TONGATABU. 113 



of charge, otherwise it would have cost five times as much, 

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

 shiUino's. 



Near the church door is the tomb of Captam 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 r ' Sacred to the memory 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 d^yells. It Avas, at the time of the 

 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 ' Avith a sword in one hand and a Bible in the 

 other ; for the 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, wliich 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 tlie Bible and the Sword, so 

 famihar to lis in the history of Europe (though perbaps less literally 

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

 revolting when exhibited in these remote and comparatively peaceful 

 regions. 



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