THE TONGA ISLANDS. 147 assembly rose up, and dispersed to their re- spective houses. The following day, Finow, and all that had come to this island with him, went on board their canoes, and returned back to Lefooga, and, shortly after, all the Vavaoo people, ex- cept the greater part of the matabooles * of the late Toobo Nuha, who were detained by Finow, pursued their course to Vavaoo. About a fortnight after their departure, there arrived a canoe from Vavaoo with a mataboole, and thirty or forty men, who were well affected towards Finow. They brought the unexpected information, that the people of that island, at the instigation, and under the guidance of their chief. Toe Oomoo (Finow's aunt), had come to the resolution of freeing themselves from the dominion of the king, and of erecting them- selves into a separate nation. Toe Oomoo, it seems, had made a speech to her chiefs, in which she declared, that she found it expe- dient to shake off the yoke of Finow ; for, al- though she was his aunt, she could not but re- member with gratitude the obligations she laid under to Toobo Nuha, and the respect that
- He retained the matabooles of the late chief, lest by
their counsel and advice the Vavaoo people should be urged i<) rebellion: the matabooles have always great influence Avitli t!ie chiefs.
