Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/287

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 221 He was, however, by no means deficient in policy, and he soon thought of a method. From time to time he held secret conferences with the priests, chiefly either upon religious sub- jects or upon political matters, as connected with the will of the gods. He spoke of his de- termination to remain at Vavaoo and prosecute the war till his enemies were destroyed ; then on a sudden, as if his heart for the moment relented, he painted in the most striking co- lours the evils of war, and how sorry he was « that the necessity of the case obliged him to punish his rebellious subjects with so dire an evil. He then represented, in the most lively colours, the blessings of peace, and on this side of the prospect touched his hearers so with the beauty of the description that they entreated him to endeavour to make a peace. . He then pretended to be inexorable, but always threw in something in favour of the Vavaoo people, so that the priests at length thought there was no question at all about the propriety and ho- nour of making a [peace, and that it was their duty to persuade him to do it, for when they were inspired they had the same sentiment, and of course they considered it to be the sentiment of the gods, and represented it to him as such ; when he, pretending to submit only because it was the divine will, left the matter entirely to