Exploration of Tonga. 18th century artwork showing a European explorer (lower centre) being welcomed by Tongans in a canopied area on a chieftain's sailing vessel. This artwork is from the work Relation du Voyage a la Recherche de la Perouse (1800) by the French naturalist Jacques Labillardiere (1755-1834). This was an account of the 1791-1793 voyage that unsuccessfully attempted to find the lost ships of the 1785-1788 voyage by the French explorer Jean-Francois de Laperouse (1741-1788). Both expeditions visited Tonga, which had first been visited by Europeans in 1616, and was also known as the Friendly Islands.