TONGATABU. 113 



of charge, otlierwise'it would have cost five times as much, 

 the day's wage of a native being on an average two 

 shillings. 



Near tlie church door is the tomb of Captain Croker, who 

 was killed in the assault on the fortress of Bea. A brass 

 plate nailed on a piece of wood, shaped like a tombstone, 

 bears this inscription : ' Sacred to the niemoiy of Walter 

 Croker, Esq., commander of H.B.M. ship " Favourite," who 

 was killed in an attack upon the blockade of Bea, June 

 2], 1840. Eenewed by H.M.S. "Juno," October 1856. J. 

 Bresnahan sculpsit.' Bea is five miles from Nukualofa, the 

 village where the King dwells. It was, at the time of tlie 

 assault, a village fortified by an earth embankment surmoun- 

 ted by a stockade fence made of cocoa-nut leaves. Captain 

 Croker advanced against the embankment with a six-pound 

 carronade and a small field piece, and led the assault against 

 the ' heathen ' with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the 

 other ; for tlie attack was a crusade against idolaters, not 

 improbably suggested by King George and the Missionaries.^ 

 When he had reached an opening which was used as an 

 entrance into the inclosure, the captain received a shot in 

 the body and a bayonet thrust in the arm, which compelled 

 him to fall back as far as a large tree, where he received 

 another shot which finished him. Several of his men were 



' This fanatical conjunction between the Bible and the Sword, so 

 familiar to us in the history of Europe (though perhaps less literally- 

 expressed), 'all for the glory of God,' seems still more strangely 

 revolting when exhibited in these remote and comparatively peaceful 

 regions. 



I 



