South Pacific days 5 and 6

        Day 5 was a Sunday, and on Tonga, everything shuts down completely, except for the churches.  No one works; no stores or shops are open—not that there are any stores or shops anywhere near the north end of Foa Island, where we are staying.  We took advantage of the lull to attend a Catholic church service on the island of Lifuka, just southwest of us by a causeway.  The service was in the native Tongan language, with a great deal of beautiful singing.  Many in the congregation wore the traditional woven wraps over modern clothing.  Even without the benefit of understanding the language, the enthusiasm of the people and the amazing harmony were an inspiration to us.

After the service in Lifuka

          While we’re on Lifuka, a bit more of the history of this area:  on April 28, 1789, Captain William Bligh’s crew on HMS Bounty—or at least most of them--mutinied in the waters between Lifuka and Tofua, the next island down the chain. Fletcher Christian’s mutineers cast off Bligh and the 18 men who did not participate in the mutiny in an open boat with the ship's log, a compass, a sextant, and limited provisions. Bligh and his men soon put ashore on nearby Tofua, but after one of them was killed by hostile natives they put to sea and traveled 42 days across 3,500 miles of the Pacific Ocean to Indonesia. To this day, it remains the longest voyage ever made in an open boat, topping even the Antarctic trip of the Endurance.

          Meanwhile, Fletcher Christian, after a stop in Tahiti, sailed the Bounty 8,000 miles to Pitcairn Island where he and his men remained with other men and women who had joined them in Tahiti. Bligh made it back to England, was acquitted at a court martial trial, and returned to Tahiti and captured many of the original mutineers who had been left there by Christian.

          Perhaps you have seen one of the four movies that have been made of the Mutiny on the Bounty; in any case, we have certainly arrived at the most historically interesting islands in the Kingdom of Tonga.

Looking across to Nuku’namu Island

Nuku’namu Island beach

        Day 6 was another day of R&R, and we used it to kayak over to the deserted island to the north, Nuku’namu, where we spent hours alone, exploring the island and picking up a few beautiful shells along the way.

Tricia’s shell collection from the Ha’apai Islands

Beach at Sandy Beach Resort

       While we’re relaxing, let us tell you about the experiences of a young British sailor.  On our trip to church Sunday, we noticed a sign pointing to Port au Prince Beach.  That particular beach is likely where the story below begins.

          In 1806, an English privateer sailing the South Pacific anchored in the Ha’apai Islands.  After a short anchorage, the ship Port au Prince was attacked by the natives and nearly the entire crew massacred.  One of the few survivors, William Mariner, the 14-year-old clerk of the ship, was essentially adopted by the king of the islands, Finau ‘Ulukalala (pronounce that for us, please).  William learned the language and customs during the four years before his rescue, living like a native in what we know today as the Kingdom of Tonga.

          Back home in England, William met John Martin, a medical doctor, who listened to his stories with fascination and disbelief.  The incredible tales of life in these islands were so far fetched that the good doctor initially brushed them off as the wild imaginings of a young man; but after meeting another man who had also been spared in the massacre and spent time in these same islands, he realized that William was telling the truth.  Martin spent hundreds of hours in interviews with William, and in 1827 published the story, An Account of the Natives of the Tongan Islands.  It is a fascinating book, still in print after all these years, and we recommend it to those who have an interest in life in these islands B.E.—Before Europeans.

          The belief was that death in battle was a great honor, and the various villages and islands seemed to be constantly at war.  The canoes used to transport the warriors were quite large, holding dozens, and some of the distances covered are difficult to imagine.  It’s hard to imagine the sailing skills that were required of a people with no written language and no navigational tools.  William Mariner said the people didn’t consider it any great feat to travel between Tinga and Fiji, a distance of 450 miles.  It took us 90 minutes by turboprop aircraft, and even today making the trip in canoes stretches the imagination.

          The king had absolute power, and the brutality William described is proof enough.  The Tongans had unloaded everything from the Port au Prince after the massacre, and now had cannons, muskets, and plenty of powder—after they gathered all the musket balls they had first thrown away as seeming useless.  To verify William’s claim that the muskets would kill a person, the king had one of the natives shoot a mentally ill woman who had been harassing the people of the village.  It was proof enough, and much more efficient than the traditional method clubbing out the brains of enemies.  Attacks on other islands or villages sometimes involved clubbing to death everyone in the village, no matter what the age or gender.  And if the king’s warriors were hungry, they feasted on the bodies of those they had killed.

          The priests of the time had power similar to those used in the Inquisition, which they used to extremes at times.  One of the sacrifices their gods told them to make required the strangulation of young children and babies.  And when a powerful chief died, his wives were honored to be buried with him—never mind that they had not yet passed away themselves.

          While the kind of warfare and brutality William described would lead most people to think of the Tongans as pure savages, there were quite civilized customs as well.  When William reported to the king, after several days on the island, that he was starving without food, the king indicated he thought William quite foolish.  All you have to do, he explained, is to go to any house and tell the occupants you are hungry; it is the obligation of every household to share everything, including food, there being no concept of individual ownership in the islands.

          Today the people share that latest quality, and they are indeed friendly, reserved, and helpful in any way possible.   They are a beautiful people in a most beautiful country.

Charlie and Tricia

© 2015