TERMINATION OF THE WAR.

Samoan Reporter, Issue 13, 1 July 1851, Page 1

TERMINATION OF THE WAR.

It will probably excite a degree of surprise in our readers to hear that the war, which has so long hindered our labours, and of whose termination there appeared so little prospect when our last number was published, is now at an end. Appearances w’ere such, at that time, that we could see no grounds to hope for a speedy settlement of the unhappy quarrel. At no time since the beginning of the war, had our prospects appeared more dark. A change, however, was at hand. The storm had well nigh spent itself—the night was near a close, though no signs of the morning appeared. Both parties had become weary of living in the unsettled state into which the war had brought them. This was especially the case with the people of Aana, who had been living in exile for nearly three years. Preparations. For a length of time, almost ever since the engagement in June, 1848, Aana, with her Atuan allies, had been making preparations for a final struggle. These preparations consisted chiefly in the building of large boats and canoes, that they might be able to cope with the fleet of the other partv, which hitherto they had not been able to do. They engaged foreigners to build the boats, which were five in number, and from thirty to sixty feet long. They were constructed with a thick outer-work of bamboos, so high as quite to conceal and protect those on board, and in which were holes for their muskets. Some of the boats were furnished with swivels, and carried as many as 100 men. To encounter these formidable boats, Manono and her allies had nothing better than Samoan canoes. They had neglected to provide themselves with anything superior to these, and so were in very disadvantageous circumstances for contending with their opponents. Muster of the Parties. The Atua and Aana party, having completed their arrangements, assembled their forces in the neighbourhood of Apia, close by Mulinuu, where the other party had their fortifications. They constructed forts at a very short distance from those of their enemies, and made preparations for bringing matters to a final issue. The other party were not in circumstances to encounter them when they had completed these. Not only had they no boats, but the main body of their forces were scattered on Savaii and elsewhere. With marvellous modeiation and forbearance, the Atua and Aana party waited day after day for weeks, while their

enemies were collecting their forces and otherwise preparing for the struggle. While these preparations were going on, various skirmishes took place, in which a few lives were lost on each side. At length, early in April, about two months after the parties came together, there was a full muster; all the preparations had been made that the circumstances admitted of, and the decisive hour seemed at hand. The forces were nearly equal. The number assembled was very large, probably not fewer than from three to four thousand on each side. Each party appeared determined not to yield. •/ Efforts for Peace. Under these circumstances, most serious apprehensions were entertained. A great loss of life appeared inevitable. Every expedient that could be thought of had been tried in vain with a view to bring the parties to an agreement. Consuls, foreign residents, captains of ships of war, missionaries, teachers, and church-members had persevered in their efforts to effect a reconciliation, but without avail, and all hope of success seemed at an end. Thus matters were permitted to reach a point which left no course open to the friends of peace, but to look to God, and pray for his interposition in some way which might bring about the much-desired object. This course was adopted. We stood still, and in painful anxiety awaited the dreaded crisis; nor did we wait long. He to whom our eyes were directed, and whose gracious interference we so much desired and sought, did speedily appear for us. His invisible but irresistable hand wrought, and, to the surprise and joy of all, the war was at an end. So marked was His interposition, that it was almost universally recognised. The exclamations that everywhere met us from parties on their way home from the scene of conflict were, “ It is from above! it is from above! God has done it! ” and the like. But how was it done ? Termination of Hostilities. We have already intimated, that one of the parties had greatly the advantage over the other, in being furnished with war boats. To this fact, under God, we think the happy settlement of the war is mainly to be attributed, in as far as the Manono party are concerned. They felt themselves unequal to their opponents, and this feeling disposed them to listen to proposals of peace. That the other party should have made such proposals, however, is not so easily accounted for. They were in most advantageous circumstances for pushing matters to extremities. In addition to the superiority of their fleet, they had gained an advantage over the other party in a fight which had taken place between the ■ land forces. The other party were quite intimidated and disheartened. Their fort had been surrounded day after day, and they challenged to fight. Atua and Aana were ranging about without restraint, lying in wait for, giving chase to, and sometimes killing parties who left the fort, in seach of provisions or other business, or who were on their way to it from Savaii. Thus, they had decidedly the advantage over their opponents, and might, with little difficulty, have subdued them, and laid waste Manono, a thing they had long professed themselves most desirous of doing. Strange to say, in these circumstances, they acceded to our earnest and oft-renewed entreaties that the war should cease, and proposed to give up fighting on condition that each party should enjoy equal rights. Manono gladly responded to the proposal of Aana and Atua, and declared the war at an end.

We have not been able to ascertain the exact number who lost their lives in the various skirmishes during the two months previous to, and in the last fight, that took place before the settlement of the war. Perhaps the whole does not exceed sixty. Had two or three hundred fallen, it would have been no matter of surprise. Indeed, that would have been few, considering the numbers that were assembled and the feelings of the respective parties. Return of the People to their Lands.

Shortly after peace was concluded, the different parties broke up. Aana, accompanied by their Atua friends, came and took possession of their lands, from which they had been exiled so long. Manono and Savaii also returned to their homes. The Tuamasaga, a large district on Upolu, politically connected with Manono and Savaii, and Faleapuna, another part of Upolu, also connected with Manono, are still unsettled. It is hoped, however, that, like their neighbours, they will soon be reinstated in their own lands, and employed in building, planting, and other peaceful occupations. Throughout the district of Aana, these operations are going on rapidly. All the houses in that district were destroyed at the commencement of the war, and, with the exception of one small spot around the printing-office, which has been occupied by a few people who have stood aloof from the war, it has continued uninhabited ever since. New houses are springing up and cultivated spots appearing in every direction. This party (Atua and Aana) appear heartily to desire the continuance of peace. Most of the other party feel differently, they are dissatisfied and mortified. The issue of the war is not at all to their mind. Their

object was supremacy; and, after all the hardships to which they have submitted, and the lives they have sacrificed, they have barely got equality. This is the more galling to them as it is something new. They have been accustomed to rule, and to carry matters with rather a high hand for generations past. Thus, it is but natural that they should find it difficult to come down and take their place alongside of those over w’hom they have been accustomed to “ lord it.” The difficulty is further increased, and their mortification heightened, by being sometimes taunted with cowardice, and with not being on an equality with the other party. There has been a good deal of lofty talking among them, and they are taking steps to possess themselves of boats or large double canoes, that they may be in a position of equality, as regards the means of defence and protection, with their neighbours. There are parties among them strongly desirous of going to war again, with a view to wipe off the disgrace that now attaches to them, and to regain their former standing. We have great hopes, however, that there will be no more war. May the God of peace graciously give us lasting peace! Concluding Remarks. Our limits will not admit of our giving full expression to the feelings and reflections to which a review of the war naturally gives rise; nor can we dwell on the lessons which its rise, progress, and termination suggest; or speak at length of the evils it has occasioned, and the probable advantages that may arise from it. Though it has been a great and grievous calamity, the effects of which will be felt for many years to come, yet we trust, some good will result from it. The people have been made to feel keenly that the way of transgressors is hard, that it is an evil thing and bitter to depart from God; and they appear generally thoroughly sick of war. Before it took place, the young men knew not what war was ; the consequence was, that they were ready to rush into it. It will be a more difficult matter, however, to get them to it again. It may be remarked, also, (the writer can make the remark without indelicacy, as he was altogether out of the way of the war, till it was about a close), that the part the Missionaries have been enabled to act throughout the war, has tended greatly to increase the confidence of the natives in them, and thus to place them in a more advantageous position for the prosecution of their work. They have maintained a strictly neutral position; so that they have conciliated both parties, and deepened in both the conviction that they are their friends, and seeking their real good. The war which has just terminated, has been greatly the most extended and prolonged retrograde movement that has yet taken place; and now that that movement has reached a crisis—now that the receding wave has reached low-water mark, and the tide is turned, our earnest desire is, that we may have an onward movement—a rising tide, whose flow shall be so rapid and extended as speedily to obliterate all traces of retrogression. “ Return, O Lord! how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. Make us glad according to the days wherein thou has afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children!”

A. W. M.