Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/348

282 afforded him of revenging himself upon his enemies, by sacrificing a few of them. They were eighteen prisoners on board, of whom the greater part, before they arrived at the place where they were to be sunk, begged that the manner of their death might be changed to the more expeditious one of hav- ing their brains knocked out with a club, or their heads cleaved with an axe : this was granted them, and the work of execution was immediately begun. Having dispatched three in this way, it was proposed, for the sake of convenience, that the remainder, who begged to be thus favoured, should be taken to a neighbouring small island to be executed; which being agreed on, they disputed by the way who should kill such a one, and who an- other. Such was the conversation, not of war- riors, for knocking out brains was no new thing to them, but of others not so well versed in the art of destruction, who were heartily glad of this opportunity of exercising their skill without danger ; for, coward-like, they did not dare to attempt it in the field of battle. The victims being brought on shore, nine were dis- patched at nearly the same time, which, with the three killed in the canoe, made twelve, who desired this form of death. The remaining six being chiefs, and staunch warriors of superior