Of Papara and its chiefs they saw little, and thought less. Lieutenant Pickersgill, at the end of August, 1773, went as far as Papara, "where O Ammo, who had once been the king of all Taheitee, resided with his son, the young T’-Aree Derre. He took up his first night’s lodging on the borders of a small district which was now the property of the famous queen, 0-Poorea (Oberea). As soon as she heard of his arrival she hastened to him, and met her old acquaintance with repeated marks of friendship. She had separated from her husband some time after the departure of Captain Wallis, and was now entirely deprived of that greatness which had once rendered her conspicuous in story and august in the eyes of Europeans."

To a Tahitian, who knew what was the usual fate of chiefesses after their sons had taken their rank and their husbands had taken new wives, even though he knew nothing of the position of English dowagers, this peculiarly conventional English morality would have seemed wasted. Purea was still, according to Forster, in the possession of her district, but apparently Papara had taken part in Tutaha’s war against Taiarapu, and had been ravaged like Matavai and Pare, in revenge, by Vehiatua. "The civil wars between the two peninsulas of the island had stripped her, as well as the whole district of Paparra, of the greatest part of her wealth, so that she complained to the lieutenant that she was poor (teetee) and had not a hog to give her friends."

Indigenous Histories