Tahiti, the island paradise

by Nicholas Senn

The missionaries returned and were more successful in Christianizing the people. On the 17th of February, 1813, Pomare wrote: "Matavai has been delivered up to me. When I am perfectly assured of the sincerity of this surrender I will write to you another letter." The missionaries made a tour of the island; many conversions took place; in Moorea several idols were publicly burned; there could be no doubt that the Christians were pursuing an active course, and that their success would bring back the authority of Pomare over the whole island; but neither Opuhara nor Tati interfered, and the peace remained. Yet, after waiting two years at Pare, vainly expecting the restoration of his government, and endeavoring to recover his authority in his hereditary districts, Pomare returned to Moorea in the autumn of 1814, accompanied by a large train of adherents and dependents, all professing Christianity. At the same time the Christian converts in Tahiti became an organization known as the Bure Atua, and every one could see that Pomare was making use of them, and of his wife's resources, to begin a new effort to recover by force his authority in the island. War was inevitable, and Pomare, with his Christian followers and missionaries, could choose the time and place.

Pomare himself was not a soldier, nor had he anything of a soldierly spirit. He left active campaigning to his wives, who were less likely to rouse the old enmity. His two wives, Terite and Pomare vehine, came over to Pare Arue May, 1815, with a large party of Christians, and urged their plans for the overthrow of the native chiefs. The chiefs had no other alternative than to get rid of them, and fixed the night of July 7th for the combined attack. Opuhara led the forces, and it is said that he had given the two queens timely warning to effect their escape. For his delay some of the other chiefs charged him with treachery. He replied that he wished no harm to the two women or their people; that his enemies were the Parionuu; and he marched directly into Pare Arue, and subdued it once more.

TAHITIAN WOMEN IN ANCIENT NATIVE DRESS

While Pomare and the missionaries grew stronger, and, as Ellis expressed 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 chiefs themselves exhibited vacillation. Pomare returned, with all his following, apparently armed and prepared for war. The native converts were trained to the use of firearms and the whole missionary interest became, for the moment, actively militant. The native chiefs remained passive. Under the appearance of religious services, Pomare and the missionaries kept their adherents under arms and prepared them for any hostilities that might arise.

With his army numbering eight hundred, two war canoes, one manned with musketeers, the other with a swivel gun in the stern, commanded by a white man, Pomare, on November 11th, took possession at or near the village of Punaauia, near Papara, with pickets far in advance. Opuhara hastily summoned his men in the famous battle of Fei-pi (the ripe plantains). The field of battle was among the foothills near the coast. Opuhara's warriors made a valiant attack and pierced the front ranks of the enemy till it reached the spot where one of the queens, Pomare vehine, and the chief warriors stood. There one of the native converts leveled his gun at Opuhara, fired, the chief fell, and in a very short time expired. The leader of the native forces was killed by one of his own people who had cast his lot with Pomare and the missionaries.

This war was brought on to force the natives to Pomare's rule, and not for the purpose of removing obstacles to the Christianization of the islanders, as the chiefs were not opposed to the peaceable dissemination of the teachings of the gospel. It was a political and not a religious war, and in this political endeavor the missionaries and their converts took the leading part. The missionaries evidently forgot the legitimate object of their mission and unmercifully slaughtered the natives who took up arms to defend their rights. The Christians on Pomare's side were fighting for supremacy, unmindful of the teachings of the sacred Scriptures.

For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment St. James ii: 13.

When Opuhara fell, his men lost courage, retreated, and were not pursued. The death of Opuhara was deeply regretted by Tati, his near relative and successor in the government of the district. In the ranks of his followers it was firmly believed Opuhara, few as his forces were, would have vanquished the enemy, had not the native missionaries been taught to shoot as they were taught to pray, and been supplied with guns along with Bibles. With the death of Opuhara the last hope of the natives was dissipated and submission to Pomare's rule became a stern reality. Neither the missionaries nor the natives had any idea of allowing Pomare to recede into his old ways. They made him refrain from massacre or revenge after the battle of Fei-pi. Tati, the chief of Papara, maintained peace from that time by his wise rule in that part of the island. He began by the usual island custom of binding Pomare to him by the strongest possible ties. The rapid extinction of chiefly families in Tahiti had left the head chief of Moorea heir to most of the distinguished names and properties in both islands. Marama, the head chief of Moorea, had only one heir, a daughter, a relative of Pomare. This great heiress, almost the last remnant of the three or four sacred families of the two islands, was given by Pomare in marriage to Tati's son, immediately after Tati himself was restored to his rights as head chief of the Tevas. In doing so he claimed for his own the first child that Marama (the bride) should have and made at the same time a compact that the children from the marriage should marry into the Pomare family. These conditions were made to render himself more influential with the most refractory of the conquered tribes. Pomare II. died December 7, 1821, leaving a daughter, Aimata, and a son, Pomare III., a child in arms. Aimata was never regarded with favor by Pomare, her father, who was frank in saying that she was not his child; so the infant son was made heir to the throne. Moerenhout made the statement that Pomare, on his deathbed, expressed the wish that Tati should take the reins of the government in his hands, but that the missionaries and other chiefs were afraid to trust Tati, and preferred to take the charge of the infant king on themselves. The missionaries in due time went through the formal ceremony of crowning the infant, April 22, 1824, at Papara, and then took him to their school, the South Sea Academy, which was established in March, 1824, in the island of Moorea at Papetoai. There he was taught to read and write, and educated in English, which became his language, until he was seven years old, when he fell ill, and was taken over to his mother at Pare, where he died January 11, 1827. During the reign of the infant king, Mata, a friend of the family, managed the affairs of state and became the guardian of Aimata, as the Queen, Pomare IV., was always called by the natives. Aimata was married at the age of nine years. She led an unhappy life, domestic, political, private and public, until at last the missionaries, English and French, fought so violently for control of her and the island that she was actually driven away.

Among other laws which were supposed to have been passed through the influence of the English missionaries, to prevent strangers from obtaining influence in the island, was one dated March 1, 1833, forbidding strangers, under any pretext, from marrying in Tahiti or Moorea. Ariitaimai, of noble birth, the historian of Tahiti, was not inclined to marry a native chief, a decision which met the approval of Marama, her mother. She finally consented to become the wife of Mr. Salmon, an Englishman, who was held in high esteem and consideration in the island; and Aimata suspended the law in order to enable her friend to be married to the man of her choice. The missionaries virtually ruled the island for forty years.