290 CRUISE OF THE PORPOISE. 



tide and a longer outflowing thei'e ; but the flood was distinctly seen, 

 by Lieutenant Johnson, during a fishing excursion at the entrance of 

 the lagoon, to flow in rapidly ; and the high tide was correct, for the 

 water on the reef was two feet or more in depth. The record of 

 these observations gives the high water at the full and change of the 

 moon at six o'clock : the rise and fall in the lagoon eight inches, and 

 two tides in twenty-four hours. During our visit to this island I had 

 observed a fall of upwards of two feet, and have to regret that the 

 tide-staff was placed in so unfortunate a position. 



Lieutenant Johnson reports the inhabitants as being twenty in 

 number, seven men, eight w-omen, and five children. In this small 

 community they seem to experience the ills of life as well as else- 

 where ; for of the men, one w^as aged, another helpless, and a third a 

 cripple, and one of the women was stone-blind. 



On the day the Porpoise made Aratica, they discovered a large 

 double canoe, with two mat-sails, which proved to be from Anaa, and 

 bound to Aratica; there were sixteen persons on board, men, women, 

 and children, together with their mats, calabashes, and large supplies 

 of cocoa-nuts, &c., with which they declined parting. They had 

 left Anaa, a distance of one hundred and thirty miles to the south- 

 ward, the morning before. The canoe was a dull sailer, the brig 

 leaving her far behind; she, however, reached the entrance to the 

 lagoon during the day, and was warped through the passage into it. 



The next day the Porpoise sailed for Tahiti, where she arrived on 

 the 21st of January. The appearance of things at Papieti seemed 

 very much as they had been twelve months before; but some events 

 had occurred during the year, which it will be as well to notice, as 

 they will show how things are conducted, and give an insight into the 

 conduct of royalty that was little dreamed of by us on our former 

 visit. 



On the 7th of May, one of the unhappy domestic feuds of the 

 royal family threw the whole of Papieti into a ferment. The queen, 

 followed by all her attendants, with great lamentations, rushed into 

 a foreigner's house, to escape from her royal consort, who was pur- 

 suing her, uttering dreadful menaces. The facts of the quarrel, as 

 derived from authentic sources, are as follows. As Pomare was on 

 her way to Papieti from her residence at Papaoa, she was met by 

 Pomare-taui riding furiously. Owing to the turn of the road, he did 

 not perceive the queen's party in time to stop, and ran over one of the 

 maids, knocking her down, and bruising her. Pomare, attributing the 



