The
judge being provided with a book in which all these matters are
cunningly arranged, the thing is vastly convenient. For instance: a
crime is proved, - say bigamy; turn to letter B - and there you have
it. Bigamy: - forty days on the Broom Road, and twenty mats for the
queen. Read the passage aloud, and sentence is pronounced.
After taking part in the first trial, the other delinquents present
were put upon their own; in which, also, the convicted culprits
seemed to have quite as much to say as the rest. A rather strange
proceeding; but strictly in accordance with the glorious English
principle, that every man should be tried by his peers. They were all
found guilty.
CHAPTER LXXX.
QUEEN POMAREE
IT is well to learn something about people before being introduced to
them, and so we will here give some account of Pomaree and her
family.
Every reader of Cook's Voyages must remember "Otto," who, in that
navigator's time, was king of the larger peninsula of Tahiti.
Subsequently, assisted by the muskets of the Bounty's men, he
extended his rule over the entire island. This Otto, before his
death, had his name changed into Pomaree, which has ever since been
the royal patronymic.
He was succeeded by his son, Pomaree II., the most famous prince in
the annals of Tahiti. Though a sad debauchee and drunkard, and even
charged with unnatural crimes, he was a great friend of the
missionaries, and one of their very first proselytes. During the
religious wars into which he was hurried by his zeal for the new
faith, he was defeated and expelled from the island. After a short
exile he returned from Imeeo, with an army of eight hundred warriors,
and in the battle of Narii routed the rebellious pagans with great
slaughter, and reestablished himself upon the throne. Thus, by force
of arms, was Christianity finally triumphant in Tahiti.
Pomaree II., dying in 1821, was succeeded by his infant son, under the
title of Pomaree III. This young prince survived his father but six
years; and the government then descended to his elder sister, Aimata,
the present queen, who is commonly called Pomaree Vahinee I., or the
first female Pomaree. Her majesty must be now upwards of thirty years
of age. She has been twice married. Her first husband was a son of
the old King of Tahar, an island about one hundred miles from Tahiti.
This proving an unhappy alliance, the pair were soon afterwards
divorced. The present husband of the queen is a chief of Imeeo.
The reputation of Pomaree is not what it ought to be. She, and also
her mother, were, for a long time, excommunicated members of the
Church; and the former, I believe, still is. Among other things, her
conjugal fidelity is far from being unquestioned. Indeed, it was upon
this ground chiefly that she was excluded from the communion of the
Church.
Previous to her misfortunes she spent the greater portion of her time
sailing about from one island to another, attended by a licentious
court; and wherever she went all manner of games and festivities
celebrated her arrival.
She was always given to display. For several years the maintenance of
a regiment of household troops drew largely upon the royal exchequer.
They were trouserless fellows, in a uniform of calico shirts and
pasteboard hats; armed with muskets of all shapes and calibres, and
commanded by a great noisy chief, strutting it in a coat of fiery
red. These heroes escorted their mistress whenever she went abroad.
Some time ago, the queen received from her English sister, Victoria, a
very showy, though uneasy, head-dress - a crown; probably made to
order at some tinman's in London. Having no idea of reserving so
pretty a bauble for coronation days, which come so seldom, her
majesty sported it whenever she appeared in public; and, to show her
familiarity with European customs, politely touched it to all
foreigners of distinction - whaling captains, and the like - whom she
happened to meet in her evening walk on the Broom Road.
The arrival and departure of royalty were always announced at the
palace by the court artilleryman - a fat old gentleman who, in a
prodigious hurry and perspiration, discharged minute fowling-pieces
as fast as he could load and fire the same.
The Tahitian princess leads her husband a hard life. Poor fellow! he
not only caught a queen, but a Tartar, when he married her. The style
by which he is addressed is rather significant - "Pomaree-Tanee"
(Pomaree's man). All things considered, as appropriate a title for a
king-consort as could be hit upon.
If ever there were a henpecked husband, that man is the prince. One
day, his carasposa giving audience to a deputation from the captains
of the vessels lying in Papeetee, he ventured to make a suggestion
which was very displeasing to her. She turned round and, boxing his
ears, told him to go over to his beggarly island of Imeeo if he
wanted to give himself airs.
Cuffed and contemned, poor Tanee flies to the bottle, or rather to the
calabash, for solace. Like his wife and mistress, he drinks more than
he ought.
Six or seven years ago, when an American man-of-war was lying at
Papeetee, the town was thrown into the greatest commotion by a
conjugal assault and battery made upon the sacred person of Pomaree
by her intoxicated Tanee.
Captain Bob once told me the story. And by way of throwing more spirit
into the description, as well as to make up for his oral
deficiencies, the old man went through the accompanying action:
myself being proxy for the Queen of Tahiti.
