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THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

APRIL, 1817.

ART. I. 1. A Chronological History of the Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean; illustrated with Charts and other Plates. By James Burney, Captain in the Royal Navy. 5 vols. 4to. 1813 and 1816.

2. An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, in the South Pacific Ocean, with an original Grammar and Vocabulary of their language. Compiled and arranged from the extensive Communications of Mr. William Mariner, several years resident in those islands. By John Martin, M.D. 2 vols. 8vo. 3. Transactions of the Missionary Society.

THE

1817.

HE first of these works is a masterly digest of the voyages in the South Sea, previous to those celebrated expeditions of discovery performed during the present reign. For such an undertaking the author possessed every requisite of local knowledge, as well as practical and theoretical acquirements. He accompanied Capt. Cook in his last two voyages, and the pupil was not unworthy of such a master. His book displays a rare union of nautical science and literary research; the manner is plain and seaman-like, as it should be; there is no affectation of any kind, and the liberal and humane spirit which it breathes is honourable to his profession and his country. The second work is one of the most interesting narratives which we have ever perused.

In one of our early Numbers* we noticed the narrative of a four years' residence at Tongataboo; collected from the communications of a quondam missionary, by the Rev. Mr. Pigott. Mr. Mariner has been fortunate in meeting with a more competent editor, and being himself an observant as well as a respectable man, his recollections, aided by the well-directed curiosity and indefatigable diligence of his friend, have produced the fullest and most satisfactory account of a savage or semi-savage people ever laid before the public.

William Mariner, in the fourteenth year of his age, engaged as captain's-clerk in the Port au Prince privateer and whaler, going under the immediate protection of the captain, who had served his apprenticeship to the sea under Mariner's father. The lad's education had been better than is usually bestowed on those who are designed for this way of life: he had learnt some Latin and more

* Vol. iii. p. 440.

VOL. XVII. NO. XXXIII.

French,

French, and had made much progress in history and geography for his age. His spirit was adventurous, mind susceptible, active and eager for knowledge, and his disposition good. In February, 1805, he sailed for the South Seas. After many of those buccaneering adventures which aggravate the evils of war, without, in the slightest degree, affecting its decision or accelerating its end, the captain died, and the ship, not being permitted to enter the close harbour at Owhyhee, because there was a sick man on board, and the natives were apprehensive of contagion, bore away for Otaheite-taking on board eight of the Sandwich islanders, as she was in want of hands on account of a leak. The leak increased alarmingly they missed Otaheite by reason of an adverse current, steered therefore for the Friendly islands, and at the end of November, 1806, anchored at the N. W. point of Lefooga-where Captain Cook had anchored in May, 1777.

The natives came immediately on board with a present of provisions: a Sandwich islander was with them, who spoke English. He had sailed in an American to Manilla and from thence to these islands, where he had taken up his abode. This man endeavoured to convince them that the natives were disposed towards them in the most friendly manner. One of his countrymen on board thought otherwise, declared his opinion that treachery was intended, and advised Mr. Brown, the whaling master, who had succeeded to the command of the vessel, to send all the natives out of the ship, except a few chiefs. Brown was an imperious, wrong-headed and wronghearted man, and instead of attending to this prudent counsel, threatened to flog the poor fellow who gave it. The next day was Sunday, and the men, as they had been accustomed on Sunday, at whatever place they had touched, asked leave to go on shore. Brown replied that they might go to hell if they pleased, but that they should not go on shore till the work was done on board, for he had ordered them to careen the vessel. Presently nineteen of the men went ashore in defiance of him, and some of them took their clothes, meaning never to return to the ship,-for Brown had made himself greatly disliked by his tyrannical and brutal conduct. The day did not pass over without danger, but as the men took the alarm in time, Brown was roused to some little exertion: he objected to have so many armed natives on board: two chiefs, who were at that time preparing to massacre the crew, exerted themselves to clear the ship at his remonstrance, and the devoted victims thus obtained one night's respite from their fate. On the following morning about 300 natives came on board, and Tooi Tooi, the Sandwich islander, who was the main agent in the conspiracy, invited Brown to go on shore: he complied immediately, and went unarmed. About half an hour afterwards, Mariner, who was writing in the steerage,

came

came up to the hatch for the sake of the light, to mend his pen. Looking up he saw Mr. Dixon, who was left in command, standing on a gun, and endeavouring, by signs, to prevent more of the natives from coming on board. Immediately they set up a loud cry, and one of them knocked him down with a club. Mariner turned about to run toward the gun-room, when a savage caught him by the hand; he disengaged himself, reached the gun-room, and finding the cooper there, they fled to the magazine, where, after a short consultation, they came to the resolution of revenging their com rades and procuring for themselves an easy death by blowing up the vessel. With this purpose the lad went back to the gun-room for flint and steel; but the boarding pikes had been thrown down the scuttle upon the arm-chest: he could not remove them without making a noise, which the savages would have heard, and therefore he returned to the magazine. The cooper was in great distress at the apprehension of immediate death:-Mariner, with a brave feeling, proposed that they should go upon deck and be killed at once while their enemies were hot with slaughter,—rather than be subjected to cooler cruelties. Accordingly he led the way, and seeing the Sandwicher, Tooi Tooi, and one of the chiefs in the cabin, lifted off the hatch, jumped into the cabin, presented his open hands to the Sandwicher, and addressing him by a word of friendly salutation among those islanders, asked if he meant to kill him, and said he was ready to die. Tooi Tooi promised him that he should not be hurt, for the chiefs were in possession of the ship, and taking him and the cooper under his protection, led them upon deck toward one of the chiefs who had conducted the enterprize.

A more frightful spectacle can scarcely be conceived than the deck presented a short squab' naked savage, about fifty years of age, sat upon the companion, with a seaman's jacket soaked in blood thrown over one shoulder, and his club, spattered with blood and brains, upon the other. A paralytic motion of one eye and one side of the mouth increased the frightfulness of his appearance. There were two and twenty dead bodies upon the deck, perfectly naked, laid side by side, and so dreadfully battered about the head that scarcely any of them could be recognized. A man counted them and reported their number, after which they were immediately thrown overboard. The savages were satisfied with their success, and abstained from any superfluous murders. They had spared two of the crew, and detaining the cooper on board they sent Mariner on shore under charge of a petty chief, who stript him of his shirt upon the way. The boy went with a sort of desperate indifference, prepared for whatever might befal him. Brown was lying dead upon the beach, and three of the mutineers were stretched in the same condition near a fire, where the natives were about to bake

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some hogs. They led Mariner away and stript him of his trowsers, exposing him thus naked to the sun, which blistered his skin shockingly. Some of the natives came up every now and then to examine him, and give scope to the cruel propensities of perverted human nature. They spat upon him, threw sticks and cocoa-shells at him which cut his head in several places, and led him about as fast as the soreness of his bare feet would enable him to walk. The first who took compassion upon him was a woman, who happening to pass by gave him an apron, with which he was permitted to cover himself. Weary at length with their brutal mockery his persecutors went into a hut to drink cava, and made him sit down in the corner, it being disrespectful to stand in the presence of a superior. While they were regaling themselves a man entered in haste and took him away: Finow, the king of the island, seeing the boy on board, had taken a liking to him; he fancied him to be the captain's son or perhaps a young chief of consequence in his own country, and had given orders to spare his life whatever other blood it might be necessary to shed in seizing the vessel.

When the poor boy was brought before Finow, foot sore, covered with dirt, his head wounded in many places and his skin blistered by the sun, the women who belonged to this savage chief uttered a general cry of compassion, and beat their breasts at seeing him. Finow put his nose to the boy's forehead,--which is a mark of friendly salutation; he was sent to wash himself at a pond, and was then anointed all over with sandal-wood oil, which alleviated the pain of his wounds and refreshed him greatly; a mat was given him to lie down, and being exhausted with fatigue and wretcheduess he presently fell fast asleep. About fourteen of the Port au Prince's crew had escaped from the massacre, they were employed to bring the ship close in shore; her carronades and powder were landed for Finow's use, and she was then burnt for her iron-work. Tooi Tooi advised Finow to put all the Englishmen to death, lest when another ship arrived they should tell their countrymen what had happened, and thus produce a dreadful vengeance. Fortunately for them Finow was too much a savage to comprehend the policy of this advice: what he had done appeared to him completely justifiable upon the ground of his own interest, and Mr. Mariner says, he thought that white people were of too generous and forgiving a temper to take revenge. He gave these men leave to build a vessel, and endeavour to reach Norfolk island; but happening to notch one of their axes at the work, he refused them the use of the tools any longer: all hopes of escape were therefore removed except from the arrival of some vessel; and resigning themselves to their fate they adapted themselves as well as they could to the manners of the country.

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