Becker, indeed, once coquetted with the thought of patronising him; but the project had no sequel, and it stands alone.

In every other juncture of history the German attitude has been the same.

Choose whom you will to be king; when he has failed, choose whom you please to succeed him; when the second fails also, replace the first: upon the one condition, that Mataafa be excluded.

"_Pourvu qu'il sache signer_!"-- an official is said to have thus summed up the qualifications necessary in a Samoan king.

And it was perhaps feared that Mataafa could do no more and might not always do so much.