Tutuila

Tutuila is a mountainous island in eastern Samoa, its deeply cut coast containing bays and sheltered harbors. Samoan villages occupied the valleys and shore, linked by family and chiefly relationships to other islands. Canoes carried people and goods between the districts and across the open sea.

In December 1787 the French expedition of La Pérouse anchored off Tutuila. The expedition had sought fresh provisions and water along the coast. A party led by Paul Antoine Fleuriot de Langle went ashore at Aʻasu to obtain water. A violent confrontation followed in which de Langle and eleven other Frenchmen were killed, as well as Samoans. The encounter became one of the most dramatic episodes in the early history of European visits to Samoa.

The later city of Pago Pago lies here.