150 WHALING 



member of the modest Newport fleet, the ship Erie, which 

 sailed for the New Zealand grounds in April, 1843, under the 

 command of one Captain Spooner, sent home a bit of roman- 

 tic news that appeared in the papers of 1843 under the headline, 

 startling for those days of conservative journalism, Marriage 

 Extraordinary. *'At Otahete, Society Islands," the notice 

 ran, ''Capt. Charles Spooner of whaleship Erie, of Newport, 

 to Miss Kingatara Oruruth/' 



The good captain's marriage, which appears to have lent 

 itself to humour as well as to sentiment, made a stir in the 

 world, and a Philadelphia paper quoted from a letter a lively 

 description of the event. *'The bride,'' said the editor's corres- 

 pondent, ''is the daughter of Demsti Frgwomladammfr, one of 

 the chiefs of the island, and is connected with most of the noble 

 families of the kingdom. She is about sixteen years of age, of 

 bright mahogany colour, with her cheeks tattooed in the most 

 lovely manner, and her ears slit in a style peculiarly fascinating. 

 Her lovely form, which was almost six feet six inches tall, was 

 gracefully enveloped in old blanket, and during the performance 

 of the matrimonial rites, the fair bride stood before her happy 

 lover modestly engaged in masticating a sugar cane. The 

 young lady is said to be highly accomplished, and delighted the 

 company assembled on the solemn occasion by an exhibition of 

 her superior skill in swimming. The bridegroom is a hearty 

 mariner of Newport. He was elegantly dressed for the occasion, 

 in a blue jacket and white trousers. He swore that the lovely 

 Kingatara alone was fit to share the hammock of a Yankee 

 sailor; and said that if the masters complained that he was un- 

 skilful in his business, whaling, they could not deny that his 

 wife, at least, is a whaler." 



A pleasing mystery obscures the outcome of the affair, for 

 the Erie left her captain at New Zealand and came home under 

 command of Captain A. W. Dennis. Whether Captain 

 Spooner yielded to the seductive charms of a South Sea Island 

 paradise, and eagerly putting off the clothes and conventions 

 of civilization, lived happily ever after with his fair Kingatara, 

 my deponent neglects to say. Or whether his eccentric de- 



