, the
arrival of the French gave a most unexpected turn to affairs.
    During my sojourn in Tahiti, a report was rife - which I knew to originate
with what is generally called the missionary party - that Poofai and some other
chiefs of note had actually agreed, for a stipulated bribe, to acquiesce in the
appropriation of their country. But subsequent events have rebutted the calumny.
Several of these very men have recently died in battle against the French.
    Under the sovereignty of the Pomarees, the great chiefs of Tahiti were
something like the barons of King John. Holding feudal sway over their
patrimonial valleys, and, on account of their descent, warmly beloved by the
people, they frequently cut off the royal revenues by refusing to pay the
customary tribute due from them as vassals.
    The truth is, that with the ascendency of the missionaries, the regal office
in Tahiti lost much of its dignity and influence. In the days of Paganism, it
was supported by all the power of a numerous priesthood, and was solemnly
connected with the entire superstitious idolatry of the land. The monarch
claimed to be a sort of by-blow of Tararroa, the Saturn of the Polynesian
mythology, and cousin-german to inferior deities. His person was thrice holy; if
he entered an ordinary dwelling, never mind for how short a time, it was
demolished when he left; no common mortal being thought worthy to inhabit it
afterward.
    »I 'm a greater man than King George,« said the incorrigible young Otoo, to
the first missionaries; »he rides on a horse, and I on a man!« Such was the
case. He travelled post through his dominions on the shoulders of his subjects;
and relays of immortal beings were provided in all the valleys.
    But alas! how times have changed! how transient human greatness! Some years
since, Pomaree Vahinee I., the granddaughter of the proud Otoo, went into the
laundry business; publicly soliciting, by her agents, the washing of the linen
belonging to the officers of ships touching in her harbours.
    It is a significant fact, and one worthy of record, that while the influence
of the English missionaries at Tahiti has tended to so great a diminution of the
regal dignity there, that of the American missionaries at the Sandwich Islands
has been purposely exerted to bring about a contrary result.
 

                                 Chapter LXXXI

                               We Visit the Court

It was about the middle of the second month of the Hegira, and therefore some
five weeks after our arrival in Partoowye, that we at last obtained admittance
to the residence of the queen.
    It happened thus