Chapter II: Part 2

The climate of Tahiti, although tropical, is favorably influenced by the trade-winds and frequent showers. The breezes from ocean and land keep the heated atmosphere in motion, and the frequent rains throughout the year have a direct effect in lowering the temperature. The entire island from the shore to the highest mountain-peaks, is covered by forests and a vigorous vegetation. These retain the moisture and attract the pregnant clouds, securing, throughout the year, a sufficient rainfall to feed the many mountain streams and water the rich soil of the mountain-sides, valleys, ravines and lowlands along the coast. The temperature seldom exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and during the coldest months, March and April, it occasionally falls as low as 65 degrees Fahrenheit. The atmosphere is charged with humidity, and when this condition reaches the maximum degree, the heat is oppressive, more especially when there is no land or ocean breeze. If a hotel could be built at an elevation of three to four thousand feet above the level of the sea, the guests would find a climate which could not be surpassed in any other part of the world. A prolonged residence in Papeete or any other part of the island near the sea-level is debilitating for the whites. Those of the white inhabitants who can afford it, leave the island every three or five years and seek recuperation and a renewal of energy in a cooler climate, usually in California or Europe. Papeete, partially enclosed by mountains, and only a few feet above the level of the sea, and on the leeward side of the island, is said to be one of the warmest places in the island. The village of Papara gets the full benefit of the trade-winds and the land-breeze, and is one of the coolest spots in Tahiti. Tahiti's summer-time is our winter. I was fortunate in visiting the island during the latter part of January. It is the time when Nature makes a special effort here to produce the luxuriant vegetation after the drenching rains of December. It is the time when the evergreen trees cast off, here and there, a faded leaf, to be replaced by a new one from the vigorous unfolding buds. It is the season of flowers and the greatest variety of fruits. It may interest the reader to know that one day seven different kinds of fruits were served at the breakfast-table, a luxury out of reach of our millionaires at their homes in the North at that time of the year. For a winter vacation, the months of January and February offer the greatest inducements. Those who are in need of an ideal mental rest, and are fond of a long ocean voyage, and enjoy tropic scenery and the marvelous products of the fertile soil of the tropics, should not fail to visit Tahiti, the little paradise in the midst of the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

HISTORY OF THE ISLAND

History is the witness of the times, the torch of truth, the life of
memory, the teacher of life, the messenger of antiquity.

CICERO.

It was my privilege during my brief stay in Tahiti to meet Tati Salmon, chief of the Papara district. He is a direct descendant of one of the two noble families of the island, the Tevas, and one of the most prominent and influential citizens of the island. I asked him to what race the Tahitians belonged. To this question he had a ready reply. He said: "We belong to no race; man was created here; this is the lost Garden of Eden." There is much force, if not truth, in this assertion when we take into consideration the charming beauty of the island and the bounteous provisions which Nature has made here for the existence of man. Then, too, the Tahitian is a good specimen of manhood, intellectually and physically, far superior to the Negro race and the Mongolian. Ariitaimai (Arii Taimai E), the mother of the chief just referred to and the authoress of the book mentioned in the preface, believes that the Tahitians belong to the great Aryan race, the race of Arii, and that their chiefs were Arii, not kings, and the head chiefs, Ariirahi—Great Chiefs. It was only the latter who were entitled to wear the girdle of red feathers, as much the symbol of their preeminence as the crown and sceptre of European royalty. The Tahitians are Polynesians, like the inhabitants of most of the South Seas and of Hawaii, and there can be but little doubt that the Polynesians belong to the Malay race, having migrated from island to island, from west to east, by way of Java, Samoa and the Hawaiian Islands. As these voyages had to be made by means of frail canoes, we can readily conceive the hardships endured by the bold navigators of centuries ago. A story current in Tahiti relates that it was thus that the great chief Olopaua of Hawaii, driven from home by disastrous floods, bore his wife Lu'ukia in the twelfth century, to find a new dwelling place in Tahiti, twenty-three hundred miles away. It is said that the chiefess was a poetess, a dancer famed for grace, and the inventor of a style of dress which is still made by the Hawaiians. Many of the primitive peoples trace their origin to a legend which is handed down from generation to generation.

In all ages of the world there is nothing with which mankind hath been
so much delighted as with those little fictitious stories which go
under the name of fables or apologues among the ancient heathens, and
of parables in the sacred writings.

BISHOP PORTEUS.

The Tevas of Tahiti have their legend and it is related by Ariitaimai, as it has been told for many generations. They take pride in the story that they are the direct descendants from the Shark God. The legend tells how many centuries ago a chief of Punaauia, by the name of Te manutu-ruu, married a chiefess of Vaiari, named Hototu, and had a son, Terii te moanarau. At the birth of the child, the father set out in his canoe for the Paumotu Islands to obtain red feathers (Ura) to make the royal belt for the young prince. The legend begins by assuming that Vaiari was the oldest family, with its Maraes, and that Punaauia was later in seniority and rank. While Te manutu-ruu was absent on his long voyage to the Paumotus, a visitor appeared at Vaiari, and was entertained by the chiefess. This visitor was the first ancestor of the Tevas. He was only half human, the other half fish, or Shark God; and he swam from the ocean, through the reef, into the Vaihiria River, where he came ashore, and introduced himself as Vari mataauhoe, and, after having partaken of the hospitalities of the chiefess, took up his residence with her. But after their intimacy had lasted some time, one day, when they were together, Hototu's dog came into the house and showed his affection for his mistress by licking her face, or, as we should say now, kissed her, although in those days this mark of affection was unknown, as the Polynesians instead only touched noses as an affectionate greeting. At this the man-shark was so displeased that he abandoned the chiefess. He walked into the river, turned fish again and swam out to sea. On his way he met the canoe of the Chief Te manutu-ruu returning from the Paumotus, and stopped to speak to him. The chief invited Vari mataauhoe to return with him, but the man-shark declined, giving as his reason that the chiefess was too fond of dogs.

The legend proves that the natives regarded Vaiari as the source of their aristocracy. Papara makes the same claim, for when Vari mataauhoe left Hototu he said to her: "You will bear me a child; if a girl, she will belong to you and take your name; but if a boy, you are to call him Teva; rain and wind will accompany his birth, and to whatever spot he goes, rain and wind will always foretell his coming. He is of the race of Ariirahi, and you are to build him a Marae which you are to call Matava (the two eyes of Tahiti), and there he is to wear the Marotea, and he must be known as the child of Ahurei (the wind that blows from Taiarapu)." A boy was born, and, as foretold, in rain and wind. The name of Teva was given to him; and Matoa was built; and there Teva ruled. From this boy came the name Teva; but when and how it was applied to the clan no one knows. The members of the tribe or clan believe it must have been given by the Arii of Papara or Vaiari. To this day, the Tevas seldom travel without rain and wind, so that they use the word Teva rarivari—Teva wet always and everywhere. The Vaiari people still point out the place where the first ancestor of the clan lived as a child, his first bathing place, and the different waters in which he fished as he came on his way toward Papara. This legend is to-day as fresh in the district of Papara as it was centuries ago. It is but natural that the Tevas, one of the two most influential and powerful of the tribes of Tahiti, should be anxious to trace their ancestry to a royal origin even if the first ancestor should be a man-shark, little remembering that

It is not wealth nor ancestry, but honorable conduct and a noble
disposition that make men great.

OVIDIUS.

As the Tahitians had no written language before the missionaries visited the island, little is known of its earlier history. The history of the island since its discovery has been accurately written up by Ariitaimai, an eye-witness of many of the most stirring events and on that account most to be relied upon, for

The only good histories are those that have been written by the
persons themselves who commanded in the affairs whereof they write.

MONTAIGNE.

Let us follow her account of the history of the island since its discovery by Captain Samuel Wallis, June 18, 1767. The captain made a voyage around the world in Her Majesty's ship _Dolphin_, and on his way found the island, and called it Otaheite. At that time, Amo was head chief of Papara and of the Tevas, or rather his son Teriirere, born about 1762, was head chief, and Amo exercised power as his guardian, according to native custom, which made the eldest child immediately on birth, the head of the family. At that time the power of calling the Tevas to conference or war was peculiar to the Papara head chief; the military strength of the Tevas was unconquerable, if it could be united; but perhaps the most decisive part of every head chief's influence was his family connection. Nowhere in the world was marriage a matter of more political and social consequence than in Tahiti. Women occupied an important position in society and political affairs. The chiefesses held the reins of government with as much firmness as the chiefs, and commanded the same influence and respect. She was as independent of her husband as of any other chief; she had her seat or throne, in the Marae even to the exclusion of her husband; and if she were ambitious she might win or lose crowns for her children as happened with Captain Wallis' friend Oberea, the great-aunt of Ariitaimai Purea, and with her niece, Tetuauni reiaiteatea, the mother of the first King Pomare. At the time of Wallis' and Cook's visits, Papara was the principal city in Tahiti, and Papeete, the present capital city of the French possessions in Oceanica, a mere village. The Papara head chief was never the head chief of the whole island, but his power and influence were predominant throughout the whole island. The kingship which Europeans insisted on conferring on him, or on any other head chief who happened for the time to rival him, was never accepted by the natives until forced upon them by foreign influence and arms. From this it will be seen that before European influence made itself felt, the Tahitians were divided into tribes ruled by so many chiefs, with a head chief whose influence extended over the entire island. The form of native government was very simple and had many very commendable features. Wars between the tribes and between Tahiti and the neighboring island, Moorea, were, however, of frequent occurrence.

All exact knowledge concerning dates in the history of the island begins with June 24, 1767, when Wallis warped his ship into the bay of Matavai, the most northerly point of the island. The appearance of the foreigners, the first time the natives had ever seen a white man and such a great ship, created consternation. Excitement ran high on the landing of the crew. The natives attacked them, but their rude implements of warfare could not cope with firearms, and they were defeated. Two days later, June 26th, the battle was renewed and again terminated in the defeat of the natives, promptly followed by sudden friendship for their first European visitors. The natives, extremely superstitious, were at first suspicious, and it required some time to establish free relations between them and the commander and crew of the _Dolphin_. Strangely enough, the first native to board the ship was a woman. The incident is related by Wallis himself:

On Saturday, the 11th, in the afternoon, the gunner came on board with
a tall woman, who seemed to be about five and forty years of age, of a
pleasing countenance and majestic deportment. He told me that she was
but just come into that part of the country, and that seeing great
respect paid her by the rest of the natives, he had made her some
presents; in return for which she had invited him to her home, which
was about two miles up the valley, and given him some large hogs;
after which she returned with him to the watering-place and expressed
a desire to go on board the ship, in which wish he had thought it
proper, on all accounts, that she should be gratified. She seemed to
be under no restraint, either from diffidence or fear, when she came
into the ship, and she behaved all the while she was on board with an
easy freedom that always distinguishes conscious superiority and
habitual command. I gave her a large blue mantle that reached from her
shoulders to her feet, which I drew over her, and tied on with
ribbons; I gave her also a looking-glass, beads of several sorts, and
many other things, which she accepted with good grace and much
pleasure. She took notice that I had been ill, and pointed to the
shore. I understood that she meant I should go thither to perfect my
recovery, and I made signs that I would go thither the next morning.
When she intimated an inclination to return, I ordered the gunner to
go with her, who, having set her on shore, attended her to her
habitation, which he described as being very large and well built. He
said that in this house she had many guards and domestics, and that
she had another at a little distance which was enclosed in lattice
work.

This visit opened the island to the Englishmen. Wallis repeatedly refers to his first visitor as "my princess, or rather queen." When he came on shore the next day he was met by the princess, who ordered that he and the first lieutenant and purser, who were also ill, should be carried by the people to her home, where they were treated in a most hospitable manner. Here is a beautiful instance of natural hospitality, charity and gratitude combined; a kindly deed dictated by unselfish motives, an exhibition of virtues so rarely met with in the common walks of life.

Hospitality to the better sort and charity to the poor; two virtues
that are never exercised so well as when they accompany each other.

ATTERBURY.

The princess had full control over the curious, motley crowd, which gave way to the strangers by a sign of her hand. The house proved to be the Fare-hau, or Council-house, of Haapape, and the princess, as Wallis called her, who did not belong to Haapape, but to quite another part of the island, was herself a guest whose presence there was due to her relationship with the chief.

Wallis left the Island July 27th. His "queen" and her attendants came on board and bade him and his crew a most affectionate farewell. Neither Wallis, nor Bougainville, who visited Tahiti in April, 1768, eight months later, ever learned what her true rank was, or from what part of the island she came. According to Ariitaimai, she was her great-great-grandaunt Purea, or rather, the wife of her great-great-granduncle.

Bougainville named the island New Cytherea, and Commerson, the naturalist, charmed by its beauty and astonished at its resources, called it Utopia. The latter gave the following romantic description of the island and its people in a letter published in the _Mercure de France_:

Je puis vous dire que c'est le seul coin de la terre ou habitent des
hommes sans vices, sans préjugés, sans besoins, sans dissensions. Nés
sous le plus beau ciel, nourris des fruits d'une terre féconde sans
culture, régis par des pères de famille plutôt que par des rois, ils
ne connaissent d'autre dieu que l'Amour. Tous les jours lai sont
consacrés, toute l'isle son temple, toutes les femmes—me
demandez-vous? Les rivales des Geôrgiennes en beauté et les sœurs des
grâces toutes unes.

Such was the simple, innocent, happy island life when Tahiti was discovered by the white man, whose pretended object was to bring to the natives the benefits of modern civilization. As to the immediate effects of European civilization on the morals of the natives, Ariitaimai has the following to say in reply to the alleged laxity of Tahitian morals:

No one knows how much of the laxity of morals was due to the French
and English themselves, whose appearance certainly caused a sudden and
shocking overthrow of such moral rules as had existed before in the
island society: and the "supposed" means that when the island society
as a whole is taken into account. Marriage was real as far as it went,
and the standard rather higher than that of Paris; in some ways
extremely lax, and in others strict and stern to a degree that would
have astonished even the most conventional English nobleman, had he
understood it

The third European to visit Tahiti was that intrepid explorer, Captain Cook, who entered Matavai Bay on the 13th of April, 1769, in Her Majesty's bark, the _Endeavor_, on his first voyage around the world. He met chief Tootahah, under whose protection he settled on Point Venus. He was accompanied by a staff of scientists, among them Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, a Swedish naturalist. Captain Wallis' "queen" was again on the shore to meet the strangers. Captain Cook gives a detailed account of her visit:

She first went to Mr. Banks' tent at the fort, where she was not
known, till the master, who knew her, happening to go ashore, brought
her on board with two men and several women, who seemed to be all of
her family. I made them all some presents or other, but to Obariea
(for that was the woman's name) I gave several things, in return for
which, as soon as I went on shore with her, she gave me a hog and
several bunches of plantains. These she caused to be carried from her
canoes up to the fort in a kind of procession, she and I bringing up
the rear. This woman is about forty years of age, and, like most of
the other women, very masculine. She is head or chief of her own
family or tribe, but to all appearance hath no authority over the rest
of the inhabitants, whatever she might have when the _Dolphin_ was here.

Cook ascertained at this time, that Obariea was the wife of the most influential chief of the island, Oamo, but did not live with him. She had two children, a daughter eighteen years old, and a boy of seven, the heir to the throne. He says in his Journal:

The young boy above mentioned is son to Oamo and Obariea, but Oamo and
Obariea do not at this time live together as man and wife, he not
being able to endure with her troublesome disposition. I mention this
because it shows that separation in the marriage state is not unknown
to these people.

When Cook made his second visit to the island, in 1774, he learned that Oamo and Obariea, or, as they are called in the genealogy of the Tevas, Amo and Purea, had been driven from Papara into the mountains. Vehiatu, the victor, made Amo resign, and the regency of that part of the island was entrusted to Tootuhah, the youngest brother of the deposed chief.

POMARE, THE ROYAL FAMILY OF TAHITI

The Pomare family are descendants of chiefs called Tu of Faaraoa, one of the atoll islands of the Paumotu Archipelago, some two hundred and fifty miles northeast of Tahiti. The exact date of the first Tu's arrival in Tahiti is unknown. Even the generation can not be fixed. The Pomares were always ashamed of their Paumotu descent, which they regarded as a flaw in their heraldry, and which was a reproach to them in the eyes of the Tahitians, for all Tahitians regarded the Paumotus as savage, and socially inferior. The first Tu who came to visit the distant land of Tahiti, came in by the Taunoa opening, which is the eastern channel, into what is now the harbor of Papeete. Landing at Taunoa a stranger, he was invited to be the guest of Manaihiti, who seems to have been a chief of Pare. He was adopted by the chief as his brother, and at the death of the chief, he became heir and successor in the chief's line. He married into the Arue family, which gave his son a claim to the joint chiefdom of Pare Arue; and at last his grandson, or some later generation, obtained in marriage no less a personage than Tetuaehuri, daughter of Taiarapu. One of the members of this family, Teu (born 1720, died 1802) made new and important advances in the social and political circles of Tahiti by marriage, and became the father of Pomare I. (1743-1803), the first king of Tahiti. Teu seems to have been a very clever and cautious man. He never assumed to be a great chief or to wear the belt of feathers. He was more jealous of his son than of Amo or his son Teriirere. His son, Tu, was born about 1743. Related by birth with two of the most influential families, he strengthened his native ties by marrying Tetuanui-rea-i-te-rai, of the adjoining independent chiefdom of Tefauai Ahurai, who was not only a niece of Purea, but quite as ambitious and energetic as Purea herself. The English, who could not conceive that the Tahitians should be able to exist without some pretense of royalty, gave Tu the rank and title of king, notwithstanding that he was only one, and at that not the most influential of several Arii rahi. To the great dissatisfaction of the other chiefs, Tu received the lion's share of presents from Captain Cook. At this action, the Ahurai and Attahura people were enraged, and Cook was quite unable to understand that they had reason to complain. To them, Cook's partiality for Tu must have seemed a deliberate insult. When Cook returned on his third voyage, in 1777, several Tahitian tribes were in a state of war with Moorea, in which Tu took no active part. Cook then deliberately intervened in the support of the plan he had adopted of elevating Tu at the expense of the other chiefs. In his estimation, Tu was king by divine right, and any attack on his authority was treason in the first place, and an attack on British influence in the next. British influence and British threats made a radical change in the government of Tahiti, in opposition to the expressed wish of the great majority of the people. England wanted to control the political affairs of the island for commercial gain, and to extend her sovereignty in the South Seas, which only confirms that

All government—indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue
and every prudent act—is founded on compromise and barter.

BURKE.

After Cook's departure, nearly eleven years elapsed before another European ship called at Tahiti, and, during this time, Pomare paid dearly for the distinctions forced upon him by the foreigners. When Lieutenant Bligh arrived in the _Bounty_, in 1788, Tu told him that after five years from the time of Cook's last departure, the people of the island Moorea (Eirrieo) joined with those of Attahura and made an attack on his district, and many of his subjects were killed, while he had himself fled, with the survivors, to the mountains. All the houses and property had been destroyed or carried away by the enemy. Bligh landed at Matavai in the _Bounty_ October 26, 1788. He came for a supply of breadfruit, which was to be introduced and domesticated in the various tropical colonies of Great Britain, and indirectly to advance the interests and power of Tu, who had nearly lost his influence over the natives. His position was so desperate that he begged the lieutenant to take him and his wife, Tetua, to England. He had a son, at this time six years old, who became the first Christian king of Tahiti. Before leaving the island, April 3, 1789, Bligh did what he could to strengthen Tu's position, and supplied him with firearms. For this act he gave the following explanation:

He (Tu) had frequently expressed a wish that I would leave some
firearms and ammunition with him, as he expected to be attacked after
the ship sailed, and perhaps chiefly on account of our partiality to
him. I therefore thought it but reasonable to accede to his request. I
was the more readily prevailed on, as he said his intentions were to
act only on the defensive. This, indeed, seems most suited to his
disposition, which is neither active nor enterprising. When I proposed
to leave with him a pair of pistols, which they prefer to muskets,
they told me that his wife, Tetua, would fight with one and Oedidee
with the other. Tetua has learned to load and fire a musket with great
dexterity, and Oedidee is an excellent marksman. It is not common for
women in this country to go to war, but Tetua is a very resolute
woman, of a large make, and has great bodily strength.

History shows that Tetua was not the only fighting woman in Tahiti, as at different times, in tribal wars, it was not uncommon for women to take an active part, and in more than one instance the leading part.

On great occasions it is almost always women who have given the
strongest proofs of virtue and devotion; the reason is, that with men,
good and bad qualities are in general the result of calculation,
whilst in women they are impulses, springing from the heart.

COUNT MONTHOLON.

Lieutenant Bligh left the island April 4th. As he was passing the Friendly, or Tonga group, April 28th, the larger part of his officers and men mutinied and set him and some eighteen others adrift in the ship's launch. The mutineers then put the ship about and returned to Tahiti, where they arrived at Matavai Bay, June 6, 1789. There they took in all the live-stock they could obtain, and twenty-four Tahitians, and sailed again June 16th for Tubuai, but appeared once more, September 22nd, and landed sixteen of the mutineers, who were tired of their adventures. The rest sailed suddenly the next night, and vanished from the sight of men for twenty years. The sixteen mutineers who remained scattered more or less over the island, but made Pare their headquarters and Tu their patron. Here they set to work, November 12, 1789, to build a thirty-foot schooner, with which to make their escape. The effect of the example of these ruffians and criminals on the morals of the simple, receptive Tahitians can be readily imagined. These men, who had enjoyed the confidence of their commander and the advantages and pleasures of a trip to foreign strange countries, proved ungrateful, and "the earth produces nothing worse than an ungrateful man" (Ansonius). The schooner was launched August 5, 1790. The war which immediately followed, and which reestablished Tu in his power for the time, deserves to be called the War of the Mutineers of the _Bounty_. When Tu died, thirteen years later, the missionaries in their Journal recorded many details about his life and character, and among other things, they said:

He was born in the district of Oparre, where his corpse now is, and
was by birth chief of that district, and none other. The notice of the
English navigators laid the foundation for his future aggrandizement;
and the runaway seamen that from time to time quitted their vessels to
sojourn in the island (especially that of His Majesty's ship _Bounty_'s
crew, which resided here) were the instruments for gaining to Pomarre
a greater extent of dominion and power than any other man had before
in Otaheite.

It is very evident that the first Pomare was a man without firmness and that what influence he exercised was due to the energies and ambition of his wife and to foreign support. When Lieutenant Bligh reached home and reported the mutiny, the British government sent the frigate _Pandora_ in search of the _Bounty_ and the deserted crew. The _Pandora_ never found the _Bounty_, which long since had been burned by the mutineers at Pitcairn Island; but she did find such of the mutineers as had returned to Tahiti, and who were actively engaged in establishing Tu as a Tahitian despot, when the _Pandora_, in March, 1791, appeared in Matavai Bay. The mutineers, it seems, unable to keep at sea in the rickety schooner, landed at Papara, March 26th, and took refuge in the mountains. Captain Edwards, of the _Pandora_, immediately sent two boats, with a number of men, to Papara. Through the friendly office of the chiefs and natives, the mutineers were finally captured, one by one, until only six remained out, and these were at last found near the seashore, where they were captured after many fruitless attempts. The _Pandora_ sailed from Tahiti with her prisoners in May, 1791, and in December following, Vancouver arrived in the sloop of war _Discovery_, on a search for a northwest passage to the Orient, stopping for supplies at Tahiti, December 28th.

Vancouver, who had been with Cook in 1777, inquired for his old friends. He learned that the young king had taken the name of Otoo, and his old friend that of Pomare, having given up his name with his sovereign jurisdiction, though he still seemed to retain his authority as regent. This is the first record of the name Pomare, by which the family has since been known. After the birth of the young Tu, about 1782, the first of his children who was allowed to live, the father seems to have taken the name of Tuiah, or Tarino, which he bore in 1788. He took the name of Pomare (night cough) from his younger son, Terii nava horoo, a young child in 1791, who coughed at night. With the assistance of English guns, Pomare waged active war on neighboring chiefs, and the chief of Papara was the last one to succumb. By successive vigorous strokes, he finally gained control of the entire group of islands, including Borabora.

MISSIONARY RULE

It is better that men should be governed by priestcraft than violence.

LORD MACAULEY.

The early missionaries of Tahiti played an important role in the island politics. They did not limit their work to the conversion of the heathen islanders, but took an active part in political affairs, and many of their doings in that direction were not in accord with the teachings of the gospel. The first missionaries sent to Tahiti from England reached the island in the _Duff_, March, 1797. They received information of the island politics from two Swedish sailors, Andrew Lind, of the ship _Matilda_, which had been wrecked in the South Sea in 1792, and Peter Haggerstein, who deserted from the _Daedalus_ in February, 1793. Both of these men were adventurers of the type that has infested the South Seas for more than a century. They became well-known characters in the history of the island, sometimes assisting the missionaries, and sometimes annoying them. In July, 1797, Peter accompanied one of the missionaries as a guide and interpreter, on a circuit round the island, to make a sort of census, as a starting-point for the missionary work. They began with Papenoo, July 11th, and as they walked, Peter boasted of his exploits. His stories were so much in conflict with facts that they rather misled than aided the missionaries in search of island affairs. Temarii, the chief of Papara, had visited the missionaries at Matavai. The missionaries gave the following account of him:

May 7, 1797, visited by the chief priest from Papara, Temarre. He was
dressed in a wrapper of Otaheitian cloth, and over it an officer's
coat doubled around him. At his first approach he appeared timid, and
was invited in. He was just about seated when the cuckoo clock struck
and filled him with astonishment and terror. Old Pyetea had brought
the bird some breadfruit, observing it must be starved if we never fed
it. At breakfast we invited Temarii to our repast, but he first held
out his hand with a bit of plantain and looked very solemn, which, one
of the natives said, was an offering to Eatooa (Tahitian divinity) and
we must receive it. When we had taken it out of his hand and laid it
under the table, he sat down and made a hearty breakfast. Brother
Cover read the translated address to all these respected guests, the
natives listening with attention, and particularly the priest, who
seemed to drink in every word, but appeared displeased when urged to
cast away their false gods, and on hearing the names of Jehovah and
Jesus he would turn and whisper. Two days afterwards, Temarii came
again to the mission house and this time with the young Otoo, Pomare
H., and his first wife Tetuanui.

Here again is the account of the visit by the missionaries:

May 9th, Temarre accompanied the king and queen and staid to dine with
us. He is, we find, of the royal race and son of the famed Oberea. He
is the first chief of the island after Pomarre, by whom he has been
subdued, and now lives in friendship with him and has adopted his son.
He is also high in esteem as a priest.

In July of the same year the missionaries visited Temarii at Papara on their way around the island. They found the chief under the influence of Kava, but were feasted the next day on Temarii's feast pig. Not only was Temarii the most powerful chief of the island, but Pomare had become, by his son's accession, a chief of the second order. He depended greatly on the favor of his son, the young Tu, who was, in 1797, supposed to be at least fifteen and perhaps seventeen years of age, and who had been adopted by Temarii, his cousin, who was about ten years older than he. Adoption was rather stronger in the South Seas than the tie of natural parentage. Between his natural father, Pomare, and his adopted father, Temarii, the young Tu preferred the latter, and sooner or later every one knew that Temarii would help Tu to emancipate himself and drive Pomare from the island.

The _Duff_ sailed for England August 14, 1797, leaving the missionaries to the mercies of rival factions, and they soon ascertained that Pomare and Tu were on anything but friendly terms. The missionaries had faith in Pomare, who chose one of them by the name of Cover as a brother. Temarii chose another by the name of Main. These two missionaries went to Papara August 15th, at the suggestion of the influential native priest, Manne Manne, to remonstrate against a human sacrifice which was to be made at the Marae Tooarai. On account of a murder recently committed, the missionaries found the chief and people greatly excited, and fled as quickly as possible.

In the month of March the missionaries found themselves in a critical condition when the ship _Nautilus_ appeared and two of her crew deserted. The deserters went to Pare and were sheltered there. The captain of the _Nautilus_ at once set to work to recover them. Four of the missionaries proceeded to Pare to see Tu, Pomare and Temarii and informed them that a refusal to return the men would be regarded as exhibiting an evil intention against the missionaries. They found Tu and Temarii at Pare, but went to get Pomare to join them, when they were suddenly attacked and stripped by some thirty natives, who took their clothes and treated them rather roughly, but at last released them. They went to Pomare's house and were kindly received. Pomare returned with them to Tu, and insisted on the punishment of the offenders and the delivery of the deserters. Two were executed, and the district of Pare took up arms to avenge them. Tu joined his father and suppressed the riot, so that the missionaries' clothes cost the natives fifteen lives before order was restored. This incident made the missionaries very unpopular and they had to depend more than ever on Pomare for protection.

On August 24th, two whaling vessels, the _Cornwall_ and _Sally_, of London, anchored in Matavai Bay, and most of the principal chiefs went on board. On the 30th, while the missionaries were at dinner, Pomare came in great haste, and told them that a man had been blown up with gunpowder at the Council house in Pare, and requested them to hasten to the place and render assistance. When they arrived they found that the injured man was Temarii. Here is the account of the affair by the missionaries:

At our arrival we were led to the bed of Temaree called also Orepiah,
and beheld such a spectacle as we had never before seen. Brother
Broomhall began immediately to apply what he had prepared with a
camel's-hair brush over most parts of the body. He was apparently more
passive under the operation than we could conceive a man in his
situation would be capable of. The night drawing on, we took leave of
him by saying we would return next morning with a fresh preparation.
On the following morning we were struck with much surprise at the
appearance of the patient He was literally daubed with something like
a thick white paste. Upon inquiry we found it to be the scrapings of
yams. Both the chief and his wife seemed highly offended at Brother
Broomhall's application the preceding evening, and they would not
permit him to do anything more for him, as he had felt so much pain
from what he had applied. It was said that there was a curse put into
the medicine by our God.

It must be remembered that the Tahitian chiefs were also priests and not infrequently acted as physicians. The dissatisfaction of Temarii with the treatment of his case by the missionaries had therefore to be considered as a most unfortunate affair. Under these conditions the missionaries were apprehensive of increasing hostilities. The suspicion on part of the superstitious natives that the missionaries had been sent by Pomare to curse Temarii and cause his death was not only a natural but a reasonable one to the chief as well as his subjects. Pomare was quite capable of such conduct and as far as the natives knew, the missionaries were Pomare's friends and supporters. The accident which gave rise to this unfortunate occurrence was due to the English gunpowder and it was fortunate that the missionaries had nothing to do with furnishing it. The explosion occurred while Temarii was testing the quality of powder which he obtained from the whalers _Cornwall_ and _Sally_.

A pistol was loaded and unthinkingly fired in the midst of a number of
people, over the whole quantity (five pounds) of powder received. A
spark of fire dropped from the pistol upon the powder that lay on the
ground, and in a moment it blew up. The natives did not feel
themselves hurt at first, but when the smoke was somewhat dispersed,
observing their skin fouled with powder, they began to rub their arms,
and found the skin peeling off under their fingers. Terrified at this,
they instantly ran to a river near at hand and plunged themselves in.

Temarii lingered in great suffering till September 8th, but the missionaries did not dare to visit him again for fear of violence on the part of the indignant natives. The whole body of chiefs was present and looked on in consternation while Temarii died. The chief's remains were carried, in the usual state, round the island to all his districts and duly mourned; and in the regular course prescribed by the island ceremonial, his head was secretly hidden in the cave at Papara. These demonstrations served to spread the news of the calamity, for which the missionaries received the exclusive blame. The political complications which followed induced Pomare to seek safety in flight to the Paumotu Islands, leaving his wife to face the storm. The chiefess was not idle after her husband's cowardly flight. On the 29th of November she compromised with Tu by ceding to him the authority he wanted, and obtained from him a pledge assuring her safety. This guaranty was the life of the high priest, old Manne Manne, Tu's best friend. He was murdered by Tetuanui's people on his way from Matavai to Pare. The chiefess was in the missionaries' house when this news arrived. She had a cartridge-box around her waist and a musket near at hand. She shook hands in a friendly manner with the Swede, saying unto him, "It is all over," meaning the war, and immediately returned to her home. Pomare gained nothing by these dissensions, for he had nothing to gain, but had to sacrifice a part of his possessions. The only winner in this tragic game was the worst and most bloodthirsty of all, Tu, the first Christian king. It must be remarked that this king was the creation of the English, and that he was used as a tool in the hands of the missionaries. The Europeans came, and not only upset all the moral ideas of the natives, but also their whole political system. Before European influence made itself felt in Tahiti, whenever a chief became intolerably arrogant or dangerous, the other chiefs united to overthrow him. All the wars that are remembered in island traditions were caused by the overweening pride, violence or abnormal ambition of the great chiefs of districts, and always ended in correcting existing evils and in restoring the balance of power.

The English came just at the time when one of these revolutions was in progress. The whole island had united to punish the chiefess of Papara for outrageous disregard of the island courtesies which took the place of international law between great chiefs. Purea had taken away the symbol of sovereignty she had assumed for her son, and had given it for safe-keeping to the chief of Paea. The natives and chiefs had recognized the chief of Pare, Arue, as entitled to wear the Maro-ura, which Purea had denied him by insulting his wife. Then the chief of Paea had tried to imitate Purea and assert supreme authority, only to be in his turn defeated and killed.

Probably Tu would never have attempted a similar course if the English had not insisted on recognizing and treating him as king of the whole island. He was one of the weakest of the chiefs and enjoyed little if any reputation as a military power. The other chiefs would have easily kept him in his proper place if the English had not constantly supported him and restored him to power when he was vanquished. English interference and the assistance of the missionaries prolonged his ambition and caused the constant revolutions which gave no chance for the people to recover from the losses. Pomare was a shrewd politician and with the assistance of English guns finally gained control over the whole island, crushing tribal rule, the safeguard of the people under his despotic rule. All visitors to the island became aware how desperately the unfortunate people struggled against the English policy of creating and supporting a tyranny. The brutality and violence of Tu made him equally hated by his own people of Pare and by the Teva districts. Of these facts the missionaries had full knowledge, as is evident from their numerous correspondents, nevertheless, they assisted him in carrying out his plans to gain control over the entire island. They supplied him freely with firearms and ammunition. To preserve peace the missionaries did some very curious things which suggest, as they hinted, that they were glad to see the natives fighting together, as is evident from one of their daily records:

August 20, 1800.—We hear great preparations are making, whether for
war or peace is to be determined in a short time, by some heathenish
divination. If it should prove for war, those who are eager for blood
seem determined to glut themselves, we rejoice that the Lord of Hosts
is the God of the heathen as well as the Captain of the Armies of
Israel; and while the potsherds of the earth are dashing themselves to
pieces one against the other, they are fulfilling his determinate
counsels and foreknowledge.

In the month of June Pomare instituted a wholesale massacre to subject the entire island to his rule, and by brutal force gained the object of his ambition. In 1808 the political situation was such that the missionaries found it necessary for their safety to leave the island, and fled with Pomare, November 12th, to the island of Moorea. Pomare's cruelties and atrocities practiced upon the natives during his tyrannical rule are well described in a pen-picture drawn by Moerenhout:

After having massacred all whom they had surprised (in Attahura),
after having burned the houses, they went on to Papara, where Tati,
who is still living (1837), was chief; but fortunately a man who had
escaped from the carnage of Punaauia came to warn the inhabitants of
Papara, so that they had time, not to unite in defense, but to fly.
Nevertheless, in that infernal night and the day following a great
number of persons perished, especially old men, women and children;
and among the victims were the widow and children of Aripaia
(Ariifaataia) Amo's son, who, surprised the next evening near
Taiarahu, were pitilessly massacred with all their attendants. Tati
and some of his warriors succeeded in reaching a fort called
Papeharoro, at Mairepehe; but they were too few to maintain themseives
there, and were forced to take refuge in the most inaccessible parts
of the high mountains, from whence this chief succeeded in getting to
a canoe which some of his faithful followers provided for him, and
kept in readiness on the shore, at the peril of their lives. With him
were his brother and his young son, whom he had himself carried in his
arms during all this time of fatigue and dangers.

Opuhara became chief of Papara, and soon afterward chief of the island, and remained the chief personage of Tahiti during the next seven years. Ellis, the historian of the missionaries, described him as an intelligent and interesting man.

At Moorea, Pomare's friends were Paumotuans, Boraborans, Raiateans, missionaries, and outcasts. Even these at last abandoned him. The missionary journal shows that they had long regarded their work as a failure, and after identifying themselves with Pomare, in spite of emphatic warnings, no other result was possible. So the missionaries, leaving only Mr. Nott at Moorea, sailed for Australia, not daring to accept the proffered protection of the Tahiti chiefs, because they could not separate themselves, in the minds of the common people, from Pomare and his interests. At Moorea, Pomare urged the visiting chiefs to become Christians. On the 18th of July, 1812, he announced his own decision to the missionaries, and shortly afterwards, on invitation from his old district of Pare Arue, he returned to Tahiti, where he was permitted to remain for two years, as an avowed Christian, unmolested by his old enemies. He took up his residence at Pare Arue as a Christian chief, August 13, 1812, and kept up a correspondence with the missionaries at Moorea.

The missionaries returned and were more successful in Christianizing the people. On the 17th of February, 1813, Pomare wrote: "Matavai has been delivered up to me. When I am perfectly assured of the sincerity of this surrender I will write to you another letter." The missionaries made a tour of the island; many conversions took place; in Moorea several idols were publicly burned; there could be no doubt that the Christians were pursuing an active course, and that their success would bring back the authority of Pomare over the whole island; but neither Opuhara nor Tati interfered, and the peace remained. Yet, after waiting two years at Pare, vainly expecting the restoration of his government, and endeavoring to recover his authority in his hereditary districts, Pomare returned to Moorea in the autumn of 1814, accompanied by a large train of adherents and dependents, all professing Christianity. At the same time the Christian converts in Tahiti became an organization known as the Bure Atua, and every one could see that Pomare was making use of them, and of his wife's resources, to begin a new effort to recover by force his authority in the island. War was inevitable, and Pomare, with his Christian followers and missionaries, could choose the time and place.

Pomare himself was not a soldier, nor had he anything of a soldierly spirit. He left active campaigning to his wives, who were less likely to rouse the old enmity. His two wives, Terite and Pomare vehine, came over to Pare Arue May, 1815, with a large party of Christians, and urged their plans for the overthrow of the native chiefs. The chiefs had no other alternative than to get rid of them, and fixed the night of July 7th for the combined attack. Opuhara led the forces, and it is said that he had given the two queens timely warning to effect their escape. For his delay some of the other chiefs charged him with treachery. He replied that he wished no harm to the two women or their people; that his enemies were the Parionuu; and he marched directly into Pare Arue, and subdued it once more.

While Pomare and the missionaries grew stronger, and, as Ellis expressed it, "became convinced that the time was not very remote when their faith and principles must rise preeminent above the power and influence" of the native chiefs, the chiefs themselves exhibited vacillation. Pomare returned, with all his following, apparently armed and prepared for war. The native converts were trained to the use of firearms and the whole missionary interest became, for the moment, actively militant. The native chiefs remained passive. Under the appearance of religious services, Pomare and the missionaries kept their adherents under arms and prepared them for any hostilities that might arise.

With his army numbering eight hundred, two war canoes, one manned with musketeers, the other with a swivel gun in the stern, commanded by a white man, Pomare, on November 11th, took possession at or near the village of Punaauia, near Papara, with pickets far in advance. Opuhara hastily summoned his men in the famous battle of Fei-pi (the ripe plantains). The field of battle was among the foothills near the coast. Opuhara's warriors made a valiant attack and pierced the front ranks of the enemy till it reached the spot where one of the queens, Pomare vehine, and the chief warriors stood. There one of the native converts leveled his gun at Opuhara, fired, the chief fell, and in a very short time expired. The leader of the native forces was killed by one of his own people who had cast his lot with Pomare and the missionaries.

This war was brought on to force the natives to Pomare's rule, and not for the purpose of removing obstacles to the Christianization of the islanders, as the chiefs were not opposed to the peaceable dissemination of the teachings of the gospel. It was a political and not a religious war, and in this political endeavor the missionaries and their converts took the leading part. The missionaries evidently forgot the legitimate object of their mission and unmercifully slaughtered the natives who took up arms to defend their rights. The Christians on Pomare's side were fighting for supremacy, unmindful of the teachings of the sacred Scriptures.

For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy;
and mercy rejoiceth against judgment St. James ii: 13.