Three thousand years before European white men ventured west of Cape Horn on voyages of "discovery" across the Pacific, the Tongans had already arrived as explorers and adventurers from the west in great double-hulled canoes with cargo space and accommodations for up to 100 people.

By 1616, when the first white men, Dutchmen Schouten and LeMaire, arrived in Tonga, they encountered an advanced society of chiefs, nobles and farmers. They found a society who voyaged far and wide, demanding tribute from, and dominating the inhabitants of the adjacent central South Pacific Island groups. The Tongans utilized an advanced system of navigation more accurate than that of the arriving early (pre-Cook) Europeans, which enabled them to explore and discover isolated islands as far as two and a half thousand miles distant.

When Cook visited Tonga in 1773, 1774 and 1777, his log indicates that he was very impressed with what he saw. Cook presented to the"Tu'i Tonga", the paramount chief of all Tonga, a scarlet broadcloth, segments of which to this day are preserved in the premier's office. Another gift from Captain Cook, a male tortoise from the Galapagos Islands, died in 1960 at the age of 200 years in the Queen's Palace garden where it had been allowed to freely wander, blind for many years.

When Francisco Maurelle arrived in Vava'u, on the 5th of May, 1781, his crew was sick with scurvy and his ship needed repairs. He was well received. Tongan chiefs supplied him with fresh food and water. He named Vava'u's harbor, the"Port of Refuge" which it remains to this day. Like Columbus, Maurelle was an Italian working for the Spaniards. On his return to Spain, his reports of Tonga were so favorable that the King of Spain ordered Don Alejandro Malaspina to stop there on the next impending voyage of discovery to expand the Spanish empire.

Twelve years after Maurelle, Malaspina arrived in the Port of Refuge. The members of Malaspina's expedition included, in addition to the crew, artists, naturalists, linguists and astronomers. Accurate records of early Tongan society were well recorded during his visit, before Malaspina took possession of the islands in the name of the King of Spain and departed. During the next century many ships traversed the Pacific and contact with white whalers, traders, and missionaries dramatically increased.

Sandalwood which grew in abundance on the islands was in demand in China for joss sticks, incense and temple accessories. Many beachcombers and adventurers came to exploit it. When it ran out, the traders turned to sea slugs which when dried and smoked fetched a good price in China.