ABSTRACT

The most consistent feature shown by the women was that they committed themselves to the European men in preference to the Polynesian males: apart from the warnings they gave them, two Polynesian men had been killed by the women's own hands, and they had colluded in the death of the others. Clearly the women were expressing their attachment to the dead by keeping the skulls with due honour and respect according to their own cultural and religious beliefs. Their action may have been one of simple piety, as there could have been a more pragmatic reason. On 3 October 1794 the men held a dinner to celebrate the first anniversary of the killing of the Polynesian men, and to acknowledge their success in resolving to bury their differences and to live in harmony. Their celebration was a little premature, for on 11 November they discovered that the women were conspiring to murder them while they slept.