beneath the decks, and the strange beings speaking an unknown tongue, who had no toes unto their feet, and pouches in their skins in which they were accustomed to dispose of various articles. The visitors to the ship returned ashore to describe their astonishment at these things, and they concluded, from portions of a carcass—probably that of a smoked pig—they had seen hanging up, that the new-comers were man-eaters: whence, it is suggested, they endeavoured to hasten the vessel's departure. The means adopted are not on record. Shortly after, the ship resumed her silent way along the coast of Upolu, and vanished thence as mysteriously as she had come.

1 J. B. Stair.