Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/253

Rh could not construct them a little lighter; or at least, as they had ingenuity enough to make the guns, they ought to have, they said, the ingenuity also to make legs for them to walk with.

Being arrived at Neafoo, the king, his chiefs, matabooles, Mr. Mariner, and some of the Englishmen, went on board the canoes to pass the night. Mr. Mariner now, as well as in numerous other instances, found the advantage of having an adopted mother, by whom he was provided with plenty of good food, consisting of cooked yams, ripe bananas, and raw fish. They had partaken of no food all the day, and even now not above thirty or forty, consisting of chiefs and matabooles, got any thing to eat, for the time was too far advanced, and the common men too fatigued, to cook yams enough for themselves that night; and as to raw fish, it was considered too good, and at that time too scarce, to give to them.