Augulh 



30 AVOYAGETO 



,«777; I was not thoroughly acquainted with the difpute, and as 

 the people of Eimco had never offended me, I could not 

 think myfelf at liberty to engage in hoililiiies againft them. 

 With this declaration they either were, or feemed, fatisfied. 

 The aflcmbly then broke up ; but, before I left them, Otoo 

 defircd me to come to him in the afternoon, and to bring 

 Omai with me. 



Accordingly, a party of us waited upon him at the ap- 

 pointed time ; and we were conducted by him to his father, 

 in whofe prefencc the difpute with Eimeo was again talked 

 over. Being very defirous of dcvifmg fome method to bring 

 about an accommodation, I founded the old Chief on that 

 head. But we found him deaf to any fuch propofal, and 

 fully determined to profecute the war. He repeated the 

 folicitations which I had already refiftcd, about giving them 

 my ajSidance. On our inquiring into the caufe of the war, 

 we were told, that, fome years ago, a brother of Wahea- 

 dooa, of Ticraboo, was fcnt to Eimeo, at the requeft of Ma- 

 heinc, a popular Chief of that illand, to be their king ; but 

 that he had not been there a week before Maheine, having 

 caufcd him to be killed, fet up for himfclf, in oppofition to 

 Ticrataboonooe, his filler's fon, who became the lawful 

 heir j or elfc had been pitched upon, by the people of Ota- 

 heite, to fuccced to the government on the death of the 

 other. 



Towha, who is a relation of Otoo, and Chief of the diflricT: 

 of Tettaha, a man of much weight in the ifland, and who had ' 

 beeaCommander in Chief of the armament fitted out againft 

 Eimco in 1774, happened not to be at Matavai at this time ; 

 and, confcquently, was not prcfcnt at any of thefe confult- 

 aiions. It, however, appeared that he was no flrangcr to 

 6 what 



