254 TAMEAMEA THE THIRD. 



coffins came the heir to the throne, the brother 

 of the King, a boy about thirteen, dressed in 

 European uniform. Lord Byron, his officers, 

 and the royal family, followed, the procession 

 being closed by the people, A^ho, attracted by 

 the novelty of the spectacle, assembled in great 

 multitudes. All wore crape as a sign of mourn- 

 ing, or, if they could not procure this, Tapa. In 

 the church, which was entirely hung with black, 

 the chaplain of the English frigate read the fu- 

 neral-service, and the procession afterwards re- 

 paired, in the order above described, to a small 

 stone chapel, where the coffins were deposited, 

 and where they still remain. 



Soon after the funeral, the new King was 

 proclaimed by the title of Tameamea the Third, 

 at the command of Karemaku, who retained 

 the regency during the minority, in conjunction 

 with the Queen Kahumanna. The regents 

 were thus nominally the same ; but Karemaku 

 was too ill to take an active share in the govern- 

 ment, and the missionary Bengham found means 

 to obtain such an acendency over the imperious 

 Kahumanna, and, through her, over the nation, 

 that in the course of only seven months an en- 



