SOCIETY ISLANDS, or TAHITI ARCM PELAW. A colonial possession of France in the South Pacific, consisting of an archipelago of eleven islands, extending from DI° to IS° south latitude. and from 148° to 153° west longi tude (Map: The World, Western Hemisphere, L 6). It is divided into the Leeward and Wind ward groups, the former including the islands of 1taiatea, Huabine, Tahaa, Borabora, Maupiti, Tubai, and a few smaller islets, and the latter group comprising Tahiti (q.v.), Morea. and a few others. Total area, estimated at 650 square miles, of which Tahiti covers about 600. The islands are volcanic, mountainous, and surrounded with coral reefs which form coast lagoons. The high est peak, on the island of Tahiti, has an ele vation of over 7.000 feet. The climate is hot and moist, but not unhealthful. The flora is luxuriant and especially rich in trees. Bananas grow in abundance and are found in altitudes of from 3000 to 5000 feet. The fauna is rather poor. The ehief agricultural products are cocoanuts, bananas. sugar, and vanilla. Only a small part of the agricultural land is tilled, and the colony is in a general state of backwardness. The exports are mainly eopra, mother-of-pearl, vanilla, and fruits, the com merce amounting to a little over $1.000,000 a year. Administratively. the group forms the chief of the French establishments in Oceania.
The discovery of the Society Islands dates probably from 1606, when they were visited by the Spaniard Pedro Fernandez de Quiros. Al though several explorers visited the group before Captain Cook, it is chiefly the latter who gave to the world the first detailed description of the islands. At the time of Cook's visits (1769,
1773, 1774, and 1777) the islands were under the rule of a king who exercised both civil and ec clesiastical authority, and the government had more or less of a feudal character. The natives, who all belong to the Christian faith, are of a stately and fine Polynesian type. They are kind and very mild, and were readily inclined to adopt Western civilization. The discoverers found that they built comfortable dwellings and manufac tured iron. They were ruled formerly by minor hereditary kings. whose influence was curbed by an influential nobility. In 1788 the island of Tahiti was visited by the Bounty, and soon after became the place of refuge for the muti neers of that vessel, some of whom were sub sequently taken to Great Britain by the Pan dora. The first attempt toward introducing the Gospel among the natives was made by Spain in 1774. The opposition of the natives to the doc trines of Christianity was partly overcome by the conversion of the King, Pomarc 11.. and the new religion soon gained a firm foothold among the natives. The rivalry between the French and English missionaries led to the interference of France in 1S38 and to the subsequent official annexation of the group in 1880. Consult: '\leinecke• Die Inseln iks Stillen Oceans (Leip zig, 1875-76) ; Brassey. Tahiti (London, 1882) ; Biissler, :Vette Siidserbilder (Berlin, 1900).