FIERCE HURRICANE IN SAMOA.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 281, 2 April 1889, Page 2

FIERCE HURRICANE IN SAMOA.

SIX MEN OF WAR WRECKED. TERRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE. TWO BARQUES AND NUMEROUS SMALL CRAFT LOST. [from our special edition, Saturday, march 30th, 1889.1 Apia (Samoa), March 16. In the midst o£ a terrible hurricane which occurred to-day, six out of the seven warships in port were lost, being the— NIPSIC, VANDALIA, AND TRENTON And three German men-of-war, the— OLGA EBER AND ADLER The Trenton is Admiral Kimberley’s (American) flagship. The Americans lost 4 officers and 46 men. The Germans 9 officers and 87 men. Two iron barques and eleven coasting vessels were driven ashore, bringing the

TOTAL LOSS OF HUMAN LIFE UP TO ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY.

All the vessels during the hurricane endeavored to steam out to the open sea, but the storm was too strong for any of them to get out of the harbour, save the British cruiser Calliope (Captain Kane), which succeeded in effecting a passage to the ocean right in the the teeth of a fearful gale. The majority of those who were saved got on shore after being twentyfour hours on the spars and rigging. As the Calliope passed the Trenton, on her way out, the Americans gave the former's crew three cheers, though they did not have sufficient power to make headway themselves. The townspeople of Apia were on the beach during the most of the night, lending what assistance they could, but the sea was too rough to launch boats.

Not another vessel that was in Apia Harbor at the time of the hurricane escaped, but the Calliope, and nearly all are total wrecks.

The Calliope returned after being two days out, but has since proceeded to Sydney. The other ill-fated vessels, though with all possible powers down, were blown on shore, numbers being washed overboard. The shores are strewn with wreckage for miles around.

LATER.

SCENE AT SAMOA. THE "FAT LION” WAKES UP. Auckland, Saturday. . The news created a great sensation x n Auckland when it first became known upon the arrival of the mail steamer, which calls in at Apia on her way from San Francisco. The information was immediately cabled to America, Germany, and England. Yesterday. The scene of the disasters was a pitiable one. The vessels, which only a short time before looked so powerful and grand, appeared to be completely at the mercy of the raging tempest, with the exception of the Calliope. The Eber was the first to come to grief, the casualties being as previously stated.

The Adler came next, and the Olga and the Nipsic collided. The Vandalia is believed also to have come into collision; at any rate she sunk, the captain being among those who were drowned. The Nipsic and the Trenton grounded. The townspeople and natives rendered great assistance, and many remarkable instances of bravery and self sacrifice can be cited, but are best left until fuller details can be given. Numerous lives were lost from among the natives, owing to the plucky way in which they went to the rescue. All feelings of animosity seem to have been dispelled by the calamity that has occurred, and every possible help is being accorded to the shipwrecked people. Large numbers of wounded are under treatment, and some apprehension is felt as to whether the supplies of food will hold out.

The natives were greatly impressed with the cleverness of Captain Kane, in getting his vessel out of danger. They recently had a saying that “ the lion was too fat—it slept too much,” but now they say he must have one eye open all the time, or his boat could not have triumphed over all the others as she did.

A San Francisco paper recently published an account of the preparations for the despatch of the new American man of-war Charleston to Apia. It said :—“ Taken as a whole the armament is far more formidable than anything the Germans have in in the neighborhood of Samoa, and will render the Charleston fit to cope with the entire fleet now there. ”

HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED ABROAD. HIGH COMPLIMENTS TO CAPTAIN KANE. London, April 1, The news of the affair has caused a great sensation in America, Germany, and England, and the general impression appears to be that the Samoan difficulty has been set at rest with a very unpleasant sequel, and it is admitted that it was not wise to run such an enormous risk over so insignificant an object. Captain Kane is highly complimented on having got hie vessel safely away. Assistance is to be sent immediately to afford relief and see what possibility there is of recovering lost property.

The Samoan Islands are not subject to these hurricanes although they have I what are called " blows " every year. The worst time of the year for these are the months of December, January, , February and March, the latter month being generally considered the most boisterous) In 1850 a hurrioano visL

ted Apia and wrecked two ships and a schooner which were at anchor in the harbor. For 15 years nothing be yond the ordinary gales were felt, when in February 1865, a dreaiful hurricane again took place in which a barque at Apia was wrecked, and the Island of Manano laid almost bare. Since that time there has been nothing to equal the present hurricane, though several of the islands in the group have been affected by local storms. Samoa abounds in beautiful harbors.

VARIOUS NOTES.

Our readers must be fully acquainted with the circumstances that led to the number of German and American men-of-war being at Samoa, and also of the subsequent proceedings. On the 19th of January a state of war for the Samoan Islands and martial law were proclaimed, and it was announced that the police ot Apia would act under the instructions of the German Government, and that all offenders against German martial law, of every nationality, would be punished. It was also announced that all vessels would be searched for countraband ot war. This proclamation came together with the counter proclamations of the British Consul, announcing that all British subjects were solely under the jurisdiction of her Majesty the Queen, and under his authority as her Majesty’s representative. Strict neutality was at the same time enjoyed by the consul. Then came again a counter-proclamation from Commandant Fritzs, of the Adler, saying:—“ I herewith declarethat all British subjects in Samoa are under martial law, and that they will be tried by martial law if they should interfere in any way with thq German authorities.” The vice-consul of the United States was more guarded than the British Consul in his proclamation. He in substance stated that ■0 long as American citizens remained noncombatants they would be entitled to personal immunity and protection. Both consuls also notified their people that they should not furnish the natives with firearms, and that they should deliver a record at the consulates of what firearms and ammunition they had in their possessions. The British Consul also notified all masters ot vessels that they should permit their vessels to be searched for Contraband of war. Tbs Uoited States Vice-Consul did not do so, however, as the United States neither permits its vessels to be searched nor claims the right to search the vessels of other nationalities in war time, Subsequently the Germans desisted from their tactios, and when the hurricane took place there was a state ol armed inaction at Samoa.

The likely causes of the change of base by the Germans were variously put down, but among them are the following Tho foreign opposition given to the peculiar attempts to enforce martial law ; the exoited and decisive stand taken by the United States ; the approaching conference at (Berlin ; and lastly, and most weighty, the insuffioiency of the German forces in Apia. The declaration of war was made against Mataafa and his people. That declaration has never been withdrawn, and, if the Germans had sufficient foroes in the harbor of Apia, Mataafa would have been attacked long before this, and Tamaseae again put upon the throne, or rather, be established in Apia. The Olga is the German vessel to which Mr Gelling was taken, when he was arrested. He was seized while he was having a bath aboard the Richmond, but was subsequently released.

The Vandalia, commanded by Captain Schoonmaker, of the U.S. Navy, arrived at Apia on Saturday, the 23rd of February. She is an old-fashioned loosely-constructed ship, and appeared clothed in a sorrowful gray color, having been sent out of the Navy yard before she had been repainted, owing to pressure ot Samoan affairs. She left San Francisco on the 21st of January. Commander Fritzs had charge ot the German vessels in harbor.

A GLIMPSE OF APIAN LIFE. The Special Commissioner of the Sydney Mail writes a nice description of lite in Apia, and it has a special interest just at the present time ARRIVAL IN HARBOR. As the engines of the steamer in which I am cruising stopped off Apia, there run out towards us from the different men-ot-war boats bringing to us officers ot different nations, a lieutenant of the Calliope (I had seen him often in Sydney), a lieutenant from the Olga, one from the Adler and Ebor, and one from the Nipsic, all dressed in snowy white, with a little gold braid showing. They are after their mails, and soon there is a gay scene on board the Lubeck, and exchanges of courtesies, as if England, Germany, and the United Sta tes had sent their vessels out here with messages of goodwill to each other. But I have not time to think much about that, and after a promise to the English lieutenant to Board the Calliope, I find my way ashore, and, after stowing away my traps, start out to find the British Consul. Thera was no difficulty. I walked towards Matauta Point, passing scores of natives on the way in Sabbath costume, which was more remarkable for its brilliancy than for its liberality. It was hot, terrifically hot. Some of the natives have an ingenious way of screening themselves. They walk along in twos, holding above their heads a piece of colored calico, blue being the favorite color, which the gentle breeze catching causes to float out behind them like a horizontal sail, keeping them cool—a kind of portable marquee. But a great many of them had also umbrellas. It was a new sensation to see a human being with a simple lava lava about his loins marching along with a fashionable unbrella over his head aud eating a banana. Sometimes one met a native girl dressed in full European costume, or rather in a kind ol loose dress known among us as *' Mother Hubbard," and a more or less aristocraticlooking bat and parasol. And some of these girls were singularly beautiful. One I turned to look at as she passed, such beauty and grace had she. Women do not walk more gracefully at court than this girl walked. I saw her under different circumstances another day, and in another costume, more cool and limited, for she was " The Maid of the Village,” and she was the central figure in a Siva, or native dance, which was got up for my benefit. What “ The Maid of the Village ’’ is I shall explain later.

GETTING ACCUSTOMED TO BEING SHOCKED. One gets over being shacked in Apia very quickly, just as one gets used to the nude in ' an art gallery if one has any foolish shrinkinge at first. For on crossing the little river , I spoke of before, that runs into the sea, I saw bathing in it just above the bridge a half soore of dusky maidens innocent of lava lava, or Mother Hubbard, or umbrella, or anything else. You cannot flee from this sort of thing in Apia. The next day, in the interior, the same thing occurred in crossing the same river. No ; you begin to train your mind to Edenio conditions, and by and bye you wonder why it Is you don’t go in a lava lava yourself, and what in the world you want boots and a tailor for, and why yon don’t wear, instead of a shirt and collar, and silk tie, and gold chronometer, a simple hybicus flower behind one ear, a cigarette

behind the other, and a lia of Pandanus buds and blossoms about your neck. It wouldn’t take a ereat deal to make most of us savages, I fancy, if we lived in Samoa ; were it not for the love of gold. I oould quite understand the pictures drawn by Raleigh and Prescott, and Humboldt, of white men wearied with civilisation set tling down among the dark races of the West Indies and Central and South America, and becoming children of nature simply, forgetting their own language and obliterating all their past habits and life. Impossible, say many of my readers. I doubt the impossibility. I have talked with a couple of most intelligent missionaries on this subjeot, and even they, practical and narrow as they are, admitted that the step from civilisation to heathendom could be easily taken ; that fight as we will, we are creatures more or less of surroundings and circumstances, and that civilisation in man must be matured and kept alive by civilised things, or he lapses—slowly lapses into—What I What ? That pulls one up with a start; for, stiff and unnatural, and cruel, and selfish, and machine-made, as much that bears the name civilised is, it it) after all, nearer tho heart of the Great Plan than—well, than the life of the natives el a*moa< Oae sees the combination of the

two lives here ; and, if I mistake not, that is tho one that of the three that commends itself least; though I must say that those white men who h ive married Samoan women seem to be happy. Still one feels a slight shock when one sees in a Eur >pean house and surroundings half caste children in native costume—or rather native lack of costume. It is the sharp contrast that occurs when the two lives are sought to be amalgamated th it thus numbs one. To see one’s children cullivating native customs while one ie bringing them up in European houses would cause some anxiety, I should think. Imagine the child of a white man taking part in a Siva I Beholding natives so does not cause an unpleasant sensation, nor is one neoeesarily pained, because they know nobotter—they are following the customs of centuries, and, more than all, they are the slaves of hereditary instincts. TOO MUCH VIGOUR. I marched on my way with considerable vigour, too much vigour for so hot a climate, but a vigour that even Sydney heat in three years has not been able to take away from me altogether. It was an unusual thing in-Apia, however, to see a man walking as it ho had business, and looking round as it he wanted to take in the character of the plane for future war operations or attack. lam not sure that the white men did not regard ma with suspicion, and lam certain tho natives looked upon the “ black Papalangi ” —yes, they called me black, the scoundrels, those “ rod niggers ” called me black—as a curiosity. I became aware finally that I had only one lifetime to spend, and that it would pay me to conserve my energies, so I pulled up beneath a spreading palm and looked round. Bat I am sure that the inhabitants ol Apia regarded me as a disturbing element of their life. What business had a man to move about as ii he had work to do, and make a labour living, particularly when he was, Said himself, “ simply looking rounds,* taking notes ” ? The road by which I nW come along the beaoh was very narrow-* what would be called in rural places “a onto path. ” Wagons oould not pass each other; but wbat,need of wagons in Samoa I Who wants to go anywhere except to church, to the beaoh, or down to one of tho seven saloons to get a drink I Nay, who wants to go so far as that ? So it happens that a majority of people say their prayers and take their drinks at home. Gin is cheap in Samoa 1 —German gin. It is the cheapest thing there except cocoa-nuts and bananas and yams end 1 taro end bread fruit. Ido not know whet its quality is like, but I fancy it la not very ' destructive, as I only saw one men drunk iu ' Apie, but he was disputatively, hlatorioally) and oratorioally drunk. I imagine his oon> [ etitution wasn't strong. I regret to say ho was a countrymen of mine. He insisted on ' quarrelling with me about his osrn brother* in-law, who to a Premier, Privy Councillor) ‘ and all that sort of thing. It pained him to ’ think that I had sat at his brotber-in law's 3 table. It pained me that his feet were Mt ' under that Mahogany now, for he Wes * > clever fellow, and ho needed looking after.

ax THE CONSULATE. I finally rounded Mataula Point, and called at the British Consulate, one of tho best houses in Apia, and having a boautifni sea frontage, I found tho Consul, or Deputy Commissioner as he is called, and his wire hospitable and kind, and from them and tho navy officers who were there I got tho most interesting information regarding tho native* and the fight at Valili. The front of the Consulate had been given up for hospital purposes, and there many a poor beggar had been nursed back to live beneath sympa> thetic eyes and kindly hands.