Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/291

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 225 would inspire the Vavaoo chiefs with more con- fidence than if they were present in a body. During the time the cava was being served out, the king made a speech, addressed princi- pally to the chiefs of Felletoa, in which he ac- knowledged that they were not to be blamed for their fears and apprehensions as long as they believed him to be the treacherous cha- racter which his enemies had represented him to be; but he hoped that these calumnies were now at an end. He was willing, he said, to ex- cuse them for having fought in honour of the memory of their late chief Toobo Nuha, against his murderers, for if they had not done so, he should have considered them cowards; but as most of these murderers had now by their death expiated their crime, and as he himself, as he solemnly assured them, was perfectly innocent of that affair, the present peace, he was con- vinced, was a most honourable one to all par- ties. He then made the most solemn protesta- tions of the sincerity of his intentions towards them, and as a proof of his wish to avoid all future occasions of quarrel, he should send back all his people to the Hapai islands, except a few matabooles, who were to remain with him at Vavaoo, which, for the future, he should make his place of residence, out of the love and respect he had for them j whilst he should con- VOL. I. Q