On January 8th the consulate was destroyed by fire.

Knappe says it was the work of incendiaries, "without doubt"; Fritze admits that "everything seems to show" it was an accident.

"Tamasese's people fit to bear arms," writes Knappe, "are certainly for the moment equal to Mataafa's," though restrained from battle by the lack of ammunition.

"As for Tamasese," says Fritze of the same date, "he is now but a phantom--_dient er nur als Gespenst_.

His party, for practical purposes, is no longer large.