European Explorer:

Since Captain James Cook explored much of the group, without sighting the largest island Rarotonga. The honor was left to the mutineers on HMS Bounty who touched Rarotonga in 1789 on they're journey to Pitcairn Island. Missionaries followed the Explorers. Reverend John Williams made his first appearance in the Cooks (at Aitutaki) in 1821. Later he settled over on Rarotonga and laboured there for the rest of his life.The fact that the local system of government, the traditional land inheritance and other cultural attributes have remained intact, shows that the missionaries didn't completely obliterate the original island culture, despite the drastic changes they brought.