Page:Scented isles and coral gardens- Torres Straits, German New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies, by C.D. Mackellar, 1912.pdf/138

104 coolly down the gangway, waited for the critical moment, and stepped in safely. Then, when they approached the surf, we saw one stand up directing and encouraging the rowers, and they passed magnificently and safely to the shore, whilst we on the ship cheered, though they could not hear us.

Amongst those who came on board were Mr. Forsayth, Herr Walin, and others.

When the Germans took possession of their part of New Guinea and its adjacent isles, they found installed in New Britain a half-caste American-Samoan family who had made large plantations at Ralum, in New Britain, and elsewhere. Of the two daughters of this family, offspring of an American father and a Samoan mother, one, Emma, married an American, Mr. Forsayth, and the other married a German, Mr. Parkinson. Mrs. Forsayth, as she then was, was the practical owner of a fine stretch of country. The Germans confirmed them in all their rights, as also in rights they claimed inland and over some islands. Later, after her first husband's death, Mrs. Forsayth married a German, Herr Kolbe, but he is merely Prince Consort, as Frau Kolbe—who is universally known as Queen Emma—with her son, Mr. Forsayth, and her connections the Parkinsons, manages the large Ralum estate, a store, and all the other plantations they own, herself. The son, Forsayth, married a lady with Samoan blood in her, so that the whole family is of mixed blood; but the Samoans being a handsome and a fine race there is little to regret in that. Queen Emma, all her connections, and all in her employment speak English, and as Ralum is near Herbertshöhe, and extends along the west sea frontage for a long distance, the Germans eventually found they were scarce masters in their own land, and they do not like at all that this