Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/31

Rh down all that he had seen and heard as his memory might spontaneously furnish it, in order that these materials might afterwards be made, from time to time, subjects of conversation, strict scrutiny, amplification, arrangement and composition. Not one of the ensuing pages has therefore been written without Mr. Mariner's presence, that he might be consulted in regard to every little circumstance or observation that could in the smallest degree affect the truth of the subject under consideration: and, in this way, it is presumed that a great deal more useful and interesting matter has been elicited than would, probably have occurred to him through the medium of his own unassisted reflections; for conversation calls to mind many things that would otherwise have escaped the memory, it constantly demands elucidations; one idea gives birth to another, until the whole subject lies completely unfolded to the mind.

With regard to arrangement: in the first place is related an account of the voyage of the Port au Prince, it being