And one, stung by the last incident into an unusual flow of English, remarked to me: "I begin to be weary of white men on the beach." But the true centre of trouble, the head of the boil of which Samoa languishes, is the German firm.

From the conditions of business, a great island house must ever be an inheritance of care; and it chances that the greatest still afoot has its chief seat in Apia bay, and has sunk the main part of its capital in the island of Upolu.

When its founder, John Caesar Godeffroy, went bankrupt over Russian paper and Westphalian iron, his most considerable asset was found to be the South Sea business.

This passed (I understand) through the hands of Baring Brothers in London, and is now run by a company rejoicing in the Gargantuan name of the _Deutsche Handels und Plantagen Gesellschaft fur Sud-See Inseln zu Hamburg_.

This piece of literature is (in practice) shortened to the D.H.and P.G., the Old Firm, the German Firm, the Firm, and (among humorists) the Long Handle Firm.