THE SOCIETY ISLANDS 
511 
1769. From this and other observations the position 
of the island has been ascertained with as great or 
greater accuracy than that of any other point in the 
Pacific. The Windward group came formally into the 
possession of France in 1880 ; the Leeward Islands 
were not ceded till 1888. The islands form one of the 
earliest posts of the London Missionary Society, who 
began work here in 1797. 
The French administration combines all the groups of 
islands above mentioned. The Governor resides in 
Tahiti, and has under him five chief officials, of whom 
the Ministers of the Interior and of Justice, together with 
two others nominated by the Governor, form the Privy 
Council. There is also a General Council of eighteen 
members elected by universal suffrage. The religion 
is chiefly Protestant, but there are a good number of 
Eoman Catholics, and a small colony of monogamous 
Mormons, who have built themselves a temple in the 
mountains of Tahiti. 
Tahiti, 
the Otaheite of Cook, is the principal member of the 
group. It is 35 miles long, has an area of over 600 
square miles, and is populated by about 11,000 persons. 
It presents the appearance of two nearly circular islands 
united by a very low and narrow neck of land, each of 
which is of volcanic origin and very mountainous, rising 
in a succession of bold circular terraces towards the 
central peaks, and having a broad plain all round the 
seaboard, which is practically the only inhabited part. 
Its delightful and healthy climate brings to maturity all 
the products of the tropics, which are nowhere found in 
greater fulness and perfection than here. The wayfarer 
