The Papalagi: Discourses of Tuiavii, Chief of Tiavéa in the South Seas

The Papalagui – meaning the White Man, the Lord – is the name given to the speeches of the tribal chief Tuiavii of Tiavéa, from the South Seas.
Tuiavii never intended to publish these speeches in Europe, nor even to have them printed; they were solely for his Polynesian compatriots. If, despite this, I transmit the speeches of this native to European readers, without his knowledge and certainly against his will, it is because I am convinced that it is worthwhile for us, enlightened white men, to know how an individual still intimately connected to nature sees us and our culture. Through his eyes, we discover our own image, and this with a simplicity that we have already lost. Particularly fanatical readers of our civilization will certainly find his perspective naive, and even puerile, or foolish; however, more than one of Tuiavii's phrases will make the more modest reader ponder, for Tuiavii's wisdom does not emanate from scholarly knowledge, but is rather an innocence of divine origin."