ABSTRACT
Central to all encounters is a gaze-an initial look at a visible object. But in many colonial encounters, this gaze directed at an Other is often misinformed, leading the viewer to incorrect and slanted interpretations. For the European and American explorer, accounts of non-Western foreigners are often couched in the language and perception of the imagined “hegemony of the Eurocentric gaze.”1 Such a biased report leads to American Captain David Porter’s description of a group sailing from “Madison’s Island” (Porter’s designation for the Marquesan island of Nukuheva) to meet his incoming ship in 1815.2 Porter writes:
Shortly after anchoring, we discovered a boat coming from shore, with three white men in her, one of whom was completely naked, with the exception of a cloth about his loins; and his body was all over tattooed, I could not doubt his having been a long time on this, or some other island. I supposed them to be seamen, who had deserted from some vessels here, and under this impression would neither permit them to come alongside of the ship, nor allow any person to have any conversation with them; my mind was prejudiced against them…. I apprehended much trouble from them…and directed them to leave the ship.3
