That man was Commander Richard P. Leary of our navy, and the incidents that led up to his action happened at and near the harbor of Apia in the beautiful Samoan Islands. Time and again have I and other writers asked Leary to tell about it, and time and again has he resolutely refused, saying that the sense of having done his duty was all the reward he wanted. Consequently I have been forced to go to the public records and to some of the men who were in Samoa at the time to get the details of a long series of acts which resulted one day in an American man-of-war and a German man-of-war lying side by side a short distance outside of Apia Harbor, each cleared for action, and war between our country and Germany depending upon whether the Captain of the German ship should fire upon some native forts on the mainland. Such shots would have gone over the deck of the Adams, which Leary commanded, and he practically, although not literally, sent word to the German commander that the first shot on the native forts would be answered by a broadside from American guns. After almost an entire day of intense excitement on board both ships and on the mainland, the German commander yielded—went back into port—and a grave crisis in our history was safely passed—because of the patriotism and pluck of one of our naval officers who to this day refuses to talk about it.
To understand the story fully we must go into the causes of the trouble. The Samoan, or Navigator Islands, have always been an object of envy by nations which are known as "land-grabbers." The desire of the Germans to secure control of those islands had caused most of the troubles of the Samoans in recent years. It was the old desire for money and property over again. The United States had long recognized the Samoans as a civilized people, and had made a treaty with them. In time Germany and England united with us in a joint treaty with the Samoans for their protection and development. German residents there wanted control of trade, and stirred up a rebellion against the High Chief, or King, Malietoa. They took the side of Tamasese, a pretender to the throne. On a pretext that property belonging to Germans—some pigs and some cocoanuts—had been stolen by Malietoa's men, they declared war against him, and finally made him give himself up to them to save his people from slaughter. He was deported to Africa, and later to Germany. The Samoans would not have Tamasese for King, and practically the entire nation rallied around Mataafa, who succeeded Malietoa.
There was now a civil war between the two factions. The Americans did not take sides, except to refuse to acknowledge Tamasese as King. The Germans did take sides, notwithstanding the treaty of neutrality. They bombarded villages on this and that excuse; they fired on unarmed natives in boats; they gave aid openly to Tamasese; they assumed an air of possession of the islands. Now it must not be supposed that all this was done with the full approval of the German government, because the Germans in time brought back Malietoa, and since then they have recalled the one man who stirred up most of the trouble. In speaking, therefore, of the matter, let it be understood that we have strict reference to those Germans alone who were in Samoa.
THE GERMAN WAR-SHIP "ADLER."
There was constant friction between the Americans and Germans in Apia, and many letters passed between Captain Leary and the Captain of the German war-ship Adler, stationed there at the time. This being a story of Captain Leary's patriotic acts, we need go no further into the details of Samoan history. One of the first of Leary's notable acts was to send a letter, on September 6, 1888, to the Captain of the Adler. The Adler, on the day before, had gone to the island of Manono to burn the houses and villages of the natives who would not support Tamasese. The war-ship took some of Tamasese's boats in tow, and soon the guns of the war-ship were heard bombarding houses known to have been occupied by defenceless women and children. The Adler came back the next day, and at once Captain Leary sent the German Captain a letter of protest. He recited what he knew of the bombardment and what he had been told, and then he added, with a firmness that does one good to read:
"Such action, especially after the Tamasese party having been represented as a strong government, not needing the armed support of a foreign power, appears to be a violation of the principles of international law as well as a violation of the generally recognized laws of humanity. Being the only other representative of a naval power now represented in this harbor, for the sake of humanity I hereby respectfully and solemnly protest in the name of the United States of America and of the civilized world in general against the use of a war-vessel for such service as was yesterday rendered by the German corvette Adler."
THE UNITED STATES WAR-SHIP "ADAMS."