PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
169 
him named Chain Island, situated about three hundred miles to the east- CHAP. 
Ward of Otaheite, to which it is tributary. About the period of the com- 
inencement of his misfortunes old Pomarree the king of Otaheite died. 
^ ‘ 1826 
and was succeeded by his son, then a child. On the accession of this boy 
several chiefs and commoners of Chain Island, among whom w’as Tuwarri, 
planned a voyage to Otaheite, to pay a visit of ceremony and of homage 
to their new sovereign. The only conveyance these people could com- 
mand was double canoes, three of which of the largest class were prepared 
for the occasion. To us, accustomed to navigate the seas in ships of 
many tons burthen, provided with a compass and the necessary instru- 
ments to determine our position, a canoe with only the stars for her 
guidance, and destined to a place whose situation could be at the best 
but approximately known, appears so frail and uncertain a conveyance, 
that w'e may wonder how any persons could be found sufficiently re- 
solute to hazard the undertaking. They knew, however, that similar 
Voyages had been successfully performed, not only to mountainous 
islands to leeward, but to some that were scarcely six feet above the 
Water, and were situated in the opposite direction ; and as no ill omens 
Q'ttended the present undertaking, no unusual fears were entertained. 
The canoes being accordingly prepared, and duly furnished with all 
that was considered necessary, the persons intending to proceed on this 
expedition were embarked, amounting in all to a hundred and fifty souls. 
What was the arrangement of the other two canoes is unknown to us, but 
iiiTuwarri’s there were twenty-three men, fifteen women, and ten chil- 
liren, and a supply of water and provision calculated to last three weeks. 
On the day of departure all the natives assembled upon the beach 
to take leave of our adventurers ; the canoes were placed with scrupulous 
exactness in the supposed direction which was indicated by certain 
marks upon the land, and then launched into the sea amidst the good 
ivishes and adieus of their countrymen. With a fair wind and full sail 
they glided rapidly over the space without a thought of the possibility 
of the miseries to which they were afterwards exposed. 
It happened, unfortunately, that the monsoon that year’^ began 
* In the South Pacific the monsoons are occasionally felt throughout all the islands of 
Eastern Polynesia. 
z 
