The Marquesas Islands

The location of the Marquesas (top right hand corner of this map), in relation to other parts of Polynesia. The islands are a nearly 4 hour flight from Papeete in Tahiti.

The Marquesas Islands, we will be staying on Nuku HIva and Hiva Oa

Polynesia

As the Marquesas are not well-known by many people I am going to include a substantial extract from Wikipedia giving some history and information about the islands. Many thanks to Wikipedia for this information:

The Marquesas Islands (/mɑːrˈkeɪsəs/; French: Îles Marquises or Archipel des Marquises or Marquises; Marquesan: Te Henua (K)enana (North Marquesan) and Te Fenua ʻEnata (South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcanic islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southern Pacific Ocean. The Marquesas are located at 9.7812° S, 139.0817° W. The highest point is the peak of Mount Oave (French: Mont Oave) on Ua Pouisland at 1,230 m (4,035 ft) above sea level.

Research based on 2010 studies suggests the islands were colonized rapidly in two successive waves by indigenous colonists from West Polynesia, beginning c. 1025–1120 AD, leading to the development of a "remarkably uniform culture, human biology and language."

The Marquesas Islands form one of the five administrative divisions (subdivisions administratives) of French Polynesia. The capital of the Marquesas Islands administrative subdivision is the settlement of Taiohae on the island of Nuku Hiva. The population of the Marquesas Islands was 9,346 inhabitants at the August 2017 census.

The Marquesas Islands group is one of the most remote in the world, lying about 852 mi (1,370 km) northeast of Tahiti and about 3,000 mi (4,800 km) away from the west coast of Mexico, the nearest continental land mass. They fall naturally into two geographical divisions: the northern group, consisting of Eiao, Hatutu (Hatutaa), Motu One, and the islands centered on the large island of Nuku Hiva: Motu Iti (Hatu Iti), Ua Pou, Motu Oa and Ua Huka, and the southern group of Fatu Uku, Tahuata, Moho Tani (Motane), Terihi, Fatu Hiva and Motu Nao (Thomasset Rock), clustered around the main island of Hiva ʻOa. With a combined land area of 1,049 square kilometres (405 sq mi), the Marquesas are among the largest island groups of French Polynesia the Spanish galleons fleets arrived at en route to Manila, Nuku Hiva being the second largest island in the entire territory, after Tahiti. With the exception of Motu One, all the islands of the Marquesas are of volcanic origin.

In contrast to the tendency to associate Polynesia with lush tropical vegetation, the Marquesas are remarkably dry islands. Though the islands lie within the tropics, they are the first major break in the prevailing easterly winds that spawn from the extraordinarily dry (from an atmospheric perspective) Humboldt Current. Because of this, the islands are subject to frequent drought conditions, and only those that reach highest into the clouds (generally, above about 750 m / 2,500  ft above sea level) have reliable precipitation. This has led to historical fluctuations in water supply, which have played a crucial role in the sustainability of human populations in certain sections of the various islands throughout the archipelago. This is especially evident in the low historical population of Ua Huka (maximum elevation 857 m m / 2,812 ft.) and the intermittent inhabitability of Eiao (maximum elevation 576 m m / 1,890 ft.). The Marquesas Islands are thought to have formed by a center of upwelling magma called the Marquesas hotspot.

CLIMATE

Temperatures in the Marquesas are stable year around, but precipitation is highly variable. Precipitation is much greater on the north and east (windward) parts of the islands than on the western (leeward) parts. Average annual precipitation can vary from more than 100 inches (2,500 mm) on windward shores and mountains to a low as 20 inches (510 mm) in the "desert" region of Nuku Hiva. Droughts, sometimes lasting several years, are frequent and seem to be associated with the El Niño phenomena. The statistics from the weather station at Atuona on Hiva ʻOa is representative of the average sea-level climate of the Marquesas. Illustrating the variability of precipitation, the highest annual rainfall recorded in Atuona is 148.2 inches (3,760 mm); the lowest is 22 inches (560 mm).

SETTLEMENT AND POPULATION

The first recorded settlers of the Marquesas were Polynesians who arrived from West Polynesia. Initially, the carbon-dating evidence suggested their arrival before AD 100  but the date of initial colonization has since been brought forward in many independent dating studies.

For example, a 2010 study using revised, high-precision radiocarbon dating based on more reliable samples, suggests that the period of eastern Polynesian colonization took place much later, in a shorter time frame of two waves: the "earliest in the Society Islands A.D. ∼1025–1120, four centuries later than previously assumed; then after 70–265 years, dispersal continued in one major pulse to all remaining islands A.D. ∼1190–1290." This rapid colonization is believed to account for the "remarkable uniformity of East Polynesia culture, biology and language."

In 2014, the date of first settlement for the Marquesas was pushed back slightly to around AD 900–1000.

NATURE

The rich environment of the islands supported a large population that lived by fishing, collecting shellfish, hunting birds and gardening. They relied heavily on breadfruit-but raised at least 32 other introduced crops. Hard evidence of significant pre-European inter-archipelago trade has been found in basalt from the Marquesan quarry island of Eiao that is known to have been distributed aboard sailing canoes over immense distances of up to 2500 km and more to provide adze heads on Mo'orea (Society Islands), Mangareva (Gambier Islands), Tubuai (Austral Islands), Rarotonga (Cook Islands), and Tabuaeran (Northern Line Islands).

HISTORY

The first Europeans to reach the Marquesas may have been the crew of San Lesmes, a Spanish vessel which disappeared in a storm in June 1526; it was part of an expedition headed by García Jofre de Loaísa. The Spanish explorer Álvaro de Mendaña reached them nearly seventy years later on 21 July 1595. He named them after his patron, García Hurtado de Mendoza, 5th Marquis of Cañete (Spanish: Marqués de Cañete), who served as Viceroy of Peru from 1590 to 1596. Mendaña visited first Fatu Hiva and then Tahuata before continuing on to the Solomon Islands. His expedition charted the four southernmost Marquesas as Magdalena (Fatu Hiva), Dominica (Hiva ʻOa), San Pedro (Moho Tani), and Santa Cristina (Tahuata).

In the late 16th century European explorers estimated the population at more than 100,000. Europeans and Americans were impressed with how easy life appeared to be in the islands, which had a rich habitat and environment. In 1791 the American maritime fur trader Joseph Ingraham first visited the northern Marquesas while commanding the brig Hope. He named them the Washington Islands. In 1813 Commodore David Porter claimed Nuku Hiva for the United States, but the United States Congress never ratified that claim.

In 1842 France conducted a successful military operation on behalf of the native chief Iotete, who claimed he was king of the whole island of Tahuata. The government laid claim to the whole group and established a settlement on Nuku Hiva. That settlement was abandoned in 1857, but France re-established control over the group in 1870. It later incorporated the Marquesas into French Polynesia.

LANGUAGE

French and Tahitian are the only official languages of all of French Polynesia, but the Marquesan languages, in their various forms, remain the primary means of communication among residents within this archipelago.

Marquesan is a collection of East-Central Polynesian dialects, of the Marquesic group, spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. They are usually classified into two groups, North Marquesan and South Marquesan, corresponding roughly along geographic lines.

The North Marquesan dialects are spoken on the islands of Ua Pu and Nuku Hiva, and South Marquesan dialects on the islands of Hiva ʻOa, Tahuata and Fatu Hiva. The dialects of Ua Huka are often incorrectly classified as North Marquesan; they are instead transitional. While the island is in the northern Marquesas group, the dialects show more morphological and phonological affinities with South Marquesan. The North Marquesan dialects are sometimes considered to be two separate languages: North Marquesan and Tai Pi Marquesan, the latter being spoken in the valleys of the eastern third of the island of Nuku Hiva, in the ancient province of Tai Pi.

Like other Polynesian languages, the phonology of Marquesan languages is characterised by a paucity of consonants and a comparative abundance of vowels.

At the 2007 census, 94.1% of the population whose age was 15 and older reported that they could speak French. 90.2% reported that they could also read and write it. Only 4.4% of the population whose age was 15 and older had no knowledge of French.

At the same census, 67.8% of the population whose age was 15 and older reported that the language they spoke the most at home was Marquesan. 30.1% reported that French was the language they spoke the most at home. 1.4% reported Tahitian, and 0.7% reported another language.

7.2% of the population whose age was 15 and older reported that they had no knowledge of any Polynesian language at the 2007 census.

HISTORICAL AND OTHER REFERENCES TO THE MARQUESAS

• French painter Paul Gauguin and Belgian singer Jacques Brel spent the last years of their lives in the Marquesas, and are buried there. Brel composed a song, "Les Marquises", about the Marquesas Islands, his last home.
• The Marquesas inspired American novelist Herman Melville, whose experiences in the Marquesas formed the basis for his novel Typee. (Despite some sources, Omoo is set in the Society Islands, not in the Marquesas.)
• Robert Louis Stevenson visited the Marquesas in 1888, and wrote about his experiences and impressions there, in a book called In the South Seas (published in 1896).
• Frederick O'Brien wrote his travel book, novel White Shadows in the South Seas (1919), based on experiences in the Marquesas. This book was loosely adapted and dramatized as a 1928 MGM film of the same name.
• In Aldous Huxley's novel Brave New World (1932), the Marquesas Islands are used as a place of exile for persons who think independently and have been identified as dangerous by the World State.
• 20th-century explorer Thor Heyerdahl wrote his book Fatu Hiva during a year-long stay on the island.
• Nathaniel Philbrick in his book In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2001), noted that the Marquesas were the closest land to where the whaleship Essex was sunk by a whale in the 19th century. But, the crew reportedly feared rumors of cannibalism on the islands and tried to reach South America; most died in the process.
• The Marquesas Islands are featured as a major setting in the book series The Virtual War by Gloria Skurzynski. The books call the islands The Isles of Hiva, described as the only uncontaminated lands left after a nuclear apocalypse. Most of the second novel takes place on Nuku Hiva, and part of the last novel takes place on Hiva ʻOa.