Tonga Islands

or Friendly Islands (19), an archipelago in the S. Pacific, 250 m. SE. of Fiji; Tonga-tabu is the largest; volcanic and fruit-bearing; mi ionary enterprise (Wesley an Methodist) has done much to improve the mental, moral, and material condition of the natives, who belong to the fair Polynesian stock, and are a superior race to the other natives of Polynesia, but are diminishing in numbers. See Friendly Islands .