3
The breakthrough in the work of the Wesleyan mission in Tonga was not an isolated dramatic occurrence but a slow process brought about by several factors. One was certainly the increasing impact of mission efforts on the minds of some Tongans. Before Lawry left Tonga in 1823 a number of Tongans had been attracted by his teaching. On the day of his departure many tears were shed and expressions of regret were voiced by a spokesman of the people who expressed the hope that he would return. One of those favourably disposed to Lawry’s teaching was Tākai who came from ’Oneata in the Lau group of Fiji. On his return home, he told the chief of Lakemba, Tu’ineau, about the new religion and some of the things which Lawry had taught. Tu’ineau became interested and asked Tākai to try and get him a missionary. Tākai went back to Tonga, and he and another admirer of Lawry, named Langi, were taken to Sydney by Captain Peter Dillon in 1824 as his interpreters (Davidson 1970:16-17), though their intention was to search for a missionary for Tu’ineau. Dillon left them in Sydney where they were picked up by Samuel Henry, and taken to Tahiti. Impressed by their determination, one of the L.M.S. missionaries, J. Davis, sent two Tahitian teachers, Hape and Davida, with them for the Tu’i Lakemba. On their arrival in Tongatapu in 1826 Tākai told Aleamotu’a
Consequently the Tahitian teachers remained in Tonga at the hamlet of Nuku’alofa in order to teach Aleamotu’a and his people Christianity. Before the Wesleyan missionaries came to Nuku’alofa towards the end of 1827, a church had already been built there by the Tahitian teachers and about 300 people from the area met regularly for worship. When Nathanial Turner, Cross and Weiss decided to establish themselves at Nuku’alofa, they took over the little congregation, and it was here at Nuku’alofa that the Wesleyan mission began to flourish. Despite Ata’s resistance at Hihifo certain chiefs of high rank from this area, such as Ulakai, son of Tuku’aho, joined the mission at Nuku’alofa.
Another important factor was the growing experience of the missionaries in dealing with the Tongans. This and the more tactful approach of some of the later missionaries contributed significantly to the breakthrough in the work of the mission. One of the outstanding personalities was the Reverend Nathaniel Turner. Unlike Lawry, Thomas and Hutchinson, Turner was a mature, well educated man with a progressive outlook. His experience with the Maoris of New Zealand, among whom he had worked for several years before he came to Tonga, seems to have given him many advantages. The experience helped him to develop a sympathetic understanding of the customs and traditions of the people, and gave him a crude familiarity with the fundamentals of the language, which enabled him to learn Tongan quickly and thoroughly. It was he who developed the Tongan alphabet which, with some modification by the present King of Tonga in the 1940s, is still being used in Tonga today.
Unlike Thomas, who did not hesitate to dictate to the Tongans, Nathaniel Turner was very cautious. When he was asked questions relative to politics, shortly after arrival, he answered that because he was a stranger to their country, and consequently to their ways, he would rather say nothing (N. Turner, Journal, 29 Nov. 1827, WMMS 1818-36, item A2833). Where there were disputes among the chiefs in connection with the affairs of the mission, Turner would sit down and discuss the questions at issue with them in a manner the chiefs could understand. Williams and Barff (1830:64), the two L.M.S. missionaries who visited Tonga in 1830, spoke very highly of the love and respect which the Tongans—both Christians and heathens—showed to Turner. He was reluctantly forced to leave Tonga in 1831, for a healthier climate. However, before his departure he had the satisfaction of seeing the new arrivals, Peter Turner (no relation), James Watkin and the printer, William Woon, and his printing press, settling in to their various appointments, and above all he had the thrill of witnessing the breakthrough in the work of the mission, The official historians of the mission rightly point out that ‘Nathaniel Turner’s coming had changed the face of everything for the mission, and for the future of Tonga. He had snatched victory out of imminent defeat,...’. They continued, ‘rarely has any man accomplished so much for a people in so short a time’ (Findlay and Holdsworth 1921:266-7). Assisted by a very able colleague, the Reverend William Cross, his work soon showed very promising results. As early as November 1828, Turner reported that the chapel at Nuku’alofa had overflowed and many were outside for want of room.
Anxious to maintain the interest of their converts, and to prevent backsliding, Turner and Cross took measures to ensure that their new followers would retain their involvement. Accordingly, in addition to ordinary services, the converts were organised in classes, and class meetings became an integral part of the mission work. There were classes for those who had become church members, where indivdual members related their spiritual experiences. Here, under the leadership of a missionary or one of their more capable Tongan converts, the members strove to help each other with spiritual and moral admonitions. There were also classes organised for those who had embraced Christianity but not yet become church members. These were designed as a means whereby the new converts would be prepared for membership. After referring to the memorable day of the first baptism service held in Tonga, Turner (Journal, 4 Jan. 1829, WMMS 1818-36, item A2835) said of the candidates:
Nine months after this momentous occasion, Turner reported that the number that met in class was about 180. He went on to say:
He also reported that there were about one hundred candidates who were under preparation for baptism.
In these classes, members were taught the basic Wesleyan doctrines, and to respect the authority of the Bible as the source of these doctrines. They were taught that there was only one God; His Son, Jesus Christ, was the Saviour; and the Holy Spirit the comforter. Man was a child of God. But the first parents were corrupted by the Devil, and being the offspring of the first parents everyone was a sinner. The only hope lay in the acceptance of Jesus Christ, the Saviour, through the work of the Holy Spirit. On the Judgment Day, those who had responded to the work of the Holy Spirit, had accepted Christianity and renounced heathenism, would go to Heaven where there would be everlasting peace and happiness, and those who had refused to do so would go to Hell, where they would be tortured with everlasting fire.
Although these concepts of God, Man and Morality were new to the Tongans, they were presented so simply by the missionaries that many Tongans did not find them incomprehensible. Trinity was viewed in the light of their traditional principal and secondary gods. The concept of future life was not new, only different. The new morality was not difficult to understand, the problems associated with it were practical and not theoretical. The effects of these teachings on the minds of the Tongans is clearly expressed in the following testimony given by one of the early converts:
Love feasts were also organised at which hymns were sung, prayers offered, and members of the congregation were encouraged to relate publicly their religious experiences. Turner recorded that they had their first love feast after the afternoon service on 11 October 1829. One hundred and fifty members attended and ‘those who spoke did so in a very pleasing and interesting manner indicating that the word and the spirit of the living God had been powerfully at work upon their minds’ (N. Turner, Journal, 11 October 1829, WMMS 1818-36, item A2835). Sunday schools were started with the hope that they would be ‘productive of much good’ to the rising generation. Prayer meetings were organised and encouraged, and were conducted generally by Tongan exhorters and class leaders. Some of the Tongans conducted family prayer night and morning. Turner wrote how he heard Vī and Takanoa pray, and was both very pleased and edified by them, especially Takanoa. His prayer included ‘the Creation, Fall and Redemption of man, and expressed in such a manner, as at once assured me that the understanding was clear respecting them, and the heart well affected with them’.
From the beginning, the translation of the Holy Bible into the Tongan language was regarded as a vitally important part of the work of the missionaries. As early as 1829, Turner wrote, ‘I would just observe that if the conversion etc., of these islanders be our object, then we must have the Scriptures ... brought into their language...’ (N. Turner to Committee, 27 June 1829, WMMS 1818-36, item A2835). Four months later, he reported that he and his brethren had agreed to proceed in attempting a translation of some parts of the Scriptures. Each missionary was then allotted a portion of the Bible to translate.
The missionaries took with them to Tonga the attitudes of the parent Society at home towards education. The Society promoted elementary education among their followers with vigour and enthusiasm for it was necessary to be able to read and understand the Scriptures. Facilities for the formal training of Methodist ministers both for home and overseas missions were not forth-coming until the middle of the nineteenth century. As a result, many were thrust into the work of the ministry with very little or no training at all. However, many undoubtedly accepted and followed closely Wesley’s advice when he said:
With the help of Wesley’s own works and directions to his ‘helpers’, many of the missionaries, like their colleagues at home, did their best to remedy the deficiencies of their education, and a number succeeded well. ‘I and my colleagues’, wrote one of the early pioneeer missionaries in Tonga, ‘have undertaken to do something in Latin-Greek-and Hebrew, Logic and Divinity every week’ (P. Turner, Journal, 30 Nov. 1841). In addition to religious magazines and papers, some included on their reading lists works on politics, history (English, Greek, Roman), Pacific research, physics, astronomy, medicine and also biographical works (P. Turner, Books read: 12). Those who did not appear to make efforts at self-improvement were sharply rebuked.
The missionaries regarded the establishment of schools as a must, not only in order to enable their converts to read the Bible and to communicate with each other in writing, but also to help combat some of the superstitious beliefs of the people and facilitate the understanding of the new concepts they had to introduce. The first school to be established in Tonga was at Hihifo. It was opened by John Thomas and his wife, but it did not last long because of Ata’s opposition. Before the mission at Hihifo was abandoned in 1829, several of the young men from there moved to Nuku’alofa in order to attend the school there.
It was at Nuku’alofa that schools really flourished under the leadership of Nathaniel Turner and William Cross. Their first school was opened on 17 March 1828 (Cross to Committee, 8 Sept. 1828, WMMS 1818-36, item A2834). In September of the same year attendance had risen to 150, Turner instructing the males and Cross the females. The main purpose of the schools was to teach both children and adults to read and write in the Tongan language. To begin with, the missionaries had to reduce the language into writing and then to write out everything they taught. Apparently some read as fast as the missionaries could produce these lessons for them. This was not surprising since many Tongans were eager to learn to read and write even before the arrival of the missionaries.
Commander J.M. Laws, of His Majesty’s Sloop Satellite, described the situation as he saw it in 1829:
Owing to the increased pressure on the missionaries’ time and energy there was a real need for further teaching aids. Turner reported on 27 June 1829 that they were forwarding a work to the colony to be printed.1 Meanwhile Cross prepared little books in the form of tracts. Children read them to their parents at home, and when some of the already literate people went to distant parts of the islands to visit their friends, they took great pleasure in taking their books to read to them, and some started to read and even write before they attended school. Thus the popularity of school work and the novelty of literacy spread.
The glamour of being able to read and write drew so many people to the schools—young and old alike—that the missionaries could not keep up with the demand. Turner wrote:
The rapidly increasing demand for books emphasised the need for a local press. This, together with many other growing demands of the mission was alleviated by the arrival of reinforcements in 1831. William Woon, the first printer in Tonga, set up his printing press on 4 April. The first book printed in Tonga was published on 14 April 1831. It was a school book containing four pages, and there were 3,000 copies printed (Woon to Committee, 25 April 1831, WMMS 1818-36, item A2837). Printing attracted great attention and people called from all parts of the island to witness the process. Woon claimed that, through the operations of the press, ‘much light had been diffused, and the people were renouncing their superstitions, and turning to God with full purpose of heart’ ( W-M Mag., March 1833:224).
In his memorable work, The History of the London Missionary Society, William Ellis put his linger on one of the very important factors which helped the work of the missionaries in the islands of the South Seas. He wrote:
The contact with the Europeans introduced new diseases to the islands which the Tongans were unable to cure, and which subsequently claimed many lives. However, there were also diseases which had been with the Tongans before European contact, and which they had come to accept as a matter of course, knowing neither their causes nor any way of curing them. One of these diseases the Tongans called tona (yaws). Everyone was expected to suffer from it at one time or another, though it was preferable to get it at an early age. Peter Bays (1831:69) gave a graphic description of this disease in 1830 when he wrote:
Afflicted with their traditional ailments, as well as the newly introduced ones, and lacking knowledge of either their causes or cures, the Tongans attributed these misfortunes to the anger of the gods or the displeasure of the spirits of deceased kin. Accordingly, they believed that there was a direct connection between the efficacy of medicine and the power and truth of the god, whether the medicine was that provided by the missionary or by the heathen priest.
Fortunately for the cause of the mission, the missionaries at Nuku’alofa were more successful in combating disease than John Thomas had been at Hihifo. Nathaniel Turner wrote of their experience in this regard:
The importance of this aspect of the missionaries’ work soon became apparent, and consequently dispensary hours had become part of their regular activities.
The missionaries’ goods—articles of trade—were highly prized by the Tongan people, and these also helped to turn the interest of the people towards the missionaries and their work. ‘If I had good trade’, wrote John Thomas, ‘it would not only be a saving of time, but tend to produce a good feeling upon the minds of the natives towards us and the good cause’ (Thomas, Journal, 2 June 1826). Even John Thomas’s dwelling house was something of great wonder to the people. It was the first European house built in Tonga, having two storeys with various apartments, with panel doors in front, and glass windows, and was something which they had never seen before. These things captured their imagination and became the chief topics of conversation not only in Tongatapu but in the other islands as well. Many were initially attracted to the mission because they believed that through the mission they would get European goods.
The friendly relationship which existed between the missionaries and the captains of British men-of-war which occasionally visited the islands, and the respect the latter always displayed for the former, meant a lot to the missionaries and to their work. It enhanced their prestige in the eyes of the Tongans. It is easy to comprehend the reasoning of the unsophisticated mind. ‘Surely’, they would think to themselves, ‘if the God of the white people could make these men-of-war and their guns and powder, it must be true that He is the only God.’
The commander of the H.M.S. Seringapatam, the Hon. William Waldegrave, removed five Europeans from Vava’u who had been troublesome to the work of the missionaries ( W-M Mag., 1831: 712), and later the British Consul in Samoa, George Pritchard, removed two Americans who had robbed the mission and made two others work on its behalf for ten weeks (P. Turner, Journal, I Nov. 1849).
While it was true that one of the main obstacles to the success of the mission was the objection of the chiefs, it is equally true to say that the breakthrough in the work of the missionaries was significantly due to the support given it by certain important chiefs in Tonga. Like the other chiefs during the initial period of European contact, they coveted European wealth, technological knowledge and power. However, the two groups differed significantly in their beliefs as to the best method of achieving their common ambitions.
The opponents of Christian mission on the one hand strongly believed that success would be achieved through the old gods and by means of the traditional religion. Significantly, most of these chiefs were more successful in the power-struggle which had been going on in the group at this time. They had no reason to doubt the validity of the old order, and they were eager to maintain the status quo. Others, on the other hand, became disillusioned by what they interpreted as the failure of their gods to achieve what they wanted, and they began to question the validity and effectiveness of the traditional religion. Some among them decided to challenge some of the long-established traditions which hampered their ambitions. In doubting the old religion some began to believe, quite genuinely, that the only way to achieve their ambitions of acquiring the wealth, knowledge and power of the white man was to adopt his religion. They believed that the white man acquired all these from his superior and more powerful god.
It was initially for this reason that the Tu’i Kanokupolu family decided to accept and support the Wesleyan mission. Probably this was the most significant factor in the breakthrough which the mission enjoyed. As Ata’s refusal to accept Christianity hampered the growth of the mission, its acceptance by Aleamotu’a and Tāufa’āhau (later to be known as King George) facilitated its breakthrough and accelerated its growth.
The original motive behind the conversion of these chiefs appears to have been political. After the death of Tupouto’a hi 1820, a Tu’i Kanokupolu was not installed for almost eight years. The various sub-divisions of Tonga remained autonomous, each under its own paramount chief. In Tongatapu, the main island, power was at this time virtually in the hands of the Ha’a Havea. It was probably due to their powerful pressure that the ‘electoral college’ did not bother to appoint another Tu’i Kanokupolu for so long.
This state of affairs must have considerably influenced Aleamotu’a, his nephew, Ulakai, and the Tu’i Kanokupolu family in their decision to accept Christianity. The impotence of their own god’s in the face of their present political plight no doubt predisposed them to accept more readily the idea of the Almighty Jehovah as the only true and omnipotent God, one who could offer them hope when their own traditional gods failed to do so. At this opportune time Tākai and Langi arrived at Nuku’alofa with the Tahitian teachers, Hape and Davida.
The Tahitian teachers knew neither Tongan nor English, but apparently old Aleamotu’a expressed a deep desire to learn the English language. For this reason he wanted to have European missionaries and he visited Hihifo several times for this purpose in 1826. In December, Thomas wrote, ‘Toobo [Tupou Aleamotu’a] the chief of Noogaloff [Nuku’alofa] prefers English missionaries as he wants to learn the English language. He would be glad in case Mr. Hutchinson leaves, for me to go to that place’ (Thomas, Journal, 19 December 1826).
When Thomas decided to send Weiss back to Sydney for a bigger vessel so that they could all return to the colony in 1827, Aleamotu’a went to see him before the whaler left Tonga. He gave Weiss gifts and pleaded with him to ask his authorities to send him a missionary. It was not surprising then, when Weiss returned with Turner and Cross, that they decided to establish themselves at Nuku’alofa under Aleamotu’a.
Because of the strong opposition from the other chiefs, the Ha’a Havea members of the ‘electoral college’ in particular, Aleamotu’a ceased to attend worship and requested the missionaries not to conduct public worship in the chapel until his installation as Tu’i Kanokupolu was over. After his installation he rejoined the worshipping group. He was later baptised on 18 January 1830 as Siosaia (Josiah) Aleamotu’a by Nathaniel Turner.
Meanwhile, having accepted Christianity, Aleamotu’a sent one of his relatives, Tupoutoutai, to Fīnau ’Ulukālala, ruler of Vava’u, and his nephew, Ulakai, to Tāufa’āhau, ruler of Ha’apai to advise them, particularly Tāufa’āhau his grand-nephew, to become Christian. According to one account, the messengers ‘explained that Tonga [Tongatapu] was ruled by the Ha’a Havea, and Ha’a Ngata ... and the rest, and if they fight us on account of the Lotu, we will have the British to help us’ (H. Moulton, Notes on Tongan History: 46b).
Whatever the true motives behind these conversions of the chiefs, clearly they had a significant influence in turning the people from heathenism to Christianity. Their own people turned with them. Those who resisted later turned, after the chiefs under whom they lived had been defeated by the Christians led by Tāufa’āhau.
If the missionaries needed the help of the chiefs to further their objectives, the chiefs of the Tu’i Kanokupolu family were equally in need of the missionaries at this time. Their mutual dependence on each other created a powerful union—a marriage of convenience—which determined the course of future political development in Tonga.
The decision of Tāufa’āhau to accept Christianity was the greatest asset the missionaries gained in their struggle to establish Christianity in Tonga. Like several of his predecessors and contemporaries among the Tongan chiefs, Tāufa’āhau had become sceptical of the Tongan gods and the traditional religious practices. He had reason to doubt his family gods, for they had failed to come to his father’s aid in his vain attempt to subdue the Ha’a Havea chiefs. Nor had they assisted him in his initial struggle against Laufilitonga at Velata. He had only been wounded once during his long career of fighting, and this occurred during the battle of Velata. In one of the skirmishes, Tāufa’āhau left his back to the protection of the gods and a chief named Faka’iloatonga speared him from behind. Though he was only slightly wounded on his left calf, the failure of the gods to protect him on this occasion only intensified his doubts. Increasing contact with Europeans and the superiority of their weapons also helped to undermine his beliefs in the traditional gods.
With the encouragement from his great-uncle Aleamotu’a he resolved to find out as much as he could about Christianity. After several trips to Tongatapu in 1827 and early in 1828, where he met the missionaries and some of his relatives, particularly his uncle, Ulakai, and great-uncle Aleamotu’a, who had adopted the new religion, he began to imitate some of the ways of the Christians. He also tried to make his people learn them. One of the early missionaries wrote:
In October 1828, while in Tongatapu, on one of his trips, he told Nathaniel Turner about his desire to have a missionary sent to him at Ha’apai. Turner wrote that he was more encouraged by Tāufa’āhau than by Fīnau ’Ulukālala Tuapasi of Vava’u, who had also spoken to Turner on the same subject (N. Turner to Committee, 27 Nov. 1828, WMMS 1818-36, item A2835). However, the missionaries had to be certain that Tāufa’āhau was not just interested in their trade goods, as were many of the other chiefs. Consequently, when Tāufa’āhau visited Tongatapu again in July 1829 in quest of a missionary, the Reverend John Thomas spoke to him freely on this matter. Tāufa’āhau replied that he did not want him for his property. He wanted only his person and he offered to clothe him and to build a house for him free of expense. He said he would build a chapel, and he and all his people would come to be taught by him, and if Thomas wished to go away he could take whatever he wanted. Thomas continued in his journal, ‘From all I can see and hear respecting him he is a free honest open hearted man and that his request calls aloud’ (Thomas, Journal, 8 July 1829).
The missionaries were not slow to recognise that the future of Tonga lay with Tāufa’āhau. Ata’s consistent refusal to accept Christianity or allow his people to do so gave the missionaries the opportunity to comply with Tāufa’āhau’s request. They decided to abandon the mission at Hihifo and sent Thomas to Tāufa’āhau in Ha’apai. However, because they had to get approval from the Committee in London for their decision, they resolved to send Pita Vī, one of the first to be baptised in Tonga, to teach Tāufa’āhau until Thomas himself was able to go.
Tāufa’āhau revisited Tongatapu in August and, when he was told of the missionaries’ decision, he expressed deep disappointment that the missionaries saw fit to send him merely a Tongan teacher. He then refused to take Pita Vī with him to Ha’apai. On their way back he and his men ran into an exceptionally severe storm and with great difficulty they reached Ha’apai. Thinking that the storm was divine retribution for his refusal to take the teacher offered him by the missionaries, he presently returned to Tongatapu, apologised, and took Pita Vī with him.
With typical enthusiasm and determination, he applied himself to his new faith, attempting to further his knowledge of it as much as he could. Pita Vī reported that he led the way for his people in learning to read and write. Vī must have told him stories from the Bible, including the stories of the Children of Israel and the Ten Commandments in particular.
As a man of action, Tāufa’āhau wanted to test the validity and power of the old gods and to discover by experience whether Jehovah was the only true God. He began by destroying a large canoe which had long been kept as sacred to their gods. Then one day he took Pita Vī and others with him to test the power of the god Haehaetahi. On their arrival at the house of the god’s priestess, Tāufa’āhau asked her to let the god come so that they could have kava together.
The chiefs of Ha’apai were already upset by Tāufa’āhau’s commitment to the new religion, but after his treatment of Haehaetahi they were greatly alarmed. A plan was drawn up by their leaders, in which Tāufa’āhau was to be seized and bound, and the small band of followers of the new religion killed. Up to this time Tāufa’āhau had not yet joined the Christians in their religious meetings, but, on discovering the chiefs’ plot, he decided to join them openly in their prayer meetings. Soon afterwards he and Vī went out to the bush and collected objects used for worship in the old religion, built a fire and burnt them all. Then they went to the sea. Tāufa’āhau swam out to the deep, calling the names of the gods, Haehaetahi (a shark), Taufa’itahi, and others to come to him if they were really gods, but none came.
Tāufa’āhau did not confine his testing to the heathen gods alone. By way of testing the power of the Christian God, whilst on a canoe voyage, he cast his spear at a shark, which he suspected to be Haehaetahi, and, missing it, threw Pita Vī and another man overboard to fetch the spear and bring it to Ha’ano. He reasoned that if Jehovah were really God, he would save Pita Vī and his companion from the sharks. Fortunately for the mission, Vī and his friend arrived safely on shore with the spear (Collocott n.d.:75).
Convinced by what he had learned and by the results of his tests that the Christian God was the only God, Tāufa’āhau became an ardent crusader for his new-found faith. He wasted no time in launching a full-scale campaign to eradicate heathenism in Ha’apai. He and his followers burned down god-houses and destroyed effigies on other islands, persuading and even forcing the people to give up their traditional beliefs and accept Christianity. When Thomas finally arrived in 1830, only three islands (Nomuka, Tungua and ’Uiha) out of the eighteen inhabited islands of the Ha’apai group had not yet accepted the lotu (Farmer 1855: 204-5).
Tāufa’āhau had at this time merely accepted the new God on the same terms as those on which he had accepted or served the traditional ones, and he had not fully grasped the meaning to Christians of such concepts as mercy and forbearance. He was the ruler of Ha’apai, desperately seeking what was best for himself and his people, and there was no other way to find this out than by applying drastic measures to prove whether his scepticism of the old gods was justified and his acceptance of the new faith was right. After becoming convinced himself, he went on to demonstrate to his people that infringements of the old religious taboos brought no penalties. His rank and position as ruler entitled him to do what he did. He was baptised on 7 August 1831, but before this he had chosen for himself the name King George. ‘I would remark here’, wrote Peter Turner (Journal, 13 June 1831), ‘that the King of Haabai [Tāufa’āhau], tho’ not yet baptized—was called King George—as he had chosen the name because of [sic] the late King of England was called George.’
In the same year he managed, with considerable difficulty, to persuade Fīnau ’Ulukālala Tuapasi, ruler of Vava’u, to become converted. Prior to this Fīnau had been bitter against the missionaries and the new religion, and had persecuted those who were sympathetic to Christianity, mainly because of the failure of the missionaries to comply with his request for a missionary. In response to Aleamotu’a’s advice to accept Christianity in 1828 he had sent a letter to Nathaniel Turner, pleading with him to send to Port Jackson for some missionaries to come to Vava’u to teach him and his people (Farmer 1855:171). Later in the same year while in Tongatapu he spoke to Nathaniel Turner on the subject, but because of the shortage of the missionaries Turner could do nothing about it at the time. However, Tāufa’āhau successfully persuaded him to drop this opposition to the mission work and accept Christianity. With ’Ulukālala’s assistance, King George extended his crusade to Vava’u. ’Ulukālala ordered that all worshipping places and gods be burnt down throughout Vava’u.
The missionaries realised that traditionally King George and Fīnau ’Ulukālala were acting within the bounds of their authority, being rulers of Ha’apai and Vava’u respectively. Religiously, they regarded it as a triumph of Jehovah over Baal for ‘Thou shalt have none other gods before me...’ nor ‘make unto thee a graven image, nor the likeness of any form...’. However, these actions sparked off a rebellion in Vava’u against ’Ulukālala, led by his half-brother Lualala. ’Ulukālala appealed to King George for help. The latter responded immediately, and he and his warriors from Ha’apai promptly put down the rebellion with a minimal loss of life. All of Vava’u then accepted Christianity.
The success of the union between the Tu’i Kanokupolu family and the Wesleyan missionaries both in putting down political rivals and turning the people to Christianity was regarded by both sides as the work of providence. When Fīnau ’Ulukālala and the people of Vava’u turned to Christianity, one of the missionaries excitedly declared, ‘A king and his people waiting for God’s laws! Satan’s cause trembles and falls; at the name of Jesus idolatry bows down; it is crumbled into dust ... This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes’ (Thomas, Journal, 27 April 1831).
In 1833 ’Ulukālala died after nominating King George his successor, and King George became ruler of both Ha’apai and Vava’u. Soon after, in the same year, he tricked Malupō and the warriors of ’Uiha, the last stronghold of heathenism in Ha’apai, into accepting the new religion, thus completing the ‘Christianisation’ of the whole of the northern groups of Ha’apai and Vava’u.
While the part played by the missionaries in the initial conversion of Tongans to the Wesleyan mission is undisputed, one must also acknowledge the deep involvement of the Tongans themselves in the drive for success. For largely political and economic motives initially, certain chiefs decided to accept Christianity, but later, because of personal conviction through religious experience, some became ardent evangelists and religious leaders among their own people. Referring to King George, Dr R.B. Lyth (Journal, 6 Feb. 1838), one of the early missionaries to Tonga wrote:
In addition to the involvement of traditional leaders, the use of the vernacular as the medium of instruction helped to make the Bible and the teaching of the missionaries meaningful and attractive to the commoners, who had very little to lose by accepting Christianity, for the traditional religion had no place for them. Ultimately, the breakthrough in the work of the missionaries in Tonga came about because, at this stage, enough strong and influential numbers of chiefs and their supporters believed that Christianity fulfilled certain important needs of the society—both individually and collectively.