148 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
the army. Mahine on this occasion wore a curious 
helmet, covered on the outside with plates of the 
beautifully spotted cowrie, or tiger shell, so abun¬ 
dant in the islands ; and ornamented with a plume 
of the tropic, or man-of-war bird’s feathers. The 
queen’s sister, like a daughter of Pallas, tall, and 
rather masculine in her stature and features, 
walked and fought by Mahine’s side; clothed in 
a kind of armour, or defence, made with strongly 
twisted cords of romaha, or native flax, and armed 
with a musket and a spear. She was supported 
on one side by Farefau, her steady and courageous 
friend, who acted as her squire or champion; while 
Mahine was supported on the other by Patini, a fine, 
tall, manly chief, a relative of Mahine’s family; 
and one who, with his wife and two children, has 
long enjoyed the parental and domestic happiness 
resulting from Christianity, —but whose wife, prior 
to their renunciation of idolatry, had murdered 
twelve or fourteen children. 
Pomare took his station in a canoe with a num¬ 
ber of musketeers, and annoyed the flank of his 
enemy nearest the sea. A swivel mounted in the 
stern of another canoe, which was commanded by 
an Englishman, called Joe by the natives, and who 
came up from Raiatea, did considerable execution 
during the engagement. 
Before the king’s friends had properly formed 
themselves for regular defence, the idolatrous army 
arrived, and the battle commenced. The impe¬ 
tuous attack of the idolaters, attended with all the 
fury, imprecations, and boasting shouts practised 
by the savage when rushing to the onset, produced 
by its shock a temporary confusion in the advanced 
guard of the Christian army: some were slain, 
others wounded, and Upaparu, one of Pomare’s 
