Most Civilized?

We sailed into the anchorage at Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas just before sunset. It was the second island we’d visited since arriving in French Polynesia, and we were excited to say the least.

Jody was down below starting dinner, while I and our stalwart crew, Andy and John, were kicking back on deck checking out the shoreline.

The harbor was the most beautiful place we had been in since leaving Redondo Beach almost two months earlier. We’d sailed the coast of Mexico down to Cabo San Lucas and then started our trans-Pacific voyage with a quick stop at Clarion Island, mid Pacific.

The shoreline of Fatu Hiva was a tropical paradise, with bleached white sand bordered by deep green jungle and palm trees, fronted by a hundred colors of blue, from deep to almost white where it hit the shore. This was what we had dreamed about, and here it was laid out in front of us.

All of a sudden I noticed a couple of small dugouts with out-riggers coming out of the small river that was on the far right of the beach, behind a great rock formation. There were about six young men paddling towards us, and the first thought that raced through my alleged mind was, we were about to be boarded by pirates. There was no doubt about it.

You see, this was my first major voyage into unknown lands, and back then, coming from “civilization” we all knew if six men, especially men with tattoos, approached a boat they must be up to no good, right?

When you are coming from civilization that is pretty much the way you think, at least that was the way I used to think when I first started world cruising. What’s really funny about this is, I am pretty much covered with tattoos, yet here I was with a prejudice against people with tattoos. What up with that?

Anyway, as the two boats approached in the darkening harbor I was getting ready to head below and get the shotgun we had set aside for just this occasion. I think Andy read my mind, and he grabbed my arm.

“Wait a minute,” he said. “I don’t think these guys are a problem. Check it out… they have a couple ukuleles.” Sure enough, tucked between the men were two very old ukuleles.

The men pulled along side Lost Soul and indicated they wanted to come aboard. They were smiling, and even though we didn’t understand a word they were saying, we lowered the boarding ladder and invited them on deck.

Even though they only spoke Polynesian, and we only spoke English, we were soon communicating as if we actually knew what they were saying. It was my first introduction to this form of communication, and it seemed to work.

Before long two of the men (actually more boys than men) were playing the ukes and singing Marquesan songs to welcome us to their island. It was a Polynesian custom that had been part of their culture for hundreds of years. As we sat there all I could do was think about how this must be the way Captain Cook was met 300 years earlier.

Andy had a guitar below, and after awhile he brought it up and started to play along. Our new friends were very excited when he offered it to them to play. As the evening drifted by they tried their hand at singing along with Andy as he played American songs, and we all tried to sing along with them as they sang Marquesan music. It was truly a magical evening, and one I will remember all my life, I am sure.

But for years afterwards, even until today, what annoys me more than anything was the way I felt as they were approaching. I can’t help but wonder what they would have thought had I met them at the rail with a shotgun in hand. How rude would it have been to receive these well meaning boys with hostility?

I can’t help but relate it to how “we” as civilized man are always portrayed in the science fiction movies, with gun in hand as the space man walks out of his ship. It is a sign of civilized man to distrust people.

It wasn’t until after many years of world cruising that I realized I had lost that distrust. After meeting hundreds of people from different worlds, it dawned on my misbegotten brain that civilization is not necessarily an advancement in humanity. Yes, it is an advancement in technology, but that is not, in most cases, an advancement in man being civilized.

What I learned that evening so long ago was that the least civilized people I met were usually the most human.