PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
203 
Standing he was accompanied by his own wife), w'as a remarkably tall CHAP, 
and comely man ; he wore a straw hat, and a white shirt, under 
which he had taken the necessary precaution of tying on his native 
niaro, and was provided with an umbrella to screen his complexion 
from the sun. This is the common costume of all the chiefs, to whom 
an umbrella is now become almost as indispensable as a shirt ; but by 
far the greater part of the rest of the population are contented with a 
mat and a maro. 
It may be desirable, in this early period of our communications 
'vith the court of Otaheite, to state the relationship which exists be- 
tween the reigning family and Otoo, who was king of the larger penin- 
sula at the period of Captain Cook’s last visit. 
Otoo, after Cook’s departure, was surnamed Pomarree, from a 
hoarseness that succeeded a sore throat which he caught in the moun- 
tains, and this afterwards became the royal patronymic. His son, Po- 
marree II., w'ho was a child at that period, succeeded him in 1803, 
and reigned until December, 1821, wdien, having effected many most 
important changes in the customs of the island, and having, under the 
zealous exertions of the missionaries, converted the chief part of the 
population to Christianity, he expired in a fit of apoplexy, accelerated, 
no doubt, by frequent excesses. Of this man it may be lamented that 
his exertions in the cause of Christianity were not seconded in the 
fullest extent by a rigid adherence to its precepts in his own person. 
He had two wives, or rather a wife and a mistress, who were sisters, 
named Terre-moe-moe, and Pomarree Waheine. This wmman, daughter 
of the King of Ulietea, had been sent for from Huaheine to be married 
to the king, but being accompanied by her sister, Terre-moe-moe, who 
Was very superior in personal attractions, the latter captivated his 
majesty at first sight, and received the honour of his hand, while Po- 
marree Waheine was retained in the more humble capacity of mistress. 
Each sister bore a child, Terre-moe-moe giving birth to Pomarree III., 
and the mistress presenting him with a daughter named Aimatta, the 
present queen. Pomarree III. was only six years old at the time we 
arrived, and the regency was administered by his aunt Pomarree Wa- 
heine, who I suppose was considered a more fit person to manage the 
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