Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/229

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 163 gloiy and honour, telling them at the same time, that death was a thing to be despised, — not to be feared by a brave man, whose name would still live with a lasting life, when his body was buried in the dust. He then dis-r missed them, with orders that those belonging to the northern islands might immediately re- turn home, but were shortly to proceed to Haano, the northernmost island of all the Ha- pais, and there to wait the arrival of him and all his southern forces on their way to Vavaoo. About this time a circumstance happened, which deserves in a particular manner to be re- corded, because it evinces a disposition in the natives to act with more justice, mercy, and discrimination, than what one might otherwise be tempted to expect. Two boys, about four- teen years of age, viz. Thomas Eversfield, an Englishman, and John Roberts, a black native of Tortola, (both belonging to the Port au Prince,) were detected stealing a bale of gnatoo from a consecrated house. If they had been natives, they would instantly have been pu- nished with death : but the chiefs and mata- booles took the matter into consideration, and resolved, that, as they were foreigners, and so young and thoughtless, the offence, this time, should be overlooked. Nevertheless, to ap- pease the anger of the god, to whom the house