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_ IT is well to learn something about people before being introduced to
them, and so we will here give some account of Pomaree and her
family.
Every reader of Cook's Voyages must remember "Otto," who, in that
navigator's time, was king of the larger peninsula of Tahiti.
Subsequently, assisted by the muskets of the Bounty's men, he
extended his rule over the entire island. This Otto, before his
death, had his name changed into Pomaree, which has ever since been
the royal patronymic.
He was succeeded by his son, Pomaree II., the most famous prince in
the annals of Tahiti. Though a sad debauchee and drunkard, and even
charged with unnatural crimes, he was a great friend of the
missionaries, and one of their very first proselytes. During the
religious wars into which he was hurried by his zeal for the new
faith, he was defeated and expelled from the island. After a short
exile he returned from Imeeo, with an army of eight hundred warriors,
and in the battle of Narii routed the rebellious pagans with great
slaughter, and reestablished himself upon the throne. Thus, by force
of arms, was Christianity finally triumphant in Tahiti.
Pomaree II., dying in 1821, was succeeded by his infant son, under the
title of Pomaree III. This young prince survived his father but six
years; and the government then descended to his elder sister, Aimata,
the present queen, who is commonly called Pomaree Vahinee I., or the
first female Pomaree. Her majesty must be now upwards of thirty years
of age. She has been twice married. Her first husband was a son of
the old King of Tahar, an island about one hundred miles from Tahiti.
This proving an unhappy alliance, the pair were soon afterwards
divorced. The present husband of the queen is a chief of Imeeo.
The reputation of Pomaree is not what it ought to be. She, and also
her mother, were, for a long time, excommunicated members of the
Church; and the former, I believe, still is. Among other things, her
conjugal fidelity is far from being unquestioned. Indeed, it was upon
this ground chiefly that she was excluded from the communion of the
Church.
Previous to her misfortunes she spent the greater portion of her time
sailing about from one island to another, attended by a licentious
court; and wherever she went all manner of games and festivities
celebrated her arrival.
She was always given to display. For several years the maintenance of
a regiment of household troops drew largely upon the royal exchequer.
They were trouserless fellows, in a uniform of calico shirts and
pasteboard hats; armed with muskets of all shapes and calibres, and
commanded by a great noisy chief, strutting it in a coat of fiery
red. These heroes escorted their mistress whenever she went abroad.
Some time ago, the queen received from her English sister, Victoria, a
very showy, though uneasy, head-dress--a crown; probably made to
order at some tinman's in London. Having no idea of reserving so
pretty a bauble for coronation days, which come so seldom, her
majesty sported it whenever she appeared in public; and, to show her
familiarity with European customs, politely touched it to all
foreigners of distinction--whaling captains, and the like--whom she
happened to meet in her evening walk on the Broom Road.
The arrival and departure of royalty were always announced at the
palace by the court artilleryman--a fat old gentleman who, in a
prodigious hurry and perspiration, discharged minute fowling-pieces
as fast as he could load and fire the same.
The Tahitian princess leads her husband a hard life. Poor fellow! he
not only caught a queen, but a Tartar, when he married her. The style
by which he is addressed is rather significant--"Pomaree-Tanee"
(Pomaree's man). All things considered, as appropriate a title for a
king-consort as could be hit upon.
If ever there were a henpecked husband, that man is the prince. One
day, his carasposa giving audience to a deputation from the captains
of the vessels lying in Papeetee, he ventured to make a suggestion
which was very displeasing to her. She turned round and, boxing his
ears, told him to go over to his beggarly island of Imeeo if he
wanted to give himself airs.
Cuffed and contemned, poor Tanee flies to the bottle, or rather to the
calabash, for solace. Like his wife and mistress, he drinks more than
he ought.
Six or seven years ago, when an American man-of-war was lying at
Papeetee, the town was thrown into the greatest commotion by a
conjugal assault and battery made upon the sacred person of Pomaree
by her intoxicated Tanee.
Captain Bob once told me the story. And by way of throwing more spirit
into the description, as well as to make up for his oral
deficiencies, the old man went through the accompanying action:
myself being proxy for the Queen of Tahiti.
It seems that, on a Sunday morning, being dismissed contemptuously
from the royal presence, Tanee was accosted by certain good fellows,
friends and boon companions, who condoled with him on his
misfortunes--railed against the queen, and finally dragged him away
to an illicit vendor of spirits, in whose house the party got
gloriously mellow. In this state, Pomaree Vahinee I. was the topic
upon which all dilated--"A vixen of a queen," probably suggested one.
"It's infamous," said another; "and I'd have satisfaction," cried a
third. "And so I will!"--Tanee must have hiccoughed; for off he went;
and ascertaining that his royal half was out riding, he mounted his
horse and galloped after her.
Near the outskirts of the town, a cavalcade of women came cantering
toward him, in the centre of which was the object of his fury.
Smiting his beast right and left, he dashed in among them, completely
overturning one of the party, leaving her on the field, and
dispersing everybody else except Pomaree. Backing her horse
dexterously, the incensed queen heaped upon him every scandalous
epithet she could think of; until at last the enraged Tanee leaped
out of his saddle, caught Pomaree by her dress, and dragging her to
the earth struck her repeatedly in the face, holding on meanwhile by
the hair of her head. He was proceeding to strangle her on the spot,
when the cries of the frightened attendants brought a crowd of natives
to the rescue, who bore the nearly insensible queen away.
But his frantic rage was not yet sated. He ran to the palace; and
before it could be prevented, demolished a valuable supply of
crockery, a recent present from abroad. In the act of perpetrating
some other atrocity, he was seized from behind, and carried off with
rolling eyes and foaming at the mouth.
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. _
Read next: PART II: CHAPTER LXXXI. WE VISIT THE COURT
Read previous: PART II: CHAPTER LXXIX. TALOO CHAPEL--HOLDING COURT IN POLYNESIA
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