History

The Discovery Of

Tahiti

Interesting Page of History

llfE are indebted to our Papeete corres iT pondent Mr. A. C. Rowland, for the following copy of the first public an nouncement made in Europe—or any where else —of the discovery of Tahiti — which is, beyond any doubt, the gem of the Pacific.

There are several indications that Spaniards were in the groups now called French Oceania long before the English got there; but there is no authentic record of their voyages. Captain Wallis discovered Tahiti on June 21, 1767; the French navigator Bougainville was there in April, 1768; and Captain Cook in April, 1769.

The following is taken from the “Lon don Chronicle” of May 24-26, 1768: — “Extract of a letter from on board His Majesty’s ship, the Dolphin, newly arrived from a second voyage round the world.

“We have discovered a large, fertile, and extremely populous island in the South Seas. The Dolphin came to an anchor in a safe, spacious and com modious harbour, where she lay about six weeks. From the behaviour of the inhabitants, we had reason to believe she was the first and only ship they had ever seen.

“The first day they came alongside with a number of canoes, in order to take possession of her. There were two divisions, one filled with men, and the other with women; these last endeavoured to engage the attention of our sailors, whilst the men from the canoes threw great quantities of stones, by which several seamen were hurt. However, as they had no kind of weapons, they were soon beaten off, and a few volleys of small arms obliged them to retire in great confusion.

“The day following, a party, well armed, was sent on shore with the watering casks, and our people at the top mast head discovered, by the help of their glasses, prodigious numbers of the natives flocking from all parts towards the watering place, in order to surround the party; upon which a signal was made for them to come on board and leave the watering-casks.

“This was no sooner done than the Dolphin was attacked by greater numbers than the day preceding, which obliged them to have recourse to the disagreeable necessity of firing some of their great guns at them, charged with grape-shot.

And some guns with ball were also fired up the country, which knocked down some of their houses, felled several trees, etc., and struck them with such awe, that they now looked on our people as more than human, since their houses could not shelter them, nor distance take them out of the reach of our shot.

“They immediately shewed the greatest desire of being at peace with us, and did not seem to resent the killing a number of their people, as they now ap peared to be sensible that we had only made use of those dreadful engines against them when their rashness had forced us to it.

“We took possession of the island m His Majesty’s name and called it King George’s Land. It lies about 20 degrees southern latitude. This island was governed by a Queen, to whom the natives seemed to pay the utmost reverence, as they obeyed not only her words, but even her looks and gestures. She expressed the most livelv sorrow on our leaving the island, and the last thing she did was

to take the crown from her own head, and present it to Captain Wallis. It has been carefully preserved, and is to be presented to Her Majesty of Great Britain.

“During the remainder of our stay, we continued to trade with the natives in the most amicable manner, giving them nails, buttons, beads, and trinkets, in exchange for fresh provisions, which we were greatly in want of.

“The natives are pretty much civilized, considering that the arts have made but little progress among them. They are in general, taller and stouter made than our people, and are mostly of a copper colour, with black hair; others are fairer, especially the women, some of whom were observed to be red-haired.

“It does not appear that they know the use of any one metal whatever. When the grape-shot came among them, they dived after it, and brought up pieces of lead. They swim like fish, and can remain a long time under water. They were clothed with a kind of stuff made of the bark of trees, some red, some yellow: its texture resembles that of coarse, thick paper, and cannot resist wet.

“From some circumstances, we had reason to imagine that the King of the island was killed in the attack the second day; and the Queen was clothed in red, which, we found, was the mourn ing of the country.

“It is impossible to describe the beau tiful prospects we beheld in this charming spot. The verdure is as fine as that of England, there is great plenty of live stock, and it abounds with all the choicest productions of the earth.

“Besides the large island, there are several lesser ones, which have been named Charlotte Island, Glocester Island, Boscawen Island, Keppel Island, Wallis Island, etc.”

Doctor Bolton Glanvill Corney, from whose work “Quest and Occupation of Tahiti by Emissaries of Spain” this ex tract is taken, adds the following note: “Lloyd’s Evening Post and British Chronicle of May 23-24 reported the Dolphin’s return to England, and gave a notice of her discovery of Tahiti and of her sojourn there, with some account of the natives, which was continued in the succeeding issue.

“The same notice appeared in the cor responding number of the London Chronicle of May 24-26; and was re printed by the Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser on May 26 and 27, with a few important words of comment added. This seems to have been the first public an nouncement in England of the discovery of Tahiti, the Dolphin having arrived in the Downs on May 20.”

She Was Not “Queen”

EVEN to this day, there is considerable misconception about the high chiefess, Opurea, who received Cap tain Wallis, when the Dolphin was at Matavai, in 1767, and was by him styled Queen of Tahiti.

In the supplementary papers of Doctor Bolton Glanvill Corney’s monumental work: “The Quest and Occupation of Tahiti by Emissaries of Spain, 1772- 1776”, is to be found “A Passage from the Journal of Henry Ibbot, Midshipman, 1767”, from which we take the following: “The natives being very sociable with us, Captain Wallis gave leave for a stated number of men to go on shore every day with the trading party, and the in habitants behaved very kindly to them and never offered them the least insult, though some of them strolled for miles into the country, having no manner of weapons with them.

“Pettycoat interest here as well as in other parts, is the most prevailing, the principal person hereabout who appeared to have any authority over the rest being

a woman, whom we styled the Queen; she was the stoutest woman I ever saw there, and had a very commanding as pect, but not handsome, being on the decline.”

Appended is a note by Doctor Corney: “This, of course, was Te Vahine Airoro- Atua-i-Ahurai, familiarly known as ‘Opurea’; quoted by Wallis as Oberea and by Banks as Oborea. She was a daughter of Terii Vaetua, chief of Fa’a’a, whose wife was a lady of the Vaiari family; and she married Tevahitua-i-Patea, chief of Papara and head of the Teva clan, who adopted the name ‘Amo’ when his son was born, because the child had a habit of blinking.

“Airoro was a headstrong, ambitious, and influential chief ess; but to describe her as ‘Queen’ of Tahiti is a misnomer, though her small sen, Teriirere did run Tu (Pomare First) very closely during sometime for the paramountcy.”

Lieutenant J. M. Harcourt, son of Mr.

H. W. Harcourt (former Deputy Trea surer of Fiji), was captured by Axis troops in Libya recently and now is a prisoner of war. He was serving with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.

Lieutenant Harcourt is 27 years old and married, his wife at present living in Wellington, NZ.

Mr. John W. M. Whiting, who earned out anthropological research work in New Guinea a couple of years ago, has just had his book, “Becoming a Kwoma , published by the Yale University Press, USA. It deals with the culture of the Kwoma, a people living 250 miles up the Sepik River, Northern New Guinea.

Mr. Eric J. Hobson, formerly of the Department of Public Health in New Guinea, stationed at Buka Passage, re cently joined the RAAF and now holds the rank of ACI at an Air Force hospital in Victoria.

Malakai, a Tongan workman employed on a building construction job in Suva, Fiji, fell from a high girder and was killed, on March 26.