Omai, a Native of the Island of Utietea [i.e. Ulietea] (detail) Les Sauvages de la mer Pacifique 1805 Cook & Omai: The Cult of the South Seas Les Sauvages de la mer Pacifique 1805
Introduction The truest picture of an arcadia A Noble Savage in London The deaths of Cook and Omai Epilogue


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The Natives of Otaheite Attacking Captn. Wallis the First Discoverer of That Island c.1767

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Unknown artist
The Natives of Otaheite Attacking Captn. Wallis the First Discoverer of That Island c.1767
watercolour; 33 x 41 cm
Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK147
Pictorial Collection T2786

 

 

On 24 June 1767 as the Dolphin warped into Matavai Bay, the Tahitians came out in their canoes and pelted the vessel with stones. Wallis replied with cannons. The next day an armed party went ashore to plant the British pendant and take formal possession of the island, naming it King George the Third’s Island. Two days later two fleets of canoes converged on the Dolphin, while armed warriors made for the watering party on shore. Wallis ordered the crew to fire on the approaching canoes, which immediately withdrew, and then the guns were turned on shore. The warriors there fled to a hill overlooking the bay, which was already crowded with women and children. The Dolphin fired four devastating shots at the hill. Omai would later claim to have been one of the many casualties. That afternoon, after the ship’s carpenters had destroyed all the canoes they could find, the Tahitians sued for peace, bringing gifts of food and cloth and giving access to their young women. The Dolphin’s sick went ashore to recuperate, and the trading began.

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