Tameamea, during Vancouver's visit, swayed the sceptre only over the islands of O Wahi and Muwe, and was engaged in wars with his neighbour kings, whom he fought with the assistance of cannon purchased from European ships. He commanded in every battle, both by sea and land; and Karemaku, as first in authority under him, was his constant companion. The O Wahians, however, could not have well understood the use of their cannons and other fire-arms, as, after Vancouver's departure, the war was maintained for ten years. O Tuai, the most north-westerly island, even then held out, though the others had submitted. In the year 1817, Tameamea conquered this also, after many unsuccessful attempts, and thus became the supreme governor of the whole Archipelago.
From this time all his efforts were directed to the education of his people, and the improvement of their trade. Salt and sandal-wood were the chief articles of exportation. The latter, though bought at rather a high price by the North-American ships, which almost exclusively monopolized this trade, sold for a large profit at Canton.
I have been told, that the Americans have purchased sandal-wood here to the amount of three hundred thousand Spanish dollars a-year. Tameamea bartered this wood for some large American merchant-ships, manned them, and other ships built in the Sandwich Islands, partly with his own subjects, and partly with Europeans, and traded on his own account. He had even found means to create a small fleet of ships of war; and his warehouses, built of stone, were filled with European and American merchandise. He possessed a considerable treasure in silver money and utensils; his fortresses were planted with cannon of a large calibre, and he maintained a force of fifteen thousand men, all armed with muskets, in the use of which they had been carefully exercised. He took much pains, assisted by the Spaniard Marini, to introduce the cotton-tree, which answered very well, and yielded fine cotton; and endeavoured to improve the native flax, already much superior to that of New Zealand, and to profit by it as an article of commerce. Nothing which promised advantage to his country escaped his penetrating mind; he exerted, in short, every faculty of his mind to place the Sandwich Islands in a state of progressive assimilation to the most prosperous nations. Vessels of every nation were as secure from injustice or insult in his ports, as in those of Europe, if not more so. As soon as a strange ship arrived, criers were employed to give notice that the new comers were friends, and must be hospitably received, and that any incivility shown them would be severely punished.
When Tameamea first sent a ship to Canton with sandal-wood, he was obliged to pay a considerable duty for anchorage; whereupon he argued, that what was exacted from himself, he might with a safe conscience demand from others; and every ship is now required to pay forty Spanish dollars for anchorage in the outer, and eighty in the inner harbour of Hanaruro.
Wahu is the most fertile of all the islands, and the only one enjoying a secure harbour; it therefore naturally advances the most rapidly in civilization. Several European and American traders have settled in Hanaruro; shops have been opened, and houses built in the European style, of wood and stone; some of the former were made in America, and brought here to be put together. The exertions of Marini introduced here many European vegetables, the vine and other fruits, which are all in a flourishing state. He collected and tamed a herd of cows. Goats, sheep, and poultry of all kinds are common. The frequent voyages which the Sandwich islanders now made, partly in Tameamea's vessels, partly foreign ones, on board which they served as sailors, gradually familiarised them with the manners of more civilized nations. They adopted our costume, but after the Tahaitian fashion; considering a complete suit as an unnecessary luxury. Even Tameamea himself, for his usual attire, wore only a shirt, trowsers, and red waistcoat, without a coat; he possessed, however, many richly embroidered uniforms, but kept them for grand occasions.
These islanders had made great progress in the English language: many of them could speak it very tolerably. Tameamea understood, but did not speak it. If any of my readers should wish for a farther acquaintance with the character of this distinguished sovereign, I must refer them to Vancouver, and to my former voyage; but for the benefit of those who may not be disposed to take this trouble, I cannot forbear repeating from the latter some of his remarks to myself. He presented me with a collar most ingeniously worked with coloured feathers, which he had sometimes worn in war, and on solemn occasions, saying, "I have heard that your monarch is a great warrior, and I love him, because I am a warrior myself; bear to him this collar, which I send as a token of my regard." Once as he embraced an image in his Marai, he said, "These are our Gods whom I adore; whether in so doing I am right or wrong, I know not, but I follow the religion of my country, which cannot be a bad one, since it commands me to be just in all my actions."
On the 8th of May, in the year 1819, Tameamea terminated his meritorious career, to the great sorrow as well of the foreign settlers as of his native subjects. His remains were disposed of according to the rites of the religion he professed. After they had remained some time in the Marai, the bones were cleaned, and divided among his relatives and the most distinguished of his attendants. According to the custom of this country, two persons had long before been destined for interment with him at his death; but by his express desire this ceremony was dispensed with.
His eldest son and legitimate successor, Lio Lio, or, as the English call it, Rio Rio,—for there is some difficulty in distinguishing between the L and the R of the Sandwich Islanders,—now assumed the government, under the name of Tameamea the Second. Unhappily, the father's talents were not hereditary; and the son's passion for liquor incapacitated him for ruling with the same splendid reputation an infant state, which, having already received so strong an impulse towards civilization, required a skilful guide to preserve it from degeneracy and error.
The chiefs of some of the islands, and especially of O Tuai, had, even in Tameamea's lifetime, founded a hope of future independence, on the weakness of his successor, and immediately upon his death proceeded to attempt the accomplishment of their desires. But Karemaku, the faithful friend and counsellor of the deceased King, to whom the whole nation looked up with affection, and whose penetration easily discerned the evil consequences that would ensue from a political disunion of the islands, devoted to the son all the zeal and patriotism with which he had served the father. By the influence of his eloquence, and the force of his arms, he quelled the insurrection, and re-established peace and order; but to enthrone the new monarch in the hearts of his people exceeded his ability; and their disaffection proved that the germ of future disorders was not wholly extinct. The King chose Wahu for his residence, because this island was in the best state for defence; and giving himself up entirely to dissipation, sunk lower and lower in the estimation of his subjects. Karemaku was the good genius who watched over the welfare of the country, while its monarch was wasting his hours and his health in orgies, at which he was frequently known to empty a bottle of rum at a draught. It was not to be supposed that a king addicted to such habits should conceive any projects of utility or advantage for his people; he wished, however, to distinguish himself by some effort in their favour, or at least to relieve them from the trammels of superstition. He was a freethinker in a bad sense. He hated the religion of his country, because it laid some restraints upon his inclinations, and he determined to overthrow it; not for the purpose of introducing a better, a task to which his feeble mind was unequal, but for that of at once relieving himself and his subjects from ceremonies which he considered useless, because he undervalued the precepts of morality interwoven with them, and for the sake of which his father had always conscientiously observed them.
In the fifth month of his reign, he proceeded in a violent and brutal manner, notwithstanding all the remonstrances of Karemaku, to the execution of his design. Having previously arranged his plans with some chiefs, the companions of his excesses, he invited the principal inhabitants of the islands to a sumptuous banquet. After the wine and rum had produced their wonted effects, females were introduced, and compelled to partake of the feast. These poor creatures, having no suspicion of the King's intentions, shrunk with terror from a profanation punishable with death. But their resistance was unavailing: they were not only constrained to sit down to the repast in company with the men, but even to eat pork; and thus, to the great astonishment of such guests as were not in the secret, to violate, at the royal command, a double Tabu. A murmur arose; but the greater part of the company were under the influence of liquor, and the King now openly proclaimed his intentions. His auditors inquired in alarm what crime the Gods had committed, that they should be thus unceremoniously dismissed; and besought him not to occasion his own destruction and that of the country, by provoking their indignation. The King started from his seat, and exclaimed with violent gestures, "You see we have already violated the strongest Tabus, and yet the Gods inflict no punishment, because they have no power; neither have they power to do us good. Our faith was erroneous and worthless. Come, let us destroy the Marais, and from henceforth acknowledge no religion!" The immediate dependents of the King rose to second him: the inhabitants of Hanaruro had been depraved by their intercourse with foreign sailors, and a tumultuous crowd, who held nothing sacred, soon followed the revellers. Arrived at the royal Marai, some of them, terrified by the aspect of their idols, would have receded; but when the King himself, and his friends and followers, began to maltreat them, and no divine vengeance followed, the courage of the multitude revived, and the Marais were soon utterly destroyed. This outrage to what the people at large most venerated, introduced a scene of confusion and violence, and would indeed have entailed destruction both on the King and the country, had not Karemaku again stood forward in their defence. Several Yeris who, disapproving the sentiments of the King, had retired privately from the banquet, joined the priests in exciting the people to defend their gods by force of arms. An army was raised, and, animated by the presence of the war-god, commenced hostilities against his sacrilegious opponents. When the news of the destruction of the Marais reached the other islands, insurrections also broke out in each of them. Karemaku had condemned the sacrilege, and abstained from any part in it; but as it could not now be prevented, and he foresaw the mischievous consequences of civil commotions, he assembled an army, and, victorious wherever he appeared, succeeded in restoring tranquillity. On the large island O Wahi, however, he encountered a formidable resistance; but at length, after several bloody contests, he captured the war-god: the insurgents, who had also lost their leaders in the last battle, believing themselves quite abandoned by the gods, now dispersed, and Karemaku, on the restoration of tranquillity, returned to Wahu.