So that we may call this false intelligence the beginning and the end of Mataafa's strategy.
The whites who sympathised with the revolt were uneasy and impatient.
They will still tell you, though the dates are there to show them wrong, that Mataafa, even after his coronation, delayed extremely: a proof of how long two days may seem to last when men anticipate events.

On the evening of the 11th, while the new king was already on the march, one of these walked into Matautu.

The moon was bright.

By the way he observed the native houses dark and silent; the men had been about a fortnight in the bush, but now the women and children were gone also; at which he wondered.

On the sea-beach, in the camp of the Tamaseses, the solitude was near as great; he saw three or four men smoking before the British consulate, perhaps a dozen in all; the rest were behind in the bush upon their line of forts.