Chapter XIV
Index
Search
Contact us
they show that the natives knew much more about tyranny, and had much more reason to dread it, than the English or the French had known for many centuries; and against such a despotism as Europe could not realize, their tribal system, with its chiefs, was their only protection. They clung to it, and Pomare had no choice but to succumb, or to destroy it. He was a consummate politician, for the art of politics was the life of the chiefly class, and every chief knew by instinct and by close personal contact the character and thought of every other chief on the island. Pomare knew that what he was trying to do could be done only by wholesale destruction, and that, in order to do it, he must depend on outsiders; white men or Raiateans or savages from the Paumotus. The missionaries knew it also, for Pomare made no secret of it, and they recorded it as though it did not concern them.
"In a conversation a brother had with Pomere [in October, 1800], the chief gave him to understand that there is a probability of war upon the island, but not directly. He did not seem to know who were his friends, or who his foes, but acknowledged the general desire of the people is a suppression of a monarchical form of government, and the reestablishment of independency in each district. It was observed to him that the arbitrary proceedings of Otoo were probably the cause of the present discontent. He did not deny it. Pomere wished much for a ship of war to arrive, which he supposed, by an interference in his favor, would restore tranquillity and confirm his and his son’s authority. Or if a number of Englishmen like ourselves were to join us, and continue their residence among them in the manner we have done, he said he was sure there would be no war."
The missionaries’ journals were as full of such evidence as the journals of Cook, Bligh, and Vancouver had been. All told how desperately the unfortunate people struggled against the English policy of creating and supporting a tyranny. The brutality and violence of Tu
 |
Indigenous Histories |  |
© Derived from the revised Paris edition of 1901 page 139, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/-marua-139.html