Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/345

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 279 his seat next to him : and, after a while, asked him for his spear, that he might examine the head of it ; which having got into his pos- session, he watched an opportunity, and threw it suddenly away : in a moment his enemies were upon him ; but he sprang from the ground Hke an enraged lion, and burst away from them repeatedly, with such prodigious strength, that it was with the greatest difficulty they could bind and secure him. They then took their prisoner down to the sea-coast, and put him on board a canoe, to be drowned with the rest in the afternoon. These transactions happened between (about) eight and ten in the morning ; after which all in some cases he was obliged to conform, where he would willingly have been excused, upon the principle, that of two evils the least is to be chosen. To an honest mind it is always an ungrateful task to use any species of deception, Mr. Mariner was in the service of the king : the latter thought proper to secure certain persons, among whom Avas one who could not easily have been taken without Mr. Ma- riner's assistance ; that is to say, without bloodshed and a loss of lives. The king was on all occasions his friend and protector J he felt it therefore his duty to conform to his views, where there appeared nothing intrinsically bad. Had he known what would have been the fate of Cacahoo, viz. to be condemned without trial, — let the consequences be what they might, he would not have submitted ; and, in that case, by losing Finow's friendship, and incurring his displeasure, he would not, in all probability, have lived for us to have heard of him.