286 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 

 CHAPTER XXXII. 



A GLIMPSE OF TONGAN HISTORY. 



HAVING dwelt at length on some of the natural productions of 

 the islands, I must now come back more strictly to my tour 

 through the Coral Lands themselves. Fiji and Samoa have 

 already been treated of ; I now come to Tonga. According to 

 Mariner the Tongans did not deserve the name Cook gave 

 them, that of the Friendly Islanders ; he says that the chiefs 

 intended to treacherously massacre Cook and his company, but 

 the scheme came to nothing on account of differences among 

 themselves as to how their amiable designs should be carried 

 out. 



It is probable that the Tongans, always a daring, ambitious, 

 and piratical people, were compelled to keep in check their 

 natural desire to kill the confiding white men, and get possession 

 of the weapons and other useful things which they coveted, in 

 order to increase their power. In referring to Fiji and Samoa, 

 I have pointed out the influence of these people in both groups. 

 Maafu's history and the cause of the rise of the Malietoa family 

 in Samoa are evidences of the 'pushing' tendency of the 

 Tongans ; in fact, they have been well called the Anglo-Saxons 

 of the South Pacific. 



The Tongan Archipelago is composed of at least a hundred 

 islands and islets, comprised between 18 and 20 S. lat., and 

 174 and 179 W. long. The three principal islands of Ton- 

 gatabu, Vavau and Eoa, are alone of any extent, each 

 ranging from 15 to 20 miles in length. Six others, namely, 

 Late, Tofua, Kao, Numuka, Lefuga, and Haano, are from 5 to 

 7 miles in extent. The rest are much smaller. Many of them 

 are in fact only banks of sand and coral, covered with some 



