In view of all German and some native testimony, the text of Fritze's orders, and the probabilities of the case, no honest mind will believe it for a moment.

Certainly the Samoans fired first.

As certainly they were betrayed into the engagement in the agitation of the moment, and it was not till afterwards that they understood what they had done.

Then, indeed, all Samoa drew a breath of wonder and delight.

The invincible had fallen; the men of the vaunted war-ships had been met in the field by the braves of Mataafa: a superstition was no more.