Niuafoʻou (meaning many new coconuts) is the northernmost island in the kingdom of Tonga. Other names for the island are Good Hope island and Tin Can island. It got the name “tin can” from its unusual method for sending and receiving mail from abroad. Because it has no wharf or natural harbour, ships couldn’t land to pick up or deliver mail. So, instead, people who were strong swimmers would swim out to passing ships to retrieve packages, which the sailors would “seal up in a biscuit tin” to keep them dry, and throw overboard.
According to Niuafoʻou folklore, Niuafoʻou island originally had a mountain, rather than a lake in the middle. But the mountain was stolen one night and placed in the sea, and became the island of Tafahi.
Niuafoʻou was put on the European maps by Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire during their famous circumnavigation of the globe in 1616. After their not so successful encounter with the islanders of Niuatoputapu, they approached this island with some more hope to find refreshment, so they called it Goede Hoop island. They found black cliffs that were green on top, plenty of coconut trees, some houses along the seaside, and a whole village near a landing place. But their ship, the Eendracht (Unity), could not anchor, so they had to limit themselves with some trade with the Indians who approached their ship in their swift canoes. The trading went well, until the islanders tried to steal one of the ship’s small sounding boats, and the Dutch responded by firing on them. After this incident, the Dutch left the vicinity of Niuatoputapu and continued to sailed west as they had planned. But they ended up veering northwards, and so happened upon Futuna and Alofi.
Between 1946 and 1947, the island was completely evacuated by the Tongan government following a volcanic eruption. In 1958, about half of the population returned to Niuafo’ou, and the rest remained in ‘Eua.
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