288 THE CORAL LANDS OF THE PACIFIC. 



friends. This island is covered with trees to its summit, and 

 is about 5 miles in diameter. 



One of the most frequented of the groups is that of Vavau, 

 which lies 70 miles to the north of the Hapai Group. Late 

 Island has a peak about 1800 feet high in the centre of the 

 island, which at one time was a volcano. It is from 6 to 7 

 miles in circumference. 



After this summary of the geography of the Tongan Group 

 I can proceed to other matters. The Tongans, like the Fijians 

 and Samoans, have had, from time immemorial, a civilisation 

 of their own. They have more moral stamina, energy, and 

 self-reliance than any other existing race in the Pacific. Had 

 they been acquainted earlier with the use of metals, there can 

 be no doubt that they would have subdued all Polynesia. 



When Captain Cook was in the islands, the habits of war 

 were little known to the natives ; the only quarrels in which 

 they had at that time engaged had been among the inhabitants 

 of the Fijis. They visited that group for the purpose of 

 getting sandal-wood, and to join the fighting Fijians for their 

 own ends. From the latter they gained a knowledge of 

 improved spears, and bows, and arrows. In Captain Cook's 

 time, this warlike spirit of the Tongans was confined to the 

 young men, who adopted a maxim they attributed to Fiji, that 

 war and strife were the noble employments of men, and ease 

 and pleasure only suitable for the weak and effeminate. Thus, 

 some years after Captain Cook's visit, a certain Tui Hala Fatai 

 set sail with his followers, about 250 in number, for the Fijian 

 island of Lakemba, and first joined one party, then another, 

 robbing, plundering, and murdering the natives, and doing all 

 things necessary to maintain the pomp and ceremonial obser- 

 vance of the precepts of ' glorious war ' as they understood it. 

 Not content with ' washing their spears ' (as the Zulus have it) 



