The capital is Papeete . The peninsula of Taiarapu, which forms E Tahiti, is joined to the western part of the island by the Isthmus of Taravao.
Tourism is easily the most important industry on the island.
The inhabitants of Tahiti are mostly Polynesian, but there is a large Chinese minority. The island was settled by Polynesians in the 14th cent. James Cook , and by the Bounty under Lt. English missionaries arrived in the 1797, and French missionaries by the late 1830s. In 1843 the Tahitian queen Pomare IV was forced to agree to the establishment of a French protectorate.