"March 5 [1799].... The king and queen often about our habitations. Otoo very childish and brutish, and his attendants imitators of him.

"March 6.... A great concourse of natives about us, who are passing their time in eating, drinking, wrestling, drum-beating, singing, hallooing, throwing their arms and legs about in a frantic manner, and such like revellings. This assembly is owing to a marriage ceremony that is about to be performed between a chief of Oryatea [Raiatea], named Matte-ah, and a young woman, the daughter of the deceased chief of this district, named Mahei-annoo. She and Matte-ah are both branches of Pomere’s family, and chiefs by birth....

"March 12.... Matte-ah aud Mahei-annoo, &c., went to the four brethren’s habitation, carrying with them a great part of their property and prayed the brethren to take the same under their care, having just heard that Otoo had taken offence at the family, and had threatened to plunder and kill some of them. They appeared to be much agitated and distressed in mind. The brethren received their effects into their custody, and they returned to their dwelling declaring they would all die together. Their speech and looks were very affecting. Otoo’s anger against the family, it is said, is because, when Matte-ah and Mahei-annoo were united, ... they went into the king’s morai, which no one but himself is permitted to do. But this the family declares is false, that they kept to their own morai, and entered not into that of the king’s. When we reflect upon the tyrannical disposition of Otoo, and the barbarous state of the natives, our peaceable situation in the midst of them is truly marvellous in our eyes."

On this occasion, as on most others where the victims received warning in time to prepare, Otoo denied the report, and the threatened

Indigenous Histories