Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/40

xxxii As it is a matter of the highest importance that Mr. Mariner^s qualifications as a narrator of what he had seen and heard should be known to the public, in order that a proper judgment may be formed of the degree of credit to be attached to the present volumes, I shall here give a short account of his education and of his habits, as far as they may bear more or less upon the subject in question.

His father, Mr. Magnus Mariner, who is still living, was formerly the owner of a hired armed vessel, of which he was also the commander, and served in this capacity under Lord Cornwallis, in the American war. About that period, having sustained some severe losses in the American trade, he returned to England, married, and resided in London. He has had several children, the second of whom is William, the subject of our present memoir, who was born at Highbury Place, Islington, September 10, 1791. At an early age his father sent him to Mr. Mitchel's