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Tahiti |
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Tahiti (tähē`tē), island (2002 pop. 169.674), South Pacific, in the Windward group of the Society Islands Society Islands, island group (2002 pop. 214,445), South Pacific, a part of French Polynesia . The group comprises the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands (total land area c. ..... Click the link for more information. , French Polynesia French Polynesia, officially Territory of French Polynesia, internally self-governing overseas country (2002 pop. 245,516) of France, consisting of 118 islands in the South Pacific. The capital is Papeete , on Tahiti . ..... Click the link for more information. . The capital is Papeete Papeete (päpā-ā`tā), town (2002 pop. 26,181), capital of Tahiti and of French Polynesia , South Pacific. ..... Click the link for more information. . Tahiti is the largest (402 sq mi/1,041 sq km) and most important of the French Pacific islands. The peninsula of Taiarapu, which forms E Tahiti, is joined to the western part of the island by the Isthmus of Taravao. Tahiti is mountainous, with four prominent peaks, the highest of which is Mt. Orohena (7,618 ft/2,322 m). The chief products are tropical fruits, copra, vanilla, and sugarcane; there are pearl fisheries off the coast. Tourism is easily the most important industry on the island. The inhabitants of Tahiti are mostly Polynesian, but there is a large Chinese minority. The island was settled by Polynesians in the 14th cent.; the first European to visit Tahiti was the English navigator Samuel Wallis, and later visits were made by Capt. James Cook Cook, James, 1728–79, English explorer and navigator. The son of a Yorkshire agricultural laborer, he had little formal education. After an apprenticeship to a firm of shipowners at Whitby, he joined (1755) the royal navy and surveyed the St. TahitiIsland, Society Islands, French Polynesia, central South Pacific Ocean. The largest of the Society Islands, it occupies an area of 402 sq mi (1,042 sq km) in their eastern group. Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, is on Tahiti. The island's interior is mountainous, rising to 7,339 ft (2,237 m) at Mount Orohena; its towns are located on the coastal plain. Long inhabited by Polynesians, it was visited by British Capt. Samuel Wallis in 1767 and in 1768 by Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who claimed it for France. The first permanent European settlers were English missionaries who arrived in 1797. It became a French colony in 1880 and is now part of the self-governing overseas territory of French Polynesia. Continued French nuclear testing in the area has angered the inhabitants and brought calls for independence. Tourism is economically important. |
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| Two days later, as the steamer Mariposa plied her customary route between Tahiti and San Francisco, the passengers ceased playing deck quoits, abandoned their card games in the smoker, their novels and deck chairs, and crowded the rail to stare at the small boat that skimmed to them across the sea before a light following breeze. We made sail and tried to clew off, when the rotten work of the Tahiti shipwrights became manifest. It is true I knew him more intimately than most: I met him first before ever he became a painter, and I saw him not infrequently during the difficult years he spent in Paris; but I do not suppose I should ever have set down my recollections if the hazards of the war had not taken me to Tahiti. |
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