Temarii lingered in great suffering till September 8th, but the missionaries did not dare to visit him again for fear of violence on the part of the indignant natives. The whole body of chiefs was present and looked on in consternation while Temarii died. The chief's remains were carried, in the usual state, round the island to all his districts and duly mourned; and in the regular course prescribed by the island ceremonial, his head was secretly hidden in the cave at Papara. These demonstrations served to spread the news of the calamity, for which the missionaries received the exclusive blame. The political complications which followed induced Pomare to seek safety in flight to the Paumotu Islands, leaving his wife to face the storm. The chiefess was not idle after her husband's cowardly flight. On the 29th of November she compromised with Tu by ceding to him the authority he wanted, and obtained from him a pledge assuring her safety. This guaranty was the life of the high priest, old Manne Manne, Tu's best friend. He was murdered by Tetuanui's people on his way from Matavai to Pare. The chiefess was in the missionaries' house when this news arrived. She had a cartridge-box around her waist and a musket near at hand. She shook hands in a friendly manner with the Swede, saying unto him, "It is all over," meaning the war, and immediately returned to her home. Pomare gained nothing by these dissensions, for he had nothing to gain, but had to sacrifice a part of his possessions. The only winner in this tragic game was the worst and most bloodthirsty of all, Tu, the first Christian king. It must be remarked that this king was the creation of the English, and that he was used as a tool in the hands of the missionaries. The Europeans came, and not only upset all the moral ideas of the natives, but also their whole political system. Before European influence made itself felt in Tahiti, whenever a chief became intolerably arrogant or dangerous, the other chiefs united to overthrow him. All the wars that are remembered in island traditions were caused by the overweening pride, violence or abnormal ambition of the great chiefs of districts, and always ended in correcting existing evils and in restoring the balance of power.
The English came just at the time when one of these revolutions was in progress. The whole island had united to punish the chiefess of Papara for outrageous disregard of the island courtesies which took the place of international law between great chiefs. Purea had taken away the symbol of sovereignty she had assumed for her son, and had given it for safe-keeping to the chief of Paea. The natives and chiefs had recognized the chief of Pare, Arue, as entitled to wear the Maro-ura, which Purea had denied him by insulting his wife. Then the chief of Paea had tried to imitate Purea and assert supreme authority, only to be in his turn defeated and killed.
TOMB OF THE LAST KING OF TAHITI, POMARE V.
Probably Tu would never have attempted a similar course if the English had not insisted on recognizing and treating him as king of the whole island. He was one of the weakest of the chiefs and enjoyed little if any reputation as a military power. The other chiefs would have easily kept him in his proper place if the English had not constantly supported him and restored him to power when he was vanquished. English interference and the assistance of the missionaries prolonged his ambition and caused the constant revolutions which gave no chance for the people to recover from the losses. Pomare was a shrewd politician and with the assistance of English guns finally gained control over the whole island, crushing tribal rule, the safeguard of the people under his despotic rule. All visitors to the island became aware how desperately the unfortunate people struggled against the English policy of creating and supporting a tyranny. The brutality and violence of Tu made him equally hated by his own people of Pare and by the Teva districts. Of these facts the missionaries had full knowledge, as is evident from their numerous correspondents, nevertheless, they assisted him in carrying out his plans to gain control over the entire island. They supplied him freely with firearms and ammunition. To preserve peace the missionaries did some very curious things which suggest, as they hinted, that they were glad to see the natives fighting together, as is evident from one of their daily records:
August 20, 1800.—We hear great preparations are making, whether for war or peace is to be determined in a short time, by some heathenish divination. If it should prove for war, those who are eager for blood seem determined to glut themselves, we rejoice that the Lord of Hosts is the God of the heathen as well as the Captain of the Armies of Israel; and while the potsherds of the earth are dashing themselves to pieces one against the other, they are fulfilling his determinate counsels and foreknowledge.
In the month of June Pomare instituted a wholesale massacre to subject the entire island to his rule, and by brutal force gained the object of his ambition. In 1808 the political situation was such that the missionaries found it necessary for their safety to leave the island, and fled with Pomare, November 12th, to the island of Moorea. Pomare's cruelties and atrocities practiced upon the natives during his tyrannical rule are well described in a pen-picture drawn by Moerenhout:
After having massacred all whom they had surprised (in Attahura), after having burned the houses, they went on to Papara, where Tati, who is still living (1837), was chief; but fortunately a man who had escaped from the carnage of Punaauia came to warn the inhabitants of Papara, so that they had time, not to unite in defense, but to fly. Nevertheless, in that infernal night and the day following a great number of persons perished, especially old men, women and children; and among the victims were the widow and children of Aripaia (Ariifaataia) Amo's son, who, surprised the next evening near Taiarahu, were pitilessly massacred with all their attendants. Tati and some of his warriors succeeded in reaching a fort called Papeharoro, at Mairepehe; but they were too few to maintain themseives there, and were forced to take refuge in the most inaccessible parts of the high mountains, from whence this chief succeeded in getting to a canoe which some of his faithful followers provided for him, and kept in readiness on the shore, at the peril of their lives. With him were his brother and his young son, whom he had himself carried in his arms during all this time of fatigue and dangers.
Opuhara became chief of Papara, and soon afterward chief of the island, and remained the chief personage of Tahiti during the next seven years. Ellis, the historian of the missionaries, described him as an intelligent and interesting man.
At Moorea, Pomare's friends were Paumotuans, Boraborans, Raiateans, missionaries, and outcasts. Even these at last abandoned him. The missionary journal shows that they had long regarded their work as a failure, and after identifying themselves with Pomare, in spite of emphatic warnings, no other result was possible. So the missionaries, leaving only Mr. Nott at Moorea, sailed for Australia, not daring to accept the proffered protection of the Tahiti chiefs, because they could not separate themselves, in the minds of the common people, from Pomare and his interests. At Moorea, Pomare urged the visiting chiefs to become Christians. On the 18th of July, 1812, he announced his own decision to the missionaries, and shortly afterwards, on invitation from his old district of Pare Arue, he returned to Tahiti, where he was permitted to remain for two years, as an avowed Christian, unmolested by his old enemies. He took up his residence at Pare Arue as a Christian chief, August 13, 1812, and kept up a correspondence with the missionaries at Moorea.