80 POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
uncle, who urged the necessity of invoking the 
favour of the gods before commencing hostilities. 
This afforded the people of Matavai time to retire, 
and encamp in the adjoining district with the people 
of Apaiano. Proposals of peace were sent by the 
king, but the rebels, being reinforced from districts 
to the eastward, refused to meet Pomare, or nego- 
ciate with him ; and war appeared inevitable. 
The king, expecting that his camp, which was at 
Matavai, would be immediately attacked, recom¬ 
mended that the wives and children of the Mis¬ 
sionaries should take shelter in the vessel. They 
embarked on the 7th amid much confusion, but 
with the sincerest gratitude to God for the refuge 
so seasonably provided. The night passed without 
any attack ; several leading chiefs, whom the rebels 
expected, had not arrived, and the Europeans were 
thus permitted to pack up a few articles for their 
use on board. The next morning a letter was ad¬ 
dressed to the captain, requesting him to delay his 
departure forty-eight hours, that they might deli¬ 
berate on the steps necessary to be taken. On the 
following day, the Missionaries Nott and Scott, as 
messengers of peace, went alone, unarmed, to the 
rebel camp at Apaiano, and invited the leaders to 
an interview with Pomare. The chiefs treated 
them with every mark of friendship, regretted that 
their establishment should suffer from the quarrel 
between them and the king, and requested them 
not to leave the island. The leaders of the rebels 
refused, however, to meet Pomare except in 
battle, and every hope of accommodation now 
vanished. 
This disastrous war is called, in the Tahitian 
traditions, the Tamai rahi ia Arahuraia , The 
great war of Arahuraia. It was headed by Taute, 
