Chap, xii.] TONGAN NATIVES. 



245 



The main island is exceedingly flat and low, its highest 

 point being only 60 feet above sea level. It thus stretched 

 itself before our view as a horizontal streak of green of uniform 

 width, the width being due merely to the height of the vege- 

 tation ; here and there at the water's edge, were seen small 

 inlets and stretches of white sandy beaches, or low honey- 

 combed and weathered clifflets of coral rock. 



Above these, appeared a band of dark foliaged shrubs, and 

 shrubby trees with shore-loving plants at their foot, growing in 

 the sand ; and as a background behind, rose a mass of cocoa- 

 nut-trees of various heights, but densely packed together, and 

 thus forming with their crowns a tolerably even line ; no palms 

 other than cocoanuts were to be seen in the mass. 



On the small scattered islets which were near at hand, Screw- 

 Pine trees were conspicuous, their stems surrounded with prop- 

 like aerial roots, whilst on the main island these trees, which 

 are numerous along the shore, were almost lost to view against 

 the general backing of dark foliage. 



As we steamed on, we could see beneath the cocoanut-trees 

 on the shores, the villages of the islanders, composed of small 

 houses of palm mats and grass thatch, and, as the news spread, 

 we saw the villagers assemble on the beach in their conspicuous 

 white or red clothing, to gaze at the ship. 



In the harbour were several American whalers, waiting for 

 the whales expected to come into the bay in a few days, and 

 also a small German vessel of the firm of Goddefroy Brothers, 

 the famed collectors of South Sea Island productions. 



Not until we had passed the most difficult twist in the 

 passage into the harbour, did the pilot come out, in a small 

 English-built boat manned by four sturdy Tongans. 



These Tongans were naked, except that they had a cloth 

 round the waist, and one of them a further girdle of green 

 Screw-Pine leaves ; they had all, however, linen shirts, which 

 they put on as they got cool ; and the coxswain, formerly a 

 Mataboolo, or lord, but degraded for drunkenness, wore besides 

 a pea jacket. 



The boat was a whale-boat, belonging to the King. As is 

 always the case, the men, being so little clothed, looked to us 

 bigger than they really were. They were, however, remarkably 

 finely made men, with all their muscles well developed, and all 

 of them were extremely well nourished. The Tongans have 

 large broad foreheads and faces, the lower jaws being wide at 

 their articulation, the chins narrowing off rather abruptly from 

 the face. The nose is flattened, but not very much ; the eye- 

 brows are straight, the lips not large or protuberant. 



The colour of the Tongans is of a light brownish-yellow with 



