Trawling through the Making of America archive of 19th and early 20th century books and periodicals has turned up a number of short articles relating to Samoa. The journals in the collection are quite an eclectic mix and so you will find news, opinion and background information presented here.

The first article from 1874 is quite interesting because it shows that at the time there was a desire amongst certain people in the U.S. not to become involved in the affairs of Samoa. Contrast this with the views expressed in the February 1899 article from Overland Monthly and Out West magazine which promotes the view of increasing American presence in the Pacific, in light of the Philipine War. Finally the article from the December 1899 issue of Catholic World declares the partition of Samoa to be the most important national event of the month.

"A dreadful rumor," says the Christian Union, "comes from the ends of the earth that the Navigator Islands desire the protection of the United States. Do the inhabitants of those islands imagine we have no rights that islanders are bound to respect? Haven't we the Indians, the Mormons, the Ku-klux, the carpet-baggers, and the inflationists, on our hands? Do the inhabitants of the Navigator group know how many government employes are required to keep us in order, and how few are the remaining intelligent citizens from whom new officials can be drawn to make us equal to new responsibilities? If they unmercifully refuse to have'no' for an answer, one hope will yet be ours-we can send them an assortment of taxbills, with a Louisianian or a South-Carolinian to explain their meaning."

Advices from the Navigator Islands state that Colonel Steenberger, United States Commissioner, was cordially received by the natives, who adopted a constitution framed by Colonel Steenberger, making the monarch elective for a term of four years, to alternate between the two old families of kings, Malieloa and Topua. A representative of the former family has been elected as first king. Colonel Steenberger was chosen prime minister for life, and has accepted the position.

The Pa-pa-lo-lo-a Falls are situated on Vin Sugane River, about two miles from the harbor of Apia, into which it empties.

There is a legend told by the natives that many years ago a certain devil made this place his abode and lay in waiting for the unsuspecting or venturesome native.

When the spray from the falls could be seen on the mountain side, with a rainbow across it, the natives would say, "The devil is drinking."

There was once a beautiful "Taupo" maid of the village, daughter of a high chief of Samoa, who was so accomplished that none could compare with her. In the water she was the envy of all the other maids.

The people of her village had looked in vain for a bridegroom of suitable rank.

There came a handsome stranger, brave in war and skilled in all crafts. He was of lowly birth and without lands. He was enamored of the maid, and she looked on him with favor in spite of the protests of her people.

"Is he not poor? Where are his fine mats? Where are his pigs and his chickens? He has nothing."

She would not give him up. She was forbidden to see him, and he was banished from the village.

At the falls there was a cave in which they secretly met. This cave they had discovered. It was reached by diving down fifteen feet to an entrance in the face of the cliff. Through this they swam to the surface, until they found themselves in a beautiful cave that was lighted from a fissure in the roof rocks, high over their heads. As time passed, however, the old women of the village became suspicious at the frequent absence of the maid, and told the chief, who placed two of his best men as watchers over her. When she stole away to meet her lover, they followed and caught her in her lover's arms. They set upon him with their clubs, but he killed them both. They lived happily in their cave, venturing out only at night, when the devils are abroad and the natives dare not come forth.

Now, the devil was much enraged at the intrusion of the lovers into his hiding place. Straightway he assumed the shape of a monster eel. While the maid was asleep one night, and in the absence of her lover, who had gone to the beach in quest of "lea," a native salad of seaweed, of which she was very fond, the devil attacked and killed her. Her lover returned only in time to catch the devil devouring his victim. With a strength born of rage and despair, he tore a huge rock from the wall of the cave and dashed the eel to atoms. And when he saw his love was dead he ended his own life by dashing himself against the rocky side of the cave.

Many years afterward one of the maid's brothers, while bathing in the pool, discovered the entrance to the cave. On one of the two skeletons he discovered his sister's necklace and rings.

The fine face of a Samoan girl, shown in Mr. J. D. Strong's painting reproduced as a frontispiece, calls up one of the most curious customs of the people of that tropic group of islands. A Tapo is a maiden, chosen, sometimes from her childhood, to be the representative of her village. She wears the fine mats that are the pride of the community,-sometimes so many of them that it is quite burdensome. She leads the warriors in battle, never being hurt by the enemy except by accident, and conducts all the ceremonial processions.

She presides over the village guest house, and welcomes strangers to its hospitalities. She chews the kava root for the favorite drink, without which no transaction is completed and no social function properly observed. Withal she must be entirely circumspect; for envious rivals wait a chance to depose her from her high honor, - and she holds her position until a marriage is arranged for her by the "talking men," who consider an advantageous alliance for the village, rather than the wishes of the Tapo. We should go on and say something of Mr. Strong and his fine work in South Sea painting, had we not in preparation an article about him in our series on local artists.

It is probable that before long the unsettled problems of the Samoan Islands will press for adjustment on lines that shall be fair and equitable to the various opposing interests there, but more particularly to the native inhabitants of this beautiful and fertile group. The present tripartite government of the United States, England, and Germany, with its frequent clashes of authority, is unsatisfactory to all concerned.

The desire of the German Government to possess these islands has never been concealed, while the repugnance of the natives to German rule has been made equally plain.

In 1877, and again in 1884, petitions signed by forty-eight of the high chiefs were sent to the British Government, begging it to take Samoa under its protection; but - were refused. Encouraged by the refusal, Germany stepped in, and in 1889 was only prevented by the fear of an Anglo-American coalition from seizing the islands. Our interests there were not great at that time; but recent occurrences in the Pacific have made it especially undesirable that any European power should force its rule on islands so near as these to Hawaii. It is not certain that our own rule would be wholly acceptable to the Samoans, though there is no doubt about their preference when Germany is in question. The Samoans have not the barbaric traits which have been so freely ascribed by the "piebalds" to the Filipinos; they are a brave, generous people, kindhearted and intelligent, and capable of a high civilization. At the time of the great hurricane they risked their lives, and in some cases lost them, to save our drowning sailors. We can trust the present administration to conserve our interests in Samoa, and to prevent the German eagle from laying eggs in the American bird's nest.

The Samoan trouble simmers down to just this: The people by an overwhelming majority want Mataafa for king. By a mere fiction of the law the Chief-Justice, who is an American, sets aside a great man, as men go among the native Samoans, for a mere boy. The legal fiction is, when the Berlin Treaty was made Bismarck had it tacitly understood (it was not incorporated into the treaty) that Mataafa, because of some disregard of German interests, should never be recognized as king. The German consul is just now the one who supports him. It seems very evident that the religious question has entered into the decision. Mataafa is a good Catholic, while the boy who is de jure king is a scholar in a missionary school. The great American principle of permitting the people to rule through their duly chosen representative is violated, and the support of the American and English government is given to a child who is practically under the thumb of the Bible societies.

It lends a mournful interest to Mrs. Rose-Soley's article on Vailima to read in the recent dispatches that the house has been destroyed. Not only had the Samoan savages looted and despoiled it, but later, it is said, a shell from the Philadelphia completely wrecked the building. It is consoling to know, however, that Mrs. Stevenson carefully brought with her when she came to America all the books, furniture, and bric-a-brac, that the Wizard had gathered about himself. These are now stored, it is said, in San Francisco, or near it.

It is hardly time yet to comment on the general situation in Samoa. It is hardly possible that three great nations should come to blows over a group of islands not worth in fee-simple the ammunition that would be fired in the first general engagement. Nor is it possible, we should hope, that if either of the powers has been put in the wrong by the acts of its representatives, there will be a refusal to disavow such acts and to render just reparation. The war that would result should these hopes prove false, would be a calamity that will retard civilization for a generation. The Spanish war has left us problems enough - if indeed, there were not domestic problems enough before - to keep us busy for a long time to come.

The most important national event of the month is the partition of Samoa. The present arrangement gives to the United States three islands and the magnificent deep, landlocked harbor of Pago-Pago. The utility of this half-way haven on the route to Australia and the Far East as a coaling station, as well as a naval depot, is immeasurable. The fact that the Far East is going to be the arena of the World's strivings during the next quarter of a century makes the present settlement an item of national importance. In the natives of the islands we shall find a docile and submissive people, educated far above the state of savagery and especially progressive on the question of religion. Mataafa is a good Catholic, and there are sisterhoods, with nuns of the native tribes, teaching schools.