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According to some, they were lost in the wreck, but others say they were murdered by the natives. My informant, Karemaku, mentioned only one ship, which was seen at a distance; and although the iron anchors found at O Wahi and at Muwe prove that they must have been there, he could give no account of them.
Vancouver found, in 1792, that many remarkable changes had taken place on these islands since Cook's time. King Teraiopu did not long survive that eminent navigator. His son Kawarao succeeded to the government of the greater part of the island of O Wahi; the rest fell to his relation Tameamea. Kawarao was a tyrant, and governed with unexampled cruelty.
Mankind had enjoyed a long period of peace and content under the beneficent protection of Rono, when their happiness was suddenly disturbed by a distressing occurrence. The goddess Opuna, the beautiful consort of Rono, degraded herself by a clandestine connexion with a man of O Wahi.
"Ah! wahi, the head of my house is no more," cried she, "my heart is all bitterness my soul is dried up my liver is but as water; ah! wahi, ah! wahi," and she continued to weep and tear her hair, refusing all consolation. The neighbours came to her assistance; they talked to her, they reasoned with her, restrained her violence, and soothed her into quietness.
They were not then, as now, united under one King; but each island had its particular sovereign, called Yeri-Rahi, who possessed full power over the lives of his subjects, and to whom the proprietors of land paid tribute. The name of the monarch of O Wahi, on Cook's arrival, was Teraiopu, or, as he writes it, Terreobu.
Our vessel had been fully prepared for encountering the violent and continued storms of the North, and I waited the return of our mineralogist, M. Hoffman, who had gone to O Wahi, for the purpose of climbing the mountain Mou-na-roa, in which however he did not succeed.
To his honour were established the solemn yearly games called Makahiti, in which whoever obtained the victory in running, wrestling, and warlike evolutions, was crowned with a verdant wreath and presided as king over the ensuing feast. The other islands were gradually peopled from O Wahi; the number of the gods also increased; but they all remained subject to Etua-Rono.
The helmet, of wood covered with small red and yellow feathers, and adorned with a plume, perfectly resembles those of the chivalrous knights of yore; and the short mantle, also most ingeniously made with feathers to supply the want of woven stuff, forms a complete representation of the mantles worn by those ancient heroes: hence it is sufficiently evident that the white men who landed on O Wahi were Europeans; and that we are therefore more nearly connected with, at least, a part of the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, than with the other South Sea islanders.
Dost thou hear how the pigs which scent thee, joyfully grunt their welcome? Dost thou smell the roasted fish that waits thy eating? Come, we will cherish thee, that thou mayest take comfort among us." It must be confessed, that if the O Wahi language be peculiarly adapted for poetry, this composition does not do it justice.
O Wahi, the most easterly, and by much the largest, is eighty-seven miles long and seventy-five broad: it has three mountains, which may well bear a comparison with the highest in the world. The climate of these islands is particularly beautiful and healthy.
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