2492 A MISSION TO VITI. 
Hebrides. A brother of the late King Josiah, Maafu, engaged 
with the leader of the expedition (Henry) to furnish sixty men. 
They touched at Lakeba to reinforce their numbers, but could 
not procure volunteers, and continued their course to Eromango. 
Here the party, armed with muskets, were landed, and a quan- 
tity of sandal-wood cut and embarked. The natives continued 
friendly for the first few days, but at the end of that time, some 
of them having stolen three axes, a disturbance took place, when 
one of the supposed thieves was shot by the Tongans. The fire 
was returned by arrows, which wounded a Tongan, who after- 
wards died. In consequence of this affray they left Eromango, 
and proceeded to Vate, or Sandwich Island, where he and his 
men were again landed, armed, and directed to cut wood, the 
white men remaining on board of their vessels. Before long 
they had a battle with the natives, who, having no muskets, 
were defeated with a loss of twenty-six killed, none of the in- 
truders being injured. A fort was afterwards stormed and 
taken, when several more were killed; the remainder retreating 
to an island, where they hid themselves in a cave, whither they 
were pursued by Maafu and his party. After firimg mto the 
cave, which seemed to have no effect, the besiegers, pulling 
down some neighbouring houses, piled the materials in a heap 
at its mouth, and, setting fire to it, suffocated them all.’’* 
King George, the present ruler of Tongat, having 
subdued a rebellion in which Maafu took a prominent 
part, deemed it prudent to send Maafu to Fiji, osten- 
sibly for the purpose of keeping his countrymen in 
order, but really to get him out of the way. At the 
same time a hint, perhaps more than a hint, was thrown 
out that no objections would be made if Maafu did 
in Fiji what King George had done in Tonga, make 
himself master of the whole group. Maafu’s first ex- 
* Eskine, ‘Western Pacific,’ p. 143. Behaving, in fact, as barbarously to 
them as a few years later a French General did to an Algerian tribe. 
} Farmer’s ‘Tonga and the Friendly Islands,’ p. 398. 
