THE TONGUESE. 11 
fairly be classed with the Tyrol and Circassia, for its 
male population. I do not include the females, because, 
according to our taste, the women of Tonga, like those 
of the Tyrol, are too masculine and robust to please our 
conceptions of feminine beauty. When I looked at these 
Tonguese, with their fine athletic body, symmetrical, 
handsome faces, and rich dark hair, I could not refrain 
from thinking what caricatures civilization has made us. 
The gait of such a man is something to wonder at, and 
sculptors would find him a fine subject for study. Here 
they might obtain models almost approaching their 
notions of ideal perfection, instead of copying, as they 
now too often are compelled, the body of a life-guards- 
man, the head of a footman, and the hands and feet of 
some of higher-bred types. 
Charles Maafu, I was informed, had been sent to 
Lakeba by his father, as a punishment for several larks 
the young rascal had been up to. I don’t wonder 
there should have been a great deal of temptation in 
his way, for, besides being the son of a powerful chief, a 
lineal descendant of one of the royal houses of Tonga 
(Finau), he was about eighteen years of age and ex- 
tremely handsome. He wore only a few yards of cotton 
cloth around his loins, and an ornament made of mother 
of pearl. King George, of Tonga, had proposed to have 
his own son and Charles educated at Sydney. The 
offer was unfortunately declined by Maafu, and the young 
man had thus learnt nothing except what he had been 
able to pick up in the missionary schools of the islands. 
Through a fine grove of cocoa-nut palms and bread- 
fruit trees, Mr. Fletcher kindly conducted us to his 
