170 Cruise of the "Alert" 



for the purpose for which they were intended, so they were thrown 

 down on the ground in a disjointed condition, where they now lie, 

 rusting and half-buried in weeds. Somewhat in the rear of the 

 royal palace is seen a rather imposing private dwelling-house, the 

 residence of Mr. Baker, formerly a Wesleyan minister, and now 

 the political prime minister of the kingdom. 



In the afternoon some of us walked out to see the old fortified 

 town of Bea, which is distant from Nukualofa about four miles in 

 a southerly direction, and is reached by a very good cart-road. 

 This town — or, more properly speaking, village, for it is now but 

 thinly populated — was formerly the stronghold of a party of 

 Tongans, who objected to the introduction of Christianity, and 

 were consequently obliged to defend themselves against the fol- 

 lowers of the Wesleyan missionaries. The village is encircled by 

 a rampart and moat, which have for many years past been allowed 

 to go to decay, so that the moat is now partly obliterated with 

 weeds and rubbish, and the strong palisades, which in former times 

 added considerably to the defensive strength of the ramparts, 

 have almost entirely disappeared. 



As we entered the village by a cutting which pierced the 

 ramparts on the north side, we saw the spot where Captain 

 Croker, of H. M.S. Favourite, was shot down in 1 848, when heading 

 an armed party of bluejackets, with whom he was assisting the 

 missionary party in an attack upon the irreconcilables. It seems 

 to have been altogether a most disastrous and ill-advised under- 

 taking, and of its effects some traces still remain in an assumption 

 of physical superiority over their white fellow-creatures, which may 

 be seen among some of the Tongans. 



Nowhere have I seen the cocoanut-trees growing in such luxu- 

 riance as at Tongatabu. Here they grow over the whole interior 

 of the island, as well as near the sea-shore ; a circumstance which 

 may be attributed to the mean level of the island being only a 

 few feet above high-water mark, and to the coral subsoil extending 

 over the entire island. The latter is everywhere penetrated to a 



