Tutanga is an uninhabited
islet which is the most southern islet of
Funafuti,
Tuvalu.[1] This islet has also been called Tuaeriki.[2]
In 1896 Professor
Professor William Sollas went to
Funafuti as the leader of the Funafuti Coral Reef Boring Expedition of the Royal Society; Prof. Sollas subsequently published The Legendary History of Funafuti,[2] an oral history given by Erivara, the chief of Funafuti, through the trader Jack O’Brien, (as translator) which began:
THE first king of Funafuti was Terematua (? Tilimatua), but who he was or where he came from is not known; it is certain, however, he was here before the arrival of the Kauga, people who swam to this island from Samoa, which means, I take it, Samoans who were wrecked from a canoe and afterwards swam ashore. The Kauga were much respected. Toa, a piece of land in Funafuti, is named after one of them, and the southernmost island, Tuaeriki, after another : after death they were worshipped as spirits.[2]
