After the departure of the Resolution and Discovery, no ships touched at the Sandwich islands till the year 1787. During the interval that had elapsed, considerable revolutions had taken place. Tereoboo was dead, and his dominions shared between his sons, Tewarro and Tamaahmaah; and Titeree had conquered the islands of Mowee and Wahoo.
The accounts of these transactions, owing to the few opportunities of inquiry which the navigators who touched at these islands enjoyed, and their ignorance of the language, are extremely contradictory.
By one account, Tereoboo is said to have been put to death by Tamaahmaah; by another, that he fell in battle; and by a third, that he died a natural death. The causes of the division of his territory between his son and nephew are involved in equal obscurity.
The ship Iphigenia, commanded by captain Douglas, arrived at Owhyhee in 1788, being the first which touched at that island after the death of captain Cook. There was on board of her a chief of Atooi, named Tianna, who had the preceding year accompanied captain Meares to Canton, and had been enriched by the kindness of his English friends, with a valuable assortment of European articles, arms, and ammunition.
Tianna was a man of great activity and ambition, and a distinguished warrior. These qualities, and his wealth, particularly in fire-arms, rendered him an acquisition of much consequence to an enterprising chief like Tamaahmaah; and he induced him to settle upon Owhyhee, by conferring upon him high rank and extensive tracts of land.
Captain Douglas had with him a small tender, built upon the northwest coast of America. When Tamaahmaah learned this, the idea of having a similar one built, immediately occurred to him; and he pressed that gentleman with so much urgency to allow him the assistance of his carpenter, that he was obliged to give a conditional promise. Although the promise was never fulfilled, Tamaahmaah did not abandon the project; and soon afterwards he prevailed upon an Englishman of the name of Boyd, who had been bred a ship-carpenter, to undertake the construction of a vessel.
About the same time, two other Englishmen, named Young and Davis, of whom some account is given in the work, became resident upon Owhyhee, and with their assistance he determined to build a vessel. Fortunately for the attainment of this object, captain Vancouver arrived, and with the aid of his carpenters, he was enabled to accomplish his favourite object, by the completion of his first decked vessel, the Britannia.
It ought to be mentioned, to his honour, that whilst thus anxious to lay the foundation of a navy, he had in his possession a small schooner, which had been seized by a chief called Tamahmotoo, and which he had carefully preserved, in the hopes of restoring it to her owners.
In 1791 he attacked Titeree, and captured the islands of Mowee, Morotai, and Ranai. Whilst engaged in this expedition, he received information that his own dominions were attacked by Tewarro,[31] and he was, in consequence, obliged to abandon his conquest and return.
By the energy of his operations he soon vanquished his opponent, who was slain by Tianna, and the whole island of Owhyhee was reduced under his dominion. In the mean time, Titeree, availing himself of his absence, recovered the islands he had lost.