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A Footnote to History-Part2_ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON(1850-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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the average of man. Seated in islands very rich in food, the



idleness of the many idle would scarce matter; and the provinces

might continue to bestow their names among rival pretenders, and



fall into war and enjoy that a while, and drop into peace and enjoy

that, in a manner highly to be envied. But the condition - that



they should be let alone - is now no longer possible. More than a

hundred years ago, and following closely on the heels of Cook, an



irregular invasion of adventurers began to swarm about the isles of

the Pacific. The seven sleepers of Polynesia stand, still but half



aroused, in the midst of the century of competition. And the

island races, comparable to a shopful of crockery launched upon the



stream of time, now fall to make their desperatevoyage among pots

of brass and adamant.



Apia, the port and mart, is the seat of the political sickness of

Samoa. At the foot of a peaked, woody mountain, the coast makes a



deep indent, roughly semicircular. In front the barrier reef is

broken by the fresh water of the streams; if the swell be from the



north, it enters almost without diminution; and the war-ships roll

dizzily at their moorings, and along the fringing coral which



follows the configuration of the beach, the surf breaks with a

continuous uproar. In wild weather, as the world knows, the roads



are untenable. Along the whole shore, which is everywhere green

and level and overlooked by inland mountain-tops, the town lies



drawn out in strings and clusters. The western horn is Mulinuu,

the eastern, Matautu; and from one to the other of these extremes,



I ask the reader to walk. He will find more of the history of

Samoa spread before his eyes in that excursion, than has yet been



collected in the blue-books or the white-books of the world.

Mulinuu (where the walk is to begin) is a flat, wind-swept



promontory, planted with palms, backed against a swamp of

mangroves, and occupied by a rather miserable village. The reader



is informed that this is the proper residence of the Samoan kings;

he will be the more surprised to observe a board set up, and to



read that this historic village is the property of the German firm.

But these boards, which are among the commonest features of the



landscape, may be rather taken to imply that the claim has been

disputed. A little farther east he skirts the stores, offices, and



barracks of the firm itself. Thence he will pass through Matafele,

the one really town-like portion of this long string of villages,



by German bars and stores and the German consulate; and reach the

Catholic mission and cathedralstanding by the mouth of a small



river. The bridge which crosses here (bridge of Mulivai) is a

frontier; behind is Matafele; beyond, Apia proper; behind, Germans



are supreme; beyond, with but few exceptions, all is Anglo-Saxon.

Here the reader will go forward past the stores of Mr. Moors



(American) and Messrs. MacArthur (English); past the English

mission, the office of the English newspaper, the English church,



and the old American consulate, till he reaches the mouth of a

larger river, the Vaisingano. Beyond, in Matautu, his way takes



him in the shade of many trees and by scattered dwellings, and

presently brings him beside a great range of offices, the place and



the monument of a German who fought the German firm during his

life. His house (now he is dead) remains pointed like a discharged



cannon at the citadel of his old enemies. Fitly enough, it is at

present leased and occupied by Englishmen. A little farther, and



the reader gains the eastern flanking angle of the bay, where

stands the pilot-house and signal-post, and whence he can see, on



the line of the main coast of the island, the British and the new

American consulates.



The course of his walk will have been enlivened by a considerable

to and fro of pleasure and business. He will have encountered many



varieties of whites, - sailors, merchants, clerks, priests,

Protestant missionaries in their pith helmets, and the nondescript



hangers-on of any island beach. And the sailors are sometimes in

considerable force; but not the residents. He will think at times



there are more signboards than men to own them. It may chance it




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