These fresh hostile acts showed him that the worst had come.
He was in strength, his force posted along the whole front of the mountain behind Apia, Matautu occupied, the Siumu road lined up to the houses of the town with warriors passionate for war.

The occasion was unique, and there is no doubt that he designed to seize it.

The same day of this bombardment, he sent word bidding all English and Americans wear a black band upon their arm, so that his men should recognise and spare them.

The hint was taken, and the band worn for a continuance of days.
To have refused would have been insane; but to consent was unhappily to feed the resentment of the Germans by a fresh sign of intelligence with their enemies, and to widen the breach between the races by a fresh and a scarce pardonable mark of their division.

The same day again the Germans repeated one of their earlier offences by firing on a boat within the harbour.