Omai was discovered by explorers on an island near Tahiti and brought back to England in 1774, where his exotic looks and refined manner were reported to have caused a sensation.

BBC: Portrait Of Omai

But the most excruciating thing he knows is something the crew of the Essex should have known too: that the island of Tahiti, which they could have reached, was not occupied by cannibals.

ECONOMIST: The cannibalism of the sea

Celebrated as the "island of love" by smitten French explorers, Tahiti is the French territory's administrative and commercial backbone.

BBC: Getting in the Tahitian spirit

He found it on the island of Nuka Hiva in the Marquesas, 1, 000 miles north of Tahiti, where he and two translators camped in a one-room hut for three days.

FORBES: Tale of the South Pacific