Ahu-toru traveled back to France with the expedition and was subsequently questioned at some length about Baret. Modern scholars now believe that Ahu-toru actually thought that Baret was a transvestite, or "mahu". However, other Tahitian natives reported the presence of a woman in Bougainville's expedition to later visitors to the island, including James Cook in 1769 and Domingo de Bonechea in 1772, which indicates that her sex was known to the Tahitians if not to her shipmates at the time she visited the island.