I have told how Tamasese assumed the title of Tuiatua.

In August 1888 a year after his installation, he took a more formidable step and assumed that of Malietoa.

This name, as I have said, is of peculiar honour; it had been given to, it had never been taken from, the exiled Laupepa; those in whose grant it lay, stood punctilious upon their rights; and Tamasese, as the representative of their natural opponents, the Tupua line, was the last who should have had it.

And there was yet more, though I almost despair to make it thinkable by Europeans.

Certain old mats are handed down, and set huge store by; they may be compared to coats of arms or heirlooms among ourselves; and to the horror of more than one-half of Samoa, Tamasese, the head of the Tupua, began collecting Malietoa mats.