THE Fi;iENl>LY ISLANDS 4!)1) 



weapons, and dress. The Wesleyan Mission was estab- 

 lished in 1826, and the people are now all Christians. 

 Almost every one can read, and there is a regular and 

 efficient government under a native king, the treaty 

 between England and Germany in 1886 assuming the 

 autonomy of the group. " It is to the credit of the new 

 State," writes Captain Cyprian Bridge (Proc. Hoy. Geog. 

 Soc, 1886), "that its public expenditure is small, that it 

 has been for years perfectly orderly, and that there arc 

 in the group probably five times as many miles of carriage 

 road as there are in our own colony of Fiji." These latter 

 are mostly made by prison labour, and the Tongans have 

 always excelled in their construction. At the time of 

 their conquest of Samoa, more than two centuries ago, 

 they made numerous roads in those islands, the traces of 

 which remain to the present day. The people are also 

 admirable boat -builders and sailors, visiting all the 

 adjacent islands in their fine canoes. Latter-day civil- 

 isation has introduced cricket, of which they are very 

 fond, and they have become good riders, horses having 

 been introduced for some years. The Tongan dialect is 

 harsher than the Saraoan, and is supposed to have been 

 influenced by contact and admixture with the Fijians. 

 The population has been variously estimated at froin 

 23,000 to 30,000, and it does not seem clear whether it 

 is diminishing or increasing, for while in 1839 the 

 estimate of the missionaries placed it at only 18,500, it 

 was conjectured in 1847 to be between 40,000 and 

 50,000. 



Tongattibu, of which Niukalofa is the capital, is the 

 most important and most visited island, although of no 

 great size. Its area is 128 square miles, its dimensions 

 being about 22 by 8 miles. It is very low, and its 

 surface almost a dead level, its highest point being only 



