Mariner’s Tonga Islandsattractive 2 volume leather bound set 1827Originally published ten year
Mariner’s Tonga Islandsattractive 2 volume leather bound set 1827Originally published ten years previously, this is the “Third Edition, considerably Improved”, published in Constable’s Miscellany Series. “Considered the best report of Tongan life and culture before the arrival of Christianity … the customs of the inhabitants and their inter-island wars, and also examples of Tongan songs and music” (Hill). Mariner had sailed on the privateer Port-au-Prince in 1805, aged 13. “After an adventurous voyage the ship arrived at the Tonga Islands in poor condition, hoping to carry out repairs. The crew met with a hostile reception and many of them were massacred. Mariner, however, was taken under the protection of the principal chief, Finau Ulukalala, who bestowed on him the name of one of his deceased sons, Toki Ukamea, and appointed one of his wives to be Mariner’s adopted mother. Mariner’s residence in Tonga … lasted for four years. During this time he became thoroughly conversant with the language and customs of this Polynesian people … Using the guns from the Port-au-Prince, and helped by his surviving companions, he took a full and often decisive part in his protector’s warlike campaigns against other islands. Eventually times became more peaceful and Toki attained the status of a chief, living on his own cultivated plantations” (ODNB). In 1810 Mariner worked his passage back to England, and became a stockbroker, some time later becoming embroiled in a forgery scandal, the exchequer bill affair of 1836–41. He died in 1853. The book was extensively reviewed by Southey in the Quarterly Review (April, 1817), describing it as “one of the most interesting narratives which we have ever perused”, and noting telling affinities between the Finau the Tongan tyrant and the recently deposed French emperor, for example in the “utter disregard for human life by which such men as Finow [sic] and Buonaparte are distinguished.” -- source link
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