Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/144

78 waiting ready to engage them. Here they had an obstinate but decisive battle, which terminated in favour of Finow. Thus was the conquest of all the Hapai islands secured, and of which Finow was acknowledged king. In this battle a number of chiefs and matabooles (ministers and attendants of chiefs) were taken prisoners, all of whom having been in the immediate service of the late king, were, by the orders of Finow, put to death in various ways. Some were sent on board old and useless canoes, which were then scuttled, and immediately sunk; others were taken three or four leagues out to sea, and being put in old leaky canoes, and tied hand and foot, were left gradually to meet their fate. Those against whom Finow entertained the greatest inveteracy were taken to the island of Lofanga, and there tied naked to stakes driven in the ground, or to the trunks of trees, and left to starve to death: whilst they were in this miserable situation, it is painful to relate the cruelty exercised towards them by some of the natives of the place; it must, however, be acknowledged that the ill treatment they received was chiefly at the hands of thoughtless boys, who would stick sharp splinters of wood into their bodies, and tantalize them by showing them provisions, without giving them any. Notwithstanding their exposure to the raging heat