offered to the gods by the priest, with an appropriate address,* and is afterwards shared out among the chiefs. This spoliation is believed to be necessary for the welfare of the country; lest the gods should send a sickness among them, and cut them off, for infringing upon the great doctrine of their religion. This seems a very arbitrary law, and likely to have been invented for the purpose of plundering strangers, under the mask of religion. But although they strip all strangers, without distinction, that come within their power, in return they fit them out with other canoes, (entirely at the expense of the chiefs who shared the plunder; and supply them with so much of the produce of the island as may be necessary to support them in their way home; together with presents of their gnatoo, mats, tortoise-shell, &c.; and withal behave very kindly: but not one single article that has been taken from them, however small the value, is again returned, even with the most earnest entreaty. Cow Mooala's canoe was laden with sandal-wood, † esteemed a very rich commodity at Tonga, but not one splinter of it was ever returned to him; although the natives of Fotoona could make no use of it, not having adopted

This is the method of making offerings to the gods in Tonga; and, as Cow Mooala made no mention of any thing particular in this ceremony among the people of Fotoona, it is presumed to be conducted in the same way.

+ Sandal-wood is of the growth of one of the Fiji Islands, called Pau, and of only one spot upon this island, called Vooía. It has, indeed, been planted upon other of the Fiji Islands, but without coming to any state of perfection. It has also been transplanted to the Tonga Islands, but with as little success; for the wood thus produced possesses little or no scent, and consequently is unfit for their purpose.

the practice of oiling themselves. His canoe was dragged on shore, broken to pieces, and offered up to the gods; afterwards the planks were shared out among the chiefs, who devoted them to the purpose of building smaller canoes, one large canoe making four small ones. They seem to have no inclination to visit distant islands, and never therefore build large canoes for themselves. They consequently have no personal knowledge of any country but their own, except a few individuals among them, who have gone away with strangers from motives of curiosity.

Cow Mooala described their method of fighting (for it appears they cannot do without civil wars) which is conducted in two different modes, that is to say, with spears and with sharks' teeth. When a man pierces his enemy with a pike, he endeavours to lift him up from the ground on one end of it, or, if opportunity will allow, he calls some of his comrades to his assistance, who, thrusting their pikes also into him, they lift him high in the air, and carry him in triumph. The mode of fighting with sharks' teeth is as follows:-The teeth being fixed in three rows on the palm and fingers of a species of glove, made of the plaited bark of the heábo, and both hands being armed in this manner, every man endeavours to come to a close scuffle with his antagonist, and to tear open his bowels with these horrid weapons. The supreme chief, in Cow Mooala's time, was a man of remarkable bodily strength, and was always accustomed to fight with this sort of gauntlet in preference to the pike, not, however, to tear open the bowels of his enemy, but merely to catch a firmer hold of him whilst he threw him

on his face. He would then place his foot upon the small of his back, and, seizing fast hold of the hair of his head, so bend his spine as to break it. With little men or boys, however, he would not take so much trouble, but laying them across his knee, as one would a stick, break their backs without farther ceremony! By way of defence from the pikes of their adversaries, they wear on the left side a species of armour made of the husk of the cocoa-nut plaited thick, and stuffed and quilted on the inside with the loose husk, picked fine. This reaches from the axilla down to the hip. Their wars generally originate in quarrels about hereditary right, or the exaction of tribute.

Some time before Cow Mooala arrived, an European vessel, according to their description (or an American), came to an anchor there. The natives, as usual, put off in their canoes, with a view to take possession of her according to the authority with which they were invested by the gods. The crew readily allowed them to come on board, supposing them to be governed by the usual spirit of curiosity; but showed very strong symptoms of opposition when they began, without ceremony, to plunder, and opened such peals of thunder on them that they were obliged to jump overboard, and swim to their canoes with all expedition, sustaining the loss of forty men. If this account be true, it would argue that they had not seen a ship before, or they certainly would have known her power, and not have made such an attempt. There is no ascertaining when this happened, for the natives keep no account of time.

Mr Mariner does not know how long Cow Mooala remained at Fotoona, but it must have

been at least a twelvemonth, to have afforded him time to build another large canoe fit for his voyage; which having at length accomplished, he again set sail with his presents, and a sufficient quantity of provisions for his voyage, and directed his course for the Fiji Islands, for the purpose of laying in another cargo of sandal wood. He had now on board thirty-five of his own people, including fourteen or fifteen Tonga women, besides whom he had four male natives of Fotoona, who begged to go with him that they might visit distant countries. In his way he touched at the island of Lotooma (about a day's sail from Fotoona), a place noted for the peaceable disposition of the inhabitants, and where he was received with an uncommon degree of respect. As they were little accustomed to the appearance of strangers, they were greatly surprised at the sight of so large a canoe, and considered this chief and his men as hotooas (gods) or superior beings, and would not suffer them to land, till they had spread on the ground a large roll of gnatoo, which extended about fifty yards, reaching from the shore to the house prepared for them. At this island Cow Mooala remained but a short time. During his stay, however, the natives treated him with very great respect, and took him to see some bones which were supposed to have belonged once to an immense giant; about whom they relate a marvellous account, which is current at Tonga, as well as at Lotooma.

"At a period before men of common stature lived at Tonga, two enormous giants resided there, who, happening on some occasion to offend their god, he punished them by causing a scarcity on

all the Tonga Islands, which obliged them to go and seek food elsewhere. As they were vastly above the ordinary size of the sons of men nowa-days, they were able, with the greatest imaginable ease, to stride from one island to another, provided the distance was not more than about a couple of miles. At all events, their stature enabled them to wade through the sea without danger, the water in general not coming higher than their knees, and in the deepest places not higher than their hips. Thus situated, no alternative was left them but to splash through the water in search of a more plentiful soil. At length they came in sight of the island of Lotooma, and, viewing it at a distance with hungry eyes, one of them bethought himself, that, if this small island was ever 80 fruitful, it could not supply more food than would be sufficient for himself at one meal; he resolved therefore wisely, out of pure consideration for his own stomach, to make an end of his companion. This he accordingly did, but by what means, whether by drowning him, strangling him, or giving him a blow on the head, tradition does not say. When he arrived at Lotooma he was no doubt very hungry, but at the same time he felt himself so sleepy that he was resolved to lie down and take a nap, particularly as night was fast approaching, and to satisfy his hunger the next morning; and very lucky it was for the poor natives that he did so, (for it appears this island was inhabited at that time). He accordingly made a pillow of the island of Lotooma, and not choosing to lie in the water, he stretched his legs (for so the story goes) over to the island of Fotoona, making a sort of bridge from one place to the other. By and by