| Subject: |
|
Re: Re: True Story(Cont.#3) |
| Name: |
|
Troy |
| Date Posted: |
|
Sep 12, 05 - 12:38 PM |
| Email: |
|
tulroy09@yahoo.com |
| Message: |
|
In the year 1790, approximately, a group of young men were fishing off Aitutaki Island in the Cook Island. A gale wind, tropical storm unexpectedly arose from the South. The fishermen were scattered and lost contact with each other. Some who were in canoes, were blown, drifted or washed away, many miles to the Northwest of Cook Islands. These men arrived on Tutuila Island in Ha’amoa (Samoa). They were found by some villagers and nourished back to good health. One of these young men was the son of a Chief from Aitutaki. He was 19 years old, tall, handsome and very strong. Along with the other lost fishermen, he was at the mercy of the Samoan men. They were required to work for the Samoan Chief of the village. After several months, recovering from the long voyage by becoming strong again, they were determined to leave the bondage the were subjected to on Tutuila. The High Chief has a daughter named Timirik who had fallen in love with the big strong Cook Islander, much to the disliking of the Chief and village men. The other men in the village could not beat Tutaki (as they called him) for he was a very strong warrior and fought fiercely.
Tutaki and his Cook Island followers managed to get a large canoe. In the middle of a windy night, they made their escape from Tutuila Island. They took women of the Island in which they were in love with. They had plenty of provisions as they intended to sail to the west in search of a peaceful island. The men knew they could not return to Cook Islands, especially with Samoan wives. They traveled in the Northeast direction coming upon small island after small island. On these islands, they replenished their provisions such as water and continued on. They were seeking the perfect place to land and live.
They were in Kiribati (Gilbert) Island within a few months. Most of the islands they had seen so far were either inhabited or flat coral atolls. They were seeking high island, away from groups of other islands, somewhere they could live in peace. They left Kiribati Islands continuing to the west. It was a calm, lazy day when someone sighted an island off in the west. They headed for the island, happy to have finally sighted land once more. Upon nearing the island, they could not detect any sign of life. They found a Nuku Awa (entrance harbor) in the reef, just west of the south point of the island. They landed and settled on the south tip of the island. Tutaki (Tutuk) looked over the island. Because it was in a calm location in the sea and had many beautiful flowers on it, he called it PUA KONA KAI, which in Polynesian means “The flower of the calm sea”. Thus, the island was called Puakonakai up until 1900. As always, there was a leader of the group. He was the biggest and strongest of men. It was Tutuk or as he was aliased, Tutaki. He took the title TeMoi which means King. His wife Timirik was now called Nei-Kamoa, which means beloved Samoan, Queen. It is not known if there were any inhabitants of Puakonakai upon their arrival. However, if such inhabitants existed, it was assumed that they did not object to the Polynesian moving in.
The village established by the King and his group of Polynesians was called Ooma which means spouting. As whales do, they would watch the whales pass by the south tip of the island playing and spouting water as they went, thus they called their new home village Ooma. In time, over the next several years, other islanders arrived on Puakonakai. Two groups established villages under King Tutuk and remained. They named their villages after the island they originally came from. One was named Tarawa on the west shore and the other village between Ooma and Tarawa on the southwest shore was called Abaiang. The names of these two villages were changed later to be Tepewa and Tabiang as the islands name was also changed in the 1900 by error to Panapa. The British Sea Captains’ maps called it Ocean Island. Thus in the 1900, many changes occurred to Puakonakai all due to the phosphate that was discovered on the island. The King and commoners lived very peaceful lives, remote from other islands and not frequented by any ships. An occasional lost whaler or pirate ship would come but not being able to acquire much in the way of provisions, soon departed. Life went on in a slow easy day to day style. This King and his workers would travel to other islands to trade goods, mostly looking for water and food. The area where the island is located in the south central Pacific is known for being mostly in a state of drought. In fact, the island were known as Starvation Islands. By about 1810, most of the water for the islanders was brought there in gourds. The annual rains barely kept the coconut and small gardens alive, producing very little food. As the population grew, many found it advisable to leave for other islands. A stray whaler or pirate ship would take on many villagers. They were taken to plantations in the Marshalls, Pohnpei and even Austra |
|
Replies:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
Forum
bravenet.com