Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/254

188 The next morning, after the men had refreshed themselves, armed parties were sent out to cut reeds, for the purpose of building a fortress at Nëáfoo: Finow and his principal chiefs remained to lay out the plan, whilst others were employed in digging a ditch about fourteen feet wide and ten feet deep. The spot on which this fortress was planned out was so situated, that one side was close upon the sea-shore, on a steep rocky bank, and therefore required no further defence, for the enemy had no large canoes, having broken up all they had to make small ones, and with these it would be imprudent to venture as far as Neafoo, lest their retreat should be cut off by Finow's larger and swifter canoes. In the course of the day the fencing and ditch were tolerably well completed, so that the following night the greater part of the army slept on shore; but they were not without alarm, for about midnight, a small party of the enemy having come down to reconnoitre, looked through the openings of some part of the fencing that was not quite finished, and seeing several of the men sitting round a