THE F1UENDLY ISLANDS 
499 
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, 5 ’ writes Captain Cyprian Bridge (. Proc . Boy. Geoy . 
Soc., 1886), “ that its public expenditure is small, that it 
has been for years perfectly orderly, and that there are 
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 Samoan, and is supposed to have been 
influenced by contact and admixture with the Fijians. 
The population has been variously estimated at from 
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. 
Tongatabu, of which Mukalofa 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 
