MAAFU EENOUNCING CLAIMS OF FIJI. 251 



from any Fijian, under any circumstances whatever, but they 

 shall enjoy the privileges and rights accorded to other nations 

 in Fiji. 5. That the lands and districts of Fiji which have 

 been offered by various chiefs to me are not accepted, and are 

 not mine, nor are they Tonguese, but solely and wholly Fijian. 

 6. That the cession of Fiji to England is hereby acknowledged. 

 In witness whereof I have hereto set my name, this 14th day 

 of December, 1859. MAAFU. 



"We hereby certify that the foregoing Chief Maafu signed the 

 above document in our presence, this 14th day of December, 

 1859. WILLIAM T. PEITCHARD, Consul; H. CAMPION, Comman- 

 der R.N., H.M.S. Elk. 



We hereby certify that we translated the foregoing docu- 

 ment to Maafu, a Chief of Tonga, who has signed, and that he 

 thoroughly understands its meaning. W. COLLIS, Wesleyan 

 Training Master ; E. P. MARTIN, Wesleyan Mission Printer." 



The peace of the group, which, to the serious disadvan- 

 tage of trade, had been so long interrupted, was thus at 

 length re-established ; but the wounds inflicted by the 

 war were not so easily healed. The Tonguese did not 

 content themselves with merely taking a place. They 

 plundered and set fire to the dwellings, cut down the 

 fruit-trees, filled up the wells, ravished the women, and 

 put to death as many of the fighting-men as their fero- 

 city prompted them ; even those who had given them- 

 selves up as prisoners were often mercilessly murdered 

 in cold blood. When Maafu and his hordes had been 

 at a place, it was as if a host of locusts had descended. 

 Not only had every vestige of provisions, pigs, fowls, 

 yams, and taros been devoured or carried off, but the 

 plantations themselves had been ruthlessly destroyed, 

 forcing the poor natives to seek such wild roots as would 

 enable them to eke out their miserable existence. Yet, 



