Mark's Pages

James Cook landed at this harbor on July 16, 1769, during his first voyage to the South Pacific; and visited it again on each of his subsequent voyages.

Bligh, in a hurry to get his breadfruit home, chose not to stay. "On 6 April 1789 when the Bounty arrived off Fare Harbour at Huahine, [... a] double canoe came out, paddled by ten men; and a handsome youth, one of Ma'i's Huahine friends who saluted Bligh by name, reported that Te Weherua and Koa (Ma'i's two Maori attendants) had fallen ill and died, and Ma'i had died of natural causes about thirty months after the Resolution's departure from the island. Ma'i's monkey, which the Huahine people always referred to as a 'hairy man', had also died after falling out of a coconut tree. [...] According to this young man, whenever he and Ma'i rode on horseback, Ma'i wore his riding boots; and Bligh noticed that a number of the Huahine people had a man on horseback tattooed on their legs. The envoy also brought a message from the high chief of the island, urging Bligh to bring the Bounty into Fare Harbour, but Bligh declined his invitation, saying that he did not have the time for an extended visit. [...] Soon after the Bounty sailed away from Huahine a large waterspout rose up close to the ship, which swayed as it approached them, rustling and swerving towards the Bounty, missing the stern by only about 10 yards and almost spinning the ship right around." — Anne Salmond, Bligh. The mutiny was 22 days later near Tofua.