was going forward, sit 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 habits 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 had been among the inhabitants of the Feejee islands, about 120 leagues to the westward; for having been in the habit of visiting these islands for sandal wood, &c. they occasiona assisted one or other of the warlike parties against the enemy. The bows and arrows which before that period had been in use among 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 soon 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 this missile weapon. The also imitated them by degrees in the practice of painting their faces, and using 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 a few young chiefs and their adherents, who had been at the Feejee islands. Captain Cook describes 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 Neuha. None of the oldest natives could give any account of their first discovery of the Feejee islands, but say they went to the Feejee islands before the natives of those islands came to them: perhaps their canoes were drifted there by strong 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 Feejee 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 Feejee 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, get 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

* It must be observed that Tonga is the name of one of the largest of the Friendly 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 taken in this latter sense wherever the words " island of" are not used before it.

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 things, for they were all independent chiefs, but 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 rea lily enter into their views, they put it out of his power to discover them, by dispatching him without farther ceremony.

This chief and his companions being arrived at the Feejee islands, employed themselves in the way suitable to their inclinations; 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 at the Feejee islands about two years and a half, towards the end of which period they were not contented with joining