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. Tasman 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

by

by a kind of consciousness: my mind told me it was Toogoo Ahoo.' Finow himself, though he was an unbeliever, was yet inspired by the spirit of Moomooi, one of their late kings.

These visitations are not invoked by the persons who are subject to them, though there are some who have their mind and body so much under command that they can induce the fit by volition. Among the priests it is of course the secret of their craft; and when Finow on this occasion consulted the gods, the usual preparations were made. A hog was killed and prepared on the eve, and carried, with a basket of yams and two bunches of ripe plantains, the next morning, to the place where the priest happened to be. The matabooles form a circle round him, and the chiefs sit behind them indiscriminately among the people-their religion, in this instance, acknowledging the common nature of all ranks and classes, notwithstanding the monstrous tenet that the chiefs alone are gifted with immortal souls, the lower classes being like the beasts who perish. As soon as they are all seated, the priest surrenders himself immediately to the inspiration. He sits perfectly still, with his eyes cast down, and his hands clasped before him. If the matabooles consult him while the food is shared out, he remains still, with his eyes cast down, and frequently will not answer a word till the repast is finished, and the cava too. When he begins to speak, it is in a low and unusual voice, which gradually rises to its natural pitch, or above it, and he speaks in the character of the god. This is generally done without any apparent emotion; but sometimes his whole countenance becomes inflamed, his whole frame agitated, the sweat starts on his forehead, his lips turn black and are convulsed, he weeps profusely, his breast heaves, and his utterance is choked. Before and after this paroxysm, Mr. Mariner says, he often eats as much as four hungry men could devour under other circumstances. When the fit is over, he takes up a club, and after many gesticulations strikes the ground with it, upon which the god immediately leaves him.

The advice of the gods was, that Finow should rebuild the colo, or fortress, which he had destroyed. While he was thus occupied, some skirmishes took place, and some of his chiefs, who had learned the Feejee fashion, proposed to kill and eat the prisoners, which was accordingly done, some thinking it a proper habit to acquire in war, and others reconciling themselves to it because provisions were scarce. When the fort was finished, Finow entrusted it to a neighbouring chief, who had acknowledged him king of Tonga: he was desirous of returning to the Hapai islands to perform a ceremony of great importance, and the gods admonished him not to delay. He did not rely upon the fidelity of the Tonga chief sufficiently to leave a hundred men in garrison with him, as he had at first intended,

and

and it was well he did not, for as soon as he was fairly on his voyage, the chief set fire to the fortress, in order that Finow might see the conflagration. Bitterly enraged as he was, his present duty did not allow him to return to take revenge. The ceremony which required his presence was one consequent upon the death of Tooitonga, the religious chief; when that event takes place, there is such a consumption of food in feasting for nearly a month, that hogs, fowls, and cocoanuts are tabooed for all except great chiefs, for about eight months afterwards, on pain of death, that by this voluntary privation time may be given to repair the previous waste. This taboo was now to be taken off, by a large slaughter of hogs, and a ridiculous custom of carrying them when baked whole from one place to another.

Provided as Finow was with artillery, and Europeans to serve it, he might now have resumed his attempts upon Tonga, and reduced all its chiefs to submission; but the perpetration of a new crime led to consequences which prevented him from attaining the great object of his ambition. There was in his service a natural son of the late How, by name Toobo Toa: this person had directed the conspiracy for seizing the Port au Prince, an action which sufficiently proved the ferocity and the treachery of his character. He had made a vow never to drink the milk of the cocoa-nut out of the shell till he had revenged his father's murder upon Toobo Neuha : it was to effect this object that he had joined Finow, though that chief had assisted in the assassination, and reaped the fruit of it: vengeance was his heart's desire, but the manner in which he sought it indicates a fiendish refinement of wickedness, such as has been sometimes portrayed in fiction, but happily for human nature is not often exemplified in real life. He made Finow the instrument of his vengeance; and having by repeated insinuations infused a suspicion of his brother, at length he proposed that he should be assassinated. Toobo Neuha was warned of his danger. He replied, Finow is my brother, he is my superior chief, he is king of these islands, and I pay him tribute: my life is at his disposal, and he is welcome to take it, for it is better to die than to live innocent and yet be thought capable of treachery.' Perhaps, well as he knew the remorseless character of his brother, he confided in his own innocence and frankness, and did not think him capable of so gratuitous and impolitic a crime. A plan was laid for his murder, with Finow's knowledge and connivance, and Toobo Neuha was killed, while his treacherous brother made only a feigned attempt to defend him. Toobo Toa was the leader of the assassins, one of whom had motives for the action as strong as his own: this person repeatedly struck the dead body, and exclaimed, 'The time of vengeance is come!-thou hast lived long enough in ease and enjoyment, thou murderer of my father! I would have declared my feel