s,
they crush a rebellion in its very infancy.

The orders, or classes, amongst their chiefs, or those who call
themselves such, seemed to be almost as numerous as amongst us; but
there are few, in comparison, that are lords of large districts of
territory, the rest holding their lands under those principal barons, as
they may be called. I was indeed told, that when a man of property dies,
everything he leaves behind him falls to the king; but that it is usual
to give it to the eldest son of the deceased, with an obligation to make
a provision out of it for the rest of the children. It is not the custom
here, as at Otaheite, for the son, the moment he is born, to take from
the father the homage and title, but he succeeds to them at his decease,
so that their form of government is not only monarchical, but
hereditary.

The order of succession to the crown has not been of late interrupted;
for we know, from a particular circumstance, that the Futtafaihes
(Poulaho being only an addition to distinguish the king from the rest of
the family) have reigned in a direct line, for at least one hundred and
thirty-five years. Upon enquiring, whether any account had been
preserved amongst them, of the arrival of Tasman's ships, we found that
this history had been handed down to them from their ancestors, with an
accuracy which marks, that oral tradition may sometimes be depended
upon. For they described the two ships as resembling ours, mentioning
the place where they had anchored, their having staid but a few days,
and their moving from that station to Annamooka. And by way of informing
us how long ago this had happened, they told us the name of the
Futtafaihe who was then king, and of those who had succeeded, down to
Poulaho, who is the fifth since that period, the first being an old man
at the time of the arrival of the ships.

From what has been said of the present king, it would be natural to
suppose, that he had the highest rank of any person in the islands. But,
to our great surprise, we found it is not so; for Latoolibooloo, the
person who was pointed out to me as king, when I first visited
Tongataboo, and three women, are, in some respects, superior to Poulaho
himself. On our enquiring who these extraordinary personages were, whom
they distinguish by the name and title of Tammaha?[191] we were
told, that the late king, Poulaho's father, had a sister of equal rank,
and elder than himself; that she, by a man that came from