Following day, some of the younger chiefs, who had contracted for the Fiji habits, proposed to kill the prisoners, lest they should make their escape, and then to roast and eat them. The proposal was readily agreed to, by some, because they liked this sort of diet, and by others because they wanted to try it, thinking it a manly and warlike habit.
As attention to religious ceremonies forms an important feature in the character of the Tonga people, and as they consider that any neglect in this respect would amount to a crime, which the gods would punish with the most severe temporal inflictions, it becomes necessary to give a particular account of them.