Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/58

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INTRODUCTION.

ing proof how much a line of conduct, influenced by liberality and respect towards females, is productive of morality.

P. 206—7. The author here mentions a custom of the queen, that of preserving the bones of her father, wrapt up carefully in a piece of cloth, "because she loved her father so dearly." Mr. Mariner saw these bones, and on enquiry, found it was not merely a custom of the queen, but a common practice among them.

P. 209. In regard to the question, whether the natives of the Sandwich islands are cannibals, Mr. Mariner is disposed to believe that they are not; those natives who were with him at Tonga always strongly denied the charge.

These several statements, it is hoped, the reader will not think tedious: they serve as very fair proofs of the accuracy with which Mr. Mariner noticed what he saw, and the fidelity of his memory in retaining it. Some of these statements, as before mentioned, are inserted in the body of the present work, and were printed off before Mr. Campbell's book was pub-