Truant Archipelago Island Map

Tuamotu Archipelago

LOCATION:   French Polynesia

AREA:  75 atolls, one raised coral atoll (Makatea), and innumerable coral reefs.

POPULATION:  About 15,000

DISCOVERED: Ferdinand Magellan sighted Pukapuka atoll as he crossed the Pacific in 1521. Iron cannons recovered on Amanu suggest that the Spanish caravel, San Lesmes, shipwrecked there in 1526. The Tuamotus were also visited by Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós in 1606. In 1844 the islands came under French protection and were annexed in 1880 as a Tahitian dependency.

GOVERNMENT:  The island is now part of the iles du Vent circonscription ("circumscription") within the self-governing overseas territory of French Polynesia. It has been under French rule since 1842.

LANGUAGES:  French (official), Tahitian (official) and Tuamotu