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belt, once received visiting delegations. Archeologists believe that Raiatea was the first of the Society Islands to be settled by southeast Asians who had migrated centuries before to either Samoa or Tonga. A local creation chant tells how Ta'aroa, the supreme Creator, created this island as the birthplace of land, the birthplace of gods, the birthplace of kings and the birthplace of man. From bits of the mother island, legend said, the other islands of the group were formed.
In the late afternoon the black volcanic paving was still hot under our feet. The raised platform at the back of the 43-meter long quadrangle stood almost twice my height. Scattered here and there were "back rests", upright stones for the high chiefs. At the base of the wall a small altar contained some worn stones and a small tiki. It once contained the image of Oro, blood thirsty God of War, and the scene of human sacrifice and proud firewalking.
The shadow from the hill lay across the ruins while we wandered there and wondered about the time when the sanctuaries of the arii, the highest royalty and ta'ua, the priests stood here. How these savage stone age people possessed both the skills and the intelligence to sail across the oceans at will in a time when Europeans did little more than coastal navigation is a marvel.
Early the next morning we hauled in the anchor to move up the coast to fjord-like Faaroa Bay which knifes into the island more than a mile and a half. At the head of the bay is the Apoomau River, navigable for two miles by dinghy. That afternoon, when the sun had lost its scorching heat we dinghied up the Riviere Faaroa past rich tropical farmland lush with fruit trees and plots of vegetables. Where the river took a sharp bend children scrambled up the slippery banks and then leapt from an overhanging tree branch into the water hole below, the pubescent girls making no show of covering up their swelling breasts.
We pedaled around Faaroa Harbor. Vendors selling mangoes and pumpkins waved from little roadside stalls. As the road crossed the river we had dinghied up the previous evening, Toomaru, the island's highest mountain, emerged into full view. It was already generating a fan of cloud from its peak into the clear blue morning sky. Temehani, rising to a less lofty height is the sheer sided peak sacred to the old Maohi. It is the mountain to which the souls of the dead were thought to return. Apoomau valley is rich with tradition and myth which says that the legendary Polynesian migrations in large double canoes, which sailed to Hawaii and to New Zealand, were provisioned here.
Unfortunately most modern residents have forgotten their ancient history. Disiree, a Polynesian woman treated us to a beer at the sports field. When I referred to the maraes she was uninterested. She said "Reverent John Williams brought Christianity to the islands and civilized us. Before that we killed people!" End of story!
Raiatea's main town is Uturoa. It has a lovely paved quayside for cruise ships and a suitably posh shopping building for visitors to spend money in. It also has another small boat harbor for temporary stops and water. The town is happily unimproved as the Chinese merchants did not come to the party when the government, a few years back, tried to get them to rebuild. Thus the crowded dimly lit and dusty shops still retain the South Seas character.
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