Tonga

“ Our steamer left Nukualofa that evening, and we took on board a number of natives bound for Samoa. The entire population of the island seemed to have gathered together in a picturesque group on the shore to bid them farewell; and this group formed a brilliant foreground to our parting view of Tonga, with its green esplanade, its villa palace, its church and its white Government Offices, the latter of which stood boldly out against the groves of bananas and long feathery vistas of coconut palms. ”

“ Tonga enjoys one of the finest climates in the Pacific. The heat is never excessive, and the air is generally bright and invigorating. Fevers are unheard of, and the few white residents of the islands enjoy splendid health. As for the Tongans themselves, they dispute with the Fijians the palm of being physically the finest and strongest people in the whole Pacific; and no one has ever thought of challenging their claim to be the most intellectual of all the brown island races. ”

“ To those whose ideals of life are realized in short hours of labor, abundance of food and neither poverty nor riches, Tonga should be Utopia.
The Tongans are a big-boned, large-limbed race. They have darker skins than the neighboring islanders, and they surpass these others in intelligence. The consciousness of their superiority is said to affect their tones and even their gait. The relations between the sexes are conspicuously pure. [1] Their girls do not hang about the settlements or congregate on the pier and beaches, as women do in other islands. Many European settlers marry Tongan women. ”

“ The attire of the natives of the Tongan group is extremely picturesque and harmonises admirably with their surroundings. Holy Tonga and indeed all the islands of this group are subject to a curious law which enacts that all classes of natives, whether male or female, must wear an upper as well as a lower garment. Both men and women adorn themselves with flowers, garlands about their necks, wreaths of flowers in their hair. The air was heavy with the scent of orange blossom, cape jasmine, and frangipani. ”

“ We are now about 250 miles east of Fiji, and sighted land this afternoon; we have just anchored off Tonga, which certainly compares unfavourably with our beautiful Fijian isles. This is the dullest, flattest land I have yet seen—a low shore, fringed with long lines of cocoa-palm, which, seen from the sea, are singularly monotonous. The king's town, Nukualofa, consists of a long row of more or less ugly villas, stores, and barracks, built of wood and painted white: one is bright green. The houses are roofed with zinc or shingle, and the general effect is that of a new English watering-place. ”

“ These are the fashions of Tonga; and they offer a feast for artistic souls and pencils, that cannot be matched under the Southern Cross.
Tonga is very seldom visited by travellers, except for an hour or two during the steamer’s stay in port, and it is hardly ever seen by British tourists. I could not discover that any English lady had ever made a stay there, except myself, and the wife of a local Church dignitary. There are, of course, a few Colonial residents. But the English traveller leaves Tonga out altogether, which is really a pity—for his sake. ”

“ All the islands are clothed with rich tropical vegetation, feathered with waving cocoanut palms, and upon any of them the jaded seeker after rest might easily be content to spend the rest of his days —"the world forgetting, by the world forgot"—for Tonga is one of the few places that remain absolutely cut off from the outside world, save for the monthly service provided by the Union Steamship Company and occasional sailing crafts. ”

“ Thus was the island of Tonga, to which war had hitherto been a stranger, torn by civil strife, and at times given up a prey to famine, a situation worse perhaps than that under the tyranny of Toogoo Ahoo. Besides their domestic troubles, every year they were disturbed by attacks from Finow, who made it his annual custom to make a descent upon one or other of their fortresses, and sometimes upon several of them in the same season ”

“ There is not only a King in Tonga, but a real palace, guards of honour, a Parliament, a Prime Minister, a Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a large number of public officials. All these are Tongan natives. The king’s guards are apt to make an especially vivid impression upon the newcomer, as he walks up the wharf, and sees the scarlet-coated sentry pacing up and down opposite the guard-room, with his fellows, also smartly uniformed, lounging inside. ”

“ The first thing that it is right we should do is to give thanks and praise to the Lord; and in the rendering of these thanks, who is capable of explanation or who can discuss it and when is the time to speak and tell of the excessive good beyond bounds precious and important that have been rendered by the unforeseen, and also we in Tonga that we should be fortunate and that all should be well with the Tonga Islands, up to to-day who is it from whom? ”

“ They touched at the Hervey Isles on their way, and these likewise contributed several teachers, eager to carry to Samoa the Word of Peace, which had so recently gladdened themselves.
Passing on thence to Tonga they received warm welcome from King George, who had long been a zealous Christian, and whose energetic nature had thrown itself heart and soul into the work of converting his people. Never did finer material exist. The Tongans have ever been noted for their strong, self-reliant, earnest character ”

“ The Tongan tables appear to go back only 35 generations, or to just before the island of Tonga was colonized from Samoa or Fiji. This, however, was not the first occupation of that island.
No Tahitian tables are at present available for a greater length than 40 generations. ”

“ The teachers of the Tonga lotu—i.e., the Wesleyans—continued steadily working, and their influence spread as a leaven of good from isle to isle. At Tonga the Samoan party received an unlooked-for reinforcement in the person of Fauea, a Samoan chief, who had for some time been living in Tonga, and had there become a Christian. He requested Mr Williams to give him a passage in his ship, and proved an invaluable helper, directing him to steer for Savaii, the principal isle, of which he himself proved to be a high chief, and related to Malietoa, the greatest chief of all. ”

“ Shortly after the fortress was finished, a canoe arrived from the Hapai islands with Tonga-mana, a chief of the line of Tooitonga, who came from Toobó Toa, with a request to know how the inachi [3] was to be sent to Tooitonga, seeing that Finow had declared that no communication whatever was to be kept up with Hapai. As all on board were habited in mats, with leaves of the ifi tree round their necks, as a token of submission, and that they came upon a religious duty, they were permitted to land. ”

“ This word literally signifies Chief of Tonga, and is given because the man who bears it is the greatest man in Tonga, which is the chief of the whole group of islands. The word does not represent a name, but a rank, the family name being Fatagehi, and the rank passes downward by legitimate descent. So great a man is the Tooi-tonga, that in his presence no man may stand, but is obliged to sit down in the attitude of respect. ”

“ The singing of the Tongans is always a surprise to visitors. The late king was a musical enthusiast. There are some Tongan maidens who have voices of such range that tourists who have heard them, say that if they were trained they would rank among the queens of song. Their singing is all sacred and unaccompanied. It is questionable whether there is a happier, more contented and more law-abiding race on our planet than the Tongans. ”

“ So disrespectful is utter nudity reckoned among the Tongans, that if a man be obliged to undress near the spot where a chief is buried, the leaf apron is worn while the dress is changed.
We now come to the various divisions of rank in Tonga, and the mode of government. Ranks may be divided into two distinct orders, namely, the religious and the civil. We must take them in this order, because among the Tongans religious takes the precedence of civil rank.
By far the greatest man in point of rank is the Tooi-tonga. ”

“ The Friendly Islands, though a British Protectorate, and, as regards all matters in which European interests are involved, under the jurisdiction of the High Commissioner of the Pacific, still have a native king and Parliament. The inhabitants are Christians, and are in a sense the most school-taught people in the Pacific. They seem to delight especially in mathematics and music, while shorthand is their usual method of writing. Tonga was the last of the independent kingdoms to come under European control. ”

“ The following morning, at cava, this resolution respecting the celebration of the inachi, on the part of the Hapai people, was communicated to Tonga-mana, upon which he departed immediately, on his return to the Hapai islands. As soon as Toobó Toa heard the permission granted by Finow, he ordered the tributes from the different islands (intended for the inachi) to be collected together, and put on board Tonga-mana's canoe. ”

“ From the Society Islands the Resolution and Adventure sailed westward, discovered Hervey's Island, and rediscovered the Tonga archipelago already visited by Tasman. Here they met with such a kindly reception, the natives coming out to meet them in canoes, [99] and running along the shore displaying small white flags, that the group was afterwards christened the "Friendly Isles". [The Tonga archipelago under a native king is now a British protectorate.] The people supplied them with abundance of fowls, pigs, bananas, and coconuts. ”

“ According to the French explorer, Dumont d'Urville, who passed about a month in Tongataboo in 1827, the Polynesian race in Tonga exhibits less admixture with the swarthy Melanesian race than in Tahiti and New Zealand, there being far fewer individuals of stunted stature, flat noses, and frizzly hair among the Tongans than among the other Polynesians. [24] Even among the Tongans the physical superiority of the chiefs to the common people is said to be conspicuous; they are taller, comelier, and lighter in colour than the lower orders. ”

“ Ten years bring many changes in the circumstances of little states. When I was last in Tonga, Hawaii was independent; three great Powers were still wrangling over Samoa; countless islands in the Pacific were yet unclaimed. All had fallen now, and eyes had been cast upon Tonga—the last independent state in the Pacific. ”

“ The Tongans, instead of being killed and eaten, were always welcomed, and their visits encouraged, as they passed backward and forward in their canoes, and brought with them fine mats and other articles for barter. So much have these people intermingled, that in the eastern islands, which are nearest to those of Tonga, there is a decided mixture of Tongan blood. ”

“ This is the method of making offerings to the gods in Tonga; and, as Cow Mooala made no piention of any thing particular in this ceremony, among the people of Fotoona, it is presumed to be conducted in the same way. THE TONGA ISLANDS. 309 gion ; this, however, is not absolutely the case ; for although they strip all strangers, without distinction, that come within their power, yet in return they fit them out with other canoes, (en- tirely at the expense of the chiefs who shared the plunder;) ”

“ The chiefs began to take Morgan's statement into serious consideration; there certainly was a great mortality among them: the white men often assembled, and sang very loud; besides which, they would not let the Tonga people be present; and to prevent them even from peeping through the crevices of the reed fencing of the house, they stopt them up with all kinds of filth, knowing that the cleanliness of the Tonga people would not then allow them even to approach. And the chiefs said to themselves, if these people are doing no harm, why do not they allow us to be present? ”

“ After the ceremony of inachi, the canoe of Tonga-mana was sent away with permission to bring Toobó Toa, and any of his chiefs that thought proper to come, even although they filled more than one canoe, provided they only staid one day at Vavaoo, just to perform the ceremonies at the grave of the late How. For the king began now to consider that it would be bad policy to impose too many restrictions on the admission of the Hapai people, as it would indicate want of strength, and a certain degree of apprehension ”

“ The success which attended the exertions of the missionaries at Tonga encouraged them to commence the work at Fiji, with which extensive group Tonga has for years been intimately connected, although the inhabitants are of a totally different race and character. ”

“ Mariner knew the man. THE TONGA ISLANDS. islands, and the people are greater cannibals. At the Tonga islands in particular, it may be remar ked, that the island of Tonga (properly so called) is constantly in a state of war, and scarcity consequently is much more common there than at Vavaoo andthe Hapai islands, and cannibalism, therefore, much less shuddered at. ”

“ Besides the acknowledgment of a Protectorate, which would prevent the country falling into other hands, two definite concessions had to be made. In the port of Neiafu, in Vavau, Tonga possesses the best harbour in the Pacific—a land-locked basin with an easily defended entrance three or four miles long. In 1876, as the price of her treaty with Germany, Tonga had ceded a coaling-station in this harbour, and the Germans had dumped some twenty tons of coal upon their concession as a proof of occupation, and had thereafter forgotten all about it. ”