VII

The traders of the largest of the Samoa islands are still known as "Savaii Squires"; but even in 1856 the origin of the custom has long been lost. Towards the end of that year an Englishman named William Fox, who traded at Salailua on the south-west coast of Savaii, was murdered. He was of good repute; the murder, the work of a young chief belonging to the village of Sagone, was both wanton and deliberate. It was promptly avenged, in accordance with Samoan custom, by the people of Salailua, who took the life of a leading Sagone native. The English and American Consuls at Apia, however, proceeded immediately to Savaii. The younger Pritchard was now British Consul. But being unable to obtain the "squire's" murderer they departed, having spoken these words:

"We make no threats; our words are few. We ask for the murderer. We cannot get him. We depart. By and by you will feel a great earthquake shake the island; your mountains will be rent asunder; all around you will be tottering, falling to the ground. Then you may think of the murdered white man, and say, 'They come, they come for the murderer.'"

"But how will you get him? You never got the chief who murdered the white man a long time ago," replied Sagone's spokesman: a remark having reference to a chief of Savaii whom Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition attempted, and failed, to capture about the beginning of 1840.

For two years this latest crime went unpunished, and the prestige of the white man, according to British Consul Trood, sank, throughout the archipelago, to the lowest. At last, in 1859, H.M.S. Cordelia paid a punitive visit to Savaii, obtained the murderer, tried him, hanged him from her yard-arm, and returned the body to his relatives, neatly coffined for burial. The effect of this procedure is said to have been very marked.

The story is told to this day in Savaii, that shortly before the execution the white missionary from Gagaemalae, a village adjoining Salailua, went off to the warship in his boat page 72and pleaded for the life of the Samoan. "Return at eight o'clock to-morrow morning, and I will give you my reply," responded Captain Vernon. At five minutes to eight, as the mission-boat was pulling across the lagoon, the Samoan was seen to swing from the yard-arm.