MARINER (William).
An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, with an Original Grammar and Vocabulary of their Language, Vols I & II.
This edition has a map and an enlarged introduction not present in the first. The unpaginated appendix is a comprehensive grammar and dictionary.
Mariner sailed from Gravesend for South America and the Pacific on board the Port au Prince in February, 1805. After various adventures involving Spanish colonial administrators and the whale populations the crew mutinied in the Tonga Islands. Unfortunately for them, they were subsequently captured and killed by the natives, whilst Mariner had the luck to be adopted by the King as his son and remained there for some four years. “The best report on Tongan life and culture before the arrival of Christianity” (Hill)Hill, 1076.
