PŌMARE V (1839–1891), Last King of Tahiti. Original Autograph Note Signed ("Pomare V"), in Tahitian, requesting three bottles of wine.

PŌMARE V (1839–1891), Last King of Tahiti. Original Autograph Note Signed ("Pōmare V"), in Tahitian, requesting three bottles of wine. 

Tahiti, c.1877–1880

I tereti e,
laorana
Horoa mai e toru mohina
waina iteie
Tirara
Pōmare V

“Dear delegate,

Greetings
Please give me three

little bottles of wine

That is all

Pōmare V.”

This short autograph note is written in Tahitian and signed by Pōmare V (1839-1891). His request for three bottles of wine is particularly evocative given his well-documented dependence on alcohol.

The note’s reference to wine illustrates the extent to which European customs and imported goods had become integrated into Tahitian society by the late nineteenth century. Wine was unknown to Tahitians prior to European contact, with ’ava (Kava), a drink reserved for special occasions, the only available psychoactive drink. By the reign of Pōmare V, however, imported food, clothing and wine had become commonplace among the Tahitian elite.

Pōmare V (1839–1891), born Teri‘i Tari‘a Te-rā-tane, was the last King of Tahiti, reigning from 1877 until 1880. He had succeeded his mother, Queen Pōmare IV, under whose rule Tahiti had become a French protectorate following defeat in the Franco-Tahitian War of 1847. Politically paralysed and removed from power, Pōmare V spent years playing cards and drinking late into the evenings. 

In 1880, after years of French encroachment, Pōmare V formally ceded sovereignty to France, bringing an end to the independent Tahitian monarchy. Retreating to his royal palace on a generous pension, Pōmare V would die in 1891 of alcoholic cirrhosis at the age of 51.