500 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
60 feet above the sea. Although purely coralline, the 
soil is remarkably fertile, though not very deep. The 
products are chiefly copra, sugar, cotton, coffee, and 
arrowroot, of which the first-named is the most import¬ 
ant export. The trade is mostly in the hands of the 
Germans, but lately the English have settled in some 
numbers. The total value of the exports in 1888 
surpassed £66,000. In the southern part of the island 
there is a remarkable monument, consisting of two per¬ 
pendicular rectangular blocks of stone of great height, 
deeply morticed to support a large slab across the top, 
which at one time was surmounted in the middle by a 
large bowl of the same material. Its history is entirely 
unknown. A figure of this most interesting monument 
is here given. Bearing in mind the numerous other stone 
monuments scattered widely over the islands of the 
Pacific, from the Carolines to Easter Island, it may be 
safely concluded that some race, with a different, if not a 
higher civilisation, preceded that which now exists. 
The Tonga group suffer from a somewhat unhealthy 
climate, the rains being excessive, while both earthquakes 
and hurricanes are frequent. In October, 1885, a violent 
submarine volcanic eruption took place about 48 miles 
N.NAV. of Mukalofa, resulting in the emergence of an 
island nearly three miles in length by one in width. 
4. The Samoa or Navigators’ Islands. 
North of Tonga some 350 miles is situated the Samoa 
group, first discovered by Bougainville in 1768, and 
called by him the Isles des Navigateurs ; and visited nine¬ 
teen years later by La Perouse, who lost here by massacre 
De Bangle, commandant of the Astrolabe , and eleven others. 
By the Treaty of Berlin of 1889 the autonomy of the 
