History of Nuku Hiva

Nuku Hiva being the roof. Everything he had left over he threw to one side and created a dump which is called Ua Huka. From these supposed origins the population rose to an untenable size; first European estimates vary from 50,000 to 100,000.

Food became of prime importance. Breadfruit was the staple, but taro, plantain and manioc also played a big part. As for meat, fish was the main source, but even so was limited because of the quantity needed to feed so many mouths. Pigs, chickens and dogs were also cultivated, and hunted when they took to the wilds.

It is still debated why many Polynesian tribes or nations practiced cannibalism. Indeed a large number of Pacific Islands residents did so in pre-historic times. One theory is that cannibalism was more for food than ritual, although ritual played a big part. An offering to the gods was called Ika, which means fish, and a sacrifice was caught and, just like a fish, was hung by a fishhook in the sacred place. Those to be eaten were tied and hung up in trees until needed, then had their brains bashed out on execution blocks with a club. Women and children seem to have been cannibalized just for food, whereas warriors killed in battle were offerings to the gods and were eaten by their conquerors to absorb their power; their skulls were kept by their slayers for the same reason.

Colonial Period

On July 21, 1595 Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira stopped at Fatu Hiva and called the islands Los Marquesas after the wife of the Viceroy of Peru. James Cook likewise visited the south in 1774, and the Solid expedition in 1791. There is little evidence that these visits led to the introduction of diseases, perhaps because slow passages inhibited the diseases aboard the ships. It seems that it was the commercial shipping, taking on sandalwood, and the whaling ships that brought the