PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
May 2014
393
KINGDOM OF
“A
round 3000 years ago, the Lapita people
from Southeast Asia migrated west via
the Malay peninsula and the remote
islands of the East Indies to settle in the scattered
and pristine islands of the South Pacific. In Tonga,
these original ancestors of today’s Polynesian
people founded settlements at Toloa – near the
present day location of Fua’amotu International
Airport - and at Heketa, on the northeastern edge
of Tongatapu. Three millennia later, reminders
of these ancient times are dotted throughout
the islands. The fascinating Ha’amonga a Maui
trilithon still stands as an imposing legacy of early
Tongan ingenuity. Eventually settling in the far-
flung island groups of the Kingdom’s archipelago,
these early ancestors also developed a distinctive
culture that still underpins traditional Tongan
life in more contemporary times. Initial European
contact with Tonga came in 1616, when the
Dutch navigators Wilhelm Schouten and Jacob Le
Maire discovered the Niuas, the small northern
most islands of the Tongan archipelago. Contact
with the local Niuas islanders was restricted
to a minor altercation with a Tongan canoe. In
1643, the Dutch extended their exploration when
Abel Tasman visited the Tongan Islands of ‘Ata,
‘Eua and the largest island of Tongatapu. Unlike
the first Dutch contact further north in 1616,
Tasman’s ships the
Heemskerck
and the
Zeehaen
stopped for water and replenishments, and
Tasman also traded with the local communities. In
1773, the British explorer and navigator Captain
James Cook visited Tonga’s southern islands of
Tongatapu and ‘Eua. He returned in 1777 and
spent two months exploring and charting the
Tongan archipelago, with his legendary skill as
a cartographer producing accurate charts still in
regular use until recent times. During this voyage,
a lavish feast for Cook and his men was presented
by Chief Finau in the village of Lifuka in the Ha’apai island
group. Cook was so impressed by Tongan hospitality he
dubbed Tonga the ‘Friendly Isles’, not realizing the amiable
and social nature of the locals actually concealed a plan to
raid his boats and kill Cook and his crew! The conspiracy was
only foiled at the eleventh hour after a dispute between Finau
and other village nobles, and Cook sailed away oblivious of
his intended fate. Ironically his positive and complementary
name for the Kingdom of Tonga remains in common use.
The northern island group Vava’u was discovered in 1781
by Spanish navigator, Don Francisco Antonio Mourelle,
commander of the ship
La Princesa
. Mourelle named
Vava’u’s well-protected harbor Port of Refuge, and claimed
the beautiful islands in the name of Spain. Over ensuring
years early traders continued to visit Tonga and tensions
grew between Europeans and Tongans. In 1806, this disquiet
culminated in the sacking of the ship the Port-au-Prince
in Lifuka in the Ha’apai island group. With the exception
of a young cabin boy William Mariner, all the crew was
killed. The lad was nurtured by Chief Finau in Lifuka for
four years, learning the Tongan language and becoming
immersed in the Kingdom’s tradition and protocol. Mariner’s
book ‘
An Account of the Natives of the Tongan Islands
’ is
