Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/363

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 297 in any way without Mr. Manner's consent, who was to regulate every thing regarding it just as he pleased, and was henceforth to con- sider it as his property, together with all the persons who worked on it, consisting of thir- teen men and eight women. To these the king gave orders they should pay the same attention and respect to Mr. Mariner as to himself or their former chief ; he moreover informed the matooa, or overseer, that he had invested Mr. Mariner with full power to dispatch any of them witk the club that failed in their duty, or neglected in any respect to shew proper attention to their new master. To this, in the usual form, they all returned thanks to the king for the new chief he had been pleased to appoint over them, and expressed their hopes that they should never deserve punishment by any want of respect towards the stranger chief.'* As soon as Mr. Mariner entered upon his new pos- sessions, he gave orders to get ready a large bale of gnatoo, which he sent to Finow as a present. About this time Mr. Mariner was very near being devoured by a shark. One of his servants that worked upon the plantation had laid pots about four feet deep in the water for the pur- pose of catching cray-fish, and Mr. Mariner one afternoon dived down to examine them, in