Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The island had a population of 178,133 inhabitants according to the August 2007 census. This makes it the most populated island of French Polynesia, with 68.6% of the total population. The capital is Papeete, on the northwest coast. Tahiti has also been known as O'tahiti.

Geography

Tahiti has lush rain forest.

November through April is the wet season, the wettest month January with 13.2 inches (335mm) in Papeete. August is driest with 1.9 inches (48mm). The average low is 70°F (21°C) and the high 88°F (31 °C) with little seasonal variation. The lowest temperature in Papeete was 61°F (16°C) and the highest 93°F (34°C).

History

Although the first European sighting of the islands was by a Spanish ship in 1606, Spain made no effort to trade with or colonize the island. Samuel Wallis, an English sea captain, sighted Tahiti on 18 June 1767, and is considered the first European visitor. The relaxed and contented nature of the people and the characterization of the island as a paradise impressed early Europeans, planting the seed for a romanticization by the West that endures to this day.

Wallis was followed in April 1768 by the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, completing the first French circumnavigation. Bougainville made Tahiti famous in Europe when he published Voyage autour du monde. He described the island as an earthly paradise where men and women live happily in innocence, away from the corruption of civilization. His account illustrated the concept of the noble savage, and influenced utopian thoughts of philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau before the French Revolution.

In April 1769 Captain James Cook visited the island on secret orders from the Lords of the Admiralty to view the Transit of Venus on 2 June. He set up camp at Matavai Bay and stayed on until 9 August. The population was estimated to be 50,000 including all the nearby islands in the chain. After Cook, European ships landed with greater frequency. The best-known was HMS Bounty, whose crew mutinied after leaving Tahiti in 1789. The European influence disrupted traditional society, bringing prostitution, venereal disease, and alcohol. Introduced diseases including typhus, influenza and smallpox killed so many Tahitians that by 1797, the population was only 16,000. Later it was to drop as low as 6,000.