Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/374

308 obliged to change his course, and make for Hamoa, (the Navigator's islands;) but the wind soon increasing to a heavy gale, drifted him to the island of Fotoona, situated to the north-west of Hamoa. A& soon as the natives of this place observed his approach, a number of small canoes (for they were not in possession of sailing canoes) came from the shore to meet him ; and, consistently with the laws and cus- toms of the island, took possession of his canoe, and all his property. It forms an important part of the religion of this island to consider every thing that arrives there, whether of great or little value, as the property of their gods ; no matter whether it be a large canoe, or a log of wood. It is first offered to the gods by the priest, with an appropriate address*, and is afterwards shared out among the chiefs. This spoliation is believed to be necessary for the welfare of the country ; lest the gods should send a sickness among them, and cut them off, for infringing upon this great doctrine of their religion. This seems a very arbitrary law, and likely to have been invented for the purpose of plundering strangers, under the mask of reli- Tonga; and, as Cow Mooala made no piention of any thing particular in this ceremony, among the people of Fotoona, it is presumed to be conducted in the same way.
 * This is the method of making offerings to the gods in