Marquesas and Tuamotus Invited to “Live Forever in Paradise”
AFTER a flight of some 900 miles (1,450 km) northeastward from Tahiti, my wife and I arrived at Nuku Hiva, the largest of the Marquesas Islands. On the map, these islands appear to be mere specks in the vast South Pacific. But we were struck by their rugged beauty.
Most of the islands of the Marquesas group are dominated by high peaks that reach into the clouds and have steep cliffs hanging like gathered skirts. The deep, fertile valleys, covered with coconut plantations and other luxurious vegetation, open out to the sea in what look like cozy little bays. However, the strong waves and currents around the islands, and the lack of coral reefs, make it difficult to land a boat. The scattered atolls of the Tuamotus are hardly visible on the horizon, which helped us to understand why the early navigators called them the Low Islands or the Dangerous Archipelago.
We came to extend to these islanders an invitation similar to the title of the colorful Bible study aid You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth. At Nuku Hiva, we boarded the Araroa, a cargo ship, for a 21-day, 2,500-mile (4,000-km) trip through the Marquesas and the Tuamotu islands. As the ship stopped at various points to deliver and pick up cargo, we would deliver our message.
The Islanders’ Simple Way of Life
You may wonder, though, what were the people we met like. Most Marquesans live in small villages around the bays or along the river. The villages range in size from two or three families to perhaps several hundred inhabitants. Most families are large, with 8 to 10 children, some with as many as 18 or 20. Their lives are simple but rugged. They eat what the ocean provides, supplemented occasionally by the pigs and chickens raised around the house. They also go inland to hunt wild mountain goats or to round up wild horses, which they tame and use as draft animals. The abundant coconut trees provide them with copra (dried coconut meat from which oil is extracted for making soap and other products). Copra is the principal cash crop of the islands, but there is some income from wood carvings, tapa (decorated cloth made from tree bark), and piere (dried bananas).
The Marquesans once practiced cannibalism and offered human sacrifices to their tiki gods. Today, most of the people are Catholics. They decorate their homes with images and statues of Mary and of Jesus. Interestingly, the entryway of the Catholic bishop’s home on Nuku Hiva is lined with tiki statues. In the Tuamotus, religious life is dominated by the Mormons, the Catholics, and the Reformed Church of Latter-day Saints, locally called Sanitos.
The islanders speak Marquesian, but they also understand French and Tahitian. Their way of life is typical of that of all Polynesians—living one day at a time to the slow rhythm of the islands. On account of the irregular and infrequent visits of ships, the people have learned the art of waiting patiently. Electricity was introduced in January 1979, and now with the arrival of television, the islanders are more attuned to the realities of the world at large.
On Nuku Hiva
Nuku Hiva, with its 1,800 inhabitants, is the administrative center of the Marquesas Islands. The government house, the main port, and the bishop’s home are in the Bay of Taiohae, our starting point.
There were no doorbells. We would just call out hou-hou. If someone answered, we would say, Kaoha! (“Hi!”) with a friendly smile and then explain the reason for our visit. Many of the islanders eagerly accepted the book and said: “Thank you so much for coming. We never had anything like this to help us understand God’s Word.” They have available to them the Catholic Bible in Tahitian and three of the Gospels in Marquesian.
Some who accepted our offer sincerely requested that we visit others. For example, a young man urged my wife to follow him, saying, “Behind there! Behind there!” If he had not pointed it out, my wife would have missed the home of a sculptor who, as it turned out, greatly appreciated the instructive book.
In Hakaui, there were only two families, living on opposite sides of the narrow river mouth. When we arrived, the first family appeared to be quite busy. So, with the help of kindly sailors, we crossed by launch to the other family. As we drew up, we saw two women sitting in the midst of some pigs that were rambling around the house—a humble sight indeed. Yet, when we showed them the book, they gladly offered what little they had in order to get one. We could not help but think of the poor widow mentioned in Luke 21:2-4 who gave all she had at the temple.
Our next stop was Taipivai, on the southeast coast of Nuku Hiva, made famous by Herman Melville’s book Typee. It was a deep and beautiful valley, thick with coconut plantations. At six in the morning, we slid up the river in our launch, the mirrorlike water reflecting the coconut palms and the first glow of day. We could pick out quite a few houses among the trees.
“How long will we be staying here?” I was told that the truck that transported the bags of copra had broken down. So, if we hurried, we would have time to cover on horseback the whole territory right up to the farthest tip of the valley, where a magnificent waterfall plunged into the ferns. About a dozen families responded favorably to our “blitz.”
To the Other Islands
About 25 miles (40 km) east of Nuku Hiva is Ua Huka. This island is smaller, less fertile, and quite mountainous. We again started out for shore at six. From the stony beach we scrambled up a cliff road, and after an hour of hiking, we reached Hane, the main village. As usual, the local church dominated the landscape. Its influence had grown recently on account of a charismatic movement that appealed to the people. But a young man living there expressed concern with the critical turn of world events and eagerly accepted our “invitation,” the message about living in an earthly paradise.
Our next stop was the island of Ua Pu. We were immediately impressed by the 4,000-foot (1,200 m) peaks of black basalt, jutting into the clouds like spires. They were actually the lava cores of eroded volcanoes. There were five villages to visit on this island. Many broad smiles and beaming eyes greeted our “invitation.” Frequently we heard the remark, “Mea kanahau!” (“It’s beautiful!”) The book so impressed many of the villagers that they gratefully insisted on stuffing our knapsacks with shells and fruits—lemons, mangoes, oranges, and grapefruits. In Haakuti, a village perched high on the edge of a cliff, we found a woman and her daughter who were so enthusiastic about what they heard that they climbed all the way down to the boat-landing to tell everyone there to listen to our message and to take the beautiful book.
When we got to the main village, Hakahau, we were concerned about how to contact its over one thousand inhabitants on such a brief stop. To our great relief, one gentleman, who was delighted with the message, offered the use of his car: “I can take you wherever you want to go.” A few years earlier, the local priest collected and burned all the literature that Jehovah’s Witnesses had left. This had frightened the people. But our message proved to be so attractive that a dozen families banished their fear of man and accepted the book that we brought.
Hiva Oa, the next island on our trip, is the most fertile and lush among the Marquesas. It was made famous by the colorful, impressionistic paintings of Paul Gauguin. He spent his last years in Atuona, where we docked. The usual question to the visitor was: “Have you been to see the tiki?” The 8-foot (2.4 m) stone tiki at the far end of the bay is the largest in French Polynesia. We kindly replied: “It has eyes but cannot see, and a mouth but cannot speak. Since we are here for only a short time, we want to talk to living people and to show them something interesting.” One lady was so enthused about the offer that she encouraged a friend to take the book. She even lent her friend the money for it. Another lady declared: “I’m beginning to understand that reading the Bible is more important than going to church to pray every evening.”
By dusk we were on Hanaiapa jetty talking to some of the people by lamplight. The conversation turned to the subject of hell. “Suppose you had a very bad child. Would you make a fire and throw him into it?” we asked. “No!” they replied. “Then, would God make his children suffer in a fire eternally?” Four women and a man were particularly interested in God’s loving “invitation” to live on an earth where “the wicked one will be no more” because of having been destroyed forever, not tormented eternally.—Psalm 37:10.
From Hiva Oa, it was just a short hop to the little island of Tahuata. A sailor half jokingly told us that not much more than a hundred years ago some white people were eaten by the natives here. We, though, provided them only with interesting conversations. The man responsible for the charismatic movement in the village was reluctant to take the book but insisted that we accept a glass of water from him. “With the water I give you,” he said, misapplying Jesus’ words at John 4:14, “you’ll never get thirsty at all, but it will become a fountain of water bubbling up in you.” Thanking him, we replied: “This water is only water, and we accept it gratefully. But do you refuse life-giving water and spiritual food that we invite you to partake of?” Moved by these words, he took several books. Later, at the wharf, some people began to mock: “Is there even one person who accepted your offer?” Yet the head of public workers there asked to see the book and, right in front of everyone, decided to take it. How surprised they all were to learn that others, too, had accepted our offer!
Our last stop in the Marquesas was the southernmost island, Fatu Hiva. It was among the first to be discovered, in 1595, by the Spaniard Álvaro de Mendaña de Neyra, who named the islands in honor of the wife of the viceroy of Peru—La Marquesa de Mendoza. Fatu Hiva is a very beautiful island. In the main village, Omoa, we met a family that showed considerable interest. After we moved on to the valley, the mother went out to gather her friends together, so that when we returned they were all waiting for us with big smiles. They wanted the books in order to learn something about God’s Word in their evening Bible-study meetings. By the time we got back to the wharf, one of our knapsacks was empty, and the other was full of oranges and lemons.
To the Tuamotus
After a day and two nights of sailing toward the southwest, we arrived at the atoll of Pukapuka in the Tuamotus. Special arrangements were made for the Araroa to stop at two atolls each day. This afforded us the opportunity to reach some of the otherwise inaccessible atolls.
Among the one thousand Pomotus on these islands, 30 families joyfully accepted our “invitation.” In a modest home amid coconut palms, one woman hurriedly sold coconut water to obtain several copies before we had to leave. It would be hard for us to forget this family that also insisted on offering us the dried bonito hanging under the tin roof of their home.
Fond Memories
There were so many other happy faces that will remain in our memories, and we trust in Jehovah to care for them. How happy we are to have taken this trip to the Marquesas and the Tuamotus, there to witness firsthand the powerful effect of the “invitation”: “You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth”!—Contributed.
[Maps on page 25]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
Marquesas Islands
Nuku Hiva
Taiohae
Ua Huka
Ua Pu
Hiva Oa
Atuona
Tahuata
Fatu Hiva
Omoa