Mr. Mariner, in his account of the Tonga Islands, has given us a most
curious and interesting description of the surprise and perplexity with
which the powers of this invention were contemplated, for the first
time, by some of the natives of the Tonga Islands. Mr. Mariner, shortly
after the commencement of his captivity amongst these savages, had, in
the hope of thereby obtaining his liberty, written a letter, with a
solution of gunpowder, on a piece of paper which he obtained from one of
the natives; and he confided it to the care of a chief, with directions
that it should be given to the captain of any ship which might appear on
the coast. Finnow, the king, however, having heard of this transaction,
his suspicions were excited, and he immediately sent to the chief for
the letter, and obtained it. “When it was put into his hands,” the
narrative proceeds, “he looked at it on all sides; but not being able to
make anything of it, he gave it to Jeremiah Higgins, who was at hand,
and ordered him to say what it meant. Mr. Mariner was not present.
Higgins took the letter, and translating part of it into the Tonga
language, judiciously represented it to be merely a request to any
English captain that might arrive to interfere with Finnow for the
liberty of Mr. Mariner and his countrymen; stating that they had been
kindly treated by the natives, but nevertheless wished to return, if
possible, to their native country.... This mode of communicating
sentiments was an inexplicable puzzle to Finnow; he took the letter
again and examined it, but it afforded him no information. He considered
the matter a little within himself; but his thoughts reflected no light
upon the subject. At length he sent for Mr. Mariner, and desired him to
write down something; the latter asked what he would choose to have
written? He replied, Put down me. He accordingly wrote ‘Fee-now’
(spelling it according to the strict English orthography); the chief
then sent for another Englishman, who had not been present, and
commanding Mr. Mariner to turn his back and look another way, he gave
the man the paper, and desired him to read what that was: he accordingly
pronounced aloud the name of the king, upon which Finnow snatched the
paper from his hand, and, with astonishment, looked at it, turned it
round, and examined it in all directions. At length he exclaimed, ‘This
is neither like myself nor anybody else! Where are my legs? How do you
know it to be I?’ And then, without stopping for any attempt at
explanation, he impatiently ordered Mr. Mariner to write something else,
and thus employed him for three or four hours in putting down the names
of different persons, places, and things, and making the other man read
them. This afforded extraordinary diversion to Finnow, and to all the
men and women present, particularly as he now and then whispered a
little love anecdote, which was strictly written down, and audibly read
by the other, not a little to the confusion of one or other of the
ladies present; but it was all taken in good humour, for curiosity and
astonishment were the prevailing passions. How their names and
circumstances could be communicated, through so mysterious a channel,
was altogether past their comprehension. Finnow at length thought he had
got a notion of it, and explained to those about him it was very
possible to put down a mark or sign of something that had been seen,
both by the writer and reader, and which should be mutually understood
by them; but Mr. Mariner immediately informed him, that he could write
down anything that he had never seen: the king directly whispered to him
to put Toogoo Ahoo, the king of Tonga, whom he and Toobo Nuha had
assassinated many years before Mr. Mariner’s arrival. This was
accordingly done, and the other read it; when Finnow was yet more
astonished, and declared it to be the most wonderful thing he had ever
heard of. He then desired him to write ‘Tarky,’ the chief of the
garrison of Bea, whom Mr. Mariner and his companions had not yet seen;
this chief was blind in one eye. When ‘Tarky’ was read, Finnow inquired
whether he was blind or not? This was putting writing to an unfair test!
And Mr. Mariner told him that he had only written down the sign standing
for the sound of his name, and not for the description of his person. He
was then ordered, in a whisper, to write, ‘Tarky, blind in his left
eye,’ which was done, and read by the other man, to the increased
astonishment of every body. Mr. Mariner then told him, that in several
parts of the world messages were sent to great distances, through the
same medium; and being folded and fastened up, the bearer could know
nothing of the contents; and that the histories of whole nations were
thus handed down to posterity, without spoiling by being kept, as he
chose to express himself. Finnow acknowledged this to be a most noble
invention; but added, that it would not do at all for the Tonga Islands;
that there would be nothing but disturbances and conspiracies, and he
should not be sure of his life perhaps another month.”
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