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be bad made himself obnoxious to the higher powers in the first instance , we are not informed ; but his behaviour on board the Research , and his evasion from Van Diem an ' s Land , in the good ship Albion , under the protection of the Lieutenant > Governor , is amusing enough . It seems that he had bled Captain Dillon for a cold before the expedition started , and had taken that opportunity of
represent ! ug to the Marine Board that the Captain was in a state of health which would render it impossible for him to proceed on the voyage , that he was subject to apoplectic fits , and that he was at that time labouring under insanity . He is said also to have intimated that he ( the Esculapius of the expedition ) was perfectly competent to undertake the direction . This scheme , however , did not succeed ; the Captain promptly made oath that he never had had a fit from
the day of his birth , and the Marine Board were satisfied . Hardly were they under weigh , however , before he accused the ship of being leaky , and her commander of eating chips and being insane ; apparently with the intention of inciting the crew to rise upon him aud displace him , or compel him to return . For the particulars of the quarrel , the mutiny
" fore and aft , " and the prosecution at Van Diemen ' s Land , ( when retributive justice was inflicted upon Captain Dillon in the shape of a j £ 5 O 0 penalty , besides delay and imprisonment for the informality of which he had been guilty in laying his hand upon the Doctor's shoulder when he arrested him , ) for all these details of civilized life , we refer to the
work ijself . ( See p . 127 , for the account of the law-suit . ) The New Zealanders on board the Research , having notions of justice of their own , and not altogether coinciding with the Lieutenant Governor , threatened to . eat the Doctor without mercy , if ever he landed in their country . " We have seen the Doctor abuse you very much at Diamond Harbour , " said they to Captain Dillon .
* ' You are our friend and protector i you have brought us from our native country over a sea three months long , ( referring to the length of the voyage from New Zealand , ) and you have victualled and clothed us : you have also loaded us with presents to take to our country ; you are the relation of our fathers and friends in New Zealand ; we are , therefore , directed by our god to fight for you . Those men that are not your friends cannot be ours . We will not peak to the Doctor . We will kill and
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eat him if he land in oar country . " Captain Dillon appears to have been eminently successful iu attaching the savages to his person and cause , wherever the opportunity was afforded him , and he offers many little hints on the subject which may be valuable to future navigators . At Mafanga ( in the Tonga islands ) Captain Dillon was visited by
Maflfee Heppay , the adopted mother of Mr . Mariner , who some time ago published an account of his researches iu that part of the world . This lady was the wife of King Finow , when that chief took the Port au Pricce at the Harpie Islands . " I showed her , " says Captain Dillon , " the first volume of Mr . Mariner ' s narrative , which contained a
portrait of her adopted son , habited in the costume of the Friendly Islands . She immediately recognised the likeness , and exclaimed * It is Tokey ! ' She wept bitterly . " Revenge is a virtue and a point of honour amongst these islanders , as it is amongst almost all uncivilised and * ef » i-civilised people . It is capable ,
however , of being restrained and suspeuded upon occasion , as was shewn in Coraricka Bay , when a man , who came alongside to demand that two of his en-emies should be delivered up to him to be eaten , being admitted on board with a proper explanation that they were not to be eaten , took them by the hand and inclined his head to theirs in a most
friendly manner . They discussed the events of the war , assigned honour due to one another ' s friends and relations , and finally took leave without any killi ug or eating . The Tonga people do not believe in any future state of reward and punishment , but they firmly believe that the gods approve of virtue and are displeased with vice ; that every man has
his tutelar deity who will protect him as Iodk as he conducts himself as be ought to do ; but if he does not , will leave him to the approaches of misfortune , disease , and death . Great love and respect for parents is a prominent characteristic of their national manners , and their respect to an elder sister they shew in rather a singular way , by never entering into the house where she resides .
Hamaa sacrifices are a part of their religious ceremonial , but the ceremony of nawgia , or strangling the chief widow of a person of importance , is becoming obsolete . The last Tooiutonga ' s wife waa not strangled , as she should have been under the ancien regime ; and the late king Finow was used to say , that if his son-in-law died ,, his daughter should not
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190 Critical Notices . — Miscellaneous .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1830, page 190, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2582/page/46/
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