Wallis left the island in July, 1767. Bougainville visited it in April, 1768, but touched only at Hitiaa, on the eastern side. Amo and Purea were probably then at Papara, preparing for the great feast at which Teriirere i Tooarai was to wear the Maro for the first time in his great new Marae at Mahaiatea.

This feast was the last display of Purea's pride. The contest she had challenged began by a disturbance which broke up the Ahu raa reva -- the donning of the Maro ura -- which was the equivalent of coronation among a people who never wore a crown. The unfortunate Teriirere, for whose sake the feast and the Rahui and the Marae were made, found his cousins uniting to pull him down. The Tevas of Papara have preserved a song made in memory of this tragedy, and almost as lyric and lurid as the tragedy itself; but so genuine a piece of native literature that I have done my best to write it down correctly, and get explanations of its obscure allusions.

The words, with their literal translation, run thus:

Indigenous Histories