A party of blue-jackets landed in Samoan bush, and expected to hold against Samoans a multiplicity of forest paths, had their work cut out for them.

And it was plain they should be landed in the light of day, with a discouraging openness, and even with parade.

To sneak ashore by night was to increase the danger of resistance and to minimise the authority of the attack.

The thing was a bluff, and it is impossible to bluff with stealth.

Yet this was what was tried.