A HISTORY OF TAHITI 



115 



remaiuing iu Matavai Bay from April until July, 1761). Cook's mis- 

 sion was to observe the transit of Venus, for which purpose as well as for 

 geographical discovery, his expedition had been sent out at the instiga- 

 tion of the Koyal Society of London. x\ccompanying him were such 

 men of science as Banks and Solander whose observations upon the 

 island and its natives at a time when they were as yet unspoiled, have 

 given us the classic account of a primitive Polynesian community, sup- 

 plemented as it was in 1829 by the scholarly volumes of " Polynesian 

 Eesearches" written by the great missionary William Ellis. 



At the time of Cook's visit, Tahiti was a characteristic Polynesian 

 feudalism, the Ariirahi, or principal chiefs, being dependent for sus- 

 tenance and political support upon the landed proprietors, the hue 

 raatira. But in Tahiti as elsewhere in Polynesia, the supreme chiefs of 

 districts were believed to have descended from God-like heroes of the 

 myths, and their persons were held as sacred, thus greatly strengthening 

 their position in time of political crises. 



In acknowledgment of their feudal position, the large landed pro- 

 prietors or Arii called themselves " the stays of the mast " by " the mas't,'^ 

 signifying the Ariirahi, and as elsewhere wherever feudalism has been 

 the social order, the incessant rivalry between nobles had forced the 

 common people to flock to the standards of the few who could best afford 

 protection, and in consequence the Arii, or "baron," of a Tahitian 

 valley might become more powerful iu his own domain than was the 

 Ariirahi over the district as a whole. Thus an unstable form of "lim- 

 ited monarchv " was maintained in each district and to secure the suc- 



Pandanus Thee ox the Lagoon Beach of Fakaeaxa Atoll. Pau motes. 



