126 
A VOYAGE TO 
1 777* royal family of Otaheite is defcended from that which 
w !^I_- er j reigned here, before the late revolution. Ooroo, the de¬ 
throned monarch of Ulietea, was ftill alive, when we were 
at Huaheine, where he refides, a royal wanderer, furnifh- 
ing, in his perfon, an inftance of the inftability of power; 
but, what is more remarkable, of the refpeft paid by thefe 
people to particular families, and to the cuftoms which have 
once conferred fovereignty; for they buffer Ooroo to pre- 
ferve all the eniigns which they appropriate to majefty, 
though he has loft his dominions. 
We faw a fimilar inftance of this while we were at Ulietea. 
One of the occaftonal viftters I now' had, was my old friend 
Oree, the late Chief of Huaheine. He ftill preferved his 
confequence; came always at the head of a numerous body 
of attendants; and was always provided with fuch prefents 
as were very acceptable. This Chief looked much better 
now than I had ever feen him, during either of my former 
voyages *. I could account for his improving in health as 
he grew older, only from his drinking lefs copioully of the 
ava in his prefent ftation as a private gentleman, than he 
had been accuftomed to do when he was regent. 
* Captain Cook had feen Oree in 1769, when he commanded the Endeavour; alfo 
twice, during his fecond voyage, in 1772. 
C H A P. 
