Tahiti

The Beginning Of

Whence Came the First Polynesians?

By A. C. Rowland

D_„ t t i, a .. TT . , ON Joseph De Andia Y Varela (co discoverer, with Lieut. Tomas Gay angos, of Ra’ivayae in 1775) has recorded in his “Narrative of the Voyage Performed to the Island of Amat (Ta hiti)” an account of the first Polynesian settlement of Tahiti which has not—to the best of our knowledge and belief — been not-ed by any other writer or . , , , St nf em tZ\l fsland Someday that they were Hoitere his ladv Teino andtheirson Tef hiotua h Oatea Ind his ladv Tetuaearo niotua, oaija and nis lady ietuaearo,

with Tamatahiapo their son, Oaeripo and his lady Tetuaura; and that, having embarked in a canoe and sailed from the island of Oriayatea (Ra’iatea), bound for another one near to it, they were over taken by a strong westerly wind, which obliged them to scud before it, and while running willy-nilly to the eastward they beheld Otahiti.

“They managed to gain one of its har bours and. not seeing any people, they spied out the land and found it to be very fruitful and abounding in all things necessary for human life. On this they decided to remain in the island, since it afforded a wider domain and greater wealth than they possessed in their own country.”

DON Joseph has come upon a bit of simple, unadorned folk-lore which perpetuated the actual history of the first Palae-Polynesian settlement on Tahiti. The Spaniards, who did not descend on the island with thumping of drums, booming of cannon and brandish ing of muskets, when they came in 1772, were acceptable visitors when, in 1775, they re-appeared and cast anchor at Hatutira. They were served by compe tent interpreters in the persons of the two young Tahitians who in 1773 had been taken to Lima (where they acquired a fair knowledge of Spanish) and were repatriated in 1775, and of Maximo Rod riguez.

The elaborate allegory of a mass migration from Ra’iatea. of which the following is the preamble—“ Tahiti did

not always stand where it now is. Tahiti was transplanted here in the east from Great Havai’i (Ra’iatea), hence the name Ta-hiti (transplanted). It came away as a huge fish, and then became land again; it resembled a ship with a great figure head”—is manifestly of neo-Polynesian authorship. This migration was probably the consequence of an unsuccessful rebel lion by two high chiefs on the north side of Ra’iatea, against the overlordship of Opoa. Like the migration of a later age to New Zealand, the defeated chiefs, and all their followers, took to the sea and, descending on the west coast of Tahiti, seized for themselves a section of that island.

IN the opinion of this writer, the descendants of these invaders from Ra’iatea appear as the fierce, warrior clan inhabiting Te-’Oro-Pa’a, the ancient names of the two sub-districts—Mano- Tahi (one thousand) and Mano-Rua (two thousand)—indicating, without doubt, the numbers of the original migration.

Tahitian legend and history are, in a large measure, chronicles of wars between Te-’Oro-Pa’a and the Teva, who inhabited the southern districts of the island. That Te-’Oro-Pa’a made peace with Opoa, brought in the cult of Oro, and forced the worship of that sanguinary war-god upon the whole of Tahiti, is made mani fest by the precedence of the Marae “Pu-na’au-ia” in Mano-Tahi, and of Marae “Marae-Ta’ata” in ’A’ou’a—one of the sub-divisions of the district now named Pa’ea.

Marae “Pu-na’au-ia” became the principal Taputapuatea temple on Tahiti, when a corner-stone from the Opoa temple of that name was added to its structure. In the course of time, its vast Ahu (pyramid) became as grisly with the bleached skulls of human sacrifices as was the Ahu of the ancient Marae at Ra’iatea. At a later period, all of these skulls were removed to a hidden cave in the centre of Tahiti —where they now are.

Marae “Marae-Ta’ata” was so tapu that even Tu (Pomare First) —although he became the most powerful high chief on Tahiti—was not permitted to enter its sanctuary, and had to content himself with a place especially built for him out side the temple walls.

THIS precedence was maintained, not withstanding the inferior rank of the high chiefs of Te-’Oro-Pa’a; none of whom possessed the right to assume the sacred Maro ’Ura (red feather girdle) or even the less exalted Maro Tea (white feather girdle).

The haughty high chiefs of Opoa, for that reason, contemptuously named the island Tahiti Manahune (Plebeian Ta hiti); ignoring the ancient right of the high chiefs of Pape-ari (whose title to the Maro ’Ura was the most ancient, as their ancestral Marae, Fare-Pu’a, was the most venerable on Tahiti), of the high chiefs of Fa’a’a to the same distinction, and of the high chiefs of Papara—whose Maro-Tea and authority harked back to Palae-Polynesian times.

Andia was the first to state what sub sequent research has confirmed —that the island of Tahiti was populated from Ra’iatea. Moreover, his conjecture as to the original home-land of the Polyne sians—“ ... it may be inferred that the dwellers in this island, as well as those peopling the adjacent ones, and even others that lie more to the south’ard and farther east, come of Asiatic stock ... I find it difficult to believe that the natives of Otahiti have sprung from America”— is in “full accord with the views generally accepted by ethnologists.” (Dr. B. Glan vil Corney, in a footnote.)