American ship explodes in Āpia harbour

Invincible Strangers 49 Chapter 21.2

Perham believed Ta’isi was directing the rebellion, but did not feel mixed race was an issue: ‘Sāmoans do not, it seems, dispise half-castes especially if, like Nelson, their Sāmoan blood is of aristocratic quality.’ She discovered scandals because officials would call on her: ‘hardly one… made any attempt to hide the plight of the government, though very few seemed able to diagnose the causes.’ An assistant secretary for Native Affairs ‘who insisted on bringing me confidential documents from the office for me to read at the hotel.’ Allen greeted Perham ‘demurely and spoke in a small repressed voice, very slowly and weighing every word’.