tended their arms to the neighbouring islands, meeting with little opposition, and gathering additional strength, till they arrived at the island of Haano, where a large body of loyalists were assembled and in waiting ready to engage them. Here they had an obstinate but decisive battle, which terminated in favour of Finow. Thus was the conquest of all the Hapai islands insured, and of which Finow was acknowledged king. In this battle a number of chiefs and matabooles (ministers and attendants of chiefs) were taken prisoners, all of whom having been in the immediate service of the late king, were, by the orders of Finow, put to death in various ways. Some were put on board old and useless canoes, which were then scuttled, and immediately sunk; others were taken three or four leagues out to sea, and being put in old leaky canoes, and tied hand and foot, were left gradually to sink. Those against whom Finow entertained the greatest inveteracy were taken to the island of Lofanga, and there tied naked to stakes driven in the ground, or to the trunks of trees, and left to starve to death: whilst they were in this miserable situation, it is painful to relate the cruelty exercised towards them by some of the natives of the place; it must,

however, be acknowledged that the ill-treatment they received was chiefly at the hands of thoughtless boys, who would stick sharp splinters of wood into their bodies, and tantalize them by showing them provisions, without giving them any. Notwithstanding their exposure to the raging heat of the sun, several of them bore their torments with the greatest fortitude, although lingering till the eighth day; others of weaker constitution died in three or four days. Ever since that time the natives of the place superstitiously believe that they can hear their groans frequently at different times during the night-but this no doubt is occasioned by the roaring of the surf at a distance, or of the sea in subterraneous caverns, which, working upon the imagination, to a certain extent resembles the groans of dying people.

Finow, and his ally Toobo Neuha, after public rejoicings at Haano, embarked for Vavaoo, where they were allowed to land without opposition. The people of Vavaoo, however, had heard of the assassination of Toogoo Ahoo by a canoe from the Hapai islands, and were determined to resist the claims of finow, not by an open war, but in a mode much more harassing and tedious;

and he accordingly found the reduction of this island exceedingly troublesome and dangerous. The enemy always avoiding a general engagement, frequently molested them with sudden and violent assaults, either under cover of the darkness of the night, or during the day from their hiding-places. This mode of warfare so exasperated Finow, who was not on such occasions of the mildest temper, that he gave orders that all prisoners who were chiefs should be reserved for future and exemplary punishment. The contest lasted about fourteen or fifteen days, during which time the two chiefs separated, and scoured the island all over, conquering wherever they met with opposition. At length Voona, the chief of Vavaoo, having fled to amoa (the Navigator's islands) with a canoe full of other chiefs, finow found himself master of the whole island, and was declared king, but he gave up the government of it to Toobo Neuha, as a sort of viceroy, to pay him an annual tribute. The prisoners who were taken, at least all that were chiefs, were punished and put to death by means too revolting to the feelings to mention. All affairs being settled at Vavaoo, Finow returned to the Hapai islands, to meditate future attempts upon the island of Tonga.

In the mean time affairs went on very badly at Tonga: Toogoo Ahoo left neither son nor brother to succeed him; but he had several distant relations, who put in claims for the sovereignty: thus was a violent civil contention induced, and the island was soon divided into several petty states. In the course of a little time, each party had built a fort for itself, so that there were at least twelve or thirteen different garrisoned places upon the island; each, in a state of warfare with all the rest, was determined to maintain its claims as long as it had strength to do so. Thus was the island of Tonga, to which war had hitherto been a stranger, torn by civil strife, and at times given up a prey to famine, a situation worse perhaps than that resulting from the tyranny of Toogoo Ahoo. Besides their domestic troubles, every year they were disturbed by attacks from Finow, who made it his annual custom to make a descent upon one or other of their fortresses, and sometimes upon several of them in the same season; but they were all so well fortified and intrenched, that their enemy, however powerful, consisting of the lapai people, under the command of Finow, and the Vavaoo people, under that of Toobo Neuha, had never succeeded, at the time of Mr. Mariner's

first arrival, in taking or destroying a single fort; that is to say, during the space of ten or twelve years.

This piece of history Mr. Mariner heard, not only from Finow, but also from Toobo Neuha, Tooitonga, and a number of other chiefs, as well also, though in detached portions, from several of the inhabitants of the island of Tonga, and has found an uniform agreement and consistency in all their accounts. From this it will appear, that at the time of Captain Cook's visit, the whole of Tonga, (that is to say the island of Tonga, the Hapai islands and Vavaoo,) was under the sole dominion of Toogoo Ahoo, whose seat of government was on the island of Tonga, and who received tributes from Finow, chief of the Hapai islands, and from Voona, chief of Vavaoo: that at the time of Mr. Mariner's first arrival the island of Tonga was, and had been for ten or twelve years, divided into several petty states, all at war with one another; whilst Finow was king of the Dapai islands and Vavaoo, and Foobo Neuba only tributary chief of the latter place.

Mr. Mariner and those of his companions who were with him at the island of Lefooga, (and were four in number,) received orders.