John Webber, Poedua, Cook's Hostage
Poedua, (Poetua), Daughter of Orio Chief of Ulietea, Society Islands. Painting by John Webber, Cook’s artist on his third voyage, National Maritime Museum Greenwich. Two other versions of this painting exist one of which is in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection in The National Library of Australia. The second, dated 1785, from the collection of Princess Ariimanihinihi Takau Pomare (1887–1976), youngest daughter of Queen Marautaaroa I (1860–1934), the last Queen of Tahiti was consigned to Christies in London for auction in December 2008 and after a period of negotiation was bought, in July 2010, by The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tingarewa.
Cook visited, and named, the Society Islands on his first Voyage on HMS Endeavour and though the archipelago is often described as having been named by him in honour of the Royal Society, the sponsor of his Expedition, he is quite specific in his log:
“Sunday 16th. (July 1769) Winds at South and South-South-East. Latitude observed, 16 degrees 40 minutes South. Three other Islands in sight, namely, Ulietea, Otaha, and Bolabola. So called by the Natives, and it was not thought adviseable to give them any other names; but these three, with Huaheine, Tuibai, and Maurua, as they lay contiguous to one another, I have named Society Isles”.
On his second voyage Cook anchored off Ulietea from 8th to 17th September 1773 and first saw Poedua:
Sept 1773 The chief, Orio, though not so close to Cook's heart as Ori, put aside all ceremony, insisted on exchanging names with him, exchanged visits and dinners, brought along his young son for inspection and presents, had his beautiful daughter Poetua dance and act, arranged a ‘Comedy or Dramatick Heava’ every day when there was not a performance for the islanders as of course. The ‘young Princess’, slender and graceful, made an impression on more than one heart.
Returning from New Zealand the following year Cook once again visited Ulietea and was entertained by Poedua, as Beaglehole describes:
May 1774 Orio came to dinner. The ship was surrounded with vast numbers of canoes and people, who remained two or three days in the neighbourhood feasting; for it appears that there was an additional excitement to the arrival of the Resolution—that of a party of the arioi society; which might account for an unusual succession of dramatic performances, though Cook had a different theory. There were two “theatres”; there was very broad, and repetitive, comedy, there was frequent allusion to the ship and Brittannee; there was only one actress, Orio's beautiful daughter Poetua, ‘at whose Shrine’, writes the admiring but discriminating captain, ‘many pretty things were offered by her numerous Votarists and I believe was one great inducement why her father gave us these entertainments so often.’ Wales (William Wales, Cook’s Astronomer) also, after a pleasant excursion into the country, finding that ‘the Princess Poydoa’ performed that evening: ‘as these were my favorite amusements, I made scarce more than a hop skip & Jump to the Play-house where I found she could twist & distort a set of very delicate features with as much dexterity as ever.’ Next day Cook had the enchanting lady and her family to breakfast.
On his third voyage Cook with Resolution and Discovery once again visited Ulietea. On the 3rd November 1777 while still anchored off the harbour entrance he was visited by the chief Orio, accompanied by his young son and his son-in-law, husband of the beautiful and well-remembered 'princess', Poetua; and as soon as the ships were inside, there was the usual circle of canoes filled with people, hogs and fruit, the promise of endless plenty.
The stay in the Society Islands ahead of the intended voyage north into icy waters proved challenging as Cook faced the problem of desertion, as the sailors were tempted by the attractions of life in the islands which promised, according to one of the crew, Alexander Home, ‘Exactly the paradise of Mahomed in Everything but Immortality’. Marine officer John Harrison was the first to try and flee the mission; according to the ship’s cooper, he ‘deserted from his duty into the Country in order to continue through female attachment & expectation of an easy Life’. Harrison was recovered and was given two dozen lashes, and Cook spoke to his men assuring them that his authority ‘would bring them back dead or alive.’
However, on 23 November, two of the Discovery’s crew, Alexander Mouat and Thomas Shaw fled with a Tahitian in a canoe. Early efforts to bring them back to the ship failed and Cook resorted to a tried and tested solution of taking hostage tribal chiefs.
On 26 November, chief Orio visited Resolution with his son Teura, daughter Poetua and son-in-law. Cook passed word to Clerke, who was also there, to invite the young people on board Discovery and make them hostages, and Orio was invited to secure their release by reclaiming the deserters. He was not, thought Cook, who suspected him of general enticement, being unduly put upon in thus being made responsible; and he did immediately despatch a canoe to Puni, the great chief of Borabora, with the request to seize the men, wherever they were, and send them back. On Discovery. Poetua of the conquering charms, her husband and her brother and in no fear for their safety settled down comfortably in the great cabin with a sentry at the door; but outside the forces of formal distress were released as Clerke described:
“I order’d some Centinels at the Cabin Door, and the Windows to be strongly barred, then told them, we would certainly all go to England together, if their friends did not procure their release by bringing back the 2 Deserters. My poor friends at first were a good deal struck with surprise and fear, but soon recollected themselves, got the better of their apprehensions & were perfectly reconciled to their Situation.
The News of their Confinement of course was blaz'd instantaneously throughout the Isle; old Oreo was half mad, and within an hour afterwards we had a most numerous Congregation of Women under the Stern, cutting their Heads with Sharks Teeth and lamenting the Fate of the Prisoners, in so melancholy a howl, as render'd the Ship whilst it lasted, which was 2 or 3 Hours, a most wretched Habitation; nobody cou'd help in some measure being affected by it; it destroyed the spirits of the Prisoners altogether, who lost all their Chearfullness and joined in this cursed dismal Howl, I made use of every method I cou'd suggest to get them away, but all to no purpose, there they wou'd stand and bleed and cry, till their Strength was exhausted, and they cou'd act the farce no longer. When we got rid of these Tragedians, I soon recover'd my Friends and we set down to Dinner together very chearfully.”
It was during this confinement that the nineteen-year old and pregnant Poedua was painted by Webber. It has been suggested that this portrait is the one made on the voyage but while not impossible is unlikely. It is much bigger and more finished than Webber's other known voyage oils, and almost certainly too big to have been painted in Discovery's cabin, of which the height was little more than that of the canvas and its safe transport thereafter would also have been inconvenient, at least. Moreover, the two other versions are of similar size and these circumstances suggest that all were painted later in London from the now untraced original. This painting is the most polished version and beyond reasonable doubt that exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785.
Orio returned with the deserters on the 30th. Clerke gave Shaw two dozen lashes as soon as he came on board, sent Mouat before the mast, put them both in irons for the time the ship remained in harbour and the three hostages were returned to their rejoicing friends.
Poedua’s portrait often described as Webber’s “Pacific Princess” or “The Pacific Mona Lisa” was the first great portrait of an indigenous woman of the South Pacific presented to a European audience. As encounters between Western explorers and Pacific Islanders intensified during the mid-eighteenth century, Euro-American audiences were introduced to the region from afar through the travel narratives of their voyaging countrymen and the vivid visual imagery of artists who portrayed Polynesia as an idyllic haven, populated by “noble savages” and sexually receptive and alluring Polynesian maidens, existing against a backdrop of white-sand beaches and tropical mountain ranges, images that were deployed to good effect in the works of artists such as William Hodges, John Webber, and later Paul Gauguin. See:
shigeyukikihara.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/from-full-dus...
John Webber, Poedua, Cook's Hostage
Poedua, (Poetua), Daughter of Orio Chief of Ulietea, Society Islands. Painting by John Webber, Cook’s artist on his third voyage, National Maritime Museum Greenwich. Two other versions of this painting exist one of which is in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection in The National Library of Australia. The second, dated 1785, from the collection of Princess Ariimanihinihi Takau Pomare (1887–1976), youngest daughter of Queen Marautaaroa I (1860–1934), the last Queen of Tahiti was consigned to Christies in London for auction in December 2008 and after a period of negotiation was bought, in July 2010, by The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tingarewa.
Cook visited, and named, the Society Islands on his first Voyage on HMS Endeavour and though the archipelago is often described as having been named by him in honour of the Royal Society, the sponsor of his Expedition, he is quite specific in his log:
“Sunday 16th. (July 1769) Winds at South and South-South-East. Latitude observed, 16 degrees 40 minutes South. Three other Islands in sight, namely, Ulietea, Otaha, and Bolabola. So called by the Natives, and it was not thought adviseable to give them any other names; but these three, with Huaheine, Tuibai, and Maurua, as they lay contiguous to one another, I have named Society Isles”.
On his second voyage Cook anchored off Ulietea from 8th to 17th September 1773 and first saw Poedua:
Sept 1773 The chief, Orio, though not so close to Cook's heart as Ori, put aside all ceremony, insisted on exchanging names with him, exchanged visits and dinners, brought along his young son for inspection and presents, had his beautiful daughter Poetua dance and act, arranged a ‘Comedy or Dramatick Heava’ every day when there was not a performance for the islanders as of course. The ‘young Princess’, slender and graceful, made an impression on more than one heart.
Returning from New Zealand the following year Cook once again visited Ulietea and was entertained by Poedua, as Beaglehole describes:
May 1774 Orio came to dinner. The ship was surrounded with vast numbers of canoes and people, who remained two or three days in the neighbourhood feasting; for it appears that there was an additional excitement to the arrival of the Resolution—that of a party of the arioi society; which might account for an unusual succession of dramatic performances, though Cook had a different theory. There were two “theatres”; there was very broad, and repetitive, comedy, there was frequent allusion to the ship and Brittannee; there was only one actress, Orio's beautiful daughter Poetua, ‘at whose Shrine’, writes the admiring but discriminating captain, ‘many pretty things were offered by her numerous Votarists and I believe was one great inducement why her father gave us these entertainments so often.’ Wales (William Wales, Cook’s Astronomer) also, after a pleasant excursion into the country, finding that ‘the Princess Poydoa’ performed that evening: ‘as these were my favorite amusements, I made scarce more than a hop skip & Jump to the Play-house where I found she could twist & distort a set of very delicate features with as much dexterity as ever.’ Next day Cook had the enchanting lady and her family to breakfast.
On his third voyage Cook with Resolution and Discovery once again visited Ulietea. On the 3rd November 1777 while still anchored off the harbour entrance he was visited by the chief Orio, accompanied by his young son and his son-in-law, husband of the beautiful and well-remembered 'princess', Poetua; and as soon as the ships were inside, there was the usual circle of canoes filled with people, hogs and fruit, the promise of endless plenty.
The stay in the Society Islands ahead of the intended voyage north into icy waters proved challenging as Cook faced the problem of desertion, as the sailors were tempted by the attractions of life in the islands which promised, according to one of the crew, Alexander Home, ‘Exactly the paradise of Mahomed in Everything but Immortality’. Marine officer John Harrison was the first to try and flee the mission; according to the ship’s cooper, he ‘deserted from his duty into the Country in order to continue through female attachment & expectation of an easy Life’. Harrison was recovered and was given two dozen lashes, and Cook spoke to his men assuring them that his authority ‘would bring them back dead or alive.’
However, on 23 November, two of the Discovery’s crew, Alexander Mouat and Thomas Shaw fled with a Tahitian in a canoe. Early efforts to bring them back to the ship failed and Cook resorted to a tried and tested solution of taking hostage tribal chiefs.
On 26 November, chief Orio visited Resolution with his son Teura, daughter Poetua and son-in-law. Cook passed word to Clerke, who was also there, to invite the young people on board Discovery and make them hostages, and Orio was invited to secure their release by reclaiming the deserters. He was not, thought Cook, who suspected him of general enticement, being unduly put upon in thus being made responsible; and he did immediately despatch a canoe to Puni, the great chief of Borabora, with the request to seize the men, wherever they were, and send them back. On Discovery. Poetua of the conquering charms, her husband and her brother and in no fear for their safety settled down comfortably in the great cabin with a sentry at the door; but outside the forces of formal distress were released as Clerke described:
“I order’d some Centinels at the Cabin Door, and the Windows to be strongly barred, then told them, we would certainly all go to England together, if their friends did not procure their release by bringing back the 2 Deserters. My poor friends at first were a good deal struck with surprise and fear, but soon recollected themselves, got the better of their apprehensions & were perfectly reconciled to their Situation.
The News of their Confinement of course was blaz'd instantaneously throughout the Isle; old Oreo was half mad, and within an hour afterwards we had a most numerous Congregation of Women under the Stern, cutting their Heads with Sharks Teeth and lamenting the Fate of the Prisoners, in so melancholy a howl, as render'd the Ship whilst it lasted, which was 2 or 3 Hours, a most wretched Habitation; nobody cou'd help in some measure being affected by it; it destroyed the spirits of the Prisoners altogether, who lost all their Chearfullness and joined in this cursed dismal Howl, I made use of every method I cou'd suggest to get them away, but all to no purpose, there they wou'd stand and bleed and cry, till their Strength was exhausted, and they cou'd act the farce no longer. When we got rid of these Tragedians, I soon recover'd my Friends and we set down to Dinner together very chearfully.”
It was during this confinement that the nineteen-year old and pregnant Poedua was painted by Webber. It has been suggested that this portrait is the one made on the voyage but while not impossible is unlikely. It is much bigger and more finished than Webber's other known voyage oils, and almost certainly too big to have been painted in Discovery's cabin, of which the height was little more than that of the canvas and its safe transport thereafter would also have been inconvenient, at least. Moreover, the two other versions are of similar size and these circumstances suggest that all were painted later in London from the now untraced original. This painting is the most polished version and beyond reasonable doubt that exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785.
Orio returned with the deserters on the 30th. Clerke gave Shaw two dozen lashes as soon as he came on board, sent Mouat before the mast, put them both in irons for the time the ship remained in harbour and the three hostages were returned to their rejoicing friends.
Poedua’s portrait often described as Webber’s “Pacific Princess” or “The Pacific Mona Lisa” was the first great portrait of an indigenous woman of the South Pacific presented to a European audience. As encounters between Western explorers and Pacific Islanders intensified during the mid-eighteenth century, Euro-American audiences were introduced to the region from afar through the travel narratives of their voyaging countrymen and the vivid visual imagery of artists who portrayed Polynesia as an idyllic haven, populated by “noble savages” and sexually receptive and alluring Polynesian maidens, existing against a backdrop of white-sand beaches and tropical mountain ranges, images that were deployed to good effect in the works of artists such as William Hodges, John Webber, and later Paul Gauguin. See:
shigeyukikihara.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/from-full-dus...