Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/146

80 from their hiding-places. This mode of warfare so exasperated Finow, who was not on such occasions of the mildest temper, that he gave orders that all prisoners who were chiefs should be reserved for future and exemplary punishment. The contest lasted about fourteen or fifteen days, during which time the two chiefs separated, and scoured the island all over, conquering wherever they met with opposition. At length Voona, the chief of Vavaoo, having fled to Hamoa (the Navigator's islands) with a canoe full of other chiefs, Finow found himself master of the whole place, and was declared king, but he gave up the government of it to Toobó Nuha, as a sort of viceroy, to pay him an annual tribute. The prisoners, at least all that were chiefs, were punished and put to death by means too revolting to the feelings to mention. All affairs being settled at Vavaoo, Finow returned to the Hapai islands, to meditate future attempts upon the island of Tonga.

In the mean time affairs went on very badly at Tonga: Toogoo Ahoo left neither son nor brother to succeed him; but he had several distant relations, who put in claims for the sovereignty: thus was a violent civil contention induced, and the island was soon divided into several petty states. In the course of a little time, each party had built a fort for itself, so