Tongatapu

“ Chief Ma’afu, descending on Fiji, would have unseated Thakombau had the British not intervened.
Contact with Melanesia has given the Tongan a slightly browner coloring than the golden skin of the pure Polynesian; those portions of dark Fiji where Tongan warriors and mission teachers were most frequent can still be picked by lighter skins and other Tongan stigmata. Tongans have a stoutness, a fiber, that excels that of all other Polynesians. In many ways they are the superior natives of the Pacific. ”

“ Tongan legend says that, long ago, a canoe returning from Fiji was driven by stress of weather to Bolotu, the island of gods and souls lying in the ocean north-west of Tonga. That island is larger than all theirs together, full of all finest fruits and loveliest flowers, that fill the air with fragrance, and come anew the moment they are plucked; birds of beauteous plumage are there, and hogs in plenty, all immortal save when killed for the gods to eat, and then new living ones appear immediately to fill their places. ”

“ I am of opinion that all the land on Tongatabu is private property, and that there are here, as at Otaheite, a set of people, who are servants or slaves, and have no property in land. It is unreasonable to suppose every thing in common in a country so highly cultivated as this. Interest being the greatest spring which animates the hand of industry, few would toil in cultivating and planting the land, if they did not expect to reap the fruit of their labour: were it otherwise, the industrious man would be in a worse state than the idle sluggard. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ The Faasaleleanga.—In prose and poetry this part of the island, and even the whole of Savaii, is often called Sa Lafai, or sacred to Lafai, and among the legends that chief, Lafai, has an early place. Tupailelei, or Tupai the good, married a daughter of the king of Tonga, and her father ordered that she should go to Tonga some months after her marriage. She started for Tonga, but the canoe was driven by adverse winds to Fiji, and in remembrance of that she called her first child Vaasiliifiti, "Canoe drifted to Fiji." ”

“ The chief even tried to prevent his white visitors from travelling in the direction of the mountain, and only gave his consent after ordering that the sacred Tongariro should not even be looked at. So deeply is this superstition engraven in the heart of the New Zealander, that even the Christian natives are afraid of such a tapu, and will not dare to approach a spot that has thus been made sacred by a tohunga. Reasoning is useless with them; they will agree to all the propositions, admit the inference to be drawn from them, and then decline to run so terrible a risk. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ Many Tongans also resided there, who could at once be addressed in their own language, which was also understood by the chief and many of the people of Lakemba. As many Fijians were living at Tonga, the missionaries were able likewise to prepare and print some books in Fijian. King George’s introduction insured them a favourable reception from the chief of Lakemba, who at once gave them ground for the missionary premises. House-building is short work in Fiji, and a large body of natives, having prepared posts, spars, reeds, etcetera, assembled at the chosen site, and commenced operations. ”

“ The traditions of Tongan immigration are too numerous to be set down here. From 1790, if not earlier, an expedition to Fiji was an annual occurrence. The most important was the arrival of the Tui Tonga's canoe in Taveuni, from which sprang the chief family of the Tui Thakau, and the stranding of the two little old men who instituted the Nanga Cult, which recalls the rites of the Polynesian Malae. The chiefs of the Nandronga and Viwa (Yasawa) also trace their descent from Tongan castaways, and are very proud of the connection. ”

“ This rock is con- verted into a strong fortress, commanding the whole island, which, indeed, is rendered inac- cessible in every part, by a heavy surf and dan- gerous rocks, except just to the left of the large rock, and that part is defended by a high fenc- ing. On this small" but strong island several natives of Tonga resided, for the chief was partial to them, because his wife was a native, of that place; he therefore readily admitted Cow Mooala and his men to come also and re- side with him. Cow Mooala took an active part with the chief of Chichia in his war against the people of Pau. ”

“ Who has heard of Tongatabu? who knows where the “Friendly Islands” are? You will not find them very readily in the map, but they are to be found nevertheless, about one thousand miles to the north-east of New Zealand. And if you take the steamer that runs every month from Auckland to Sydney, touching at the “Friendly” or Tongan Group, on the way, you will find yourself, in four days, set down on the wharf of Nukualofa, the capital of the island of Tongatabu, and the seat of the oddest, most comic-opera-like monarchy that the world ever knew. ”

“ 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? ”

“ In this part of our voyage we follow the course of the Trade Wind, as the Tongans have done for many generations, and the missionaries after them. As a consequence of the easy voyage down wind, the Tongans have had great influence on Fijian affairs in the past; they even established for themselves a kingdom, in the Lau Group, shortly before Fiji was taken over by Britain. Great navigators though they were, they had less skill than the Fijians in boat-building and carpentry; so they came to Fiji for their canoes. In Fiji canoe-building is a hereditary occupation. ”

“ For our own parts, why do we wish to live but for the sake of Finow; but if his family is afflicted, we are all afflicted, innocent as well as guilty. How canst thou be merciless! dost thou not see here Finów,—and is not A′foo here, who descended from ancient Tonga chiefs now in Bolótoo;—and is not Fótoo here, and did he not descend from Moomoóe formerly How of Tonga;—and is not A′lo here, and Niucápoo, and Toobó!—then why art thou merciless?" (spoken in rather an impatient and peremptory tone) "have regard for Finow, and save the life of his daughter." ”

“ They believed that mankind, according to a partial tradition, came originally from Bolotoo, the chief residence of the gods, a fabulous island situated to the north-west of the Tongan archipelago. The first men and women consisted of two brothers, with their wives and attendants. They were commanded by the god Tangaloa to take up their abode in the Tonga islands, but of their origin or creation the Tongans professed to know nothing. ”

“ The present inhabitants of Tonga contemplate with a pious awe the fruit of the labours and patience of their forefathers, without dreaming for a moment of imitating them in their noble enterprises. A distant voyage affrights these degenerate scions of a hardy race, and the great canoes which still survive, sheltered under sheds very skilfully built, are little more than the useless encumbrance of chiefs grown languid in the long peace which has infected the whole people with habits of indolence. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 island of Tongatabu is shaped something like an isosceles triangle, the longest sides whereof are seven leagues each, and the shortest four. It lies nearly in the direction of E. S. E. and W. N. W. is nearly all of an equal height, rather low, not exceeding sixty or eighty feet above the level of the sea. This island, and also that of Eaoowe, is guarded from the sea by a reef of coral rocks extending out from the shore one hundred fathoms more or less. On this reef the force of the sea is spent before it reaches the land or shore. ”

“ Tonga-tabu is the largest; volcanic and fruit-bearing; missionary enterprise (Wesleyan Methodist) has done much to improve the mental, moral, and material condition of the natives, who belong to the fair Polynesian stock, and are a superior race to the other natives of Polynesia, but are diminishing in numbers. ”

“ On this and many adjacent islands, cutting off a portion of the little finger as a sacrifice to the gods for the recovery of a superior sick relation is very commonly done; indeed there is scarcely a person living at Tonga but who has lost one or both or a considerable portion of both little fingers. Those who can have but few superior relations, such as those near akin to Tooitonga, or the king, or Veachi, have some chance of escaping, if their relations are tolerably healthy. ”

“ All the young men on board could not refrain envying him his happiness in the possession of so lovely and interesting a creature. They arrived safe at one of the Fiji islands, and resided with a certain chief during two years: at the end of which time, hearing of the death of the tyrant THE TONGA ISLANDS. 265 of Vavaoo, the young chief returned with his wife to the last mentioned island, and lived long in peace and happiness. ”

“ 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. ”