An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands

Front matter

ACCOUNT

OF THE

TONGA ISLANDS.

Preface to the Second Edition

PREFACE

TO THE

SECOND EDITION.

The flattering reception with which the present work has already been honoured by a liberal public, and the appearance of a French translation of it at Paris, in November last, are convincing proofs of the interest, at least, which the subject has excited. Whilst preparing this second edition, it has been my good fortune to meet with an additional weight of testimony in favour of the facts related; and not to detain the reader with unnecessary matter, I shall at once lay open the source of this new proof of the strict fidelity of Mr. Mariner's representations. Jeremiah Higgins, a young man belonging to the crew of the Port au Prince made his escape from the Tonga Islands about thirteen months before Mr. Mariner, that is to say, after a residence there of two years and eleven months. Being very young, he was one of the first who acquired a tolerable knowledge of the language; he practised their dances, and learned their songs;—and although he had not the advantage of those better opportunities which fell in Mr. Mariner's way, and consequently is not so intimately acquainted, in certain points of view, with the political sentiments, and moral notions and habits especially of the higher classes of the natives, which the superior education of the latter, as well as his relative condition among the Tonga chiefs, rendered him more apt to acquire;—still, the information obtained from Higgins must undoubtedly be considered valuable, if only regarded as generally corroborative, and in a few instances somewhat corrective of Mr. Mariner's statements.

For three or four years (until December last) Jeremiah resided with his father, an old inhabitant of the town of Aylesbury, a man well known, and much respected; and in the employ of many farmers in the county as a hay-binder. Some time after the publication of the first edition of the present work, a copy was sent to Jeremiah, with a request, that he would particularly remark and make a memorandum of whatever he conceived not to be correctly stated. In the month of November last, Mr. Higgins, the father, happening to be in town upon some business, called to inform me, that his son had been exceedingly pleased with the perusal of the work, particularly as it served to corroborate many things which he had previously related to his friends and neighbours, and to which he had reason to think they did not always give the credit that was due; insomuch that he began to be heartily tired of answering their numerous inquiries. Among those to whom he had given the most information prior to the publication of the work was Mr. T. Woodman, a very respectable and intelligent farmer, residing at Stone, near Aylesbury. As this gentleman had also read the book, I wrote to him to request the favour of his sentiments, with regard to the two unconnected sources of information, which had fallen in his way. From the answer which he obligingly sent me, dated Stone, 4th December, 1817. I beg leave to extract the following paragraph, as bearing immediately upon the subject.

"I most certainly have many times, before your publication appeared in the world, asked Jeremiah Higgins many questions respecting the inhabitants of the Tonga islands; but as he is a young man of a reserved disposition, the communications he made were always desultory, unconnected, and confined. Yet I cannot have the least doubt, or the least hesitation in saying, that in the accounts he gave, he spoke of the very same people, and of the very same incidents, which are related by Mr. Mariner, in the work you have recently publish . He spoke to me of the capture of the vessel he sailed in: of the siege and reduction of the Tonga great fortress: of the effects of the great guns: of the panic and consternation thence produced: of their religious and political convocations, &c. &c., which are events so exactly detailed and portrayed in the work you have given, that I find not the least difference between the one and the other, save that the accounts given by Mr. Mariner are more amplified, and better arranged in bearing reference to the religious and political proceedings relating to their society."

That no source of information or of satisfactory proof might be left untried, I engaged Jeremiah Higgins to come up to town, and now it was, for the first time, that he and Mr. Mariner met, since their separation at the Tonga islands. He remained with me till the latter end of December, and I had abundant reason to be satisfied with the accordance between his several statements, extracted from him by various questions, and those which I had formerly received from Mr. Mariner. When they spoke the Tonga language together, I noticed the similarity of their pronunciation and accent: when Higgins sang and exhibited some Tonga dances in presence of several of my friends, whilst Mr. Mariner also sang and beat time according to the native method, we were struck with the accuracy of the description of these amusements in the "voyages of Captain Cook." But to be brief, however satisfied I have hitherto been with Mr. Mariner's details, I issue this second edition with a twofold confidence, for now I can assure the candid reader that, endeavouring to divest my mind of all prejudices, I have carefully and assiduously questioned Jeremiah Higgins, at various times, with regard to the events at the Tonga islands while he was there, and the manners and customs of the people, and have always found his answers (though for obvious reasons somewhat more confined) yet so consonant and agreeable, as far as they went, with Mr. Mariner's accounts, that I feel quite certain of the truth of the great outlines of the matter contained in the following sheets, and the highest degree of confidence in all the details. Such is the additional testimony which the present work has obtained, and I flatter myself that I have used all the means within my reach to render it, if possible, worthy of the honour which public approbation has already bestowed upon it.

A complete account of all the different tribes inhabiting the islands of the Pacific Ocean would no doubt form a most interesting portion of human history, and supply, in a great measure, the history of the earlier ages of mankind, so much obscured as they are by romance and fabulous traditions. The infancy of human society in our times probably differs not much, except in local circumstances, from that which existed four thousand years ago:—by a scrupulous and attentive examination of the present, therefore, we may be able to form some tolerable judgment of the past. And this is not, I apprehend, a matter of idle curiosity or of useless knowledge, as some have the presumption to cry out;—for all that regards man, whether it be good or evil, is highly interesting to man;—the good, that we may either adopt or improve;—the evil, that we may either avoid or remedy:—and as the history of the human individual cannot be perfectly understood, without examining him in his infancy,—so a true knowledge of the species in a state of society is not to be thoroughly and easily acquired, without a suitable investigation into the incipient stages of the social compact; for there it is that the passions of man are more openly and strongly developed,—his imaginations and prejudices less concealed by artificial coverings,—and his actions, generally speaking, under much less restraint. Moreover, as the education of children ought, in one point of view, to be chiefly founded upon a knowledge of their notions and habits, so ought all attempts at civilization (which is only another kind of education) to be built upon our acquaintance with the customs and modes of thinking of the people on whom we wish to superinduce new trains of habits and sentiments,—so that we may educate or lead them out of bad into better,—out of imperfection towards perfection. It is in morals much the same as in physics; if we wish to alter the qualities of a substance, we must first examine what those qualities are, that we may see in what way they are best capable of being changed. It is true, by hard labour with the hammer, we may bend a piece of cold iron; but observation and experience teach us, that at a high temperature this metal becomes so soft, that we can fashion it as we please.

With regard to the Society islands, where missionaries have so long established themselves, we have not yet an intimate, and what may be called a domestic history of the people: this, I think, is much to be regretted: if it be not already too late, it will perhaps be so in a few years, when their native customs and notions will become so mingled with what is European, that little profitable knowledge will be derivable from them. In New Zealand, a novel and interesting scene lies open; the church missionary society have there set on foot their benevolent purposes. They begin by educating the children, and teaching their parents the mechanic arts;—but it is to be hoped that the civilized New Zealander, hereafter to be born, will have within his reach the authentic records of what his ancestors once were, that he may know the extent of his obligations to those of his fellow men who were the means of leading his forefathers out of the darkness of superstition, and out of the house of bondage.

In referring to the "Narrative of a Voy to New Zealand, by John Liddiard Nicholas, Esq." it must be acknowledged, that much credit is certainly due to the author, who, in a short visit of a few weeks, has been able to collect such a mass of interesting matter. Mr. Nicholas informs us, that "as Mr. Kendair (one of the missionaries) "is applying himself strictly to the study of the New Zealand language, it is probable he will furnish us in some time with a copious and enlarged account of it." While this is doing, it is to be hoped that the other parts of the history of the New Zealand intellect, as it is developed in their customs, laws, and superstitions, will not be forgotten.

J. MARTIN.

27, Basinghall Street, 4th March, 1818.

Introduction

INTRODUCTION.

The cluster of islands in the South Pacific Ocean, whose inhabitants constitute the subject of the present work, is that to which Captain Cook gave the epithet "Friendly:" his chart of the Friendly Islands however does not include Vavaoo, which he did not visit; and as this island is the largest, and now comparatively the most important of all those belonging to the same archipelago, which, in his time, were under the same government, and still speak precisely the same language, and follow the same customs, we have thought it expedient to denote them all by one common name, which the natives them give them, viz. "Tonga" or, the Tonga Islands.

As I presume it would be unnecessary to offer any apologies for presenting to the public the following account of a people, of whose government, religion, customs, and language, so little has hitherto been published, I shall proceed at once to give a simple statement of the circumstances which first gave rise to it, and the authority under which it has been conducted.

In the year 1811 I accidentally heard that Mr. William Mariner, the bearer of a letter from the East Indies to one of my connections in London, had been a re at the Friendly Islands during the space of four years; and, my curiosity being strongly excited, I solicited his acquaintance. In the course of three or four interviews I discovered, with much satisfaction, that the information he was able to communicate respecting the people with whom he had been so long and so intimately associated was very far superior to any thing that had yet appeared before the public. His answers to several inquiries, regarding their religion, government, and habits of life, were given with that kind of unassuming confidence which bespeaks a thorough intimacy with the subject, and carries with it the conviction of truth:—in fact, having been thrown upon those islands at an early age, his young and flexible mind had so accorded itself with the habits and circumstances of the natives, that he could not feel any disposition to overrate or embellish what to him was neither strange nor new. To my inquiries respecting his intentions of publishing, he replied, that having necessarily been, for several years, out of the habit either of writing or reading, or of that turn of thinking requisite for composition and arrangement, he was apprehensive his endeavours would fail in doing that justice to the work which I seemed to think its importance demanded: he modestly proposed, however, to submit the subject to my consideration for a future opportunity. In the mean while circumstances called him away to the West Indies: on his return he brought me memoranda of the principal events at the Tonga islands, in the order in which they had happened during his residence there, together with a description of the most important religious ceremonies, and a vocabulary of about four or five hundred words. The inspection of these materials served greatly to increase the interest which I had already taken in the matter, and I urged the necessity of committing the whole to paper while every thing remained fresh in his memory. To facilitate this object, I proposed to undertake the composition and arrangement of the intended work, whilst Mr. Mariner should direct his view solely to noting down all that he had seen and heard as his memory might spontaneously furnish it, in order that these materials might afterwards be made, from time to time, subjects of conversation, strict scrutiny, amplification, arrangement and composition. Not one of the ensuing pages has therefore been written without Mr. Mariner's presence, that he might be consulted in regard to every little circumstance or observation that could in the smallest degree affect the truth of the subject under consideration: and, in this way, it is presumed that a great deal more useful and interesting matter has been elicited than would, probably have occurred to him through the medium of his own unassisted reflections; for conversation calls to mind many things that would otherwise have escaped the memory, it constantly demands elucidations; one idea gives birth to another, until the whole subject lies completely unfolded to the mind.

With regard to arrangement: in the first place is related an account of the voyage of the Port au Prince, it being esteemed sufficiently interesting, as it involves a combination of untoward circumstances that led ultimately to the destruction of the ship: the whole of this has been faithfully composed from a journal kept by Mr. Mariner on board. Next follows a narrative, or rather, as it may be termed, a historical account, of all the important and interesting events that occurred during his stay at the Tonga Islands; not merely as they regarded himself, but with an aspect to the different changes, religious and political, since they affected, in a most important manner, the situation of public affairs: and that this portion of the work may be better understood, a comparison is drawn between the state of these islands upon Mr. Mariner's arrival, and that in which Captain Cook had previously found them; in doing which the revolution of Tonga, and other important and highly interesting events which had taken place in the mean while, are given according to the account of the principal natives of divers parties, who had been eye-witnesses. The narration of events being brought down to the period of Mr. Mariner's fortunate escape, the remainder of the work furnishes a more intimate detail of the state of society in regard to rank and professions; their religious and political government; the names and attributes of their principal gods; their notions of the human soul, and of a future state of existence; an investigation of their moral principles, and of their state of morals; a description of their most important religious ceremonies; an account of the healing art, with a detail of some important surgical operations practised by them; a description of their principal manufactures; their games and amusements; music, songs, &c.; and, lastly, a grammar of their language, and a vocabulary to the extent of above two thousand genuine Tonga words.

As it will, no doubt, be satisfactory to the reader to know how the rules and idioms of this heretofore unwritten language have been investigated, it is proper to state that Mr. Mariner carefully selected out of an English dictionary all those words to which he could find appropriate Tonga words, or well adapted phrases; and having myself assiduously attended to the elementary sounds of the language, and determined upon a plan of orthography, I undertook the charge of arranging all the Tonga words alphabetically, by which means my ear and eye became accustomed to them, and several were stored up in my memory. In the mean while Mr. Mariner wrote down several dialogues and popular tales in the Tonga language; and I afterwards exercised myself, with his assistance, and that of the vocabulary, in making literal translations to them, and thus became acquainted, more or less, with the idiom; and, at the same time, I had the opportunity of furnishing the Tonga part, of the vocabulary, from the dialogues and tales, with other words. In the next place, having written down sundry examples in English, illustrative of every part of speech, in a variety of forms, and upon a variety of subjects, I gave them to Mr. Mariner to translate into Tonga, according to the strict idiom of that language: by this method we began to perceive what could be translated, and what could not; we discovered where the Tonga language was poor in expression, and where it was more richly endowed; what were the fundamental principles of construction, and what the particular idioms and exceptions to the general rules:—and thus proceeding, step by step, the character and genius of the language were unfolded; and, at length, we arrived at that degree of theoretical knowledge of the structure of it which is now, for the first time, presented to the public.

Every attempt to afford accurate information respecting the manners, customs, and sentiments of any portion of the human species, cannot but be considered, in these enlightened days, at least a laudable undertaking; but to bestow much time and pains upon an investigation of the principles of a barbarous language, like the one in question, will, no doubt, in the eyes of many persons, appear more curious than useful; and how far such a view of the subject may be correct, every reader will judge for himself; to me it appears almost as great a deficiency in the history of a nation to overlook the structure of its language, as to neglect any portion of its moral or political character. In taking, for example, the Tonga people, Mr. Mariner could only arrive at a thorough knowledge of their religious, political, and moral character, and the spirit of their religious and political sentiments, through the medium of their language, for all accounts that had been given of them were little better than bare descriptions of outside appearances, every thing else, for want of this same medium, being founded in mere conjecture: so it is easy for a traveller to give an accurate description of the outside of a building, to which he has no admit , and make some rude guess as to its interior form; but the object of the present work is chiefly to describe the inside of this structure, that the reader may see the form, dimensions, ornaments, and general merit of its various passages and apartments, to which the Tonga language is in this instance the master-key, and is here offered to all whom accident or design may lead to the same spot, that they may make the same researches in much less time, and with much less hazard and difficulty, than it originally cost the first investigator: and it certainly must be considered some proof of the uprightness of Mr. Mariner's intentions, and of his consciousness of the accuracy of his details, that he readily consents to put into the hands of others the easiest method in his power of satisfying themselves of the truth of what is told them.

There are other points of view, in which, I think, the importance of this subject may be seen: a knowledge of the language helps to throw a considerable light in the path of those who choose to investi the origin of the people, or how far they may be related to other nations of the same immense ocean. In regard to the philologist, it will help his inquiries into the theory of human language generally; and in respect of the metaphysician, he will not be displeased if we offer to his notice the structure of a language which has advanced in its progress up to the present time, among a people who have no conception of any method of noting down their ideas, and yet pride themselves upon the uniform accuracy with which they speak and pronounce their language. There is, moreover, another class of readers, who will by no means regret that this subject has been thus far investigated; I mean those who take a laudable pleasure in looking forward to the civilization and religious instruction of savage nations, to effect which in the most rational manner is certainly to speak to them in their own language;—and to construct a dictionary and grammar of it, and teach them to read it, is to do more for them than themselves could effect in many centuries. Lastly, I must beg leave to observe that it is not every European, whom accident or design may station in those islands for a few years, that can learn their language with accuracy; for the idiom is so different from our civilized and more artificial forms of speech, that it must be chiefly young persons, with minds very susceptible of the impressions of spoken language, and of the gestures accompanying it, that can readily accomplish this object without the assistance of an interpreter:—and as Mr. Mariner had acquired this under circumstances peculiarly favourable, it appeared to me paramount to a duty to use those means that lay in my power to prevent all that he had learnt in this respect from sinking for ever into oblivion.

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 Academy, at Ware, in Hertfordshire. After remaining there five or six years, with the exception of the vacations, he returned home at the age of thirteen, in consequence of the death of Mr. Mitchel. The advantages he had already derived from his education were considerable: besides the common acquisitions of reading, writing, and arithmetic, he had made much progress in his knowledge of history, geography, and the French language, and also some advance in the first rudiments of the Latin. His father being of opinion that his education was already sufficient for the line of life he meant him to pursue, i. e. the sea, resolved to keep him at home till something suitable and advantageous should offer. William, however, was not very anxious for a mere maritime life, and his mother being wholly averse to it, his father was at length dissuaded from his intention, and placed him in the office of a friend of his, Mr. Harrison, a respectable attorney, with whom he was to remain a few months previous to articles being signed. Six weeks had scarcely elapsed before an event happened, which, though trifling enough in itself, served to make a complete change in his future prospects.

Captain Duck, who had formerly served his apprenticeship to William's father, was about to sail in the Port au Prince private ship of war, belonging to Mr. Robert Bent, of London. This vessel had a twofold commission; if not very successful in her cruize for prizes within certain latitudes, she was to double Cape Horn, and proceed into the Pacific Ocean in search of whales. Captain Duck before his departure came to take leave of William's father: after dinner, the conversation naturally turned upon the ensuing voyage, when Captain Duck, who was a man of very sanguine expectations, spoke with great confidence of speedy success and an early return, and gave such flattering descriptions of that mode of life, that William was quickly possessed with the strongest desire to accompany him. Captain Duck offered him the greatest encouragements, and the consent of his father being obtained, he took him on board in a few days, under his immediate protection. The events of the voyage, and other particulars subsequent thereto, will be seen hereafter. During that time he acted in the capacity of captain's clerk, which though not an usual office on board a privateer, he chose for the sake of employment.

Such simply is an account of his education, and of those early circumstances which laid the groundwork for future and more extraordinary events. With respect to his character, I may from good authority give some account of him while yet at school. At this early period he shewed evident proofs of a mind very susceptible of external impressions, disposed to activity and fond of information; whilst from his habits and sentiments one would suppose him fitted for a life of change and adventure. He was fond of books of travels, and he used often to say how much he should like to live among savages and meet with strange occurrences; a disposition not uncommon among some young minds, but which those who are fond of presentiments will readily account for, in their own way. His sports and amusements were frequently those of an active, adventurous, and sometimes of a daring kind. With respect to the dispositions of his heart, suffice it to say, they are such as do him much honour.

The subsequent events of his life have made a considerable change in his personal character and external habits, insomuch that I have heard it observed by those of his friends who knew him formerly, that they could scarcely recognise him to be the same person. His love of adventure has changed into a sedateness of character and disposition to rest and quiet, which may easily be conceived to arise from disappointments, and unexpected hardships and dangers, experienced at too early a period of life. He is rather taciturn than loquacious, and under ordinary circumstances much more inclined to speak of the events of his life as common occurrences than as interesting anecdotes, which happens no doubt from his early, frequent, and familiar intimacy with unusual situations; when, however, he is animated with social converse, he furnishes descriptions that are very interesting and natural. His memory is very retentive, and his account of things is exceedingly correct and uniform: of this I have had numberless proofs, and one in particular I shall mention. I happened to mislay the English version which he had written out at his leisure, of the speech of Finow the king on first coming into power: after the lapse of a few weeks, not finding it, I was under the necessity of requesting him to write another, which he did in the same method as before, by call to his mind the original Tonga in which it was spoken. Sometime afterwards I found the first, and was much pleased to discover so little difference between them, that they appeared almost like copies, which sufficiently evinced the correctness with which he remembered the original Tonga, and at the same time furnished an instance of the characteristic uniformity of his expression in his own language. Two or three months afterwards I reminded him of the propriety of writing down in the Tonga language all that he knew of their popular tales, speeches, songs, &c. while they were fresh in his memory; he did so, and at a subsequent period when the dictionary of the language was in a state of forwardness, I translated them literally with his occasional assistance, and had a new proof of the correctness, as to sense, of what he had before given me of Finow's speech, the English copies of which I had all along kept in my possession. As a retentive memory was a quality particularly essential to Mr. Mariner, under the circumstances in which he was placed, it is worth mentioning, that even when I be first acquainted with him he was able to read and translate French with considerable ease and fluency, although he had scarcely seen a French book, or spoken French since he had left school, a period of nearly eight years, during four of which he had resided among an uncivilized people, and had been constantly practising their language. But, however excellent may be his memory, it would avail but little, if he had only seen a great deal without noticing much; I am very happy therefore to have it in my power to give some decided proofs that he possesses also that very valuable quality in a traveller, a spirit of observation.