A general view along a palm-fringed beach at Tongatapu/Tongatabu. The foremost palm dominates the photograph with its fronds curving out over the beach. To the left near the palm trees are wooden railing fences around a wood and thatch building. In the middle of the photograph is a woman standing near a man dressed in a dark tupenu (cloth wrap skirt). The woman is wearing a shirt over her white tupenu. Three children are playing by the water's edge, two standing and one sitting.

HMS Challenger (1858) visited Tonga/Tongatabu between 19 and 22 July 1874 during its scientific circumnavigation of the globe.