THE WAR IN SAMOA Q f i A place where tatter day saint W t sf missionaries are owing to the fact that latter day laboring with more or less success ill th eSa moan Is lanas a tinge of im that parti of alia world and especially in regard io the war nowr in progress among the natives of the islands the samoan group is situated in the pacific ocean between the and parallels of and of longitude givin gath enia a tropical climate the ocean the i i the largest of which savaii is about 30 miles long by about 60 wide the second in size contains nearly as great an area but the rest are smaller the native population of the group is stated at about and a few thousand foreigners mostly germans englishmen and americans have located there during re cent years the soil is very rich and productive and ports in the group are favorite supply points for vessels the natives are well formed cheerful and affectionate arid hold their women in high esteem they are amba the most intelligent of the pacific ocean races arid are naturally moral and virtuous A great portion of them have been converted to christianity they are governed by hereditary of whom have the ight to choose a supreme ruler or king of the whole group during recent years the united states england and germany have united m forming a sort of protector ate avor the islands such a course being deemed advisable on account of the interests and the number of citizens which each of those nations had anthe group the native system of I 1 government has not however been materially interfered with by those powers the according to the best information we have originated in the election of a new king the incumbent of the throne tam adese refused to surrender it to the kinga elect malietha Malie toa though a majority of i the natives nat ivea and their chiefs appear to have taken sides with the latter on on the island 0 upolu a battle was fought between the of the two contestants for the throne tha women wove baskets of cocoanut coco anut leaves and these were filled witha sand and a wall was made of them enclosing a shaped like a horse shoe near the center of this space stood a tree in the branches of which were of sand in such a manner as to form a protect on to two or ahrea lookout men who were stationed in the tree the number of ses army thus in trenched is not stated but it appears to have been two or three thousand this encampment was located on mulinuu on one side of the entrance to the main harbor cf the island on tho opposite side of the harboe were the government buildings the kings residence etc and the town of abia apia in and about the town Tama sesa also hada large number of his forces concentrated and he appeared to bo in a position to hold the harbor and the capital of the island the followers of malietha Malie toa were ranged along the coast arani ne in the district behind abia apia and the harbor both leaders had been for some time engaged in assembling their forces hero from tho various islands and it appears that each had an armyon about men when the battle took place the men on both sides were armed with improved rifles and jerewell rewell we supplied with ammunition Malie toas army opened hostilities by attacking ses entrenchments after bask firing for an hour or two ses soldiers retired from their first line of defenses in the direction of the waters edge and tho victorious followers of malietha Malie toa instead of pursuing their success laid down their rifles sang a song of triumph rested awhile and allowed their women to pas around among them vessels of water with which they refreshed themselves this was in accordance with a samoan custom meanwhile however the defeated forces of Tama sese constructed another line of entrenchments similar to the breastworks they had just lost and hence were that much better prepared to resist the next charge it appears that the fight was kept up on Mili nun point two or three days and that a german gunboat lying near by prevented the utter defeat of Tama sese from the tenor of the latest news from samoa it seems probable that the contest will not long continue and that Malie toas right to the throne will be conceded foreign residents have not been in voT din in any way nor have any of them been killed with the exception of a captain bassett who was fatally wounded in abia apia by a stray bullet fired from the opposite side of the harbor during the fight german residents claim that they have lost such property as pigs poultry taken by foragers for agers but their claims will probably be amicably settled there is so far no reason to suppose that the utah missionaries have been in any ay concerned in the trouble sor that they have been in the vicinity of the fight