The island was first inhabited by Polynesian settlers around the 4th
century. Its previous Polynesian name was
Vava'u. As there is no B in
the Tahitian language, it is actually called Pora Pora, but early visitors
misheard it. The first European sighting was made by Jakob Roggeveen in 1722. James
Cook sighted the island in 1770 and landed that same year. The London
Missionary Society arrived in 1820 and founded a Protestant church in 1890.
Bora Bora was an independent kingdom until 1888 when its last queen Teriimaevarua
III was forced to abdicate by the French who annexed the island as a colony.
