Could be worth pursuing Paul Theroux for Q4 - he cropped up when googling the two place names. There wouldn't have been gendarmes in Captain Cook's day.
Quote: The Marquesas are the islands where Gauguin went in search of dusky maidens when he tired of Tahiti (after getting a ticket from a gendarme for skinny dipping in front of a bishop's house, which he considered to be the last straw!).