He calls his party at Malie the government,--"our government,"-- but he pays his taxes to the government at Mulinuu.

He takes ground like a king; he has steadily and blandly refused to obey all orders as to his own movements or behaviour; but upon requisition he sends offenders to be tried under the chief justice.
We have here a problem of conduct, and what seems an image of inconsistency, very hard at the first sight to be solved by any European.
Plainly Mataafa does not act at random.

Plainly, in the depths of his Samoan mind, he regards his attitude as regular and constitutional.

It may be unexpected, it may be inauspicious, it may be undesirable; but he thinks it--and perhaps it is--in full accordance with those "laws and customs of Samoa" ignorantly invoked by the draughtsmen of the Berlin Act.

The point is worth an effort of comprehension; a man's life may yet depend upon it.