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- 11085
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.153Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 11023
- text
- This is a fair example of a Tahitian in a passion. Though the mildest
of mortals in general, and hard to be roused, when once fairly up, he
is possessed with a thousand devils.
The day following, Tanee was privately paddled over to Imeeo in a
canoe; where, after remaining in banishment for a couple of weeks, he
was allowed to return, and once more give in his domestic adhesion.
Though Pomaree Vahinee I. be something of a Jezebel in private life, in
her public rule she is said to have been quite lenient and forbearing.
This was her true policy; for an hereditary hostility to her family had
always lurked in the hearts of many powerful chiefs, the descendants of
the old Kings of Taiarboo, dethroned by her grandfather Otoo. Chief
among these, and in fact the leader of his party, was Poofai; a bold,
able man, who made no secret of his enmity to the missionaries, and the
government which they controlled. But while events were occurring
calculated to favour the hopes of the disaffected and turbulent, the
arrival of the French gave a most unexpected turn to affairs.
During my sojourn in Tahiti, a report was rife—which I knew to
originate with what is generally called the “missionary party”—that
Poofai and some other chiefs of note had actually agreed, for a
stipulated bribe, to acquiesce in the appropriation of their country.
But subsequent events have rebutted the calumny. Several of these very
men have recently died in battle against the French.
Under the sovereignty of the Pomarees, the great chiefs of Tahiti were
something like the barons of King John. Holding feudal sway over their
patrimonial valleys, and on account of their descent, warmly beloved by
the people, they frequently cut off the royal revenues by refusing to
pay the customary tribute due from them as vassals.
The truth is, that with the ascendancy of the missionaries, the regal
office in Tahiti lost much of its dignity and influence. In the days of
Paganism, it was supported by all the power of a numerous priesthood,
and was solemnly connected with the entire superstitious idolatry of
the land. The monarch claimed to be a sort of bye-blow of Tararroa, the
Saturn of the Polynesian mythology, and cousin-german to inferior
deities. His person was thrice holy; if he entered an ordinary
dwelling, never mind for how short a time, it was demolished when he
left; no common mortal being thought worthy to inhabit it afterward.
“I’m a greater man than King George,” said the incorrigible young Otoo
to the first missionaries; “he rides on a horse, and I on a man.” Such
was the case. He travelled post through his dominions on the shoulders
of his subjects; and relays of mortal beings were provided in all the
valleys.
But alas! how times have changed; how transient human greatness. Some
years since, Pomaree Vahinee I., the granddaughter of the proud Otoo,
went into the laundry business; publicly soliciting, by her agents, the
washing of the linen belonging to the officers of ships touching in her
harbours.
It is a significant fact, and one worthy of record, that while the
influence of the English missionaries at Tahiti has tended to so great
a diminution of the regal dignity there, that of the American
missionaries at the Sandwich Islands has been purposely exerted to
bring about a contrary result.
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