Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/463

Rh THE TONGA ISLANDS. 397 peared elated at this circumstance, he would have been thought a man of a weak mind, little calculated to be a supreme chief: whereas the character of such a personage should be, m their estimation, (and very rightly too,) that of superiority over the influence of petty passions, and such trifling emotions as are fit only for the vulgar tribe of mankind. As soon as all the cava was served out and drunk, Finow addressed the company to the following purport. « Listen to me, chiefs and warriors! If " any among you are discontented with the " present state of affairs,— now is the time to go " to Hapai; for no man shall remain at Vavaoo « with a mind discontented and wandering to other places. I have seen with sorrow the " wide destruction occasioned by the unceasing 'malai: we have indeed been doing a great «* there is nobody to cultivate it: had we re- " mained peaceful, it would have been populous " still: the principal chiefs and warriors are « fallen, and we must be contented with the " is not life already too short? Is it not a noble " characteristic in a man to remain happy and peaceful in his station? What folly then to It
 * ^ war carried on by the chief now lying in the
 * deal, but what is the result?— the land is de-
 * populated 1 it is overgrown with weeds, and
 * ' society of the lower class. What madness!