"Friendly" Islands
p. 29 · Read in the full issue
Letter to the Editor IN a little speech I made some time ago, when our Foa people were entertain ing HBM Consul and Agent from Nukualofa, and Dr. McGusty, from Suva, I said I would like to endorse Captain Cook’s remarks, as written in his log book: “The Tonga people are hospitable and are friendly”—and that was why he called Tonga the Friendly Islands.
A few days later, I was approached by one of our local European residents who censored my remarks. He said my expression should have been: “The Tonga peonle were at that time hospitable and friendly, but have changed a lot since those days.”
I do not accept that. I left the Old Country 62 years ago, and, during those 62 years, I have been twice around the world, have visited five continents and most of the islands of the Pacific —Hawaii, Samoa, Tonga, New Guinea, New Britain.
New Ireland, all the different islands nearby, the Solomons (Buka and Bou gainville), Marshall, Gilbert and Caroline, I have sat and eaten with kings and princes, European and native, and I have sat and slept with the worst cannibals in New Britain in 1884-5. So I should know something about people.
I do not want to say that our Tonga pedfcle are angels and saints. They have their good and bad here, as in the world all over. But I endorse Captain Cook’s remark of 150 years ago: “The Tonga people are hospitable and friendly.”
I am, etc.,
Haapai, Tonga.