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Arii rahi with the Maro-ura in December, 1768, or January, 1769, yet when Cook arrived at Matavai in the following April he never saw Tu; he saw only Tutaha. When he sent a boat along the coast to the eastward, past Papenoo and Mahaena, twenty miles, the people everywhere said that the pigs and other provisions all belonged to Tutaha, and could not be sold without his permission; so that "we now began to think that this man was indeed a great prince, for an influence so extensive and absolute could be acquired by no other; and we afterwards found that he administered the government of this part of the island, as sovereign, for a minor whom we never saw all the time that we were upon it." Although Tu was not a minor, being then fully twenty-five years old, and married; and although he and his wife Tetua must have been burning with curiosity to see Cook and get presents, they could not come to Matavai because Matavai was in the district of Haapape, and they were obliged to look at Cook’s ships from a distance, and allow Tutaha and Tepau-i-Ahurai Tamaiti (Toubourai Taimaide) to beg all Cook’s axes and nails.
On the other hand, Amo and Purea, although only three or four months had passed since their overthrow, came to Matavai to see Cook, and were received with the usual respect due to Arii rahi. I have already quoted the story, and will quote it again. "On the 21st [June, 1769]," Cook reported "we were visited at the fort by a chief called Oamo, whom we had never seen before, and who was treated by the natives with uncommon respect; he brought with him a boy about seven years old, and a young woman about sixteen: the boy was carried upon a man’s back, which we considered as a piece of state, for he was as well able to walk as any present. As soon as they were in sight, Oberea and several other natives who were in the fort went out to meet them, having first uncovered their heads and bodies as low as the waist; as they came on, the same ceremony was performed by all the natives who were without the fort." The boy, Teriirere of Papara, was Arii rahi in Haapape because his father’s mother, Tiipaarii or Teroroeora i Farero
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© Derived from the revised Paris edition of 1901 page 89, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-marua-089.html