2 9 o THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



determined to depose him. They 'deposed' him in a charac- 

 teristic Tongan fashion. 



One evening Tubu Neuha and Finoo, attended by several of 

 their followers, waited on Togo Ahu, as was now and then 

 customary, to pay their respects to him by presents of kava- 

 root (angona), cloth, a pig, and several baskets of yams ; they 

 then retired. This served as a plausible reason for their being 

 that night in the neighbourhood of the king's house. About 

 midnight they again repaired to his house with their followers, 

 whom they placed around it as watchful guards, ready to 

 despatch all who might attempt to escape from the place : of 

 these Finoo took the command, while Tubu Neuha entered, 

 armed with his axe, and burning with a thirst for blood. As 

 he passed along on either side by the wives and favourite 

 mistresses of the king, the matchless beauties of Tonga, 

 perfumed with the aroma of sandal-wood and bearing around 

 their necks wreaths of the freshest flowers, the sanguinary 

 chief might have wept over their fate ; but the freedom of his 

 country was at stake, and the opportunity was not to be lost. 

 He sought the mat on which his destined victim lay buried in 

 profound sleep ; stood over him for a moment, then, resolving 

 that his victim should know from whom he received his death, 

 he struck him upon the face with his hand. Togo Ahu started 

 up, and hearing only the words, 



' 'Tis I, Tubu Neuha, that strike !' was by a tremendous 

 blow felled to the ground, never to rise again. 



The loyalists rose en masse ; a battle ensued, and the 

 regicides were repulsed, when Hala Fatai and his Fiji party 

 appeared on the scene and sided with Finoo. Another 

 desperate engagement took place : it lasted three hours, and 

 it is said that Tubu Neuha alone slew on that day (well 

 remembered by tradition here in Tonga) forty royalists Avith 



