250 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
is perhaps more familiar to the English reader than 
that of any other native of the South Sea Islands, 
some account of his person and character cannot 
fail to be acceptable. 
Pomare, originally called Otoo, was the son of 
Pomare and Idia : the father was sovereign of the 
larger peninsula when it was visited by Cook, 
and was then called Otoo; subsequently, being 
aided by the mutineers of the Bounty, he became 
king of the whole island, and adopted the name of 
Pomare, which at his death was assumed by his 
son, and has since been the hereditary name of the 
reigning family. Idia, his mother, was a princess 
of the adjacent island of Eimeo, and sister to Mo- 
tuaro, one of the principal chiefs at the time of 
Cook’s visit. 
Pomare was the second son of Otoo and Idia, 
the first having been destroyed according to the 
regulations of the Areois society, of which they 
were members. He was born about the year 1774, 
and was consequently about forty-seven years of 
age at the time of his decease. Tall, and propor- 
tionably stout, but not corpulent, his person was 
commanding, being upwards of six feet high.* 
His head was generally bent forward, and he 
seldom walked erect. His complexion was not 
dark, but rather tawny; his countenance often 
heavy, though his eyes at times beamed with 
intelligence. The portrait of Pomare, in the 
frontispiece to the first volume of this work, is 
from one taken at Tahiti by an artist attached to 
two Russian ships of discovery, that visited the 
islands a short time before his death, and, ex¬ 
cepting a little undue prominency in the forehead, 
is a good likeness. 
* His fathers height was six feet four inches. 
