294 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



not think, Finoo, that I reproach you : no, I wish only to con- 

 vince you of my innocence, for who that has thoughts of 

 harming his chiefs shall grow Avhite-headed like me ? cruel 

 gods ! to deprive us of our father, of our only hope, for whom 

 alone we wished to live ! We have, indeed, other chiefs ; but 

 they are only chiefs in rank, and not like you, alas, great and 

 mighty in war !' 



Finoo was reckless and ambitious, a born ruler of men. 

 Mariner says he would frequently burst out in speeches like 

 the following : 



' Oh that the gods would make me King of England \ 

 There is not an island in the whole world, however small, but 

 what I would then subject to my power. The King of Eng- 

 land does not deserve the dominions he enjoys ; possessed of 

 .so many great ships, why does he suffer such petty islands as 

 those of Tonga continually to insult his people with acts of 

 treachery ? Were I he, would I send tamely to ask for yams 

 and pigs ? No ! I would come down with the front of battle, 

 and with the thunder of Botolane ' (a Tongan name for the 

 noise of the cannon). ' I would show who was to be the 

 chief. None but men of enterprising spirits should be in 

 possession of guns. Let such rule the earth, and be those 

 their vassals who can bear to submit to such insults unre- 

 venged.' 



Finoo would never listen to the arguments in favour of 

 Christianity. He said its precepts would interfere with his 

 absolute despotism. The first missionaries who landed in 

 Tonga were all killed by the natives, the majority by order of 

 the king, in consequence of an English runaway convict, who 

 had settled in the island, having quarrelled with them over an 

 iron pot, denouncing them to the natives as witch-doctors, and 

 having introduced a mortality, then raging, for their own ends. 



