In July, 1797, Peter the Swede accompanied one of the missionaries on a circuit round the island to make a sort of census, as a starting-point for the missionary work. They began with Papenoo, July 11, and as they walked Peter boasted of his exploits. The first war, he said, happened in 1793, when he had been but five months on the island. Peter had deserted from the Daedalus in February 1793; the war, therefore, took place in July, 1793; but the war which he went on to describe was that of 1790, which he could only have known from hearsay, and which he told with a strange jumble of fact and fiction. According to him, Pomare had begun by attacking Papenoo, and hiring Peter and Andrew and "the Jew" to shoot for him. With their aid he conquered the east side of the island. Then, Peter continued:

"Still they [Pomare and his son Otoo] had powerful enemies who were meditating a grand attack upon them; these were Wyheatua [Vehiatua], king of Tiaraboo, and Temarre, chief over all the districts on the south side, from the isthmus down to Attahooroo; over the latter district was young Towha, who wished to remain neuter, but was forced by Pomarre to join his party, though he was more inclined to favor Temarre, and was afterwards charged with having secretly concerted matters so as to gain him the battle. Temarre encouraged his men by telling them that he had muskets, powder, ball, and white men, as well as his adversary; and that themselves were more numerous than Otoo’s party. The whites he had were Connor, an Irishman, and James Butcher, a Scotchman, both of the Matilda’s crew. Accordingly, about a month after the battle of Whapiauno [Papenoo], these powerful adversaries met in the district of Attahooroo, but being afraid of each other in no small degree, the first day was spent and nothing

Indigenous Histories