ABSTRACT
Europeans were quick to note the fastidious care lavished on valuable craft, the neatness with which their planks were joined together, the careful polishing of their slender hulls, and the Tahitians' insistence on sheltering their vessels from unnecessary exposure to the elements. When European navigators, stumbled upon Tahiti, they unveiled a maritime culture which seemed at once deplorably primitive and admirably productive. Nevertheless the span of island and ocean that was drawn upon for fish, flesh and feather was vast enough. For Tahitians reached westward to the limits of the Societies and east into the Tuamotus, bringing thus a thousand miles of the mid-Pacific into the orbit of their economy. If the search for bird life drew Tahitians to the sea, a zest for fishing provided a more compelling reason. The Tahitians, despite the simplicity of their equipment, were well equipped to sift food from the waters.
