I was not sorry to be present on this occasion, as I was thus furnished with the most unequivocal proofs of the supreme dignity of Poulaho and his son over the other principal chiefs. Indeed, by this time I had acquired some certain information about the relative situations of the several great men, whose names have been so often mentioned. I now knew that Mareewagee and old Toobou were brothers. Both of them were men of great property in the island, and seemed to be in high estimation with the people; the former in particular had the very honourable appellation given to him, by every body, of _Motooa Tonga_; that is to say, Father of Tonga, or of his country. The nature of his relationship to the king was also no longer a secret to us; for we now understood that he was his father-in-law, Poulaho having married one of his daughters, by whom he had this son; so that Mareewagee was the prince’s grandfather. Poulaho’s appearance having satisfied us that we had been under a mistake in considering Feenou as the sovereign of these islands, we had been at first much puzzled about his real rank; but that was by this time ascertained. Feenou was one of Mareewagee’s sons; and Tooboueitoa was another. On my landing, I found the king in the house adjoining to our tent, along with our people who resided on shore. The moment I got to him, he bestowed upon me a present of a large hog and a quantity of yams. About the dusk of the evening a number of men came, and having sat down in a round group, began to sing in concert with the music of bomboo drums, which were placed in the centre.[185] There were three long ones and two short. With these they struck the ground end-ways as before described. There were two others which lay on the ground, side by side, and one of them was split or shivered; on these a man kept beating with two small sticks. They sung three songs while I staid; and I was told, that after I left them the entertainment lasted till ten o’clock. They burnt the leaves of the _wharra_ palm for a light; which is the only thing I ever saw them make use of for this purpose.