‘This
may well be called the Cytheria of the southern hemisphere...where
the earth without tillage produces both
food and clothing, the trees
loaded with the richest fruit, the
carpet of nature spread with the most
odiferous flowers, and the fair ones
ever willing to fill your arms with
love... contradicting an opinion propagated
by philosophers of a less
bountiful soil, who maintain that every
virtuous or charitable act a man
commits, is from selfish or interested
views.’
George Hamilton, Surgeon Of the
Pandora
Here, of
course, was where it really all began. Below us was Faa'a Airport, reclaimed
land on the offshore coral reef, beside the original island that, in less than
thirty years, had been claimed by offshore European imaginations, and had
claimed them back even more. Otaheite.
When Samuel
Wallis’ Dolphin entered Matavai Bay
in 1767, he had no idea that the physical integrity of his ship would fall into
hard jeopardy, from the nails that would begin to go missing in his crew’s
search for soft paradise. A year later, the deprived sailors on Bougainville’s Boudeuse, watched a smiling Tahitian girl climb onto their quarterdeck, and
drop her pareu like a gauntlet. If Botticelli’s Birth of Venus had made
a simultaneous appearance, she wouldn’t have held a candle. When Cook’s Endeavour
arrived a year after that, to follow the Transit of Venus, his crew’s
endeavours were similarly focused. The history of ships and Shangri-la
culminated in Bligh’s Bounty entrance in 1788, and Edward’s Pandora
pursuit of his mutineers, three years later.
Tahiti would have been paradise to any European, even without the
months of abject misery any male crew would suffer just to get there. In a
melange of recorded impressions from these first ships, the island itself was
achingly beautiful.
‘We
saw the whole coast full of Canoes, and the country hade the most
Beautiful appearance its posable to
Imagin, from the shore side one two
and three miles Back...a fine Leavel
country appears to be all laid out in
plantations, and the regular built
Houses seems to be without number,
with Great Numbers of Cocoa Nut Trees
and several other trees...all
along the Coast. There is beautiful valleys
between the Mountains- from
the foot of the Mountains half way up
the Country appears to be all fine
pasture land- from that to the very tops
of the Mountains is all full of tall
Trees... The country is as beautiful as
it could be, forests, fertile vales,
streams and gardens make up a charming
setting in which the
inhabitants have located their houses...
Nature was pleased to grant
them perfect bodies... We found
companies of men and women sitting
under the shade of their fruit-trees: they
all greeted us with signs of
friendship: those who met us upon the
road stood aside to let us pass
by; everywhere we found hospitality,
ease, innocent joy, and every
appearance of happiness amongst them...We
walk’d for 4 or 5 miles
under groves of Cocoa nut and bread
fruit trees loaded with a profusion
of fruit and giving the most greatefull
shade I have ever experienced,
under these were the habitations of the
people most of them without
walls: in short the scene we saw was the
truest picture of an arcadia of
which we were going to be kings and the
imagination can form...’
The Polynesian women, that came
out to greet their boats, turned it into the Garden of Eden.
‘We
have discovered a large, fertile and extremely populous Island in the
South Seas... Women... endeavoured to
engage the Attention of out
Sailors, by exposing their beauties to
their View... The men...pressed us
to choose a woman, and to come on shore
with her; and their gestures
denoted in what manner we should form an
acquaintance with her. It
was very difficult, amidst such a sight,
to keep at their work four
hundred French sailors, who had seen no
women for six months. In
spite of all our precautions, a young
girl came on board, and place
herself upon the quarterdeck, near one
of the hatchways, which was
open, in order to give air to those who
were heaving at the capstern
below it. The girl carelessly dropt a
cloth, which covered her, and
appeared to the eyes of all beholders,
such as Venus showed herself to
the Phrygian shepherd, having indeed the
celestial form of that
goddess... At last our cares succeeded
in keeping these bewitched
fellows in order, though it was no less
difficult to keep the command of
ourselves... I was told by one of the
Young Gentlemen that a new sort of
trade took up most of their attention
that day, but it might be more
properly called the old trade...The
Women were far from being Coy. For
when a Man Found a Girl to his Mind,
which he might Easily Do
Amongst so many, there was not much
Ceremony on Either Side, and I
believe whoever comes here after will
find Evident Proofs that they are
not the First Discoveries. The men are
so far from having Objection to an
Intercourse of this Kind that they Brought
down their Women &
Recommend them to us with the Greatest
Eagerness... I sheltered in a
small house where I found six of the
prettiest girls in the locality. They
welcomed me with all the gentleness this
charming sex can display.
Each one removed her clothing, an
adornment which is bothersome for
pleasure and, spreading all these
charms, showed me in detail the
gracefulness and contours of the most
perfect bodies. They also removed
my clothing... They hastened to see
whether I was made like the locals
and pleasure quickened this research.
Many were... the tender kisses I
received!..I thought I was transported
into the garden of Eden... In the
Island of Otaheite where Love is the
Chief Occupation, the favorite, nay
almost the Sole Luxury of the
inhabitants; both the bodies and souls of
the women are modeled into the utmost perfection
for that soft
science...I have nowhere seen such
Elegant women as those of
Otaheite... The Luxury of their
appearance is also not a little aided by a
freedom which their differing from us in
their opinion of what Consitutes
modesty. (A) European thinks nothing of
Laying bare her breast to a
certain point but a hairs breadth Lower
no mortal eye must Peirce. An
Otaheitean on the other hand will by a
motion of her dress in a moment
lay open an arm and half her breast the
next maybe the whole...and all
this with as much innocence and genuine
modesty as an English woman
can shew her arm... Most of these were
young women, who put
themselves into several lascivious
postures... At certain parts they put
their garments aside and exposd with
seemingly very little sense of
shame those parts which most nations
have thought it modest to
conceal, & a woman more advanc’d in
years stood in front, held her
cloaths continually up with one hand and
danced with uncommon
vigour and effrontery, as if to raise in
the spectators the most libidinous
desires....The Over flowing plenty, the
Ease in which men live and the
Softness and Delightfulness of the
Clime, the women are Extremely
Handsome and fond of the European,
prodigiously insisting and
Constantly Importuning them to stay, and
their Insinuations are Backed
by the Courtesy of the Chiefs and the
admiration of the people in
general. It is Infinitely too much for
sailors to withstand... Otaheite...
has every allurement both to luxury and
ease, and is the Paradise of the
World. The Women are handsome, mild in
their Manners and
conversation, possessed of great
sensibility, and have sufficient delicacy
to make them admired and loved. I can
only conjecture that (the
mutineers) have Idealy assured
themselves of a more happy life among
the Otaheitans than they could possible
have in England, which joined
to some Female connections has most
likely been the cause of the Whole
business...The women have too great
an intercourse with different Men.
... it is considered no infidelity, for I have known a Man to have done the
Act in
the presence of his own Wife, and it is a common thing for the
Wife
to assist the Husband in these Amours... Inclination
seems to be
the only binding law of Marriage in this
Country, for a Woman will quit
her husband if she pleases...’
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