Note 7 — WILLIAM ENDICOTT’S NARRATIVE

The Friendly or Tonga Islands are a group lying south-east of Fiji between 18° and 20° south latitude and 174° and 176° west longitude. They comprise some 150 islands, mostly very small, of which only a few are inhabited. They were discovered by Tasman in 1643 and became a British protectorate in 1900. The natives are of Polynesian stock and have become Christians through the efforts of the Wesleyan Mission established here in 1822. Probably the best early account of the natives of any Pacific islands is William Mariner’s “An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands.”