ging canoes through
intercourse with the Fijians, their neighbours to the west, who, though
their inferiors in seamanship and the spirit of marine adventure,
originally surpassed them in naval architecture.[29] Indeed we are told
that all the large Tongan canoes are built in Fiji, because the Tongan
islands do not furnish any timber fit for the purpose. Hence a number of
Tongans are constantly employed in the windward or eastern islands of
the Fiji group building these large canoes, a hundred feet or more in
length, a process which, it is said, lasts six or seven years.[30] The
debt which in this respect the Tongans owe to the Fijians was
necessarily unknown to Captain Cook, since he never reached the Fijian
islands and knew of them only by report, though he met and questioned a
few Fijians in Tongataboo.[31]

[26] F. H. H. Guillemard, _Australasia_, ii. pp. 498 _sq._

[27] W. Mariner, _Tonga Islands_, ii. 264.

[28] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, iii. 197.

[29] W. Mariner, _The Tonga Islands_, ii. 263 _sqq._

[30] J. E. Erskine, _op. cit._ p. 132.

[31] Captain James Cook, _Voyages_, v. 396 _sq._

When Captain Cook visited the Tonga islands he found the land almost
everywhere in a high state of cultivation. He says that "cultivated
roots and fruits being their principal support, this requires their
constant attention to agriculture, which they pursue very diligently,
and seem to have brought almost to as great perfection as circumstances
will permit."[32] The plants which they chiefly cultivated and which
furnished them with their staple foods were yams and plantains. These
were disposed in plantations enclosed by neat fences of reeds about six
feet high and intersected by good smooth roads or lanes, which were
shaded from the scorching sun by fruit-trees.[33] Walking on one of
these roads Cook tells us, "I thought I was transported into the most
fertile plains in Europe. There was not an inch of waste ground; the
roads occupied no more space than was absolutely necessary; the fences
did not take up above four inches each; and even this was not wholly
lost, for in many places were planted some useful trees or plants. It
was everywhere the same; change of place altered not the scene. Nature,
assisted by a little art, nowhere appears in more splendour than at this
isle."[34] Interspersed among these plantations irregularly were
bread-fruit trees and coco-nut palms, of which the palms in pa