War was inevitable, and Pomare with his Christian converts could choose when and where to make it. Pomare himself was not a warrior; he left the active campaigning to his wives, who were less likely to rouse the old enmities. Terite and Pomare vahine came over to Pare Arue in May 1815, with a large party of Christians, and pressed their arrangements for the overthrow of the native chiefs. The chiefs had no choice but to turn them out again, and fixed on the night of July 7 for the combined attack. Opuhara led their forces, and was believed to have given the two queens warning, and to have allowed them time to escape. For his slowness some of the other chiefs charged him with treachery; he replied that he wished no harm to the two women or to their people; that his enemies were the Purionuu; and he marched directly into Pare Arue, and subdued it once more.

While Pomare and the missionaries grew stronger, and, as Ellis expresssed it, became "convinced that the time was not very remote when their faith and principles must rise preeminent above the power and influence" of the native chiefs, the native chiefs themselves showed constant vacillation. In Papara the division became painful. Tati whose connection with Raiatea brought him into close relations with the two Queens, made every effort to prevent war. He could not fail to see that there could be no chance of ever pacifying the islands until they became Christian. With the help of the missionaries and the Raiateans, the Teva chiefs could control Pomare, and the sacrifice of recogni-

Indigenous Histories