design they entertained of assassinating Captain Cook and his officers at Lefooga, the 18th of May 1777, and putting to death their acknowledged great and good benefactor! (See vol. ii. p. 64.)

If we were to measure their conduct by the notions of virtue, honour, and humanity received among enlightened nations, we should do them great wrong, and forfeit our own titles to the epithet of just and honourable: we shall therefore endeavour to ascertain in what their notions of honour consist, and judge them upon their own principles. Their ideas of honour and justice do not very much differ from ours except in degree, they considering some things more honourable than we should, and others much less so: but they have one principle which to a greater or less extent is universally held among them, which is, that it is every man's duty to obey the orders of his superior chief in all instances, good or bad, unless it be to fight against a chief still superior; and even in this case it would not be actually dishonourable. If a chief, therefore, designs to assassinate another, it is the duty of his men to assist him to the utmost of their power, whether they think it right or not. If two or three combine together to take a ship, they may depend

upon their men's readiness, as a point of duty, to execute their intentions; and if they are ordered to kill every man on board, they will most assuredly do it if they possibly can: if they are desired to save every man's life, they will equally obey the order, by merely endeavouring to secure them, though perhaps at the risk of their own lives. Thus the crime of one man will appear to us Europeans to be extended to two or three hundred, although these perhaps may be only the unwilling instruments, obedient because it is their duty to be so: but let the matter rest here for a moment, whilst we endeavour to examine the degree of crime of which the chief is guilty, who is at the head of the conspiracy. In the first place, his own opinion, and that of his countrymen is, that it is no crime at all, that is to say, it is not what the gods will punish him for: he will however candidly acknowledge it to be wrong; he will say, he took the ship because Tonga, being a poor country, was in want of many useful things, which he supposed were in great plenty on board, and that he killed the crew that he might better effect his object: taking the ship he will call an act of ungenerous oppression: killing the men an act of harshness, but he will add, how could it be helped? we would

have saved the men if we could, but we did not dare to do it, for our own safety: but (sup. posing the chief addressing himself to Mr. Mariner in reference to the Port au Prince), "we might also have killed you and your surviving companions, as we were advised, lest the next ship hearing from you what had been done, might take revenge; but we have so good an opinion of the clemency and humanity (ofa) of the Papalangies, that we trust they will not take revenge: we will therefore treat you well and abide by the result." Such are their notions of the crime (or fault,) as it regards the chief; and we think it but fair and liberal to judge of a man's conduct according to his own notions of right and wrong, taking into account his opportunities of knowing better, and in this point of view, the natives of these islands are but mere infants in civilization and morality, (not from want of power, but opportunity of growth;) our sentiments towards these people, therefore, should be mild and liberal; our conduct generous and careful, or severe and rigorous, according to circumstances; whilst our better notions of morality will teach us not to be revengeful. In the mean while, we do not exculpate from all fault the men who obeyed their chief on the above occasion: they were

VOL. II.

M

guilty not because they obeyed, but because they obeyed with willingness, in hope of ob taining what to them were riches. In respect to the intended assassination of Captain Cook, every native of Tonga would have considered it, if it had taken place, a very base act, for which probably the gods would have punished them. Toobo Neuha's assassination of Toogoo Ahoo was esteemed rather a virtue than a crime; but Toobó Toa's assassination of Toobo Neuha was held a very atrocious act; offensive to the gods. An old Mataboole used to say, that useless and unprovoked murder was highly offensive to the gods; and that he never remembered a man guilty of it but who either lived unhappy, or came to an untimely end.

Theft is considered by them an act of meanness rather than a crime; and although some of the chiefs themselves have been known to be guilty of it on board ships, it is nevertheless not approved of. Their excuse is the strength of the temptation: the chiefs that would do it are, however, few.

From the above considerations, we are disposed to say, that the notions of the Tonga people, in respect to honour and justice, as we have above viewed them, are tolerably well de

fined, steady and universal; but that, in point of practice, both the chiefs and the people, taking them generally, are irregular and fickle; being in some respects exceedingly honourable and just, and in others the contrary, as a variety of causes may operate. In regard to these virtues, therefore, (in the sense in which we have here taken them,) they may be considered very faulty; though there are several admirable exceptions, whose characters become more splendid and meritorious by the contrast.

As being closely allied with principles of honour and justice, we shall now examine the character of these people, as it regards their opinion of one another; and here we shall find something greatly to admire, and much to be approved of. While we accuse them of treachery and cruelty, they as loudly ery out that we are calumniators and detractors: for no bad moral habit appears to a native of Tonga more ridiculous, depraved, and unjust, than publishing the faults of one's acquaintances and friends; for while it answers no profitable purpose, it does a great deal of mischief to the party who suffers; and as to downright calumny or false accusation, it appears to them more horrible than deliberate murder does to us: for it is