Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine,  3rd ser. 3 (1824), 705–07.

Extract from the Journal of Mr. Lawry  [2/2]

Anon

Genre:

Extract, Diary, Serial

Publications extracted:

Walter Lawry

Subjects:

Ethnography, Christianity, Imperialism, Magic, Disease, Epidemiology, Electricity


    Describes some of the religious beliefs of the indigenous population of the Friendly Islands (Tonga). Relates that the first white man in the islands was an escaped convict from Botany Bay, who, when the first missionaries arrived around the turn of the century, told the chiefs 'that they were sent here by the King of England to destroy all the natives in the land, and take possession of the islands for themselves'. He reported that they were doing this by witchcraft, an account 'rendered the more probable by an epidemic disease which then prevailed among them'. (706) Relates the description given by one of the chiefs of a voyage from Tonga to New Zealand and Australia, observing: his account of Sydney, 'above all, the unbounded liberality and kindness of our friends—produced an electrifying effect upon the Chiefs' (707).



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