Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/369

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. valuable property would endanger his life : the axe, or the club, on some unlucky occasion, would deprive him of it for ever, and of his life too. The whale of which we have been speaking <is just found was, for the most part, in a very corrupted state; there were, however, some places where it was not quite so bad ; and as whale's flesh was rather a novelty, (and as novelty is often a provocative of appetite) the bwer orders managed to make a meal of it. About this time a ship arrived off the north- west coast of Vavaoo. She proved tobetheHope, Captain Chase, of New York. When Mr. Ma- riner heard the agreeable intelligence of her ar- rival, he was with Finow at the small island of Ofoo, on the eastern coast of Vavaoo. He im- mediately asked the king leave to go on board, who very readily and very kindly gave his per- mission. Several matabooles were with him, one of whom whispered something to the king, which Mr. Mariner imagining to be prejudicial to himself, endeavoured to distract Finow's at- tention by repeatedly thanking him for his li- beral conduct towards him, and expressing the grateful sense he entertained of his long con- tinued friendship and protection; assuring him that he had no other wish to leave the islands but what was prompted by the natural desire