The conference was long.

De Coetlogon protested, as he did afterwards in writing, against Knappe's claim: the Samoans were in a state of war; they had territorial rights; it was monstrous to prevent them from entering one of their own villages because a German trader kept the store; and in case property suffered, a claim for compensation was the proper remedy.

Knappe argued that this was a question between Germans and Samoans, in which de Coetlogon had nothing to see; and that he must protect German property according to his instructions.

To which de Coetlogon replied that he was himself in the same attitude to the property of the British; that he understood Knappe to be intending hostilities against Laulii; that Laulii was mortgaged to the MacArthurs; that its crops were accordingly British property; and that, while he was ever willing to recognise the territorial rights of the Samoans, he must prevent that property from being molested "by any other nation." "But if a German man-of-war does it ?" asked Knappe.--"We shall prevent it to the best of our ability," replied the colonel.

It is to the credit of both men that this trying interview should have been conducted and concluded without heat; but Knappe must have returned to the _Adler_ with darker anticipations.
At sunrise on the morning of the 15th, the three ships, each loaded with its consul, put to sea.