Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/271

Rh upon it: hoping that if he did not succeed in procuring some yams, he should at least be able to bring the enemy to a general engagement. With this view he picked out some of the choicest of his men, about eighty in number, and gave them orders to conceal themselves, during the night, in a thicket close to the enemy's fortress, and on one side of the road. Finow in the mean while proceeded with a party of six hundred towards Felletoa. When he arrived within a quarter of a mile of the fort, it being yet dark, he took up his station in a field of high grass, situated in a valley, which could not be seen by the enemy. He then dispatched a hundred men to dig up the yams, and fifty more, under the command of Hala Api Api, (an adopted son of the late Toobó Nuha,) to the fortress, with a view of enticing the enemy out, and leading them beyond the ambuscade. The enemy, however, kept close within his entrenchments. The fact was, there were not many men in the place, at least not great warriors, the rest having gone to another part of the island to launch a large canoe, for the purpose of bringing it round to the garrison to break up and make small ones of. But as soon as the enemy discovered Hala Api Api, they sent down to their companions at the further side of the island, to inform them of what