Tahiti’S Waterloo

How Pomare II. Discarded Paganism to Battle for a Kingship

From Our Own Correspondent.

PAPEETE, April 7.

THE year 1815, which witnessed the A downfall of Napoleon at Waterloo, was also a memorable one in Tahiti. In that year the second of the Pomares at last became paramount over the island — an ambition for which both he and his father had striven ruthlessly for years, only to be thwarted again and again by the warriors of the powerful Teva clan of Papara. This second Pomare was Tahiti’s first real king, his father merely the first of his name.

Tu (the second Pomare) won his Waterloo as much by cunning strategy as by direct action on the field of battle.

In pitting one force of Tahitians against another his father had failed to achieve the long sought objective; the son de vised a better plan.

The disturbances which caused the English missionaries to flee from Tahiti in 1808 also forced Pomare II to seek refuge in Moorea. There, he who had from the commencement resisted Chris tianity and held stubbornly to his ancestral faith suddenly declared for the new Gospel—but the records show that to the end his conversion was only skin deep.

To him it promised great things; pagan against pagan his father and he had both failed, but pagan against Christian would be another matter. He would now have the sympathy of white men and their

active assistance with the necessities of battle, and could call to his aid those of his own people on outlying islands who had discarded paganism and become enthusiastic worshippers of the white man’s God.

So it was: Tahiti’s Waterloo became, to the majority on Tu’s side, a battle for Jehovah as against Oro, but to the man Tu the issue was still the same —that of kingship over his native land.

The fore-going facts —attested by mis sionary records and by Tu’s own letters— enable us to follow with interest the ac counts of the fight of November 12 as given by the two opposing sides. Of necessity these accounts are prejudiced and we must judge for ourselves between the story given by the victors and the vanquished of Tahiti’s Waterloo.

From a letter written by the mission aries to their London headquarters dated August 13, 1816 (before they returned to Tahiti to resume the work of evangelisa tion) it appears that a long series of quarrels had resulted in the complete subjugation of the warriors of the Taarapu peninsula who were driven into the mountains. A prospect of peace being thus established, the people, who on ac count of their religious beliefs had fled to Moorea to save their lives, were in vited to return to Tahiti and take repossession of their lands.

The letter continues: “On the arrival of the King (Pomare II) and his followers at Tahiti the idolatrous party appeared on the beach in a hostile manner to oppose his landing, bu.t by the King’s order their fire was not returned. Instead a message of peace was sent to them which was productive of the exchange of several messages, and at last apparently issued in peace and reconciliation, “In consequence of this several of the people returned peaceably to their different lands, but still fears and jealousies existed on both sides. This state of things continued till Sabbath day, November 12, 1815, when the heathen party, taking ad vantage of the time when the King and people were assembled for worship at Punaavia, made a furious and unexpected assault. . . . They approached with con fidence, their prophet having assured them of an easy victory. In this, however, they were mistaken. We had warned our people before they went to Tahiti, of the probability of such a strategem—in con sequence of which they attended worship under arms—and though at first they

were thrown into some confusion, they soon formed for repelling the assailants.

The engagement became warm and furious, and several fell on both sides. ... Those who had a few moments of respite fell on their knees, crying to Jehovah for mercy and protection, and that he would be pleased to support His cause against the idolatry of the heathen.

“Soon after the commencement of the engagement, Opuhara, Chief of Papara, and principal man on the side of the idolaters, was killed. This threw the whole of his party into confusion, and Pomare quickly gained a complete vic tory. The vanquished were treated with great leniency and moderation, and Po mare gave strict orders that they should not be pursued, and that the women and children should be well treated. The bodies of those who fell in the engage

ment, contrary to the former barbarous practice, were decently buried, and the body of the chief of Papara was taken in a respectful manner to his own land, to be buried there.”

So said the victors. The story of the vanquished may be gathered from the memoirs of Ariitaimai, and there are con siderable discrepancies between the two accounts.

Tati, Opuhara’s elder brother, who had been deposed from the chieftainship of Papara, was in Pomare’s camp, and saw that inevitably Christianity would gain the mastery over paganism. He diplo matically kept close to his brother’s rival.

Opuhara had yielded so far to Tati’s ideas to permit the Christians to re turn to Tahiti, along with Tu himself, but beyond that he would not go.

Suddenly with both land and sea forces

Tu took up a position near Punaavia, where his followers were massacred in 1807. This time he had the Christians of Tahiti and other islands at his back. On the way from Papara to join battle Opuhara was met by his brother Tati who had been sent by Tu to secure the submission of the pagans.

“Peace I want with you my brother,” said Tati. Opuhara turned upon him.

“Go traitor,” said he, “Shame on you!

You whom I knew as my brother I know no more, and to-day I call this spear Ourihere (brotherless), beware of it for if it meets you hereafter it meets you as a foe. I bow to no other gods but those of my fathers. There shall I stand to the end, and never will I bow to Pomare or the God of the white faced man.”

So the fight was on—the battle known in Tahitian history as the Fei-pe (ripe banana) a fierce encounter in which neither side made progress until Opuhara, breaking through the front ranks to where the leading warriors were grouped, confronted his foe Tu standing in a war canoe beyond. A rank outsider, a native Christian from another group of islands, raised his musket and fired, and Opuhara fell. With his death his forces broke and retired unpursued.

Tu gained his end by the death of this one man. With the disappearance of Opuhara the opposition of the Teva clan ceased, and Pomare II became not only Chief of Chiefs, but in European language King. He and his were from that day Royal.

The Fei-pe was indeed a Waterloo.