But Is It-Or

Cook's Famous Tortoise

But Is It-Or Isn't It?

• Tonga’s famous land tortoise, Tui Malila, one of two said to have been left in Tonga by Captain Cook in 1774, has caused some comment since his latest picture appeared in “PIM” in September.

TUI MALILA lives in the grounds of the Royal Palace at Nukualofa, and is a great favourite of Queen Salote.

However, a Samoan correspondent says he’s still not sure whether he can believe that Tonga’s Tui Malila is the original Captain Cook model. How does anyone know, h.O asks 9 This, of course, is an old debate; the answer is that probably nobody knows how old he is, since nobody else appears to have lasted the same distance.

Dr. Allen Keast, of the Aus tralian Museum, Sydney, says it is probably possible for a tortoise of Tui Malila’s size (which is not large, but apparently large enough) to live for 200 years.

Large tortoises would take life “pretty quietly,” he said, and not wear themselves out. But Dr. Keast was careful not to become involved in any argument about Tui Malila in particular, which is probably very intelligent of him.

A well-known British authority, Dr. Maurice Burton, took an interest

in the Tongan tortoise a few years ago and wrote to Prince Tungi, who reported that “Tongan oral tradition is fairly reliable concern ing the names of early navigators and discoverers, and the tortoise has not at any time been connected with the name of anyone but Cook”.

Dr. Burton seemed to think it would be difficult to establish the truth one way or another.

However, here are two more quotes the Samoan reader might like to consider; Sir Harry Luke, a former Governor of Fiji and High Com missioner of the Western Pacific, writing in Queen Salote and Her Kingdom (1954) : “One of the anthropological works on Tonga casts some doubt on Tui Malila being identical with the male tortoise brought to Tonga by Captain Cook. On mentioning this one day to the Queen, Her Majesty asserted that the belief unanimously held by the Tongan people that he is indeed the very one is well authenticated by un broken tradition.”

And Mr. J. S. Neill (whose death is reported elsewhere in this issue), for 10 years British Consul in Tonga, writing in Ten Years in Tonga (1955) ; “I have seen in the Royal Palace in Nukualofa some red cloth and bunting which Captain Cook gave as a present to one of the chiefs.

The material is in excellent con dition and is much treasured by Queen Salote. I would like to think that the famous tortoise in the Palace grounds had also been a gift from him, but I am afraid this is not so.” So there you are!