tion and accent. When Higgins sang and exhibited some Tonga dances in presence of several of my friends, whilst Mr Mariner also sang and beat time according to the native method, * we were struck with the accuracy of the description of these amusements in the "Voyages of Captain Cook."

But to be brief, however satisfied I have hitherto been with Mr Mariner's details, I issue this second edition with a twofold confidence; for now I can assure the candid reader, that, endeavouring to divest my mind of all prejudices, I have carefully and assiduously questioned Jeremiah Higgins, at various times, with regard to the events at the Tonga Islands while he was there, and the manners and customs of the people, and have always found his answers so consonant and agree

*To give greater effect to the scene, Mr Mariner was dressed as represented in the frontispiece, and Higgins's only apparel was a sort of circular apron, made of loose strips of matting very thickly set, and at the top plaited so as to form a band round the lower waist, from which the strips hung down nearly to the knees. This was to represent the apron of the leaves of the chi tree, used by the natives on such occasions. He had also a wreath of artificial flowers round the head, and another round the neck. He is beautifully tattowed from the hips nearly to the knees, agreeably to the custom of the Tonga people. Upon them it appears of a black colour, but upon a white man it causes the skin to resemble soft blue satin. The neatness, and, I might almost say, the mathematical precision with which the pattern is executed, far surpasses the expectation of all who see it for the first time.

able, as far as they went, with Mr Mariner's accounts, that I feel quite certain of the truth of the great outlines of the matter contained in the following sheets, and the highest degree of confidence in all the details.

Such is the additional testimony which the present work has obtained; and I flatter myself, that I have used all the means within my reach to render it, if possible, worthy of the honour which public approbation has already bestowed upon it.

27, BASINGHALL-STREET,

4th March 1818.

J. MARTIN.

INTRODUCTION.

THE cluster of Islands whose inhabitants constitute the subject of the present work, is that to which Captain Cook gave the epithet "Friendly." His chart of the Friendly * Islands, however, does not include Vavaoo, which he did not visit; and as this island is the largest, and now comparaStively the most important of all those belonging to the same archipelago, which, in his time, were under the same government, and still speak precisely the same language, and follow the same customs, we have thought it expedient to denote them all by one common name, which the natives themselves give them, viz. “ Tonga," or, the Tonga Islands. †

* He gave them this name on account of the apparent amicable disposition of the natives towards him; but, in reality, their intention was to massacre him and his friends, and take the two ships, as they did afterwards the Port au Prince. See Vol. II.

†These islands, therefore, consist of the island of Tonga, which gives name to the whole, the cluster called the Hapai islands, and the island of Vavaoo. See the Мар.

A complete account of all the different tribes inhabiting the islands of the Pacific Ocean would no doubt form a most interesting portion of human history, and supply, in a great measure, that of the earlier ages of mankind, so much obscured as it is by romance and fabulous traditions. The infancy of human society in our times probably differs not much, except in local circumstances, from that which existed four thousand years ago;-by a scrupulous and attentive examination of the present, therefore, we may be able to form some tolerable judgment of the past. And this is not, I apprehend, a matter of idle curiosity or of useless knowledge, as some have the presumption to cry out;-for all that regards man, whether it be good or evil, is highly interesting to man ;-the good, that we may either adopt or improve ;—the evil, that we may either avoid or remedy:-and as the history of the human individual cannot be perfectly understood, without examining him in his infancy, —so a true knowledge of the species in a state of society, is not to be thoroughly and easily acquired, without a suitable investigation into the incipient stages of the social compact. There it is that the passions of man are more openly and strongly developed,—his imaginations and prejudices less concealed by artificial coverings, and his actions, generally speaking, under much less

restraint. Moreover, as the education of children ought, in one point of view, to be chiefly founded upon a knowledge of their notions and habits, so ought all attempts at civilization (which is only another kind of education) to be built upon our acquaintance with the customs and modes of thinking of the people on whom we wish to superinduce new trains of habits and sentiments,—so that we may educate or lead them out of bad into better,from imperfection towards perfection. It is in morals much the same as in physics; if we would alter the qualities of a substance, we must first examine what those qualities are, that we may see in what way they are best capable of being changed. It is true, by hard labour with the hammer, we may bend a piece of cold iron; but observation and experience teach us, that at a high temperature this metal becomes so soft, we can fashion it as we please.

Impressed with these considerations, I had long thought it a great desideratum to obtain, if possible, an intimate and domestic history of an uncivilized people. I mean such a history as would introduce the reader not only to a familiar acquaintance with their form of government, their religion, their traditions,-but with the genius of their language, their intellectual and moral character, their ordinary discourses, sentiments and habits.