The Marquesas - some more information
I have long held a fascination for Polynesia parts of which I have been fortunate to visit briefly. Most of my visits were in the western parts of the area, Fiji, Tonga, Raratonga, Bora Bora, Vanuatu. I had heard of the Marquesas and for some reason they instilled a mystical 'apparition' in my mind. This may be due to their previous remoteness as they were only attainable via a cargo vessels which sailed regularly with supplies from Tahiti and offered limited passenger space.
More recently, an air service has served the islands from Tahiti. But, one of the real stimuli for this trip to the Marquesas was attending a lecture at the Explorers' Club in New York by a lady called Christina Thompson who has written a book called 'Sea People - The Puzzle of Polynesia' (Published by Harper). Ms. Thompson lives in United States and is a dual Australian/US citizen and is married to a Maori. She is, (or was), the editor of the Harvard Review and has written many other books and had articles published in prominent magazines.
Much of what follows is extracted from her book which I found very interesting and entertaining as well as a real 'eye-opener' on the way in which the islands were settled and where the original inhabitants came from.
The book traces not only the discovery of the islands by Europeans but also the various investigations made by scientists and anthropologists as to the progeny of the Polynesians. Many of the theories promulgated by these scientific investigators were inaccurate and in some cases wildly so. But, when you consider the fact that islands often thousands of miles apart were somehow settled and that similarities in language and culture exist between places as far apart as Hawaii and New Zealand as well as tiny atolls and groups of islets the mystery becomes easier to understand. How did people travel? how did animals and plants migrate over these huge distances?
The first 'discovery' by Europeans of the Marquesas was, it seems in the very late 16th century (1595 or 1596), by a Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana, who seemed to engage in farcical accident-prone and disastrous voyages the stories of which are funny if they were not carried out under arduous circumstances.The records of the first voyage believed to have found the Marquesas is recorded by the pilot on Captain Mendana's ship, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. Mendana was seeking the Solomon Islands which are in the western Pacicif and arrived at an island and thought he had reached his destination which was still about 4,000 miles away!! The island he had found was Fatu Hiva which is the southernmost of the Marquesas. The first encounter between the Spanish and the Marquesans had ist ups and downs due to the lack of understanding between one and another. Mendana stayed in the Marquesas for about two weeks and the islands remained unvisited by Europeans for about 200 years partly because the Spanish hid their existence from the rest of the world. There was still the belief in Europe that a huge undiscovered continent existed in the South Pacific and that perhaps the Marquesas were just some off-lying islands of this continent.
The records of Quiros bring interesting facts to light of the state of the islands in 1595-6. The islands had pigs, chickens and various kinds of fruits including coconuts and breadfruit. They were occupied by men and women who were described as 'very beautiful' and seemed to have an organized and settled lifestyle and culture. They lived in large communal buildings and observed religious worship of large carved wooden figures. The islanders were, not surprisingly, expert canoe builders.
Unfortunately, the European 'invasions of the islands had its consequences over the years. It is estimated that the islands population before the Europeans arrived was as much as 50,000 but by 1926, there were only 2,225 islanders remaining. This was due, as much as anything to the influx of European diseases and pandemics such as measles, whooping cough, dysentery, etc. This pattern was repeated in other Polynesian islands and even Hawaii. Robert Louis Stevenson, who visited the Marquesas at the end of the 19th century remarked that many of the traditional songs and dances had been lost as there was no one left to remember them.
The Marquesas have a rich store of legends some of which were considered outrageous by early documenters and have been hidden since!
The book I refer to above has a fascinating history of the way in which it is believed the islands of Polynesia were settled. In the final chapters, Ms. Thompson tells of the voyages in the 1960's of the traditional Polynesian canoes 'Nelehia' and 'Hokulea' which were intended to show that a canoe could be sailed, without modern navigation aids from Hawaii to Tahiti. The voyage of the 'Nelehia' did not succeed in getting to Tahiti, due to technical difficulties but the 'Hokulea', guided by a Polynesian called Pius Paulig who went under the nickname of Mau made the 2,500 mile trip successfully without modern navigation and just by the skill of Mau. A second voyage about 10 years later also made the trip with a young Polynesian navigator named Nainoa. These 'experiments' give truth to the idea that the early settlers traveled long distances by canoe without the aid of GPS!!!
The book concludes with more modern scientific and DNA evidence of the source of the Polynesians. But this is not the part of the story I am interested in. It is the culture and traditions and the legends of the islands that are so interesting.
More recently, an air service has served the islands from Tahiti. But, one of the real stimuli for this trip to the Marquesas was attending a lecture at the Explorers' Club in New York by a lady called Christina Thompson who has written a book called 'Sea People - The Puzzle of Polynesia' (Published by Harper). Ms. Thompson lives in United States and is a dual Australian/US citizen and is married to a Maori. She is, (or was), the editor of the Harvard Review and has written many other books and had articles published in prominent magazines.
Much of what follows is extracted from her book which I found very interesting and entertaining as well as a real 'eye-opener' on the way in which the islands were settled and where the original inhabitants came from.
The book traces not only the discovery of the islands by Europeans but also the various investigations made by scientists and anthropologists as to the progeny of the Polynesians. Many of the theories promulgated by these scientific investigators were inaccurate and in some cases wildly so. But, when you consider the fact that islands often thousands of miles apart were somehow settled and that similarities in language and culture exist between places as far apart as Hawaii and New Zealand as well as tiny atolls and groups of islets the mystery becomes easier to understand. How did people travel? how did animals and plants migrate over these huge distances?
The first 'discovery' by Europeans of the Marquesas was, it seems in the very late 16th century (1595 or 1596), by a Spanish explorer Alvaro de Mendana, who seemed to engage in farcical accident-prone and disastrous voyages the stories of which are funny if they were not carried out under arduous circumstances.The records of the first voyage believed to have found the Marquesas is recorded by the pilot on Captain Mendana's ship, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. Mendana was seeking the Solomon Islands which are in the western Pacicif and arrived at an island and thought he had reached his destination which was still about 4,000 miles away!! The island he had found was Fatu Hiva which is the southernmost of the Marquesas. The first encounter between the Spanish and the Marquesans had ist ups and downs due to the lack of understanding between one and another. Mendana stayed in the Marquesas for about two weeks and the islands remained unvisited by Europeans for about 200 years partly because the Spanish hid their existence from the rest of the world. There was still the belief in Europe that a huge undiscovered continent existed in the South Pacific and that perhaps the Marquesas were just some off-lying islands of this continent.
The records of Quiros bring interesting facts to light of the state of the islands in 1595-6. The islands had pigs, chickens and various kinds of fruits including coconuts and breadfruit. They were occupied by men and women who were described as 'very beautiful' and seemed to have an organized and settled lifestyle and culture. They lived in large communal buildings and observed religious worship of large carved wooden figures. The islanders were, not surprisingly, expert canoe builders.
Unfortunately, the European 'invasions of the islands had its consequences over the years. It is estimated that the islands population before the Europeans arrived was as much as 50,000 but by 1926, there were only 2,225 islanders remaining. This was due, as much as anything to the influx of European diseases and pandemics such as measles, whooping cough, dysentery, etc. This pattern was repeated in other Polynesian islands and even Hawaii. Robert Louis Stevenson, who visited the Marquesas at the end of the 19th century remarked that many of the traditional songs and dances had been lost as there was no one left to remember them.
The Marquesas have a rich store of legends some of which were considered outrageous by early documenters and have been hidden since!
The book I refer to above has a fascinating history of the way in which it is believed the islands of Polynesia were settled. In the final chapters, Ms. Thompson tells of the voyages in the 1960's of the traditional Polynesian canoes 'Nelehia' and 'Hokulea' which were intended to show that a canoe could be sailed, without modern navigation aids from Hawaii to Tahiti. The voyage of the 'Nelehia' did not succeed in getting to Tahiti, due to technical difficulties but the 'Hokulea', guided by a Polynesian called Pius Paulig who went under the nickname of Mau made the 2,500 mile trip successfully without modern navigation and just by the skill of Mau. A second voyage about 10 years later also made the trip with a young Polynesian navigator named Nainoa. These 'experiments' give truth to the idea that the early settlers traveled long distances by canoe without the aid of GPS!!!
The book concludes with more modern scientific and DNA evidence of the source of the Polynesians. But this is not the part of the story I am interested in. It is the culture and traditions and the legends of the islands that are so interesting.
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