THE TONGANS, OR FRIENDLY ISLANDERS.
It is a pleasure to pass out of the company of the ferocious Feegees into that of another people, which, though near neighbors of the former, are different from them in almost every respect,—I mean the Tongans, or Friendly Islanders. This appellation scarce requires to be explained. Every one knows that it was bestowed upon them by the celebrated navigator Cook,—who although not the actual discoverer of the Tonga group was the first who thoroughly explored these islands, and gave any reliable account of them to the civilized world. Tasman, who might be termed the “Dutch Captain Cook,” is allowed to be their discoverer, so long ago as 1643; though there is reason to believe that some of the Spanish explorers from Peru may have touched at these islands before his time. Tasman, however, has fixed the record of his visit, and is therefore entitled to the credit of the discovery,—as he is also to that of Australia, New Zealand, Van Diemen’s Land, and other now well-known islands of the Southwestern Pacific. Tasman bestowed upon three of the Tonga group the names—Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Middleburgh; but, fortunately, geographers have acted in this matter with better taste than is their wont; and Tasman’s Dutch national titles have fallen into disuse,—while the true native names of the islands have been restored to the map. This is what should be done with other Pacific islands as well; for it is difficult to conceive anything in worse taste than such titles as the Caroline and Loyalty Isles, Prince William’s Land, King George’s Island, and the ten thousand Albert and Victoria Lands which the genius of flattery, or rather flunkeyism, has so liberally distributed over the face of the earth. The title of Friendly Isles, bestowed by Cook upon the Tonga archipelago, deserves to live; since it is not only appropriate, but forms the record of a pleasant fact,—the pacific character of our earliest intercourse with these interesting people.
It may be here remarked, that Mr. Wylde and other superficial map-makers have taken a most unwarrantable liberty with this title. Instead of leaving it as bestowed by the great navigator,—applicable to the Tonga archipelago alone,—they have stretched it to include that of the Samoans, and—would it be believed—that of the Feegees? It is hardly necessary to point out the extreme absurdity of such a classification: since it would be difficult to find two nationalities much more unlike than those of Tonga and Feegee. That they have many customs in common, is due (unfortunately for the Tongans) to the intercourse which proximity has produced; but in an ethnological sense, white is not a greater contrast to black, nor good to evil, than that which exists between a Tongan and a Feegeean. Cook never visited the Feegee archipelago,—he only saw some of these people while at Tonga-taboo, and heard of their country as being a large island. Had he visited that island,—or rather that group of over two hundred islands,—it is not at all likely he would have seen reason to extend to them the title which the map-makers have thought fit to bestow. Instead of “Friendly Islands,” he might by way of contrast have called them the “Hostile Isles,” or given them that—above all others most appropriate, and which they truly deserve to bear—that old title celebrated in song! the “Cannibal Islands.” An observer so acute as Cook could scarce have overlooked the appropriateness of the appellation.
The situation of the Tonga, or Friendly Isles, is easily registered in the memory. The parallel of 20° south, and the meridian of 175° west, very nearly intersect each other in Tofoa, which may be regarded as the central island of the group. It will thus be seen that their central point is 5° east and 2° south of the centre of the Feegeean archipelago, and the nearest islands of the two groups are about three hundred miles apart.
It is worthy of observation, however, that the Tonga Isles have the advantage, as regards the wind. The trades are in their favor; and from Tonga to Feegee, if we employ a landsman’s phraseology, it is “down hill,” while it is all “up hill” in the contrary direction. The consequence is, that many Tongans are constantly making voyages to the Feegee group,—a large number of them having settled there (as stated elsewhere),—while but a limited number of Feegeeans find their way to the Friendly Islands. There is another reason for this unequally-balanced migration: and that is, that the Tongans are much bolder and better sailors than their western neighbors; for although the Feegees far excel way other South-Sea islanders in the art of building their canoes (or ships as they might reasonably be called), yet they are as far behind many others in the art of sailing them.
Their superiority in ship-building may be attributed, partly, to the excellent materials which these islands abundantly afford; though this is not the sole cause. However much we may deny to the Feegeeans the possession of moral qualities, we are at the same time forced to admit their great intellectual capacity,—as exhibited in the advanced state of their arts and manufactures. In intellectual capacity, however, the Friendly Islanders are their equals; and the superiority of the Feegeeans even in “canoe architecture” is no longer acknowledged. It is true the Tongans go to the Feegee group for most of their large double vessels; but that is for the reasons already stated,—the greater abundance and superior quality of the timber and other materials produced there. In the Feegee “dockyards,” the Tongans build for themselves; and have even improved upon the borrowed pattern.
This intercourse,—partaking somewhat of the character of an alliance,—although in some respects advantageous to the Friendly Islanders, may be regarded, upon the whole, as unfortunate for them. If it has improved their knowledge in arts and manufactures, it has far more than counterbalanced this advantage by the damage done to their moral character. It is always much easier to make proselytes to vice than to virtue,—as is proved in this instance: for his intercourse with the ferocious Feegee has done much to deteriorate the character of the Tongan. From that source he has imbibed a fondness for war and other wicked customs; and in all probability, had this influence been permitted to continue uninterrupted for a few years longer, the horrid habit of cannibalism—though entirely repugnant to the natural disposition of the Tongans—would have become common among them. Indeed, there can be little doubt that this would have been the ultimate consequence of the alliance; for already its precursors—human sacrifices and the vengeful immolation of enemies—had made their appearance upon the Friendly Islands. Happily for the Tongan, another influence—that of the missionaries—came just in time to avert this dire catastrophe; and, although this missionary interference has not been the best of its kind, it is still preferable to the paganism which it has partially succeeded in subduing.
The Tongan archipelago is much less extensive than that of the Feegees,—the islands being of a limited number, and only five or six of them of any considerable size. Tongataboo, the largest, is about ninety miles in circumference. From the most southern of the group Eoo, to Vavau at the other extremity, it stretches, northerly or northeasterly, about two hundred miles, in a nearly direct line. The islands are all, with one or two exceptions, low-lying, their surface being diversified by a few hillocks or mounds, of fifty or sixty feet in height, most of which have the appearance of being artificial. Some of the smaller islets, as Kao, are mountains of some six hundred feet elevation, rising directly out of the sea; while Tofoa, near the eastern edge of the archipelago, presents the appearance of an elevated table-land. The larger number of them are clothed with a rich tropical vegetation, both natural and cultivated, and their botany includes most of the species common to the other islands of the South Sea. We find the cocoa, and three other species of palm, the pandanus, the bread-fruit in varieties, as also the useful musacaæ,—the plantain, and banana. The ti-tree (Dracæna terminalis), the paper-mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), the sugar-cane, yams of many kinds, the tree yielding the well-known turmeric, the beautiful casuarina, and a hundred other sorts of plants, shrubs, or trees, valuable for the product of their roots or fruits, their sap and pith, of their trunks and branches, their leaves and the fibrous material of their bark.
As a scenic decoration to the soil, there is no part of the world where more lovely landscapes are produced by the aid of a luxuriant vegetation. They are perhaps not equal in picturesque effect to those of the Feegee group,—where mountains form an adjunct to the scenery,—but in point of soft, quiet beauty, the landscapes of the Tonga Islands are not surpassed by any others in the tropical world; and with the climate they enjoy—that of an endless summer—they might well answer to the description of the “abode of the Blessed.” And, indeed, when Tasman first looked upon these islands, they perhaps merited the title more than any other spot on the habitable globe; for, if any people on this earth might be esteemed happy and blessed, surely it was the inhabitants of these fair isles of the far Southern Sea. Tasman even records the remarkable fact, that he saw no arms among them,—no weapons of war! and perhaps, at that time, neither the detestable trade nor its implements were known to them. Alas in little more than a century afterwards, this peaceful aspect was no longer presented. When the great English navigator visited these islands, he found the war-club and spear in the hands of the people, both of Feegee pattern, and undoubtedly of the same ill-omened origin.