into rolls, to be used as shot, and directed the native carpenters to mount the carronades upon new carriages with high wheels.

While these preparations were going forward, and the natives were busily engaged in repairing their canoes and collecting weapons for the war, Finow asked Mr. Mariner whether he had a mother living, and being answered in the affirmative, seemed to be touched with compassion. He then made one of his wives adopt him as her son, telling him he need only apply to her if he wanted any thing to make his situation more comfortable, and that it was in her power to procure for him whatever he might reasonably desire. Her conduct towards him was, from that time, as if he had been her own child. Power and ambition, and the habits of savage life, had made Finow a monster of cruelty and falsehood, for all circumstances had tended thus to pervert his strong intellect; but monster as he was, he had many great qualities and some good ones. Little did he imagine when, in directing the massacre of the ship's crew, he gave orders to spare a boy whose appearance and youth had excited his compassion, that by that boy's means his life and actions should be made known throughout the civilized world, and perhaps to the latest posterity: for Finow is not one of those men whose history is forgotten as soon as read,-his character is strongly marked and prominent, one of those which in future ages will stand alone for remembrance. There is a portrait of this remarkable man in Labillardière's Account of D'Entrecasteaux' Voyage. He happens also to be described in the Journal of one of Captain Cook's officers, which is now before us: Finow," says the writer, appeared to be about twenty-five years of age, a tall, handsome man: he had much fire and vivacity, with a degree of wildness in his countenance that well tallied with our idea of an Indian warrior, and he was one of the most active men I have ever seen. The western part of Tongataboo, with Anamooka, the Hapai islands, and all the islands to the northward, were under his jurisdiction. But what gave him more consequence was his spirit, activity, and his post as general. Whenever the people of Tongataboo went to war, they were headed by him. His followers were numerous, and more attached to him than those of any chief; in short, he was by much the most popular man among the islands. Nevertheless, Finow, with all his good qualities, was tainted with a degree of rapaciousness that made him guilty of actions rather bordering on meanness and dishonesty, which, I believe, he was chiefly tempted to from a desire of being liberal to his adherents.' Mr. Mariner and his friendly editor will read this description of their hero in his youth with much interest.

other

Before the expedition set sail there occurred an instance of that utter disregard of human life by which all such men as Finow and Buonaparte

Buonaparte are distinguished. A woman, whose child, according to the accursed custom of these islands, had been strangled as an offering to the gods for the recovery of his sick father, lost her senses in consequence of the shocking act. All persons wished her dead, not so much because her existence was miserable to herself, as because it was mournful for others to behold her. Finow desired Mr. Mariner to shoot her, for the sake of putting her out of the way, and seeing at the same time the effect of a musket shot; but the boy replied with proper feeling, that though willing to risk his life in the king's service against his enemies, it was contrary to his own religion, and to the laws of the country in which he was born, to destroy an innocent fellow-creature in cold blood. The answer excited no displeasure, and undoubtedly tended to raise the lad in Finow's esteem, but one of the Sandwichers was ordered a few days after to commit the murder. All being ready for the expedition, about one hundred and seventy large canoes sailed from the Hapai islands and Vavaoo against Tonga.

The name of this island (the Amsterdam of Tasman) has hitherto been written Tongataboo, but taboo is a distinct word, the meaning of which is well known, and which here designates Tonga as the Sacred Island. Perhaps the long state of peace which this people are said to have here enjoyed, before the fashion of war was imported from their Feejee neighbours, may have been owing to the superstition which this name implies: for there were two separate authorities here, the sacerdotal and the secular, as in Japan. Tooitonga, or Chief of Tonga, was an hereditary title, the possessor of which was believed to be descended from one of the chief gods; but whether the race began by a divine or mortal mother they pretend not to determine. Veachi was the head of another such sacred family. Both these personages were superior in rank to the king by reason of their descent; to which, indeed, such respect is paid in these islands, that if the How meets a chief of nobler family than himself, he must sit down on the ground till the other has passed him. This explains Captain Cook's supposition that Finow had deceived him concerning his authority, because that chief appeared as an inferior in Fatafehe's presence,― that being the family name of the Tooitonga. It may be collected from the account in the Missionary* Voyage, that the Tooitonga formerly possessed civil as well as religious authority. Toogoo Ahoo was the first secular chief who resisted this, and by force of arms destroyed a power which rested wholly upon public opinion. This revolution may facilitate the introduction of Christianity into these islands, by weakening the superstition of the natives, and of

* Page 252, 274, first edition.

that

that class of men who are interested in upholding it. But hitherto the effects have been dreadful. While the priestly system of government continued, intestine wars are said to have been unknown among them. Tasmau saw no weapons among them; and in Valentyn's account of the first discovery, it is said, that except an inclination to pilfering, they seemed to have no other evil in their mind: Dr. Martin even believes that they learnt the practice of war from the Feejees. Certain, however, it is, that they had enjoyed many generations of peace. The beautiful state in which the islands were found on their first discovery in 1642, by Cook after an interval of one hundred and thirty years, and by the Missionaries in 1797, confirms, in this point, the account which Mr. Mariner received from the people themselves. Toogoo Ahoo paid dearly for the brief authority which he had enlarged by breaking their sacred spell, and from the hour when he effected this unhappy revolution, these islands have been the scene of slaughter, famine, and every imaginable horror.

One superstition remained in full force when Finow made this his most formidable attempt upon Tonga. On the western shore of that island is a piece of ground about half a mile square, where from time immemorial the greatest chiefs have been buried; on this account it is considered sacred; no person may be prevented from landing there, and if the most inveterate enemies should meet there, they must restrain their hatred, on pain of the displeasure of the gods, to be manifested by some great calamity, or by untimely death. Here Finow landed with several of his chiefs to perform a ceremony at his father's grave. All who attended put on mats instead of their usual dress, and wreaths* of the leaves of the Ifi-tree round their necks, as significant of respect and humility. They sat down before the grave cross-legged, beating their cheeks for half a minute. One of the Matabooles (the companions, counsellors, and ministers of the chiefs) then addressed the spirit of the dead, invoking him to favour and protect Finow: He comes to battle hoping he is not doing wrong; he has always held Tooitonga in the highest respect, and has attended to all religious ceremonies with exactness.' Pieces of cava root were then laid as an offering before the grave. Meantime the army were painting their faces and bodies for battle in their canoes, and the enemy on shore ran up and down the beach with furious gestures and shouts of defiance, splashing up the water with their clubs, brandishing them in the air, and flourishing their spears ;- -a striking scene when contrasted with the inviolableness of the burial ground and the rites which were paid to the dead.

In one of the prints in Valentyn, a man is represented with a Vandyke ruff of leaves round his neck.

Having performed this ceremony, Finow and his adherents returned to their canoes, and the whole fleet proceeded against Nioocalofa, the strongest fortress in the island. It was situated near the shore, occupied about four or five acres, and consisted of two circular fencings, with a ditch on the outside of each, about twelve feet deep and broad. The fencing was composed of reeds strongly inwoven and fastened by something like what seamen call sennit, made of the coco husk, to upright posts from six to nine inches in diameter, and planted at intervals of a foot and a half. The reed-work is about nine feet high, the posts about ten. The entrances are all secured by horizontal sliding pieces of wood, and over them, as well as at other places, at intervals of from forty to fifty feet, projecting platforms are formed; where the warriors, being protected in front and half way on either side by a reedwork of their own height, discharge their weapons through loop holes. Till this time Finow had never been able to take one of these fortresses, such perfect security did they afford to the inhabitants when they were resolutely defended against-enemies no better armed than themselves. But against European weapons they were miserably ineffectual. The carronades produced so little apparent effect upon the reed-work, that Finow expressed his disappointment to Mr. Mariner;-he presently found that the besieged relaxed in their defence, the entrances were forced with little resistance, and when Finow beheld the mangled limbs and bodies with which the interior was strewn, he acknowledged his astonishment at the havoc which these dreadful instruments of destruction had made. About three hundred and fifty persons were lying dead, and the prisoners declared that the balls instead of proceeding straight forward when they entered a house, seemed to search about as if seeking for men to kill. Few prisoners were taken: for men, women, and children were indiscriminately massacred by the clubs of these ferocious savages; and boys who followed the expedition, as if serving their apprenticeship to war, ran their spears into those who were lying helpless upon the ground, and tormented the wounded and dying. In like manner among the Guaranies of Paraguay, when a prisoner had been felled by the butcher at one of their cannibal feasts, children were put to hammer at his head with little hatchets that they might learn how to kill their enemies. Four centuries have not elapsed since a like practice was pursued in Europe, in the highest rank, and among a people who then, as now, conceived themselves the most polished of all nations. Monstrelet tells that when the young Count de St. Pol was entered a warrior, 'his uncle made him slay several, in which he took much delight,' and the reader who remembers this will not take much compassion

compassion for that Count de St. Pol when he was brought to the scaffold. Four centuries we may hope will produce a greater amelioration in Tonga than they have done in France.

The fortress was set on fire and totally destroyed. Had Finow pursued his victory, the whole island would probably have submitted, while the dismay was fresh with which his artillery had struck them. But he retired to an island which is separated from Tonga by a narrow reef, and there consulted the gods. This ceremony is connected with a curious article of faith. It is believed in these islands that the gods frequently act immediately upon individuals, taking possession of their minds. Hysterical weeping and fainting in a woman is imputed to the direct agency of the gods, who are supposed to be accusing the patient at such time of having neglected some religious duty. A sudden depression of spirit accompanied with tears is ascribed to the same cause. This opinion has produced some extraordinary cases: A young chief, who was remarkable for his personal beauty, became on a sudden exceedingly low-spirited, fainted away, and when his senses returned found himself very ill: according to their persuasion it was a clear case of inspiration. He was taken to the house of a priest, where the sick are always carried, that the will of the gods may be known; and the priest is understood to become immediately inspired on the patient's account, and to remain so as long as the sick person continues with him. In this state of professional inspiration, the practitioner told the chief that it was the spirit of a woman which possessed him; she had died two years before, and was now in Bolotoo, their island of the Happy; she was deeply in love with him, she wished him to die that she might enjoy his company, and die in the course of a few days he would. The patient replied that he had indeed been visited by a female figure two or three successive nights in his sleep, and though he knew not who she was, had begun to suspect that she possessed him: two days afterwards he fulfilled the prediction, as might be expected. Mr. Mariner was present when the priest foretold his death. A more extraordinary case is that of Finow's son, a man whose mind seems fitted for civilization, and his heart for Christianity. He declares that he is sometimes possessed by the spirit of Toogoo Ahoo, whom his father murdered; at such times, he says, he becomes restless, uncomfortable, agitated, and in a glow of heat; scarcely feeling his own personal identity, but rather as if his own natural mind was suspended, and another had taken its place, perfectly sensible of surrounding objects, but his thoughts wandering upon strange and unusual things. Mr. Mariner asked him how he knew it was Toogoo Ahoo; his answer was—' There's a fool! how can I tell you how I knew it? I felt and knew it was so

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