Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/377

THE TONGA ISLANDS. 311 bodily strength, and was always accustomed to fight with this sort of gauntlet in preference to the pike, not however to tear open the bowels of his enemy, but merely to catch a firmer hold of him whilst he threw him on his face ; he would then place his foot upon the small of his back> and, seizing fast hold of the hair of his head, so bend his spine as to break it : with little men or boys, however, he would not take so much trouble, but laying them across his knee, as one would a stick, break their backs without farther ceremony ! By way of defence from the pikes of their adversaries, they wear on the left side a species of armour made of the husk of the cocoa-nut plaited thick, and stuffed and quilted on the inside with the loose husk, picked fine : this reaches from the axilla down to the hip. Their wars generally originate in quarrels about hereditary right, or the exaction of tribute. Some time before Cow Mooala arrived, an European vessel, according to their description, (or an American) came to an anchor there. The natives as usual put off in their canoes, with a view to take possession of her according to the authority with which they were invested by the gods. The crew readily allowed them to come on board, supposing them to be governed by -the usual spirit of curiosity; but shewed verv strong symptoms of opposition when they began, without ceremony, to plunder, and opened such