Linguistic evidence suggests an original settlement from Fiji. Linguists include the Rotuman language in a subgroup with the languages of western Fiji, but Rotuman also has a large number of Polynesian loanwords, indicating later contact with Samoa and Tonga.
Origins in oral history
Rotuman oral history indicates that the islands' first inhabitants came from Samoa, whence they were led by a man named Raho. Shortly thereafter, further settlers arrived from Tonga. Later, additional settlers came from Tonga and Kiribati. In the 1850s and 1860s, Tongan Prince Ma'afu claimed Rotuma, and sent subordinates to administer the main island and islets.
Ratzel wrote about a legend relating to the Samoans and Rotuma as follows:
"Thus the Samoans relate that one of their chiefs fished up Rotuma and planted coco-palm on it. But in a later migration the chief Tokaniua came that way with a canoe full of men and quarreled with him about the prior right of possession."
European contact
The first known European sighting of Rotuma was in 1791, when Captain Edward Edwards and the crew of HMS Pandora landed in search of sailors who had disappeared following the Mutiny on the Bounty. There has been some argument whether the island discovered by Quirós known as Tuamaco fits the description and location of Rotuma, but so far no claim has been fully substantiated.
Mid-19th century
A favorite of whaling ships in need of re provisioning, in the mid-nineteenth century Rotuma became a haven for runaway sailors, some of whom were escaped convicts. Some of these deserters married local women and contributed their genes to an already heterogeneous
