iz6 AVOYAGETO 



"77' under the infpcclion of thofc whofe intcrcfl it is to enforce 



December. * i • t i • 



«— — V ' due obedience to authority. Uhetea, though now reduced 



to this humihating ftate, was formerly, as we were told, 

 the moil eminent of this duller of iflands ; and, probably, 

 the lirft feat of government ; for they fay, that the prefenc 

 royal family of Otaheire is defcended from that which 

 reigned here, before the late revolution. Ooroo, the de- 

 throned monarch of Ulictea, was flill alive, when we were 

 at Huaheine, where he refides, a royal wanderer, furnifli- 

 ing, in his perfon, an inflance of the inftability of power; 

 but, what is more remarkable, of the refpeft paid by thefe 

 people to particular families, and to the cufloms which have 

 once conferred fovereigniy ; for they fufTer Ooroo to pre- 

 ferve all the cnfigns which they appropriate to majefty, 

 though he has loft his dominions. 



We fawafimilar inftance of this while we were at Ulictea. 

 One of the occalional vifiters I now had, was my old friend 

 Oree, the late Chief of Huaheine. He ftill prcferved his 

 confequence ; came always at the head of a numerous body 

 of attendants ; and was always provided with fuch prefents 

 as were very acceptable. This Chief looked much better 

 now than I had ever fcen him, during either of my former 

 voyages*. I could account for his improving in health as 

 he grew older, only from his drinking lefs copioufly of the 

 ava in his prcfcnt llation as a private gentleman, than he 

 had been accuilomcd to do when he was regent. 



• Captain Cook had feen Orce in 1769, when he commanded tlic Endeavour; 

 alfo twice, during his fecond voviigc, in 1772. 



CHAP. 



