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: minister-plenipotentiary, accompanied by a secretary of legation,
Henry F. Poor; and as soon as she was ready for sea, the war-ship
followed in support. The expedition was futile in its course,
almost tragic in result. The KAIMILOA was from the first a scene
of disaster and dilapidation: the stores were sold; the crew
revolted; for a great part of a night she was in the hands of
mutineers, and the secretary lay bound upon the deck. The mission,
installing itself at first with extravagance in Matautu, was helped
at last out of the island by the advances of a private citizen.
And they returned from dreams of Polynesian independence to find
their own city in the hands of a clique of white shopkeepers, and
|