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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: creature; it is so that Mataafa himself conceives of their
relation: surely not without justice; for, had he not contended
and prevailed, and been helped by the folly of consuls and the fury
of the storm, Laupepa must have died in exile.
Foreigners in these islands know little of the course of native
intrigue. Partly the Samoans cannot explain, partly they will not
tell. Ask how much a master can follow of the puerile politics in
any school; so much and no more we may understand of the events
which surround and menace us with their results. The missions may
perhaps have been to blame. Missionaries are perhaps apt to meddle
overmuch outside their discipline; it is a fault which should be
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