We could see then that this seemed to trouble them a great deal and they appeared to be undecided what to do, or what answer to give to the demands of the chiefs of Tahiti. Queen Pomare then asked me aside: "Have you been to the wars or to the forts?" I replied: "Yes!"; that I had been there, and how sorry I felt at seeing them in the state they were, poor, with hardly clothes enough to wear, and very near to the point of starvation, and I said: "You must write to them, somehow or other."

This seemed to trouble her a great deal, but she said nothing. On that day we saw the frigate Uranie going from Huahine, and we were told that Mai and Tefaaora, men of Borabora, were aboard of her. This frigate, I was told by the governor in Tahiti, was to go and anchor in the harbor at Huahine, awaiting the results of our visit to Raiatea. These two men having decided for the French, were obliged to leave their island to save their lives. The French had sent this frigate down there, thinking that these islands were also under the government of Pomare.

We then returned to Tahiti. After a few days governor Bruat sent again for me, and said that I had better go back to Raiatea, and continue what I had already done. We prepared a second time to go, and this time we went by a small cutter boat. At that time I took over with me my little daughter. We had a dreadful trip going over in this small cutter, and on my arrival at Vaiarahi, I found that the chiefs who had met there before were absent, as my visit was unknown to any of them. I therefore found Queen Pomare alone, and I stayed with her quite a long time. My husband was sent to Huahine, to arrange to make peace with that island, and the French frigate Uranie. The French were then trying to arrange for the independency of these

Indigenous Histories