Read IN THE SOUTH SEAS: LETTERS FROM SAMOA - CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CERTAIN RESIDENTS OF APIA AND BARON SENFFT VON PILSACH. LETTER VI of The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson Vol 18, free online book, by Andrew Lang., on ReadCentral.com.

     Apia, October 9, 1891.

Gentlemen, ­Being in receipt of your communication under to-day’s date, I have the honour to inform you that I have undertaken the re-examination of your first address, which you believe would induce me to recall the answer I have given on the 2nd inst.

From this re-examination I have learned again that your appeal begins with the following statement: ­

“Upon all and upon each of these points severally the white residents anxiously expect and respectfully beg information.”

I have called this statement a seriously speaking to me in the name of the white residents, and I have objected to the truth of that statement.

If after a “candid re-examination” of the matter from your part you may refute me in either or both points, I shall be glad, indeed, in recalling my answer.

At present I beg to say that I see no reason for your supposing I misunderstood your expression of damaging the white races in the native mind, unless you have no other notion of protection than that applying to the body.

Concerning the assertion contained in the last clause of your second address, that five Samoan prisoners having been sentenced by a Samoan Judge for destroying houses were in the gaol of the Samoan Government “under the safeguard of my honour,” I ask for your permission to recommend this statement also and especially to your re-examination. ­I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your obedient servant,

     FRHR.  SENFFT VON PILSACH.