- men in two small canoes, and landed near a consecrated inclosure, called Gnacao, one of the most fertile places in the whole island. Here they met with four of the enemy, who, perceiving their inferiority, made an endeavour to get into the consecrated place, where they would have been perfectly safe: Palavali, however, seeing their intention, got between them and the fencing, when one of the enemy made a bold push to pass his antagonist, and scramble over the reed-work, and had actually got one leg over, when Palavali struck him a furious blow on the head, and felled him dead within the place; seeing now what he had done, he was struck with fear, and ran away to the canoes, followed by his men. As soon as he arrived at the fortress, he communicated to Finow what had passed, saying, in his defence, that he was so eager in pursuit, as to be out of all self command. The king immediately ordered cava to be taken to the priest of his own tutelar god, that the divinity might be consulted as to what atonement was proper to be made for so heinous a sacrilege. The priest being inspired, made answer, that it was necessary a child should be strangled to appease the anger of the gods. The chiefs, then, held a consultation, and came to the determination

of sacrificing a child of Toobo Toa, by one of his female attendants*. Toobo Toa was present, and gave his consent that his child (about two years old) should be immolated to appease the anger of the gods, and turn aside their vengeance for the sacrilegious crime committed. The child was accordingly sought for; but its mother, thinking her child might be demanded, had concealed it: being, at length, found by one of the men who were in search of it, he took it up in his arms, smiling with delight at being taken notice of. Its poor mother wanted to follow, but was held back by those about her; on hearing its mother's voice it began to cry, but, when it arrived at the fatal place of its execution, it was pleased and delighted with the band of gnatoo that was put round its neck, and, looking up in the face of the man, who was about to destroy it, displayed in its beautiful countenance a smile of ineffable pleasure; such a sight inspired pity in the breast of every one: but veneration and fear of the gods was a sentiment superior to every other, and its destroyer

* On such occasions, the child of a male chief is always chosen, as being worthier than others, and a child by an inferior female attendant, because it is not a chief; only those children being chiefs whose mothers are chiefs.

could not help exclaiming, as he put on the fatal bandage, O yaooé chi vale! (poor little in. nocent!) two men then tightened the cord by pulling at each end, and the guiltless and unsuspecting victim was soon relieved of its painful struggles. The body was then placed upon a sort of hand-barrow, supported upon the shoulders of four men, and carried in a procession of priests, chiefs, and matabooles clothed in mats, with wreaths of green leaves round their necks. In this manner it was conveyed to various houses consecrated to different gods, before each of which it was placed on the ground, all the company sitting behind it, except one priest, who sat beside it, and prayed aloud to the god that he would be pleased to accept of this sacrifice as an atonement for the heinous sacrilege committed, and that punishment might accordingly be withheld from the people. After this was done before all the consecrated houses in the fortress, the body was given up to its relations, to be buried in the usual manner.

About four or five days after the above horrible immolation, this same Palavali was killed in a skirmish with the enemy. He went out again on a foraging excursion with about 30 or 40 men, not professed warriors, but men on

whose courage and honour no reliance could be placed. They met with a smaller body of the enemy, but who were all staunch fighting. men; in a very short time Palavali's men turned about to run away; he vainly endeavoured to rally them, and facing the enemy again to set them the example, he received several wounds. and fell. At this moment his men faced about,/ and seeing the perilous situation of their chief, became animated with courage, and drove the enemy a few paces back, whilst two or three picked him up and carried him back to the garrison. When they arrived they proceeded: to take out four spears which had pierced him,` but he desired them to desist from so useless. a task, as he was certain the gods had decreed his death as a punishment for his late offence. This, too, was the general opinion of the people, and was the subject of their conversation for a long time afterwards, contributing to spread a considerable gloom throughout the garrison. Palavali died about half an hour after he was brought home.

Finow already began to grow tired of the war: it was a kind of conflict not suited to his genius, he loved rather a few hard fought engagements and a speedy conquest. The enemy shewed no disposition to come forth from their

strong hold and attack him; and he had found by experience, that even the guns produced no sensible effect upon their fortification, situated upon an eminence, and defended by walls of clay. He heartily wished for a peace, but he did not choose that his wish should be known, lest it should be attributed to fear or any other. unworthy motive; in short he wanted to bring about a peace, without being thought to wish for a peace; and the difficulty was to accomplish this. He was, however, by no means de ficient in policy, and he soon thought of a method. From time to time he held secret conferences with the priests, chiefly either upon religious subjects or upon political matters, as connected with the will of the gods. He spoke of his determination to remain at Vavaoo and prosecute the war till his enemies were destroyed; then on a sudden, as if his heart for the moment relented, he painted in the most striking colours the evils of war, and how sorry he

• Mr. Mariner could easily have devised a method to set the enemy's fortress on fire; but he considered Toe Oomoo's cause quite as just as that of Finow, and although the latter was his friend and benefactor, yet he had more than half assisted in the assassination of a man of admirable character (Toobo Neuha) who was also Mr. Mariner's friend; besides, he did not choose to be the means of dealing out destruction upon a number of innocent women and children.