"A Tongiaki of Tonga"
Collection: Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.
Page This picture is available as a stock image. Phone: 808-935-3082

The Va'a Tele of Samoa mirrored the same design of the tongiaki. In 1619 the first contact between Europeans and Polynesians at sea occurred when the Dutch explorer Schouten met a tongiaki. He wrote:

"The rig of these vessels is so excellent and they go so well under sail that there are few ships in Holland that could overhaul them."

When the Cook expedition arrived at Tonga, these vessels were being replaced with the double-ended kalia, similar to the Fijian ndrua.

Page 22, Voyagers