I have formed an opinion of this gentleman, largely from his printed despatches, which I am at a loss to put in words.

Astute, ingenious, capable, at moments almost witty with a kind of glacial wit in action, he displayed in the course of this affair every description of capacity but that which is alone useful and which springs from a knowledge of men's natures.

It chanced that one of Sewall's early moves played into his hands, and he was swift to seize and to improve the advantage.

The neutral territory and the tripartite municipality of Apia were eyesores to the German consulate and Brandeis.

By landing Tamasese's two or three hundred warriors at Mulinuu, as Becker himself owns, they had infringed the treaties, and Sewall entered protest twice.