The mission, installing itself at first with extravagance in Matautu, was helped at last out of the island by the advances of a private citizen.

And they returned from dreams of Polynesian independence to find their own city in the hands of a clique of white shopkeepers, and the great Gibson once again in gaol.
Yet the farce had not been quite without effect.

It had encouraged the natives for the moment, and it seems to have ruffled permanently the temper of the Germans.

So might a fly irritate Caesar.
The arrival of a mission from Hawaii would scarce affect the composure of the courts of Europe.

But in the eyes of Polynesians the little kingdom occupies a place apart.