Chapter XI
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so done, to deliver them up to Otoo; and as an excuse for their subjugation insisted that it was highly essential to the comfort and happiness of the people at large that over the whole group of these islands there should be only one sovereign. On satisfying them that the islands in question were quite out of my route, and that I had no leisure for such an enterprise, Pomurrey in the most earnest manner requested that on my return to England I would in his name solicit His Majesty to order a ship, with proper force, to be immediately sent out, with directions that if all those islands were not subjected to his power before her arrival she was to conquer them for Otoo, who, he observed, ! well knew would ever be a steady friend to King George and the English. This request was frequently repeated, and he did not fail to urge it in the most pressing manner at our parting."
In all this account nothing shows that the people of Tahiti were more reconciled than they had previously been to the supremacy of Tu. That he was still afraid of the Tevas of Taiarapu and Papara was plain; but he had secured one advantage that gave him a distinction he had never enjoyed before. Besides the Ura or red feathers, which were the exclusive signs of the Arii rahi, a curious form of the Maro ura had been made the symbol of supreme authority by Purea. This was the British pennant left flying at Matavai by Captain Wallis at his departure. Purea took it to her Marae of Mahaiatea, and seems to have converted it into the Maro ura with which her son was to be invested. On her overthrow Tutaha took it to his own Marae of Maraetaata as the symbol of his supremacy. There Cook saw it, ornamented with red, yellow, and black feathers. There it remained from 1768 to 1790, when Pomare, having conquered Paea, at last gained possession of the Maro ura, and carried it away to his own Marae i Tarahoi in Pare. Whether he could keep it, depended on the English guns.
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Indigenous Histories |  |
© Derived from the revised Paris edition of 1901 page 109, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-marua-109.html