Fort Nukualofa

How it Was Taken by Stolen Guns

By J. J. Stewart

IN the chronicles of the South Seas there are many instances where the white man has taken part in native wars, using his modern weapons to help one native chief defeat another.

At the opening of the nineteenth cen tury, the commander of an American frigate landed an armed force, complete with cannon, on one of the Marquesas Is lands to assist a coastal chief in his war with a mountain tribe. “Bully” Hayes once sold the services of his armed crew to the king of Lessop Island, in the Carolines, and they were used to exterminate the inhabitants of a neighbouring island.

Then there is the amusing tale of the old salt, a deserter from the British Navy, who taught the use of firearms to one of the tribes of Pleasant Island and, by threatening the six other tribes of the island with his armed retainers, brought peace to a region where it had long been a stranger.

All these stories, and they are many, have it in common that the white man

was a free agent and did what he did ©f his own volition. In a different category is the story of the survivors of the brig “Port-au-Prince”. They were conscripted into the army of a black Napoleon, with death as the only alternative.

IT was in 1805 that the London privateer, “Port-au-Prince”, was cut off by the natives of Lifuka, in the Friendly Group, where she had called for fuel and water. The “Port-au-Prince” was on her way to Sydney from a successful cruise along the coast of South America, where she had taken several prizes. Caught off their guard by the wily natives all those aboard were massacred.

At the time of the assault a petty officer, William Mariner, and some of the crew, were ashore. In the time the brig had been at Lifuka. Mariner had won the friendship of chief Finau, and he and his companions were spared.

Now, for a long time Finau had been at variance with the natives of Tongatabu, the main island of the group. Hitherto, only one thing had prevented him from venting his grievances—fear of the fort at Nukualofa, the capital of Tongatabu.

As the work of primitive people, this fort was a mighty affair. It covered about five acres of land, a little way back from the beach, and was circular in shape.

There were two walls, an inner and an outer, each about nine feet in height and built of wickerwork, supported from the inside by upright posts of from six to nine inches in diameter and a foot and a half distant from one another.

There were a number of entrances, all of which could be effectively barred. Over these entrances and at other places along the walls were projecting platforms, with a breastwork at front and sides and con venient openings, through which spears and arrows could be aimed. Outside each of the fences was a ditch twelve feet deep which meant that the defenders stood twenty-one feet over the heads of who ever made the assault.

This was the tough nut Finau had to crack. Perhaps his plans were already made when he' took the “Port-au-Prince”, because it was only a week or two later that he sent for Mariner and told him what was expected of him and the other Englishmen.

WITH 4,000 warriors and sixteen Eng lishmen, Finau set sail for Tonga tabu in a number of war canoes. With them went the cannonades of the “Port au-Prince”, and plenty of ammunition. On arrival at Nukualofa the natives sallied forth from the fort to oppose the landing.

Eight of the Englishmen had muskets with them. These now opened fire, and drove the defenders back from the beach.

While the 4,000 warriors were landing, the cannonades and their carriages were slung on poles and brought ashore. They were set up on the beach and, at prac tically blank range, opened fire on the fort. Seated in a chair taken from the “Port-au-Prince”. Finau watched the pro ceedings with keen interest.

For over an hour the bombardment was kept up but, owing to the walls of the fort being constructed of such yielding material, it seemed that little damage had been done; the shot went through the wickerwork as if it had been paper, leav ing only a small hole to denote where it had made an entry.

FINAU sent for Mariner and expressed strong disappointment.

Mariner told him the damage was greater than was evident. The defence

had grown weak, very few spears and arrows were now coming from the walls.

However, Finau was far from satisfied. He decided to make a general assault and set fire to the fort walls.

In the first rush the outside wall was captured with ease. Rushing to the second wall, the Lifukaians plied their fire sticks.

Manv of the natives inside tried to escape from the rear of the fort and were promptly knocked on the head by a troop of warriors placed there just for that purpose.

After a short scuffle, the Lifukaians broke through the inner wall. A dreadful slaughter now took place. They slew all they met, men, women and children. The bloodthirsty shrieks of the killers mingled with the heart-rending screams and moans of the women and children, and the groans of the wounded.

In and out of the houses they raced, searching for fresh victims, peering with wolfish eyes through the pall of smoke from the burning walls, lest some mig:ht escape their vengeance. Some of the vic tims, with a sullen resignation, offered no resistance, but waited for the hand that, Fate-like, despatched them. Others fought with desperate fury. Those already lying wounded on the ground were struck with spears and clubbed to death by young boys who had been brought along by the expedition in order that they might be trained in the arts and horrors of war and who now seemed delighted by this opportunity to express their savagery.

The Englishmen saw all this madness dimly through the smoke and turned away, sick at heart.

WHEN Finau entered the fort and saw several large canoes, brought here in the first place for safe keeping, shat tered to pieces by round shot and dis membered bodies lying everywhere he ex pressed his astonishment at the deadly effect of the gun fire.

The defending chiefs, as this great mis chief went on, sat in consultation upon one of the canoes. They had just decided to make a sortie and capture the guns when a shot hit the canoe upon which they sat, smashing it to pieces. Those of them who were uninjured lost their nerve and rushed to hide in the inner houses of the fort and, because of their bad ex ample, many of the garrison deserted.

In this manner was the Fort of Nukua lofa, which had successfully resisted every assault for over eleven years, taken and destroyed in an hour or two. It was sev eral \ears later that William Mariner and his companions escaped and returned to civilisation.