the kingdom of Tonga. The oral history of Samoa preserves the memories of many battles fought between Samoa and neighboring islands. Intermarriage between Tongan and Fijian royalty and Samoan nobility helped build close relationships between these island nations that still exist today. These royal blood ties are routinely acknowledged at special events and cultural gatherings. According to Samoan folklore, two maidens from Fiji brought to Samoa the tools that were necessary to engage in the art of tatau (in English, the tattoo), and this is the origin of the traditional Samoan movie (also known as pe'a for men and as malu for women). The dominant cultural traditions of Samoa, known as the fa'asamoa, originated with the warrior queen Nafanua. Her rule instituted the fa'amatai: decentralized family, village, and regional chiefly systems. Her niece, Salamasina, continued this system, and their era is considered to be a golden age of Samoan cultural traditions. Linguistically, the Samoan language belongs to the Polynesian sub-branch of the Austronesian language family, which is thought by linguists to have originated in Taiwan. According to oral tradition, Samoa and Polynesian share a common ancestor: Tagaloa. The earliest history of Samoa concerns a political center in the easternmost Samoan islands of Manu'a, under the rule of the Tui Manu'a. In the Cook Islands to the east, the tradition is that Karika, or Tui Manu'a 'Ali's, came to the Cook Islands from Manu'a; suggesting that the rest of Polynesia was settled from Manu'a and Samoa. After European contact 18th century Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century but did not intensify until the arrival of the British missionaries. In 1722, Dutchman Jacob Roggeveen was the first European to see the islands. This visit was followed by the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), the man who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768. In 1787 Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse visited Samoa, where at Tutuila Island, in what is now American Samoa, there was a conflict leading to deaths on both sides, including the deaths of twelve Frenchmen. 19th century European and Tahitian and Cook Islander Missionaries and traders, led by John Williams (missionary) began arriving around 1830. Coming via Tahiti, they were known in Samoa as the Lotu Taiti. The Rev. John Williams was helped by the Ali'i Malietoa Vainu'upo to establish the Lotu Taiti, which became the Christian Congregational Church of Samoa. The United States