Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/109

 ized, and were always treated with much respect. At Sagana, a Christian village, we saw the old chief, Malietoa, whose hair was white with age. He was in his domestic circle taking a siesta. One of his daughters was fanning him. She was the prettiest young lady we had seen in this group. Her name was Emma, and she was as intelligent as she was pretty.

The native canoes are finely built, and have a deck both forward and aft. They are long and narrow, with an out-rigger, and are elegantly modeled. The seat of honor is the forward deck, in the center of which a row  of pegs is placed, to which a large oval shell is attached  by way of ornament. A native finds no difficulty in sitting there, but a stranger is painfully impressed before many minutes are over, and will long remember the  honor he there enjoyed. Nor will he soon forget the canoe song: "Lilei tusilava le tan mau, leango tusilava  le tan mau," "Good above all is the part before, bad  above all is the part behind."

During our stay here the missionary brig Camden  arrived with missionaries for this station. A few days before we sailed, all hands but a quarter watch went on  shore to the mission house, armed with bowie-knives and  pistols, to drill. There we met several thousand natives who were waiting to witness the performance. Greatly astonished and wild with fear they watched our cutlass- exercises. But at the close, when, all together, we discharged our pistols into the air, they fell flat on the ground and kissed the earth. Before we went on board Mr. Williams was appointed American consul for the Samoan group, and the American flag was hoisted at his house.