The history of the Tahitian mission, 1799-1830: with supplementary papers of the missionaries

In the wake of the navigators who finally opened up the Pacific came missionaries, traders and finally administrators.

In the early decades of the 19th century Polynesia was a rich field for the curious and the calculating, for writers and adventurers.

The pioneer European settlers in Eastern Polynesia were ministers and mechanics sent out on the crest of an Evangelical wave the merged with the currents and eddies of trade and whaling to break down the isolation of the islands and their inhabitants.

Among the pioneers was Welshman John Davies (1772-1855) who spent just over 50 years of his life on Tahiti and neighbouring islands.

He witnessed the rise of the Pomare dynasty, conversion to Christianity, reaction to attempts at theocratic government, and the gradual encroachment of alien commerce and European rule.