EQUATOTIIAL POLYNESIA. 483 



changes of temperature, and still more the suppression of their national pastimes, 

 boisterous rejoicings, feasts and dances, interdicted by the missionaries, have 

 co-operated towards the extinction of the race. The people become weary of a too 

 placid, aimless existence, and die out through sheer inanition. Nevertheless, there 

 are exceptions to the general law of decadence and in certain favoured localities, 

 such as Lukunor in the Carolines, Futuna in the Wallis group, and Niue north of 

 Tonga, the jDopulation normally increases by the natural excess of births over 

 deaths. Elsewhere the natives become more and more intermingled with immi- 

 grants from all quarters, and wherever- any actual increase takes place, as for 

 instance in Tahiti, it occurs almost invariably amongst the half-castes resulting 

 from these crossings. The modern era has thus begun for the Polynesians, who 

 can be rescued from ultimate extinction only by the sacrifice of their racial purity 

 and gradual absorption in the surrounding populations. 



The Tonga Archipelago lies somewhat apart from the chief ocean highways 

 between Australia and the New World, its principal member, Toncja-Tahu^ being 

 over 420 miles south-east of Fiji, the natural station on the route from Melbourne 

 and Sydney to Hawaii and San Francisco. Nevertheless, Tonga is visited by 

 many skippers, mostly Germans, who here ship large quantities of copra, yielded 

 by the vast palm- groves of these fertile islands. The capital and most frequented 

 port of the little Tonga state is Nukualofa, on a roadstead well sheltered by reefs 

 on the north side of Tonga- Tabu. On the east side Mua, the central Catholic 

 station, lies near the old residence and the necropolis of the royal family. 



Lefuha, in the Haabai group, and Niua, in the largest of the Yavao Islands, 

 also trade in copra, chiefly with German houses. The port of Niua, although of 

 somewhat difficult access, is one of the finest in the Pacific, forming an extensive 

 basin 20 to 25 fathoms deep, sheltered from all winds by an amphitheatre of high 

 escarpments. 



East of Tonga, Savage Island, so called by Cook from the rude welcome given 

 him by the natives, has resumed its original name of If me (Tnui), and has been 

 declared neutral territory by a convention signed in 1886 between England and 

 Germany. English influence, however, is paramount in this islet, one of the 

 most fertile in Polynesia, and inhabited by Polynesians of Tonga speech and 

 descent. 



The few islets lying north-west from Tonga and north-east of Fiji, and 

 collectively called Wallis from their discoverer in 1767, are disposed on a line 

 which, drawn from Samoa, would pass through the British island of Hotuma to 

 Anuda and Tukopia, the last western lands inhabited by Polynesians. The natives 

 probably came from Tonga-Tabu, although Uvea or Wallis, properly so called, is 

 regarded by them as the cradle of their race. Futuna, west of Uvea, was formerly 

 inhabited b}^ ferocious cannibals who devoured to the last man the eighteen 

 hundred of the neighbouring island of Aloji, " Land of Love," and one of its chiefs 

 is reported to have eaten his own mother. Wallis was annexed to the French 

 Oceanic possessions in 1887. 



Samoa, named by Bougainville the Navigators' Archipelago, is still a great 



