Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, (Tongan for "south"), is an independent archipelago in the southern Pacific Ocean. It lies about a third of the way between New Zealand and Hawaii, south of Samoa and east of Fiji.
The islands are also known as the Friendly Islands, the name given by Captain Cook because of the friendly reception he received. He happened to come along just at the inasi festival, the yearly donation of the first fruits to the Tui Tonga. About 30 years later, however, it was told to William Mariner that in reality the chiefs had wanted to kill and Cook, but had not arrived in doing so as they had been unable to agree how to do it. Nowadays it is believed that this was a lie. When Cook came, Tonga was still prospering in peace; when Mariner was there it had plunged into a cruel civil war. It is likely that what was told to Mariner was an excuse, a way to reduce the shame the Tongans felt about their own, current behaviour then.
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