Hawaii–Tahiti relations James Cook who was already famous for exploring the Pacific islands including Tahiti. He and his crew were struck by the similarity between the Tahitian and Hawaiian languages, and many crewmen were able to communicate with the Hawaiians. Some of the first Tahitians came to Hawaii aboard foreign vessels as sailors or translators. In 1804, British Captain John Turnbull brought a Tahitian couple to Kauai. Tahitians missionaries led by William Ellis from the London Missionary Society, arrived to assist the American missionaries in Hawaii. A few years prior to 1804, King Kaumualii of Kauai had sent an envoy to Tahiti
Tahiti favour of the French. The Queen returned from exile in 1847 and agreed to sign a new covenant, considerably reducing her powers, while increasing those of the commissaire. The French nevertheless still reigned over the Kingdom of Tahiti as masters. In 1863, they put an end to the British influence and replaced the British Protestant Missions with the Société des missions évangéliques de Paris (Society of Evangelical Missions of Paris). During the same period about a thousand Chinese, mainly Cantonese, were recruited at the request of a plantation owner in Tahiti, William Stewart, to work on the great cotton plantation