Ua Pu (,
North Marquesan:
’uapou) is the third largest of the
Marquesas Islands, in
French Polynesia, an overseas territory of
France in the
Pacific Ocean. It is located about 50 km (30 mi.) south of
Nuku Hiva, in the northern Marquesas. Until the beginning of the 1980s, it was the most populous of the Marquesas Islands, because when the other islands were being ravaged by
diseases introduced by
European explorers and traders, the
Catholic priests on the island finally took to
quarantining the remnant of the native population inside their churches whenever visiting ships approached the island, thereby reducing their exposure to external diseases.