ART OF WRITING.

Mr. Mariner, in his account of the Tonga Islands, has given us a most curious and interesting description of the surprise and perplexity with which the powers of this invention were contemplated, for the first time, by some of the natives of the Tonga Islands. Mr. Mariner, shortly after the commencement of his captivity amongst these savages, had, in the hope of thereby obtaining his liberty, written a letter, with a solution of gunpowder, on a piece of paper which he obtained from one of the natives; and he confided it to the care of a chief, with directions that it should be given to the captain of any ship which might appear on the coast. Finnow, the king, however, having heard of this transaction, his suspicions were excited, and he immediately sent to the chief for the letter, and obtained it. “When it was put into his hands,” the narrative proceeds, “he looked at it on all sides; but not being able to make anything of it, he gave it to Jeremiah Higgins, who was at hand, and ordered him to say what it meant. Mr. Mariner was not present. Higgins took the letter, and translating part of it into the Tonga language, judiciously represented it to be merely a request to any English captain that might arrive to interfere with Finnow for the liberty of Mr. Mariner and his countrymen; stating that they had been kindly treated by the natives, but nevertheless wished to return, if possible, to their native country.… This mode of communicating sentiments was an inexplicable puzzle to Finnow; he took the letter again and examined it, but it afforded him no information. He considered the matter a little within himself; but his thoughts reflected no light upon the subject. At length he sent for Mr. Mariner, and desired him to write down something; the latter asked what he would choose to have written? He replied, Put down me. He accordingly wrote ‘Fee-now’ (spelling it according to the strict English orthography); the chief then sent for another Englishman, who had not been present, and commanding Mr. Mariner to turn his back and look another way, he gave the man the paper, and desired him to read what that was: he accordingly pronounced aloud the name of the king, upon which Finnow snatched the paper from his hand, and, with astonishment, looked at it, turned it round, and examined it in all directions. At length he exclaimed, ‘This is neither like myself nor anybody else! Where are my legs? How do you know it to be I?’ And then, without stopping for any attempt at explanation, he impatiently ordered Mr. Mariner to write something else, and thus employed him for three or four hours in putting down the names of different persons, places, and things, and making the other man read them. This afforded extraordinary diversion to Finnow, and to all the men and women present, particularly as he now and then whispered a little love anecdote, which was strictly written down, and audibly read by the other, not a little to the confusion of one or other of the ladies present; but it was all taken in good humour, for curiosity and astonishment were the prevailing passions. How their names and circumstances could be communicated, through so mysterious a channel, was altogether past their comprehension. Finnow at length thought he had got a notion of it, and explained to those about him it was very possible to put down a mark or sign of something that had been seen, both by the writer and reader, and which should be mutually understood by them; but Mr. Mariner immediately informed him, that he could write down anything that he had never seen: the king directly whispered to him to put Toogoo Ahoo, the king of Tonga, whom he and Toobo Nuha had assassinated many years before Mr. Mariner’s arrival. This was accordingly done, and the other read it; when Finnow was yet more astonished, and declared it to be the most wonderful thing he had ever heard of. He then desired him to write ‘Tarky,’ the chief of the garrison of Bea, whom Mr. Mariner and his companions had not yet seen; this chief was blind in one eye. When ‘Tarky’ was read, Finnow inquired whether he was blind or not? This was putting writing to an unfair test! And Mr. Mariner told him that he had only written down the sign standing for the sound of his name, and not for the description of his person. He was then ordered, in a whisper, to write, ‘Tarky, blind in his left eye,’ which was done, and read by the other man, to the increased astonishment of every body. Mr. Mariner then told him, that in several parts of the world messages were sent to great distances, through the same medium; and being folded and fastened up, the bearer could know nothing of the contents; 199and that the histories of whole nations were thus handed down to posterity, without spoiling by being kept, as he chose to express himself. Finnow acknowledged this to be a most noble invention; but added, that it would not do at all for the Tonga Islands; that there would be nothing but disturbances and conspiracies, and he should not be sure of his life perhaps another month.”