On the 7th of June 1797, when William Pascoe Crook

disembarked from the Duff onto the Marquesan island

of Tahuata, he had just turned 22 years of age. At that

time, the society which took him in was a traditional one, forced

to deal with the natural disasters of drought and its

ensuing famine, and the new products brought for trade by

western travellers, whalers and beachcombers - particularly

alcohol and firearms.

Because he took the trouble to learn to speak their language,

Crook became an important witness to these first

contacts, as well as to the new everyday lifestyle of the

Marquesans, their customs and their aspirations - and their

resistance to foreign ideas.

In his Account , Crook reports the words of Kiatonui, one of

the main chiefs of the island of Nukuhiva, who exclaimed,

"How can Mr Crook claim to know God, when he cannot even

tell one tree from another ?"

The originality and insight of this Account of the Marquesas

Islands (published now for the first time in a bilingual

English and French edition) have been enhanced both by

contemporary testimonies concerning Crook's adventure and

by today's prefaces by Professor Greg Dening and His Grace

Bishop Le Cleac'h.

In the Pacific, the shock from the meeting of cultures in the

18th century continues to make waves into the 21st.