A Royal Prince — Annexation Fcstiviliis. 151 



I know not with what truth, that one of the principal reasons 

 which induced him to sell his birthright was a desire to exclude 

 from the succession his nominal son, whom he believes to be 

 illegitimate. Our conference with the royal brother was not an 

 agreeable one, for he presently gathered up the reins, and amid 

 a volley of imprecations delivered in the coarsest style of Billings- 

 gate English, this tatterdemalion prince of an ancient dynasty 

 flogged his horses into a gallop, and rattled away on his drunken 

 career. 



On the evening before our departure we were present at a ball 

 which was given at the royal palace by the French inhabitants of 

 Tahiti. It was intended to celebrate the annexation of the island 

 by France, and was supposed to be the occasion for mutual 

 congratulations between King Pomare and his chiefs on the 

 one hand, and the Governor and French Admiral on the other. 

 Pomare was attired in a gorgeous dress richly embroidered with 

 gold lace, and the French officials appeared in full dress. The 

 native chiefs were, however, very shabbily turned out in faded 

 European clothes, and although for the most part very fine men, 

 yet they looked very much as if they were ashamed of them- 

 selves, and were by no means at their ease in the richly-decorated 

 ball-room. Among the quasi chiefs was " Paofai," an old gentleman 

 who did duty as our washerman, wearing a black alpaca monkey- 

 jacket, and carrying under his arm a large white sun-helmet, 

 which he seemingly thought a becoming addition to his otherwise 

 somewhat incongruous attire. He and his confrb-es would have 

 shown to much more advantage in their ordinary native costume. 

 Supper began about midnight, and it was then, and not till then, 

 that the roj'al family and chiefs seemed to flourish in their proper 

 element, the quantity of food and drink which they stowed away 

 in their huge carcases being something prodigious. 



A few days before the close of our visit to Tahiti, I received, 

 through the kindness of Monsieur Parrayon, captain of the French 

 inan-of-war Dayoi, a large coral of the Fungia group, which had 



