NOTE: This is part six of a thirteen part article. Enjoy!!!
Part VI – Polynesian History (1595 – Present)
Contemporary Church - French Polynesia
In 1722, a Dutchman, Jacob Roggeveen was the next to visit. Roggeveen visited Rapa Nui, named Easter Island because his visit occurred during Easter. Following the Dutch, the British invasion (no not the Beatles!) started in 1765 with Admiral John Byron’s visit to the Tuamotus. In 1767, Samual Wallis was the first non-indigenous person to visit Tahiti.
Another Comtemporary Church - French Polynesia
The next year, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville of France visited Tahiti. His attitude toward the Polynesians was more open than his predecessors. There were no clashes that resulted in loss of life. Although Bougainville did not know he was not the first European visitor to Tahiti, he was influential because the report he made to Paris related the discovery of a “noble savage” whose life style included a free sexuality. The image of a scantly clad gorgeous woman in a tropical setting offering unencumbered sex was too good to be true. Parisians, intoxicated by the stories were a sharp contrast to the condescending British who accepted the sexual favors, even trading the iron nails that held their ships together for sexual favors; and then related to the folks back home how amoral the savages were.
More to follow, Part VII is on its way. Suzan
