FRIENDLY ISLANDS, as distinguished from the Fiji islands (q.v.), generally reckoned a part of them, are otherwise styled the TONGA Guour. They stretch in a. lat. from 13' to and in w. long. from 172° to 176_ ,* and consist of about 32 greater and 150 smaller islands, about 30 of which are inhabited. The great majority are of coral formation; but some are volcanic in their origin, and in Tofua there is an active volcano. The principal member of the archipelago is Tongatabu or Szered Tonga, which contains about 7.500 inhabitants, out of a total population of about 23.000. The F. I. were discovered by Tasman in 1643, but received their collective name from Cook. Both these navigators found the soil closely and highly cultivated, and the people apparently unprovided with arms. The climate is salubrious, but humid; earthquakes and hurricanes are frequent, but the former are not destructive. Among the products of the islands are yams, sweet potatoes, bananas, cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, sugar-cane, the ti, hog-plum, etc.; some corn
also is grown. The flora resembles that of the Fiji group; but the native animals are very few.
The F. I. were first visited by missionaries in 1797. In 1827, the work of evangeri zation fell into the hands of the "Wesleyan Methodists, and after a lengthened and peril ous struggle with the savage paganism of the inhabitants, it was crowned with success. Almost all the islanders are now Christians; great numbers can speak English, and, in addition, lave learned writing, arithmetic, and geography; while the females have been taught to sew. The various islands used to be governed by independent chiefs, but nearly the whole of them are now under the rule of one chief, called king George, who is not only a Christian, but a zealous preacher of the gospel.