only to kill an enemy, but also all his friends and relations, if poss sible the three Missionaries then replied that as they had done no harm, and meant no harm, their God would protect them : at this moment, a party of natives, who were lying in wait in a neighbouring thicket, rushed out and killed them with their spears. The natives in the canoe pushed off from the shore, and made their escape. How necessary it is to know the customs of the country! how baneful it is to be presumptuous! Our best intentions may be ruined by the ignorance of the one, and influence of the other. But to return from this digression; Mr. Mariner, and his companions, ignorant of the language of the country, and of the customs of the people, were often much distressed for want of food: sometimes indeed it was brought to them, but often not; sometimes they were invited by the natives to walk into their houses and eat with them; but frequently they seemed to be quite neglected, and were reduced to the necessity of procuring what they wanted by stealth. At length, through Tooi Tooi's interpretation, Mr. Mariner made known their wants to the king, upon which the latter seemed greatly surprised at their apparent stupidity; and inquired how food was obtained in England, and when he heard that every man procured the necessary supplies for himself and family by purchase, and that his friends, for the most part, only partook by invitation, and that strangers were scarcely ever invited, unless with a view of forming an acquaintance, he laughed at what he called the ill-nature and selfishness of the white people; and told Mr. Mariner that the Tonga custom was far better, and that he had nothing to do when he felt himself hungry but to go into any house where eating and drinking were going forward, seat himself down without invitation, and partake with the company. After this, the generality of the natives made this selfishness, as they considered it, of the Europeans quite proverbial; and when any stranger came into their houses to eat with them, they would say jocosely, No! we shall treat you after the manner of the Papalangis; go home, and eat what you have got, and we shall eat what we have got! Mr. Mariner and his companions, about five in number, (for the others were dispersed upon different islands) began now to be heartily tired of their way of life, and requested the king to give them a large canoe, that they might rig it as a sloop, and, with his permission, endeavour to make Norfolk island on their way to New Holland; but this he refused, under pretext that the canoe would be too weak to stand the sea. On farther solicitation, however, he gave them leave to build a vessel for the express purpose, but in the progress of the work happening unfortunately to notch one of their axes, he refused any longer the use of them. Thus cut off from all present hopes of escape, it became more than ever necessary to conform their minds to the manners and customs of the people whom they were among but in a short time the ever changing events of war served to create a degree of activity in the mind, destructive of disagreeable reflections, and fruitless regrets. As we are now about to enter upon a new scene of things, in which the political interests of these islands are particularly concerned, it becomes necessary to afford a general view of their history, from the time of Captain Cook; and particularly for the twelve or fifteen years previous to Mr. Mariner's arrival there, with a view to understand perfectly the state of things as he found it. At the time when Captain Cook was at these islands, the habits of war were little known to the natives; the only quarrels in which they had at that time been engaged were among the inhabitants of the Fiji islands, about 120 leagues to the westward; for having been in the habit of visiting them for sandal wood, &c. they occasionally assisted one or other of the warlike parties against the enemy. The bows and arrows which before that period had been in use ainong the people of Tonga were of a weaker kind, and fitted rather for sport than war,-for the purpose of shooting rats, birds, &c. From the fierce and warlike people of those islands, however, they speedily learned to construct bows and arrows of a much more martial and formidable nature; and soon became acquainted with a better form of the spear, and a superior method of holding and throwing that missile weapon. They also imitated them by degrees in the practice of painting their faces, and the use of a peculiar dress in time of war, giving a fierce appearance, calculated to strike terror into the minds of their enemies. These martial improvements were in their progress at the time of Captain Cook's arrival, but not in general practice; for having few or no civil dissensions among themselves, the knowledge of these things was confined principally to certain young chiefs and their adherents, who had been at the Fiji islands. Captain Cook de scribes some evolutions practised by the natives as being forms of war, and indeed they have that appearance; but they are to be considered rather as games and dances, which the Tonga people had learnt from the island of Nuha. None of the oldest natives could give any account of their first discovery of the Fiji islands, but say they went to those islands before the Fiji people came to them perhaps their canoes were drifted there by stong easterly winds. Since Captain Cook's time, a certain chief at the island of Tonga, where all the principal chiefs at that time resided, and whose name was Tooi Hala Fatai, having by former visits contracted the warlike habits of the Fiji islanders, became tired of the peaceful and idle life he led at home, and was therefore determined to repair again to those islands, in company with a number of young men of the same unquiet disposition. They were pleased with the Fiji maxim, that war and strife were the noble employments of men, and ease and pleasure worthy to be courted, only by the weak and effeminate. Tooi Hala Fatai accordingly set sail with his followers, about 250 in number, in three large canoes, for the island of Laemba; not to make an attack upon the place, but to join one party or the other, and rob, plunder, procure canoes, kill the natives, and in short to do any thing that was, according to their notions, active, noble, and glorious. To give an instance of the spirit of these young men, while yet at the island of Tonga, they on one occasion, during the night, undermined a storehouse of yams, cloth, mats, &c. and working their way up into the place, emptied it of every thing it contained; not that they wanted these thing, for they were all independent chiefs, but thus they acted solely for their amusement. They had previously taken an oath, by their respective tutelar gods and their fathers, not to betray one another under penalty of death; and if on these occasions they met with a stranger, who would not readily enter into their views, they put it out of his power to discover them, by despatching him without farther ceremony. This chief and his companions being arrived at the Fiji islands, employed themselves in the way suitable to their inclinations; * It must be observed that Tonga is the name of one of the largest of this cluster of islands, and that it gives name to all these islands taken collectively, as a capital town sometimes gives name to a country; and that it must be received in this latter sense wherever the words "island of" are not usel before it. : sometimes joining one party, sometimes another, as caprice, or the hopes of plunder, led them and as many of these islands were not only at war with one another, but also had civil dissensions among themselves, two or three garrisons on one island being in a state of warfare, one with another, (and this was the case in several of them) the new comers found a choice of employment ready prepared for them. They remained here about two years and a half, towards the end of which period they were not contented with joining the wars of others, but entered into one of their own, for the greater acquirement of plunder and their superior bravery rendered them very successful. Tired at length with their long absence from home, they returned to Tonga; leaving their own canoes behind them, and coming away in the better formed ones of the Fiji islands. In their passage however they experienced a heavy gale, during which one of the canoes, with some of the choicest men, was lost. On the arrival of the remainder at the island of Tonga, they found the place in a state of insurrection; the cause and circumstances of which are as follows: Long before the period of Tooi Hala Fatai's expedition, Toogoo Ahoo had succeeded to the throne; but had held the reins of government not with the complete satisfaction of his people: far from it. He is reported to have been a man of a vindictive and cruel turn of mind, taking every opportunity to exert his authority; and frequently in a manner not only cruel, but wanton: as an instance of which, he on one occasion gave orders (which were instantly obeyed,) that twelve of his cooks, who were always in waiting at his public ceremony of drinking cava, should undergo the amputa`tion of their left arms, merely to distinguish them from other men, and for the vanity of rendering himself singular by this extraordinary exercise of his authority. This and many other acts of cruelty laid the groundwork for an insurrection, and a complete revolution in the affairs of Tonga. Toobó Nuha, a great chief, and brother of Finow, conceived himself to be exceedingly oppressed by the tyranny of Toogoo Ahoo; till at length he determined to be free, or to die in the attempt. With this view he often conversed with Finow, (at that time tributary chief of the Hapai islands,) sounding his opinion, and spurring him on to the same resolution; with the declaration, that if he would not assist him, he would manage the whole conspiracy himself. Led on partly by these pursuasions, but principally by his own private views, Finow entered into a league with Toobó Nuha. One evening these two, attended by several of their usual followers, waited on Toogoo Ahoo, as was now and then customary, to pay their respects to him, by presents of cava root, gnatoo,* a pig, and several baskets of yams; they then retired. This served as a plausible reason for their being that night in the neighbourhood of the king's residence. About midnight they again repaired to his house with their followers, whom they placed around it as watchful guards, ready to despatch all who might attempt to escape from the place of these Finow took the command, whilst Toobó Nuha entered, armed with his axe, and burning with desire of revenge. As he passed along, on either hand lay the wives and favourite mistresses of the king, the matchless beauties of Tonga, perfumed with the aroma of sandal wood, and their necks strung with wreaths of the freshest flowers: the sanguinary chief could have wept over their fate, but the freedom of his country was at stake, and the opportunity was not to be lost.† He sought the mat of his destined victim, where he lay buried in the profoundest sleep he stood over him for a short moment, but willing that he should know from whom he received his death, he struck him with his hand upon the face: Toogoo Ahoo started up," "Tis I, Toobó Nuha, that strike,” and a tremendous blow felled him, never to rise again. Horror and confusion immediately took place: Toobó Nuha snatched up the late king's adopted son, (a child of three years old,) whom he was desirous of saving, and rushed out of the house as the guards of Finow rushed in, when speedy death silenced the screams of those who a little before lay reposed in the arms of sleep. : The two chiefs and their followers betook themselves, as quickly as possible, to Hahagi, the nothern part of the island. Early in the morning confusion and dismay reigned in the island of Tonga-men and women ran they knew not whither, unknowing whether to join ner. The material of their wearing apparel. + Such were the sentiments which he afterwards expressed to Mr. MariThe sacrifice of these women, however barbarous, was strictly according to the general Tonga custom in such cases; where not only the individual enemy is destroyed, but also all who belong to him, even his women, that his party may be weakened and distressed as much as possible. |