He returned (November 1889) to a changed world.

The Tupua party was reduced to sue for peace, Brandeis was withdrawn, Tamasese was dying obscurely of a broken heart; the German flag no longer waved over the capital; and over all the islands one figure stood supreme.

During Laupepa's absence this man had succeeded him in all his honours and titles, in tenfold more than all his power and popularity.

He was the idol of the whole nation but the rump of the Tamaseses, and of these he was already the secret admiration.

In his position there was but one weak point,--that he had even been tacitly excluded by the Germans.