Omai : The Prince Who Never Was

Richard Connaughton

When a handsome Tahitian prince called Omai was brought back to England in 1774 by Tobias Furneaux, who had accompanied Captain Cook on his second voyage to the South Seas, he became an overnight sensation. He had an audience with George III, dined with Dr Johnson and sat for Sir Joshua Reynolds.

But as Richard Connaughton’s painstaking reconstruction shows, Omai was not a prince (or even a Tahitian) and his visit to England was an ill-conceived enterprise undertaken by individuals whose motives were, at best, questionable.

Having been lionised for two years in England, re-assimilation into the rigidly structured society from which he had come was a forlorn hope for Omai who died a lonely death while still in his twenties.

Omai: The Prince Who Never Was is a vivid account of the tragedy of England’s first black celebrity, the ‘noble savage’ who became the toast of London society only to be spurned by his own people. But, as the subject of Reynolds’ most celebrated painting, Omai has achieved immortality.

Richard Connaughton has written a dozen books on history and international relations including Rising Sun and Tumbling Bear: Russia’s War with Japan and MacArthur and Defeat in the Philippines.

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