Tavi's direct and full authority extended only over his own chiefery of Tautira, but by rank or courtesy, through his family connection or his influence it extended over the whole island, and only Eimeo or Moorea was exempt. A rahui was a form of corvée to which other great chiefs seldom willingly submitted; but even if a chief were himself anxious to avoid a war, which was the penalty of breaking it, his wife or his sisters or his relations were always ready to urge him to conspire against it. Tavi's chief rival was Vehiatua, head-chief of Tea-hupoo, which backs against Tautira on the south. Vehiatua had a daughter who had married the head-chief of Pare Arue, the district in the extreme north where the city of Papeete stands; and this daughter, Tetuaehuri, was about to give birth to a child.

This is the first appearance in history of the family which has since become famous and royal under the accidental, missionary title of Pomare. As every one knows, Pomare was merely one of several nicknames successively taken by Tunuieaite atua, the grandson of Tetuaehuri. Every Tahitian chief took such names, usually to commemorate something that happened to him, and very often out of regard for a child; but these nicknames were not permanent like the official titles that carried with them lands and rank. The official name of the chief of Parue Arue, Tetuaehuri's husband, was Taaroa manahune, who traced his descent from Fakaroa, an island of the Paumotus. In rank, Taaroa manahune stood in the third or fourth class -- at least, in the opinion of the Vaiari and Punaauia chiefs who wore the Maro-ura; of the Papara chief who wore the Maro-tea; of Vehiatua of Taiarapu, and Marama of Haapiti in the Moorea, and of Vaetua of Ahurai. Except as the husband of Tetuaehuri, he made no great figure. Ghiefesses like Tetuaehuri were apt to do much as they pleased when their husbands were less important than their fathers. Tetuaehuri was with child,

Indigenous Histories