Volume 1

An account of the natives of the Tonga islands, in the south Pacific ocean. With an original grammar and vocabulary of their language / Compiled and arranged from the extensive communications of Mr. William Mariner, several years resident in those islands. By John Martin.

  • Mariner, William, 1791-1853.
Date:
[etc., etc.] 1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the natives of the Tonga islands, in the south Pacific ocean. With an original grammar and vocabulary of their language / Compiled and arranged from the extensive communications of Mr. William Mariner, several years resident in those islands. By John Martin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    He used to say that the gods would always favour that party in war, in which there were the great- est chiefs and warriors. He did not believe that the gods paid much attention in other respects to the affairs of mankind ; nor did he think they could have any reason for doing so,—no more than man could have any reason or interest in attending to the affairs of the gods. He believed in the doc- trine of a future state, agreeably to the notions en- tertained by his countrymen ; namely, that chiefs and matabooles, having souls, exist hereafter in Bolotoo, according to their rank in this world ; but that the common people, having no souls, or those only that die with their bodies, are without any hope of a future existence. Such was the character of the late How of the Tonga Islands,—a character not without a consid- erable share of merit; in some respects not un- worthy imitation, and in every respect highly in- teresting. We have pourtrayed it at some length, because such characters do not often come under our observation; and it is proper that we should know what men are and may be in a savage state, it we wish to judge with tolerable accuracy of the human character in a civilized state, that, by com- parison of the two together, we may arrive at a better knowledge of human nature in the abstract; a science of all sciences the most truly interesting; a science to which all others are but auxiliary ; and without which all others would be but vain subtle- ties, fatiguing in the pursuit, and unsatisfactory in the possession. We come now to view the island of Vavaoo under the dominion of a man of a very different turn of mind ; of one whose intellect was of a very