第 36 节
作者:闪啊闪      更新:2024-08-29 08:48      字数:9321
  expected with an impatience; with a childishness of trust; that can
  hardly be exaggerated。  Months passed; these angel…deliverers still
  delayed to arrive; and the impatience of the natives became changed
  to an ominous irritation。  They have had much experience of being
  deceived; and they began to think they were deceived again。  A
  sudden crop of superstitious stories buzzed about the islands。
  Rivers had come down red; unknown fishes had been taken on the reef
  and found to be marked with menacing runes; a headless lizard
  crawled among chiefs in council; the gods of Upolu and Savaii made
  war by night; they swam the straits to battle; and; defaced by
  dreadful wounds; they had besieged the house of a medical
  missionary。  Readers will remember the portents in mediaeval
  chronicles; or those in JULIUS CAESAR when
  〃Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds
  In ranks and squadrons。〃
  And doubtless such fabrications are; in simple societies; a natural
  expression of discontent; and those who forge; and even those who
  spread them; work towards a conscious purpose。
  Early in January 1891 this period of expectancy was brought to an
  end by the arrival of Conrad Cedarcrantz; chief justice of Samoa。
  The event was hailed with acclamation; and there was much about the
  new official to increase the hopes already entertained。  He was
  seen to be a man of culture and ability; in public; of an excellent
  presence … in private; of a most engaging cordiality。  But there
  was one point; I scarce know whether to say of his character or
  policy; which immediately and disastrously affected public feeling
  in the islands。  He had an aversion; part judicial; part perhaps
  constitutional; to haste; and he announced that; until he should
  have well satisfied his own mind; he should do nothing; that he
  would rather delay all than do aught amiss。  It was impossible to
  hear this without academical approval; impossible to hear it
  without practical alarm。  The natives desired to see activity; they
  desired to see many fair speeches taken on a body of deeds and
  works of benefit。  Fired by the event of the war; filled with
  impossible hopes; they might have welcomed in that hour a ruler of
  the stamp of Brandeis; breathing hurry; perhaps dealing blows。  And
  the chief justice; unconscious of the fleeting opportunity; ripened
  his opinions deliberately in Mulinuu; and had been already the
  better part of half a year in the islands before he went through
  the form of opening his court。  The curtain had risen; there was no
  play。  A reaction; a chill sense of disappointment; passed about
  the island; and intrigue; one moment suspended; was resumed。
  In the Berlin Act; the three Powers recognise; on the threshold;
  〃the independence of the Samoan government; and the free right of
  the natives to elect their chief or king and choose their form of
  government。〃  True; the text continues that; 〃in view of the
  difficulties that surround an election in the present disordered
  condition of the government;〃 Malietoa Laupepa shall be recognised
  as king; 〃unless the three Powers shall by common accord otherwise
  declare。〃  But perhaps few natives have followed it so far; and
  even those who have; were possibly all cast abroad again by the
  next clause: 〃and his successor shall be duly elected according to
  the laws and customs of Samoa。〃  The right to elect; freely given
  in one sentence; was suspended in the next; and a line or so
  further on appeared to be reconveyed by a side…wind。  The reason
  offered for suspension was ludicrously false; in May 1889; when Sir
  Edward Malet moved the matter in the conference; the election of
  Mataafa was not only certain to have been peaceful; it could not
  have been opposed; and behind the English puppet it was easy to
  suspect the hand of Germany。  No one is more swift to smell
  trickery than a Samoan; and the thought; that; under the long;
  bland; benevolent sentences of the Berlin Act; some trickery lay
  lurking; filled him with the breath of opposition。  Laupepa seems
  never to have been a popular king。  Mataafa; on the other hand;
  holds an unrivalled position in the eyes of his fellow…countrymen;
  he was the hero of the war; he had lain with them in the bush; he
  had borne the heat and burthen of the day; they began to claim that
  he should enjoy more largely the fruits of victory; his exclusion
  was believed to be a stroke of German vengeance; his elevation to
  the kingship was looked for as the fitting crown and copestone of
  the Samoan triumph; and but a little after the coming of the chief
  justice; an ominous cry for Mataafa began to arise in the islands。
  It is difficult to see what that official could have done but what
  he did。  He was loyal; as in duty bound; to the treaty and to
  Laupepa; and when the orators of the important and unruly islet of
  Manono demanded to his face a change of kings; he had no choice but
  to refuse them; and (his reproof being unheeded) to suspend the
  meeting。  Whether by any neglect of his own or the mere force of
  circumstance; he failed; however; to secure the sympathy; failed
  even to gain the confidence; of Mataafa。  The latter is not without
  a sense of his own abilities or of the great service he has
  rendered to his native land。  He felt himself neglected; at the
  very moment when the cry for his elevation rang throughout the
  group he thought himself made little of on Mulinuu; and he began to
  weary of his part。  In this humour; he was exposed to a temptation
  which I must try to explain; as best I may be able; to Europeans。
  The bestowal of the great name; Malietoa; is in the power of the
  district of Malie; some seven miles to the westward of Apia。  The
  most noisy and conspicuous supporters of that party are the
  inhabitants of Manono。  Hence in the elaborate; allusive oratory of
  Samoa; Malie is always referred to by the name of PULE (authority)
  as having the power of the name; and Manono by that of AINGA (clan;
  sept; or household) as forming the immediate family of the chief。
  But these; though so important; are only small communities; and
  perhaps the chief numerical force of the Malietoas inhabits the
  island of Savaii。  Savaii has no royal name to bestow; all the five
  being in the gift of different districts of Upolu; but she has the
  weight of numbers; and in these latter days has acquired a certain
  force by the preponderance in her councils of a single man; the
  orator Lauati。  The reader will now understand the peculiar
  significance of a deputation which should embrace Lauati and the
  orators of both Malie and Manono; how it would represent all that
  is most effective on the Malietoa side; and all that is most
  considerable in Samoan politics; except the opposite feudal party
  of the Tupua。  And in the temptation brought to bear on Mataafa;
  even the Tupua was conjoined。  Tamasese was dead。  His followers
  had conceived a not unnatural aversion to all Germans; from which
  only the loyal Brandeis is excepted; and a not unnatural admiration
  for their late successful adversary。  Men of his own blood and
  clan; men whom he had fought in the field; whom he had driven from
  Matautu; who had smitten him back time and again from before the
  rustic bulwarks of Lotoanuu; they approached him hand in hand with
  their ancestral enemies and concurred in the same prayer。  The
  treaty (they argued) was not carried out。  The right to elect their
  king had been granted them; or if that were denied or suspended;
  then the right to elect 〃his successor。〃  They were dissatisfied
  with Laupepa; and claimed; 〃according to the laws and customs of
  Samoa;〃 duly to appoint another。  The orators of Malie declared
  with irritation that their second appointment was alone valid and
  Mataafa the sole Malietoa; the whole body of malcontents named him
  as their choice for king; and they requested him in consequence to
  leave Apia and take up his dwelling in Malie; the name…place of
  Malietoa; a step which may be described; to European ears; as
  placing before the country his candidacy for the crown。
  I do not know when the proposal was first made。  Doubtless the
  disaffection grew slowly; every trifle adding to its force;
  doubtless there lingered for long a willingness to give the new
  government a trial。  The chief justice at least had been nearly
  five months in the country; and the president; Baron Senfft von
  Pilsach; rather more than a month before the mine was sprung。  On
  May 31; 1891; the house of Mataafa was found empty; he and his
  chiefs had vanished from Apia; and; what was worse; three
  prisoners; liberated from the gaol; had accompanied them in their
  secession; two being political offenders; and the third (accused of
  murder) having been perhaps set free by accident。  Although the
  step had been discussed in certain quarters; it took all men by