Preparations for making a garden. Visit from 

 Seru. His reception on board the Vincennes. 



OVOLAU. 



Visit from Paddy Connel. 

 His history. 



201 



that any one had been buried there, but as they 

 approached the pile they simultaneously came to a 

 stop, and began to murmur among themselves, 

 using the words mate mate. No inducement could 

 persuade them to proceed, until it was explained 

 to them by David Whippy, that there was no 

 desire to dig in the direction of the grave, which 

 was to be left sacred. With this intimation they 

 seemed well satisfied, and went on digging mer- 

 rily. A large quantity of seeds, of various kinds 

 of vegetables and fruits, were planted. For the 

 fencing and digging of the garden I gave, by 

 agreement, a trade musket, and I believe this in- 

 cluded the purchase of the ground ! 



The day after Tanoa's visit, I received from him 

 a royal present of ten hogs, a quantity of yams, 

 taro, fruit, &c. 



Our stay at Ovolau continued for six weeks. 

 Among the incidents which occurred during this 

 time were the following : 



On the 17th May, David Bateman died. He 

 had been a marine on board the Porpoise, and had 

 been transferred to the Vincennes at Tonga. A 

 post mortem examination showed that the right 

 lung was almost -wholly destroyed by disease, and 

 there was about a pint of purulent matter in the 

 pleura. 



On the 19th, Seru, the son of Tanoa, arrived 

 from Ambau, for the purpose of visiting me. I 

 immediately sent him and his suite an invitation 

 to meet me at the observatory on the following 

 day, with which he complied. Seru is extremely 

 good-looking, being tall, well-made, and athletic. 

 He exhibits much intelligence both in his expres- 

 sion of countenance and manners. His features 

 and figure resemble those of a European, and he 

 s graceful and easy in his carriage. The in- 

 s truments at the observatory excited his wonder 

 a nd curiosity. He, in common with the other 

 n atives, believed that they were intended for the 

 Purpose of looking at the Great Spirit, and in con- 

 sequence paid them the greatest respect and rever- 

 ence. This opinion saved us much trouble, for they 

 did not presume to approach the instruments; and 

 although some of them were always to be found 

 without the boundary which had been traced to 

 limit their approach, they never intruded within it. 

 They always behaved civilly, and said they only 

 came to sara-sara (look-on). 



I afterwards took Seru on board the Vincennes, 

 where, as his father had recommended, I gave him 

 plenty of good advice, to which he seemed to pay 

 great attention. I had been told that he would 

 probably exhibit hauteur and an arrogant bearing, 

 but he manifested nothing of the kind. He ap- 

 peared rather, as I had been told by his father 

 I would find him, " young and frisky." He was 

 received with the same attentions that had been 

 paid to his father. The firing of the guns seemed 

 to take his fancy much, and he was desirous that I 

 should gratify him by continuing to fire them 

 longer ; but I was not inclined to make the honours 

 paid to him greater than those rendered to his 

 father, knowing how observant they are of all 

 forms. The whole party, himself included, showed 

 more pleasure and were much more liberal, in their 

 exclamations of vi naka! vi naka! and whoo! using 

 them more energetically than the king's party, as 

 might be naturally expected from a younger set of 

 natives. Seru is quite ingenious; he took the musket 



given him to pieces as quickly, and used it with as 

 much adroitness as if he had been a gunsmith. His 

 ambati (priest) was with him, and the party all 

 appeared greatly delighted with the ship. On the 

 whole I was much pleased with him during his 

 visit ; shortly afterwards, he, however, visited the 

 ship during my absence, and displayed a very 

 different bearing, so much so as to require to be 

 checked. I learned a circumstance which would 

 serve to prove that the reputation he bears is 

 pretty well founded. He on one occasion had sent 

 word to one of the islands (Goro, I believe), for 

 the chief to have a quantity of cocoa-nut oil ready 

 for him by a certain time. Towards the expiration 

 of the specified interval, Seru went to the island 

 and found it was not ready. The old chief of the 

 island pleaded the impossibility of compliance, from 

 want of time, and promised to have it ready as 

 soon as possible. Seru told him he was a great 

 liar, and without further words, struck him on the 

 head and killed him on the spot. This is only one 

 of many instances of the exercise of arbitrary 

 authority over their vassals. 



One day, while at the observatory, I was greatly 

 surprised at seeing one whom I took to be a Feejee- 

 man enter my tent, a circumstance so inconsistent 

 with the respect to our prescribed limit, of which 

 I have spoken. His colour, however, struck me 

 as lighter than that of any native I had yet seen. 

 He was a short wrinkled old man, but appeared to 

 possess great vigour and activity. He had a beard 

 that reached to his middle, and but little hair, of a 

 reddish grey colour, on his head. He gave me no 

 time for inquiry, but at once addressed me in 

 broad Irish, with a rich Milesian brogue. In a 

 few minutes he made me acquainted with his story, 

 which, by his own account, was as follows. 



His name was Paddy Connel, but the natives 

 called him Berry; he was born in the county of 

 Clare in Ireland ; had run away from school when 

 he was a little fellow, and after wandering about as 

 a vagabond, was pressed into the army in the first 

 Irish rebellion. At the time the French landed in 

 Ireland, the regiment to which he was attached 

 marched at once against the enemy, and soon 

 arrived on the field of battle, where they were 

 brought to the charge. The first thing he knew 

 or heard, the drums struck up a White Boys' tune, 

 and his whole regiment went over and joined the 

 French, with the exception of the officers, who had 

 to fly. They were then marched against the 

 British, and were soon defeated by Lord Corn- 

 wallis; it was a hard fight, and Paddy found himself 

 among the slain. When he thought the battle was 

 over, and night came on, he crawled off and reached 

 home. He was then taken up and tried for his 

 life, but was acquitted ; he was, however, remanded 

 to prison, and busied himself in effecting the 

 escape of some of his comrades. On this being 

 discovered, he was confined in the black hole, and 

 soon after sent to Cork, to be put on board a con- 

 vict-ship bound to New South Wales. When he 

 arrived there, his name was not found on the books 

 of the prisoners, consequently he had been trans- 

 ported by mistake, and was, therefore, set at 

 liberty. He then worked about for several years, 

 and collected a small sum of money, but unfortu- 

 nately fell into bad company, got drunk, and lost it 

 all. Just about this time Captain Sartori, of the 

 ship General Wellesley, arrived at Sydney. Having 



