Throughout the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, Diderot's reputation as the most radical opponent of European colonialism among the philosophes rested almost exclusively upon the evidence of the Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville (Supplement to Bougainville's Voyage) which was not published in printed form until 1796. In the section of that work entitled ‘Les Adieux du vieillard’ (‘The Old Man's Farewell’) Diderot delivers a devastating critique of the arrogant European assumption that any territory not belonging to a recognised power was up for grabs without regard to its inhabitants. In a brief and brilliant inversion the old Tahitian destroys utterly the legitimacy of European colonisation of the lands of supposedly primitive peoples. In response to the literal way of staking a claim by thrusting a blade into the ground, inscribed with ‘Ce pays est à nous’ (‘This country is ours’), he retorts, ‘Ce pays est à toi? et pourquoi? parce que tu y a mis le pied? Si un Tahitien débarquait un jour sur vos côtes, et qu'il gravât sur une de vos pierres ou sur l'écorce d'un de vos arbres: Ce pays est aux habitants de Tahiti, qu'en penserais-tu?’ (‘This country is yours? And why? Because you have entered it? If one day a Tahitian landed on your shores and carved onto one of your stones or the bark of one of your trees: This country belongs to the inhabitants of Tahiti, what would you think?’)