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They are morticed with considerable skill, are about 18 feet high, and are of coral or coral-lime formation. Their history is unknown. They are now overgrown with creepers.

is now published for the first time. The districts therein shown— Hinifo, Vaketoto, and Mua-are the three Government divisions. They are again subdivided into the Crown properties and the estates of nineteen principal chiefs.1 But I have omitted these subdivisions, as they would be useless to the explorer, even unnecessarily confusing, the chiefs having properties in various parts of the island, as well as in Haapai and Vavau.

In the district of Hinifo, the principal place of interest is Kalovai, where flourishes a colony of the famous flying-foxes; there also is the site of the sacred tree where the kings of Tonga (the Tuikanokobula, not the Tuitonga) were crowned. It was cut down by Mr. Baker's order, and was made into a throne for King George I. when he succeeded, by the help of the Wesleyan Mission, in dispossessing the true Tuitonga of Tonga, Laufili Toga, of his authority and of his wife. The Tuikanokobula was only the third chief of Tonga. King George I. was made Tuikanokobula before he became Tuitonga, king of Tonga, by force, by the despotic Wesleyan missionariesso runs the Roman Catholic version of this matter.

The district of Hakake is rich in places of interest. There is a very large banyan tree at Alaki. The caves at Havelu and the two principal lagis, or graves, of the ancient Tuitonga or priest-kings are worthy of a visit. Near the little village of Afa is a marvellous trilith of Easter Island proportions. The two upright stones are 16 feet high, feet wide, and 5 feet thick. The headstone is nearly 20 feet long, 5 feet high, and 2 feet 6 inches thick. There are no stones of the kind elsewhere in Tonga, and tradition says that these have been brought from Fortuna Island, and that they once formed the entrance to the Tuitonga's palace, but I suspect that they belong to a much more virile, prehistoric race.

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Outside of the show-places there is a great sameness in the scenery of Tongatabu, an endless profusion of rich tropical trees and plants, and only three or four tiny streams-no mountains and no rivers. Being of coral formation, it is mostly flat, with a few low hills 40 to 80 feet high, except to the south-east, where the land rises to 200 feet. An earthquake tidal wave 60 feet high would submerge nearly the whole island!

It is only after a while that the tameness of these low islands strikes one. At first all seems novel and varied. Thus, on landing, our passengers hurriedly leave the steamer moored at the extreme end, and eagerly traverse the long jetty made of coral lime and timber. At the

1 See chapter iv. for particulars of Estates and Land Laws.

shore end we step on to a grassy sward, and before us is Nukualofaher streets are green paths!

In the early days of missionary government the trees that lined the beach to right and left of Nukualofa extended across the front of the town, making a handsome avenue and park-like space in grateful shade. They were cut down to bring the king's residence and church and the Government buildings into view. There is some difference of opinion as to the wisdom of this. I think it must be conceded that if Nukualofa were to grow at all, it was only a matter of a very short time till the clearing of a space in front of these buildings became a necessity.

The long line of beach-stones and rowdy grog-shops so dear to the beachcomber, who takes his cognomen from them, is the blot on most South Sea Island harbours occupied by the English; but in Nukualofa it is, as journalists say, "conspicuous by its absence." In lieu of the grog-stores, in the very front facing the sea is a broad road of well-kept, springy grass, several chains wide. If you want to buy anything, you must go and look among the cocoa-palms for a shop! Opposite to the jetty, on the further side of this wide lawn, are the Government offices, over which flies the Tongan flag-the red cross of the Rosicrucians-and to the right are the Free Church and the palace, both standing in the king's ground.

Junea, when we parted in the moonlight, had promised to come down next morning at 9 o'clock sharp, and take some of the lady passengers over the palace. "Nine sharp," we found, meant, in Tonga, about 2 p.m. When the ladies had tramped to the palace, where they arrived exhausted in the hot sun, Junea told them that the man who kept the key had gone into the bush and taken it with him, but that they could admire the outside of the palace, and see the interior of the church alongside if they liked. They applied to the pastor of the Free Church. He also "was sorry," but "the man who kept the key had gone off to an island and taken it with him." I suppose this was Tongese for the information that the palace was not to be seen that day. However disappointed the ladies may have felt, they did not really lose much, as there is nothing worthy of mention in it, except a good portrait of the old king. Next in interest to the palace and the churches is the Free Church College, which stands back behind Mount Zion, at a considerable distance from the shore. The Tongans are very proud of their college, and great credit is due, and officially has been given from time to time, to the gifted Wesleyan missionary, the Reverend Mr. Moulton, and to others in the past for its present high state of efficiency. Credit is also due to the Reverend Mr. Baker for

But all

his Education Acts, of which I give full particulars further on. those efforts would have borne little fruit had they not had splendid material to work on. It must be quite a pleasure to teach these bright Tongan boys, they are so quick at learning. As I have already said, they are expert musicians and shorthand writers. They are also good mathematicians. The Tongan schoolmaster, with whom I had a long conversation, is an old college boy. He was in the swelling vanity

of a square hat, which he is entitled to wear as the winner of a "captainship" (dux of the college for one year). Women can also win and wear these hats. It gives one a novel sensation to see a copper-coloured, sweet girl-graduate for the first time. It is a relief to know that there is very little of the new woman yet in her.

The subjects of King George are a little lighter-coloured and smaller-featured than New Zealand Maoris. Their women are betterlooking. I think I may assert, without hesitation, that as regards physique, manliness, intelligence, haughtiness, with good-humoured condescension, pride, and self-confidence, they are the aristocrats of the South Seas. The pride of the Tongans has passed into a proverb. They consider themselves the cream of the earth, and far superior to any Europeans. But in real mental calibre, in oratory, in capacity for war, combined with splendid physique and passionate love for all athletic sports and games of skill, such as football, cricket, Caledonian games, polo, horse-racing, billiards, cards, draughts, chess, in that steadiness which looks a danger or a difficulty squarely in the face, and circumvents it equally well and promptly, as the case may demand, by daring or strategy, in those qualities which we think of, in short, as "English," the New Zealand Maori is facile princeps among all the brown, yellow, and black races of the world.

Naturally peaceful, the Tongans dislike fighting more than most South Sea races; but old King George showed, by his tactics and his conquests, that his people are more capable of discipline and the science of concerted war than are the braver Fijians, or the savage, head-hunting Solomon Islanders.

Before the advent of missionaries, and especially of missionaries' wives, to teach them a new sin, they knew neither the shame of nakedness nor the increased sexual attraction of the human form artfully draped. They wore very little clothing beyond what nature teaches as advisable under certain conditions. The women went about modestly enough according to native laws and customs of modesty, with nothing on but the handsome loin cloth, or sisi, of bright-coloured fibre with long, elegant fringe; and in their retired native villages they may be often seen, like Semilesi in the picture,

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