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. There was a Marquesan in the train of Pomaree who
officiated as nurse to her children. According to the Tahitian
custom, the royal youngsters are carried about until it requires no
small degree of strength to stand up under them. But Marbonna was
just the man for this - large and muscular, well made as a statue, and
with an arm like a degenerate Tahitian's thigh.
Embarking at his native island as a sailor on board of a French
whaler, he afterward ran away from the ship at Tahiti; where, being
seen and admired by Pomaree, he had been prevailed upon to enlist in
her service.
