When we compare the French journals and examine the dates of daily entries we find that the first “offering of girls” reported to Bougainville by his men occurred on April 7, the first full day the French spent on land. (On the previous day, Bougainville and a group of officers had made a brief first landing; see below). The Prince of Nassau, who had been with Chevalier d’Oraison, tells us that they were “keen to call on their chief”:
When I arrived at his home, they served us fruit, then the women offered me a young girl. The Indians surrounded me and each was eager to share with his eyes in the pleasure I was about to enjoy. The young girl was very pretty but European preconceptions require more mystery. An Indian used very singular means to further excite my desires. Happy nation that does not yet know the odious names of shame and scandal (Nassau 2002, 283).
We can note that a presentation, understood by the French as an “offering” (of a sexual gift), was made as soon as the French came on land. The adults were so keen for Nassau, as the apparent leader of the group, to be able to act his part that they tried to get him “excited” in a “very singular” way (of which we are told nothing more). Was this merely a matter of sexual “hospitality” staged by the dominant males of the place for their visitors – with women fully participating (they were bringing in the girl)? The French assumed that it was, but they were blind to the exercise of masculine power, since for them these scenes only showed how in Tahitian society “women” were generally “free” to “follow their natural drives” (see quotations in Tcherkézoff 2004b, 169–72, 202–7, 223–39). But, even given the gendered complexities of the “offer,” a gift of sexual hospitality would surely not have involved rushing upon the new arrivals in this manner and trying to force them into accepting their offers. (See, too, the discussion below about the “signs” that the Tahitian adults made to the French to ensure that they understood what was expected of them).
All this was in vain. Nassau was struck by performance anxiety when he realised that he had to perform in a “public festival.” He had at first agreed to play his part and would have done so “had not,” as Fesche puts it, “the presence of the surrounding 50 Indians, through the effect of our prejudices, put the brake on his fierce desires” (2002, 257).
Nassau reported that in the chief’s house which he visited, the “young girl” was “offered,” and that this offer was made by “the women.” He does not say that the women offered their own favours. Nassau also tells us that there was a crowd who “surrounded” him and the girl. This led the French to believe, as they noted in their journals and as Bougainville noted in his official voyage account, that “Tahitian custom” required, or at least allowed, the performance of the sexual act to occur “publicly” and even made of it a “public festival.” The French would continue to interpret any event involving their own presence in terms of the imagined everyday practices of Tahitian life. They did not for a moment suppose that all of this might be quite exceptional or, at least, occasioned specifically by families ceremonially giving their young daughters in marriage to powerful strangers imagined as akin to high chiefs.
Together in the chief’s house with Nassau and Chevalier d’Oraison was the young adventurer Fesche, who had volunteered to join Bougainville’s voyage of circumnavigation. Even if it is likely that his narrative was polished in editing by de Saint-Germain, a professional writer who was also a member of the expedition, the events Fesche describes are too specific and out of tune with the European male imagination of the time to have been merely the product of a fantasy invented by de Saint-Germain (Taillemite 1968, 7; Tcherkézoff 2004b, 134–5).
Fesche begins with a summary of the first day:
The very day after we anchored, Mr de Bougainville went ashore accompanied by several officers; they were received by the chief who accompanied them everywhere with a thousand demonstrations of friendship.
Fesche describes the meal, makes no mention of any presentation of females, and describes the “theft” of a pistol. He then goes on to relate the events of the next day:
The next day we went ashore, the chief brought back the pistol lost on the previous day and received gifts in exchange.
I shall outline facts that will appear to many to be falsehoods, but those who know me can be sure that what I shall report as having seen is absolutely correct …
There were three of us, we go off with the intent of taking a walk escorted by a group of islanders, we arrive at a hut where we are welcomed by the master of the house, he firstly shows us his possessions, making us understand that he was waiting for his wives who were due to arrive shortly. We go together, he shows us the tree the bark of which is used to make the loincloths they wear as their clothing and tells us the names of all that country’s fruits. After some time spent strolling, we returned to his home where we found his wife and young girl aged 12 or 13. We are made to sit, they bring us coconuts and bananas, we are invited to eat, we conform to their wishes. We then see each one of them pick up a green branch[15] and sit in a circle around us, one of those present took a flute from which he drew pleasant soft sounds and they brought a mat that they laid out on the open space and on which the young girl sat down.
All the Indians’ gestures made us clearly understand what this was about, however this practice being so contrary to those established for us and wanting to be sure of it, one of us [Nassau[16] ] goes up to the offered victim, makes her the gift of an artificial pearl that he attaches to her ear, and ventures a kiss, which was well returned. A bold hand led by love slips down to two new-born apples [deux pommes naissantes] rivals of each other and worthy like those of Helen to serve as models for cups that would be incomparable for their beauty and the attraction of their shape. The hand soon slipped and by a fortunate effect of chance, fell on charms still hidden by one of their cloths, it was promptly removed by the girl herself whom we saw then dressed as Eve was before her sin. She did more, she stretched out on the mat, struck the chest of the aggressor, making him understand that she was giving herself to him and drew aside those two obstacles that defend the entrance to that temple where so many men make a daily sacrifice.
The summons was very appealing and the athlete caressing her was too skilled in the art of fencing not to take her right away had not the presence of the surrounding 50 Indians, through the effect of our prejudices, put the brake on his fierce desires, but however great the ardour that drives you, it is very difficult to overcome so quickly the ideas with which you have been brought up. The corruption of our morals has made us discover evil in an act where these people rightly find nothing but good. It is only someone who is doing or thinks he is doing evil who fears the light. We hide in order to carry out such a natural action, they do it in public and often. Several Frenchmen, less susceptible to delicacy, found it easier, that same day, to shrug off these prejudices.
After some time spent in that hut, our eyes finally weary of looking and touching, we withdrew, the residents quite displeased at seeing us so reluctant to share the spoils and even telling us so. We walked to the place that had been chosen to set up a camp and a hospital (Fesche 2002, 257).
It should be noted that the girl was presented wearing a “loincloth,” that is barkcloth, which shows that she had been intentionally dressed for a ceremony. (If she had just come from work in the garden, she would have had on a belt of leaves).
We can judge the girl’s youth from the expression used to describe her breasts, together with Fesche’s own assessment that she was “aged 12 or 13.” And if, as Fesche says at the beginning, the man went to look for his “wives,” it was only the young girl who was offered. If we are to believe Nassau and Fesche, the role of the “women” was in fact to tell the girl what she had to do (Nassau: “the women offered me a young girl,” see above) and, by means of gestures, together with the other adults, to make the French understand what was involved (Fesche: “All the Indians’ gestures made us clearly understand what this was about,” see above).
One or two days later Bougainville himself received propositions. He does not give any details, but this does not prevent him from enthusing about Tahiti and its inhabitants. He pays a visit to the chief, Eriti, and notes in his journal:
We had to repay their visit in the afternoon. The chief offered me a woman from his household (le chef m’a proposé une de ses femmes),[17] young and fairly pretty, and the whole gathering sang the wedding anthem. What a country! What a people! (2002, 66).
Here again the Tahitian woman was “young.” She could have been a daughter, even if Bougainville’s sentence can be taken to mean that he assumed that she was one of the chief’s wives. But the main point is that if she had been a wife, this proposal would have meant that the context was already one of “sexual commerce” where all women could be offered (see below). In that case there would not have been a circle of adults surrounding the scene and singing. The singing rather evokes the atmosphere of the solemn presentation as described by Nassau and Fesche.
During this same period of April 7 to 9, there was another encounter that Nassau related:
These Indians offered us women as being the objects they most cherished, undeniably these well deserved this distinction. They each in turn used all their charms to please us. Here is one example. I was strolling in a charming place, carpets of greenery, pleasant groves, the gentle murmur of streams inspired love in this delicious spot. I was caught there by the rain. I sheltered in a small house where I found six of the prettiest girls in the locality. They welcomed me with all the gentleness this charming sex can display. Each one removed her clothing, an adornment which is bothersome for pleasure and, spreading all their charms, showed me in detail the gracefulness and contours of the most perfect bodies. They also removed my clothing. The whiteness of a European body delighted them. They hastened to see whether I was made like the locals and pleasure quickened this research. Many were the kisses, many the tender caresses I received! Throughout this scene, an Indian was playing a tender tune on his flute. A crowd of others had lined up around the house, solely preoccupied with the spectacle. We were living amidst this gentle nation like allies and friends. The chief, the leading men constantly made us gifts (2002, 284).
The passage offers a perfect example, one of many that can be found in the journals kept during this voyage and in Bougainville’s narrative, of the young French visitors (Nassau and Fesche) only being able to see these cultural encounters from their masculine and Eurocentric perspective: the exchanges were between “us” (the French men) and the “Indians,” while the objects of exchange were “the women” (the “girls”).[18] Their views apparently influenced Bougainville. Only naturalists like Commerson (or Forster with Cook), older men and eager to come up with theories about the whole society, stressed on the contrary what appeared to them to be the women’s agency and “freedom” in those sexual matters. Of course, it could not have been otherwise for these young French men. But later readers of Bougainville’s voyage narrative had no conception of the intercultural and gender issues involved here either and took Bougainville’s framing and interpretation of the encounters for accurate “observation.” We see, too, how Nassau reduced the Tahitian perception of the advent of these strangers to their shores, and the kind of beings they were, to the arrival of mere “allies and friends.”
Here again, the “women” offered (see the first sentence: “Indians offered us women”) are in fact “girls,” when the description becomes precise. This is one of many examples of the way in which the European narrators of these early encounters with Polynesians, whether French or British, used the term “women” in their general commentaries and conclusions about sexual offers, while they specified “(young) girl(s)” in their descriptions of particular scenes, as Nassau does five lines later. The same goes for the question of Tahitian females taking the initiative in sexual encounters when we read in the general commentaries that “women” or “girls” were “offering themselves,” while in more precise descriptions we are told that they “were brought by” elders. We should also note Nassau’s implication at the beginning of the description that if the girls did “use their charms” to attract the Frenchmen, they did so “in turn” once they were “offered.” These more precise forms of expression about the conduct of these sexual offers are to be found in the journals and in the published accounts as well. But later, because commentators tend to use short quotations, only the more general passages from the accounts came to be remembered and quoted. Thus the idea of “women” “offering themselves” concealed and replaced the descriptions of “young girls” forcibly “brought” to the Europeans by elders.
We should also note that while this scene is being played out for the admiring Nassau “a crowd” has gathered “around the house” and throughout the whole episode a Tahitian man is in attendance, playing his flute. The fact that the Tahitian girls examined Nassau intimately –“to see whether I was made like the locals” – is also significant (see section below, “Conclusion (II)”).
[15] This was a ritual gesture which made the way open for stepping into a sacred and tabooed area (Tcherkézoff 2004b, 424–6).
[16] As we now know from his own journal.
[17] Dunmore translates this as “one of his wives,” but rightly explains to his reader that the French femme can mean “woman” or “wife,” and that he had to “guess” the meaning. But when the expression includes the possessive adjective as in sa femme, it usually means “his wife,” so his guess was correct. Nonetheless, I have departed from his translation at this point in order to maintain the possible ambiguity.
[18] In these French journals a mixed Tahitian crowd is always described as “the Indians,” a male Tahitian (such as a flute musician) is referred to as “an Indian,” while Tahitian women and girls are simply “women” and “girls.” During this period French men, particularly in educated discourse, were able to refer to the female gender, of any nation, in its entirety as le sexe (the more usual expression being les femmes), while the only term used for the male gender was les hommes.