PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
April 2014
297
“A
rchaeological evidence suggests that the
Marquesas Islands may have been settled
about 200 BC from western Polynesia.
In subsequent dispersions, Polynesians from
the Marquesas migrated to the Hawaiian Island
about 300
AD
and reached the Society Islands
by about the 9th century. Large chieftainships
were formed on Tahiti, Bora-Bora, and Raiatea.
Teriaroa, north of Tahiti, was a royal retreat, and
Taputapuatea, on Raiatea, was the most sacred
shrine in the islands. European contact with the
islands of French Polynesia was gradual. The
Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sighted
Pukapuka Atoll in the Tuamotu group in 1521.
The southern Marquesas Islands were reached in
1595. The Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen in 1722
discovered Makatea, Bora-Bora, and Maupiti. Capt.
Samuel Wallis in 1767 reached Tahiti, Moorea,
and Maiao Iti” (
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014
).
“With his ships
La Boudeuse
and
ĽEtoile
, Louis-Antoine de
Bougainville arrived in Tahiti in April 1768, less than a year
after Wallis. At this time Wallis was still homeward bound,
so Bougainville was completely unaware that he was not the
first European to set eyes on the island. His visit only lasted
nine days, but Bougainville was a more cultured, considered
man than Wallis and had no unfriendly clashes with the Ta-
hitians. Bougainville explained that the Tahitians ‘pressed
us to choose a woman and come on shore with her; and their
gestures, which were not ambiguous, denoted in what man-
ner we should form an acquaintance with her.’ Bougainville’s
reports of Venus-like women with ‘the celestial form of that
goddess’, and of the people’s uninhibited attitude towards
matters sexual, swept through Paris like wildfire” (
Lonely
Planet, 2014
). In early 19th century volumes of the French
Navy’s
Annals Hydrographique
, further descriptions can be
found of these storied customs of Tahiti!
“The history of the Society Island group is virtually that
of Tahiti, which was made a French protectorate in 1842
and a colony in 1880. French missionaries went to the Gam-
bier group in 1834, and in 1844 a French protectorate was
proclaimed, followed by annexation in 1881. The Tubuai Is-
lands were also evangelized from Tahiti, and as late as 1888
Rimatara and Rurutu sought British protection, which was
OVERSEAS LANDS OF
refused. They were placed under the French protectorate in
1889 and annexed in 1900. The Tuamotus were part of the
kingdom of the Pomare family of Tahiti, which came origi-
nally from Fakarava Atoll. These islands were claimed as
dependencies of Tahiti within the protectorate by France in
1847 and became part of the colony in 1880. In the Marque-
sas, Nuku Hiva was annexed to the United States in 1813 by
Capt. David Porter of the frigate
Essex
, but the annexation
was never ratified. French occupation of the group followed
the landing of forces from a French warship, requested by the
chief of Tahuata (near Hiva Oa). Soon after there was a quar-
rel with the French; in 1842 the chiefs ceded sovereignty to
France. The islands were administered as the French Colony
of Oceania. French Polynesia was made an overseas territory
of France in 1946” (
op. cit., Britannica, 2014
)
French Polynesia consists of five archipelagoes:
Archipel
Des Tuamotu (Îles Australes), Îles Gambie, Îles Marquises,
Îles Tubuai
, and the Society Islands. Slightly less than one-
third the size of Connecticut, the lowest point is the Pacific
Ocean (0 m), and the highest point is Mon Orohena (2,241 m).
There seems to be no geodetic work performed by the
French Navy as directly reported in
Annales Hydro-
graphiques
or by the
Institut Géographique National
during
the 18
th
or 19
th
centuries with the single exception below
