202 
VOYAGE TO THE 
Foreseeing the possibility of being obliged to cure our own meat, 
we fortunately provided a quantity of salt for that purpose at Chili, an 
which we found very scarce at Otaheite ; and the consul made 
arrangements for salting both beef and pork for our future use, which 
succeeded uncommonly well ; and he materially forwarded the object of 
our voyage by exerting himself to satisfy all our demands, so far as the 
resources of the island would admit. Before our arrival articles of 
ood were sufficiently cheap ; but the great demand which we oc- 
casioned materially enhanced their prices, and there appeared to be a 
great dislike to competition. The resources of the island, fruit ex- 
cepted, are considerably diminished from what they formerly w'ere, not- 
withstanding the population at one time exceeded its present amount 
twenty-fold. 
On the day appointed for the visit of the royal party, the duty 
of the ship was suspended, and we were kept in expectation of their 
arrival until four o’clock in the afternoon, when 1 had the honour of 
receiving a note, couched in affectionate terms, from the queen regent, 
to whom, as well as to her subjects, the loss of time appears to be im- 
material, stating her inability to fulfil her engagement, but that she 
would come on board the following day. Scarcely twenty minutes 
had elapsed, however, from the receipt of this note, when we were 
surprised by the appearance of the party, consisting of the queen 
regent, the queen dowager and her youthful husband, and Utamme 
and his wife. Their dress was an incongruous mixture of European and 
native costumes ; the tw^o queens had wrappers of native cloth wound 
loosely round their bodies, and on their heads straw poked bonnets, 
manufactured on the island, in imitation of some which had been car- 
ried thither by European females, and trimmed with black ribands. 
Their feet were left bare, in opposition to the showy covering of their 
heads, as if purposely to mark the contrast between the tw'o coun- 
tries whose costumes they united; and neatly executed blue lines 
formed an indelible net-work over that portion of the frame which in 
England would have been covered with silk or cotton. Utamme, wffio? 
without meaning any insinuations to the disadvantage of the queen, 
appeared to be on a very familiar footing with her majesty (notwith- 
