A Tongan Chief. 



171 



greater or less degree by the sea-water, as evidenced by the 

 brackish water which is reached on sinking a well to a depth of 

 two or three yards. 



We made shooting excursions for several miles to the eastward 

 and westward of Nukualofa, and on one of the latter we met with 

 an intelligent native, who excited in us hopes of obtaining some 

 good duck-shooting, and undertook to bring us to the right place. 

 Under his guidance we reached a series of extensive salt-water 

 lagoons, which seemed likely places enough. However, on this 

 occasion he proved to be a false prophet ; and as he was anxious 

 to make amends for our disappointment, he induced us to follow 

 him into the bush in quest of pigeons. Of these, on reaching a 

 thick part of the forest, we heard a good many ; but owing to 

 the dense foliage of the shrubs, which obscured our view aloft, we 

 got very few glimpses of the birds, which, as a rule, keep to the 

 summits of the tallest trees. Nevertheless, by dint of " cooing," 

 to evoke responses from the birds and thus ascertain their where- 

 abouts, we at length succeeded in shooting a good specimen of 

 the great " fruit pigeon." 



Our guide, " Davita," was most elaborately tattooed from the 

 waist to the knees. He was a well-to-do man, and the chief of 

 a district ; and was also, as he informed us, a member of the 

 " royal guard," whose duty it is to act as sentries in front of the 

 door of the king's palace. " Davita" accompanied us back to 

 the town, and after receiving his honorarium and bidding us good- 

 bye, he went off to procure his military uniform, and subsequently, 

 as we walked by the palace on our way to the boat, we saw our 

 friend in full toggery doing sentry. He was a very fine man, but 

 did not look half so well in a soldier's uniform as in his native 

 garb, which consisted simply of a waistcloth, above and below 

 which appeared the margins of his beautiful blue tattooing. 



There are evidences of recent elevation of the land both to the 

 eastward and westward of Nukualofa. I noticed above high-water 

 mark extensive flats of almost barren land, composed of level 



