90 VOYAGE TO THE 



afterwards became so celebrated, was the nephew of 

 Terreeoboo. He is not mentioned in the official ac- 

 count of Cook's voyage, but in a narrative of the fiicts 

 relating to the death of the great navigator., published 

 by Mr. Samwell, the surgeon of the Discovery, Meah 

 Meah, as he is called by that gentleman, is represented 

 to have slept on board that ship, and to have had with 

 him a magnificent feather cloak, with which he would 

 not part, except for iron daggers, six of which he 

 procured, and returned to the shore well pleased with 

 his bargain. No doubt his intention was to wrest the 

 sovereisrntv from the hands of the successor of Ter- 

 reeoboo, an enterprize which he performed shortly 

 afterwards by assembling his forces and defeating him 

 in a pitched battle, in which he is said to have slain 

 him w ith his own hands. After this victory, no other 

 chief possessing sufficient power to oppose Tameha- 

 meha, we find that on the arrival of Vancouver in 

 in 1792 he had acquired supreme authority both in 

 Owyhee and Mowee. He soon afterwards attacked 

 and conquered Woahoo, and, assisted by his valiant 

 proteg^ Krymakoo, in 1817, became sovereign of all 

 the Sandwich group. 



Vancouver was very instrumental in establishing 

 the power of this chief on a firm basis, by noticing 

 Tamehameha in a manner which could not escape the 

 observation of the other chiefs, and by building him 

 a decked vessel, which gave him a decided superiority 

 of force, and enabled him to keep them in subjection. 

 In return for these important benefits, the grateful 

 chief, in presence of Vancouver and the Eries of the 

 group, made a formal cession of the islands to the 

 king of Great Britain, and the natives have ever since 

 considered themselves under the inunediate protection 

 of this country. 



