Malinoa/en
Little Malinoa is the northern most island in the series of small islands leading to the harbour of Nukuʻalofa and as such a navigational beacon for those coming from Haʻapai and Vavaʻu heading for Tongatapu.
On 12 January 1887, 5 young Tongans, from the repressed Muʻa parliament Topui first cousin of Tungi and Lavuso also a cousin both from the old parliament and few others tried to murder the premier, Shirley Waldemar Baker. Shirley himself escaped unharmed but his son and daughter were severily wounded. King Siaosi Tupou I became very angry when he heard about it and considered it an act of rebellion. He ordered the chiefs to deliver the criminals directly to him, and when his old political enemies did not act quickly enough, he sent the policeforce. Soon it all degenerated into a battle between pro and anti- Tupou factions, rekindling the fire of the Muʻa parliament, which had barely been extinguished.
Nevertheless at the end the those who were responsible were arrested without trial, on 31 January 10 of them were sentenced to death. The same evening Baker, assisted by the minister of police, Tuʻuhetoka, went to the palace to beg Tupou to commute the sentences. The king did not want to listen, and the others left in the hope to try the next day again. But shortly after midnight the king ordered Tuʻuhetoka to take 6 of the condemned, Tōpui, ʻAisea Kaumoto, Lavuso, Naisa, Lātū and Fehoko to Malinoa to execute them there. And so they died there from a firing squad. Sand was heaped up on their graves, and this gravehill is said to still exist nowadays (see picture, although this is the only hill on Malinoa, it is not sure it is the right spot).
After the firing prince Laifone took the coconuts from the island, saying it would be the last ones as the island would be accursed forever.
When king Tupou was briefed over the happenings, he ordered Tuʻuhetoka to act with the remaining 4 prisoners on the deathroll in the same way, namely Palu, Tavake, Fekau and Tuʻitavake. But then Baker intervened, and at the end they were never shot but banished instead.
- N. Rutherford, Shirley Baker and the king of Tonga, Wellington 1971/1995
