Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/372

306 exceedingly mortifying, and nothing could be worse timed. He endeavoured to laugh at their humour; and by way of apology for his neglect, he told them that he was so disappointed at not finding the ship bound for his own country, that he had forgotten to ask for some presents: and besides, that he knew she had very few of those things on board, as she came from a country where they were scarce. Finow endeavoured to console him for his disappointment, assuring him in the kindest manner that he should go by the next ship bound to his own country. Some women informed Mr. Mariner that the matabooles had endeavoured to persuade Finow to retain him; but the king replied, that he and his companions had already suffered enough in having the ship taken from them, and being themselves kept so long from their native country, and that he did not think as the matabooles did, that it was the disposition of the Papalangis to return and take revenge! Another month now elapsed without any important circumstance occurring, when there arrived from the Fiji islands four canoes, bringing a Tonga mataboole, named Cow Mooala and his retinue, who had been absent from Tonga many years: but a narrative of this person's adventures in foreign islands will best form a chapter of itself.