KAWARAO THE TYRANT. 187 



were not under the dominion of that folly which, 

 in common with the Greenlanders, possesses 

 some of the most civilized nations in Europe, of 

 considering themselves the first people upon 

 earth, they soon acquired our manners, and de- 

 rived all the advantage that could be expected 

 from the opportunities of improvement thus 

 afforded them. Vancouver found, in 1792, that 

 many remarkable changes had taken place on 

 these islands since Cook's time. 



King Teraiopu did not long survive that emi- 

 nent navigator. His son Kawarao succeeded 

 to the government of the greater part of the 

 island of O Wahi ; the rest fell to his relation 

 Tameamea. Kawarao was a tyrant, and go- 

 verned with unexampled cruelty. At certain 

 periods of the moon, he declared himself holy, 

 or under a Tabu : the priests alone had then 

 the privilege of seeing him so long as the sun 

 w^as above the horizon ; and an immediate death 

 of the severest torture was the melancholy lot 

 of any individual not belonging to this sacred 

 order, who by whatever accident should cast 

 but a momentary glance upon the voluntarily 

 secluded monarch. To this cruelty of dispo- 



