page_title: History of Tonga
section_title: European arrival and Christianization
hierarchical_section_title: History of Tonga / European arrival and Christianization
caption_attribution_description: English: A highly uncommon chart of the Friendly Islands, or Tonga, from 1777. Oriented to the East, this map depicts the Tongatapu Island Group and the Ha'Apai Group that make up the Kingdom of Tonga. Shows the routes of the Resolution and the Adventure on Captain Cook's second voyage, 1772-1774. Cook's second voyage was intended to discover the apocryphal Terra Australis a theoretical southern continent that is not to be confused with Australia or Antarctica. On this voyage Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle and nearly, but not quite, spotted the Antarctic mainland. He landed at the Friendly Islands and laid on this map on the return portion of his voyage in 1773 and 1774. Published in 1777 by Thomas Cadell of London.
context_page_description: The history of Tonga is recorded since the century after 900 BC, when seafarers associated with the Lapita diaspora first settled the islands which now make up the Kingdom of Tonga. Along with Fiji and Samoa, the area served as a gateway into the rest of the Pacific region known as Polynesia. Ancient Tongan mythologies recorded by early European explorers report the islands of 'Ata and Tongatapu as the first islands having been hauled to the surface from the deep ocean by Maui.
context_section_description: In the 15th century and again in the 17th, civil war erupted. It was in this context that the first Europeans arrived, beginning with Dutch explorers Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire. Between April 21 to 23, 1616 they moored at the Northern Tongan islands "Cocos Island" (Tafahi) and "Traitors Island" (Niuatoputapu), respectively. The kings of both of these islands boarded the ships and Le Maire drew up a list of Niuatoputapu words, a language now extinct. On April 24, 1616, they tried to moor at the "Island of Good Hope" (Niuafo'ou), but a less welcoming reception there made them decide to sail on.
  On January 21, 1643, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to visit the main island (Tongatapu) and Haʻapai after rounding Australia and  New Zealand while looking for a faster route to Chile. He mapped several islands. Tasman named the island of Tongatapu t’ Eijlandt Amsterdam (Amsterdam Island), because of its abundance of supplies. This name is no longer used except by historians.
  The  most significant impact had the visits of Captain Cook in 1773, 1774, and 1777, followed by the first London missionaries in 1797, and the Wesleyan Methodist Walter Lawry in 1822. Around that time, most Tongans converted en masse to the Wesleyan (Methodist) or Catholic faiths. Other denominations followed, including Pentecostals, Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, and most recently the Bahá'í faith.
  The islands were also visited by the Spanish under Francisco Antonio Mourelle in 1781 and Alessandro Malaspina (who unsuccessfully claimed Vavau for Spain) in 1793 and by the French under Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne in 1772, Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse in 1787, Fletcher Christian in 1789 and Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in 1793.
caption: Cook's map of 1777
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