Page:An account of the natives of the Tonga Islands.djvu/17

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
PREFACE.
ix

somewhat corrective of Mr. Mariner's statements.

For three or four years (until December last) Jeremiah resided with his father, an old inhabitant of the town of Aylesbury, a man well known, and much respected; and in the employ of many farmers in the county as a hay-binder. Some time after the publication of the first edition of the present work, a copy was sent to Jeremiah, with a request, that he would particularly remark and make a memorandum of whatever he conceived not to be correctly stated. In the month of November last, Mr. Higgins, the father, happening to be in town upon some business, called to inform me, that his son had been exceedingly pleased with the perusal of the work, particularly as it served to corroborate many things which he had previously related to his friends and neighbours, and to which he had reason to think they did not always give the credit that was due; insomuch that he began to be heartily tired of answering their numerous inquiries. Among those to whom he had given the